I just received a small shipment of Brooks apparel and have fallen in LOVE with the Utopia Thermal Hoodie!

This is my favorite piece of running gear yet!

Not only does it look great, but it is extremely functional.  On the way to the REZ for a speed workout this week, Michael and I watched the temperature drop and drop and drop…all the way down to 23 degrees.  It was a bit windy, It was 6:30 in the morning, and we were convinced that we (I) was underdressed.

With only a light undershirt, this Thermal Utopia Hoodie kept me quite comfy during my run session. This hoodie is awesome! This piece is absolutely perfect for speed workouts, casual running, and even hanging out at the coffee shop afterwards! It feels great, looks great, and fits perfectly! In fact I am ordering another one!

You can check it out here:

http://www.brooksrunning.com/Utopia-Thermal-Hoodie/220304617%2e030,default,pd.html

Thanks Brooks for helping stay warm during this Boulder winter!

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Race morning didn’t start off like any of my other race mornings. I didn’t sleep a wink the night before. And when I say I didn’t sleep, I mean it. I woke ML up at 5am. I tried to eat some breakfast. I couldn’t eat. My stomach was in turmoil. I didn’t feel sick, but I did feel nausea. I attributed it to nerves and decided to not fight it. I figured that when I felt hungry, I would eat. That was my first mistake race morning. I believe that I had about 50-100 calories for breakfast.

ML and I scampered down to transition, which was only 2 minutes away. I met up with my Perro. It was good to see my fuzzy black friend. The lines into transition were long. Officials were checking bracelets and helmets. No big deal though…

Check out my hot new Betty designed Splish Suit! Thanks Kristin and Ira for putting all of my ideas into place. I love it! xx

Michael’s sweet ride and his Brooks Pure Connect shoes!

More body Marking. And yes, ML is taking the pictures. He loves this sort of stuff… :)

Here is my sweet ride. I love my Kestrel 4000!!!

ML and I went our separate ways. As I left Transition, a security guard stopped me and said something in Spanish. My response: No Hablo Español. Instead of trying to communicate in English or…

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One of my absolute highlights of our trip was my morning run with my black Perro. It didn’t matter what time I decided to go for a run, my black, furry dog was always waiting for me outside of the hotel. Luna would have been SO jealous. This particular dog was very young, probably homeless, but well taken care of. I always felt so guilty going back to the hotel and leaving my perro behind after our run together. He knew that he wasn’t allowed in the hotel..and more than once, one of the staff member’s chased him off. :(

One of the things that I love about Pucón is that all of the homeless dogs are well cared for by the locals. From what I saw, there were not any starving dogs hanging around. I really liked that.

Friday brought a little more swimming and biking. ML and I could tell that we were feeling better and better with each passing day from the jet lag.

We did some press/media stuff which was pretty cool. ML spoke Spanish. I spoke English.

I met a young, Argentinian fan in the grocery Store, named Priscilla. Isn’t she gorgeous?

Priscilla was getting ready for the kids race on Saturday. She is 11 years old. We became great friends by Sunday evening. :)

On Friday, ML and I had the PRO press conference and the Pasta Party which was loads of fun.…

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Michael and I have traveled the world, especially in our years of being triathletes. We have been to some pretty extraordinary places, Pucón being one of them. When we were offered the opportunity to return this year, we could not refuse.

Our travel started early  Tuesday morning at 4am, January 10th. Our first stop was Miami. Since it was early in our adventure, our excitement was high, and we had a 6-hour layover, we decided to find some good Cuban food in South Beach. ML and I love Latin foods. I especially love green plantains.

It felt great to eat a healthy meal before our flight to Santiago.

Our flight to Santiago was uneventful. We tried to sleep as much as possible, but it really didn’t happen. One of the lessons that I learned is always try to sleep on a flight/trip lasting this long. I really wish I had brought some ear plugs and a Tylenol PM…or 2! Waking up and trying to function as a normal human being was absolutely BRUTAL.

We arrived in Santiago 9 hours later and 1hr 30 before our flight departed for Temuco. It wasn’t enough time…With customs and immigration, we narrowly missed our flight which resulted in us standing in line for another hour to switch flights. One thing that I am extremely grateful for is that ML speaks Spanish beautifully. He always manages to get out of a pickle.…

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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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