2013 Ironman Boulder 70.3

Posted on September 5, 2013 by thefasteryoupedal

The long-awaited Boulder Ironman 70.3! We had been waiting for this day for a long time. Mike and his buddies signed up for this in January (because it sells out SUPER FAST) and were training in the winter and summer to get ready for this competition. They were really into triathlons and wanted to have something big to work towards.

The biggest thing that Mike looked forward to was riding in Colorado and the competition that was going to be there. He was really excited to learn about the pros and to see and hear about them in person.

The Ironman 70.3 consists of a 1.2 mile swim, a 56 mile bike, and 13.1 mile run.

When it came to the swim, Mike trained at the local swimming pool as well as in the ocean in San Diego to make sure he was prepared. He swam 4 times a week and always swam a mile and a quarter.

Mike felt pretty good about the bike portion of the race before hand because he had been training on his own. His training consisted of riding in high altitude locations (like Cloudcroft) and long distance riding. He really enjoyed the course. It was fast and beautiful.

To prepare for the run, Mike ran his own half marathon courses as much as possible. He made sure to run at least 3 times a week. Mike didn’t feel too good on the running portion, but we found out later he was on the verge of a really bad cold/flu before the race began.

When Mike hit the finish line, he was cramping pretty bad. He felt like he couldn’t stay hydrated. It was super hot out and very humid that day for Colorado. This finish line pic was so awesome to see. He finished!

We took Olivia up to this race because Mike wanted for her to be there at the finish line. She did an awesome job riding up there, as well as waiting around for the results.

Mike was able to ride around Fort Collins, Colorado the few days before. He tried to be really careful not to go too crazy, even though it was tempting to ride like crazy in such a beautiful place!

The day we showed up, we went down to get Mike’s race packet. They had so much merchandise that we wanted to get. Mike bought a visor to use when running and we were able to meet up with his friend Norm who was also doing the race. He was able to give some great advice since he has done it before.

This is where Mike did his transition. He had a great spot to get in and out! Considering transitioning has always been hard for him, he rocked it!

Here’s Olivia cheering him on before he went out for the swim!

The race started at the base of the Boulder Reservoir. Mike lined up with the swimmers that were marked for 37 to 38 minutes. And Mike did just that. He swam the 1.2 miles in 37 minutes!

After Mike came in from the swim, he had to change immediately into his bike gear. He felt like transitions went pretty well. His swim to bike was the best out of the two.

I am so proud of him and look forward to watching him compete in more triathlons!!!

Flashback Friday: Working At Walt Disney World

Posted on August 16, 2013 by thefasteryoupedal

I’ve been de-cluttering my upstairs this past week and I came across my scrapbooks from 2000 on. I found this whole scrapbook on when I went down to Orlando, Florida in June of 2003. It was seriously one of the best summers I had. I always had dreamed of working at Walt Disney World and was able to check it off on my bucket list. I’ll show you some of the “behind the scenes” things I kept. (I am soooo sad that I lost my name tag with my name and where I was from! That was the best souvenir!)

It all started with a massive road trip with my mom. Funny thing is, I ended up staying a night in Las Cruces, NM at the La Quinta on Avenida De Mesilla. Little did I know I would end up there one day!

When i arrived in Florida, I had no idea where I was going to live and I hadn’t even applied for a job. I remember walking into the casting center and pretty much telling them I would do anything. Since I had done food service, they snatched me up right away because that is the busiest job in the park. My second and third choice on my application was for attractions and characters.

They interviewed me on the spot and five minutes later, I received this card:

I was to work Seasonal at the Plaza Pavilion which was located in the Magic Kingdom Park.

They made you go through a week of training, which included learning the history and timeline of Disney, learning about the best restaurants at Disney, as well as how to get around the massive property (this ain’t no Disneyland!). WDW is 25,000 acres of property. It’s crazy!

I had to dress up on my first day and we got a tour of the Magic Kingdom without people in the park. They taught us all the “secrets”. For example, there are a lot of hidden Mickey’s across the park and they were showing us how to find them. Also, they taught me how to get the high score on Buzz Lightyear’s Astroblasters! To this day, I can’t remember the secret….dang it!

This is probably illegal, but here is the underground map of the Magic Kingdom. I would take a bus from the back parking lot. There I would go into the wardrobe department and grab my chefs outfit and then go to the locker room and change with Cinderella and Snow White and then walk over to Tomorrowland. They call it the Utilidor.

I loved the Disney University. I would sit in there and check my email and chill. Not to mention, my church met there every Sunday. Kind of funny to listen to my church service with pictures of Walt Disney all over the wall.

I worked 12 hour shifts four days a week, but it was awesome on my days off because I had free access to all the parks. Not to mention, I was 45 minutes away from Cocoa Beach and an hour from Tampa. I spent the summer boogie boarding and shell hunting!

I’m so glad I did it! Unfortunately, I was teaching at the time and had to go back to work!

San Diego 2013

Posted on August 9, 2013 by thefasteryoupedal

Our summer has been full of road trips! Our first one was to San Diego, California at the end of July. We have to go every year as tradition and this year was OIivia’s first time of many trips to come!

When we got there the first night, our first reaction was to go to Mission Beach and touch the water! We were lucky to stay at The Beach Cottages at Mission Beach. I highly recommend them. We just walked straight out to the boardwalk from our room…so awesome. Thanks to my dad for hooking us up with reservations because you have to plan a long time in advance.

We went down to Old Town and ate at the Coyote Cafe and then did some browsing along the shops. You find some very interesting things…

Olivia was so good about travelling around. Thankfully she was going through a sleepy phase and slept a lot while we were down there. I like to say the sea breeze is calming for babies… 🙂

We have always wanted to ride the roller coaster at Belmont Park in Mission Beach. Believe it or not, it is awesome! It looks so small but it packs a punch! We followed up with a Tilt O Whirl ride too. We got soo sick, but it was worth it!

We went down to the Seaport Village and took some family pictures and ate some Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream. It is pretty sweet to watch the boats move in and out of the docks.

We also rode our bikes up La Jolla Parkway (also known as the Scenic Route )over to Mount Soledad, where you get an awesome 360 view of the city.

My sister and her daughter came along for the trip as well as my dad and his wife. It was really nice to have family along to help out, especially when I am not used to having a little baby on a trip like this!

Aunt Jen bought Olivia a San Diego hat….which she loved!

We took some time over at the Mission Beach park and played on the swings!

This is the view from our hotel room. Sarah and I were walking over to 7 Eleven to get some slurpees. Nothing says summertime like a slurpee!

Our ride back was great! Olivia slept most of the way and was a trooper. We had to make a few pit stops to feed her and change her, but other than that we made it in good time!

It’s a great trip with a lot of FREE things to do when you are there! I love that it is a family tradition!

Valley of the Sun 2013

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Mike participated in a three-day bike challenge in Phoenix, Arizona over President’s Day weekend in February. He competed in the Category 5 race last year when he was starting up road riding and switched to Category 4 this year.

We drove up the night of Valentine’s Day to stay with Mike’s sister in Tucson, which is only an hour and a half away. We spent the whole car ride playing trivia games about each other. It’s amazing what road trips have done for us to get to know each other throughout the years. We should go on a game show!

Friday was the time trial on the west portion of the Phoenix area. Last year, Mike placed fourth in his category with a 33:45 minute time. This year he knew he was going to have more competition, so we made it a goal that he would get under 33 minutes. And that is just what he did. His time came out to be 32:20. With that great of a time, he still made 12th place! This year the competition was fierce. Considering the first place person was only 50 seconds from Mike’s place, we will take it!

Saturday was the road race in Casa Grande, Arizona. We stayed at a hotel in that area so it was nice to not have to get up as early. Mike’s race was at 11 am. We showed up to watch the other racers take off around the bend. Mike was dropped on the hill the previous year and made it a goal to stay with the pack. And he did! Unfortunately, they put his group on hold at one portion of the race because the racers behind them were catching up with them. I guess this is called “neutralizing” the group (which I think is a little unfair). They had to ride at a slow pace for about five minutes, which hurt their chances of getting ahead. He still was able to stay with the pack and did well!

Sunday was a beautiful day to end the racing weekend. Mike participated in a Criterium race, which means they do many short laps around a block in a half an hour. It is an intense race and it makes me very nervous because of the high speeds and the short corners. His race actually had a really bad crash! Luckily, Mike was not a part of it! He was able to make it with the group at the end.

Overall, Mike had a very successful race. He placed 15th overall out of about 75 people. He was able to stay with the group of riders and learn more strategies for his upcoming Las Cruces race.

It’s Been A Long Time Vegas!

Posted on October 17, 2012 by thefasteryoupedal

I was thinking about it the other day, and I could not remember the last time I saw my family in Vegas. Most of my family has come out here to see me, which has been very nice, but in the last month I have been able to go twice!

The sad part is I hardly took any pictures! When I went a few weeks ago, I met up with my sister and niece for a Saturday run. They have been practicing for a 5k and I am getting ready for a 5k this Saturday, so it was nice to go out and jog it. My niece has gotten so old! She looks like a pro!

Future marathon runner in training. Speaking of that. I have committed to my other niece (who is 15 years older than this niece), that I would love to join her for the St. George Marathon in October 2013. I am so excited to train for that! I never thought I would try a marathon, but I REALLY want to do this and I’m using it as my motivation for the next year. (Plus I heard there was a lot of downhill on it.)

Running is awesome. Too bad while you are running it isn’t fun, but the after effects are what keeps me going.

The other set of pictures I have from Vegas are when I went for my Mom’s birthday/Mike’s Viva Bike Vegas trip.

It was nice to get the whole family together so we could catch up, even though it was such a whirlwind weekend!

I mean, look at these cute faces! How could you not miss that??

Can’t wait to see everyone again in December!

Viva Bike Vegas!

Posted on October 15, 2012 by thefasteryoupedal

Well, its been a LONG time since I have been in the blogging world. I blame it on work and lots of things happening. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to take pictures of EVERYTHING we have been going, which makes me so sad.

So Mike and I took off for our pilgrimage to Las Vegas for his third Viva Bike Vegas race back in the middle of September. It’s always a good time because I get to see family in the process and we get a good bike race in the process. This year it went 122 miles, which is the longest race Mike has ever done.

Here is Mike and his crew at 5 in the morning ready to take on the day! It was a LONG day…

Mike was so funny because he saw me taking this picture and he hurried to the front to get a shot. All for the sake of an awesome photo. This was pretty much our view the whole day…driving around in a van and getting out of window shots!

The best view was when we went through Lake Las Vegas to Lake Mead. It was sunrise and so beautiful!

I was making fun of my dad because he has this American flag all day. I was embarrassed, but Mike was so proud of him and how he supported him throughout the race!

My dad kept stopping traffic to make sure Mike was getting his water bottles.

It was pretty cool because my nephews and my brother came out to support him. We all got fired up to go biking when we come down for Christmas. These guys were awesome helpers!

Overall, it was a great success, Even tough Mike busted his bike at Lake Mead and we had to rent him a bike, he still was able to finish the whole thing thanks to the help of the family. Here’s to hoping that next year goes a little smoother!

Planning Out My Life

Posted on August 1, 2012 by thefasteryoupedal

I made these for my girls I visit at church courtesy of Pinterest (I am on a roll!). Mike was tempted to eat them but explained to me he couldn’t “accidentally” take one because it would leave a hole in the styrofoam. So they are husband-stealing proof.

I am trying to plan out the rest of my year so I have a lot to look forward to. Yes, when school starts, I get a little dramatic and feel like my life is going to end. To get me through each work day, I must have something on my mind. In the past, mountain bike races have been a really good help for me, but since we aren’t racing as much this year, we are planning other things too.

Here is what I have to look forward to in the month of August:

1. Camping in Silver City with Barney

2. Signal Peak Mountain Bike Race

3. The Color Run in Albuquerque (www.thecolorrun.com/albuquerque )

4. Road Trip to California!

So yes, I have to keep telling myself that my life will not end and I have some really fun stuff coming up! Happy August!

P.S. Today was the cycling time trial with the Olympics and I have found my new hero!! Kristen Armstrong. She took time off in cycling to have a family and came back with a vengeance today. Did I mention she also broker her collarbone in May? And still pulled it off? Love her!

Photo is courtesy of About.com

San Diego Last Days In A Nutshell

Posted on June 7, 2012 by thefasteryoupedal

So I fell a little behind on blogging the last couple of days in San Diego. Honestly, we contemplated leaving early because of the dreary weather, but when we woke up on Tuesday, it was beautiful! Why couldn’t it have done that the other three days we were there?

Again, we spent our breakfast at Starbucks. Love my perfect oatmeal. We thought about going to the gym instead of riding all around San Diego because of how cool the weather was, but we sucked it up and went out anyway.

We rode out to a pier with a bunch of crabs and enjoyed the marina. There were like twenty stray cats hanging out there. What a perfect place for them to hide…all you can eat crab!

We then headed over to Mission Beach along the boardwalk and then up to La Jolla. It’s so fun to ride along the boardwalk and people watch. You see some crazy people. We take a side street up to La Jolla from there. I say up, because it has the hugest hills to ride on. I love the view in the background.

It ends on top of Mount Soledad which is a monument above La Jolla that gives a great panoramic view of the city. Mike wanted pose like Rocky with his bike. This was before he decided to mountain bike the side of the mountain with a few onlookers watching him.

We went to the San Diego LDS Temple the next day, where you can see it from this mountain also. Of course, the sun decided to come out this day (which was the last day there), so we had to take advantage of the sunshine.

It was fun to tour the city on the bikes. Later on we had to stop at our favorite Wahoo’s and get some fish and shrimp tacos. I used to order the fish tacos all the time and you can see my recipe where I try to remake the whole plate under my Recipes section. This time I switched over to shrimp and they were awesome! The calorie count is a little bit lower so its good if you are watching your waist. Also,I am on the hunt now for Mr. Lee’s Chili Sauce that they have at the restaurant. I can’t find a link for it anywhere.

And then we headed off to Old Town to check out the sites, including the Mormon Batallion Museum.

I love Old Town. It is so fun to walk around and smell all the aromas of the restaurants, as well as the museums. Mike makes fun of me because I like to go to museums. He says I’m an old fart for liking that stuff, even though he goes with me and enjoys it as much as I do.

We spent our last moments at the beach where Mike boogie boarded while I sat and read. I love the ocean, and I love to swim in the ocean. But I can’t swim in the Pacific without a wet suit. Give me the Atlantic any day or the Gulf of Mexico, and I will be in the water, but I can’t get myself to go into the Pacific Ocean. Maybe if I went to Hawaii or something?

Question: If you could go anywhere in the United States on vacation, where would you go?

Clouds, Cold….San Diego?

Posted on June 5, 2012 by thefasteryoupedal

Sunday. Day two of our trip. This was the day I really regretted not doing what I originally planned to do. I decided way back in March that I really wanted to complete the Rock and Roll San Diego Half Marathon. I even planned out the whole vacation around it. Then when it was time to sign up for it, it was so expensive and I didn’t feel at all ready for it.

When we got to the hotel, everyone was here for the race and one of the guys suggested I “ghost run” the marathon. I guess a lot of people jump in on these huge marathons without paying for it. Have any of you done that before?

I ended up not doing it. But it was very intriguing. O.K. enough regretting and on to the day we had. 🙂

BREAKFAST

We’ve had a little bad luck this trip when it comes to the weather. It’s been very cloudy and overcast which makes us a little depressed. So we decided to find a gym and workout while we waited for the sun to come out on our BEACH day. We headed to the local Starbucks and had some apple juice (no straw included) and some perfect oatmeal.

I’ve talked about this before when it comes to breakfast how the oatmeal is a perfect pre-race meal, but it’s also so inexpensive. Yes, I know I just mentioned something inexpensive at Starbucks when a lot of people complain about how expensive they are. We were able to get all of this for about ten dollars.

WORKOUT

Mike and I found a local fitness club that let us pay for a day pass. We both headed to the elliptical and were excited to get going. We have never sweat so much in our life! I am attributing it to the humidity, but it was awesome! It really made you feel like you were doing a great workout. We then took an hour on weights.

We are trying not to take the gloominess of the last few days as a sign or anything (because we may be a little superstitious), but come on! After talking to a guy at the hotel gym and a desk clerk, San Diego has a term called “June Gloom”. I guess this is pretty normal. Then again we usually come in May or July. We learned our lesson. No more June! If you have to wear shorts and a shirt to the beach and can’t lay out, there is no use going to the beach .:)

The husband found it very intriguing that the elevation was four feet. We are used to the 4000-6000 feet rides we do and love the fact that we ae at sea level. It feels good on the lungs.

He also managed to go in the freezing, cold water and body surf too. He said he found it “refreshing”. Nut.

I was more intrigued by the awesome seagulls walking around. Most people think of them as annoying creatures, but they are kind of funny to watch. They absolutely refuse to fly unless its their last resort. I found this out when this guy kept getting chased by a little girl and refused to take off and just kept running in circles.

DINNER

Dinner was amazing. We found a sushi place the last time we are here that was also a seafood buffet. I was partially through my plate when I took this picture, but you get the idea. It’s a little pricey, but the quality of food is excellent. You can find it in the Mission Valley Mall. It’s called the Onami Restaurant and Sushi Bar. Highly recommend it.

Not to mention, they had these bad boys. Does anyone have an easy recipe for Chocolate Covered Strawberries? I really want to learn how to make them without making a huge mess in my kitchen.

San Diego Day One

Posted on June 4, 2012 by thefasteryoupedal

We finally were able to make our yearly pilgrimage to San Diego. We usually try to make it later in the summer, but we just couldn’t wait. Plus we are coming mainly for our anniversary too. Happy 3rd anniversary to us! Three years have flown by and we have so many awesome memories together. We have been very lucky.

Since I am a little behind on blogging, I thought I would get up early at the hotel and do some blogging before we go out today on a MASSIVE bike ride. When I say massive, I mean at least forty or fifty miles away from town, in the hills, and across the whole city of San Diego. Last time we did this, we ended up about thirty miles north of town watching people glide off cliffs. Stay tuned to see what we find today. 🙂

We finally made it. Mike makes fun of me because I always have to have my hands on my hips. I never know where to put my hands. I call it the “awkward hand pose” because if I don’t put them on my hip, I look extremely awkward.

First thing we did was head to the beach and noticed it was super cloudy and cold. Boo. We never have weather like this on our trips. Mike didn’t let it damper his mood, so he found a blow up bat and decided to joust with it on his bike.

He then was trying to ride his bike along the ledge and thankfully stopped before he hurt himself. It’s nerve-wracking when people stop and say they are going to film it on You Tube for you.

Dinner consisted of shrimp tacos at Wahoo’s Fish tacos (which I forgot to take pictures of) with a side of Cajun rice and black beans. I’ve never had the shrimp tacos and they were awesome! I can’t say which one I like more, the shrimp or the fish, but I highly recommend both!

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