Icebreaker Sprint Triathlon-American Fork, Utah- Race Report

The Icebreaker sprint triathlon was yesterday. It went ok. Definitely the first race of the season for most ;) Friday my friend Kim and I drove to American Fork and picked up our packets...wish we would have remembered to ask them to do our body marking as well that day instead of waiting in line the next morning for it. Oh well. 

Saturday morning Ben and I left home about 8ish. We got there about 845ish. The race was supposed to start about 10am. Definitely a later starting race but because its so early in the year it would be way to cold to do it earlier. Parking wasn't bad at all. Met up with Kim and got our transition area set up. I keep forgetting to take a pick of my transition area. It seems to work really well. I put my helmet and sunglasses on my bike handlebars, I lay a towel or a mat down to put all my stuff on i.e. running shoes, nutrition, a towel etc. 

Kim and I chilling in the transition area before the race.

At about 915 there was a "pre-race" meeting. Probably the longest pre-race meeting I've ever been too. They told us on the bike course there was an area with a ton of pot holes and gravel (that they had tried to clean up earlier) Joy! Then they just kept talking I kid you not. I guess when you registered for the race you could have them say your name with a little something you wanted them to say so we had to wait for them to go through all of those. Don't get me wrong its great but I think there is a time and place for that and I don't feel like its at the pre-race meeting. 

Kim, Ben (who was an amazing support and spectator and photographer) and I headed to the pool. It was an indoor pool with a revolving door. Yup you read that right a revolving door that was the only way in and the only way out. It turned out to be quite an issue unfortunately. To help space out the swim so it wasn't a madhouse they had us line up according to swim time. (Don't worry they keep track of when you start so its not the same for everyone.) I'm so mad at myself for this part. I pretty much went to the end of the line and I really wish I hadn't. I'm not an amazing swimmer but I'm a good swimmer. It got crazy in the pool. You were supposed to do 6 lengths each in a different lane. People were walking, they were swimming on top of each other, running in to each other and just stopping at the wall. Thats all fine and dandy but have some courtesy for the other racers and try to get out of the way. Whatever. Its fine. I wish I would have gone closer to the front of the line because I swam the 6 lengths (300 meters) with no problem and the athletes more towards the front of the line it went so much smoother. All well. I learned. 

I just realized that this may be coming across as a really negative race report and I don't mean to do that at all. My hope is to maybe help others prepare for a triathlon and knowing what to expect os they don't run in to the same challenges. As well as to help me remember for future races my thoughts and feelings on the race. 

Can you see me.?I'm swimming towards the bottom right corner of the pic, green cap on, right arm out, head up. 

Ok so hopped out of the pool, went through the revolving door (disaster!) and ran across the parking lot and some grass to the transition area for transition 1. It was still pretty chilly and I was just wearing my tri suit so I put on capris and a jacket, ate a few chews put the rest in my pocket, helmet on and ran out of the transition area. It was going really well. Little hill and then what?! Oh no! Oh no no no. Huge humongous ridiculous why is it on the route hill! It was a hell hill. I kid you not. I wish it was a joke and we turned before the hill but no it wasn't a joke. They wanted us to go up the hill. I made it up about half way and my gears were being weird so I hopped off and ran my bike up the rest of the way. I was not the only way who made this decision. The asphalt pot hole road wasn't too bad but then there was this crazy downhill portion which was great to make up time lost on the hell hill but it was in the middle/alongside a pretty busy road and I kept panicking because of my crash last year and I kept braking every once in a while. The bike consisted of 2 loops. Yup you guessed it had to do the hell hill AGAIN! Son of a *&$%@ ! Also I was freezing on the bike! There was wind and luckily I had brought gloves but my tri suit was still a little wet and there were areas of my body that hurt because it was so cold. Ok finished the bike, portion, dropped my bike off and started the run. 

I'm the one in the front on the bike in pink!

I started running/walking/jogging. Heres a little something something for y'all to tri... bike 12 miles and then immediately hop off and start running. Do your legs feel like bricks? Weird feeling huh? I defiantly need to practice my transition from bike to run more often and hopefully get my legs used to it. Remember hell hill? Oh yes they made sure it was included on the run portion as well. Just one loop though. They are such sweethearts. I walked/jogged the majority of the run. I would say definitely my weakest area. It doesn't help that its the last portion of the triathlon either. I started warming up pretty much immediately on the run though which was nice. Oh and somehow between my tri suit and capris they weren't working well together and my capris came down around my knees! Wish I wouldn't have worn them but then I don't know if I would have been too cold?! I finished this baby strong though and sprinted through the finish line with Ben and Kim cheering me on. Ben handed me an orange slice immediately which was fantastic. Cleaned up all our stuff, took a pic and headed home to relax and decide which tri I'm signning up for next! :) I love triathlons. I think I'm going to stick to sprints for now though while I still have a ways to progress. I'm really hoping to see some progression in my overall time this season. I think the next one Kim and I will be doing is in May. Its the Women of Steel triathlon and its in Syracuse, Utah this year. 

Me sprinting to the finish.

Our medals with Vanilla Ice

Kim and I! 

My little certificate you can download online. I registered in the Athena category which means I weigh over 165 pounds. I looked at the overall times though of everyone and I was about average. There are so many factors that go into triathlon time though. How far away the transition area is away from the swim, if you are required to wear a wetsuit or not etc. Kim's time was 1:59! She was just a tad faster than me.

A few goals I'm going to work on this season. Running! Transitioning from biking to running. I am going to learn how to use Ben's serious road bike which I think will help improve my time. I love my bike and its a hybrid bike but I think for races I should probably use a road bike. And continuing to improve on my swimming technique. 

I would love to get my indoor swim tri time to 1:30 and my open water swim triathlon time to about 2 hours. You swim longer when its an open water swim and obviously its a bit more of a challenge. 

"Tri"ing in 2016

I have the triathlon bug thats for damn sure! I signed up for the indoor triathlon series at KOPFC. My long time friend Kim also signed up with me. If you sign up for all 3 you get some fun swag and you can also see your progression. Its a little bit of a different type of triathlon. One: Its all inside. Two: Its based on how far you go in a certain amount of time versus you have "x" distance to go and see how long it takes you. You swim for 15, Bike for 25 and run for 20. I've also been working on actually training. I've done a couple of wogs (walk/jogs) around the neighborhood as well as a couple of bike rides. I purchased a bike trainer but have not quite set it up yet...I have also been trying to go to a Masters Swim class at least once a week. It is super helpful. There is a swim coach there who helps you with your form and gives you drills. You are swimming for an hour! Its a great workout! 

Triathlon #1 in January results: 

Swam 22 25 meter lengths = 550 meters

Biked 8 miles

Wogged  1 1/4 miles

My dad was in town and came and watched/supported! Also check out my sweet headband!

Triathlon # 2 February results:

Swam 22 25 meter lengths = 550 meters

Biked 9.9 miles! 

Wogged  1 1/4 miles

We got matching shirts and everyone called us team Wonder Woman

Triathlon #3 March results:

Swam 23 25 meter lengths= 575 meters

Biked 9.4 miles

Wogged Just over 1 1/4 miles.

These mini triathlons are such a great way to start out the season. I love the way it is set up and it is very low key as well. Kim and I signed up for the Icebreaker on Saturday in American Fork. I'm hoping to do as many sprint triathlons this year as my bank account and body will allow. I am really hoping to continue training and hope to see improvement in my races overall.

Progress not Perfection

Getting fit in 2016!

I know I know. Every year I'm like "I'm going to lose weight blah blah blah". So anyways I finally feel like I'm in a good position to really get there this year. With the holidays over with I feel like things are calming down and I can really focus. With that being said I don't know how often I am going to do an update whether it be weekly, monthly or just randomly. I had a really awesome first week. I lost 2.8 lbs! I only worked out maybe like twice?! (I'm hoping to start fitting working out to my schedule because not only do I want to lose weight but I want to be fit ya know?) My goal is really to lose 10lbs a month which is reasonable. That should put me at my goal weight in about August. Yes i have about 70lbs to lose. I'm using myfitnesspal because I know how it works, they pretty much have every food in their database and I'm just use to it. It works for me. I follow a fitness trainer on Facebook and she said that she usually sets her settings to be about 40% carbs, 40% protein, and 20% fat so thats what I have mine at right now. Man do I NOT get enough protein. That is a huge goal for me! More protein for sure!  I love that I can manipulate myfitnesspal to these settings. So this is what my goals look like for now. 

Calories

1330

Carbohydrates 133 g

40 %

Fat 30 g

20 %

Protein 133 g

40 %

A few things about myfitnesspal that I've learned is that I have my Fitbit synced to it so depending on how many steps I take it may adjust my calorie intake because of the calories burned from walking. I love that I can see how many calories it did adjust so I know if I want to use those or not. I don't always. Same with when I enter my workouts it gives me "X" amount of calories I can add to my diet. I don't usually use those calories maybe once or twice a week and even then I don't use all of them. Also, I am going to take off my Fitbit when exercising because I think it would be sort of double tracking to where it. Plus if my arms move a lot the Fitbit thinks I'm getting steps when I'm not. It's funny like that. 

Another big thing for me this week is I got my hair cut and my nails done. It felt really good. I just needed a minute to really take care of myself. Once I felt good about myself it motivated me to want to continue to be fit. I know a lot of people use those things as rewards for losing a certain amount of weight or what not but I needed to feel good about myself now so that I wanted to continue to feel better.

When we lived in North Dakota I would go to classes at the gym they were part of LesMills. I loved them!!! They had weightlifting, cycling, kickboxing etc. Loved Loved Loved them. I was pretty bummed when I tried to find some in Salt Lake and none were to be found. I started doing research online and found out you can stream them on demand. I started my free trial today and I LOVED IT! I may end up paying the $10 a month so I can have access to them. 

The photos from the week below:

Left photo: Me super sweaty after 30 minutes of bodycombat! (There was punching and kcicking and I loved it!) I think I have an inner boxer in me. No joke!

Middle photo: A new found favorite breakfast food. Kodiak cakes whole grain flap jack with raspberry jam and banana and 2 slices of thick cut bacon. If you haven't tried Kodiak cakes I would highly recommend them. They have a good amount of protein and taste delicous. They have 3 different options to make them to depending on how much protein you want in them. 

Right photo: me taking a before pic to look at and compare with. 

Halloween,Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years...

Yup I'm just going to bundle them all into one. With us having our own place we got super excited about being able to have people over and such. First, we decided to throw a Halloween party. My little sis Morgan helped with this one. Unfortunately not a ton of pics were taken or at least that I have access too. We basically just had music playing, a photo backdrop, food, games and just sat around and hung out. The night before we had gone to a friends Halloween party until about 3am so I don't know if I would recommend doing that and then hosting your own party but we did and it ended up being a lot of fun! 

Ben was a hunter and I'm a deer. 

Next up Thanksgiving...yup we hosted. It was my first time cooking the turkey. I had my dad on facetime and texted him throughout the day for his help. I think everyone really enjoyed it. I had a lot of fun cooking and preparing. Most of Ben's family was able to make it. His mom had to work though. We had tons of food and it was a really good time. Totally did not get a pic of the finished turkey. Everyone said it was delicious though. 

Top Left: The table setting (Ben's dad said it was the nicest setup he's ever seen.
Top Right: Cheyenne, Aaron (her bf) and Clint (Ben's dad)
Bottom Left: Some of the glorious food!
Bottom Middle: Me and my nephew Lincoln. He loved watching himself in the camera.
Bottom Right: Bentley and Alexis (Our nephew and niece) passed out after all the food and fun.

Morgan, my little sis. Had a fun get together at her and her husband Spencer's house. It was an ugly sweater/cookie exchange/white elephant. We had a blast dancing to Just Dance, doing a 10pm taco run, and trying to pop the bottom off of bottles. Good times! 

Top Photo: Mitch (Ben's brother) Alex (Mitch's Fiance) Me, Ben, Morgan (My lil sis) Spencer (Morgan's husband)
Bottom Left: Morgan and I
Bottom Middle: Ben and I
Bottom Right: Alex and I

Our stockings. I thought what Yuto wrote on hers was hilarious.

Ben and I decided to invite all the siblings on both sides over on Christmas Eve just to hang out. It was a lot of fun having everyone over. We played games including Monopoly which we did not finish LOL We called it our trial run. Oh yeah and Ben and I got an exchange student on December 19th. Her name is Yuto. We are excited to have her. She is very sweet but also has a great sense of humor. She hung out with all of us on Christmas Eve as well.

Playing Monopoly

From the left: Me, Morgan, Spencer, Yuto, Alex, Mitch, Ben, Cheyenne, Jesse and his friend Sean. Not shown:
Mr. Duke

Christmas we kept pretty chill. We mostly hung out at home. In the afternoon we went to Ben's parents house and then in the evening had dinner with Morgan and Spencer.

New Years we also kept pretty chill. Ben and I ate breakfast burritos and watched movies and went to bed before midnight. 

I love that this year and especially these last few months over the holidays we were able to spend with some of our siblings. It's a lot of fun to hang out with everyone. I don't think we will be hosting anything for a while now though. Our house needs a minute to recover and so do we :) Duke gets an honorable mention for being a good sport with having everyone over so much. Everyone loves him and he would just chill and hang out with all of us. 

Homeowners!

We are officially homeowners! On Tuesday, July 16 we signed our life away and on Wednesday our loan was financing and were given possession of our home. Our cute home is located in Kearns, Utah. Fairly close to where both Ben and I grew up. One of my good friends from high school I found out after we moved lives just a few blocks away. I had done quite a bit of research or so I thought on purchasing a home but it was honestly one of the most stressful things I have ever done (possible the most stressful). I felt so relieved once everything was done. Now the unpacking and organizing begins! I will get more pictures once we become more settled but here are pictures of us in front of our home and some pictures of the inside (without any of our stuff so it looks really empty). I feel kind of overwhelmed by wanting to get everything organized set up an cozy and perfect but I have to remind myself to just be calm and it will happen. 

Front of our home :) Cute isn't it!?

The front room with an adorable fire place!

The Kitchen that I'm in love with!

One of the bathrooms.

Part of our Master Bedroom. 

Pediatric Tech

We have been uber busy lately. Ben is working on a certification for work and then his work is keeping him pretty busy. I'm doing school and kicking butt at it and work and trying to work out. We also had family in town for a few days. I really quickly wanted to just post about something that I'm extremely excited about. Yes its a new job well kind of its still within Intermountain Healthcare just a new position. It's literally a dream job for me and I'm ecstatic! It's at Riverton Hospital in their Primary Children's Outpatient Surgery as a Pediatric Tech. The schedule is Mon-Fri start time around 6am no holiday's no weekends and sometimes if they are slow they send us up to Primary Children's Hospital to help out. I'm going to be doing pre-op,post op and I will also be in the operating room assisting with surgeries!!!!!!!!!!! The surgeries performed are basic such as tonsils, ear tubes, etc. There is very limited complications and the majority of patients go home at the end of the day. If there are any complications they are transferred to Primary Children's Hospital. 

Here is a brief description of the job:

A dynamic and proactive Pediatric Technician (Ped. Tech) is a trained caregiver that assists under the direction of a Registered Nurse (R.N.). Ped Tech’s are given the opportunity to apply their clinical skills to patients by surveying medical equipment, monitors and sensors, by interacting with the pediatric patients while transporting them to their medical destination, and tending to their healthcare needs and overall healing process. 

A resourceful Ped Tech is a valued contributor to the medical staff when keeping thorough charts, preparing medical rooms and assisting with procedures. Able to communicate effectively in a crisis or disaster situation and maintain competent work levels.

This coming week is my last week at my current position. I've made a few really good friends and hope to stay in contact with them once I leave. 

Update on 2015

I wanted to do a little update on where we/I are on the “goals” for 2015.

Health

I’m about 10lbs behind on my weight loss. As of today I’m at 227. Something is better than nothing right? I have consistently tracked my foods on myfitnesspal for almost 2 months until I came down with this nasty cold. Also, the scale isn’t everything. I wish I had some before and after pics but I didn’t really plan that out. Many people at my work have told me how great I look and asked how much I’ve lost so something’s working right? I have also been going to the onsite gym during my lunch breaks at work and then trying to also do a workout when I get home.

I went to an ENT and got my sinuses taken care of. Basically, it’s a whole bunch of things. Some of my sinuses grew the wrong way and there is a lot of inflammation from that and from allergies. Treatment: nasal spray anti-inflammatory and allergy meds.

I also went to the podiatrist to have my feet checked out. The top of my right foot has been hurting for the past 6 months or so and the past 2 months it’s been really bad. I would feel like it was on fire after taking duke for a walk. After many tests and x-rays the doc is pretty confident it’s a stress fracture. They are hard to see and thus hard to diagnose. So as of yesterday I’m in a post-op boot for then next 2-3 weeks pretty much 24/7 until the pain is completely gone. So no running/zumba anything of that nature for the next few weeks. Swimming and cycling here I come!

I was actively working on my flexibility for a week or two so I need to get back into that. I’ve only done yoga like once so maybe that’s something else I can do on my time in the boot.

I did some lifting and now we have a gym membership at KOPFC and they have some pump classes that I’m excited to start going to.

Running is kind of not happening until these foot shenanigans get taken care of.

I think I have definitely cut down on caffeine and soda. Some days are better than others. I know for a fact I drink more tea and water and I LOVE IT! I wish I could dedicate my paychecks to Teavana. Ha! Oh the life.

I always look up nutrition facts before we eat out now its just a habit.

We are getting a lot better at cooking more often at home. Some nights we have what we call them Harmon’s Dinners because we go to Harmon’s grocery store and pick out something’s to make and/or eat. We love it! We do that 1-2 times a week.

School

 Is going  flipping fantastic! I’m kicking serious butt and taking names ya know what I mean?! I study practically every day, I’ve got 82% or higher on my tests. I’m way ahead on my Biology assignments. AND…. It looks like I will be starting an 18 month BSN program January 2016!!!! YAHOOO!!!!

Personal/Spiritual

I’m so crazy organized it’s ridiculous.

We are trying to figure out travel plans. We did go stay at the Homestead over Valentines weekend and swam in the Crater so that was adventurous.

I haven’t really learned or improved a new skill or found my spiritual side or finished projects…yet.

I’ve probably only written in my journal once and haven’t done so well at the pictures either. (obviously from the lack of pics in this post hahaha)

Finance

Our credit cards are paid off!!! Thank you tax return!

Now we can focus on saving and paying off other debts to put ourselves in a good position to buy a house.

About 2 months in and I definitely think we/I are making some great progress I’m excited for what the year has to offer!