We tried a tri

After months of preparation the day came for our triathlon. We drove to Farmington, NM on Friday night, had some Chick-fil-a with the Barnes crew, and went to bed as early as we could. Saturday we drove the 45 minutes onto the reservation to Shiprock for the triathlon.

I should have known that this triathlon might turn out crazy. I mean, it was on the res after all. Shiprock is not the prettiest place in New Mexico. And I heard from Julie that there were only 30 racers. What? That is totally weird for a triathlon. But, I figured it might be nice not to be so crowded in the swim. I had previously emailed the race organizer and asked him three very specific, numbered questions. He only answered one of them. He didn't even answer the question about what time my race started! These were just the beginning signs of pending trouble.

We got to the race site around 7:30 since we thought the Olympic wave started at 8:00. The race coordinator (RC) explained the bike portion - that it would be an out-and-back along the highway and that "there should be someone there to let you know when to turn around." Should???  Another red flag. Then as he described the run course, he said it was a loop around the school, on a running path. There would be an aide station at halfway. His directions were marvelously vague. Again, I was worried. I even asked if people would be there to point us in the right direction. Remember, there would only be 30 of us running this race, and some were doing the Olympic distance, and some would be at least 10 minutes behind the first group because of different heats in the pool swim. He assured me it would be clear. I was still nervous. 

One of the benefits of this tri was that it was in a pool. Open water is a totally different beast, so it was nice to start the season with something easy. The drawback was that there could only be about 12 swimmers in the pool at a time. And the Olympic racers all had to finish before the sprint group could start. That meant that we all sat around for 15 minutes and waited for one remarkably slow and admirable swimmer to finish her heat. This wouldn't have bothered me regularly, but I needed to start my race by 9:00 in order to be done by 10:30...so that I could watch my girls race! The RC insisted that he had to start the kids race by 10:30 because he had to be out of the pool by 11:00. Why he thought it would take the kids 30 minutes to swim 2 laps, I don't know. Needless to say, I was ready to jump in the pool by the time the last Olympic swimmer hopped out. 

I think our swim started about 9:15. Julie and I claimed the spots closest to the door. The swim went well...Julie finished second in our heat, and I finished fourth.

I'm so glad Julie's mom was there to take pictures!

I made the decision to not add any clothing layers - to tough it out in my wet tri suit. It was windy and kind of chilly, but I figured what the heck. Oh man. That bike ride. It was SOOO windy, and mostly uphill on the way out. I didn't have my phone with me telling me distance and speed like I usually do, so I had no idea how much farther I had til the turn around. I kept hoping to see bikers coming down the hill toward me, but I was 4th in the group, so there were only 3 ahead of me! I was relieved when I finally saw a guy going in the opposite direction. And then I saw Julie! And there WAS a person there telling us where to turn around. After the turn, the first thing I noticed was how quiet it was. Now that I wasn't heading into the wind, it was a quiet spring morning. I felt like I flew for the next 6 miles. Seriously, I braked a lot because I felt too fast. Plus that tailwind sometimes felt like it could push me over!

At last a made it back to the school, where the RC said, "Unless you're a really fast runner you're gonna miss your kids swimming." Uh, thanks dude! If this were all organized differently, that wouldn't be a problem! I got to transition as Julie was running out. I changed shoes fast and hit the road. 

That's when trouble really started. After about a quarter mile, I saw Julie and another girl turn off the road. I didn't see a trail marking that, yet they did say that we were supposed to turn at the entrance of a community college. I called to Julie, I caught up to her, and we tried to figure out where to go. There was no one else in sight by now, so we just kept running on the college entrance road. When we came across a locked fence that we had to crawl through, we figured we had gone the wrong way! We hopped on the running trail at that point, and started making our way around the school, thinking we would be home free. But then the trail forked. There was no sign. No indication of where to go. We saw another runner running around aimlessly as well. We just kept moving. Finally we saw an aide station. But it was off the running path and on a dirt road. We got water and asked the lady where to go. She told us we were supposed to follow the road back the way we came. I was confused. I thought we were supposed to run around the school? But she said to go back, so we did. At this point we had seen numerous runners very confused. We figured we had run 1.5 miles according to my watch, so we turned around, after following some spray painted arrows on the ground. We ran into another runner who joined us on our run back. We kind of didn't know what to do...we were afraid that since we didn't think we had run enough distance it wouldn't be fair going back, but everyone was lost. So we crossed the finish line, having run 2.8 miles. Not very satisfactory. And our time was slow because we had stopped to figure out the trail so often. 

We immediately ran over to where we could see Anna, Hattie, Edward, and Nolan riding bikes. They had to do 4 laps of the parking lot. There were ZERO race officials over there. Come to find out later, Hattie was in the lead, mistakenly did only 2 laps and headed back to transition for the run, and then someone told her she had to do 2 more laps. So by the time she got back out the course, she had lost her lead. They ran 2 quick laps and crossed the finish line, again, with no one watching from the race officials. 

I told Hattie to count it as a win! haha! They still enjoyed themselves, even though it was chaotic and I couldn't watch the swimming. 

I still can't believe he couldn't wait 15 minutes for us to finish the run.

 

It was, to say the least, all very strange for a triathlon. I enjoyed it, despite the chaos. We left as quickly as we could, not waiting other racers to finish and to see race times posted. Because what did it matter? We all ran a different course! So who knew who actually ran 3.1 miles? One of the racers and I were talking about how crazy it was out there and the RC came over and asked about the course. I was honest and said it was a mess - that the trail forked with no one to tell us where to go, that the aid station was off the running trail, and that she pointed us back the way we had come. To this he said, "What? She wasn't on the running trail? I can't believe she was in the wrong spot. Well, as race coordinator, I can't control everything." I kind of just stared at him because that is literally his job! The least he can do is make sure we know where to go! We shouldn't have to memorize the course! As I left I heard other racers complaining and chewing him out. I felt bad for him. He wants to grow this triathlon, but he's got to up his organization first.

After a few days, I still didn't see the race results on the website. So Julie emailed him to ask about it. No surprise there: the wind blew the laptop off the table and lost all the race data! So we have no idea how we did! It was the icing on the cake, making our Shiprock triathlon even more memorable.

Julie and I signed up for another tri, June 2nd. I'm glad to have an excuse to keep training with her. Julie has been the funnest part of this whole thing. I've never had a training partner like her before and it makes all the difference. I look forward to our workouts...the time to talk and the hard work! I think she's the reason I'll miss Albuquerque the most. Good friends are hard to come by.

Tri Training

In January, I signed the girls up for swim clinic at our nearby gym. Twice a week, while they work on swim conditioning, Niels and Anders have swimming lessons. So I hop in the pool too and swim laps with them. I love being back in the water. My friend Julie, who told me about swim clinic in the first place, swims at the same time (since her boys do clinic too). A few weeks into it, she asked, “Do you want to do a triathlon in Shiprock with me?” Since I’ve been successful at losing baby-weight and am feeling like I’m kind of getting fit again, I thought I’d love the challenge.


Now, 2 months later, I own a sweet road bike...I figured this is my 4th triathlon, so it’s probably a justifiable expense. I also bought some tri shorts and a tri tank. I swim twice a week, and have been riding the stationary bike in the garage as much as I can (I’ve only had the real bike 5 days). I still haven’t started running too much, but I’ve bought a few pairs of shoes to see which will feel best now that I’m back to normal.

I always do a pretty brutal Jillian Michaels work out in the morning before 7:00, so all of this triathlon training is workout #2 every day. Honestly, most days I’m beat. Today I went to a swim class at the pool, after doing an intense cardio workout an hour earlier. I finally learned how to do flip turns (!) but I felt like I was swimming through Jell-o. My arms were dead. And yesterday Julie and I rode 13.5 miles...and I am terribly saddle sore. But doing the Jillian work outs have made me so much stronger; I have decent endurance and figure I can survive through 500 yards swim, 12 miles bike, and 3 miles run.

It really is fun to have something like this to work toward. I have probably been neglecting the house and kids a bit to squeeze in that second work out, but it is so rewarding to do something physically challenging.

 (the boys hang out in the garage at 6:30 am while I ride the bike)

Races and zoos

After 2 months of training, my triathlon was last Saturday. The girls and I left on Thursday morning (picking up Paul's sister Christina at the airport on our way out of town so that I would have someone to drive with) and made the 5-hour trek to Dallas. Since we had a day to relax before the race, we headed to the zoo. About 2 months ago Hattie started asking if we could go to the zoo, her interest in animals suddenly increasing. Sadly, Lubbock has no zoo, so I told her that there was a zoo at Grandma's house. So as soon as I told her that we were going to Grandma's, she immediately asked if we were going to the zoo too.
She was certainly a funny zoo-goer. We would stop in front of an animal, look for about 3 seconds, and she was ready to move on. She had no interest in watching and observing the animals. It was a rather small zoo, so, combined with her short attention span, it took about an hour to see everything.
I think Anna enjoyed watching the animals more than Hattie.

We did enjoy watching the kangaroos, although Hattie was ready to move along the entire time.

And there was a little train outside, which was another highlight. Amazing how much a very slow moving train can entertain a kid!
And then the race! Sadly, my camera battery died, so this is my only picture :( We started with a 500 meter swim in the lake...glad I had a wetsuit. It wasn't horribly cold, but the water was rather turbulent, causing me to panic a little more, so I was grateful for the extra warmth and buoyancy. Because of the turbulence, my time was much worse than expected...but oh well.

Then the bike portion was 16.5 miles around the lake. That was certainly my favorite part. I am used to biking in Lubbock. Flat. Dry. Windy. Dusty. Lubbock. So riding through the rolling, lush, green hills south of Dallas was beautiful...I had to remind myself I was in a race! Then to the 3.1 mile run. Which was surprisingly hard! And here's why: while training over the last two months, I usually ran 3 miles first, then would bike for an hour, because the spinning class ended at 10:00, and I had to be somewhere at 10:30. Because of that, during the race my legs felt like jell-o when I started to run...I wasn't used to running after biking. Even though I wasn't necessarily out of breath or exhausted, I couldn't make my legs move any faster! It was a weird feeling...which gratefully only lasted about a half mile, so I was able to kick it in gear toward the end.

All in all, I had fun...I wish I would have had a friend along to share it with. But I am already checking out what triathlons are available in Utah this summer when we'll be there...and trying to convince Paul to train with me!

Training again

Flashback to June 2008...remember how I did that triathlon that was actually a biathlon? Well, the race bug has hit me again. I'm getting ready for a triathlon in Hillsboro, Texas on May 7th. Most people around here think I'm crazy for driving all the way to the Dallas area for a race, when Lubbock is hosting a tri about 2 weeks later. But of course, like most races in Texas, the one in Lubbock is on a Sunday. It makes me miss living in Utah where all events are on Saturdays. I'm just glad I found one (that isn't just for kids) on a Saturday. Gratefully I am starting off in better shape that I did last time, so I don't think training will be quite as hard this time. Yesterday I ran and swam and it felt pretty good. I love having something like this to get ready for...it helps me work harder, eat better, and be more consistent since the last thing I want is to not be able to finish. It's pretty doable... 500 meter swim, 16.2 mile bike, and 3.2 mile run. Wish me luck!

I just hope they don't cancel the bike again...lame.

Biathlon? Duathlon? Or just a race?

I'm still trying to determine what kind of race I ran on Saturday.

I awakened around 5 a.m. to the sound of rain on our windows - not a very welcome sound when you are planning to do a triathlon. I got ready for the race and headed out, somewhat hoping they would postpone it a few weeks. I was willing to do it in the rain. It just seemed like way less fun than what I had imagined - a nice sunny spring day for the Salem Spring Tri. I arrived and parked, then had to ride my bike (borrowed from Paul's cousin) over the to race sight. By then I was already soaked through. As I was hanging my bike on the rack, I heard rumors that they had decided to cancel the biking section. I quickly found my training partner, Lindsay, who confirmed the cancellation. I was bummed, since I was excited to use Juel's really nice bike, but kind of glad not to have to freeze myself in the process. (I just found out that it was about 40 degrees outside that day...no wonder I had a sweatshirt, a coat, and a rain jacket on.)

We waited around. More rumors circulated about canceling the swim. That would make me really mad...I didn't pay 50 bucks to run a 5K race! But they sent some willing athletes into the water to test it out. The decided to keep the swim, but to cut it from 800 meters to 500 meters. So that's a little more than 1/4 mile. That was somewhat depressing since I felt the most confident on the swim, and since I usually swim about 3/4 mile when I go to the pool. But so it was. We waited a long while...and took some silly pictures.

By the time it actually started, the rain had stopped. And I was warmer, thanks to the wet suit. But lots of racers had gone home, so they cut down on the number of waves of racers to speed things up.

Here's the murky Salem Pond. Not too cold actually, again thanks to the wet suit. I swallowed plenty of water as the race started, stuck in the wake of other vicious racers. So I wasn't as fast as I'd hoped, but got into a nice rhythm by the end.

You'd better appreciate these wet suit pictures...certainly not the most attractive. But we had a lot of fun.

The 5K run was fine...but running has never been that fun for me. And I forgot my iPod, so it was quite boring. And lots of people passed me. I'm no runner. But I passed some people...even some men! Which meant I had at least 4 minutes on them since they left in the wave before me. Paul, Hattie, Aaron and Tandy were waiting at the finish line.

It was a different experience. I don't think I've run a race since elementary school. Crossing the finish line is something I've never done before. I wanna do it again, but with the bike part thrown in there. It wasn't quite as fulfilling as I had hoped and expected, mostly because it was a typical training workout for me - run 3 miles, and swim 1/2 mile (even less, since they cut it short).

I just looked up my final times...I did the swim in 11 minutes and the running in 30...which is normal for me. I came in #280, with over 400 people actually racing. I looked at the guy's time who finished 5 spots before me...and it took him 22 minutes to swim...twice as long! - but he still beat me cuz I'm such a slow runner. I guess I know where I need to focus next time.

So I looked up biathlon and duathlon. Wikipedia says a biathlon is a term used to describe any sporting event made up of two disciplines. However, biathlon usually refers specifically to the winter sport that combines cross-country skiing and rifle shooting. Another popular variant is summer biathlon, which combines cross-country running with riflery.

Haha, definitely no guns yesterday, but it almost snowed!

A duathlon, on the other hand, is an athletic event (not to be confused with biathlon) that consists of a running leg, followed by a cycling leg and then another running leg in a format bearing some resemblance to triathlons.

So I suppose it was a biathlon...but when you've been planning for months for a tri, a biathlon is just less fulfilling.

All in all, it was a fun day...I think I'm going to sign up for one this September in Texas.

Summertime

The triathlon is tomorrow...wish me luck!

Next I'm getting ready for a week-long trip to Ontario.

Then back to Utah to pack up our house.

Then to Ontario again for two weeks.

Then to Wyoming for a backpacking trip.

Then finally the move to Texas.

And then medical school starts.

It'll be a fast summer.

A bear and a bunny

I took Rebekah and Hattie on a jog with me the other day. This picture was taken afterwards. Have you ever seen two girls that looked so completely bored and not amused? They stayed in their stoic state for about 5 minutes after the jog, amazingly enough.

Triathlon update: I have officially signed up now; I've paid real money so there's no backing out! I biked Monday morning after swimming, so I had wet hair, and of course it started hailing and snowing halfway through. Will spring ever come? I ran 5K yesterday. When I was heading out the door, Paul said to have fun. I told him that's impossible when running. I'm just not a runner. It's probably the farthest I've run in years. I also got some new running shoes, but have yet to try them out.

Productivity

Today was one of those days. I swam 1/2 mile. I made bread. I washed the dishes. I worked in the office. I did the laundry. I actually folded the laundry instead of waiting a few days. I made dinner. I washed the dishes again. I transcribed something for a friend for 70 minutes. I read my scriptures. I took a nap. I played with Hattie outside. I still have two hours before I'm going to bed.

Why is it that some days are like this and others I can barely find time to eat breakfast?


Triathlon update: On Saturday, Lindsay and I swam 1/2 mile together, then ran 1.3 miles. Later that night Paul and I went on a 5 mile bike ride. Why aren't bicycle seats more comfortable? We just got a jogging stroller/bike trailer, making it possible for me to exercise with Hattie.

Are you serious?

I'm getting ready to do something that I'd never thought I'd do...something that never even sounded remotely fun in the past - only painful. I'm training for a triathlon! Well, a half triathlon at least. Some of the ladies at the pool were talking about one in April, down in St. George...but, knowing that I'm not in the greatest shape, I didn't give it much thought. Then my friend Lindsay mentioned one in Salem, Utah on her blog, so we've decided to start training together. It consists of an 800 meter swim (about 1/2 mile), 12 mile bike, and 3.1 mile run. It's not until June, so we've got time to get ourselves ready. I feel okay about the swimming, since I do at least 1/2 mile every morning, but I'm pretty sure the running might kill me...especially since it's last event.

To be better prepared, Lindsay and I are getting together every Saturday to do at least two of the events together, so that we can get practice doing them in a row. I could probably do them all individually right now, but doing them all in a 2 or 3 hour period is something different altogether. We also just got a bike trailer/jogging stroller so that Hattie can join me in training.

So wish me luck as I begin something that will most definitely challenge me, and might even kill me!