Hello everyone!! Hope everyone had a great weekend and guess what? I have another race recap for you from the San Diego Triathlon Classic this weekend! This season started off slow with some clumsy accidents, but glad I’m getting into the rhythm of triathlon racing. Can’t believe there are just a couple more months of the 2016 triathlon season. Then time to eat a lot of donuts and get ready for 2017 race season ;) 
Friday morning started off with an hour bike ride before work just to spin out my legs and to make sure my chain was properly lubed (dry chain = THE WORST). Left work early to pick up my race packet because the race was on a Saturday this time around and took Elle on a run. She ran her first mile on Friday!! We are so excited for many more miles to come.
I went into this race with very, very, very low expectations. I started off the week with a sinus infection that still hasn’t fully cleared, and didn’t know how that was going to affect my race performance. Not to mention, the bike course was pretty killer and probably the most climbing I’ve done in a race to date. My expectations were so low to the point where I didn’t even bring a Breakaway Training shirt to change into after because I figured I would go home straight after the race. Because of the low expectations, I started the race super calm, which is extremely out of character for me. 
Woke up Saturday morning coughing up my lungs, clogged sinuses that were keeping me from breathing, changed into my tri kit, packed up some oatmeal to eat in the car, and we were off to Liberty Station for the race! I was racing the sprint and for some reason, they thought it would be a good idea to have all 100+ women starting the swim together. From where Elle and Anthony are watching, you can see all of our hot pink swim caps bobbing together in the water. 
The swim… was brutal. I am definitely not a strong swimmer and those 750 meters felt like a 1000. Plus, having so many women start at the same time did not help- it resulted in a lot of salt water intake, veering off course, and losing a lot of time going back on course and trying to sight. Needless to say, after this race and a good talk with Jason… I will most definitely be needing a swim coach!! 
Once I was out of the water, it was time to start the extremely hilly bike course! The course goes through Cabrillo National Monument as well as the Point Loma Naval base. So many riders were hopping off their bike to push it up some of the hills. Even though the course was tough, that was probably the most fun I’ve had during the bike portion of any duathlon and triathlon. There was constant winding and turning, nice rolling hills, great descents that helped me make up some time, and for once, it was nice passing people on hills instead of them passing me! Not to mention the beautiful views of San Diego at the top of every climb. 
The 5K was through a lot of dirt and trail, but after climbing a small bridge, it was flat the rest of the way! This reminded me that I need to run trail a lot more often- Dirt is a lot harder to run in than pavement. To be perfectly honest, I felt like I was doing this entire race in slow motion. From being sleep deprived, sick, and delirious, I really do not know how I got from start to finish. Finished in an hr and 43 minutes with a whole lot of motivation to ride a lot more. Cycling when you’re not breaking things is kind of fun. 
Shout out to these two for running along side me at some points to take all the great photos above and waking up at an ungodly hour on Saturday to come watch me race. Elle told me I owe her a new toy and like 5 extra hours at the dog park this week. 
Had a lot of fun running into my two teammates above. Brent did the Olympic distance and finished 4th in his age group and Gunnar finished third overall in the Sprint!!! We are so grateful for the constant support from the BT coaches (Felipe, Luke, Adam, and Chris), our sponsors, and our tri community. Being part of the Orange Family is 90% why I am starting to like triathlon a lot more than just running, despite being the worst swimmer and cyclist in the world. Need a coach? Breakaway Training is the way to go! 
Oh, remember how I had zero expectations? I told Anthony before we were about to leave that I wanted to see what my time was. Found out I somehow placed second in my age group and top 20 in females. I guess none of us really knew how to climb that hill that day! Instead of leaving, we stayed for the award ceremony. With 12 girls in my age group this time around, it finally felt like a real podium… but where are number 1 and 3?! C’mon ladies! 
A really big fan of the podium medals. All in all, I felt like this is one of the best races I’ve been to in the multisport world. It was extremely well organized, had a designated parking lot for athletes that was less than a block away from the transition area, and really awesome swag- trucker hats for the win! Despite the tough course, this is definitely a race I’m coming back for.
Biggest takeaways from this race:
– BIKE BIKE BIKE BIKE AND THEN BIKE SOME MORE
– Climb some hills
– Don’t get sick and bring a jacket everywhere you go just in case
– I need a swim coach ASAP 
After the race, I had to head to the airport in two hours to visit my best friends in San Francisco but before we left.. these two really needed to squeeze in a power nap. Spectating is exhausting business ;)
1. Elle’s first Medina Family Pool Party! We went back to Anthony’s parents house two weeks ago for their annual pool party. It fell over 4th of July weekend, which was perfect. Full of fun, games, time in the sun, and we got Elle to take a very quick dip in the pool. She isn’t a fan so far, but we are hoping we can slowly but surely get in her into the water more. 
2. Fourth of July shenanigans! A lot of our friends were having barbecues, kick backs, and pool parties for us to swing by the entire weekend. It was a good time and the first time I wore shoes that weren’t Oofos. Even though those are the best ;) 
3. While my mom and sister are here, Anthony’s mom and sister came down for a couple of days too! They both work in schools so they have a summer vacation (how do I get me one of those?!) and we all went to Balboa Park together. Rare sighting to have both of our families here since my mom and sister live in Florida! 
4. My workout schedule with the team has been so wacky with visitors. I didn’t want to take too much time away from spending with them on Thursday, so I did the track workout on the DREADMILL. Treadmill lovers- what is your secret to loving the treadmill?! 
5. Remember how I told you above we got Elle to kind of get into the pool with us? Well, we decided to take her to the beach and she LOVES sand but jumped away from the ocean. Didn’t even want to get her paws wet and just wanted to dig her way to China on shore. Hopefully a couple more beach trips this summer will get her swimming! 
6. More time on the bike :) I’m definitely not feeling 100% on the bike yet but each time I get back on, the more confident I get. Well… I say that now but I have yet to attempt aero bars so I’ll let you know how this confidence thing is going.
7. Elle has been incredible the last couple of months in not destroying or chewing up anything, so we’ve definitely been trusting her a lot more. But I think she decided enough was enough in this whole “triathlon training” business and when we came back from dinner the other night. BOOM. My Garmin band was destroyed. I’m not a very materialistic person, but I love my Garmin a lot so… I was pretty distraught. Thankfully- an easy fix!
8. Dinner with these two + Anthony make my heart happy. 
9. Elle was reunited with her first puppy friend ever, Arya! They were each other’s first puppy play date and since that puppy was a couple months younger, she wasn’t allowed to go to the dog park til yesterday. Needless to say, they were very happy to be reunited! 
10. One of my favorite Asian desserts ever- Honey Brick Toast! It’s a delicious brioche bread that is topped with condensed milk, ice cream, fruit, and anything else you can think of! Such a good combo and while it may seem strange to have bread as dessert… you won’t regret it!
1. I am doing a lot of bike work on the trainer. The time trial bike is totally different from my road bike in balance, body form, and handling. One of the biggest reasons I fell 2 months ago was because I was not use to handling this bike in comparison to my tri bike. I’ve been putting work in on the trainer to stay in shape and to make sure my legs do not go into total and complete shock when I’m ready to really start biking hard core again :) 
2. I had my first ride on the road with my coach last Monday! It was so scary to get back on the bike (I don’t know if you all remember, but the first time I rode my TT bike is when I fell and broke my collarbone), but with his support and guidance, I felt so much by the end of our hour cruise. 
3. Track workouts. They are officially a thing again. Best sources of motivation: new shoes + Nuun to help replace electrolytes as San Diego goes through some crazy heat waves. 
4. Extra proof that I’m getting my speed work in ;) Everyone knows that it is easy for me to go on a 7-10 mile long run, no problem. But getting my body to want to suffer and go fast… that is an entirely different story. 
5. One of my coach’s is friends with an ITU pro who is training in the Chula Vista training center right now and she needed to borrow a TT bike for the San Diego International Triathlon this past Sunday. I was more than happy to let her borrow the bike and a wonderful friend of mine let me borrow her road bike! First bike ride up the coast and a great way to send off my friend, Brandon, who is leaving to Boston in a couple of weeks for Medical School!
6. Now that I’m back to training and my next race is in July, I am back to finding good fuel for long runs and bike rides. Stinger Waffles and Picky Bars are currently my go-to favorites. 
And as promised, adorable pictures of Elle. I’m sure she is the primary reason you all visit my blog. This Sunday was so much fun and we got to spend time enjoying the San Diego sunshine at one of our favorite dog friendly parks, Kate Sessions! 
One of my friends has had a dog for three years and since we adopted Elle, I couldn’t wait for her to be fully vaccinated so we could have a puppy play date! Elle and Striker finally met last week and had so much fun chasing each other around! Love that my friends all have dogs for my dog to be friends with! 
Anthony is currently training her to be the ultimate ping-pong partner. I’ll keep you all updated on how that goes.
RunMileswithSmiles 