some miles on the bike!

Well, I was motivated to get out twice on the bike this past weekend....I put in 35 miles on Saturday (went out by myself) and then on Sunday I met my friend Clark for 55 miles of the Dam Loop. It felt good to be back on the bike, although I am not ready to start running anytime soon and well, I do have a Half Marathon in November!! it is just toooooo DAMN HOTTTTTTT!!!!

With the Olympics being on right now I am motivated to get the workouts in early so I can watch the coverage on Prime Time at night.....today I will go to Core class and tomorrow I will try to get up and swim early!

Is anyone else PLASTERED to the TV like me in regard to the Olympics? How about that swim relay last night?!?!?!?! And my favorite Pro Female Cyclist, Emma Johanssen took the silver medal in the road race.....she is super cool.

LOVE IT. LOVE IT.

Here I AM!!!

I know, I know....it was only a 7 day bike ride I was on but it took me twice as long to recover from being away.

So, I am back....from the wonderful, welcoming state of Iowa. Man, there are some GOOD people in Iowa. I rode 6 out of the 7 days and put in about 440 miles on my road bike. I guess that is one way to get thrown back onto the bike after the good old Ironman. Team LIVESTRONG had a really good time. I highly recommend this event if you are wanting to put in some really good mileage for training, eat some amazing food and meet some really great people from all over! Here is a picture of the TEAM the night that Lance came to hang out...


I was gone for 12 days and since then.....well, I have not done much. A few swim workouts, a few small runs, I did venture to Core class....ouch....on Monday and I will go on a ride with a friend this Saturday.

I feel un-inspired to sign up for a race at this point...but know I should start looking as all that good training I put in during the spring is going to waste.

I may not have any good training updates anytime soon.....just because.

Don't try this 3 weeks later....

Miss Maggie and I met up for a 3 mile jog last Wednesday just to "stretch" out the old legs. This is the second run I had attempted since Ironman. The legs are just not bouncing back at all, everything feels heavy, I get tired pretty easily...as we got about 10 minutes in the thought of walking seemed really nice. Maggie and I joked and kept saying "no expectations" for the Couples Triathlon this past Sunday. As the day approached I wondered what it was going to feel like to do this event...Thomas at J&A said he did a Sprint right after Ironman Brazil last year and he said the IM was easier. I laughed but inside I wanted to throw up.

Maggie picked me up Sunday morning and instantly we had some fun nervous chatter joking about how I might finish...hopping, crawling across the Finish Line perhaps. My favorite was talking about our "special needs bags"....just because it felt weird to not pack anything major. Got to race site, set up transition, did the normal routine...jogged a bit with Maggie, went and swam a few minutes...and then it was go time.

Magleen was in the second wave at 8:04...thankfully, as I am NEVER that close to the start of the race.

Took off in the water and instantly my arms felt a bit heavy but I pushed through and as time passed things started to loosen up. I felt as though I was going much quicker than last year so I was sad to find out that my swim was SLOWER than last year. How is that I swim a 2:03 per 100m for an Ironman and swim a 2:41 per 100m for an 800 m swim? Can we get a check on that distance? Apparently I need to work on my sprints in swimming...looks like I have a new goal?

Off to the bike (11 miles) which took me 37 minutes...only 2 minutes slower than last year..I will take it as I hadn't been on the tri bike since IM.

Then onto the run which I thought was absolutely PAINFUL. In fact, I had a nice fall...total face plant about 1 mile into the run. Not kidding. I tripped over my own damn feet and well, grass running is not fun. I quickly got up and started running again just wanting it to be OVER. The funny thing? My run was 26:45...running 8:30 miles....a serious PR over last year.

Magleen took 4th place, losing the podium by just TWO minutes. Not bad for recent Ironman finishers...however, I don't want to do a race anytime soon. My body hurt for the rest of the day.

I leave this Thursday for RAGBRAI...
Register's Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa

This is my first event with Team LIVESTRONG. We will be riding anywhere from 60-85 miles per day for 7 days straight. I don't know if I will be doing 7 days straight...I may be doing every other day...I am excited to go cycle in a new place though and meet the team of 180 riders we have!

I will not have access to computer of blog but will have a full report when I return. I plan on taking my running shoes so that my co-worker Kim and I can log some running miles...and sadly, I will not be able to swim during that time.

See you in a few weeks!

Damn you Craig Powers....

So I catch up with this friend of mine Craig last week...fellow triathlete himself. I ask him when his first Ironman will be and he 'casually' sneaks in "What do you think about Western Australia 2009?" Man!! Ever since then I can't get it out of my head....why sure? Another Ironman in AUSTRALIA!!! absofreakinlutely!!!

So with that I am considering the sign up in December...if I can only save my pennies to get there!! Anyone want to come along?

a new goal...October 25, 2008

I will be doing Couples Triathlon next weekend....and then I will do the Austin Triathlon in September. But my A race of the Fall will be the Florida Challenge. This is the very first Half Ironman I did two years ago...and I am ready to go back and kill this course!!! It's gonna be awesome! (plus, selfishly it gives me the chance to go back to Florida for a few weeks and see some friends that I miss very very much!)

I am still laying somewhat low. I did 2 swims this past week...both around 2300 m with T3. It felt good to stretch out in the pool, but hard to get the motor running again. No running yet as my legs aren't quite ready for that. I did go on a 35 mile bike ride with Chadro yesterday. It was fun...but my legs were tired the rest of the day.

Gonna do a few small workouts this week to just gear up for Couples Spring Triathlon....will Team Magleen take first this year?

a few more Ironman pictures...

me on the run..this is pretty much how I felt and those are my girls Heidi and Robin cheering in the background.

my big finish....this felt so good!!

the kind volunteer wanting to make sure i was ok...i was!

the tears, the smiles, the laughter....all the emotion finally came out...I could not have asked for a more perfect day!

Run: 26.2 miles!!! and the FINISH!!

When I thought the run would be the worst part of the entire day, it turned out it was my favorite as I had a lot of support out on the course! (with some surprises along the way)

As I got in from the bike transition and said a huge..."Thank You God!!" for no flats and bike issues, I made my way to get my Bike to Run bag and headed to the changing tents. Changed out of cycle jersey into tri top and then handed the Body Glide to the volunteer and told her to put it anywhere my Tri Top touched my body. With the dry climate, the last thing I wanted was major chaffing. The Body Glide left a slight white film on my body.

Next stop: Sunscreen station. I walked up, put arms out and said...Get me!! The volunteers went at it and covered me...as they started to rub in, I said "oh no, that's ok...it will do that itself, I got to start running!!"

As I got out onto the run course, a friend told me I looked like Casper! I said...I am already going to be in pain, I don't want it to be worse because of a sunburn.

Here is where mentally things got interesting...I headed out for the small first loop and noticed that quite a few people looked as if in pain, not letting it get to me I put one foot in front of the other (as planned). I got to mile 3 and saw many friends from Austin...Coaches Chrissie and Mo, my good buddy Adam Reiser and a few others. Just two miles later at mile 5 were the ladies from Florida...and one surprise. My friend Heather that I had performed with at Disney drove in from Seattle the night before. She had told me she was coming but I did not know if logistics and her son would keep her from this....I don't know why I doubted..it's Heather for crying out loud! She had her son Zach and dog with her and was screaming on the sidelines with my other 3 friends. When I made the loop back around and hit mile 10..there they were again but with Heidi's parents now joining them. (it is awesome when 6 people are SCREAMING your name) Then a few miles later..the Austin crew again! A few miles later, a sign with my name and number and a woman I did not recognize at all..little did I know that my friend Missy Daly from Orlando had told a friend of hers in CdA my name and number and she was just out there cheering for the heck of it...how cool is that?!?! With all of this support...the run went by fast as I focused on who I would see next rather than the mileage or the numbness in my feet!!

When I reached half way...I couldn't believe it..It didn't even feel as though I had run 13 miles at this point...I felt good, my pace felt comfortable and I thought...I JUST might finish this marathon within 5 hours. My goal initially was to run half way and decide from there...at 13 miles I knew I could run 20...so I made it to 20 and said....Hell! It would hurt to walk now, I gotta keep moving!

Rounding the corner for my big finish is something that I will never forget...Adam Reiser was at the last corner and told me to "Enjoy it, I deserve it!" I wish I could have made those last few minutes last a little longer. It almost felt like I was in slow motion going towards the arches and the voice that proudly announced..."COLLEEN WILSON, YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!!" I wanted to turn back around and run over the mat again just to hear it one more time! (can you do that?) When I realized the clock said 13:14 on it, I thought something was really wrong. I couldn't have done it under 15 hours?!?!? (which was my super stretch goal!) When I asked Adam if that was right..he laughed and said.."Yes Colleen...you had a super great run of 4:30! You looked solid the whole time, as if it was a 10k or something!"

It was then that the emotion hit me hard. The tears started rolling and Adam walked me over to my girls from Florida where I celebrated with tears, hugs, pictures...see below.

What a crazy ass day!! And it was only one week ago that I couldn't walk down stairs or get up from my bed!

I am ready to set a new goal...don't worry, nothing crazy! I know I need to sign up for another race (not an Ironman yet) and get myself on a schedule! Tonight I will start going to core class again and do some light biking and swimming this week. Running will be a few weeks...my feet are hurting a bit still!

I am going to upload a few more pictures after this post...enjoy!

Thanks again for all the crazy support!