Triathlon Recap!

So. I completed a triathlon! (Over a month ago. Sorry.)

What a wonderful experience! There were hiccups, of course, but it is definitely something I’d do again!

For the hiccups…. Of course, having a stress fracture and being under-trained didn’t exactly give me warm fuzzies. We drove down to St. George a day early to celebrate the husband’s birthday weekend, and as we drove the course, we realized how bumpy the road would be for the bike portion of the race. Since I am allergic to vibration, this was NOT a good thing. My body freaks out on roads less bumpy than that – turning purple and white, getting hives, experiencing unbearable itchiness…. Not fun.

Sooooo I was mildly freaking out haha. Luckily Kip bought me some compression sleeves, and our pharmacist friend recommended a combination of Claritin, Benadryl, and caffeine pills that worked wonders!

As far as race day, it was chilly in the morning, but the water temps were warm, so my whole group decided to go without wetsuits. We set up transition areas, got our bodies marked, and generally tried not to freak out. The boys’ wave was before ours’, and once they started, everything is a blur! Haha

The swim went well, it was just one big loop. I even saw a girl with a snorkel! Genius haha. T1 was really slow for me, since I was trying to get those dang compression sleeves on wet arms. The bike went really well: that combination of meds plus compression was the best thing to ever happen to me haha. I made some friends on the bike, and despite the rough climb at mile 3, the whole thing was quite pleasant. The run portion was definitely the hard part. The sun was unforgiving in the desert heat, and my untrained legs had a hard time haha. Towards the very end, a nice girl passed me, and I could tell by her body markings that she was in my age group. She cheered me on, telling me I could sprint to the finish line. I dug deep and sprinted past her, and ended up getting third place for the age group! Which I was both proud of and slightly guilty over, since she would have placed if she hadn’t been so nice.

I can’t wait for the next one – injury free! :)

I’m so lucky to have a husband that gave up his birthday weekend to do a race he wasn’t even interested in, and that he stuck to the training and did so well!

My First Half Marathon

The half marathon. 13.1 miles.

For a self-proclaimed non-runner for SO many years, this was such an intimidating distance. However, training for it and completing my first half last month was SUCH a positive experience for me!

I started small. VERY small. A couch-to-5k app helped me progress from being unable to run for 5 continuous minutes to completing my first 5k in March. My surgery took me out for a while, but I slowly increased my mileage. At first, every run was torture. Everything hurt, my lungs burned, and I felt like 13 miles would never, ever happen.

I’ll never forget the day I ran 4 miles. It was the first time in my life I’d ever run that far. I never thought I could. But after slowly building up to it, I just went out one morning and did it. And you know what? It felt good. Better than good. I was hooked! How could my body go from 1 mile being excruciating to 4 feeling so casual? It was the turning point that transformed me into someone who actually enjoyed running. All those months of torture finally amounted to something.

After that, I increased my mileage weekly. I would do shorter runs a few times a week, and I mapped out my training plan so I would hit my longest distances a few weeks before my race (allowing me to taper). It went really well. The morning (before work) I ran 9 miles, I wanted to shout it to the world! I was loving this! Running was still hard, but suddenly it was a challenge I wanted to take on – I wanted to push my limits.

Of course, nothing ever goes as planned. The week of my 9-miler, I hurt my ankle. I figured it was something I should just shake off, so I continued with my shorter runs, but I eventually realized it was a bigger deal than that. I ended up having to discontinue my training plan for a few weeks, missing the Dirty Dash as well as all of my longer training runs.

The week before my race, I was able to do a pain-free 5-miler, so I knew that taking a break was the right decision, but I was terrified that I would struggle through my upcoming race due to lack of preparation. My anxiety was at an all-time high, but I knew I couldn’t back out at that point.

The event, put on by Goldilocks, was in Las Vegas on October 17th. We got started bright and early, and despite some women who got us nervous about the “hard course” we had chosen, I got off to a nice and easy start. The first 7-8 miles were uphill (ugh) and the sky was cloudy. I took things nice and slow, not wanting to burn out. Honestly, after hearing about the hills that I didn’t prepare for, I was just hoping to finish in under 3 hours (2:30 as a stretch goal). I felt really good, though, so I started to pick up the pace as I went.



It did end up raining, which felt amazing, and despite the major (ew ew ew) toe blisters that resulted (still got those suckers), the whole thing was quite pleasant. I never felt that gotta-die sensation I was expecting, and my splits were very negative (I’m talking minutes per mile faster). I finished strong with a sprint, I passed a ton of people in the last half mile, and I pretty much loved every second of those 2 hours and 17 minutes.



I’m so thankful that I’ve had this experience, and I will definitely do another half in the future. :) :)

My First Triathlon: Camp Yuba Sprint 2015

Guys. A triathlon has been on my bucket list for as long as I can remember. I signed up for this sprint last year, but my car accident happened 2 weeks before the race, so this year was the year.

I wanted to test the waters with a sprint, and it was the perfect distance! 1/2 mile swim, 12.5 mile bike, and 3.1 mile run.



We camped down by lake Yuba the night before (so awesome!) and got a bright and early start. I set up my transition area and even got a spot at the end of the rack. People were so nice and encouraging, and I pretty much loved everything about it. They did consolidated age groups since it was a small race, and I got 4th place for women under 35! (technically I was the second woman 25-29, soooo I'll take it haha)



I had so much fun! I definitely learned a lot (don't start in the back of the pack on the swim, sit down to take my wetsuit off haha, go faster! :)) and I will definitely be doing more of these!

My competitive side and my crafty side

A few things.

Occasionally, my competitive side comes out. With my FitBit, you can see your friends steps, and you can challenge them to daily or weekly contests. I get challenged all the time, but I don't usually check on them/care about them all that much.

For some reason, though, when I got home from work yesterday and saw the competition (as well as seeing my name on the feed), it really struck me that I needed to win. So, out came the Zumba videos on YouTube. Over came my friend, and we went on a long (cold) walk.



And victory! My intense little competition fire burned out after my win though, maybe it will return in a few months haha.


On another note, I'm working on my wedding scrapbook! When I first got married, I made one, but I gave it to my parents (they asked, okay? I'm not that narcissistic) and I haven't yet been motivated to repeat the process.

Until now.



I'm still in the organizational stage, but at least it's progress! :)