PG Tri 2011

3 months, 3 triathlons…Wow!  The weekend after the Dirty Dash?  Am I really that insane?  JK – Originally, I was not planning to do the PG Tri.  It was small, and just a few weeks before another one we were planning on.  However, as I’ve learned with Tri’s, plans fall through from time to time.  Especially if travel and lodging is involved. 

PG just kind of dropped in our laps.  I became interested when I realized it was all within a mile of my home, and I had been doing the routes as I have trained this spring.  So no surprises there.  Since we were planning on doing a big workout that weekend we decided we might as well do another race.

The PG Tri was a reverse Tri with Run/Bike/Swim.  It was incredibly small as well.  Only about 75 racers.  (Although they had a kids race before ours and it was absolutely adorable to watch.)  The biggest downside to this one was that there was no chip timing.  So all of my times are estimates, which is not so cool.  I like to see exact numbers.

Total Race Goal: 1 hour 20 minutes

5K Run: 30min (apprx)

Okay, this was just awful!!  I felt so good in the warm-up, and after 5 minutes in the race I felt like my legs were lead.  Then the stitches started at about mile 1, and I struggled to work through them.  Bleh, this totally put a damper on the rest of the race.

9 Mile Bike: 37min (apprx)

This was a short bike race.  It was advertised at an 8.5 mile, but was actually slightly over 9.  I wasn’t too disappointed with my time.  Biggest victory – MY BIKE HAD ABSOLUTELY NO PROBLEMS!!!!!  Biggest mental hang-up – I’m so familiar with the course, I know to dread the big hill, and it got me a little bogged down before it should have.

400 Meter Swim: 10min (apprx)

This was advertised as a 500 meter swim, (to counteract the shorter bike distance?), but when we lined up to start the race they announced it was only a 400 meter.  I was a little bummed, I’ve been wanting to see how well I would do on a longer swim.  However, it turned out to be a benefit in the end. 

Heading into the pool.  (Can you believe I have already worn out a swimming suit.  Had to go back to my good old reliable.  Also, big moment.  Alicia going without swimming shorts.  stretching that comfort zone again.  Unfortunately, I wore the shorts the day before at 7peaks and got a nice burn…maybe not the smartest thing!)

Okay – back from that tangent.  Swimming was a little rough, but  I did finally get in a rhythm, and I was happy with my time. However, I decided to see if I could beat the guy next to me in the final 50 meters (we had been trading off positions all through the first part of the bike, and I caught up to him in the swim), Unfortunately, I started sprinting too early and he managed to pull away and I came out of the pool looking like this: 

Oh well, that extra speed gave me a final time of 1 hour 18 min 43 sec!!  Even with how crappy I felt things went, I managed to beat my goal.  Maybe my goals aren’t hard enough? 

I wasn’t too excited after the race, I could only think of how I could do so much better, but as I look back, I have better feelings.  It was a nice small race, and I actually knew a few of the people running it.  It was also a great location for Dan and the boys.  It was easy for him to get pictures, (the running route was literally around the corner from our house) and there was a great park to keep the boys entertained while I was racing. 

This race gave out finisher medals.  I have no idea what to do with it.  I finally hung it up on the mirror in my bedroom, but man, it gives me flashbacks of a teenager’s bedroom.  I agree with Amy, a nicer quality shirt would have been better. 

Over half-way on my goal.  Shooting for 5 Tri’s and 5 5k’s within a year.  We are taking July off, but have a reverse Tri in Bountiful the first week in August.  Bring it on!

Dirty Dash 2011

Look at this!  I’m actually writing about something that happened in June, while it is still June!  I feel like I’m actually catching up a little bit.  Although, I just remembered, I still need to edit all my pictures.  Lovely.

The day after school got out a group of lady friends from Orem put together a team for the Dirty Dash in Midway.  It is “the world’s muddiest 5k race”.  Totally not what I normally go for, but this year I’m all about stretching my comfort zone.  We had about 10 ladies on our team.

Nice and clean at the beginning.  Decked out in our crappy clothes, which were not crappy enough.  We all learned what NOT to wear next year!

Taking off up the initial mud hill.  Just a small taste of what was to come.  After the hill we jumped over hay bales, dodged water cannons, and hoses, and scaled wooden walls and landed in mud pits.  Let’s just say, although I may have wanted to run, it really wasn’t a “running” race.  Sprinting every once in a while, but no long jogs.  We were having too much fun throwing mud at each other.

This was a dry spell about halfway through the race. We were taking it easy before the climb up the last muddy hill and slide down the GINORMOUS waterslide.  That was definitely the best part of the race.

Starting into the finishing mud pit.  It smelled horrible.  Like my kid’s dirty diapers all around me.  Even now I cringe.

Trying to figure out how to climb out of the mud pit.  A little bit of teamwork, and we all made it out.

Success!!  What a blast! 

Now, what could be more enjoyable….oh yeah, doing it AGAIN with the boys.  They created an abbreviated version of the race for a “piglet run” and Connor, Haden, and I ran that 1 mile race.

Yep, we lost a shoe.  I dug around and found it.  Though, I don’t know why, since we just threw the shoes away when we got home.  Next year we will do the donation drive they have at the end of the race.

What a great way to start off summer break!  I would love to make this a tradition.  There are so many people I would love to run this with next year.  Don’t be surprised if I start hounding you about it!

End of School–Halleluiah! (Need I Say More?)

Well, we survived!  Haden finished his last year of preschool – with flying colors – and Connor finished 1st grade still loving school.  I consider that success!

The neighborhood preschool co-op we have done the last couple of years was amazing!  The women involved are great to work with, and really know what they are doing.  I can’t gush enough about how much I loved it!  Haden went in not knowing anything except how to sing the abc’s.  He is leaving reading Dr. Seuss and counting past 100.  He is giving Connor a run for his money right now.  He loves everything about school.  Especially the socializing, and has had a few “girlfriends” this past year.  It makes me giggle.

Connor participated in his first Dance Festival.  (Have I mentioned how this is a colossal waste of time?  Don’t mock my pessimism.)  Dan had fun taking Haden to see his brother.  Unfortunately, they forgot what part of the song Connor was singing in, so it took almost the entire song for Dan to finally find him with the camera. 

Connor on the other hand, had no problem finding Dan. 

Yep, looks like he is picking his nose again.  Boy, is he going to love all these pictures when he grows up!  Maybe we should go private?

There we go….Time to play!!

Oh, What to You Do in Your Garden?

While Dan and I are busy planting, my boys dig themselves a grave.

Yep, they were supposed to be digging up rocks, and got a little distracted with the digging portion of the assignments. 

Garrick got distracted by the goats:

Have I mentioned all the “farm” land around us?  Around our garden there are goats, pigs, and horses.  Not to mention the chickens running around.    There are also tree houses in some of the fruit trees.  My boys are in heaven when we have to work in the garden.  We get them to work for about 20 minutes, and then they get distracted by something else.  That’s normal I guess.

They boys still love the planting part, and we had tons to do this year.  With all the area we have this year we really branched out.  We planted 2 10x10 plots of a 3 sisters garden (corn, beans, & squash).  Plus 2 more 10x10 areas of just corn.  Then in the remaining area we have 16 tomato plants, 12 pepper plants, and a couple of watermelon mounds.  (I’m not holding out any hope for the watermelon).

Dan has been a great help in getting the garden going.  It was a lot of hard work.  REALLY hard work.  The soil is clay.  Literally. We can mold the dirt.  It is awful to shovel and weed, but Dan did it without any complaint.  I, on the other hand, complain every time I go out to weed!

My home garden has been a little more of a struggle.  The weather has not cooperated.  And where the weather didn’t ruin something, my dogs or my boys have.  We planted peas and onions back in March.  I have caught my dogs pacing up and down my peas and eating the tops off.  I keep hoping they will recover, but it is looking more and more bleak every day.

At home, we also planted 5 more tomato plants, 4 more peppers, 2 cucumbers, 2 pumpkins, yellow squash, and zucchini.  Unfortunately I have had to replace all of my squash, pumpkin, and zucchini.  Stupid weather.  The new stuff seems to be working out, and some of the original seeds are starting to sprout.  I’m hoping one day to get more comfortable with this whole gardening thing.

It is great to see some growth in all of the gardens.  Some of it not as well as I hoped, but there is still growth.  I’m really looking forward to the end of the season.  I can’t wait to start filling my food storage up.  It is starting to look a little bleak.

Our last jar of pears.  In 10 years we had never done anything with our pear trees and last year we tried canning them. The boys loved eating them through the winter.  I’m definitely taking advantage of our 3 pear trees this fall.  Oh, and the 3 peach trees.  I’m hoping to get enough for at least 1 jar of each for the whole year. 

Wish me luck with the weeding!

Mother’s Day 2011

All right, back to the first part of May.  Mother’s Day was pretty low-key this year.  I mean, how can you compete with the trip to NYC that Dan gave me last year?  However, the boys did a great job trying to be good so that Mom could have a nice day.  I managed to get them to take a “nice” picture.  One of the few times I can get a picture with me and my boys.

I love how both of them are trying to strike a pose.  Gotta love those freshly buzzed heads!  Oh yeah, and my “sexy” knees.  Boy, are my legs white! 

With running around to visit family, I didn’t get to open presents until about 9pm.  Dan loved the fact that I need gear for training.  Made it really easy to find stuff.  My favorite item was the bike computer.  Makes it TONS easier to gauge my training.  (side note: in exactly 1 month I have put 140miles on my bike.  Yep, I am that awesome.)

Santa finally delivered the ceiling fan I requested for Christmas.  Dan gave up on me getting out to find one and went and got one for me.  I was glad to get it installed in our bedroom before summer.

I won’t mention the 2 holes Dan put in my ceiling while installing it.  Or the fact that I anticipate those holes getting fixed in about the same amount time as the hole in the Orem Home’s bathroom ceiling (which is still there and has been there since Heather lived with us….in 2008)

Spring Soccer

The great thing about Orem soccer is that when you sign up for the fall season, you get to do the spring season as well.  Yippee…wet, cold, mud….you get the picture.  Naw, it wasn’t too bad.  For a league that says they never cancel games for weather they sure cancelled a bunch of games this year! 

Connor had a great time with it this time around.  The team had grown up a lot during the winter, and played much better.  It was fun seeing the boys actually working together as a team. 

Connor played much better this season and loved every minute of it….okay not the minutes after he had been hit by the ball, but overall it was a great experience.  In fact, we have signed up for the PG team starting in August.  Here we go again!

They had a little award ceremony after the last game.  Connor loved Coach Roy!  What a great guy!  We miss our old neighbors, but are glad to still have the friendships!

Just had to put this picture in.  They had cute cookies decorated like soccer balls and Garrick was excited to get one of his own.

I love the look of concentration on that cookie.  Or at least what is left of it!

Way to go Connor!!  I can’t believe how grown-up you are getting!

Women of Steel Triathlon 2011

Okay, I need to get this in here before I do my next race (which is tomorrow)

Half-way through May we did the AF Women of Steel Tri.  Once again the weather stunk for training, but race day was beautiful.  I think I was more nervous about this race than my first one.  This was my first “traditional” Tri, where you do the swim/bike/run at the traditional distances.  The bike/run block really had me nervous, since I always feel like my legs are going to give out on me in the first 1/2 mile of the run. 

Let’s just say IT WAS AMAZING!!  I had so much fun with this race.  There were about 1000 women doing the race, which meant crazy busy, but a lot of fun!

Total Race Goal:  1 hour 35 minutes (Pie in the sky goal: 1 Hour 30 minutes)

300 Meter Swim:  This was the craziest part.  Everyone lined up on the edge of the pool and jumped in at 12 sec intervals.  Completely nuts.  Especially when people lined up at the beginning and were trying to walk across the pool.  Made it VERY difficult for passing.  Luckily Amy was in front of me, so I just paced behind her and hit her feet the entire way.  (She is such a good sport!)

Swim Time: 7 min 41 sec – I was amazed - I had been struggling to try and finish in 8 min. 

Transition 1: 3 min 41 sec – Totally didn’t like drying and getting socks and shoes on.  Need to work the kinks out on this transition.

12.75 Mile Bike:  I know I shouldn’t complain about my bike.  It is a cheap $90 Wal-Mart special mountain bike.  I really should have no expectations for it.  However, I would like a race where I don’t actually have to get off my bike!  My seat fell down 3 times during the ride.  That was so not cool, but I was amazed at how well I jumped off and back on. 

Bike Time: 48 min 56 sec – Okay. MIRACLE.  In training I had never gotten 12 miles in less than 52 minutes.  I did almost 13 miles and fixed my bike 3 times in under 50 minutes!!  WAHOO!!!  Must have been the adrenaline. 

Transition 2: 2 min 33 sec – I blame this on the placement of my station.  Had to run the bike to the opposite side of the area from the entrance, and then had to run back to start the 5k.

5K Run: This was actually my best event.  I couldn’t believe it.  I have never felt so good running.  I just picked up my bottle and went.  I managed an 8:50 pace.  I usually shoot for a 10 min pace. I did a double take when I saw the results.

Run Time: 27 min 24 sec

Total Time: 1 hour 29 min 58 sec

WA – STINKIN’ - WHOOOOOOOO!!!!  Beat my goal!

We had so much fun with this race.  The women were great to hang out with, and I saw a lot of friends either racing or cheering us on.  It was fun seeing the women I have been training on swimming with and cheering each other on as we were racing. 

My “souvenir” from the race:

Yep, that’s right, I got a tramp stamp from the 45 minute wait at the pool.  Funny thing, my shoulders didn’t get burned at all!

Bring on the PG Tri in June!

Look Who’s 2!

Garrick had his 2nd Birthday the first weekend in May.  I have been so emphatic about not having an April baby, that I didn’t realize one the first part of May is still stressful.  The 1st of May I feel like I can take a breath from all the April birthdays and…..wait Garrick’s is tomorrow? 

Anyway, he is such a happy kid, it was easy to please him.  (In fact I did get lazy and so he had a few more gifts I just went downstairs and picked out a few cars to wrap up and let him open…..yes, I am an awful mother)  His favorite thing was opening the presents.  He didn’t care what was in the package.

Uncle Mark was really nice and made chocolate cheesecake cupcakes for Garrick’s party.  Cheesecake is Garrick’s favorite treat.  Definitely his mother’s son!

Garrick playing with the re-gifted cars.  See, who needs to buy things new?

He still didn’t know what to do with the candle. 

Garrick has been a fun addition to our family.  He always seems to be smiling and laughing.  He is our dancing boy.  Anytime he hears music he tries to dance crazy.  He is actually getting his brothers to start dancing with him.  These past few weeks he decided that he can talk, and has gotten very good at learning words for what he wants.  He also knows how to yell the words if Mom doesn’t move fast enough. 

Garrick loves to be outside.  He would spend all day out in the backyard with the dogs if I would let him.  In fact, he learned how to open all our doors within a couple of months.  Which made us have to install extra locks at the top of the door.  Unfortunately, if we leave the garage open he quickly disappears out into the cul-de-sac.  Thankfully we have awesome neighbors that bring him back when he starts wandering too far. 

We love our baby, and can’t wait to see what he starts to do this year!