Ironman Texas

Texas Ironman

Yes, this is a long one! If you don't want to read it all you can look at the pictures and then my little list of quick stats at the end!

Wow what a weekend! I flew into Houston on Thursday morning with Emi. It was my first time traveling alone with her and it’s a bigger pain than I thought it would be. We are so blessed to have such a great daughter. She is so patient and happy most of the time. The hardest part was just having so much stuff to carry around. I got a lot of “Wows” from people seeing how much stuff I was carrying. I had my roller suitcase, backpack, diaper bag, car seat, and Emi. She did great though. I knew my arms would be sore after that day though! I passed Emi off to my mom at the airport. Emi wasn’t so happy to say goodbye but I think it was mostly because she was so tired from getting up early. 

 How do I rescue everyone off this plane if it crashes?

My parents had way too much fun with her!

 I got to the hotel and was exhausted because I woke up before 4am. My room wasn’t ready but someone from the group I was traveling with offered me their bed for an hour nap. I jumped on it!

My sister arrived at the hotel and we went to the expo to get my bike and check-in. She is an all-world athlete so she was able to go to the front of the line and was able to bring me with her. It was my first time going through this and not just waiting for her on the other side. We looked around in the gear tent and headed back to the hotel.

We went on a bike ride together, just nice and easy around the hotel area. It was fun to ride with her and I wish we lived closer so we could do it more often! There was an athlete dinner that night. I knew I probably wouldn’t be able to eat any of it (gluten). We went and Meredith ate the fastest dinner of all time! I was hungry and ready to get back to the hotel. Then bed around 8pm that night!

Friday morning I woke up and my left arm was SO sore! Little Emi isn’t so little anymore I guess! We went to where the swim start would be and went on a bike ride. Meredith wanted an hour with 4 pickups and I just wanted 20-30 minutes. Well, I turned around and got lost so I went a little over an hour while Meredith went an hour! Oops! We then changed into our speed suits while everyone else had their wetsuits. The water was FREEZING! I went about 10 minutes in the water and waited for Meredith at the car. Back to the hotel for breakfast and some ART. We did some last minute things to our bikes and got our gear bags together to drop off. Meredith also found me a wet suit to borrow in about the space of 5 minutes, she has too many connections!

Back to the expo to drop our bikes and gear bags and to go to the athlete meeting. The meeting was pointless and not helpful in the least. Back to the hotel for more relaxing, and to Academy for some new goggles for me, mine fog to much. We made and ate dinner in Meredith’s portable kitchen (Burner, pot, spoon, salt, pepper, seasoning, olive oil, seasoning, cleaning supplies, ect.). I had lots of brown rice pasta with red sauce. I usually have chicken to but my belly was too full from all the pasta to eat any chicken! I had some fruit too later that night and started Meredith’s tradition of a dessert the night before the race (peanut butter snickers bar). To bed around 8 again!

I did not have the best night’s sleep! I kept waking up and couldn’t go back to sleep. After about 5 hours of sleep off and on it was finally 4 am; time to wake up! I had buckwheat pancakes with maple syrup and a few blackberries for breakfast. We got the rest of our stuff together and headed down to catch a ride to the race.

It felt so real and weird to be inside the excitement of the whole race instead of on the outside/spectator mind set. Checked my bike one last time and ironically took my fix-a-flat out of my bike bag to ask Meredith how to use it. She said, “I’ve never had to so I know as much as you.” Well, we both were praying that neither would have to use it anyway.

 Went to our special needs bags to drop off frozen water bottles and other nutrition. (you get these bags about half way through the bike and run if you want them.) Then it was on our way to pick up the wet suit to borrow and our “hike” to the swim start (0.8 miles away- guess it really was 141.4 ;) ) We met Scott along the way and walked together. I was SO glad to see him! It made me SO much calmer; less nervous, and just happier- amazing what the love of your life can do for you!
 

 Well, we got all ready for the swim start with our wetsuits on and what not and started lining up to get in the water. My back was still killing me (chronic flair ups) and my left arm was still super tight. Meredith got us to the font of the line and Scott stood right outside the shoot with us. They let us in at 6:45am right after they started the professional triathletes. I just followed Meredith. I wasn’t sure if I should start with her since I was thinking about a 1:10 goal time and she was 55min goal time. We swam to where the start was to be. There were paddle boarders lining the starting line in the water that we could hold on to while we waited for the start. I decided to start with Meredith since I could try to hold onto her feet and would be less likely to get kicked in the chest (broken rib).

 I started my stop watch about 30 seconds before the start. Mike Reiley (the announcer) told the paddle boarders to get out of the way, but the one in front of us didn’t. Meredith was able to get around to the left but I was right in the middle of the board and couldn’t swim around it so I just went under her. I found Meredith’s feet and just went with them. There were others who were blocking her way in front of her so I was actually able to stick on her feet for a little bit. A little after I lost her feet I got grabbed right in the crotch and my wet suit ripped almost down to the knee. I was praying the rest of the way that it wouldn’t rip the rest of the way down the leg. I got grabbed by the shoulder and pushed back by a couple people the whole swim. I found a guy who was swimming around the same speed as me and stayed on his feet for a while. I called him mr. bubbles in my mind because he had this weird kick with his left leg that created SO many bubble in the water! I lost his feet on one of the turns but found them again 10-15 minutes later. I lost them for good shortly after that. I took the last turn into the canal and was starting to notice that there weren’t many pink caps (women) around me. I thought, well I guess I’m swimming better than I thought I would! I thought the finish was further than it was and didn’t start kicking my legs hard like I should have (to get the blood flow to them so you don’t have jello legs coming out of the water). I looked at my watch and saw 1:04!!! CRAZY!!! I thought for sure it was on the wrong setting or something! I made sure that it was on the stopwatch mode and started whooping! I had a crazy smile on my face the whole way through transition.

Scott was able to tell it was me in the water and snapped this photo!

I was wondering where I was in my age group and was trying to ask Scott, but the website hadn't updated so he had no idea. 

 There were several volunteers helping us out of the water. I ran to the “stippers” to get my wet suit off then off to transition. There was one other woman in the changing tent so I had a couple volunteers to myself to help me. I pulled on bike shorts over my trishorts and got my jersey, glasses, helmet, socks, shoes and jersey stuffed with nutrition. I did forget my extra water bottle in my bag though! I ran off to my bike un racked and ran out.

I mounted and realized after a little bit that my shifting was off. I was in the small chain in front and my back shifting was jumping on one of the gears. I also later realized that my wheel wasn’t on super tight and my brakes weren’t tightened down. I didn’t want to start because I figured it would be fine.  I started on my first bag of jelly beans (300 cals) and then started my 200 calorie bags of jelly beans. I ate two bonk breaker bars in between the bags. I knew I would see Emi around mile 50 since my mom said she would bring her down. I saw Scott at the bottom of a hill around mile 20. It was SO good to see a happy familiar face! I saw him several more times on the bike as well as around mile 50 when I saw him and not EMI! I was SO sad and had to just convince myself to stay positive. I then got to see her around mile 60! It was so so nice to see her. I started to tear up. I then got to see my dad and oldest sister! It was so nice to see them! It’s amazing how much that really does keep you going! They had written Go Mer, GO J, and Go Mom on the road in chalk. I did end up grabbing my special needs bag because I felt like I wanted my extra salt pills in there. I grabbed it and threw out the extra Jellybeans in there and grabbed the salt pills. I was taking 4-6 an hour and my stomach was handling it. My back was KILLING me from mile 60 till the end. Also, my HR goal for the first half was 155-160 but it was highest 145 for the first half, usually closer to 140. The second half I didn’t see it go above 152 and usually around 140-145. So, I think I need to practice being in Aero position more so my back doesn’t kill me as much! A 8 bike peleton came up on me and passed me. My goal was to have no women pass me and there were two women in this group. You are not allowed to draft in these races so when I see people drafting it annoys me so much! I went around them and got caught by them a couple times. Then around mile 80 I heard a swishing noise. I thought that something got caught in my back wheel but then dread hit me. I got a flat! I pulled over and started to figure things out. There goes the peleton! A cop pulled over and made sure traffic didn’t hit me as I was dealing with my bike. I found the hole and put my finger on it while I got everything else ready. I got the fix-a-flat out and read the instructions. I thought “I have one chance to make this work!” I hadn’t changed a tube in years so I really didn’t want to try to do that. I started to put it on but the angle wasn’t good so I readjusted and jammed it on the valve stem. It filled the tire up and I pulled it off and rotated the tire. Part of the fix a flat stuck on the valve and I went back and forth between pulling it off or just leaving it. I didn’t want to pull it off and loose all the air in my tire. I ended up pulling it off and everything was fine. I was off on my bike again. I think I lost 4-5 minutes with this whole debacle! Around mile 90 I didn’t feel like jelly beans any more so I started sipping on the scratch and carbopro that I mixed up from my sister. I was able to get a lot of that down so that was great! I just kept wanting to get off the bike and start the run! Finally got to transition!

Gave my bike to a volunteer and got my bag and headed back into the transition tent. I took my bike shoes off, changed my jersey, socks, shoes, and got my hat on. I was the only one in the tent the whole time so I had 4-5 volunteers helping me out. One was pouring cold water down my back which felt AMAZING! I grabbed my running water bottle that was stuffed with jelly beans. They also had Vaseline to help with chaffing! When they offered it I was SO excited they laughed at me.

Finally to MY part of the whole race! I left transition thinking “don’t go too fast, don’t go too fast!” The ironman website wasn’t updating so I had NO idea where I was. I passed the T3 tent (Austin tri club) and they went crazy for “Meredith’s sister.” It was very needed and nice as I went up the one steep little hill in the whole course. It was a three-loop course. I was going to try to take in 150-160 cal/hr and 500-1000mg of salt, but things don’t always go to plan. I was already force-feeding myself on the bike and the run just got worse. Nothing sounded good so I just kept cramming food in my mouth as much as I could. I was able to get one package of honey stinger chews in me the first loop (160cal/hr), but then the rest of the run I only was able to get in ½ a package of chews (80cals). I was able to see Scott a couple times every loop, which was always a pick-up! I felt great the 1^st loop. I saw Meredith across the canal and cheered for her. The end of the second loop, the first pro female was coming up on me. She was finishing and I was going to start my last lap (the pros start before the amateur athletes). I was almost running as fast as she was so the biker who leads her was saying “first pro female coming through.” Then people saw me and told me congratulations. It was a fun mile with people thinking that I was the first pro female. I saw my sister again at Mile 16 and she said “I think you are first in your age group.” So nice to have someone else out there on the course with you! There were a couple of out and back portions on the course and I saw my sister again and she said go for first! I thought “of course I have first in my age group you said I was first and I don’t think anyone will pass me on the run.” On to the last lap! I grabbed my special needs bag this lap because I had a bonk breaker bar in the bag and didn’t want to loose it (you don’t get your special needs bag back). I was tired and figured I was 1^st in my age group, basically I got complacent. There were some miles that last lap I am utterly embarrassed by! I saw Scott a lot more this last lap that really helped! Then it was the last aid station and to the finish line! I was waiting for this point for several months! Mike Reilly the voice of Ironman said “Joy-celyn McCauley, you are an ironman!” and I did a little happy leap across the finish. I had been thinking about how to cross the finish since I started the swim and decided on Scott and my leap of joy when we see each other out on our runs. I don’t know how much I was able to actually leap but I tried!

 Emi LOVED my little award.

 On the stage with the Emmers!

 1

 Accepting my Kona slot.

 Sister duo going to Kona!

 "The Voice" of Ironman.

 Kona baby!

 Sporting one of her new onsies!

 The whole family at this craziness!

 Right after the finish!

 Showin' off

 Emi stared at Mike the whole time we were up there.

 The only two finishing photos I have right now! Thanks to one of Meredith's friends. 

It was an amazing day with amazing support! Thanks to the support of E2 triathlon training group here in Cincy/Dayton. If you want to know more about them ask me! Thanks to the support, love, and encouragement from all my friends and friends that are family or basically family! I really do appreciate all the good luck posts on Facebook! It helped to know there were people out there looking up my results or waiting to hear how I did! I couldn't give up on all of those people! (really I couldn't look bad to all those people!)

Thank you to Bryan Krabbe for all the advice on training and nutrition and for the organized long rides/runs. When I didn’t feel like eating anything I had Bryan in my head telling me to force feed myself :).

Thanks to my parents who watched Emi for Scott and I so Scott could support me and I could do this. Thanks to them for also helping us get out to Texas and of course for being there to cheer me on and get Emi to cheer me on as well. They made adorable onsie’s, they said “my aunt is an Ironman,” “Ironbaby,” and “my mom is an ironman.” It really helped to have them out there!

Thanks to my sister Megan who doesn’t do this craziness, but puts up with us! Thanks Megan for coming and giving up some awesome stuff you could have done in Cali!

Special thanks to the one who got me into all this craziness, my coach, Meredith! She helped me get race wheels, speed suit, and wet suit to borrow. Thanks to all the encouraging texts especially those on the end of long trainer rides with surprise workouts! Thanks for showing me the ropes and not making fun of me (too much) for my naïve new ironman questions. You can read her own race report that she'll post on Facebook and follow her on twitter and/or Facebook (Meredith Gardner- athlete) (twitter @gardnermer - shameless plug!

And last, but not least, thanks to my patient husband for helping me be able to get my long rides/runs in and for coming to Texas to cheer. He used the flight on the way down to enter the course into his phone so he could get around the course quicker and to more places, even though he should have slept since he didn't get much the whole week. He is the love of my life and I am so lucky I am his as well. He is so supportive in so many ways and makes sacrifices to allow me to accomplish these goals I have and further my talents God has given me. 

Quick stats:

1^st in my age group

2^nd over-all (missed 1^st by under 2 minutes :( )

 Fastest female amateur run split by 11ish minutes

Time: 9:51:44

Swim: 1:03:34 (goal: 1:10)

Bike: 5:24:14 (with a flat) (goal:5:30)

Run: 3:15:37 (goal: 3:00)

T1: 4:17

T2: 4:02

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Am I crazy?

So, this last season went ok with triathlons... I went to watch my sister in the Louisville Ironman this year. It's the third Ironman I've been able to watch her do. I think the atmosphere is so electrifying and addicting. Be care if you ever go to one because this might just happen to you...

After much deliberation and thinking I signed up for 2014 Ironman TEXAS!!! So, May 17th (the day after my birthday) 2014 send me good thoughts and lot of energy all day! My sister is doing it too so it will be a family affair! I'm SO excited and SUPER nervous! I hope to be able to do amazing!

I also have signed up for Muncie 70.3 and am thinking about doing Boise 70.3, age group nationals, and Beach to Battle ship either half or full.

Looking forward to posting some amazing race reports to come!

Third half-ironman this year!

Waterman’s half ironman

I must start out this race report and say I have the best husband EVER! I can’t thank him enough for all he did for me this weekend and how he made this weekend possible for me.

It was a crazy trip that started at 4:45pm on Friday. I just started work 2 weeks ago and couldn’t take anytime off so Scott picked me up with Emmers and we left from the hospital. We hit a lot of rush hour traffic unfortunately but all worked out. I got a hotel on Priceline (Marriott for $55, normally $199, got to love priceline!) an hour on the Cincinnati side of the race. We pulled into the hotel around 1:30am. We all went to sleep eventually. Emi kept me up with her cute noises till 2am and then I woke up at 4:50 and couldn’t get back to sleep. So, less than 3 hours of sleep the night before a race (I don’t recommend that). We left the hotel at 6:00am so we could get to the race at 7:00am. After getting lost several times and taking wrong turns (stupid D.C. roads!) we got to the race a 7:25am! Yikes! I knew that check in closed at 7:30 and I hadn’t gotten any of my stuff ready to set up transition, so I was a little frantic and scrambled. Again, I have the most awesome husband ever and he helped keep me calm and pump up my bike tires and get things ready as well as take care of our little one. I was just finishing setting up transition when they said “ok everyone out of transition right now!” I’ve never cut it THAT close. I hoped that I had everything there and went down to the swim start.

 The cutie in the most comfortable bed ever (Marriot beds are the best!)

 The closest I've ever parked to a race. Literally like 10 steps away!

 Here’s my BIG THANK YOU to Cristy Doll for letting me borrow her wet suit! I would have frozen to DEATH without it! I got the wetsuit on and headed down to the dock after a quick kiss from Emi and Scott. I hadn’t had time to do my hair so I did two quick braids while I was walking down the dock 5 minutes before we started. There was a TON of wind so the water was supper choppy. It was a two-loop course with tons of sighting buoys, which was very nice.

8:05 I jumped in the water (in water start) and 8:06 we were off! I seriously wanted to quick about 20 strokes and 10 gulps of water later. The chop was HORRIBLE and I was freezing! I didn’t know HOW I was going to get through this swim. I thought about all the driving we did to get here and how horrible if I quit in the water. I then thought about how I always tell people to never think negatively at all during a race so I tried to think positive but then found myself with negative self talk 2 minutes later. I was finally on my second lap and thought that I would be happy with a 40min swim time after all this. I was freezing and kept thinking about how cold and miserable I was. I stuck interrupted in my misery when I stuck my hand in a Man sized glob of weeds! Eww! Gross! No sooner had I just stopped getting grossed out when 2 stokes later my other hand met a man sized weed! I got disoriented and looked up and a kayaker started waving his paddle to go the other way that I was swimming. I looked around so confused with where I was and realized I was about 90-110 degrees off course! Well, I’ll spare you all the other negative self talk that went through my mind the end of the swim.

 The strippers! I didn't think there would be any!

 Transition! I’ll never get used to the feeling getting out of the water and trying to run up a ramp through transition. Your legs feel like jello and this race I was freezing too. I was so cold I guess my brain froze and I forgot to take off my cap and goggles and start unzipping and pulling off my wetsuit until up the ramp a little ways two race volunteers asked if I wanted help pulling off my wet suit. SURE! I hadn’t ever had to struggle with it and was dreading having to. I didn’t think this little race would have “strippers” for us! So off it came! Scott tried to get a picture but they were to fast. There’s just a pic of me on the ground after the fact. Transition was a super long run and I’m just slow in transition (16^th/40ish). Scott ran with me, pushing the car seat as I went to transition. I was frozen how was I supposed to put things on fast! Everything was soaking wet and gross. Eventually I got on my bike and was off. Scott had told me he thought there were 7-8 women in front of me. Good! I like catching people!

I started around the same time as a woman in all pink with a pink bike. We went back and forth for most of the race. It was fun to have someone else out there because it was a pretty lonely bike course. Around mile 20 I saw Scott drive by the opposite direction. I waved and realized he didn’t see me and so I shouted his name, he still didn’t hear me. I thought “well, that’s going to stink for him!” We were planning on taping my phone in my saddle bag but obviously I barely had time to get ready for the race much less tape a phone in my saddle bag! I didn’t need to eat near as many calories on this race as my previous races. I think it helps eating a bigger breakfast. I had “weird” nutrition this race. I’ve made my own protein and granola bars that are tasty and gluten free and so I used those as well as some store bought ones. I usually also use some nutrition gummies (normally honey stinger chews). This race I didn’t have time to pick any up so I went with what I train with a lot: starburts and starburst jelly beans! It was nice to see Scott along the course cheering and he kept letting me know how far back off the leader and how many women were in front of me. I was nervous because the leader was around 12 minutes in front of me at mile 45ish. I would really be tested on my run! Bad things that happened: around mile 35 I realized what that weird noise was, my front brakes were rubbing the whole time!, around mile 40 I dropped my chain twice, at 43 I dropped my spare water bottle so I knew I NEEDED one at the next water handoff, mile 45 I dropped both water bottles that I tried to grab so I had to stop and a volunteer ran up and gave me one. Other than all that, and my back killing me (I need to find a good place to do a bike fit), all went well on the bike.

 Transition again! I knew I was way behind the leader because I saw her on the run course as I was coming in. I thought she looked like a strong runner too so I was worried. The no sleep the night before was catching up to me. I recommend not racing on less than 3 hours of sleep! Also the added stress of just starting work. I had previously said that I wanted to do 6:30 pace if the race was as flat as the other two that I’ve done. The last race had around 300-350 ft of elevation change and I was able to do 6:37 pace. Scott happily reminded me of this in transition and I gave him a glare I think. I said ha we’ll see. He said no you can do it. It REALLY helped to have him there because I think I was more negative this race than any other race EVER! I get negative and crabby when I don’t get sleep so I think that must have been it.

 RUN: So after 2 MASSIVE hills and one mile later I realized that this 3-loop course was anything but flat (1100 ft change). I looked at my watch where I saw the first woman…10-11 minutes behind! Uh! Well, keep trucking! The water/support team was AMAZING! They were the most with it I’ve ever seen at a race, ironman brand included. I had my bag of jellybeans and them with water to fuel me. I saw Scott so many times on that first loop which I really needed. When I saw him the last spot I asked him to try to figure out how far ahead the first place girl was. If I was going to catch her I needed to know what I had to do. Well, I answered that question myself when I saw her out on the course I looked at my watch to time how far behind I was. I was around mile 6 and about 6 minutes behind! I had hope inside me spark! When I saw Scott he said I was 3 minutes behind. I had around 4ish more miles to go! I could do this! Next time I saw her she seemed to give me this “oh shoot, I know you have me” look. 2.1 miles left and she was in the dust. I was CRUISING! Felt amazing and wondered why I hadn’t picked it up like this earlier in the run! It might sound arrogant but I love cruising by the spectators and look at their expression on their face. I went by Scott for the last time finally with a smile on my face! Less than .5 to go and so I just let it rip! I wish so bad that I had a watch that did splits so I would know my split times because I know that last loop was definitely my fastest out of all of them.  I finished and danced with a lady at the finish. They thought I was crazy for having as much energy as I did. I jogged back along the course to cheer the next girl in. (beat her by 2 minutes).

 All in all it was a good race for the circumstances, but sad I didn’t break 5. I know it would have been MUCH MUCH better with more sleep. I feel as though sleep affects different people differently and it definitely kills me! I wish the bike would have been faster, I wish the swim wasn’t as cold, and I wish I had taken my head out of my bum earlier on the run!

Thanks to all my support crew for your encouragement! It was really fun to race on the same day as my amazing sis did the world championship ironman in Kona. She had me call her the day before so she could wish ME good luck! Too nice! She’s my hero with this craziness! She is down right amazing and such such an inspiration. She asked what my goals are and told me I COULD do them. So helpful to have someone so encouraging!

Thank you to my parents who are always out there cheering when I have a race, even if it’s hundreds of miles away! I love knowing I have support from everywhere! You guys have always encouraged me to do my best in everything. Thanks!

AGAIN, a most special thanks to my husband who drove most of the way and had a crazy week and even crazier next week. He had a fireside Sunday he was in charge of along with going out of town Monday-Friday and then he had to do a training on Saturday. He had to cheer, take pictures, and take care of our 5-month daughter! All of those take a lot out of you on a half-ironman day. He’s way too amazing for his own good!

 After waiting TOO long for awards we went to explore DC a little bit. We went to the capitol building and had the CLOSEST spot you could park to the capital!  We went up and Scott stood on the steps with the security and their big guns staring down at us. I’ve been to DC before and thought it was crazy how dead it was. There were just a handful of people there. We then drove around trying to find a spot close to all the other monuments. We saw the white house, Washington monument, Lincoln memorial, WW2 memorial, and Jefferson. By that time it was 5:30pm and we had 8 hours of driving in front of us! The drive back was hard. We switched off with Scott driving most of the time. We arrived back in one piece and all alive. It threw Emmers off a little but she was a trooper.

Now we’ve both been back at work for a week and a half. Scott’s trip to Vegas for the Tucon conference (Spotfire- a tool he is the master at at work) went well. It was a crazy week at home but doable thanks to the best DEANNA RUNYAN! Thanks again for all your help with Emmers and the yummy food!

 We have a picture of me as a kid doing this so we all had to!

The white house!

 She wouldn't put her finger out so she's just punching it!

 Everything was closed down! There were tons of police out side the memorials.

 Just too cute!

 Date with his girls! She REALLY wanted some and kept watching!

 Cold drizzly run with the little one!

 We used to call her fingers BBQ fingers. I was holding her and cooking and she kept grabbing the sauce!



She pulled her beenie to be a pirate beenie!

Cool chick!

 Daddy was keeping it freezing in the house!

 Pintrest FHE night! We made these cute pumpkins with paint and black vinyl.

 Scott made an EMI pumpkin and then dressed her up in orange.

 Cooking with mama is fun!

 This is one of the most fun things. Tummy time on my tummy!

 I'm such a big girl I can sit up on my own!

 My sister who works for apple said that iphones are made for optimal teething!

 Who you looking at?

Just a cute face!

Already in daddy's pocket.

Squash "Fries"

So, I've been meaning to blog about these for a while now but haven't "gotten around to it." My sister asked me for a good recipe for yellow squash this week since she recieved 6 and I told her about these addicting things! Then she posted on facebook about them and people wanted the recipe so I figured I'd better blog about it or I won't get the credit! ;)

Well, these all started because I had 20 lbs of zucchini and several yellow squash to eat. HOW DO YOU EAT THAT MUCH SQUASH?!?!? Solution: zucchini/squash "fries" Seriously beware these are addicting...

Ingredients:
1/2 cup almond meal
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
3/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg
3-4 zucchini (depending on their size)

Instructions:
1. preheat oven to 475.
2. cut zucchini in 3in x .5in strips
3. beat egg and in a separate bowl mix almond meal, cheese, garlic powder and salt.
4. dip each strip in egg and then coat with the almond meal cheese mixture.
5. place on grease cookie sheet.
6. bake for 10 minutes, flip the fries and bake for 10 more. This makes sure that both sides will crisp up.

You can do this with zucchini or yellow squash. If you want to do it with other harder squashes like pumpkin or sweet potato you need to add a step. Cut the squash up and then let them soak in a water bath for 10-30minutes. Then dry them completely before proceeding. Also, they will need to cook slightly longer and you should cut them slightly thinner.


I do not have pictures of these lovely creations unfortunately because they are all eaten and were very quickly.

Nashvegas Half Iron Distance Triathlon Race Report

This was my second REAL half ironman. Scott had jury duty this week and was selected as the SECOND alternate for a case. That means he has to sit and listen to everything but when it comes down to the end he doesn’t get to deliberate and help decide the case at all (unless 2 jurors drop out, which the judge said he had never seen happen).  They thought they would be done by Friday so we were going to leave at 1ish. Well, they got behind and things dragged on so he had to do jury duty on Friday too L. We didn’t end up leaving until 3-3:30. I went out to try to buy Honey Stinger Chews but they didn’t have any. I decided to use fruit snacks and candy as my nutrition as well as some bars that I had.

We got down to my Cousin’s house (Zoe and Brad). Zoe had just had (1 week) a new baby and her mom, my aunt, was in town. It was SO nice of them to let us stay with them with last second notice and we didn’t get to be with them that much. We put Emi down and chatted with them for a little while, but I was fading fast and had an early day the next day so we all headed to bed. Slept as well as to be expected for me right now, ie horribly. It’s not anything to do with Emi or Scott, I just have horrible insomnia problems. It’s rough because even if I end up getting 6 hours of sleep it’s broken up into 4-6 segments so I never go through an actual sleep cycle. It’s like taking a whole bunch of short naps.

We ended up leaving the house at 5am, which I wanted to leave around 4:30. I was a little worried. Talked to my sis who I’m sure woke up early just to give me a pep talk call (THANKS). Everything went without a hitch packet pickup and setting up transition. In fact I was getting all my fruit snacks together for the run and a guy asked if I wanted a little baggie for them. I said no, this will work just fine, I actually usually use honey stinger chews, but my bike shop didn’t have them. He said what flavor do you want? So, he gave me a package of chews! SO nice! I meant to write him a note and stick it on his bike after the race, but that didn’t happen. 

 While I finished setting up transition the announcer said that the fog was too bad to start at 7:00 so they would reevaluate at 7:10 and let us know if we were going to start at 7:15. I still had to pump so it worked out perfectly for me! Instead of pumping I went off to a corner and fed Emi. Another woman came over and fed he son too. As we were feeding the announcer was talking about different rules and mentioned no public nudity! Thank goodness for breastfeeding laws! The announcer was hilarious and enjoyable to listen to as the race kept getting delayed. He mentioned that there were 666 participants so we needed someone else to sign up so it wouldn’t be bad luck. They kept delaying and ended up deciding to start the race at 8:15 and open up the water at 8:00 for warm up (if the coast guard said it was fine). Around 7:50 he announced that another participant signed up for the race! So now there were 667! Literally right after that the fog decided to lift, it was SO uncanny! The announcer said he wasn’t superstitious but that was just weird! Well, by the time we were going to start again the fog had come back, not as bad as at 7am but we literally couldn’t see the first buoy to swim to. I heard people talking about cutting the course etc.

 The women also had to start in wave 3 after all the males and Clydesdales (bigger males). I thought this was ridiculous! But we were off! Swimming into the dark mist to something we couldn’t even see! Finally it came into view and was way to far to the inside. I swam back out even though I saw some people just turn right. Then we were going down the far side of this lake. They only had 2 buoys to spot off of the entire .5 stretch down! So really it was just swim. I kept thinking what my sis has taught me about my swim technique and also this is the ONLY thing you use your arms on! Well the next turn buoy was in site and I again was WAY too far to the inside (at least 100m) So I had to swim back in and turn to go back across the lake. This time I guess I was determined not to be on the inside because I ended up 150ish meters to the OUTSIDE of the buoy! Well, It was the home stretch now. Because everything got delayed they had to start the Olympic distance right after us so we were all together the last .5ish miles. I got really bogged down. The end was in site! I kicked harder to get blood flow back down and got out. They had people helping us out of the water because the boat ramp was so slippery you fell right back down if you tried to stand on it.

 Transition! The last half mile of the swim I kept repeating in my head: jersey, glasses, helmet, shoes, salt, nutrition (ie candy), water. I ended up getting everything done except I forgot my candy! This crazy race only had ONE aid station on the bike and it only had water! I was off on my bike. The first bit was hilly but doable. I finished a water and switched things around and think I lost my salt pills then. I also though I lost my candy because it wasn’t in my jersey. I had three water bottles on my back and one on my bike. I ordered a rear double cage for bottles, which will conveniently get here on Monday. I hit the water stop and got two more bottles. Yes, I drink THAT much water. I’m a breast-feeding mom and it was HOT. Scott told me I was 15^th out of the water for women; I thought that that was impossible unless people really cut the course! I knew I would catch them on the bike and then if not I would on the run. I kept going back and forth with this girl who I though was doing the half until we talked with 15 miles to go and she said she was just doing the aqua bike. After the water stop things got CRAZY on the bike. It was SO SO hilly. I saw Scott and Emi right before the first big hill. That helped a lot with what was coming. My chain slipped 6-7 times for some reason to. And as I was going up a hill it locked up on me. I almost fell over because I was clipped into my bike but got off right in time. It took me a little bit to figure out what was happening and to get started up this huge hill again. I’ve never had to stop and it did frazzle me a little bit.

 Scott was able to drive the course, park and cheer for me. The roads were all open to traffic, which did cause problems now and then! I was able to see Scott SO many times, which really did help on the bike SO much. I didn’t have my salt pills, my back was killing from having all this water I had to carry, and I didn’t have ANY gummy nutrition so I was having to talk ALL solid nutrition. Scott said I looked mad at the world a couple of times, I really might have been. The biggest hill out there he actually was on and cheered for me up. THAT was SO helpful. I was literally in granny gear grinding out 3.5mph. 5 miles left I knew it was mostly down hill! YAY! I didn’t end up having as much nutrition on the bike as I did in Muncie, probably because I had 8-900 calories for breakfast this time around. I had 2 bonk breaker bars and another nutrition bar to total 700 calories on the bike.

 Into transition! I saw that there was a girl close behind me! I racked my bike and sat down to put my shoes on. My stomach wasn’t too happy with me because I only had solids and I saw my candy sitting there on my towel so I snacked on some melted candy (93 degree heat) as I got everything ready for the run. I really had no sense of time or how fast I was going. I left transition and ran into the port-a-potty that was already past the transition mats. I didn’t like that because I knew it would be part of my transition time. My watch that could do instant splits broke, the band did anyway so I just had a stop watch. I though about restarting it every mile so I would know but thought better of it because I wanted to know my total time more. I came up to mile one water stop where two ladies were sitting in their chairs. I called up two water two waters! They ended up getting them out to me but they were literally BOILING HOT! I thought great, this is how the WHOLE race is going to be?!?! Hot water and people not paying attention! The next water stop was better but I had to call for water 3-4 times each stop. From mile 1.5 to 11.5 it was on a rail to trail. It was mostly shaded which I think saved me! The water stops didn’t have any ice and only semi-cold water. Because we were on a trail, I didn’t think I would see Scott at all. I was mistaken. I came out of the trail at mile 5 and saw Emi and him! That made my day! Then the trail turned into a gravel trail. At the turn around I looked at my watch so I would know how far ahead I was of the next girl. I kept waiting and waiting and finally she showed up after 5 minutes! That meant I was 10 minutes ahead! I knew I easily had the win in the bag, which might not have been the best thing! I saw Scott and Emi again and gave her a high 5 on her foot. Scott said “you’re having WAY too much fun with this!” I really was. I felt like I was running easy and smooth and didn’t feel tired at all. An official drove by and asked if I wanted some ice. He gave me a handful, which I stuffed into my bra and was gone less than .5miles later. One mile to go I got another water from the horrible aid station. I looked at my watch at 2 miles to go and knew that I would be just over 5 hours! I was a little bummed because I wanted to break 5 hours again. It was hard to push it in because I knew I would win and knew that I wouldn’t be under 5 hours. Scott was standing right on the other side of the finish line taking pictures.
 

 The food was great even though half of it was gone because the sprint and Olympic distances had already finished a while ago. I had to ask for my award early because we had the BYU game to get to. I asked for it and the guy put my number in and he said 3^rd overall! I said umm I don’t think so. Scott said there still hasn’t been another woman to cross the finish line (happened about 27 minutes after I did). It ended up being because Two women got penalties and so their time was coming up as 2:00minutes. He fixed it (eventually) and gave me my award, which I greatly thanked him for doing.

All in all it was a decent race. I didn’t really tapper for it because I want to do one more this season and that one be my last hurrah for the year! My swim ended up being a 37:27 (with a lot of extra swimming) bike: 2:52:24 (19.49 mph, 3,500 elevation change), run 1:26:50 (6:37/mile pace, I think around 500 elevation change). I was a little bummed that I only had the second fastest run. The guy who won did a 1:25:27 on the run.

Thank you to all who were/are involved with this insanity! Thanks to Zoe and Brad for a place to stay and to Aunt Gloria for letting us kick you out of your room on the last night you were there! Also, thanks for the breakfast for Scott in the morning! It helped him have enough energy to cheer loud for me! Thanks to my parents who were cheering for me the whole time and tracking me and texting with Scott.

Thank you to my sis who woke up early in order to help me with my race plan and pep talk! I thought Scott told me once that I ate hills for breakfast and it kept me going knowing you were there cheering/tracking me! I wish we lived closer together so we could train/hang out more often! We are PERFECT workout partners because we can push each other in the others weak suits! Hopefully some day (soon)!!

And thank you to my most AMAZING husband who was out there cheering the whole time! I know how tiring cheering can be for one of these things and appreciate all the time he helps me out, taking care of our little girl and many other things so I can train and race. I wouldn’t be able to do it with out him and his enormous amounts of patience! LOVE YOU!

Black Bean Chicken Chili on Cornbread Waffles

Fall is coming! With these cold mornings here's a recipe to welcome it!

So, I'm sure that many of you have seen the chili on cornbread waffles on Pintrest. I wanted to make my own rendition of them and didn't have any chili, so I made some delicious chili thick black bean soup.

The waffles were easy enough. This recipe makes 4 waffle squares and is around 400 calories total, so 100 calories per waffle square.
1/4 cup Pamela's
1/4 cup cornmeal
2 tbs. brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt

1 egg white

1/2 cup low-fat buttermilk

Can you tell I'm on a buttermilk kick lately? And also trying to cycle through some of our canned foods!
So, just mix the dry then add the wet to it, mix. Let it sit for a few minutes than slap it in a waffle iron!

The soup is splended. I did this from things I had in my cupboard/fridge. I really wanted to add some red bell pepper and fresh cilantro, but we are going out of town soon, so I didn't want to hit up the grocery store. I recommend it if you have it or are going to the store anyway!

Ingredients
2 cans black beans
1 can chicken stock
1 can diced tomatoes with jalapano
2 cups cooked diced chicken (I cooked this with a little montreal seasoning I get at Costco)
1 tbs corn starch or more if you want it a little thicker
1/2 onion
2 garlic cloves diced
1/2 tsp cumin
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp dried cilantro (if you have fresh add it at the end on top of your serving)
1 tbs apple cider vinegar
(1 bell pepper diced)
(cilantro)

Cook 1/2 diced onion and 2 diced garlic cloves in a large stock pot for 4ish minutes (also put the bell pepper in here if you have one). If you have a non-stick pan then you can do this with just a spray of pam.

Put one drained and rinsed can of black beans in blender with 1 can chicken stock. Blend till smooth.

Drain and rinse the other can of black beans and add blender contents and canned beans to the pot.

Add tomatoes, chicken, cumin, chili powder, salt, dried cilantro, and vinegar to pot.

Scoop some liquid our from the pot with a cup. add 1 tbs. corn starch and mix till smooth. Add this slurry back into the soup and bring to a simmer. Let it simmer for 1 hourish.

Add the cilantro right before you serve on top so it doesn't wilt.

Sorry no pictures of the soup! I guess I ate it too fast to post! next time I make it I'll add pictures in!





This recipe not suit your fancy? look forward to these others....

gluten free graham's!

gluten free calzones!

Have to feed these two too!

So, training is also all about nutrition that you put into your body! I have to eat gluten free and it's hard to find delicious affordable food many times especially things that are bready/carby. So, when I developed this delicious gluten free chicken pot pie I was SO excited to try it! Because it was SO good and only 307 calories per "serving." I say "serving" because it's a serving that most people would be plenty fine with (1/4 a 9" by 9" pan), but as I am training and nursing I need half the pan!

As this is the first food blog post I've ever done, I didn't take enough pictures! I also wasn't planning on posting this until my sister asked me for the recipe! She also has an awesome working out/foodie blog here.

So onto the actual recipe! When I did eat gluten I made a version with a biscuit-type topping. It's not the typical pie with pie crust and what not. It's much easier and faster than that!

So, again I didn't plan on blogging this, the only reason I took the picture was because I was sending this to my sister!

4 servings

Ingredients

1/2 tbs olive oil
1 medium onion chopped
3 tbs cornstarch
2 cups chicken broth
2-14oz cans mixed vegetables
1 cup cooked chopped chicken
1 tsp seasoned salt
1/2 cup milk (skim)

Topping
3/4 cup pamela's baking mix (you can use a different baking mix, but this is the best gluten free one I've found), I will attempt to make this with just flours, no mix soon!
1/2 cup low-fat buttermilk
1 egg white
2 tbs. melted margarine

1. Heat oven to 400F. In a saucepan heat olive oil. Add chopped onion and cook until tender. Add 3 tbs cornstartch. With a whisk, slowly whisk in chicken broth. If you do this too quick you will end up with cornstarch chunks in your mix. If you'd rather, you can always add the cornstarch to a little bit of the broth and make a slurry and then add the slurry into the pan with the other broth. Make sure you bring this mixture to a boil so it will thicken up! Add in veggies, chicken, salt and milk. If you want a little home "soup" flavor you can also add in a little thyme.

2. Pour all the contents of the pan into a square casserole dish. You can stop here and refrigerate it so all you have to do is pull it out and make the topping and stick it in the oven. I usually do this now that I have a daughter!

3. In a small bowl all all the topping ingredients and mix just until blended. "Pour" the mixture over the casserole. Spread it out over the top. It's fine if you don't get it to go to the edges of the pan. Alternatively you can just make little biscuit "plops" on top.

4. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until topping is browned and cooked all the way through.


Hope you enjoy! Let me know if you have any questions!

Here are the nutrition facts for 1 serving. This recipe has 4 servings.
You can always make your own chicken stock to decrease the sodium content.