"Tri"ed Again

First - because Toni didn't participate in this Tri, there will be no video like last year...sorry!  Sunday was the SheROX Sprint Triathlon at the Aurora Reservoir.  There were about 270 women who participated this year.  Because we had the Avett Brother's concert the night before (yeah, that was poor planning) we asked my parents to keep the kids overnight so we wouldn't have to wake them up before the crack of dawn!  Byron and I woke up at 4:30am and were loaded up and out of the house at 5:15.  We made it down to the Aurora Reservoir around 6:15ish and unloaded my gear.  Here's a  few pictures of me walking with all of my stuff to the transition area.

Tiffany is a good friend of mine that I work with and she signed up for this race as well.  She had beaten me there that morning, so she already had a place for our bikes.  I set up my bike and started getting all of my gear laid out.  

Before heading down to the beach

It was finally time to make our way down to the beach.  I didn't mention the weather prior to this, so I'll give you the low down now.  It was partly cloudy but pretty windy - sustained winds in fact.  The water, although it sounds warm was 71 degrees.  Add that we have had a TON of rain the last few weeks, the early morning hour and the wind, the water was freezing!  For the bike and the run, the cloud cover was nice, but for getting into the choppy reservoir, it was not so fun!

Tiffany and I on our way to the water,
I am in the bright green wetsuit

You can spot me from a mile away in that suit!

Ohhhhhh, I'm sooooo sexy!

They did the heats by age this year, so my heat was before Tiffany's.  I am pretty sure that they started us right on time at 7:00.  There were quite a few girls in my age group. 

 

Our wave getting ready to get in!

And we're off!

Because the water was so cold, it would literally take my breath away when I tried to do the freestyle.  I did the breast stroke more than I would have liked, but then made myself do the freestyle just to get moving.  I felt so much more comfortable in the water this year and it 100% is because I trained this year.  

Smiling as I come out of the water

Up to the transition area.

I did pretty good going into the transition area, but I couldn't get my shirt rolled down, so I spent a lot longer in the transition area than I wanted....

Out of the wetsuit

Into the running shoes and onto the bike

The bike course this year was different than it was last year....it went up two gigantic hills this year instead of the one and then a bunch of smaller hills.  The wind was AWFUL on the bike course.  The second we made the turn around to make our way back to the reservoir, we were in an awful head wind!  

Heading out!

Finishing the 10 mile ride!

  

Tiffany making her way in from the ride

Then began the final leg of the race - the 3.1 mile run.  I was pretty much exhausted by this point and my legs felt like jello.  They were so awkward and wouldn't move like I wanted them to!  After about 3 or 4 minutes into the run, they finally felt more normal.  Tiffany caught up to me around the 1st mile of the run, and never looked back!  She did an amazing job!  I attempted to keep up with her, but failed miserably.  

Tiffany and I taking off to run!

 The finish line!  Woo Hoo!

Tiffany crossing the finish line!

Me crossing the finish line!  Finally!

The finishers with our family!  

My time this year was so much faster than last years!  My overall time last year was 2:08 (yep - two hours and 8 minutes!) 29:00 for the swim, 1:01:00 for the bike, and 31:00 for run. I was determined to train and be better this year.  This year, my overall time was 1:39.  I improved my swim time to 17:30, my bike to 45:00 and my run stayed pretty consistent at 31:00.   I am so proud of myself for going out there and bettering my time!  Next up - the Boulder DIVAS Sprint Triathlon on August 14th.   I am so excited for that one.   

Date Night

Picture of the shirt I bought at the concert

Back in April, Byron surprised me with tickets to The Avett Brothers concert at Red Rocks.  The concert wasn't until July 9th, so we had awhile to wait for our date night, but the wait was worth it!

The Avett Brothers are a bluegrass-folksy-rock n' roll type band.  I love their music, and not a lot of people have heard of them.

We dropped the babies off at my parents house for the night and headed out to Red Rocks.  The weather was decent (despite all of the rain we had gotten before and since then) it really was a pleasant night.  We tailgated for about an hour - mostly people watching and having dinner, then we headed in to the amphitheater.  We had general admission seats, and for those who haven't been, or haven't been in awhile, the first 30 rows are general admission and then row 60 and up are general admission, the middle section being the reserved seats.  When we got there the first 30 rows were PACKED!  Byron and I split up to try and find seats, reconvening at the bottom in the front.  As we were standing there ready to make the hike to the top 60 rows and up, I noticed that people were sitting in the planters...I figured we would sit there and see what would happen.  One of the staff members walked by, told us we couldn't dangle our feet in the stairway, but we were welcome to sit in the planters for the show!  SCORE!  We were 30 feet away from the stage, had a great view of the stage - we were high enough up that the people standing in the first few rows weren't in our line of vision, and nobody could stand in front of us because it was the stairway!  Add on top of that, we were under a tree, so we had something to lean up against, and when the rain did pour down, we didn't get wet at all!

We sat near some great people and we had a great time!  Here are some pictures of the night!

Red Rocks was PACKED!

Love this shot of the moon above Red Rocks

Terrible picture, but put it in anyway!

New Purchase

Byron and I usually aren't into the latest gadgets (ie - I-Pod, I-Pad, I-Phones, X-Boxes, etc) A few years ago, we bought ourselves a newer digital camera.  It is in no way near as sophisticated as some of the digital cameras are.  We were happy, we could point, shoot, take decent pictures, and shoot video on our camera.  It was great!  Fast forward to 7 months ago and our simple but effective camera broke!  By broke I mean it would drain 4 new batteries in a few hours.  We would have to keep the battery door open so the batteries wouldn't drain but then weren't able to keep the correct date.  Plus, it was such a drag when you wanted to take a cute shot of the kids and you had to push the battery cover closed and go through all you have to go through when you put in new batteries.

My dad has a phenomenal camera and we would more often than not borrow it - ok it lives at my house and he has to ask me for it back when he wants it!  It takes great shots, had a great lens on it...I love it.  I kept asking Byron if we could look into getting a new camera, and this time, a REALLY good camera... thankfully he got tired of our camera not working (and I'm pretty sure me nagging) and did some research into good cameras.

Introducing our new camera:

The Nikon D3100

It is very similar to my dad's camera, which I like (and his new telescoping lens fits on our camera too!) In addition to taking awesome pictures it also takes HD video!  That feature is what sold us on this camera!  We didn't want to lose the capability of taking video on our camera....

It is so lightweight and fabulous!  Byron and I agreed that we need to learn all of the features of this camera before we really start taking pictures, why spend the money if you aren't going to learn to use all of the bells and whistles?!

Byron used it for the first time this weekend when I participated in the tri!  There were some great shots he got!  I can't wait to take pictures of the kids with this camera...

Tri Training

So, I've had the Triathlon sign thing on the right side of the blog up since January stating that I am and have been training for the triathlon.  I must say, I have done so much better this year in getting myself prepared for the SheROX triathlon.  I have swam several times and have swam the half mile a few times.  Did I have to stop and take a breather here and there, heck yes, but the more times I went swimming the fewer and fewer the breaks became!  I am happy to report that I can do pretty well in the swim now!

About a month ago, Byron and I decided that we were feeling blah because we really don't have time to work out anymore. I have been attempting to work out (ie run or swim) over my lunch hour, but it just didn't always work out that way.  Poor Byron doesn't even get a lunch some days, so for him to work out over the lunch hour is impossible.  So, we decided to look around our neighborhood for a running route that is long enough to get a good workout but short enough that both of us can do the run and it not take all night.  The inner loop of our development is 2 miles, so we lucked out there!

For the past four weeks, we have done extremely well in going running every night after the kids have gone to bed. We decided that we would make it our goal to run 5 days a week and to take two nights off.  I can say that this has helped me significantly in feeling better, sleeping better, and my body firming up more.   We haven't skipped a night yet, even running in the rain some nights!  Now that we have the running in our routine, I think we are going to attempt to add Convict Conditioning to our workouts.  Wish us luck on that - Convict Conditioning is an incredibly intense body weight workout program.

Byron and I have also done really well in biking more with the kids.  I am so happy that the kids LOVE going for bike rides at night.  We usually bike around the neighborhood and then stop at a park for them to play on. We usually end up biking around 5 miles when we go with the kids.

I am not good at biking.  My legs just don't have the strength that I think they need to go really far distances.  Thankfully the distance in the tri is only 10 miles, and I have done a 6 mile loop by our house a few times, so I think I will do ok with the 10 miles.

I've done pretty good in my training and I am feeling ready to go when the race comes.  Oh, did I mention that the race is THIS SUNDAY!?  Eeek...I'm not feeling THAT ready!  I am very excited that my wonderful husband will be there to support me and that my parents have offered to keep the kids overnight so we don't have to wake them up before the sun!  The transition area opens up at 5:30am and the race starts at 7:00!!!  Byron and I have to leave our house so early to get there and get all of my stuff set up before the race!

I tried to upload  the course map but for some reason it won't let me (shocking...I can't figure out my computer!)

On another note - my mom has begun her training for the Boulder DIVA'S triathlon!  I am so excited for her. We went this past weekend and got her all decked out in triathlon gear!  The Boulder tri is in 5 weeks....I am very proud of her for embarking on this!  Competing in a triathlon is a huge accomplishment and I hope when she crosses the finish line she has that feeling.  It doesn't matter how quickly she does it, as long as she finishes it without giving up!

Byron is supposed to be taking pictures on Sunday, so once I recover I will post on how I did in the race!