It’s a snow day!

Check out Mr. Frisk:

Michael shoveled a little tunnel for him and the dogs…They love looking over our deck.

16 inches of snow and it’s still coming down!!!

What does that mean for Team Lovato?

It means that today is an indoor training day.

Here is a picture of our Kestrels powered by CycleOps Power. I love having this little set up in our garage.

Check out my cute husband actually enjoying himself on a treadmill…who would have ever thought??

Five years ago, you would have not caught me (or ML) dead running on a treadmill. I was such a running purist. However, my opinion changed after being coached by Cliff English for two years who prescribed a bit of treadmill running. While I resisted at first, I realized a few benefits pretty quickly! And I have to say, the Woodway treadmill is the absolute BEST treadmill that I have ever run on. It has the most natural running surface and is extremely smooth! I would also like to add that I am NOT sponsored by Woodway. ML and I purchased this treadmill through e-bay, refurbished.

We are so happy with our little home gym in our garage. It should keep us from getting too antsy through the winter months, especially since we plan on staying in Boulder this year!

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When I decided to race Long Course Worlds in August, I was very fit and I was enjoying a great block of training. At the time, I was not considering my two week trip to Hawaii or the sort of training lead-up that I would need to prepare properly for this race. I didn’t consider the cold weather that Boulder could endure, and I did not consider that all of my friends would be enjoying their off season, thus tempting me with their margaritas and fun.  However, going into this race, being able to race fast and to compete against the best wasn’t my main concern. When I decided to race LC worlds, my main goal was to see if I could handle a race that lasted more than 6 hours. I wanted to see if I liked going longer. I wanted to see if I could go longer without having some sort of problem. After all, I have not had a successful race  at the longer distances (i.e., Ironman) since 2006.

After our two weeks in Kona, and after ML asked for a bit of advice from PNF, I put in a solid ten day block or training. I needed to see  if I was even fit enough to do this race.  And so I decided that this would be my final race for 2011.

Three weeks ago I made a plan. I made the plan to execute this race…

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Since my last blog update in September, I feel like I have been on a whirlwind of a ride! Two weeks after racing Muskoka, I raced the 70.3 in Augusta, GA.  I really like the race in Augusta as I feel that the course, especially the swim, really suits me. However, It was a hard race for me to get ready for emotionally. Since I have been coaching myself, I have become a lot more aware of my physical, emotional, and mental readiness for races. I no longer follow a schedule blindly, not listening to my inner voice. This year, I have come to realize that I like doing “blocks” of training in between races. I like a proper taper before race day and a proper decompress after race day. Not only does this help me physically, but I mentally start to feel sharp and I feel emotionally ready to pack my bags for another race. While I did not have that emotional aspect that I felt that I needed on race day, I was really happy with my second place finish. My physical and mental readiness were enough to push me through.

Two days after arriving home from Georgia, Michael and I were off to KONA for the World Championships. I hated missing last  year and I wanted to make sure that I was there to help ML with everything and anything that he needed. Plus I love the…

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Michael and I arrived in the beautiful Muskoka region of Northern Ontario after eleven hours of fairly uneventful travel.  We love going to new races, and we jumped at the chance to check this event off the to-do list, where it has been for several years.  Although it’s only in its fourth year as a 70.3 event, Muskoka has been on the trio scene since the early nineties, and was once the venue where Legends Michellie Jones and Simon Lessing took their first World Titles.

Race morning started for Team Lovato at 5:30AM for Michael and 6:00AM for me. Side note: Since being in Canada and not having computers or cell phones, I have been extremely relaxed, more so than at most other races. In fact, one of the perks that go with racing in Canada or any other foreign country is that I do not have constant access to internet. This becomes a forced (and necessary) detox form the web. For some reason when I detox from the web, I sleep better than I normally do. My mind is at ease and my body is at rest.  Saturday night was no exception. I had a solid 10 hours of sleep and could have slept even more! Side note: it is extremely rare for ML to be up before me, and for him to be the one dragging my butt from the sheets.

Michael and I did our normal pre-race…

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I have never posted a run from my Garmin before on wordpress. I was playing around on garmin connect this morning and thought I would give it a try! I was hoping that the cool maps from google or Garmin would pop up on the blog, but apparently it does not.

Here is our workout from today:

29.5k run along Rez with Jaz and GG by aglovato at Garmin Connect – Details.

The Dirty was pushing the pace today. He has been killing the bike sessions…and the run sessions! He is becoming a bit too strong for me to train with now. This usually happens this time of the year…Being a a full time working guy, husband, and dad, Dirty only has so many hours during the day to train. The summer brings good weather and added sun light…which helps his Ironman training! It’s about that time for Dirty to start training with ML…:(

(These pics were actually taken at Magnolia last week. We were running late today…)

The above picture is from the Rez. This is my other training partner, Jazmine Oeinck (AKA Jazilla). Jazzy is a native of Colorado and the part owner of Bulumu Granola. If you have not tried her granola, you better get some. It is sold in a lot of the Natural food stores in Colorado…

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This past weekend started off with a signing at the ZIPP booth on Saturday. Zipp has been a favorite sponsor of Team Lovato for 2 years! We feel so lucky to have them be a part of our race arsenal! Michael and I really enjoyed signing ZIPP posters for our fans. In fact our 1hour slotted time quickly became almost 2hours! Michael and I were very surprised to have so many folks wanting to meet us and wanting posters of us!  We also enjoyed giving away Team Lovato visors, and giving out free liquid shot flasks and water bottles from First Endurance. One of the most frequent questions Michael and I receive is about nutrition while racing. We had several questions concerning the First Endurance line. And Michael and I love sharing our knowledge! I was extremely pleased to see a few of our Team Lovato visors out on the race course on Sunday! Michael and I were definitely feeling the love!

Race day morning started off a bit like it has all season long. The biggest difference for me, however, this past race weekend was that I was able to sleep in my own bed (I love my T3 King size mattress!) and eat breakfast in my own kitchen. I admit, it was a relief to not travel. I woke up 3 hours before race start. I had my normal breakfast of hot rice cereal with blueberry syrup and…

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Michael and I are back in Boulder after a whirlwind trip. We started off traveling last Thursday for the REV3 race in Portland which was on Sunday.  I like to arrive a few days before race day in case something goes awry. For example, I wanted to make sure that my bike made it in plenty of time and I really like to enjoy a little down time before race day. Our accommodations were a pleasant surprise! We did not expect to have an entire kitchen in our hotel room! Here is a short video clip of our crib:

Saturday was a busy day. We had lots of race stuff to do and it was my birthday :). Michael always does something special for me even if we are out of town or super busy with race stuff as was the case on Saturday. I was lucky enough to receive some super cute compression socks with hearts on them from a website called runningskirts.com. While I don’t wear compression socks in races, I do like to wear them for style…or lack of style. Sometimes I like being a big dork. Here is a picture of my super cute socks and of the very pretty, sweet necklace that ML gave me:

Aren’t I a LUCKY girl!?!

Sunday was race day. It started off like any other race. I had my normal breaky…

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Starting the day with a walk around our neighborhood: Michael with Sophee Docherty and Luna Lovato.

Not sure who is walking who….

Rest stop!

Favorite Stop along our 4hr ride today…The snicker and coke was much needed and appreciated.

We got caught in the rain on our ride, however, we were in great spirits and decided to cash in our groupon for another tasty treat!

Too bad you can’t see the massive quantities of mud and dirt on me…

After giving our bikes a bath (and ourselves), we entered our kitchen to find Big Frisk holding down the fort:

ML working hard…sitting next to lots of laundry that needs to get folded…It’s been there since this morning…

ML at work…this time coaching Jaz Oeinck.

Relaxing, watching THE VOICE with Luna and Blue. :)

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