Screw in the Road

I was going to put this on Facebook, but decided that I could do it much better justice in a blog. SO, here it goes. Here is all the embarrassing details of my lovely adventure that happened today. I hope you find it as humerus as I'm sure Josh will when I tell him we get to buy a new wheel ($200+ ) and tire ($70+) for my road bike. Sigh... I'm absolutely sure he'll adore me for this.

This week is my taper week for St George marathon and so I really have an excuse to be lazy. But the weather was so nice this weekend and supposed to be that nice all this week I couldn't resist the temptation of going for a ride in between my classes this morning to get out and enjoy the sun.

It was awesome. I left the U of U around 11 am and headed up Emigration Canyon. It was picturesque all the way up. Nice breeze, warm sun, cool 68 degrees. Loved it. I biked to the top of the hill overlooking Little Dell.

Little Dell overlook from the top of Emigration Canyon. Picturesque, right?

I have to get those awkward Selfies for your viewing pleasure.

It really was a perfect day.

Looking down the way I came. Beautiful clouds and fall colors

 I turned around with enough time to make it back (and then some) in time in order to teach cycling. The way back down was still beautiful, but a little more stressful. There was a narley head wind on the way down. Normally I'm hitting speeds of 30+ mph on the S curves and riding my brakes the whole way around turns but the winds were so strong I don't think I hit anything about 23mph. Which had its advantages on the steep turns. I ended up working quite hard to even get down the canyon with the winds and had to keep my heart from beating out of my chest every time the wind hit me from the side and almost knocked the wheels out from under me. (maybe I'm exaggerating a bit)

Anyways. I was passing the Hogle Zoo when I got an instant flat tire on my back tire. Thank goodness I still wasn't going very fast. But it happened so quickly and without even looking I knew something was stuck in my tire. So of course I pull off the road to assess.

Sorry its blurry, but my phone was dying and the screen was so dark
I couldn't see what I was taking a picture of really. 

Now I must insert here that while I typically make Josh do everything for me, I am fairly independent and typically change my own flats, and I'm pretty good at it. But when I looked at my tire I got worried I wouldn't be able to. I indeed had an object imbedded into my tire... and wheel for that matter. A SCREW! A f*ing screw! At first I was just sort of shocked and mad at the carelessness of people leaving dangerous debris in the roads. Then I became sort of panicky as I realized the screw was snug and I was having no success pulling it out.

Now, if you are smart, and not as flustered as I was at the time you might ask yourself... why didn't you try untwisting the screw? Well I did think of it. But I didn't think it would work as it was in there pretty deep, it had been forcefully compressed into the wheel, and in general I thought it would require such force that I would need a drill or something to get it out.

I sat there huffing for a second, frustrated and helpless knowing I couldn't change the tire unless I could get the screw out and that the school was not far, but too far to walk pushing a bike barefoot (I would have to take my cycling shoes off so I didn't ruin my cleats). SO I am not trying to sound like a baby... but I want you to really understand the whole situation I found myself in. My phone was on its last bar and is really old. SO of course it is frozen and I have to shut it down before I can even try calling for a ride. Then the battery power is so low the screen is on its dimmest setting so even in my shadow I could only barely see what I was doing well enough in order to call my friend (see Sadie, I think you are my friend ;)) who is sometimes hanging around the U at this time between classes to see if she could come pick me up. OF course she was at home in Park City. My phone dying I asked her to call the ESS Office (ESS department is where I work) and to let them know I may not make it back in time to teach my cycling class. Which I am grateful she did.

So still stuck on the side of the road I do what any desperate woman in spandex and a helmet would do (No Celita, Megan, and Melissa I did not do THAT) I stuck my thumb (and maybe my hip and bottom lip) out. Hoping some generous kind soul would transport me and my bike back to the U. I was only there for a few minutes when every car passed without even slowing down, oh and a really nice cyclist who was heading up the canyon yelled across the road if I needed help. Now I need you to understand that I was feeling very frustrated, and helpless and altogether stuck. If no one had stopped I had planned to cross the street to the Zoo, use their phones and call Josh, making him come get me. So maybe you know the feeling of all of sudden just losing it? Well, when the cyclist asked if I needed help I yelled yes and almost sobbed. I was sooo MAD at myself for becoming that "pathetic" person who gets emotional over such silly matters, because after all, eventually I would have found my way out of the mess. And yet I almost cried! Like how pathetic.

While the guy was very sweet and helpful I am positive I could hear his tone of voice being much softer and more consoling than what he probably would use. I am sure he was thinking. "This nutty girl, totallly doesn't know what she is doing" and "oh I must take care of the helpless weak one." Now, don't get me wrong. I do not mind someone helping me. But I was so mad at feeling helpless and then having to fight back tears that I really was almost angry with him being so helpful! Ha ha. Silly I know. Well he was helpful. He managed to un-screw... that's right he just unscrewed the Darn thing and I sat there feeling even more stupid and ridiculous. Ugh... really. It wasn't that hard now was it? Anyways. At this point my Supervisor at work calls me back and says she'll come pick me up. I tried telling this to the cyclist, but he insisted on changing my tire anyways. Don't get me wrong. I was really grateful for his help... but I was a little annoyed that he wouldn't let me change my own tire! ha granted like I said, he was just being polite and chivlarous and could tell I was really frustrated so I appreciate it. Especially since my tire is a pain in the arse to get back on once its off. But it was silly. My supervisor insisted she'd come get me and the cyclists insisted on fixing the flat so that I could ride back. Once again... I felt ridiculous and pathetic.

I did learn a cool trick though. Because I now had this great big hole in my tire if something else were to get in while riding it it would have punctured by tube leading to another flat instantly. The trick is to put a sturdy (thicker than paper) barrier between the tube and tire. Like a folded dollar bill. Cool right? The things you learn.

So my Sup picked me up and I raced off into the sunset (or the spin room) and managed to only show up 5 minutes late, without my indoor cycling shoes or my music... sigh :) the pains of being active.

It was worth it.

Being All Sorts of Domestic

So I don't know if it's because I'm getting older, because I'm Mormon or because I really respect my mother and grandmother but I've taken up all sorts of odd domestic projects that I never thought I would be interested in.

Our Easter Egg Chicken Eggs

As of yet none of these projects involve decorating, sewing, scrapbooking, or making cute little crafts, hence my unpainted shelf and unfinished canvas photo prints. They do however involve things like cooking, raising chickens, gardening, and canning. I sometimes shock myself with how old and boring I'm becoming. Please don't take that as an insult, I wasn't actually bored, I quite enjoyed myself. But let me clarify. I spent Friday night canning... with my mom... and while I'm almost 28 and have been married 2 1/2 years I still expect myself to have some sort of crazy night life and that my weekends should be filled with parties, dancing, and what nots. So to catch myself canning on a Friday night still makes me wonder who I am and when did I become so... domestic?


Despite my post-canning trepidation about the direction my life is taking, my pre-canning self was very excited about taking on this new adventure and learning the ancient art of food preservation. Which, is not so much difficult as it is a lengthy process.

As it was my real first time we stuck to some basics, whole tomatoes and salsa. Nothing super fancy... this round (no worries I have more planned for the future). My mom, grandmother, and I'm sure my great grandmother were very self-sustaining and did the gardening and canning thing as well. I truly admire these great women and their examples of hard work and the love that they showed to their families by gardening and cannening. Yes I think it is an act of love. It takes forethought, commitment and care to build a successful garden and to can. These women did it to provide and help support their families. I feel like I am honoring them and their legacies by doing the same.

I took a few pictures with my camera phone, but as most of the time my hands were wet and covered in veggie juices I did not capture the whole process so its just a few pictures I was able to snap while waiting around for the next step. I thought i'd share them to make this post more interesting.

The small 25 lb bushel of tomatoes (already half used at this point) made 7 quarts of whole tomatoes and 11 pints of salsa.

My awesome mom! Helping me learn to can on a Friday night. 

This is the salsa... simering...it took 4 hours just to cook the darn thing

The tomatoes were a cinch... very easy to do. We will use these mainly for making our own sauces.

The Eat 4 Life Challenge

As you know, I am an endurance athlete and have been for the past 4 or 5 years. I regularly compete in marathons, half marathons, triathlons, and the occasional cycling event. I am not very good so even though I consider myself an athlete I would hardly say that I am truly "competitive" do to how slow I am. I mainly do these events because I love them. I love pushing myself, challenging my body and mind. I like feeling the passion that racing creates inside me as I line up with others out there. We don't know each other, we don't know names, but there in those few hours we share in something that you can only feel as a participant and competitor. It drives me, pushes me to keep training. To move up the pack, to do better next time. I like it, its very pure and natural that feeling. 

Why am I sharing all of this? Well it's because I have decided to take on a new challenge. The IRONMAN. More specifically, Ironman Coeur d' Alene in Idaho on June 29th. 

I have been studying exercise science and all of it's neighboring disciplines for the last 5 years now and I love it. I am working on completing my Masters' in Exercise Physiology with an emphasis in Sport Psychology. Competing in this Ironman means a great deal to me. It is a way to prove to myself and others that I can apply the training and knowledge I've gained. I will be self training with a little outside assistance from colleagues. I want to do well. I want to do the best I can out there and it's going to take A LOT of work on all aspects of training and health and wellness.

Along the way to my M.S. I have also taken a significant number of nutrition classes and can say I know quite a bit... but unfortunately, unlike my training, I have a harder time applying the things I've learned from these classes into my life. 

When I signed up for the IM I felt an overwhelming pressure that I needed to start making changes if I was to be able to really say I did my best. I knew I needed to change the way I eat. So I went to Jess and Wes with THRIVE. Having worked for THRIVE for the past few months I knew I could trust their philosophies and their knowledge of nutrition. They have a great online program called Eat for Life (E4L). I thought wouldn't it be cool if I enlisted their help to prepare me for the IM? And them being the awesome couple that they are agreed. I was thrilled. 

www.strive-2-thrive.net/eatforlife

So here I am. On a journey to better - harder - things. A journey that will teach me discipline, strength, courage, and commitment. I can't tell you how mixed my feelings are between excitement and dread... ha the dread is a little bit of that pessimist ;)

Wes just now has sent me my first goal. Let me back up. E4L takes a slow, one-at-a-time approach to lifestyle change. The goal being that we form habits, not just a temporary change. It is done all online. Wes will provide me with a new goal every Saturday that I will implement the following week. The goals will be small and focus on helping me achieve my goal of competing in an IM. 

I will be documenting my experience with E4L and hope that you will enjoy learning from my experiences about good nutrition and a well balanced, healthy lifestyle. 

Please feel free to send any questions to either Wes - info@strive-2-thrive.net -  my primary nutritionist or myself coach.beckyblack@gmail.com

Have a wonderful week and stay happy and healthy!

Coach Becky 

"The Whole Thing was Uphill!" - Jordanelle Triathlon Recap

It was a dark, warm morning on Saturday the 17th. Josh and I were up cooking eggs and loading up the last of our stuff that we would be needing for the triathlon, Jordanelle from Tri Utah. We kept bickering about what we needed to remember to do with the stress of the race before us. We left the house at 6 am just before twilight and headed up the Parley's canyon towards Rock Cliff Recreation area and the small town of Francis, Utah.

Josh was driving and I was snoozing in the front seat trying to make the foggy feeling go away. As it grew lighter we drew closer to HWY 40 and the turn off towards Jordanelle. As I stirred from my sleepless sleep and sat up I watched the sunrise over the lake, it was beautiful. The smoke in the air from the fires burning in Summit County gave the sunrise a particular warm glow, spreading different shades of pink and purple across the sky and lake. When we turned off HWY 40 onto HWY 32 the sun had peaked over the top of the mountain range and the pinks and purples faded into light blues.

Ok ok so enough writing like its a novel or something. I just wanted to try it out but its far too much work.

So after we parked we grabbed our gear and bikes and rode down to Rock Cliff to transition and set up. As I have done over a dozen triathlons my nerves stayed much more controlled and calm. I only had to use the bathroom 3 times before the race since waking up which is like 3 times less than normal ;)  (When nervous a common symptom is over-active bladder).

So first off the race seemed pretty well organized. They had our race numbers set up on the bike racks in transition and timing and everything appeared to be set up and ready to go. Setting up our transition area went pretty quickly, which gave me the opportunity to find Gene and Jill and chat with them for a little while. I also ran into a guy who used to take my swim class. It was fun seeing everyone. It helped me from "overthinking" the race.

The water levels were so low this year that the transition area was about a 1/2 a mile away from the swim start. Before I go on I should recount Josh's over-dramatic version of the race to you because it was pretty funny. Keep in mind that Josh loves to over-exaggerate and that he doesn't train so everything is a little harder to him than it would otherwise be.

"It was the hardest course ever! I swear it was all uphill! The swim was like a mile away from the transition so we had to run to the swim start a mile and then after the swim run a mile back, uphill, to the transition area. I swear the swim was even uphill! Oh gosh, the bike was awful... worst course ever. The bike was uphill the whole f' in time! I was so tired and slow. I couldn't believe it. Then the run. No shade anywhere. And I didn't think its' possible... but the WHOLE thing was uphill! I mean what were they thinking? Then lets not forget that they ran out of water at the finish line, I could have died and they didn't have any water. And then I still had to bike back to the car, up this really steep hill!"

And that folks is pretty much the race from Josh's eyes. Ha ha so here's the real truth. The race did have a lot of hills. The swim was NOT uphill. We swam approximately 1500 meters (depending on how straight you swim. The bike was 26 miles and the run 6.2 miles. The bike course was almost all uphill until the turnaround and then even after the turn around it had two short steep uphills. I honestly couldn't believe how hilly the run was. We had to do two laps and it was quite a bit of uphill. All of this wouldn't have been awful, but it had gotten really hot, close to 100 deg or so and there was little shade. Thank goodness for the light breeze.

I worked really hard on the bike, and really did well. I was very happy with my time. I hit a top speed on the hill down from Francis to Rock Cliff of 43 mph. The fastest I've ever gone on a bike. It was pretty sweet. By the time I had to get on the bike though I was pretty tired. My legs felt stiff on the run but I managed a decent pace. I was averaging just under 9min/mile on the first lap. The second lap I started to feel more and more ill. I felt nauseous and dizzy. My head stopped functioning properly and I knew I was dehydrated and probably hyponutremic. I did my best on the bike to drink plenty of powerade but it wasn't enough. I finished and had to crash in front of the first aid tent in the shade and begged them for a bag of ice. I felt like I might be having the first symptoms of heat exhaustion. My skin was dry and feverishly hot. I was so uncomfortable. I tried to drink water but couldn't manage to move to get much more.

I sat in the shade waiting for Josh, Gene, and Jill to cross. It took another hour before I finally felt good enough to get up and head out on the trail to find Josh and the others. I was so worried about them, out there in the heat. Right as I rounded the corner Josh came running in exclaiming in his potty mouth "I've never worked so f-ing hard in my life." Right as he crossed they announced age group winners and I heard my name called for second place. I was thrilled. The whole time I kept trying to figure out where I was in the pack and couldn't do it because of how they started the waves. I just kept picturing myself winning to motivate me, even if I wasn't.

Soon after all this I found Jill, who had come across before Josh and I just hadn't missed her. But no sign of Gene. I asked the timing lady and she said he had a DNF by his name. I felt awful. So after looking around some we headed back over to our bikes and right as we got back Gene came walking into the transition area. It was such a relief to see him! I had been so worried about them all it felt great to know he finished and was alive and doing well.

I on the other hand was not doing as well. I kept blacking out every time I tried to stand up. So I had to sit and wait on the side of the road while Josh went and got the car. I ate salt and drank more water and that seemed to help.

After a loooong drive home caused by about a 15 minute delay due to construction by Rock Cliff we made it home. It was an extremely long day and we were both exhausted. It's amazing how heat just totally wipes you out. One that I hope to not have to relive again for another few weeks at least.

Well I think that is all I have. Thanks to all who supported us, the RD's, staff and volunteers of Jordanelle Tri. It was nice.

I may look a little drunk.... but I SWEAR it's only the angle!

I always have to take a pre-race photo with the 2 of us

Transition area with the beautiful mtns behind us. The swim start was straight to the back. You can see how high the lake used to come up on the mountain side as well. 

Oh la la ...

Check out that farmers tan.... He is one white boy!

Doin' the IM Thang

Well I am both excited and a little sick to my stomach. I just registered for the Ironman Coeur d' Alene on June 29th, 2014. AAAAAHHHHHHH!!! Ha ha ha ha my feelings are sooo mixed right now. I have a lot to plan and A LOT of work to plan. It should be exciting and fun all at the same time.

IM athletes typically train somewhere between 12 (newbies - goal is to finish) to 20 (more serious contenders) a week. This is going to become a part time job for me. I would love to be a serious contender and look forward to the opportunity to test my body and see what exactly it is capable of achieving. I know its tough, but how tough? It will also be a test of mental strength, will and determination. How committed am I?

I spent some time looking at the race results from last year and that did intimidate me quite a bit. The only half race I've done was 6:06 and so I could anticipate, with the same type and amount of training to do between 12:30 - 14 hrs for a full. However, I'd really love to complete the IM in 11 ish hours. So that will take a great deal more dedication on my part... which will be the hardest part. Staying dedicated for soooooo long.

For the record last years top male was 8:16 and top female was 9:15... sigh. Ha ha I'd really have to work hard to break 11 so I can't imagine coming in at 9:15.

Well wish me luck! I'm sure I will do a great job.... ;)

Family Vac-A part II

So as promised (I know you were holding your breath) here are the rest of the pictures from our vacation. It was a splendid time really. And I leave these pictures with you because... well I enjoyed myself and so even if I am the ONLY person to ever look at them they will have been enjoyed.

These pictures are a complication from our 14 hour drive home. We spent the week in Yellowstone and instead of taking the short 5 hr drive from the cabin straight home Josh wanted to hike and drive through the Tetons. While beautiful it was horrendously long. Blah... We drove through Yellowstone, to the Tetons and to Salt Lake. Enjoy the beauty of the area from the perspective of a misguided $75 point and shoot camera.

The smaller lake in Yellowstone... I can't remember the name.

The wind brought in some fun looking waves. I wish I had a windsurf board!

Beautiful valleys and mountain scenery in YS.

Lewis Falls and some narly windy -blown hair.

Moose falls. Just as we were leaving the south entrance.

Large breathtaking lake just as we left Yellowstone! I think its called Jackson Lake? Maybe...
Either way it was beautiful!

More pictures of the lake.

We stopped at this cute marina side restaurant for lunch... delicious Greek/veggie pizza.

We FINALLY found a hike by Jackson Lodge to stop and hike. It was lovely. But Josh tasted like sweat ;)

Peter Pan followed us around the hike and lake :)

And that dear folks was our very merry adventure! Hopefully it wasn't to dull for you all. That is IF there is even anyone out there looking at them.

Happy Monday folks!

Inspirational Monday

I stole this picture from my partner company THRIVE. Whom, if you have never worked with I highly recommend. What a great group of trainers!