birthday triathlete
i must say that i have the best husband ever. he insisted on making sure i knew it was my birthday today and making sure that i got treated as such.
we got home yesterday from our triathlon in the early afternoon. for being my first ever triathlon, i didn't do half-bad. the swim really took a lot out of me, though. i knew the swim was going to be the biggest struggle for the race. i also knew that if i could finish the swim on MY terms, meaning i wasn't forcibly taken out of the water, i could finish the whole thing. i did. i completed the swim in about 40 minutes. it was a half-mile, although the exact measurements are a bit skewed. 2 of the marker buoys weren't anchored properly and kept moving the entire time. essentially we were directed where to swim by the officials in kayaks, who were also there to monitor swimmers and to provide a place for swimmers to rest if they needed it. i knew that if i stopped and rested, i wouldn't have finished. this meant that i was swimming the ENTIRE time i was in the water. i never stopped. i also was too nervous about putting my face in the water, so i kept my head up the whole time, too, which has lead to an extremely stiff neck. like, i can barely turn my head to the left and right before the pain makes me stop. anyway, i managed to get out of the water with help from marshall, who was by my side the ENTIRE time, and two volunteers at the water's edge. i grabbed my glasses from where we left our sandals and trotted to the transition area. i dried the essentials (feet and crotch) and threw on my socks and cycling shoes. i hopped on my bike with marshall right behind me and headed onto the bike course. it ended up being much more hilly than i had originally anticipated and just when i thought i conquered one hill, there was another looming just ahead. my legs were so tired from the swim, too, and i kept getting so out of breath. marshall was, again, right at my side, keeping my focus on a spot just ahead of my front tire. "don't worry about where you're going; pay attention to where you are," was what he kept saying again and again. it helped. i was able to conquer each hill much easier, just focusing on where i was, instead of where i was heading. there was no one on the road other than the two of us. we did manage to catch up to a few people who had taken the bike course much earlier than we had and that felt great. i think we passed up 5 people on the bike course. we got our bikes into the transition area and i threw on my running shoes. the first 1/4-mile of the run was on uneven dirt and grass, which i was SO not prepared for. it really tired me out fast. by the time we made it back to the road portion of the course, i was burnt out. my legs were so incredibly tired. marshall told me we were going at my pace, so if i needed to walk we could. we walked a good portion of the running course, but i made sure that i kept running for the last 1/2-mile. i didn't want to wimp out too much. marshall even sang the theme song to rocky coming in on the home-stretch and i made a strong finish with a hard and satisfying sprint across the finish-line. our overall time was 2 hours and 29 minutes. i finished my first triathlon in under 2.5 hours. not too shabby, for someone who is normally a huge couch potato. :P i felt really good about myself after the race. i felt relaxed, actually. we took some time to chill out before heading back to the transition area to pack up before heading home. my mom invited us over for dinner, so after a much-deserved nap marshall and i headed over for roasted chicken. chicken never tasted so good.
oh yeah, at the hydration station on the run i had yellow gatorade. i HATE gatorade and especially hate the yellow flavor. that gatorade, my friends, was so incredibly delicious.
+_+_+
today, as i mentioned, was my birthday. late last week i made an appointment for us to visit our favorite spa in santa cruz, kiva, for a couples massage. they apparently have mid-week specials on private tubs and i took advantage of that, too. marshall made me breakfast this morning (scrambled eggs and toast) and we headed over the hill. i explained to my massage therapist that we had a triathlon yesterday and that my back and shoulders were really stiff. she did great work and even though my neck is still stiff, i know that it'll be much better sooner because of that massage. after our massage we were escorted to our private hot tub. i'm not a huge fan of hot tubs because they end up being much hotter than i can manage. i merely dangled my feet in this one. the thing is the tub is outdoors and it was quite warm in santa cruz; much warmer than it normally is. luckily the tub area included a shower, so i cooled off in the shower. we took advantage of our alone outdoor time and it was fantastic. we still had time to fill for the rest of the afternoon, so we went to the movies. kick ass was great. it was more intense than i originally anticipated and marshall said that the movie is a mere suggestion of what the comic is like. i don't doubt it at all; i've seen what some of these comics are like. they're brutal! anyway, i enjoyed the movie a lot. nick cage didn't annoy me as much as i thought he would, which was a total plus, and everyone else did a great job. after dinner we headed home to feed the cats and then it was off to dinner. since i've been watching non-stop naruto, one character loves korean-style BBQ. that character is choji: a round kid who's always eating. well, i needed some korean bbq. we went to one place nearby with celtcub and norcalpaco a while back. i looked it up on yelp and found a few other places with slightly better reviews, one place was sj omogari. it was awesome. so delicious. it was definitely a regular restaurant, not a bbq buffet. but they did have bbq dinners, so i had their spicy pork. mmmm, so good. marshall had their mung bean and kimchi stone pot dish. that was really good, too. they also provided a tray-full of little nibbles of various pickled things. everything was delicious and the waitress/owner asked if we had had korean food before and we hadn't, so she explained what she was serving us. she also asked why we decided to have korean food and i said, "well, it's my birthday." well, she remembered that and gave me a tiny dish of strawberry ice cream with chocolate sauce and a candle on top for dessert. one of the waiters also got the entire restaurant, which was kind small, to sing "happy birthday" to me. it was great. plus, the giant beer i had with dinner made everything that much greater. :D
overall, the day was great even if turning 27 isn't what i wanted. :)
we got home yesterday from our triathlon in the early afternoon. for being my first ever triathlon, i didn't do half-bad. the swim really took a lot out of me, though. i knew the swim was going to be the biggest struggle for the race. i also knew that if i could finish the swim on MY terms, meaning i wasn't forcibly taken out of the water, i could finish the whole thing. i did. i completed the swim in about 40 minutes. it was a half-mile, although the exact measurements are a bit skewed. 2 of the marker buoys weren't anchored properly and kept moving the entire time. essentially we were directed where to swim by the officials in kayaks, who were also there to monitor swimmers and to provide a place for swimmers to rest if they needed it. i knew that if i stopped and rested, i wouldn't have finished. this meant that i was swimming the ENTIRE time i was in the water. i never stopped. i also was too nervous about putting my face in the water, so i kept my head up the whole time, too, which has lead to an extremely stiff neck. like, i can barely turn my head to the left and right before the pain makes me stop. anyway, i managed to get out of the water with help from marshall, who was by my side the ENTIRE time, and two volunteers at the water's edge. i grabbed my glasses from where we left our sandals and trotted to the transition area. i dried the essentials (feet and crotch) and threw on my socks and cycling shoes. i hopped on my bike with marshall right behind me and headed onto the bike course. it ended up being much more hilly than i had originally anticipated and just when i thought i conquered one hill, there was another looming just ahead. my legs were so tired from the swim, too, and i kept getting so out of breath. marshall was, again, right at my side, keeping my focus on a spot just ahead of my front tire. "don't worry about where you're going; pay attention to where you are," was what he kept saying again and again. it helped. i was able to conquer each hill much easier, just focusing on where i was, instead of where i was heading. there was no one on the road other than the two of us. we did manage to catch up to a few people who had taken the bike course much earlier than we had and that felt great. i think we passed up 5 people on the bike course. we got our bikes into the transition area and i threw on my running shoes. the first 1/4-mile of the run was on uneven dirt and grass, which i was SO not prepared for. it really tired me out fast. by the time we made it back to the road portion of the course, i was burnt out. my legs were so incredibly tired. marshall told me we were going at my pace, so if i needed to walk we could. we walked a good portion of the running course, but i made sure that i kept running for the last 1/2-mile. i didn't want to wimp out too much. marshall even sang the theme song to rocky coming in on the home-stretch and i made a strong finish with a hard and satisfying sprint across the finish-line. our overall time was 2 hours and 29 minutes. i finished my first triathlon in under 2.5 hours. not too shabby, for someone who is normally a huge couch potato. :P i felt really good about myself after the race. i felt relaxed, actually. we took some time to chill out before heading back to the transition area to pack up before heading home. my mom invited us over for dinner, so after a much-deserved nap marshall and i headed over for roasted chicken. chicken never tasted so good.
oh yeah, at the hydration station on the run i had yellow gatorade. i HATE gatorade and especially hate the yellow flavor. that gatorade, my friends, was so incredibly delicious.
+_+_+
today, as i mentioned, was my birthday. late last week i made an appointment for us to visit our favorite spa in santa cruz, kiva, for a couples massage. they apparently have mid-week specials on private tubs and i took advantage of that, too. marshall made me breakfast this morning (scrambled eggs and toast) and we headed over the hill. i explained to my massage therapist that we had a triathlon yesterday and that my back and shoulders were really stiff. she did great work and even though my neck is still stiff, i know that it'll be much better sooner because of that massage. after our massage we were escorted to our private hot tub. i'm not a huge fan of hot tubs because they end up being much hotter than i can manage. i merely dangled my feet in this one. the thing is the tub is outdoors and it was quite warm in santa cruz; much warmer than it normally is. luckily the tub area included a shower, so i cooled off in the shower. we took advantage of our alone outdoor time and it was fantastic. we still had time to fill for the rest of the afternoon, so we went to the movies. kick ass was great. it was more intense than i originally anticipated and marshall said that the movie is a mere suggestion of what the comic is like. i don't doubt it at all; i've seen what some of these comics are like. they're brutal! anyway, i enjoyed the movie a lot. nick cage didn't annoy me as much as i thought he would, which was a total plus, and everyone else did a great job. after dinner we headed home to feed the cats and then it was off to dinner. since i've been watching non-stop naruto, one character loves korean-style BBQ. that character is choji: a round kid who's always eating. well, i needed some korean bbq. we went to one place nearby with celtcub and norcalpaco a while back. i looked it up on yelp and found a few other places with slightly better reviews, one place was sj omogari. it was awesome. so delicious. it was definitely a regular restaurant, not a bbq buffet. but they did have bbq dinners, so i had their spicy pork. mmmm, so good. marshall had their mung bean and kimchi stone pot dish. that was really good, too. they also provided a tray-full of little nibbles of various pickled things. everything was delicious and the waitress/owner asked if we had had korean food before and we hadn't, so she explained what she was serving us. she also asked why we decided to have korean food and i said, "well, it's my birthday." well, she remembered that and gave me a tiny dish of strawberry ice cream with chocolate sauce and a candle on top for dessert. one of the waiters also got the entire restaurant, which was kind small, to sing "happy birthday" to me. it was great. plus, the giant beer i had with dinner made everything that much greater. :D
overall, the day was great even if turning 27 isn't what i wanted. :)