300 Days of Sunshine

This past weekend Jaycob and I road-tripped up to Aurora, Colorado, to compete in the My Way or The Tri Way triathlon!  This was a really fun and well-organized event.  It was a sprint triathlon ( 800m swim,  20K bike, 5K run) in which the participants choose the order of their events.  The majority of athletes, including the Elites (and also my husband who likes to think he is Elite...) went with the traditional order (Swim-Bike-Run), but a lot of people, myself included, decided to mix it up.  There were participants competing in every combination of events (Bike-Swim-Run, etc.), as well as 2-event options (Swim-Run-Swim, Run-Bike-Run, etc.) and Relay Teams.   Setting up my zone Before the start of the race Sun rising over the reservoir I chose Run-Bike-Swim for my order and I had a pretty good race!  I felt really strong for the run and found it much easier to bike after running versus the other way around.  The run cou...

A few updates on my now-29-year-old life... 1.  I celebrated my birthday yesterday with all my best friends in Santa Fe.  I feel very lucky to be surrounded by so many amazing people in the final year of my 20s! 2.  My sister and dad both know me so well and got me the EXACT SAME birthday gift... my favorite running socks!  My feet are so happy... 3.  Sticking with my plan to save money, I did a home pedicure this weekend with nail stickers from my friend!  I think they look as good as a professional pedi! 4.  Sign up for the Dunkin Donuts email list and you get a free medium beverage during your birthday month!  This was such a perfect treat after my birthday trail run yesterday morning. 5.  This is old news by now, but I am so devastated by the death of Robin Williams.  He was an incredible actor who touched the hearts of everyone in the world.  He made us all laugh and cry, and the world will never be the...

What a beautiful day in the mountains!  I had the morning off work so I took Kua up to La Vega for a 7 mile trail run.  La Vega ("The Meadow") is a clearing at the foot of Santa Fe Baldy.  The hike begins on the Winsor Trail at the Santa Fe ski basin, climbs into the Pecos Wilderness, and continues along the Rio Nambe Trail to the clearing.  We had an early monsoon season this year in Santa Fe, so everything is green and lush.  There are still a few wild flowers in bloom, and everyone has been talking about the mushrooms!  I don't know what the big deal is regarding these mushrooms, and I definitely can't tell if they're edible, but there sure were a lot of them!  Kua was bound and determined to catch a chipmunk, but unfortunately for her (and fortunately for the chipmunk species) she was unsuccessful.  I spotted more blue jays and woodpeckers than ever before on a hike, and the cows were out in full force too.  Happy birthday to me! M...

Jaycob and I are getting closer to making our dream a reality and buying a house in Santa Fe!  We're currently enrolled in a class for first-time house buyers through Homewise, a nonprofit organization helping Santa Fe residents own homes within their budget.  The class has been extremely helpful and informative, and I'm feeling really optimistic about actually being able to own a house in the next year.  We're learning a lot of about the process of purchasing a home, qualifications for a mortgage, ways to improve our credit, and how to be informed and responsible consumers in this huge process.  Right now we're trying to pay off our credit card debt as much as possible so we can start saving for a down payment. A major step for us this week is to create a budget and stick to it.  I have spent countless hours creating numerous budget spreadsheets for myself in the past, but have never really been successful.  My challenges are a) I underestimate need...

The hubby and I finished the Xterra "Tri the Torture" off-road triathlon yesterday!  Let me say that again... I finished!  It was a difficult race consisting of an 800 meter open water swim, a moderately technical 14 mile mountain bike ride with 1500 feet of climbing, and a strenuous 4.3 mile trail run with 800 feet of steep uphill.  The race was long (almost 4 hours for me!) and challenging in a lot of ways.  This week's lessons are Letting Go  and Facing One's Fears ... I was a little intimidated and anxious arriving at the race site because there were a lot of people who looked really athletic  and really fast !  There were expensive bikes, fancy outfits, and many racers who looked totally in their comfort zone.   I opted to leave my wetsuit at home because of the time it takes trying to get out of that thing, and I was starting to regret it when I saw all the "serious triathletes" in their Xterra suits before the race.  Howeve...

Fellow runners, athletes, and adventurous friends, do you all have a favorite pre-race meal?  I first started the habit of eating spaghetti the night before a race when my high school nordic skiing and cross country teams would gather together for team pasta feeds. Nothing beats good ole' spaghetti with meat sauce and garlic bread!  Tomorrow is the Xterra off-road triathlon (open water swim, mountain bike ride, and trail run), which will definitely be my longest and most difficult race of the year, so tonight consists of stretching, foam rolling, packing bags, filling bike tires, mentally preparing transitions, and of course, carb loading. I started making these turkey pesto meatballs a couple years ago before a triathlon, and it has become our pre-race tradition in the Ross household.  Maybe it's a placebo effect, but it works for us.  We both kicked butt in the Santa Fe triathlon last year.  I have been a little obsessed with pesto since discovering Noodles ...