August Round-Up

Two blogs in one week whaaaaa? Crazy, I know. But I'm done working out for the day so I can do my monthly recap. Woo.

Swimming: 6000m (3.73 mi)
Cycling: 88.91 mi
Running: 25.27 mi
Lifting: 11 sessions (3:15)
Other: two hikes (2:45), five walks (4:35), three yoga sessions (:48)

As you can see, I hit two of my three mileage goals - swimming and running (and that last one only barely). Cycling ... ugh. I like riding my bike, but apparently I'm not finding ways to ride my bike either enough or longer. Or both. Probably both.

Lifting has been pretty consistent which I'm happy with. We almost managed hockey this month - had it scheduled for this past Thursday, but Brandon either caught a summer cold or summer allergies, and it knocked him out for a day or two. We decided while an easy run or bike was okay, hockey, with its stops and starts, probably was not.

I didn't hike nearly as much as I would have liked, but I'm a little squeamish about hiking on my own sometimes (why, I don't know) and Brandon's schedule was such that we didn't really have the opportunity to go on his days off.

That being said, the best part of August is that I only had one true day off ... which, given me, is pretty dang impressive, especially considering I had one week where what I did was pretty pathetic (comparatively speaking) and almost one week of travel. I will take that.

I'm continuing the mileage goals into September, but I haven't quite thought of them just yet. The true exciting thing is that we may graduate from stick/puck sessions to an actual drop-in. Eek!

Race #7 of the Season: Milk Run 5K

*taptaptap* This thing still on?

It's been an interesting summer ... year ... life ... and I will blog about it soon. Maybe. Hopefully.

In any case, we ran the Milk Run at the Minnesota State Fair this past Sunday. It went about as well as we thought it was going to (in ... not very).

The Milk Run has been a part of the fair for about 30 years now and Brandon has been talking about doing it for several years. We wanted to do it last year, but learned that it sold out stupid quick and never got the email for sign up last year. We figured that out and as soon as registration opened this spring, we signed up. If you ever want to do this race, do the same - it filled up in 12 hours.

We drove up to Minnesota to hang out for a few days prior, getting a quick run in at a rest stop on the way and riding our bikes a few days prior. 

Race morning, we grabbed food at Starbucks just for calories, found (free) street parking a few blocks away, and made sure we knew where we were going in the fairgrounds (yes, we got there probably too early. Yes, this happens all the time thanks to our triathlon background. No, it's never bad.)

Especially because it means smaller bathroom lines for pre-race business. And selfies.


Race photo to share with Skirt Sports. You may have already seen it on Facebook. Love it? All of it is new THIS SEASON! 306TREX for 15% off.


Sign with the Big Wheel in the background.


Our true feelings in the corral.

The race itself was lollipop-shaped. Out, into the neighborhoods around the UofM campus (St. Paul side), and back. The first (and therefore last) stretch up into campus smelled like poop ... probably thanks to the sheep on the hill next to us. The course itself had quite a few rolling hills.

The worst part, though, was the humidity. Oh dear sweet jeebus give me dry air and altitude any day. The humidity ended up hurting here and it killed me by the end of the day walking around the fair. Midwesterners, I have NO IDEA how you run in soup all the damn time. I admire you for it.

As neither of us felt that great, we didn't take this that hard. We ran, but I wouldn't argue that we raced. The results speak to that, too.

Final Stats:
Time: 33:48
42/83 division (F35-39)
325/750 gender (if my math is correct)
655/1276 overall

We got our free breakfast sandwich (which was gross) and then got our hand stamps to head back to the car to "shower" with wipes and change a bit before heading back into actually enjoy the fair.


Different hat, different shirt, different socks, no race belt, added a purse.

As it looks now, that might be be my last race of the season unless I add some random fall or winter 5K, but I'm kind of thinking meh. We'll see ...

July Round-Up

Long time, no write ... but I haven't been racing, and that seems like the usual time I write in here (other than these monthly recaps, of course). Maybe I should find more time to write in here. Or maybe I should let it go. Who blogs anymore anyway?

Anyway, numbers.

Swimming: 2100m (1.3 mi)
Cycling: 46.61 mi
Running: 18.41 mi
Lifting: eight sessions (2:26)
Other: five hikes (8:10), two sessions hockey (2:00), one walk (:25), one yoga session (:10)

So if I haven't been doing the usual, what have I been doing? Clearly a lot of hiking. I am seriously enjoying that this summer (fell back in love with it last summer and COMMITTED to doing more of it this year). We're also dipping our toes back in the hockey waters. Those two hours weren't games - just take-a-shot sessions - but we're working our way back to drop-ins. We're thinking that hockey twice a month might be manageable with our lives.

While I have enjoyed my, well, essential "laziness," I think I've finally had enough. As a result, I actually have a few mileage goals for August, but they should (ha, famous last words) be manageable:

2500m swimming
150 mi riding
25 mi running

Should be easy peasy, but it's me. And it's me lately. Here's hoping ...