Breath of Life Triathlon - Ventura, CA

     This weekend, Leonie and I headed up to Ventura, CA for a triathlon.  Leonie was running the Olympic distance and I was doing the Sprint.  The weather was absolutely perfect (perhaps a bit chilly early in the morning, but warmed up by the time we started).  

Leonie and I pre-race

Getting her gear set-up

Final adjustments before heading into the water

And they're off!!!  This is the 34 and under Olympic distance group.

     Leonie took 2nd Place overall for females (that's 2nd out of 119 females!) and 1st Place in her age group!!!  She's pretty much a stud :-)!  I finished 7th out of 25 in my age group and 42nd out of 128 females overall in the Sprint distance.  

Hopefully the website will post pictures soon, but for now, the above photos are all I've got.  

For those that remember, I ran my first sprint triathlon back in November and below you can see how I did when you compare the races...though it's difficult because the distances didn't match up exactly.  

Bluewater Triathlon - 7 Nov 2010

Swim (.6k) - 13:07 (23:51 min per km)

T1 - 3:31

Bike (15k) - 28:27 (1:54 min per km)

T2: 1:05

Run (4k) - 24:27 (6:07 min per km)

Total Time - 1:10:35

Breath of Life - Jun 26, 2011

Swim (.75k) - 14:28 (19:17 min per km)

T1 - 3:42

Bike (20.4k) - 45:30 (2:14 min per km)

T2 - 1:44

Run (5k) - 25:37 (5:07 min per km)

Total Time - 1:31:00

So, better on the swim and run and worse on the transitions and the bike.  Guess I know what I need to work on now!

Coyote 5k

Last weekend, Sean and I headed down to Tecolote Canyon in San Diego to run the first race of a 4 race series.  The "Dirt Devil" series consists of a 5k, 10k, 15k, and half marathon, all over the course of the next few months.  We had a great time.  The course was beautiful and challenging, but not too hard.  One major hill was all we had to deal with and there weren't too many people out there, which was nice.  Here are a few pictures from the race (ignore the words over the front of the picture - yes, I'm too cheep to pay for them, so I steal them from the internet!).

Sean at about the 1.5 mile mark.

Me...a few minutes behind him!

Charging towards the finish line!!! 

Me, desperately trying to catch the girl ahead of me...failing in the end by about 2 steps - grrrr!

The overall course ended up being about 3.3 miles, vice the typical 3.1 for a 5k, but don't worry - they didn't charge us for the extra .2!  

Guilty Pleasures

We all have them...those things we do to make ourselves feel better.  Here are some of mine:

1. My worst vice, by far, is chocolate!  After a rough day (of even a good day), I'm all about getting my hands on some of that delicious melt-in-your mouth chocolate.

2. Next on the list is taking a bath.  I know this is considered a huge waste of money in today's age of "going green", but it's one change I'm not willing to make.  The solitude of a lovely bubble bath is too nice to give up!

Just image if I could combine these two events into one magical moment!

(Ok, I guess that would be pretty gross, but you get the idea!)

3. Sometimes after a giant chocolate splurge, I find myself wandering the aisles of some health food store, which makes me happy.  I can literally walk into a Trader Joes or Henry's in a bad mood and instantly feel better.  The problem is that I leave with things that I may never use!

4. And lastly, when I'm sick I absolutely love to have the latest trash/gossip magazine.  While reading this may prove to actually make me dumber, I love reveling in other people's tragedy - is that demented?

What works for me doesn't have to work for you

Ok, kind of a long title, so I better explain.  In a world where we share everything online in forums, chat rooms, blogs, and websites, there is a TON of advice out there for how to lose weight and get into shape.  Whether you choose from any one of the exercise programs out there...such as

or you choose to come up with your own personal workout plan (which is what I do), the important thing is that it WORKS FOR YOU!  While it would be nice to see the models that advertise these different workout plans and think, "hey, if I just do this workout, I'll look like her", that is most often not the case!  

      The other important thing is that you find something that you enjoy doing!  If you have a lot more will power than me, good on you!!!  But I know myself and if I'm not having fun doing the workout, then chances of me sticking with it are slim to none.  Although some people love P90X, others cannot stand it and would rather get in the gym and do 3 hours of weight lifting a day!

     So, find something that keeps you motivated, regardless of what works for everyone else, and have fun!

The next thing is what goes INTO your body...some people can get away with eating cookies and chips and never see the numbers on the scale move.  Other people look at a cookie and gain weight!  You know yourself better than anyone else and how your body responds to caloric intake.  While there are literally THOUSANDS of diet gimmicks out there, most don't work.  And if we would just be patient with ourselves, weight loss is achievable.  You need a little less

a LOT more

and a few more

(gotta keep an eye on the fruit intake though, since it contains lots of sugar)

The best piece of advice I think I've heard (mostly from my dear sister, Jen) is to DRINK MORE WATER!!

I think finding a cool water bottle makes it easier for me to drink more water during the day!

Again, whatever you do, it has to work for you.  Listen to other people's advice, but do so with the understanding that we are all different.  You might gain muscle faster than I do, even if we did the exact same workout.  I might be able to sneak in an extra cookie or two, while you can't even be near one!  We are all DIFFERENT!  

Things that Scare Me

As a Marine, it's not really in my nature to admit that things scare me.  But, in a quest to face my fears head-on (that's the best way, right?), I figured I'd list them out here and see what yours are.

1) Failure...I'm pretty sure this scares most people out there.  And it's a healthy fear, in my opinion, because it drives us to success.  When the fear of failure prevents me from actually STARTING something, that is when I have let my fear get the best of me.

2) Things that are in the ocean - I strongly dislike not being able to see through the water and I am completely freaked out by anything that brushes against my leg when I'm in the ocean.  The good news is, that the further out you swim, the less things you run into!

3) Oversleeping - I'm not sure if this is something that came about because of the military and early mornings, but I am very afraid of oversleeping for some training event that starts at 0300 (or whenever).  So much so, that the last time I had to be up for a hike at 0330, I set three alarms.  If Sean is home, then I also ask him to set HIS alarm just in case mine decides to turn on me in the night and not go off!

4) Writing - this may seem like an odd one.  But just hear me out...right now I am enrolled in a masters class in Humanities.  My final paper is 20-25 pages and is on the book "On War" by Clausewitz.  While I have fully developed my thesis statement and done the research on what secondary sources to use, I am afraid to start writing.  I don't want to get 10-pages in, just to have to restart.  Maybe this is more procrastination than fear of writing...who knows?

5) Sean - now that he's a CrossFit ninja, he's pretty intimidating!!!

What are you afraid of?