August 25, 2012

Tomorrow I will be competing in Ironman Canada; my first IM in 7 years. The last one I competed in was The World Championships in Kona in 2005. I guess you could say that I'm starting all over in the endurance field. I am nervous, excited, and ready to see what I can do with the training that I've put in over the last few months. I think my average cycling miles per week has been around 150 miles, running around 45-55 miles/week, and swimming 15,000 yds/week. The training has been very different having had Gabriel, who just turned 2 years old two weeks ago, and I am fine with that. This trip is the longest that I've been away from Gabey and thank goodness for video chat!!

My dad decided to drive up with me, so we've had a fun adventure so far. It took us 3 days (2.5 days really) to make it up to Penticton, BC, Canada. The first night we made it as far as Redding, CA and stayed in a hotel there. Day two we drove to Bend, OR and met up with my client who is also competing in Penticton. We did some training in Bend, which is a great place for exercise. We stayed there for about 3-4 hours, had lunch then continued our journey up to Vancouver, WA where Scott G. from Oomph helped us with finding a place to stay (Thank you Scott). We ended up at The Heathman Lodge. A beautiful place to stay if you are ever in the Vancouver, WA area. Day 3 we make a little bit of a round-a-bout detour to meet up with my friend Erin F. from The Dalles, OR for a run. It was great to catch up with her and I'm so glad she had the time to meet us (Thank you Erin). After our run we continued our drive through the Canadian border and to our home stay's house in Okanogan Falls, BC. Diane and Doug are wonderful hosts and very nice individuals. They are also housing a male pro from New Zealand and another female pro from the U.S.; both are very nice and I'm glad I have had the opportunity to meet them.

The town of Penticton is lovely and the people very nice. The course looks great and again I'm excited to see what unfolds tomorrow.

18 Months

Well, I believe it's been quite some time since I've written here and I finally have found some time, pending Gabey doesn't wake up yet from his nap. We've started to ween Gabey from nighttime feedings...yes, I was still waking up anywhere from 1-3 and even 4 times per night to nurse, which isn't the greatest if you have to wake up at 5am! For the past two nights I've slept on the couch while Gabey and Jay sleep in our room...yep, lucky them! So far, it's going very well and I hope within a few more days, Gabey will be sleeping through the night. I still wake up when I hear Gabey stir, but at least he goes back to sleep very quickly. Even Jay is getting better sleep and I think Gabey is too! The past two days his afternoon naps have been better as well.

Gabey is saying so many words these days and even started saying "mail man" the other day!! So cute. He loves putting trash in the garbage and recyclables in the recycle bin and says both "trash" and "recycle." He loves music; he has a ukelele, piano, wooden drum and I'm eventually going to get him a kazoo...just because it's cool!! One behavior we are trying to curb however is running the dog over with his push cart. Sprocket isn't too keen on being chased around the house by an 18 month old wheeling a cart at her and neither are we.

As for me, training is going well and this past week I actually hit over 200 miles of cycling for the week and just over 50 miles of running for the week. I don't think I've done that in quite a few years. I must say, I'm pretty exhausted today though, so am taking it easy and getting things accomplished around the house.

Long Time

It's been quite a while since I've written anything here. So here's a brief list of what's been going on around the Smith household. Gabey is almost a year and a half and is a great little boy. He loves the outdoors, playing with Sprocket, loves the water, runs doesn't walks, enjoys playing musical instruments and singing and dancing. We are still not sleeping through the night however, I hope that will be remedied soon as I really would LOVE to get at least 6 hours of straight sleep; I'd feel like Super Woman!!

I am back to training and hope to have a much better triathlon season this year than last! I still don't feel like I have the speed back, but I have my endurance. I think some specific interval workouts (which I have recently started) will no doubt get me in to race shape.

Gabey 11 months old

I can't believe 11 months have already gone. Gabriel is getting so big and is learning to walk with support...actually, he took a few steps unsupported today!! I'm almost positive he'll be walking by his 1st birthday.

He has been better about trying different foods and likes watermelon, rice, black beans, chicken, pork, pita bread, and of course O's!!

We went to Denis the Menace park and he took his first swing

He has his two bottom teeth in and his two middle front teeth in and is getting two more uppers in now. Poor kid, he's chewing on anything these days to help his gums.

All he wants to do is walk, walk, walk. I think even in his sleep he tries to stand up! Speaking of sleep, we still are waking up during the night!! Jay and I haven't been strict on having him sleep through the night and I figure he'll do it eventually. I don't think it affects his sleep much, but as for me I think I'm just used to it now! However, I still will be ecstatic when he sleeps through the night.
Gabey LOVES to be outside. Every morning he goes to the door and wants to play. He has a fascination with the garden hose and loves to help me water the lawn and flowers!! Maybe his thumb will be greener than mine.

Treasure Island Triathlon

This past Saturday, July 9th I competed in San Francisco at the Treasure Island Triathlon. This year it happened to be an ITU Pan American Cup, ie. draft-legal race. Mom, Erin, & Gabey and I drove up Friday morning; Gabey was a champ on the drive up! Erin was racing the age group race on saturday morning and I would be racing in the afternoon.

My last ITU draft-legal race was this particular race in 2009. I was hoping I'd have people to swim and ride with; during the first lap of the swim I was on the tail end of a pack but after making the turn around I lost the toes I was keying off of. I felt strong in the water and exited with two other women. I was the first out of T1 and was hoping to catch some girls on the bike. As I began my first loop, Mom and Erin yelled that I was in 17th place. Ok, I had some work to do! One of the women that exited the water with me caught me and for the next 2 laps we worked together. The wind was so strong in sections that I was glad I had her to draft from, however it didn't last long. This woman from Canada had more snap in her legs than I did and when she jumped to catch a small pack in front of us I couldn't respond. I was now all by myself! I continued to forge ahead and kept telling myself that if I could just push as hard as I could into the wind I would be able to keep moving up. By the time I finished the 6-looped flat with one small hill bike course, I was in 11th place. After a quick transition I was determined to at least be in the top 10. The Canadian girl I was cycling with was just ahead of me. The run course was 3 loops on very flat terrain. I knew I could catch her. By the start of lap 2 I had indeed caught and passed her and within a few more seconds I caught two more girls. I was now in 8th place and even though 7th place was just out of reach I ran the last loop like I was going to catch her.
I'm so glad that the finish didn't come down to a sprint as I had nothing left in my legs.

Escape from Alcatraz

I competed in my second triathlon since having Gabey, yesterday at the Escape from Alcatraz in San Francisco, CA. I feel "out of the loop" with the sport after taking a year off, but I think it's coming back to me. Jay, Gabriel, and I headed up to SF on Friday and had a relaxing two days before the event on Sunday. I am still nursing and poor Gabey had caught a cold on Saturday night, so we were up with him quite a few times; needless to say I think I got pretty good sleep (when I was asleep)! I was debating on whether or not to wear my HR monitor but once on the boat I decided to forgo the monitor and just race as hard as I could go. I felt choppy in the water and I think I swam too far to the right and had to back track to get to the finish. The time in the water seemed to go by quickly which was nice. I was looking forward to getting on my bike and seeing what I could do. I still haven't gotten on my trainer and am lucky if I get to ride my bike 2 times per week!! I felt comfortable on the bike and knew that I had to push as hard as I could on all the up hills. The weather was perfect, very slight breeze, sunny skies, and dry roads. It felt good to be on the bike. It took a few miles before i got my "running legs;" I didn't feel the snap that I was used to having. By the time I got to mile 3, I was feeling much better and pushing harder to run down any woman that I could. I was 9th coming out the water but heading out onto the run I was in 11th. I told myself that I could get top 10 and so I picked it up. With 2 miles to go I spotted a girl a few seconds in front of me. I caught her and kept on pushing as hard as I could. With 3/4 of a mile to go I spot another girl and caught and passed her! I ran those last 2 miles as hard as I could and it paid off. My first top 10 after having Gabey.

I'm motivated more now and will get my training schedule updated for my next event.

9 months of Gabey and my First Race

How quickly times goes by. Everyone said it would and I knew it would too, but it's still hard to believe...Gabey has been with us for 9 months!! It's truly amazing how quickly he learns new things. He can already walk while holding on to furniture or our hands. I'm sure in a matter of another month or so he'll be walking on his own! We've been baby proofing the house as he learns new things.






He is such a good and happy little boy. We are working on giving him solid foods. So far we've tried avocado, banana, sweet potato, egg yolk, crackers, chicken. So far he usually gives us the same face: tongue out and eyes shut along with a whole body shudder, ie. he doesn't like it!

I have finally taken him to the pool and he LOVES the water. He even tries to put his face in the water all by himself.

He has his two bottom teeth already and it looks as though he's getting at least one of his upper teeth!





















On March 6th I competed in my first event since having Gabey, the Napa Valley Marathon. I needed a goal and I thought that running a marathon would be the "easiest" to train for. I was happy with my time of 3:36 especially since I just gave birth 6 1/2 months before this event. I followed my doctors orders too and didn't start "training" until he was 6 weeks old. My first runs started out as 11 1/2 minutes/mile. I couldn't believe how slow this was for me. It took a few months before I felt like I was actually running and now 9 months later I feel pretty good most of the time.

I decided to compete at Wildflower (long course, of course) as I would race myself into shape!! I had a time goal of 5:15 as I thought that this would be a time that I could do considering I'm still getting back into shape. I was happy to come in at 5:11 but my goal of top 10 was WAY off the mark!! Yep, an extremely lofty goal considering I was lucky if I got to ride my bike 2x/week. I guess an 18 mph average is okay for my limited riding. I have vowed to get on the trainer to improve my cycling for my upcoming events; however as of today that has yet to be accomplished! This was a very humbling race as my mind knows that I am capable of competing at a much faster time but physically my body is not quite ready. I'm sure the lack of sleep and nursing takes it's toll but I wouldn't change a thing!

My next race is the Escape from Alcatraz on June 5th. Wish me luck as I am going to need it!

2 Months and 1 week

Gabriel Cullen Smith was born on August 12 at 9:01pm! He weighed 7 lbs. and 13 oz. and was 20.5 in. long. After a long labor he finally arrived and was beautiful. He just had his 2 month check up and is doing great. I can't believe how big he is getting. He is now 13 lbs. and 4 oz and is 23.5 in. He is smiling more and making cooing noises and I can tell he is really trying to communicate. He is a happy little boy and is growing like a weed. He likes dancing to music and is a mover...we'll be chasing him around the house, no doubt.