I'm thankful for the church bells ringing praise hymns to the Lord this Monday morn..."Oh praise Him, Alleluia!" Yes!

Psalm 113:3 "From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the Lord is to be praised!"

 

a Pacific Grove sunset

Clipless coupons: I'm a fan

Just a thought: 
Although it's sort of creepy that Kroger knows everything we buy at the grocery store, the coupons that come in the mail are actually useful! Last time I went to the store, I used them & saved $35! Yes, I was the crazy coupon lady...& I admit it was slightly awkward for a minute with the line of people staring at my wad of coupons as they were getting scanned...but it was worth it.

The only prep I did was get the mail, and...I think most people do that on a regular basis anyways. The great part was that I bought things that were already on my list.

Flashback:
It reminds me of when I shopped in China. Since my teammate & I were the only 2 foreigners in the district, people always watched us closely...to the point that the shop owners would actually hand us items in the store that we frequently bought! haha.

Let's see...what is the moral of the story? Options include:

• Use your Kroger Plus card!
• Check your mail!
• Coupons in the mail shouldn't immediately be thrown into the recycle bin.
• They're watching you...
• Just like we have so many time-saving mechanisms these days, the clipless coupons are keeping up with the times!

Cheers,
bethany

XC workout added: 2 enthusiastic thumbs up!

Yesterday, Coach Clark let me run with the UT XC team. We drove to a trail at Norris Dam and did some quality interval work - super fun stuff & I'm so thankful to tag along!

I might've also discovered a new open water swimming option at Norris Lake. That's 2 in a week! Fort Dickerson park has a quarry that is also open to the public. Its water is turquoise & feels like an exotic getaway...almost...haha. Check it out if you live close to Knoxville.

UT is gaining momentum - had a great 2nd meet & tied for the win with Florida! Here's their schedule if you want to cheer them on & follow their upcoming races...Go Lady Vols & Vols!

From Gollum to Einstein, of course...

My theme from the last race report was Gollum/LOTR, so obviously the next logical parallel to a triathlon race is...Einstein. Physicists can be extremely insightful and/yet/but in a different way than a creepy hairless corrupted hobbit...

Short version: Some of my Gollum feelings still resonate with my wetsuit experience (i.e. we [still] hates them) but I have not lost hope that I will conquer the wetsuit swim. I really enjoy open water swimming, & I am going to figure this out. Went a little faster in all 3 sports. Makin' progress in the right direction, but still have a ways to go...definitely!!! Skip to the pics or read more of the juicy triathlon/physicist parallels... (um...spoiler alert: it's a stretch but hey, it works!)

More Scoop:

Swim: It's true that I came out of the water an unacceptable 3+ minutes behind the leaders....again....but I changed my wetsuit which means I'm taking Einstein's advice and keeping out of the "Insane" category... (Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. ~Einstein)

Last race, I wore a full wetsuit size W Sm, and this time I wore a sleeveless one, unisex size 6... Although my arms enjoy the freedom ("don't clip my wings!!"), they actually never warmed up since the water was in the upper 50s....It was like a 10 minute pre-race ice bath and then sprint a mile swim out of the gate. Literally "cool"...but definitely not figuratively! The swim at Pacific Grove is called the "Kelp Crawl"....and my raw arms had bruises on them from wrangling with the kelp. It feels as if you're swimming in a pool with 100 pool vacuum cleaner hoses (the rough plastic tubes). If you hit the tube, it hurts and is somewhat stiff, but if you try to grab it to give you momentum, it just floats with you and ends up being worthless. Moral of the story = the shortest TIME between buoys on the race course is not a straight line. It's following someone who previewed the course and knows where to avoid the kelp. Doh! My course preview was cut way short due to the icy take-your-breath-away-but-not-the-romantic-type feeling I was getting from that cold water. Maybe sleeves aren't such a bad thing...

Bike: At the race, I took my bike to the local bike shop and asked them to look at a couple things, one being my shifting. They couldn't figure out what was wrong, so I ended up riding a bike that had a shifting mind of its own. #notgood. A girl in our bike group told me after the race, "I was thinking, 'Gosh, she's shifting a whole lot!'...But then I realized you weren't trying to shift!" Well let's just call that not ideal during a race. Now, I know that I attached the derailleur incorrectly. Grrr. Does it make me feel better or worse that the 3 bike mechanics at that store couldn't figure out my shifting problem? ....not sure.

Run: First 2 miles were conservative...Second 2 miles I had a horrendous gut/lung cramp & had to go slug pace...Last 2 miles I could finally go semi-strong but it was too late to catch anyone.

That particular swim-bike-run landed me 7th place out of 10 pro ladies, with a fun check from the wonderful Tri-Cal, who put on an amazing race! I hope I get to race many more TriCal events! I'm a huge fan of TriCal! Thanks!!!

I'm going in the right direction, even if it is by smaller steps than the leaps I was hoping for. I knew that I wouldn't be performing like I did before I had the downward spiral of 3+ yrs of injuries...but every time I race, I don't go into a race thinking that I'm going to have a poor race! So it's kind of a mini battle of the will/mind/heart for a couple days post race....which is normal, I'd say, for competitors! We race to win, right?! I always have a post-race list of what to fix & focus on next time, and start chuggin' at it! I'm a list girl & love crossing items off. The theme of patience came up a few times in my discussion with my coach, Jamie, at HUB Endurance. :)

This week I get to add a UT XC workout to my training! I love trying to keep up with people. Woohoo! And UT Masters swimming is picking up, with more & more former Vols who can still kick some tail! So much fun to be in that mix...as well as the many good group rides around here. I'm really thankful for the opportunity to be with people and work hard. What a gift.

Also - I'm still healthy! This is largely because of Steve Bailey, who owns and works at PROMPT Physical Therapy. And neat that we originally met because he and his wife invited a bunch of random 30-somethings over to their house for a Bible Study last year. He should seriously be a famous guru of body work sorts. I had a neck/back injury on and off since 2009, (mostly ON), and he is the only person who has gotten to the bottom of the problem and nixed it, and maintained an effective nixing! I even ride a bike that has a seat higher than the handlebars. This is good! He is very talented and has a gift of understanding of the body & how it works.

Whew, so thankful to be healthy!

Other Random Highlights:

• Lover's Point Inn - stay there! Perfecto.
• Pacific Grove, CA is gorgeous!
• What's there not to love about a place where you enter & instantly get 3 hrs of extra life?!
• 2 loop swim, 4 loop bike, 3 loop run. Fun stuff!

Next race = Dallas on October 6th! Thanks for being curious, caring, praying, &/or cheering for me!
THANK YOU (!) to my amazing sponsors!
God bless you,
bethany
PS: Einstein has many more great quotes! If you also like him, we should chat more sometime...

Lap 1 of swim w/ purple-red arms...check!

Our little bike pack. I'm leading here, but wasn't always leading.

Cramp...grrrrrr

Probably good to not see my facial expression at this moment in my life ;)

Go Team Pilot & Truckers to Triathletes (T2T)!

Gettin' ready for a bike warm-up :) 

Love all the Cali trees, crazy beautiful aloe plants, vegetation, sunsets & more! Puuurty purty.

Lobster flavored Humble Pie

Rev3 Maine

Short-n-sweet race report: Well I definitely wanted to race faster last weekend! There are a couple key things I'd change if I could do it over, and the rest is just part of the getting-race-fit process that will improve as I continue to up the intensity in training. Read more to get the detailed scoop, or skip down to the pics to get some of the Maine moments of the weekend. (Haha, yes pun intended.) :)

Reality/Reflection:

• This race was my first Olympic distance triathlon since last September. Most athletes are close to peaking at this point in the season, but my body is still going through the shock of getting race fit. It's a process.
• I haven't been training with intensity very long, & that's something ya can't win without.
• Finished w/o any injuries; gained a lot of experience; was in the mix (although I was sort of the clump that didn't really mix in well - ha) 
• For the 1.5 weeks before the race, I was sick, so my training leading up to the race was sleeping 12+ hours & sitting in the sauna 20 mins. Not ideal but at least I was healthy by race morning.

The Bad & Ugly:

• I have come to realize that full wetsuit swims are (for me) synonymous to Gollum's statement "We hates them!" I came out of the water 17th out of 19. And swimming is my strength! Yikes! Swimming in a full wetsuit makes me feel like I'm slow-motion, spinning my arms in molasses. I have a long torso, long stroke, & broad shoulders. I feel like there are bungee cords attached to my arms when I wear a wetsuit. Maybe sleeveless is a better option for me - as long as I keep my core warm, I can also keep my own swim stroke.
• *T1* was not my friend. I've read that some athletes said it was 800m from the swim exit to get to our bikes, others said 400m. I have zero fat on the bottom of my feet (genetic), so my nerves are separated from the pavement by a layer of skin. Ouch. If I do this race next year I'll put shoes by the swim exit to protect my feet. The bottoms of my feet are still bruised.
• My bike watt avg was ~45w below what should've been reasonable for me. Double yikes. The run was survival. Perhaps the bike & run were sub-par because too much life was sucked out of me from the swim & T1. 
• TSA inspected my bike box and then crammed everything back in there. As a result, my wheel and shifting on the bike arrived with problems. Even the bike support at the race tried to help but sort of made it worse, but Alex Poon w/ Rev3 helped me out a lot! Thanks :) To avoid those atrocities on the way home, I Fedex'd the "precious" back (keeping the theme LOTR)...and it was cheaper than Delta's ridiculous $150 fee for checking a bike.

The Good:

• Race course (*minus T1*)
• Rev3 staff acts like they'd put on races for fun w/o pay - great atmosphere
• Beach start & open water swimming
• Volunteers - thanks!
• Waves Oceanfront Resort = ideal
• Ocean - salt water - beach - air quality - sunsets: nice!
• Food: blueberries, grilled haddock sandwich, lobster 
• Stephen was so much fun to be with and so helpful & encouraging :)
• Showing up at the start line healthy is a huge blessing - so thankful to have the opportunity to compete & use the gifts/talent the Lord has given me. After several injuries, a surgery & a  procedure, I also know it's a true gift to be able to work hard!

All in all, there's more good than bad. And the bad will be remedied! As a competitor, it's just not fun to race when I'm not quite race fit (& then added mistakes to the day). I mean, that's pretty obvious, right? ...whatever we do in life, it's way more fun to be excellent and if it's a competition, winning is the goal! But it's also important to maintain true perspective on reality & manage expectations.

On a personal level, I'm confident that this earthly kingdom is not eternal, there is more, and no matter what happens in my *mist* of a life here, my story has the best, most happy ending beyond anything I can imagine with Jesus my Lord!

I am so very thankful for all the support I've been given from Pilot Flying J, Provision Performance Lab, HUB Endurance Multisport Shop, & Retirement Planning Services. It's truly fun to represent these companies & know people who work there who are top-notch! At the Rev3 race, I was wearing a Team Pilot shirt one day. A lady (Jean) approached me as I was waiting on my bike to be fixed...She said, "Is there a Pilot booth? I love Pilots! We always stop there - we've travelled all over the US, even Alaska with our family...love their coffee! Please tell them hi & pass it on!" I feel like that scenario could happen with all 4 companies that support me. Thankyouthankyouthankyou.

Here are a few pictures from the weekend...Cheers!
bethany

building bike...

moment before I turned around and put on my wetsuit for a warmup swim

Stephen had a Lady Vol swim cap sighting in the Atlantic on Friday ;)

Sunrise race morn!

Off to do a pre-race warm-up

Jogging to the start line...

Right before the horn...

I look like I came from the life-sucking machine in The Princess Bride

time to ride

about to dismount into T2

a few more steps to the finish line...(clearly a good thing!)

New & Improved

What happens when...all the pics & images on my blogspot are deleted? ...A new look, of course. :)

We still have the pics on the computer but it might take a while to find them and re-post them. I think I'm of the mindset of "forgetting what lies behind, pressing on towards what lies ahead..." :)

I very much appreciate Stephen's dislike of clutter, so I guess it translated to deleting a [not-so-random] Google folder of pics. haha. Oh well. I'm not all that sentimental anyways. And who wants to live in the past, right?!

I'm sure we'll get some new fun pics at Rev3 Maine this weekend!
Cheers!
bethany

The Mermaid-Cheetah Hybrid...

I competed in the Springbrook Sprint Tri. Since it was a sprint, it's fitting to describe the details in a sprint fashion:
Swim: 200 yd snake swim was interesting (but hey - thankful to have a swim!).
Bike & run amounted to a good workout and a reminder that I still have a ways to go, yet also great confirmation that I'm healthy and getting more fit every week - Yay!

Everyone was very friendly and lots of people who I didn't know cheered for me - thanks! I also loved seeing my brother, sisinlaw, & their 3 little munchkins cheering for me, along with my parents! (Before the race, my 2 yr old niece told me she wore her mermaid shirt for me & my 4 yr old nephew told me to "zoom like a cheetah"...That combo sounds like a pretty solid goal for a triathlon: the mermaid-cheetah hybrid. I'll definitely have to remember that!) Stephen was out of town, so he was cheering from his medical physics conference in Indy. ;)

I got 4th overall & won the women by 5 minutes. It was fun to meet people & enjoy the beauty of East TN! Emily took some sweet pics from the race morning & posted them to her blog here...

Other note-worthy headlines in our lives:
1. We s-o-l-d our house in Tulsa! (For real this time!) Thankful for that process (actually produced some sweet treasures!)...and/but also thankful it's OVER! ha. Onwards...
2. We gained a new bro-in-law! It was fun & special to celebrate with fam & friends to see Stephen's lovely sis tie the knot last weekend! Cheers to the newly-weds!
3. First pro race comin' up at Rev3 Maine! It will also be my first Oly tri of the yr...pretty exciting! Thankful to be able to jump into the mix!

:) bethany