And miles to go before I sleep...

Note: To help readers determine which athlete is recounting training tales and Ironman ideas, we are color coding our blog entries. Trish will write in "cookie monster blue" and Chelsea will write in "speed racer red." Enjoy your reading, and keep the comments coming!

Sleep is something I'd really like more of these days! All these miles are adding up and wearing me out! I had a great weekend of training. Here's the scoop.

Saturday I went out to Clinton Lake with Jamie and April. There were also a bunch of guys out there riding, but we know they don't count. This day was about training with the girls! Now, of course Jamie and April were faster than me. I'm used to that. Especially on the way out, when my endurance isn't a factor. Its the way back where I kept up and was able to hammer longer that I realized my training is helping me take major strides in improvement. The Ironman Kansas course is no cake walk. Its 56 miles of rolling hills and hideous crosswinds. Plus, Saturday morning I wasn't expecting it to be sooooo cold! Good thing I had my MTC jacket in the car to keep me a little bit warm!

Here's the course map:

And here's the topography:

Yikes. And its truly that difficult. Luckily there are a few weeks of training left before I have to tackle it on race day. I want to PR at Kansas 70.3, but really if I finish and stupid storms hold off, I'll be pretty happy. Last year a thunderstorm blew in when I had 6 miles left to run, and then blew thru by the time I made it to the car. Grr. I know there were lots of unhappy athletes just waiting to get back at IMKS70.3 and Mother Nature on June 14.

Sunday brought the Mothers Day 5k with my mom. A year ago she had just gotten out of a 2 month stint in the hospital for brain surgery and now she did a 5k with me! She thought she'd do about a half mile - but did at least 2 of the 3.1 mile course. I'm so proud of her!! Let's hope she signs up for another... :-)

Then we had a great mothers day brunch and I got a nice, long (ahem, 3 hour) nap before my long run. Unfortunately that nap meant I had to fight the rain. It got soooo cold! I'm so ready for summer so I don't have to deal with cold anymore. I'd so much rather be hot. But my running is improving too, so I'm pleased with that. I'm getting to be more steady and comfortable going harder longer.

Monday was a rest day and just yesterday I did Masters Swim in the morning, then a downtown airport ride in the evening. I just missed the rain, and I was so happy! This was a workout I was NOT looking forward to. 20 minute warm up, then 45 minutes in HR Zone 3, then cool down. Yikes! I have a hard time keeping my HR that high. But I did it, and did it well! I could have probably doubled my time, so I'm very pleased with yesterday's workouts!! Maybe IMKS and IMOO won't be too bad after all.