mini triathlon

before - I decided to just wear my swimsuit under my running clothes

In a moment of speaking-before-thinking, I managed to sign myself up for a mini triathlon. It happened so fast that I didn't even realize what I was doing until it was done. I'm not generally one to back out of things, so I decided I would do my best to train and get ready in the ~6 weeks I had before the race.

As it turns out, I'm incredibly motivated by grades. (Who knew? Ok, let's be honest...we all knew that.) Brian set up a training program for me, which is very similar to this program that we did at BYU while we were dating. In his program, I can get one point for biking 4 miles (stationary bike, since it's too cold for real biking, that's what I have access to at the gym, and that was what we used for the mini tri), one point for running one mile, and one point for swimming 5 laps (the pool is 25 yards for one length, so 5o for a lap). He did specify that I can get fractions of points, as long as I get a minimum of one point per workout. Being nerdy, I decided to keep track of my points in a spreadsheet. :) Brian's "grading scale" requires that I get at least 10 points per week in order to get an A (on average...if I get more in one week and less in another, it still works).

Well, I wanted my A. (He threatened to calculate it into my GPA.) So this is the end of week 6 of training, and I currently have an average of 15 points per week (min = 6.6 - it was a crazy week; max = 20.05). Brian told me I might have to take 202 next quarter because I'm doing so well (apparently this is Training 101). ;)

Anyway, the mini tri was yesterday. There were a total of 9 women competing, and we were divided up into teams so we'd all start at different parts of the race (the gym wasn't really big enough to accommodate everyone in one place at the same time). I did the run first (2 miles), then swam (6 laps in a 20 m pool = 240 m) and biked (7 miles on a random hill program). I didn't place in the top 3 in any of the categories, but I did get 4th place overall. That made me proud, but it was actually my overall time that I was the most excited about. From my workouts at OSU's gym, I had estimated that I'd be able to do it in about an hour, not including transitions (it turned out we didn't count transitions into our times). Well, something must have been different at the race, because my overall time was 41:36! I'm not sure I've ever run 2 miles that fast (17:11), and my bike was about 10 minutes faster than any of my training times (17:20).

some of us after finishing (showing off our numbers, of course)
the woman in the middle (in black) is the one who organized the race

this is the awesome shirt we each got - it says "Mama's Mini Tri: It's Mini, but I Tri-ed! February 11, 2012"

Other notes:
1. The race was geared toward moms who wanted to have something to train for during the winter to stay motivated about working out. Kami (the organizer, who is in our ward) said it was ok that I'm not a mom (I was the only one) because I'm a potential/future mom.

2. When I started training at the beginning of January, I realized that my Speedo was not really modest anymore. Not sure how long it had been that way, but let's just say the material in the bum was getting a little thin...oops. I don't think it was necessarily noticeable while I was wearing it, but I decided it was ok to buy a new suit since I had had that one since Dec. 2003 (and I got it used, so it was even older). I don't have any pictures of me in my new suit, but it looks similar to this one (black and white).

3. It was fun enough that I'm contemplating doing a sprint tri. I'll have to actually find one in Ohio that's on a Saturday, but I think it would be awesome to do it.

4. Now that the tri is over, I'm going to continue training (Brian's program wasn't just for the tri). I just signed up for the Cap City Half Marathon in May, so I'll be focusing more on running now. We also might do the Wasatch Back Ragnar in June if Brian doesn't end up going to Copenhagen.

5. I've been feeling much better/stronger physically, and I've even been able to lose some of the weight that I put on last quarter. I'm not exactly fat, but I'm above what I feel is my ideal weight (where I feel the best), so this was a good motivation to get back in shape, especially now that my knee is feeling better.