Christmas Lights
Check out our christmas lights! We really like them =)
We got some dudes to put them this year. The plan is that I’ll put them the years to come =S. I think I’ll be fine as long as I put them before there’s snow on the roof. Click on the image to view more photos.
Timeline of how I got into doing triathlons
Here’s a timeline of when I started with each triathlon discipline along with my accomplishments:
I’ve loved biking since I was a kid. So I got into mountain biking as soon as my mom would not freak out with long rides (I sometimes did 12 hr rides!).
Swimming and running are relatively new to me (specially running). Here’s a little timeline:
April 2007 – bought my Specialized FSRxc Pro so I started mountain biking again. Maybe once a month and by myself. I’m really grateful Carol told me to splurge and go with a full suspension “because it’s what you like to do” she said. I love you Carol.
December 2007 – did a little swimming during the winter just because I could not bike any more. I swam once a week at Life Time Fitness and only did it for about 2 months. Before this I really only swam about 4 times a year when I was on some sort of vacation.
Mt bike 2008 – I was in love with my Specialized mountain bike so I biked a ton. I biked with some Neumont students, then with the wildman Haaga, then Nick (whom I met because he was Neumont’s student IT worker), and then the Goathead Riders (Cody, then Daren, and then Shaun “The Machine”. Justin was also a goathead rider.)
December 2008 – did a fare amount of swimming at Life Time Fitness during winter. Twice a week for about 4 months.
Mt Bike 2009 – That was truly the year of the Goatheads. We all knew each other and we all loved mountain biking. We biked tons and really got to know each other. Saldy, the wildman slowly stopped biking with us since the beginning of the season.
September 2009 – got my Fuji Absolute commuter bike and used it a bit until winter struck. I had no idea I was going to get into the whole triathlon thing so I did not get a road bike. I ended up using this bike to train and compete on a lot of triathlons.
October 2009 - began running mostly because of The Machine. Without doing a lot of talking, he got us all excited with his “hardcoreness” and the whole triathlon thing. I had biked for months with the guy without knowing he had done multiple Ironmans, super long running (50 and 100 miles), and weird races like the ones that go on for multiple days where you do rock climbing, horse back riding, along with running and other stuff.
November 2009 – did my first triathlon, the Turkey Tri organized by Shaun (the machine). It was a “splash” distance, meaning shorter than the shortest official triathlon distance, which is a “sprint”. 3 mile run, which that was the furthest I had ever done. 350 meter swim, which was ok since I had done some swimming the last 2 winters. And 10 mile bike ride on the road, I used my commuter bike and it performed great no big deal since I had been seriously mt biking for a couple of years.
March 2010 – ran my first half marathon. The Canyonlands Half Marathon.
April 2010 – did my first olympic distance triathlon. The Daybreak Triathlon. 1500 meter swim, 21 mile bike, and 10km run (6.2 miles)
October 2010 – ran my first marathon. The St. George Marathon.
And now Carol and I are having a baby so I’m not sure I’ll do my next goal of a half ironman: 2000 meter swim, 55 mile bike, and a half marathon (13.1 miles).
Telos Turkey Triathlon
The Telos Turkey Tri was this past Saturday. It’s a short triathlon (smaller than a sprint so they call it “splash”). 5K run, 10 mile bike, 350 meter swim.
The weather was perfect and I felt really good about how I performed in the race. Not in the sense that I did it faster than last year (I was just one minute faster) but I did give it all. I felt a bit dizzy at the end of each leg and my legs cramped up a bit on the swim. Those are my indicators of a good race, it means I was really close to my limit.
What is the limit? To me it means where your body makes a clear indication that it cannot go further. My indicators are puking your guts out, having tunnel vision, or having an immobilizing cramp. These are the only indicators I trust since the mind can play games on you. If you reach the limit during the race, it means you’ll have a really tough time finishing. So I try to be close to it but never actually get there.
This race was the stepping stone of my master plan of merging two of my “worlds”. I’ve been running with some Neumont students and they saw some of my other training friends for the first time:
On the pic we’ve got Mark and Celeste (from neumont), then me, Nicholle, Duncan, Cody, and Jeff.
Daren was also there, he pushed me to the limits on the last half a mile of the run, that totally helped! You can see my pain face on this pic. That’s all Daren’s work right there, haha!:
Well, the race was a blast. It was a beautiful day to share with friends. I can’t wait for another race like this one!
