I gave it the 'old college TRI!

A couple of weeks a go, my friend Alisa (below in green) sent me a text at 5:30pm on Friday night.

She said, let's skip our Saturday long run and join Lesley (below in blue) in tomorrow's sprint TRI!

I said.. "Do you know how long it has been since I swam??"

She said, "As long as it has been since I have!"

So we went on down to packet pickup and signed up!!

CRAZY TIMES!!

I have to say, I LOVE the fact that I am fit enough to say... "Let's do it!"

So Saturday morning dawned and I gathered up my stuff trying to remember what all I should take for the race!

Here we are before the race.

The cool thing about this race is that while it is a sprint tri, it is a backwards tri.  Meaning that you run, then bike and finally swim. It works because the swim is in a 4 feet deep pool. 

So off we went on the run. I wasn't sure how fast to go out. I ran the first mile and 1/2 on my own and then Hans, a 69 year old ironman was running besides me and we talked the way in. It was a good moderate pace. I did the 5k in 30 minutes flat. One of the coolest parts of racing is making new friends and hearing amazing stories from veterans along the way.

Then on to the bike. This will be my LAST race without clipping in! UGH. I love riding, but man, this course was super hilly and tough! 14 miles later I was back and into transition.

Finally, the swim. It was nice hitting the water at this point. As I stated earlier, I hadn't swam laps in at least 9 months. Quite possibly since my last tri a year ago! oops.  Anyway, I muddled through the laps using ALL the strokes I could think of!

My time? 1:40:38.

And since I trained NOT ONE OUNCE.. how did this compare to my other times? Well... my personal best time is 1:40:35:1. 

Amazing.

If I had known I was THAT CLOSE, I could have shaved a few seconds off a transition, gotten in the pool faster, or did anything just a minute faster!

Oh well :) 

I had so much fun!!

And look what I brought home.

Second in my age group.

Not bad at all.  And yes, of course I'll be competing next year. I might even train! ;)

So since I didn't train for the tri? What am I training for? 

Well, I'm training for a full marathon!! 

Last week I ran 45 miles. My most ever.  

Thanks Kylie for putting lotion on my poor tired feet.

And I'm buying a few new clothes. I haven't lost any additional pounds (one CAN NOT LOSE while training for a marathon.. one can only HOPE to NOT GAIN!!!)

But my clothes from last fall are too big! So shopping it is.

Here is my latest Stitch Fix. 

And that is what we are up to. 

Maddie is busy with colorguard and trying to get well. She has been sick for the last month.

Lexi is reading. She might do other things but I'm not sure... :)

Kylie is mastering being in FIRST GRADE.

And Doug is working and preaching.

We are busy, busy people.

So thankful it is a good life!

Family Fitness

As you know by now, I am always looking for a new challenge. Be it artistic, academic or athletic.

So this weekend, when I saw this video, I immediately had to try. 

Let's just say that my reality isn't much better than the video example (make sure you watch the entire video.. NOT just the CRAZY COOL person at the begining!)

Anyway, after laughing at my miserable attempts at the jumping push-ups, Doug tried. And he ROCKED them!!

So I asked him to do it again so I could video. My first attempt at the video had him finishing and sitting up looking like he was dying. So below is take two. That's a lot of jumping push-ups!

Then Maddie decided to give it a go! Can you believe this girl? This was Sunday night, one week after being in the emergency room with a bad asthma attack and a kidney flare. Then a week of breathing treatments every four hours and a HUGE steriod burst.

She is a BEAST!

My video is obviously missing. Contrary to what Doug thinks, my drive to be able to do this has nothing to do with his ability to complete it. It has everything with my desire to be the best me that I can be and my desire to learn something new physically as often as I can.

As a female, growing up, I never had an athletic goal. I was strong as a child and could be strong when needed, but I was never given the chance to "be strong" in school settings. While I did twirl a baton in middle school, I didn't have any physical goals. For that matter, I was never encouraged too.

So now as a 41 year old high school teacher, I have athletic goals! I want to improve my marathon by 30 minutes over my first marathon! I want to complete 10 jumping pushups! I want to ... yeah.. I have goals!

And I'm on my way.

I read recently on a local sign that the best goals are ones that you are already 1/2 way there. Well, I ran 15 miles on Saturday (I've run 31 miles in the last 4 days. that is HUGE for me..) at 2 minutes per mile faster than I did two years ago during training for my first marathon.

I can do 3 jumping pushups at a time. I'm rather proud of myself for just that!

My "inspirational" video will be on the shelves soon...