About thefasteryoupedal

Hi! I'm Liz and I am a 38 year old teacher from Las Cruces, New Mexico. I'm also a fan of mountain biking, road biking, running, and traveling. I'm always up to try something new! This blog is for me to share ideas and also to receive new ideas!

My First Triathlon

Posted on September 10, 2012 by thefasteryoupedal

So I finally sucked it up and tried my first triathlon. It just happened. Every month I get an email from White Sands Missile Range letting me know about half marathons, triathlons, or other events going on in town. The Yucca Triathlon popped up a few weeks ago and I talked Mike into doing it considering on our vision board Mike had put “to do a triathlon or duathlon”. When it comes to that board, we can not let anything pass. 🙂

First of all, we only trained a week. The bike has been an ongoing training, but I have to admit the running and the swimming made me a little nervous. I love running in races, just not every day (unless I had a running buddy or something to train for). I knew I was in trouble when we did the Color Run 5k in Albuquerque and I felt like crap. And well, let’s see, the last time I went swimming was…..I can’t even remember. 🙂

The Yucca Triathlon starts out with a 8k run, a 45k bike, and ends with a 400m swim. Mike and I had googled 8k and found out it was around 4 miles, so the whole time we kept thinking it was only a little more than a 5k on the run. Piece of cake. We didn’t look at the decimal until the night before and realized it was 4.9…5 miles! Mike was bummed because of all the rain, they had to shorten the ride to 14 miles. There was a terrible headwind, so it ended up working out that way.

Judging by the picture of me coming in on the bike, you can probably guess what the weather was like! It was cold, rainy, and windy, which made it a memorable experience for the both of us. Mike took off on the 8k with no trouble and stayed with the group. His buddy Jason and I ran together in the back of the group (which was my plan all along). The transition to bike was pretty easy…grab a helmet, and put my bike shoes on and I was off! I’m guessing that part felt awesome to me because of all the biking I have done, but really, it felt awesome. The headwind decreased my speed in half on the way back. I was hitting almost 30 mph on the way out, but on the way back, it was 13-15 mph. The rain also decided to act up at that point too and the other riders looked so mad when I came up on them.

When I came back in, I was SO NERVOUS about the swim. It’s not that I didn’t think my muscles can’t do it. It’s my breathing. I can’t control it enough to go under water and I panic!

I am so glad it was NOT open water. I like having the mental image of eight lanes to go up and down. Since I had a pretty good gap on the people behind me on the bike, I was glad to not have people behind me in the pool. I know this is normally first in a normal triathlon, and I wonder how people do it. But hey, I made it, even after stopping a few times for a few seconds to get my breath.

I did it in 1:52 minutes while Mike finished in 1:28. The cool thing is that they print out all your times so you can compare them to all of the other racers. If I wasn’t so slow on the swim, I actually could have gotten first in my category (30-34)! I ended up in second place and I will take it!

I love the no makeup and crazy swimming hair picture. Mike was making fun of my curly hair trying to escape. It was way crazy!

Mike was in the category called Clydesdale, for guys above 200 pounds. He actually had one of the fastest bike times, so I think he would have done great in his normal category. He rocked it!

We are very addicted and I had a lot of fun! Mike is sitting here right now asking me when is there another one we can do and I am wanting to do it again. Don’t get me wrong, we look like a bunch of 80 year olds walking around today, but it feels so good.

P.S. I am taking a huge liking to swimming too! Mike and I are getting memberships to the local aquatic center. I am so excited!

Deep Cleaning During Labor Day Week

Posted on September 9, 2012 by thefasteryoupedal

I made it a goal as soon as the summer ends, that I would blog on here once a week. I have failed miserably! So I am going to catch up on this lazy, rainy Sunday and hopefully get everything posted on here and never get behind!

Our house has not been deep cleaned since the beginning of summer and its amazing how dirty and dusty things get in this New Mexico desert. Also, the fact that we had to strip-search the house last week to try and find our keys made me realize how BAD our house needed cleaning. Some parts have never seen a vacuum or broom since I moved in four years ago!

This section behind our tv stand has been neglected since day one and I know for a fact Mike did not vacuum behind it when he was a bachelor. Word to the wise: use push pins to hold the wires up while you vacuum to save all the hassle of NOT running over the cords. It saved so much time.

I also went to Target and bought a TV stand for Mike’s den upstairs.

This is what it looked life before. So many pieces! It took a whole day because I kept putting things on backwards. And here is my creation!

If you need really cute lamps, Target has a plethora of them. Since our theme is black and oak, I found this cute lamp for about 15 bucks.

And to celebrate the cleanliness, we went to Keva Juice for some frozen yogurt.

Can you guess which one is Mike’s?

The Color Run Albuquerque, NM

Posted on August 27, 2012 by thefasteryoupedal

I’ve always wanted to do a Color Run ever since I saw someone post it on Facebook. Since June, I have been bugging Mike to go and talked the brothers into going too. I was definitely made fun of a lot and was even scolded when we found out the Bike MS race was the same weekend! So we made a sacrifice and continued to press on with the plans!

The crowd was pretty big for such a small town. We had 6,000 people. Places like Philadelphia and New York had 65,000 people. I can’t imagine!

Pre-race stretching. Is that guy going to the bathroom? (He isn’t, but it sure looks like it and makes the picture more funny!)

Here I am coming across the finish line. Out of the four of us, I was last, but I have my reasons! I did it in less than a half an hour and consider that great considering I stopped running when we were getting sprayed and talked to the people. The boys made it a competition.

Mike won the “Who Got The Most Color Running” contest. We really didn’t get that much until the Color Festival. It’s where they count down from ten and everyone throws their dust in the air.

This is what I looked like…and then…

Brad and Jared both had red dust and I got it all. I am still trying to get it out of my hair!

This is my absolute favorite picture of the day. The powder was so thick that it felt like it was night-time.

Can you believe this was taken on a cell phone? What a cool idea. It was pretty fun standing in it. What a fun date idea too if you want to bring the significant other. We had a blast! We are definitely gonna do it next year. A lot of people walked, some people had strollers, and some people were in wheel chairs. I highly recommend it for anyone.

Mountainair, NM

Posted on August 27, 2012 by thefasteryoupedal

When I moved here three years ago, I knew NOTHING about New Mexico. Las Cruces was a stopping ground on road trips to Texas and Florida, but that was about it. We started doing mountain bike races and I was introduced to all the other cities of New Mexico like Santa Fe, Albuquerque, Gallup, and Los Alamos. It’s pretty neat to explore these places and especially enjoy the awesome scenery.

Ever heard of Mountainair, NM? Me neither. Something about a town that’s named after a fresh mountain breeze. I wish I would have gotten the pictures of the “main street”. It was pretty much the whole town.

Anyway, Mike is finishing up the NM road series (he is trying to move up from Cat 5 and this was the last race). I decided to join in, even though I had NO TRAINING whatsoever.

We got there and warmed up on the road. It was cloudy, which was nice so we wouldn’t burn to death. The race was 40 miles long and had a small climb at the end.

Mike was able to stay in the lead and got fifth in his category of more than 25 guys…awesome job!

My story ends tragically with being the naive one of my group. I was in a group of 13 girls. Three of them fell off the back and I was able to stay with the whole group until mile 25. It was there a huge right turn happened. One, I hate turns on a road bike and two, I hate people who cut me off on turns on a road bike. And that’s what happened. Four of us fell off the back of the group, and well, we stayed back. I had so much rage and energy that I “pulled” the girls a lot to see if we could make it. After being yelled at for going too fast, I slowed down and stayed with the girls. At the finish line, they all slipped past me. I was used. 😦 But I did learn to not help people if they are going too slow!

So I did it! A road race! 9th place. He he.

Back to School and Wrestlemania!

Posted on August 27, 2012 by thefasteryoupedal

So I apologize for my hiatus from the blogging world, but I am back! So you will be getting a lot of posts in a row.

Back to school happened. That is why. We had to take our first day of school picture in front of the fireplace. I say “we” because Barney thought that he had to join in when it came to the picture deal, along with his friend Frog.

Then we had a friendly game of Wrestlemania with Frog…

Where he decided to throw him around a little bit for some attention.

Cocoa Cookies and Green Chile Enchiladas

Posted on August 18, 2012 by thefasteryoupedal

I walked in after work on Wednesday ALREADY missing the days at home where I could try out recipes and use my husband as a guinea pig. I get the itch to cook and bake at least once a week, so here is what I came up with when it came to what we had in the pantry.

(recipe courtesy of www.pbfingers.com )

Cocoa Oatmeal Cookies

Makes 10 – 12 cookies (depending on how much dough you eat)

Ingredients:

1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon cocoa powder (may increase to 3 teaspoons if you desire a more chocolaty cookie)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
3 tablespoons canola oil
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup old fashioned oats

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Combine flours, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl.
In a smaller bowl, combine sugars and beat in one egg.
Mix canola oil and vanilla into sugar mixture .
Slowly beat sugar mixture into flour mixture. Your dough should be slightly runny.
Gradually beat oats into mixture until a thicker dough forms.
Use a tablespoon to portion out cookies onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or sprayed with cooking spray.
Bake for 8 – 10 minutes, until tops of cookies are slightly browned.

I really liked them, the husband wasn’t too thrilled with them. If you are expecting the normal chocolate chip cookies, you may be disappointed. I realy thought they had good flavor and it was nice not to have to use butter.

My second recipe is courtesy of my mom.

Green Enchiladas

I bought the taco size corn tortillas from a local market and cut up onions, boiled shredded chicken, and poured some green sauce inside each tortilla. I rolled them up and placed them along my pan (I ended up with ten rolled up tortillas), and then poured the remaining sauce over it.

I really like the Las Palmas green sauce (found at Albertsons and Walmart) for a mild taste. The hubby wants a more FIRE BREATHING approach, so I suggest adding some jalapeno or green chiles to the dish. You can make it with flour tortillas, but the corn really makes it taste better in my opinion.

Great and easy recipe!

Teacher Prep

Posted on August 18, 2012 by thefasteryoupedal

So we were allowed a lot more time before school started to get our rooms set up. We had more time than usual that I actually finished early and was a little ancy to get my kiddos. Well, not too ancy. 🙂

This is my eleventh year of teaching. Sigh. It makes me feel old.

I didn’t really change much to my room this year. I really like the traditional row set up because it keeps their attention, plus they can easily get into groups if they need to. I have an advisory class this year that I am kind of excited about because they are a small group of kids I have to take care of and stalk on grades. No pressure that I have to staff members’ kids in that class, one being my boss.

Last year, my animals were getting stolen left and right…let’s hope these little critters have a good year!

SO smug.

Hiding.

Shh….she’s sleeping….

Tasty Treats

Posted on August 12, 2012 by thefasteryoupedal

My uncle sent these to me in the mail this week. It smelled like berries, BUT…this is the gloriousness that I saw when I opened them:

I LOVE chocolate covered strawberries and these were so good. They didn’t have the leave son them so you could take a big bite and not have to worry about it. Needless to say the hubby and I were very grateful. P.S. He sent them as a congratulations for winning state.

Mike and I went on a quick date night last night to our favorite local spot: Thai Delight. Mike really likes the miso soup, and I admit I am not a huge fan of it, BUT the green onions make it very tolerable. It reminds me that I need to find recipes with green onions. They always seem to make the recipe ten times better, any suggestions?

Mike ordered our favorite dish, the Chicken Pad Thai (Hot) and I ordered the Beef Noodle Soup (Hot) .

Well, I made a mistake. Hot on Pad Thai is totally different from soup. I had to drink so much water! I was literally crying on the way out. It was embarrassing.

So we had to go get some frozen yogurt at Keva Juice to cool my mouth off.

Mike was annoyed because I wouldn’t let him eat until I took a picture. 🙂

Goodbye Summer of Fitness

Posted on August 12, 2012 by thefasteryoupedal

Alas, I have to say goodbye to summer (even though technically we still have a month and a half AND I still have a vacation planned in a few weeks to prolong it!). To celebrate my last day of summer, I went and got a pedicure and my first manicure.

I was a little nervous about putting color on them because I didn’t want to look like some crazy teacher with hot pink nails (which I chose for my toes), so the lady next to me talked me into using her nail polish. It looks brown, but its actually a peachish-pink color. Not sure how I feel about it. People at nail salons are always so friendly and chatty. I think it’s because we use the place as a reward center.

When I get up in the morning, I’ve been getting up an hour earlier and working out. I REALLY need to get into shape for the Color Run, a road race coming up, and for the half I want to do next month. And if I want to maintain my first place status in the local Horny Toad Hustle mountain bike race…I need to get riding. Part of my workout is a weight training session along with cardio.

I have learned to new words in the exercise world this week, due to the Insanity workout and elite fitness workout.

Word 1: BURPEE

Word 2: SUPERSET

I seriously thought a burpee was a blanket for babies to spew their milk on. I found out they are the jump up in the air and then hurry and do a push up type of exercise. Insanity workouts are the king of these!

According to www.wikipedia.com, it means this:

Begin in a standing position.
Drop into a squat position with your hands on the ground. (count 1)
Extend your feet back in one quick motion to assume the front plank position. (count 2)
Return to the squat position in one quick motion. (count 3)
Jump straight into the air as high as possible. (count 4) ^[1]

Second, a superset is a set of workouts with no rest in between.

And now you are enlightened.

So goodbye, Summer of Fitness. Back to School Fitness is now in session.

It Starts.

Posted on August 8, 2012 by thefasteryoupedal

Did you ever play the Lion King game on SEGA? Well if you never did, right at the beginning when you are logging in, Rafiki goes “It starts.” It sounds so creepy, like your life is about to end.

Anyway, it did start today, work that is.

The dreaded 5 in the morning. I know some of you like the sound of this and….. hiss to you! 🙂 Anyway, I was pretty proud of myself for getting my butt out of bed and actually doing a workout before I got ready. I am especially grateful for the pictures that come with it. 🙂

The nice part is we don’t have the kids for another week, so this week is pretty much practice, and if I’m a little late…no biggie. I get excited buying back to school clothes and stuff. I got myself a cool lunchbox to take my 7 Day Carb Cycle diet food in.

It was cool because I was at an inservice training for the new assessment program for the district all day and they held it at the brand spanking new high school in town, Centennial High School. It was so clean and nice. There are so many neat things about it, like rooms that the lights turn on as soon as you enter or remote control curtains. They totally hooked up this place.

WARNING! AWESOME PIZZA RECIPE!

Tonight for dinner I made pizzas with the Lavash bread again. I was craving a BBQ chicken pizza. I highly recommend using Trader Joe’s BBQ sauce. It has some major kick. I sautéed some chicken, onions, and peppers and topped it with cheese. My new favorite pizza.

My sister told me that if you put the pizzas on a cooling rack, that they are crunchy throughout the whole pizza. Usually, just the edges get way cooked and crispy, but this totally helps. Also, it takes less time to cook. It usually takes me about 12 minutes on 400 and tonight it only took 5 minutes.

Before I go, here are two really fun websites for teachers or parents that want to make some fun activities…go check them out.

www.wordle.net

www.prezi.com

Any suggestions for quick morning workouts to do at home?