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!

Being Humbled

Welp. My triathlon is in a week.

Am I ready?

No freaking way haha.

Thanks to a stress fracture at the end of July, I haven't really trained much (besides a few sessions in the pool) for this race. Thankfully, this has led to my foot healing up quite well.
Unfortunately, it means I'll go into the race pretty much untrained.

These last 3 days have been the beginning of my training (great timing, a week out), and they have certainly been humbling...

(read: beyond frustrating).

On the upside, however, it's forced me to take a step back, to listen to my body, to let go of my ideas of what I "need to do" or "will do," and to be okay with whatever happens. For someone as high-strung as myself, those are major steps, so maybe this experience has been put in my life for a reason.

Or so I hope.

:)

Where to find races

I just signed up for another sprint!

I like having a race in my future - something about a date and a commitment keeps me on track. When I don't have a specific goal, it's easy to skip workouts, slack when I am working out, and kind of wander aimlessly through a fitness routine... so having a goal for a race (whether it is a specific time goal or simply to complete it without dying) keeps me motivated.

There are several places I go to find races, some are run specific and some are tri specific, but they're all fun to browse :)

http://www.runnersworld.com/race-finder

https://runsignup.com/

http://runningintheusa.com/Race/

http://www.active.com/

http://www.racetri.com/



Anyone want to join me for the Salem Sprint in May??? :)

Another year, another adventure!

A brand new year! What a time for reflection, progress checks, and planning.

I got my new planner (adore), signed myself up for some challenges, and set some goals.

One concept that's been going around is to choose one word that will define the next year. I chose "Free." I want to be free from doubts, free to pursue my goals and dreams, free from chains that bind, free to do what I want and love within my career, free to make choices, free from negativity, free from bad habits or addictions... I just want to be free :)

I also set some goals, breaking them into smaller pieces, to help me improve physically, spiritually, academically, and in my career and marriage. I love the planning stage, where I get to think about an area in which I would like to improve (for example, building my endurance and physical capacity), set a measurable goal (complete an olympic triathlon), make myself accountable (sign up for the race, tell my family about it), break it into achievable pieces (sign up for a sprint halfway through training season, write myself a training program, oogle new gear), and get started on the first few little steps. It's not too overwhelming, but it's so fun to dream of the possibilities :)

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!

Guess it's time to start training for that tri...

So (in a moment of brilliance) I realized that my sprint tri was less than 3 weeks away, and I figured I'd better start training! Genius, I know.

Now, I'm not starting from scratch, I've gone running on and off over the summer, and I teach a few spin classes, so... I'm golden, right? :)

Sigh. Anyway, I've been squeezing in some more swimming, biking, and running, and overall it's going well. Even when I have to wake up at 5 am and take a headlamp to fit it in.


That's my beautiful bike in the back of the car... it's nice to have somewhere to stash it during the running portion of the workout.


Why do I do this to myself? Sign up for a race, then realize far too late that I should have been training all along?

Ah well, next time ;)