Sarah Borst Jarvis

American TV is driving me crazy . I can't handle it. Not one minute of it. That is why we don't have TV at our house. At all. But I thought I could maybe handle NBC's coverage of the Hawaii Ironman World Championships . So I packed my bag and headed over to the YMCA. Gotta love the treadmills with your own little integrated TV. The coverage definitely had its good moments but overall it was very disappointing . What's up with the soothing, low voice of the narrator? And all the slow motion, especially during the swim? Why, oh why do they have to add so much drama? The race itself is plenty dramatic. How come they never even mentioned or showed the Age Group champions? The coverage of the women's race was poor, to say the least. I could go on and on but I will spare you. Here is what I did like: Macca . Not that I necessarily like him as a person but you've gotta admit that he was awesome! I also enjoyed his trash talking during the interview. Definitely not as ...

I enjoyed a gym extravaganza the other day. It was awesome. Thursday at midnight Karl needed to turn in his last project of the semester. Friday he was a free man ! (For the next 2 weeks, at least.) So, magnificent wife that I am, I signed him up as the parent helper for Noah's preschool party. I made sure Max was able to come as well, so I would have the whole morning to myself ! Preschool is 9-12. That was not going to quite cut it, so I left the whole get-the-kids-dressed-fed-and-groomed to Karl as well and headed out the door before 8. Here is how it went down: Run - 1:15 - HR zone 2 Spin class - 1:00 Body Sculpture class - 1:00 Core class - 0:30 Elliptical - 0:15 Overall - 4:00 Some was hard , most was fun , and all was just really good ! Thank you, Karl. I went back on the treadmill the next day for a nice 2-hour run during NBC's Kona coverage . More on that later. I need to go outside and get some fresh air for once...

(I really only love the gym in bad weather . Or when I need a safe place for my little tag-along(s). Which is quite frequent these days. Not having Jen or Grandma/Grandpa around can sure be a challenge . But, no worries, I will always find a way to sneak in my workouts.) In my book, nothing beats biking outside in sunny, warm weather with a great group of athletes. And who would have thought that I would have the chance to do just that at 7,000 feet in mid-December ??? I was thrilled. Rewind a few weeks. I had heard about the group ride leaving Saturday morning and riding about 60 miles. But I had also heard that they are fast, cyclists, and mostly guys. I had no desire to show up as a female triathlete on a TT bike. I'd rather ride by myself. Then Karl turned my old TT bike into a road bike . A day later I was ready to (try to) roll with the Big Boys. It went just like I had expected. A bunch of stuck-up cyclists wearing the latest gear on the nicest bikes. Of course, the ones ...

Truth is: I always knew that when I'd find the right gym, I would love it. I just had never found the right one. Until now. I was pushing Max in the Chariot for almost all of my runs in September and October. I did not really mind since it was the off season and very nice outside. We played about as much as we ran. So the whole thing took a couple of hours. It was great fun! (Except for the hill repeats I attempted with 40lbs Max and 30lbs library books on trail.) But then off season ended and heart rate training began. And it got cold! Pushing 70lbs obviously affects your heart rate, and without a Garmin I only had one choice: the dreaded treadmill ! One of my problems with the gym is that I don't want to drive there. I will not drive to the gym on a regular basis. Preferably not at all. But who has a gym in their backyard ? Well, we do now! The local family YMCA is about a 3 minute walk from our apartment. It is brand new. It opened in April of this year. It's very ...

(by Karl) Muslims have their Mecca. Country singers have their Nashville. Emperor penguins have their special spot in the Antarctic. And ultrarunners have the Grand Canyon . Those of us that choose to lose brain cells by running long miles in the backcountry feel a beckoning to come and run across that certain spectacular Big Ditch and back again. I’ll admit that part of my decision to come to Flagstaff for graduate school did have something to do with it being the closest university to that notorious gulch. Prior to moving to Arizona I hadn’t had a chance to come on a Rim-to-Rim-to-Rim trip. Boy, was I missing out. As we started organizing the trip, we had a pretty large group of interested folks, but I ended up with a little group of great companions: Jared Campbell and Jay Aldous from SLC, and Matt Zinkgraf from Flagstaff. We chose to start from the North Rim, partly because it was closer to Utah for the guys coming so far already, but also because none of us had...

I hate gyms. I really do. And I always have. My first time in a gym was on October 31st in 2003. Gold's Gym in Provo. I thought that if I just went in, maybe it would not be so bad, and I could convince myself to join. The second I walked in, I realized it was a mistake . No way was I going to stay in that place longer than I absolutely had to. But it was too late. One of the sleek bodybuilding employees had already eyed a potential new customer and I could not escape his claws. I don't remember the details of our conversation because all I could think was: "I wanna get out of here. How am I gonna get out of here? Let me out of here!" Finally, I made it out. And I did not set foot into another gym for 7 years. Let me digress here for a minute. As an exchange student in high school, my "sister" Andee and I had sleep overs every single night. I loved everything about our sleep overs except this one poster she had in her room. It was disgusting. To me. T...

I love autumn for many different reasons. One of them being the chance to cross-train ! I had not been on a mountain bike since the XTERRA last year, when Jennifer invited me to hit some trails a few weeks ago. Of course I could not say 'No'. I love mountain biking. BUT I have no skills on a mountain bike. I made sure Jennifer was aware of both. on top of Mount Elden I must have faired pretty well since Jennifer agreed to take me out again last Saturday. (I attribute this to the fact that I can run rather fast while pushing the bike.) I'll go out on a road bike by myself any day. When it comes to biking on trails, I like to just follow the leader . Especially in a new place, I guess. But this time things did not go so smoothly. I ended up with a handful of issues . Issue #1 : My trusted mechanic and babysitter was out of town . Karl thought it would be fun to do a double crossing of the Grand Canyon. So he was busy running from the north rim to the south rim, and b...

I just signed up for my first race in 2011 ! I am super excited to run in the Painter's Halfmarathon in St. George on January, 22nd. I love St. George and can't wait to go there in the middle of the winter. The plan is: swim on Friday run the race Saturday morning bike one loop of the IM course after the race Sounds like a training extravaganza to me! Only 11 more weeks... If you want to join me for the fun, check out the race here . What better way to jump start your run training than a little 13.1 mile race? (Just to clearify, I am not doing Ironman St. George this year. ) (But that does not mean I can't go out on the course and have some fun , right?)

I spend a lot of time "riding" with my little boys . Max (2) has gotten really good on his balance bike over the last few weeks. He can now coast with his feet up for quite a while. Preferably on trail. I am so excited for him! Noah 's great love these days is the skate park . I may spend more time at the skate park than on my road bike these days. He can do pretty amazing stuff. Both on his bike and on his scooter. But more about that later on our Family Blog . It's about time I tell you about biking in Flagstaff . Well, so far it has been ... decent . Definitely not great, but not terrible either. Well, not terrible all the time. The good news is that I found some riding buddies . Two, to be exact. Jennifer and Karen. They are both super busy, so it is hard to coordinate schedules. But that's nothing new... Jennifer is awesome! We attend the same ward, she is my visiting teacher, and we serve in the Primary Presidency together. She has 3 kids (all older tha...

The new image of Miguel This is what Karl gave me for my birthday . Ok. Not really. I bought the bike in ... 2002 . Really? That long ago? That means I am not even exaggerating (that much) when I tell people it is like 10 years old. I have loved that bike although it never really fit . I just saved my money, walked into the bike shop one day, saw this bike, and bought it. Not a good idea. Now I know better. Now I have a custom-built frame that actually fits! Big difference! I have still been using Miguel quite a bit. (All my bikes are named Miguel, after the great Miguel Indurain . My childhood hero. (After googling Indurain and watching a tribute to him, I will have to say that he still is my hero. (Have I told you before that on family rides as a kid we would all be Tour de France riders and I was always Indurain? Well, now you know.))) Where was I? Anyway... I was getting tired of the bike set up and the really annoying huge aero bars and have been wanting to turn the bike into ...

Xterra '09 After a week of being forced to take things easy (when it comes to training) because of our move to Flagstaff, AZ, I started to slowly but surely go crazy ! I was having a hard time getting up early after staying up late unpacking things and making this apartment look more like home. No races coming up, no serious training plan, and no workout buddies does not exactly help me drag my butt out of bed at 5 am either. To top it of, Max has consistently been waking up super early ever since we got here. Because he and Noah share a room now, they are both dancing around the house by 6 am. Awesome! Just what I need! So, after 5 days, I decided it was time to take matters into my own hands. I called the local running store, Run Flagstaff , to see if they have some kind of running group/team workout. They do! Every Tuesday they meet at the High School track for speed work . Sweet! It was Tuesday and so I jumped on my bike (actually, Karl's mountain bike) and rode 2 mile...

Squaw Peak - 3 Witches Ride July '10 I claim that I use my blog as a journal . Who writes in their journal nothing but the good? I would like my blogs to (somehow) reflect reality and let you (and myself) know what is really going on. I wrote a post ( here ) about a few things that have been difficult for us as a family since our move to Flagstaff. Personally, I am not a fan of change. At all. I like routine and consistency . Especially in training and in raising my boys. I know change is good and so I try to embrace it. Sometimes it is easy, sometimes hard. The Good News My coaches , Heath and Mahogani, are still providing me with excellent (off-season) workouts. PowerTri continues to sponsor me! Thank you so much! I hope to represent you well down here in Arizona. I get to be on the Rocky Mountain Running & Triathlon Advisory Board for 2011. I am so excited to work with them! Being able to represent this sport means a lot to me. They wanted me although I don't even...

Usually, while Noah is having a great time at preschool, Max and I go running . When Noah was little, I took him on runs in the stroller all the time. Before moving to Flagstaff, Max had hardly ever had that pleasure for different reasons: a) who wants to push a double jogger with 2 kids in it while running? Right now my kids weigh 29 and 41 lbs. The chariot itself is at least 30 lbs. 100 extra lbs? No thanks. Unless that is my only option... b) I hate sitting around doing nothing. I assume my kids do, too. So I try to spare them. c) I was (usually) always free to run by myself in Provo. Good friends, grandparents, neighbors, cousins. Most of the time, I had someone to play with my kids. Well, things change . Now I am " stuck " here in Flagstaff. All by my little self. So with Noah in preschool 3 mornings a week, it was time to get out the single Chariot. I've always loved our Cougar CX. I can't seem to find any pictures of ours, unfortunately. It is pretty much...

Guest post by Karl Race Report Speedgoat 50k I had some unfinished, no, unstarted business to take care of at the Speedgoat this year. From the first time I heard about it I knew it was for me . I mean, why wouldn't I run a race with about as much climbing as the Squaw Peak 50, all packed into a 50k? It's not like Karl Meltzer would design a race that's not crazy cool . 2008 : At the Wahsatch Steeplechase, I meet Karl Meltzer, and I explain I don't want to commit to it because my wife, Sarah, was expecting the same weekend. Even though he didn't really know me, he guarantees me entry into it if it works out with the baby. The timing doesn't work out, and I don't do it. 2009 : I focus on 50k distance, train a ton, and then get myself a stress fracture a few weeks before the Speedgoat. Meltzer rolls my registration over to next year instead of taking my entry fee and leaving me out in the cold. Another reason he's a stud. 2010 : I'm better trained...