San Diego Triathlon Classic Race Recap

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 ;)

A Strong Weekend of Training and Elle’s 1/2 Birthday!

Hello friends! Happy Monday! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and ready to tackle another new week! I had a great weekend of training and celebrating Elle’s 6 month birthday. Yes, I am that crazy dog mom ;) Saturday morning started off with a duathlon test run for my race this upcoming Sunday. My coach had a brick workout laid out for me that consisted of a run, bike, run. I headed over to Fiesta Island for some quality training time. Saw a couple of teammates who pulled me through the last couple of minutes on the bike and despite the rising heat, the workout went by pretty smoothly. Can you believe how fast this little nugget has grown up?!?! She went from 12 lbs at 11 weeks to almost 35 lbs at 6 months! This girl will be 50 lbs in no time, which makes us excited and a little nervous all at once :)

P.S. Puppy parents: any tips for picky eaters? Elle is a picky eater and while the vet says her growth and weight is normal, I would like to add a little more meat on her bones. She’s a little too lean! The first thing I did when I got home from my workout: cuddled with these two. Elle didn’t seem to mind how sweaty I was and gave me a bunch of kisses. We started off her six month birthday celebration with a lot of love, cuddles, and treats. After running the usual Saturday afternoon errands, Anthony, his best friend, and I headed up to the Encinitas Dog Park for Elle to get some quality time with some new puppy friends! We go to the dog park at least 4-5 times a week near our house, but going up to Encinitas is a real treat for us. The dog park is HUGE, completed paved with side walks and grass patches, and constantly has a bunch of dogs of all sizes playing. Since it generally takes us 20-25 minutes to get up there (even though I use to bike up to Encinitas every weekend), it was definitely a treat to take Elle to this specific dog park for a little birthday celebration. After about an hour and a half there (we could tell Elle was getting wiped out), we stopped by Solana Beach’s Culture Brewing brewery. Another one off the list in our craft beer tour. Also, this coffee IPA is out of this world. I love coffee. I love IPAs. This was the perfect combination, called the El Dorado. Get it on Nitro. You won’t regret it. I spent the rest of my Saturday night cuddling my little sidekick, foam rolling, and watching a bit of 30Rock. It was the perfect end to the day, especially because I had 10+ miles of hill repeats with the team the next morning! Elle got a couple of new toys for her 1/2 birthday and some things she is less excited about (like a new collar and harness)! She got a whale, a new tug of war robe with a chewy rubber center, and the moose from above she is snuggling with. I think she’s already decided which one is her favorite. The next morning started with some lovely hill repeats. Our team does this workout on a crazy mile hill (half a mile down, half a mile up) that has about 1500 feet of elevation gain from top to bottom. Probably one of the workouts you want to do the least, but you know it makes you the strongest. There is also a one mile loop we run a couple of times before doing the hill and depending on what’s on the coach’s schedule, we repeat it a couple of times. These two nuts above that I’m running with? Yeah they are racing IRONMAN BOULDER in two weeks!! I was with them for about 11 miles but they had a 20 miler for the day. After, you know, they already biked 6 hours the day before. So crazy inspirational. And also just crazy!! We had dinner at a friend’s house and they made us their version of thick crust pizza baked in a skillet! The one on the left was a sausage pizza and the one on the right was veggie. Both of them were so ridiculously good. Imagine 3 more plates like the one above and that was my dinner. For dessert, my friend made peach cobbler. Topped with vanilla bean ice cream and it was the best day to end the day. I couldn’t think of better company and food to refuel after a great training weekend!

 

Random Friday Ramblings and 5 Triathlon Training Mistakes I’ve Made

Hi everyone! Happy Friday! TGIF! Fri-Yay! I don’t know why but this has definitely been one of those weeks where I have been counting down to the weekend. It’s been so beautiful outside (although crazy hot) and I’m just ready to spend the weekend biking, running, and being by the pool to cool off. Can’t imagine a better way to spend these summer days :)

At the end of the post, I’m going to share with you all 5 Triathlon Training Mistakes I’ve made. Trust me, they are good and embarrassing, so you’ll want to stick around til the end of the ramblings to hear about them ;) My mom just sent me the photo from above when we all went to the Del Mar Dog Beach last week! This was the very beginning of us trying to get Elle into the water. As you can see, she is clearly NOT having it. Mid-day selfie. Sometimes I wonder what I’m suppose to share with you all after a long day of sitting in my cube. Also, I was having a good hair day. Ladies, you can relate, right? ;)  This salad from Stone Brewery was bomb dot com. A couple girlfriends, Elle, and I went out to the brewery last night for beers, pretzels, and a long overdue catch up session. We all ordered salads for dinner without realizing it. There is something about summers that just make me crave fresh produce.

Not pictured: Eggs that came with the salad that I ended up giving to Elle. I told Anthony he needs to get the back seat from now on. Elle is a much better copilot who doesn’t complain about how I drive at snails pace. Missing the family! It sure would be nice if my mom and sister lived a little closer or on the same coast. The traveling between California and Florida is getting old. Plus, who knew a three hour time difference could make such a difference in communication?!My boss at work as been having a rough couple of weeks. One of her dogs is really old and the vet just delivered some bad news to her and her husband yesterday. Our staff chipped in and created a little goody basket for them and their dogs. Target, you are the real MVP.

As many of you know, I started training for my first triathlon this year. A week before my first race, I decided to go and break my collarbone, which will be a part of the 5 training mistakes I have made. It made me realize the things I was doing wrong, despite having teammates, a coach, and a lot of friends in this sport. There were just trials and errors I had to make on my own to either 1) listen to the advice everyone gives me, specifically my coach, Felipe, and friend, Jason or 2) become a better athlete.

1. Being too competitive right from the start: I am pretty competitive by nature. In a lot of ways, it is good. But as I’ve learned in training and in real life, it can get me into a lot of trouble, like caring more about my times on the bike than safely getting comfortable riding, or how fast I can swim a lap even though I could have terrible form. As I am building up and growing in this sport, I need to put aside my competitiveness and just focus on improving as an athlete.
2. Comparing myself to others: This goes hand in hand with being too competitive. I love training with my team and I’ve made so many great friends through triathlon. But when your friends are Ironmans and Ironwomans or podiuming every weekend, it is pretty easy to get frustrated when you’re still struggling with shifting gears on a new bike. Or if you’re getting dropped on rides or lapped at track. I just have to tell myself everyone started from somewhere and 3-4 years ago, they were in my shoes as well!
3. Wondering why this isn’t coming as easily as running to me: I’m not the fastest runner by any means and it took me awhile to build up the endurance and pace I am able to run now. But something about running just came more easily and naturally to me. It just clicked and I keep thinking that triathlon is going to feel the same. However, even when you read stories of how Jesse Thomas got started in the sport or how Mirinda Carfrae’s swim coach really doubted her ability in the water, you realize that just because one of the three or two of the three sports in triathlon comes easily, doesn’t mean they all will. You have to put in time and hard work. Slowly but surely, the pieces will start to come together!
4. Doing things you aren’t comfortable doing just because everyone else is: Looking back, I really should have waited a little bit longer to get a tri bike and a little bit longer to get into aero bars. I didn’t understand my bike, I didn’t have the confidence or balance, and it really is no wonder that I broke my collarbone. Every ride and every race now will be a huge opportunity to get better at my bike handling skills until I am really ready to start upping the speed and getting faster on the course. Slow and steady wins the race!
5. Putting on your wetsuit inside out: To end on a funny note, I’m sure you all remember THAT debacle. PEOPLE. The really colorful side of your wetsuit: chances are, it is the inside lining and not what the actual color of the wetsuit should be! Also! Find up true to your size. It is suppose to be really, really tight, and suffocating. Otherwise, you’re not doing it right ;)

Any rookie mistakes from a sport you do?