A Thankful Heart

There are many people in my life I am thankful for. To my friends and family...I love and appreciate you!

There is one person I did not have a picture of, and that is my teaching partner Meghan. We need to take care of that :) You are a joy and I love you too!

Party Like a Rock Star

Can I just say that tri athletes SERIOUSLY know how to party!?! The Tri Fusion End of Season Party was awesome! After a few months of careful planning and hard work, it was so nice to see it all come together and go off without a hitch! Thanks again to everyone who helped make the night possible! It was a super fun way to end the season and celebrate the amazing year we had! Till next year...

Jen, me and Tiff

Natalie and me

Kim, Laura and I

Jessi and me

Me, Jessie, Timmers and Andy (and Squirt!)

Life...

So...it has been quite awhile since I have blogged. Lets just say life has been a LITTLE stressful lately. And when life gets stressful, I tend to freak out. Thankfully, I have AMAZING friends who know just what to say to me to bring be back to reality. A little shout out to Jen, Natalie, Tiffany, Jessi, Kim, Meghan, Abi, Kya and Christina for being my support system. I love you girls and I promise I will settle down soon :)

One little girl who has helped to remind me of what is really important is my "niece" Delaney. She is my BFF's daughter and I am her "unofficial" FAVORITE auntie! (And we all know I LOVE to be the favorite!) I spent time with D last weekend and we had a little photo shoot. I am a firm believer in the self portrait picture, taken by one of the people in the picture. I love to do smiling pictures, followed by, obviously, silly face pictures. This is something I do with my students too, and let me just say that sometimes kids make the funniest faces!! I love it!



After I took a few pictures of us, Delaney decided that SHE wanted to take a self portrait picture. So, here it is...HILARIOUS! Short arms apparently make for an extreme close-up!

Delaney and I had a blast playing together! Let's just say that it was GOOD to laugh! I am so grateful for my fawesome friends and family! Life gets hectic sometimes, but it will always work itself out! Sometimes a little laughter is just what the doctor ordered.

Bear Lake Swim

Last Sunday evening, Jessi, Roger, Steve and I headed to Bear Lake for an open water swim. Emma came along for the fun too! I don't have a wetsuit, so Kim was gracious enough to let me borrow hers! We got in a great workout, and of course had tons of fun! I even got to practice drafting after Jessi for about 15 seconds! It was awesome! After the swim, RT gave us some tips on running our bikes into transition with one hand (something we had just talked about at our Tri Fusion meeting). I am SO going to learn how to do this for next season! It will help take precious seconds off my transition times :) After the swim, we SURPRISINGLY ended up at Twigs for a majorly yummy meal! I had a great time friends! Can't wait to do it again ;)

Mead Class of '98

This past weekend, I attended my 10 year high school reunion. I can't believe it has been 10 years! It literally feels like only a year or two have gone by. Originally, I was not too sure about going to my reunion. In high school, believe it or not, I was pretty quiet and on the shy side. I went to Mead, which was totally clicky, and I pretty much stuck to my group of friends. Since there were over 550 people in my graduating class, I didn't even know everyone I graduated with. I was really nervous about going to the reunion, because most of my friends were not able to come home for the event. I wasn't sure who I would hang out with, and I HATE going places by myself, so I made my friend Josh go as my date. He was given specific instructions from his wife, who happens to be my BFF, not to ditch me!

So, the technical reunion was a fancy dinner at the Lincoln Center on Saturday night, but I couldn't go to that because I had a wedding. So I went to the bar reunion at Fizzie's on Friday night. It was AWESOME!! Josh and I had a total blast catching up with our former classmates. Here are my favorite parts of the evening, in no particular order:

* Having people remember me that I did not think would.

* Getting to see my first boyfriend (from 6th grade) and meeting his wife.

* Being told by numerous guys that they could not BELIEVE I wasn't married yet ;)

* Hearing a guy yell at the top of his lungs every 5 minutes, "WOOOOO! CLASS OF 98!"

* Getting free beer from the generous party-ers.

* Catching up with old friends, and hearing what they have been up to.

* Answering to Tricia all night (I haven't heard that in 10 years...besides from Roger of course!)

* Telling people I am a triathlete, and then having them respond with "no freakin' way!"

* Reminiscing about "the good old days" and telling funny stories from high school.

* Remembering that I have worked hard these past 8 months, and knowing that I looked GOOD at my reunion!

My reunion was seriously a stellar evening! I am so happy I went and I can't wait for my 20 year!

My Week at Camp

I was lucky enough to spend a week as a counselor for a Senior High church camp on Twin Lakes in Idaho. It is a camp that I went to when I was little and have been a leader at for 10 summers. I hold this place near and dear to my heart. I love spending the week focusing on God and prayer in one of his most beautiful creations. It was an amazing week with good friends, awesome campers, and great memories! Here are some of my favorite parts...

Valley Girl 2008

Almost exactly 1 year ago, I completed my first triathlon. It was Valley Girl 2007 and it was a total blast. I had trained for about 10 months with friends, and the race truly was the celebration of all I had accomplished during that time. The race was such a great experience that it led to me joining Tri Fusion and continuing to do races this year. Valley Girl 2008 was my 4th race this year, and my 5th race ever.

Since Valley Girl was the only race I did last year, it was obviously my "A" race for this year. It was the only race where I could truly show improvement and compare times. This being said, I was SOOOOO nervous for this race because I really, really wanted to improve my time from last year. Last year I swam to the best of my abilities, used my friend's husband's mountain bike, and walked the entire run course. This year, I have been really working on my swimming (it is my best of the three!), I got a speedy fast tri bike, I learned how to run, I completely changed my eating so I am now "fueling" my body correctly, and I have lost 40 pounds. In my heart, I knew I would do better than last year, but the question was how much.

Now flash to last Sunday at 7:45 a.m. I did not sleep great the night before, I had to get up at 4:30 a.m., my stomach was in total knots, and I thought I might throw up. Totally ready to race, right!?! My dear friends Christina, Jen, Laura, Rhonda and Ali were racing with me, and it was so nice to hang with them before the race started. This race was a little different than all of the others I have done this year because Jessi and Tiff weren't racing. These two ALWAYS help get me pumped for the race and offer me serious words of encouragement, so it was hard not having them there in the morning. But I knew they were coming to cheer and I would see them soon enough :) Luckily, Jen was there to mother me and calm me down! She is truly gifted at this! Here Jen and I are before the swim start, acting like we are totally ready to rock this race!
When the race started, Jen and I decided to go for it and start on the inside of the horse shoe. I was a little nervous we might get run over, but we thought we were hard core enough to start with the other serious swimmers. As soon as I started swimming, I was able to settle into my steady pace. My stroke felt strong, and I felt like I was cruising. As I turned to my right to breath, I saw Jen swimming right along side me. We stayed that way for almost the entire swim, and it was such a comfort to have her right at my side. We could have held hands if we wanted to :) When I came out of the water, I was surprised to see most green caps still swimming. Out of 65 girls in my swim heat, I was 13th out of the water! Really!?! I ended up beating my time from last year by 1 second, but the swim was actually 135 m longer. Not bad!

Next I headed to my bike. I hopped on with minimal effort, and started the bike course. Right away, I heard Roger in the mega phone, and I immediately started laughing. I knew it was him when he yelled, "Goooooooo Tricia!" I also heard Jessi, Tiff, Natalie, Greg, Phaedra, Steve and Emma yelling their little hearts out! Hearing my friends cheer for me is one of the best feelings in the entire world! It totally gave me a boost on the bike. It was also a wonderful surprise to hear Laura S., Kim and Joey cheering out on the bike course! It was so sweet of you guys to come out and you spread the cheer love throughout the ride :) Two of my goals on the bike were to stay in aero position as much as possible, and to stay at a steady pace on the flat parts. I worked hard on these goals and was pretty happy with the outcome. I shaved 12 minutes off my bike time from the year before! As I headed into T2, I heard Tiff in the mega phone and again it warmed my heart and got me ready for the run.

The second I started the run, my awesome race took a turn for the worst. I got a side ache on my right side. I tend to get side aches from time to time when I run and I am NOT great at pushing through them. But this was a race, so I was going to do my darnedest to finish strong. About halfway through the run, my side ache went away on my right and showed up on my left side. Are you kidding me!?! I could tell that I was dragging, but one of my run goals was to run the whole thing, so I decided to push it the best I could, knowing I would never regret it :) As I finally hit the park, nearing the end of my race, I was THRILLED to see Jen, Natalie, Tiffany and Laura running towards me! Natalie was even running in heels, and she totally looked like a supermodel! As I have said before, this is my ABSOLUTE favorite part of a race. They offered me much needed words of encouragement, a few laughs and some major motivation to finish strong. I pushed it to the end, and beat my run time from last year by 12 1/2 minutes.

I ended up shaving a total of 25 minutes off my time from my race last year! I was pretty stinkin' happy with that PR! My hard work really has paid off, and I can't wait to see how fast Trish 2009 can be!

Now, I have a few shout outs to take care of. First thanks to Tiffany for coming out to cheer for me and for stealing the bull horn from Roger so I could hear her voice when I needed it! You are SUCH an amazing friend who has been by my side through all of my transformations this year. You and I have both blown our old selves out of the water this year and I have loved going through the process with you and celebrating all of our successes together! I love you lady!

Next, thanks to RT, Jessi and Emma for coming out to cheer. You guys have been majorly busy moving, and I was very touched that you took a break from the madness to come and cheer at my race (on like 5 hours of sleep)! Rog, the mega phone was AWESOME and I appreciate every word of encouragement! It brought a smile to my face every time you cheered for Tricia :) And Jessi, thanks for taking pictures and for cheering me on. You have been a constant cheerleader for me over the past two years and I value your friendship beyond words. I love when I finish a race and I get to see your beautiful smile and get a famous Jessi hug and kiss and hear you tell me you are proud of me. It is the BEST! I love you guys lots and lots!

To Greg, Natalie and Steve (I think that is Steve's arm) thanks for coming out to cheer as well. I am always impressed when people come to a race, early in the morning just to cheer! Natalie, I was surprised and ecstatic to see you coming to run me in! Now that was sweet :) You have been such a supportive and dear friend to me and I love you to pieces! I have really enjoyed hanging out with all of you over the past few months, and you are wonderful friends!

Thanks to Phaedra for coming out to cheer and take pictures! Most of these pictures are courtesy of P and the one on my bike is phenomenal :) I totally heard you cheering lady, and it was AWESOME to get to see you in transition before the race. You are sneaky! Thanks again to Laura as well for coming to run me it! I was totally surprised to see you and I loved hanging out with you before the race! Ali and Rhonda rocked this race also, and it was so fun to race with my teammates. Loves to you friends!

A super special shout out to Jen and Christina, my racing buddies. Jen freakin' rocked this race! 5th in our age group...WHAT!?! I am so proud of you woman and continually surprised by how smoking fast you are! I loved that we got to race together, and this will go down as one of my favorite swims EVER! And Christina, I know you had a tough race, but you finished and you still had a smile on your face! Did you ever really think you would do a triathlon, let alone 2!?! You are amazing woman! I love you both girls!!

Finally, a HUGE thank you to my fabulous parents! They weren't sure if they were going to make it due to the heat, but they toughed it out and cheered their hearts out! You both have been so supportive of my triathlons and I think you are really starting to get into it :) I am so grateful you came and I LOVED seeing you at the finish line! You guys are terriffic and I love you times a million!

Ahhhh...Hawaii

A few months ago, my wonderful friend Kya invited me to go to Maui with her and her husband and her husband's family. Since Kya would be spending a week in paradise with her in-laws, she wanted back up. So, I got to be the "bring-a-friend." It was AWESOME!! We planned the trip LONG before those pesky snow days, so I actually missed the last 2 days of school. I actually called my students on the last day of school and talked to them on speaker phone, and they LOVED it!

Here Kya and I are at the airport after just arriving. Note our lame pre-Hawaii tanning booth tans :) Also, note the straight hair. That's the last you will see of that for awhile!

Now, I spent the first 10 years of my life living in Californina, and it is pretty safe to say that I am a beach girl 100%! I absolutely LOVE the ocean and my favorite place in the whole wide world is the beach. So this trip to Hawaii was right up my alley! I also LOVE palm trees and it makes me SO happy when I see them! I am pretty sure I probably said the line "I CAN'T BELIEVE WE'RE IN HAWAII" in my sing-song voice at least 1 million times during my vacation. Kya loved it!

The best part about vacationing with Kya is that we are totally on the same page when it comes to how to spend our days. Here was our basic itinerary each day: wake up, (I chose to get up early and run 5K every day!), get ready for the beach, stop at Starbucks, lay out at the beach all morning reading our books, play in the water a little, eat lunch, lay out and play in the water some more, go home and get ready, eat dinner out, and do a little shopping. It was glorious!

This is a sign that was at a couple of the beaches we went to. We thought it was hilarious that it warns of the conditions during "winter months, Kona winds, and normal days." So Hawaii! Here are pictures of a few of the beaches we went to:

And no Hawaii re-cap would be complete without a beautiful sunset picture!

On our last day, we took a trip to the aquarium. It was an insanely windy day, as you can see. I had decided that it would have be a great idea to wear my cute mini-skirt, but thanks to the wind, I am pretty sure I flashed at least 10 people while at the aquarium! Oh well...it's Hawaii! Hang loose right!?!

Playing in the touching pool. I did NOT like when I touched things and they moved!

Kya and I goofing around with the submarine :)

Finally, here I am with Carl (Kya's husband) and Kya. These two are some of my best friends, and I had a BLAST with them on vacation! Thanks for the invite guys and we should TOTALLY do it again...minus the in-laws :) And can I just point out how freakin' TAN I look compared to Carl!?! Thanks for staying white buddy ;)

AM BLT + Swim = TONS O' FUN :)

As you probably read on Tiffany's blog, last Tuesday Nat, Tiff, Katey, Christina and I got together for a little bike ride. (Well, actually Nat was doing a run, but she still came along for the fun!) We decided that with the extreme heat we are having, a morning ride sounded pretty sweet!

I decided that this would be the perfect time to figure out my new aero-bottle holster, after helping Tiff with hers during Blue Lake. Obviously, Nat is giving me some helpful tips right now :)

I brought my scissors in my purse, all ready to cut my straw, but we couldn't figure out where to cut it. Christina is giving me the whole "I have no freakin' idea where to cut it" look. Looks like I might need to seek guidance from a professional! Timmers, feel like helping me this weekend!?!

Finally, this is the set up we decided on for the ride, but after about 10 minutes of trying to figure this all out, I realize that I left my sponge at home. Dang it! Back to the regular waterbottle holder for me! Christina and I had a great ride, and although I hadn't rode my bike for 2 weeks, I felt pretty good about my ride. Christina and I have a system where one person gets to complain on the ride if they are tired and the other person is on encouragement patrol. This was my turn to complain, and Christina was awesome about pumping me up! Thanks friend!

After the bike ride, Nat, Tiff, Katey and I headed out to Bear Lake for a little open water swim. This was my first open water swim since Elma in May, so I was a little nervous. I also was the only one without a wetsuit, so that made me nervous too!

Check out all of my freckles! They tend to show up during the summer :)

Here Natalie and I are, getting into the water. It actually was a great temperature, and after a quick warm-up, I was good to go without a wetsuit. By the end of the workout, everyone else was actually HOT in their wetsuits!

After swimming the boey line a few times, Tiff asked me if I wanted to swim across the lake to the shed. She knows I can't say no to her, so of course I was up for the challenge! See the little tiny white shed all the way on the other side of the lake?? That is where we swam to!

Tiffany did AWESOME and I am so glad she gave me the challenge! She is an AMAZING friend and she knows just what to say to me to push me farther without pushing me too hard. Thanks for continually encouraging me to step up to the plate Tiff! You know I need it! You are wonderful and I love you for it!

Over all, it was an amazingly LONG, yet fun workout! I can't wait to do it again with these ladies! So much fun!!

Conquering the Death Hill

So I have done the BLT with Tri Fusion about 7 times now. I would like to start by saying that the first time I did the 16 mile loop, I cried about 3 times. Jen was so good at encouraging me to keep going and calming me down. She always looks on the bright side of EVERYTHING! This is one of the many things I love about this girl :) Doesn't she just look so happy!?!



I would like to say that I have come a LONG way over the weeks, and now I really enjoy the loop...except for that pesky DEATH HILL. Here is my death hill progression over the first 6 weeks:

Weeks 1 &2 - Stopping at the bottom, not even attempting the hill, and walking my bike to the top. (This KILLS my calfs by the way because of the angle of my bike shoes...think walking up-hill in reverse heels.)

Weeks 3 & 4 - Riding about 1/4 of the way up, then stopping and walking my bike to the top. (Calfs still in major pain!)

Weeks 5 & 6 - Riding 1/2 way up, then stopping, taking off my shoes, and walking my bike to the top in my socks. (Calfs doing better!)

I think it is pretty safe to say that I HATE that death hill! So yesterday when Tiffany told me that it was my day to make it to the top (because Jessi and Tiff had talked it over and decided for me!), I looked at her and said, "Ya right!" It was pouring rain, I had had a long day, and it just wasn't going to happen. So Christina and I headed off on our ride, fully intending to walk up that pesky death hill. Here we are pre-ride :)


As I started riding, all I could think about was the stupid hill! It was totally mocking me and I felt like I should put it in its place today! However, my legs were so tired and I just wasn't feeling it! Oh, what to do! Now Christina and I have been friends for years and one of the things I love about her is that she always tells me what I want to hear. Here is how part of our conversation on the bike went:

Me: "Christina, I totally think I am going to try to make it up the death hill today!"
C: "You can totally do it Trish! You are so awesome!"

5 minutes later...

Me: "Christina, there is NO way I can make it up the hill! My legs are freaking KILLING me!"
C: "That hill is ridiculous! We can turn around before we even get there!"

5 minutes later...

Me: "But Tiff said that today was my day, so I am going to go for it!"
C: "You got it Trish! Piece of cake!"

We went back and forth like this the entire ride until we hit the bottom of the hill. At that moment, I felt like I had 4 options:

1. Turn around now! (Out of the question for Trish 2008!)
2. Walk up the hill and save my legs for the rest of the ride. (Tiff and Jessi would NEVER let me get away with this one!)
3. Ride up as far as possible, take off my shoes, and walk the rest of the way in my socks (but that meant my socks would be soaking wet, so that was out).
4. Go for it!

So, I went for it. I don't know what got into me. Maybe it was the rain...maybe it was the green apple gel I took before the ride...maybe it was my new Coach sunglasses that I wore by mistake...maybe it was Tiff's voice in my head telling me I would never regret it...who knows! I do know that Christina was adorable and cheered her heart out for me at the top of her lungs as she walked her bike up the hill! Now that is friendship! I thought I might die as I neared the top, but I freaking made it! Look how happy I was! This is our victory cheer! (Note that I am breaking out the old school "Yessssss!)

I want to give a shout out to Jay, who rode right next to me and made it to the top for the first time too! Man, what a great day! In your face death hill! Now does this mean that I have to make it to the top EVERY time I ride???

Iron Eagle Triathlon

The Iron Eagle Triathlon was my third triathlon this season, and my fourth ever. For some strange reason, I was REALLY nervous for this one. (I think maybe it had to do with my crash at the last race.) So, I woke up early on Sunday morning to rain. Boo! Those of you who know me well know that I am not a huge fan of rain. (I hate when my hair gets wet!) Luckily, the temperature wasn't too cold, and I figured I would be wet after the pool anyway, so I sucked it up, picked up my friend Christina and headed to the race.

As I arrived at Eastern, I started seeing my teammates and my nervousness changed to excitement. I must say that I LOVE racing as part of Tri Fusion! My friends are so wonderful and encouraging and fun and hilarious and they always make me smile :) As soon as I got my Tri Fusion tats on (thanks Tim!), I was ready to race.



As I was waited for the swim to start, I made a mental note of my 3 goals for the race:

1) Complete the race in under 1:45:00.

2) Use my big chain ring when possible on the bike.

3) Run the whole run, EVEN on the hills.

Bonus goal: NO STITCHES!

My fabulous friend Christina came to cheer for me and count my laps. She is training for her first triathlon and I thought it would be good for her to watch a race before she did one. She was such a support to me during the race counting laps, taking pictures and cheering her little heart out! Thanks so much friend!


Okay, back to the race. The race has a pool swim (YESSSSS!) so we started in heats. Somehow all of the Tri Fusion peeps got to start in the same heat. It was really fun to see us all lined up and ready to go at the same time! We had to circle swim with 3 or 4 people in a lane, which is not ideal for me. I sometimes stress out when I circle swim because I worry too much about the people around me instead of focusing on my swim. I did pretty well though and when I got out of the pool, I noticed others will still swimming in my heat. Always a good sign :)


After the swim I headed out on the bike. It was POURING!! Now I know I said I would be wet from the swim anyway, but after the bike I was SOAKED! My legs felt good on the bike and I was able to actually pass people! That was my first time ever passing someone on the bike in a race and it was awesome! I had a really good ride and I rode the entire second half in my large chain ring! Goal #2 - check!

After the bike I dismounted in transition, felt a little wobbly, had to stop and get off the bike carefully, then started the run. The first little bit was pure mud, and I was a little nervous of slipping (and truthfully, of getting majorly dirty because I am not a fan of mud and I was in my brand new Tri Fusion race shirt!), but I took it slow and was able to pick up the pace when I hit the pavement. The run was hilly and it felt long to me, but I was able to run the entire time! Goal #3 -check! And I passed 3 people! WHAT!?!

Also, the highlight of my entire race was when Jessi, Tiffany, AND Tim came back to finish the run with me! I have to say that it was the most amazing feeling when I came over the top of the last sucky hill (and let me just say that I wanted to walk pretty badly!) and I saw my 3 amigos running towards me cheering their heads off! Jessi came back EVEN with battle wounds and Tiff came back EVEN with major blisters on her ankles. Now that is love! I also enjoyed the comic relief Tim added to the end of my run :) Thank so much friends!

I crossed the finish line feeling strong! I had some technical difficulties setting my watch when the race started, so I had no idea what my time was. But now the official results are out and my final time was 1:28:55! That means that I blew Goal #1 out of the water! And my SECRET time goal was actually 1:30:00, and I blew that out of the water too! I could not have been happier with my rainy day race :)

Shout out to Jen who completed her first race of the season after waiting for a knee injury to recover, and a shout out to Laura who completed her first triathlon EVER! These ladies did awesome and I am so proud of them!

And here I am with Tiffany and Jessi, my incredible teammates and friends! I have grown a lot closer to both of these ladies this year and I absolutely LOVE racing with them! These girls are phenomenal! After the race, a group of us headed over to Pita Pit for some post-race grub, conversation, and tons of laughter :) What a perfect ending to a fabulous race day! I think I might be liking racing more and more...