It's all about progress

 

I had the privilege of participating in the Balanced Art Multisport triathlon training camp this past weekend. Before I give my recap on it though, I wanted to give the recipe that I tried last week for red potatoes.

They were one of the yummiest foods I have eaten in a long time! Crashed Hot Potatoes. You can find the full recipe here. Start by boiling red potatoes to fork tender.

Then put them on a baking sheet with some olive oil and press down cross ways with a potato masher.

Then sprinkle with salt, pepper, garlic and herbs. Bake per recipe and feast!

I served with salad, brussel sprouts and turkey burger.

This is my fifth year of going to triathlon training camps. It's all about progress. The first year, I could barely ride 20 some miles and run 4 and by the third day, I was done! Each year I have seen slow and steady progress.

The camps are full of all levels of athletes and this one was no exception. Newbies, age groupers, short course, Ironman, elite and professionals. And even with the disparity of skill levels, everyone is included in all activities. The days start out at the swimming pool. I'm still recovering from my shoulder surgery so I spent the swim time kicking. I was able to sneak in 100 yards of freestyle each of the three days but didn't want to push my luck. Total kick yards-3500.

After a short break to get cleaned up, we meet for bike rides. The first day was a ride through Snow Canyon. Again, blaming my shoulder, I cut the ride just short of the final climb. It was my first ride outside post-surgery and it felt really good but I wanted to make it through the weekend.

I am grateful for my friend, Barb, who patiently stayed by my side through every ride. She has such a cheery disposition that helped me so much. After the ride always comes the run. The first day was successful in tiring us out!

The second day was much like the first with just a little more wind. We ran on the St. George 70.3 course that afternoon.

Everything for me was leading up to the third day of riding out through Gunlock and towards "The Wall". This was the original full ironman course and one of the first rides I ever did on a road bike. I remember having to stop a lot and even walk up some of the hills. Let's just say, I was not a good hill climber. This time I rode through the big climbs and most of the way up the wall. I did have to get off my bike a short distance from the top but made it to the top on my own volition - walking! Barb was waiting for me so we mounted back up and went the rest of the way to Veyo Pies.

About 500 meters from there, my front tire went flat. Veyo Pies is always the prize for riding that loop. The pies are amazing. I stopped for that day and rode support with Andrew the rest of the day.

The last day started out with a yoga class. I took pics and soaked in the calmness of the class.

We then had a talk on nutrition and headed out for a trail run. The day was the warmest of the 4 and the skies were beautiful.

There is so much more that I am not writing about. These camps are amazing. Every year I meet athletes that inspire me more than they can ever know. I am usually the weak link in the group but am never made to feel anything but support. If you have a chance to come to one of these camps, I highly recommend them. There is one coming up in February!

A by-product of these camps is the dirty laundry - this was my haul home!

my totals for the camp

I'll close this by saying that today I celebrate 15 years of sobriety. I am so grateful for all the opportunities that have been afforded me by making the choice those long years ago to put down alcohol and drugs. I have been blessed beyond my wildest dreams. I pray for that continued progress!

 

 

 

 



New Year, New Food Ideas

Happy New Year ya'll!!!! I'm really excited about 2015. It's going to be a really good year.

Ironman training has started in earnest for the year, even with my shoulder issue. The pain is down to an ache for the most part and my physical therapist told me today he may let me into the pool by next week. Which is a good thing since I'll be heading down to triathlon training camp. I am a little anxious about riding my bike outside but it will probably be like "riding a bike!"

I love cauliflower (almost as much as spaghetti squash!). This past week I have seen a few different recipes that I wanted to try and today I had the time and inclination to do so. My family will tell you that when I start making more than one thing at a time the kitchen can get destroyed really quickly.


This time was no different!

The two recipes for cauliflower were both for making cauliflower rice. Both recipes called for pulsing florets in the food processor so I did that first. Cauliflower "Fried Rice" was for dinner tonight. Check out the recipe from this website.

I used Braggs Liquid Aminos instead of soy sauce. For the final product, I added some cooked ground turkey that I made last night. It was super yummy and tasted like rice.

The second recipe was Oven Roasted Cauliflower Rice (see this website). I made this for future use. I'm not sure what it will be served with but now I am prepared for my next dinner.

Then to end the night, dessert! From this website, Homemade Frozen Yogurt Bars w/Fresh Fruit. I didn't have the basil for topping and don't really care for chocolate so it's just yogurt and fruit. Super easy to make!

And just so you know that I clean up, here's a picture of the "after" kitchen!

2014 Coming to an End

This has been the hardest post to write. It's been 4 months since I last wrote so I thought I should at least close out the year with a little something. Of course, since I wasn't writing regularly, I'm going to forget half of what I wanted to share!

I closed out my year of racing with a half marathon - SeaWheeze in Vancouver, BC, a 5K - Chosen benefit for adoption, and a reverse triathlon - Weber State Turkey Tri. This ended my fifth year of racing and as far as number of races goes, it was probably at the bottom of the list. But this was the year I attempted longer races - two half ironman and a full ironman attempt. I did not complete the ironman but it gave me incentive to "tri" again so 2015 will bring on the training for Ironman Los Cabos in October.

My life encountered some changes in the last part of the year. I stopped working full time - this is a temporary thing but it's been a nice break. I was able to do some traveling. My hubby and I took his mom to London and Ireland for a couple of weeks and then I was able to go to Saudi Arabia to see where the hubby is residing. Both trips were fun and interesting but I'm glad to be home for awhile now.

I became an official member of the BAM family and I'm really excited what 2015 will bring. They are such a great group of athletes and always inspire me to do more and be my best self.

And I finally had shoulder surgery to repair the damage from my bike fall last spring. The surgeon saw the MRI and said he has no idea how I raced all year. Well, duh! You just do what you need to do! It's almost been six weeks and my PT says I'm doing really well but won't let me in the pool yet. I've been running and cycling on the trainer but I'm anxious to get swimming again.

2015 is going to be a great year - some challenging races that have me super scared and excited at the same time!

Happy New Year!!!!

Jordanelle Tri - slow, slow, slow

I have never done this race and it was not on my schedule this year either since I just got back from USA Triathlon Age Group Nationals last weekend. However, I found out my good friend, Carmen, was going to do the Olympic distance for the first time so I just had to be up there. And if I was going to get up that early to travel 75 miles, I figured I would compete in the Sprint distance for a training day.

There is no parking at the race start/transition area. Everyone has to park about 3 miles away in Francis and the athletes ride their bikes while spectators can catch the bus. The morning was beautiful but at 5:30 am it was about 48 degrees so the ride was chilly. Note to self, remember to bring gloves next time!

As always, TriUtah has the greatest setup for transitions. Every spot numbered, USA Triathlon officials on site and really pretty settings for a race.

I got everything set up and then wandered around to see who else had arrived. I had a great surprise running into Teena, whom I haven't seen in a couple of years. I knew this was one of her favorite races but we've just kind of lost contact so it was a happy reunion!

The race started a few minutes late with the Olympic distance first and I was to be in the last wave. The water was great! I only got bumped a few times. I think the swim was a tad longer than half mile and I felt a little slow which was to be the theme of the day. I forgot to hit the lap button at the right moment in T1 so I can't compare apples to apples. According to the timers, my swim was slower but transition was faster than my last sprint.

The bike is longer than a normal Sprint - about 14.5 miles.

We climbed and climbed and then turned onto the river road which had loose rocks for quite a few miles. I felt like I was going 10 mph but I just kept going since there was no other option! The turnaround was one final climb to get back up into Francis and then the fun started. I ended up averaging just 16.4 mph but what helped that number was the back end of the race. I don't think I've ever gone faster than about 36 mph and on this one I pr'd by hitting 42.8 mph. And that was even feathering my brakes a little!

I'm working on getting my transition times down, so with a 2 minute T2, I headed out on the run. The bike thrashed my legs more than I expected so my run was so so. We ran on the road for a mile and then it became a cross country race which was kind of fun. My time was about the same pace-wise as it's been in my last few races.

It was fun having so many of my Salt Lake teammates at the finish line. I race for the all3sports.com team from Atlanta and I'm the only one that is here local. I imagine that having my Salt Lake Tri club and BAM fam around me is what it's like for the other all3sports.com teammates to race the local Georgia races!

The finish line food was great, especially the watermelon which was to die for since the weather had warmed up a lot from the early morning! I waited around for the Sprint awards ceremony to cheer on my mates and learned that I actually won my age group! And not by default either - there was one other person and it looks like we were neck and neck on everything but I got her on the swim and T1.

I think I always avoided this race because I knew it was hard but I've come to realize it's good to do hard races. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger!  Next up Lululemon Seawheeze Half Marathon!

No illusions - USA Triathlon Age Group Nationals

When I qualified for the USA Triathlon Age Group National Championship last year, I had no idea what to expect. It was a year in the future and there were many other races for me to overcome. As the time grew closer, I made the statement many times that I had no illusions that I would do anything but finish the race but deep down I hoped that I would finish at least in the top 50 percent of my age group. Hmmm. Little did I know how competitive this event really is!

The weekend started with me meeting Barbara Nelson at the airport and then we flew together the rest of the way to Milwaukee. We were going to be roomies for the weekend and it was nice to be able to spend some time with her and hear about her Ironman Boulder experience from a few days earlier. We saw very quickly that we were in the perfect part of town. Walking distance to everything!

We headed over to the expo and packet pickup. Our timing was perfect, we were there before the rush. We had a slight disappointment discovering the race jackets in our packet ran small and we couldn't exchange them until after the race. As luck would have it, we actually were able to do this on Saturday! Pretty happy about that! We saw the finish line set up -

Walked around a little more and found our teammates and bike transport guys. Jeff and Adrian were so great to drive our bikes from SLC and make sure they were in good working order. Plans were made for our pre-race workouts the next morning then Barb & I were off to find food. One of the cool things about Milwaukee is the waterway running through the city. We had to wait for drawbridges by our hotel several times. While a little annoying when you're in a hurry, it was cool to watch!

On Friday, our SLC group met up for a pre-race swim, bike and run.

 And after dropping our bikes into transition

we got ready for our group dinner that night! Barb and I stuck to our walking and found a cheese shop on the way - yummy!

Race morning started about 4:30 am with breakfast and final preparations. We walked the mile to transition and finished setting up.

The swim start times were spread out over a couple of hours but I luckily was in the fourth wave and the first of the group to start. The swim, bike and run were all one loop courses. In all my races, I've never been beat up as bad in the swim as I was with this group. These old ladies are tough! I got in the groove pretty quick though and pr'd my swim by 9 minutes. It was about a quarter mile transition to T1 so my time seemed a little long even though I thought I got out of there pretty quickly.

The bike was a little more hilly than I anticipated but I was still able to maintain an average just under 17 mph. It helped that I maxed out at 32 mph. Wasn't great but I'll take it! It was starting to get warm so I was a little worried about the run. I managed to finish the bike with high cadence and my legs were ready to roll out of T2. I stuck with my run/walk plan that works for me and finished the run just a tad off pace from normal. I grabbed water at every stop and dumped ice down my top to stay cool.

It was fun to see a couple of other all3sports.com team members out there. To the guy I hugged before the swim - sorry! I just was so excited to see ya! And to Thom who passed me on the run, thanks for saying something. You were looking strong!

This post is going on too long but I wanted to give a shout out to our youth that raced on Sunday in the sprint and our very own pro, Zara,

who took 3rd in the Super Sprint race on Saturday. Super exciting to watch up close how speedy and just allover great the athletes are.

Back to my no illusions thought from the beginning of this - I beat only 5 people in my age group of 110 so didn't even come close to the top 50%. Very competitive ladies! This was one of the most humbling, inspiring and awesome experiences of my short racing career!