seriously?

It really pisses me off when people say to me "Why don't you take a real vacation?" when I've just told them that my two vacations next year  so far are to SoCal for a half marathon and to Utah for a 188 mile relay. My response "How is that not a real vacation? I'm traveling to relax and do something I love with people I enjoy spending time with."   Response, "I know, but vacations are supposed to be somewhere tropical, on the beach with Corona in hand" 

Well, sorry if I'm not the lazy type that only enjoys working on my skin cancer with my muffin top hanging over my bikini bottoms making poor life decisions that I will surely soon regret and hoping no one got it on camera. Oh, wait. I don't have a muffin top. Because I actually work out.  Like, truly work out and don't eat crap 24 hours a day. Sure, I eat more junk than I probably should, but I'll point out that I probably do more sweating in two workouts than most people do all week. All month even.  

It's not like I haven't been to Hawaii and had my share of late nights and margaritas. Or down to SoCal to get some vitamin D and hang out at some bars. Even made some bad decisions along the way- which I KNOW there's video of.... yes, falling on my face while walking down the street.  :)  I just happen to be the one that gets up early the next morning to run and ENJOY the place that I've traveled to. And if I can do something I love, and still enjoy my vacation. All the better. I'm not one of those people that returns from a trip after living a 180 degree lifestyle to need a vacation to recover from my vacation.  I come back and fall into my routine, happy that I haven't gained a pound. Vacations are about experiences. And I've had some incredible ones.

So, I'm sick of being called 'skinny bitch' when I eat a donut, by someone who also just ate one. And then another a half hour later.  I'm sorry. If you want to be a 'skinny bitch' how bout limiting it to one donut, and maybe some crunches.  I'm 5'8" just under 140lbs, under 20% body fat.

  Yes, I eat cake.  Hate me.  I dare you.

Bri's First Oly!

So, it's come and gone and I've closed out the triathlon season with an Olympic distance- and a bike in need of repair. Joram, Jacque, Justin all came to cheer and of course my mom.  The swim couldn't have gone better- even though it was a double loop one mile.  I was really only hoping for 35 minutes but I came in around 29.  It was a smooth easy transition and off to the bike. The bike was going fairly well, except it wasn't a closed course and there were way too many vehicles for my taste. The turn around was a sharp uphill u-turn. Not cool.  On the way back I got stuck behind a couple trucks that slowed the pace- even so, I came in around 1:18. yeah!!!  The run did not go so well for me. I came out of transition flying on the run and looking back it was definitely too fast a pace for a 10k but then it felt slow. Painfully slow.  In the first couple miles my left hip and butt cheek started locking up on me. Then my left quad just above the knee, then my right quad just above the knee, then my right hamstring. Soooo... that didn't go too well. However, my goal was to finish under 3 hours and I did 2:49 and 5th in my age group. I was in second or third until well into the run when I started falling apart. I guess this is a distance I could learn to like if I could learn to run!

However, I'm definitely going to have to get my nutrition and hydration in check since about 20 minutes after finishing while gathering my stuff from transition I found myself on the pavement. I was freezing cold, then burning up and things started to go dark and blurry. Not so good. Luckily a random stranger had some hard candy, and then a coke in the car and I was doing much better.  Ugh. Of course, Joram has some pics of me laying on the ground trying to get my bearings back. Of course he does.

Labor Day Tri

How does Bri spend labor day? By laboring over a sprint triathlon of course!! Ok, so it's an easy sprint course and a late morning course. However, this is also the same course I did for my very first race. Ever.  And during that race I fell in love, even though I finished second to last of all women. Well, this past Monday, I came back and kicked that course's ass. For realz! :)   So, the race was an hour later than we all thought and when we were all wetsuited up at 9:45 only to find we had an hour to kill. Well, that sucked. Putting on that wetsuit is never an easy feat, plus I had all my nutrition and hydration already checked. Oops!  But, the race went awesome.

Somehow, I wound up being the first woman out on the bike even though I wasn't first out of the water. I got passed around mile 4 by a woman from Raise The Bar. I felt great coming off the bike and headed out on the run. Spectators were telling I was in second place and that first place was just ahead. And there she was! Within a half mile I caught up and took the lead- and kept it to the finish. Woohoo!!
My very first overall woman's win!!!! At the same race that five years ago  got me hooked. Needless to say I was totally stoked.