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!

My new Fuji Sportif

I'm getting ready to complete another sprint triathlon this weekend! I am super excited about it and decided that this was the time to get my own bike. One of my friends loaned me her bike for my first tri and while I totally appreciated the bike, it's not a made for road racing.

So after some research and advice from friends, I went and got me a bike!

Well, it wasn't that simple.

Kylie and I went to a couple of different bike stores and at one place, we couldn't even get a worker to acknowledge that we were in the store!! Sorry, but I'm not spending hundreds of dollars in your store when you can't be bothered to even say hi!

So we ended up at Performance Bikes. They were FABULOUS!!! I could not be more pleased with their attention and efforts to get me on the right bike! In fact, at one point it looked like the bike that really would be best for me wasn't available to them any longer, but a competitor down the street said they had one. They told me that while they would love to help me, they wanted what was best for me. So they sent me over to the competitor store with the list of specs. Turns out the competitor lied. Yep. So glad I had the list or I wouldn't have remembered the details. When I pushed the salesperson about it, he said.. "well, we just told them that we had something "similar", not that we had THAT bike." 

So Kylie and I loaded back up and went back over to Performance Bike. Side note: while I spent an hour trying different bikes, they let Kylie ride around the store on the three kid bikes and talk to all of the workers! She LOVED the store. That helped tremendously!

In the end, they fitted me for a bike that is awesome for me. It's an entry level racing bike, which means if I ever get like super fast and all that, I'd have to upgrade, but since that's not likely, I think this bike is perfect for me.

So what bike did I get? 

A Fuji Sportif. I know that there are lots of numbers and codes and such that go with it, but all I can give you is the name and that it's blue!

Below Andrew is holding the bike. He wasn't supposed to work the day I needed to come in and pick up the bike. But he rearranged his work schedule so that he could make sure I was fitted exactly to the bike and all that jazz. (They had to build me a bike, so I couldn't just take it the first day...)

And here I am.

Ready for my first ride.

10 miles done.My time was way faster and I'm still learning how to change gears! I can't wait till Sunday!

So all of that to say, if you need a bike, I would highly recommend Performance Bike in Fort Worth, Texas on Hulen St. I get no kickback for sending you, but feel free to tell them that I sent you! They might not remember me, but I'm sure they will remember Kylie!