This is going to come as a shocker, but I like to make goals. Even those big, scary goals that people will sometimes shy away from. And I LOVE to plan how I'm going to hit these goals more than the actual process of hitting the goals. For example, I set a goal to do one pull up by my birthday in May. I spent weeks putting together a plan to get me there. I did all the focusing and visions about completing this goal. And then it came to actually doing the work and by February I had given up. 2.5 weeks from my birthday and I'm about 2 inches closer than I was in January.
So, I have been dreaming about becoming an awesome hill climber on my bike for years now. When I lived out in Tooele I had a whole plan about how I was going to bike up Middle Canyon, the longest, steepest climb nearby, multiple times and become this incredible biker. I did it once. It was SO hard. And my tire went flat.
The first summer I was in Highland, I would climb the canyon with a friend every couple of weeks. But we only went about 3 miles up because she couldn't go much farther and I was too chicken to do it alone. I didn't climb the canyon once last summer. But...there's a road that leads to the top of Suncrest in Draper. And it has been my dream since I moved here to climb that and I had ideas of how I would train for it and where I could bail out and all sorts of stuff but I would keep putting it off thinking I didn't want make a spectacle of myself--no one is sitting on the side of the road resting when you drive up it and see the bikers.
When I signed up for the St George Half Ironman, Wade's co-worker said that Snow Canyon--the signature climb in the bike leg--had an elevation profile like Suncrest. He dismissively said to just ride up that a couple of times in training and I'd be fine. When Hillary and I went down to St George in October, I was secretly happy that my bike broke at mile 36 before we could get to Snow Canyon because I was terrified. Those 36 miles were hard and we hadn't even gotten to Snow Canyon! Hillary rode up it and had a feel for it, but I was still blind to the climb.
This has been my biggest source of anxiety about this race--the bike, and in particular, Snow Canyon. But this weekend, I made it my single goal to get to the top of that hill. And guess what--I did! Without stopping! Without crying! Without lamenting about how I'm not at the weight I want to be or I'm as slow as a snail or that I'm dumb for thinking I can do this! I climbed it and was in absolute awe at how incredibly hard it was but that I was doing it!
And then I thought about how much this was like life--these dreams and goals we set for ourselves and then we get scared and we don't want to look like fools so we make excuses and then we come to realize that maybe it was really hard, but it was so worth it in the end!
Less than three weeks to go and we've got this!
Weekly Totals
Swim: 5659 yds
Bike: 6:45 (57.5 miles long)
Run: 14.1 miles
Workout of the Week
Obviously, this week's workout to showcase is going to be the bike ride up Suncrest, but any other week it would have been how my long run got shortened because of an impaled deer on a fence. Oh well. :)
So, Hillary drove out Saturday morning to do the long ride together. It was so nice to have a friend with me even if we didn't get to talk very much. We started from my house and made our way to the Murdock Canal. We were over by Highland Glen and I missed the turn so we had to make a sharp left turn and go up a steep hill which neither one of us was in the right gear. I ended up swerving into Hillary and almost derailing our entire bike ride 2 miles in! Luckily we were both able to stay on our bikes and continue. We took Murdock to 800 N in Orem and then hopped on the Provo River Trail. I've never been on that stretch of the trail and for good reason. It parallels the road and you have to stop at Every. Single. Stop. Light. Plus it gets narrow and has some really sketchy spots. One such spot is a narrow lane under a bridge. I made it through before the dude on the bike with the tub attached that held like 9 kids. Unfortunately, Hillary met him halfway under the bridge and had to back up to let him through. Thankfully, it was a cold morning, so that was the only incident. Now I know where they mean when they talk about women getting attacked on that trail. Sketchy!!
The trail was closed and we had to detour. I read the map wrong and we found ourselves bicycling through freakin' downtown Provo. Stopping at every. Single. Light. We finally got ourselves back on track and headed down to Vineyard by lake. It's a pretty little area and a lot less traffic. We headed back and had only tacked 2 extra miles on with our wandering. :)
The plan was to do Suncrest at the end of the ride since that's where Snow Canyon falls. The entire ride back I was SO nervous about this hill! As if God was taunting us, we both felt raindrops and I thought maybe we could can this crazy idea. But then I said "let's see how far we get up and if it really starts to rain, we can call Wade." Good thing Hillary was there because that was only to save face.
We started up the hill and it was pretty good the first mile. Not too shabby. But then it started to get steep. And it was unrelenting. My quads were on fire. But I was watching my watch and knew it was going to be 5 miles long, so I played games. Don't look at the watch until the end of the guardrail. Make it to that sign. And before long we were at the halfway mark. Then it was 2 miles left. Finally, just the last mile! It took us 40 minutes of hard climbing but we made it to the top!!
Of course, the pay off to climbing to the top is coming down and it was a blast! A little scary because of how fast you can get going, but still fun. It took us about 10 minutes to get down. :)
I was on cloud nine with accomplishing that goal and I finally feel so much better about the race! I think I'm going to do it again one more time this weekend.
So, I have been dreaming about becoming an awesome hill climber on my bike for years now. When I lived out in Tooele I had a whole plan about how I was going to bike up Middle Canyon, the longest, steepest climb nearby, multiple times and become this incredible biker. I did it once. It was SO hard. And my tire went flat.
The first summer I was in Highland, I would climb the canyon with a friend every couple of weeks. But we only went about 3 miles up because she couldn't go much farther and I was too chicken to do it alone. I didn't climb the canyon once last summer. But...there's a road that leads to the top of Suncrest in Draper. And it has been my dream since I moved here to climb that and I had ideas of how I would train for it and where I could bail out and all sorts of stuff but I would keep putting it off thinking I didn't want make a spectacle of myself--no one is sitting on the side of the road resting when you drive up it and see the bikers.
When I signed up for the St George Half Ironman, Wade's co-worker said that Snow Canyon--the signature climb in the bike leg--had an elevation profile like Suncrest. He dismissively said to just ride up that a couple of times in training and I'd be fine. When Hillary and I went down to St George in October, I was secretly happy that my bike broke at mile 36 before we could get to Snow Canyon because I was terrified. Those 36 miles were hard and we hadn't even gotten to Snow Canyon! Hillary rode up it and had a feel for it, but I was still blind to the climb.
This has been my biggest source of anxiety about this race--the bike, and in particular, Snow Canyon. But this weekend, I made it my single goal to get to the top of that hill. And guess what--I did! Without stopping! Without crying! Without lamenting about how I'm not at the weight I want to be or I'm as slow as a snail or that I'm dumb for thinking I can do this! I climbed it and was in absolute awe at how incredibly hard it was but that I was doing it!
And then I thought about how much this was like life--these dreams and goals we set for ourselves and then we get scared and we don't want to look like fools so we make excuses and then we come to realize that maybe it was really hard, but it was so worth it in the end!
Less than three weeks to go and we've got this!
Weekly Totals
Swim: 5659 yds
Bike: 6:45 (57.5 miles long)
Run: 14.1 miles
Workout of the Week
Obviously, this week's workout to showcase is going to be the bike ride up Suncrest, but any other week it would have been how my long run got shortened because of an impaled deer on a fence. Oh well. :)
So, Hillary drove out Saturday morning to do the long ride together. It was so nice to have a friend with me even if we didn't get to talk very much. We started from my house and made our way to the Murdock Canal. We were over by Highland Glen and I missed the turn so we had to make a sharp left turn and go up a steep hill which neither one of us was in the right gear. I ended up swerving into Hillary and almost derailing our entire bike ride 2 miles in! Luckily we were both able to stay on our bikes and continue. We took Murdock to 800 N in Orem and then hopped on the Provo River Trail. I've never been on that stretch of the trail and for good reason. It parallels the road and you have to stop at Every. Single. Stop. Light. Plus it gets narrow and has some really sketchy spots. One such spot is a narrow lane under a bridge. I made it through before the dude on the bike with the tub attached that held like 9 kids. Unfortunately, Hillary met him halfway under the bridge and had to back up to let him through. Thankfully, it was a cold morning, so that was the only incident. Now I know where they mean when they talk about women getting attacked on that trail. Sketchy!!
The trail was closed and we had to detour. I read the map wrong and we found ourselves bicycling through freakin' downtown Provo. Stopping at every. Single. Light. We finally got ourselves back on track and headed down to Vineyard by lake. It's a pretty little area and a lot less traffic. We headed back and had only tacked 2 extra miles on with our wandering. :)
The plan was to do Suncrest at the end of the ride since that's where Snow Canyon falls. The entire ride back I was SO nervous about this hill! As if God was taunting us, we both felt raindrops and I thought maybe we could can this crazy idea. But then I said "let's see how far we get up and if it really starts to rain, we can call Wade." Good thing Hillary was there because that was only to save face.
We started up the hill and it was pretty good the first mile. Not too shabby. But then it started to get steep. And it was unrelenting. My quads were on fire. But I was watching my watch and knew it was going to be 5 miles long, so I played games. Don't look at the watch until the end of the guardrail. Make it to that sign. And before long we were at the halfway mark. Then it was 2 miles left. Finally, just the last mile! It took us 40 minutes of hard climbing but we made it to the top!!
Of course, the pay off to climbing to the top is coming down and it was a blast! A little scary because of how fast you can get going, but still fun. It took us about 10 minutes to get down. :)
I was on cloud nine with accomplishing that goal and I finally feel so much better about the race! I think I'm going to do it again one more time this weekend.
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