Meatless Mondays

What a great idea. Tom and I try to consume less meat. We aren't vegetarians by any stretch of the imagination, but we do try to be frugal with our meat consumption, especially red meat. I found this blog post about meatless mondays and a number of great meatless meal ideas.

So starting this week, we are going to incorporate meatless mondays into our menu planning. On Monday we had wild mushroom and cheese ravioli served with a simple romaine/spinach Simple, yet delicious. I am excited to try more meatless meals.

Hurray for Bountiful Baskets! With a fresh variety of fruits and veggies every other week (or every if you prefer), I am bound to have some great options for meatless meals.

What are your ideas for meatless monday?

Death Valley 2011

We recently went to Death Valley National Park for a race (race report coming soon). What a beautiful place! As desolate and remote as it is, Death Valley is spectacular. We camped for 2 nights withmy parents and aunt and uncle. We only had one day to explore, and beacuse it is so vast, we couldn't explore much. There are some spectaular sand dunes in the park. They just sort of rise out of nowhere. We had tons of fun racing down them. The biggest one was about a 2 mile hike, and after our race and a previous hike, we just decided to have fun on a mini one. The kids loved it!

We also hiked a beautiful slot canyon, Mosaic Canyon. It was short, but beautiful. The kids loved sliding and climbing.

James especially loved exploring. He is such a firecracker.

I can't wait to go back. I think we'd like to try it out again next year. The weather was ideal for winter (60s). The campground was awesome (a little oasis in the desolate desert), the race was amazing (great finishes for all involved), and the company was grand.

St. George Half-Marathon

Our first race of 2011 was AWESOME! A bunch of Tom's family, including parents, 3 siblings, and 6 nieces and nephews made the long trek to sunny southern Utah for the race. And everyone participated, as official racers or race bandits.

The course was new this year. It had to be changed because of trail construction and then again because of trail destruction, but the finish product was a nice fast course on mostly paved bike trails along the Virgin River.

Besides running with many of Tom's family, we also got to run with our best friends. I love that we have so many running buddies. It made for a fun race as we both tried to and succeeded in beating some of our best competition. And of course the fun of cheering in and celebrating with all our peeps.

Tom set a new half-marathon pr on the fast course with a smoking time of 1:24:28. He led the pack of family and friends.

I was ecstatic with my perforamnce as well. I ran close to a pr with 1:41:54 and to top it off, I beat one of my best friends, Renee.

Less than a year ago, I could beat Renee while I was 7 months pregnant. Since then she has become amazing! She has gone through some tough times, but has come out a stronger woman in all ways. I look up to her and admire her for her dedication to life and just her amazing personality. Besides, raising 4 kids on her own, she is training for Ironman St George, she qualified for the Boston marathon, and she is just super fast. And that is why I was so excited to beat her. And I do have to qualify this victory with the fact that she had a tough week and had to work all night the night before the race. But I'll take it any way I can get it, and with her speed and determination this is probably the only time I'll get it.

I started the race with Renee and another fast friend Aimee. I knew they both were probably going to run faster then I wanted to, but I thought I'd stick with them as long as I could, which turned out to be only 3 miles. My goal going into the race was to run between 1:40 and 1:45. We were right on pace for the first 3 and then these girls started to pick up the pace. I figured it was time to give up to them and to just run my own race.

My pace was pretty consistent the whole race and it just felt good. I didn't see hide nor hair of my peeps until mile 11 when I spied Renee a few hundred yards ahead of me on a switchback. I was ecstatic. I could tell she was starting to slow and I found my second wind. I even tried to warn her of my coming on the switchback, but luckily for me she didn't hear me with her ipod on.

I really turned on the heat for the last 2 miles and finally, with less than a quarter mile, I caught her. I smacked her bum and urged her to try to outkick me. I didn't look back but seriously sprinted like it was for my life. Tom's yells and Aimee's (who had long finished) encouragement gave me the little umph I needed. Renee probably would have caught me if she hadn't slowed to counter Aimee's yells with a little friendly banter.

As soon as I crossed I turned to embrace Renee as she sprinted in. We continued to cheer all of our peeps in and congratulate those who kicked our trash.

Another awesome running peep is Marilyn. Marilyn is 72 and still running strong. She is amazing and I only dare to hope I am as fit as she is when I am her age. She is truly an inspiration to all of us.

It was a great day for a great race. I love our running friends and the comaraderie we all share with our passion for running.

Can't wait for the next race.

Sun Valley

Photos courtesy of Marta

We got to spend our Thanksgiving in Sun Valley, Idaho. Besides the snow storms that almost killed us in our travels, the trip was a blast.

We spent our time in 2 fun condos with Tom's family. We enjoyed the snow

the Turkey day buffetWe also enjoyed girls' shopping trips, games, runs, lots of great home cooked breakfasts and dinners, even more junk food.


and plenty of quality time with cousins and siblings.

This is a super fun tradition that i love to be a part of. Some years, they cook the turkey feast in the condo and some years we gorge at the buffet. To be honest, as much as I love gorging myself on prime rib, butternut squash soaked in butter, fruit and cheese, stuffing, key lime pie, pecan pie, and flan, I missed spending the day in the kitchen with the girls. I missed the friendly competition of pie baking. I missed the stove top vs homemade stuffing debate. I missed creating all the calories we consumed. I missed the anticipation of the feast as its aroma fills the house all day.

But nothing beats sitting in the pool-sized hot tub after the feast, whether we made it ourselves or not, with temps hovering around 0 degrees Nothing beats playing fox and geese in an unspoiled snow field. Nothing beats being surrounded by loved ones as we celebrate all we have to be thankful for.

Turkey Tri

Porter just completed his first triathlon. We are so proud of him. Not just because he did so well (5th out of 22 in has age-group) but because he trained so hard and put in the effort before the race.

He has diligently been running, biking and swimming since the summer. Since the pool closed on labor day, he has only been swimming twice. But both times he swam his 50 meter workout without complaint as well as played. He takes after his parents and isn't the greatest swimmer. He basically doggy-paddled the 50 m swim, but even with being the 4th slowest swimmer, he still rocked it. In training, he always had to take a break after the length of the pool, but on race day he rocked the whole thing without rest.

His transitions were great and helped him make up ground on quite a few kids.


He is riding a bike that is way to small for him, but he still passed a few and was not passed.

He also rocked the run. I only wish it was longer than half a mile because this is his strength. He has really put in the training for this portion. There is a mile loop around our neighborhood he runs a couple times a week or he runs at the track when we do.

This was definitely a proud mama moment.Total time: 16:40
50 m swim (2:41), T1 (1:26), 1 mile bike (7:06), T2 (:28), 1/2 mile run (4:57)

Tom and I also participated in the Turkey tri and didn't do too shabby. We both placed in our age-groups. Tom took off 7 minutes off his time from 2 years ago for a time of 1:00:24.

And I took a minute off. 1:09:03.

As always it was super fun to train and participate with the family and with our friends. Porter is already excited for the April Tri and Eliza says she wants to do it, too.

For full results click here.

smile

I know I haven't blogged for a while--life is crazy! but just wanted to share a link to a great post. click here for a step by step on how to genuinely smile.

i needed the reminders and the new things. i am not the best smiler or the most positive person in the world. but i will try to do better. i bet my life will seem a lot less crazy if i genuinely smiled more.

Kokopelli Triathlon 2010

I signed up for this race when I was big and pregnant because they were having a limited-time promotion. And I decided it would motivate to keep moving after little Millie arrived. It worked. I wasn't well-trained for the event, but I wasn't completely out of shape.

I trained a lot with my friend Karrie. This was her second tri and first open water tri. She rocked it! and deserved to, because she really put in the hours of training.

I participated in the olympic distance tri, which is 1500 m swim, 20 mile bike, and 10K run.

Swim 1500 m, 33:53
The swim was okay. I wasn't last out of the water, but I was definitely in the back of the pack. I have decided I need to take swimming lessons. I think I have the most room for improvement here. I was almost 15 minutes behind the fastest female swimmer and 10 behind the faster swimmers.

T1 1:37
Besides my bag getting stuck on my pedals and that causing my whole set up to get messed up, transition was ok.

Bike 20 miles, 1:06:26, 18.5 mph
It is a familiar course, so I like it. But I haven't been out on the bike enough since baby was born. The nice thing about finishing the swim in the back, is you have a lot of people in front of you to pass. It was fun and I hit 43.3 mph on the backside of Nemesis. I was a tad embarassed by my bike since I was parked by super nice tri bikes, and I ride an entry level Novara. But maybe next year, I'll save up enough for a fancier bike

T2 1:05
A good transition. Just had to switch my shoes. I wore no socks, which was a mistake and probabaly not worth the 15 seconds I saved.

Run 6.2 miles (6.4 on my watch) 53:54


Hot! The run was super hot! I don't know what the exact temp was, but it was supposed to hit 99 on saturday and it was closet o noon. I dumped water on my head at every aid station and drank Heed. I was sloshing a bit, but it was worth it. The run did not feel good and I wanted to basically die by the end. The run ends on a substantial climb back into the State Park. That sucked.
All in all a fun race with good friends. I ended finishing in 2:36:54, 10th overall female and 1st in my age group by default (the top 3 overall were in my age group, so they got bumped up leaving me as number 1. I'll take it even if they were 30 minutes ahead of me.)

Click here for full results.