Changes...And Random Thoughts

Whew a lot has happened in the past couple of weeks. First off, the hubs and I celebrated our 2 year wedding anniversary on May 19. I can't believe it's already been 2 years! To celebrate, he bought me a cycle computer for my bike. :)

In addition to that, I made the hard - but very good - decision to leave public accounting. Again. I really like what I do and I love the people I work with, but this is a good opportunity that I couldn't turn down. It also helps that I won't have to travel anymore and will have much better benefits...and one of my best friends will be working right down the hall. And one thing that I really, honestly, seriously considered and helped make my decision - I can bike to work. It's about 15 miles one way, so it's not something I can just jump into, but I'm really looking forward to it. My goal is to start a couple of weeks after my first day and to eventually bike at least 2-3 times a week. The route is hilly for the first few miles, but it flattens out after that so I don't think it will be a problem. I am very, very excited for this (the commuting AND the job). I'll start on Monday, June 8.

Even though I'm leaving the CPA firm I work for now, I've decided to stick with taking the CPA exam. When I first started that "adventure" I didn't care much about it...it was just something I was being forced to do. But now that I've given up months of my life for this, I've come too far to just stop. I still haven't passed anything, but I should get my next score around June 20. My next exams are scheduled for July 16 and August 29...wish me luck. After taking a month off to relax, I started studying again tonight. No fun...I can't believe I'm willingly doing this.

After participating in Jay Benson (I feel wrong saying that I "raced" it considering the minuscule amounts of effort I put into training...ok, some that time was spent healing my stupid hamstrings), I immediately came home and signed up for the Chile Harvest Triathlon in Socorro. It will be on August 1. My goal for this race is to train and to go into it feeling a lot more prepared than I did for Jay Benson...I think doing it this way will make it fun. I hate to say it, but I did NOT enjoy anything about Jay Benson until it was over. Don't get me wrong...it was an awesome race and I'll be back next year...this was all my fault. At least I won't have tax season and an injury (I hope) to get in my way anymore.

Lastly, the application deadline for the NYC Marathon is next Monday, June 1. I should find out shortly whether I made it in or not. Either way, I just need SOMETHING on the calendar at this point. I decided that if I do not make it in, I'll just run the half at Duke City since it's local. The hubs and I were already planning a trip to Phoenix in January for RnR AZ, so if I do Duke City Half, I'll run the full there. If I get into NYC, I'm doing the half in Phoenix...unless I have some kind of brain damage and decide to attempt a full for both. Someone remind me of the hamstring injury from a couple of months ago if it looks like I'm headed that way...

Race report - Jay Benson Triathlon 5/10/09

I always pictured my first triathlon to be a lot like my first (and so far - my only) marathon...lots and lots of hard work training and then a great big pay off at the end. As far as Jay Benson goes, I kinda skipped out on that whole "training" part of it and skipped right to the "pay off" part. Not the smartest way to do things and I'm convinced that this is why my legs are still sore (no, it has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that I did NOT stretch after the race...I never claimed to do anything smart while preparing for this race, why start now?). All in all it was an awesome, amazing experience and I loved it. Also, my estimated finish time before the race was 2 hours.

The day started early...my friends, D, T and I decided to head over to the base around 6.00 AM, so that meant leaving my house around 5.30. Of course, when it comes to being on time, I'm always 5-15 minutes late so it was no surprise when it was 6.00 and Mike and I were pulling into a drive thru Starbucks nowhere near the base. We managed to get in, get parked and get me into the transition area, where I promptly set up my stuff next to my buddies (wrong - my triathlete friend came and fixed it later) and then milled around for the next hour or so saying hi to the gazillions of friends I had that signed up for the race and the other awesome friends who came out to be the best cheerleaders ever. The men started at 8.10 or so and by that time it was already heating up...before I knew it, it was time for me to line up. I joined the crowd of women and wandered towards the back of the pack till I found D, who was talking to a few friends of ours who'd come to cheer us on. Luckily that took my mind off what I was about to do. I wasn't even paying full attention when the buzzer sounded and the race started...I just moved forward with the crowd and the next thing I knew we were off!

The run was hot and I started out too fast, but luckily I reaized this very early on before I bonked too much. I also had been walking around with a bottle of water I forgot to throw away (I'm telling you, my mind wasn't in this) but I'm so glad I kept it. There was one water stop at 1.5 miles, but I ended up drinking my entire bottle of water. I was in the very back of the pack, alone for the most part, but I didn't mind. It was weird running without my iPod (unallowed) or watch (purposely left at home) but I think I kind of liked it - at least the watch-free part of it. I walked when I need to, wanting to save any energy I could for the bike, but I was still dizzy and neauseated when I finished. By the time I got to my transition, my triathlete friend (Frank) was standing outside the ropes but near my bike and he saved me...he walked me through everything I needed to do. I kept hearing "Ok, put your helmet on. Drink some water. Change your shoes. Get your bike." I knew what needed to be done, but I think if he wasn't there I would have taken even longer in transition than I did.

The bike was good. It felt amazing to be on my bike...I've always loved my bike, but I was worried how I'd feel trying to ride while being so hot, dehydrated and tired...but I loved it even more. The ride was hilly and the hills did get to me, but I remembered that a friend of mine said "When you get to a hill, you put your head down and you pedal...you never walk," so that's what I did. I kept repeating that on the uphills and singing Margaritaville out loud on the downhills - hey, I had to do something to get my mind off how tired I was! I got to transition again and was pretty disoriented though. I've never gotten the hang of the whole drinking while riding thing, so I didn't take in any fluids on the bike, a big mistake. I attempted to run to the pool, but after a few steps my legs yelled out "Eff you!" and I stopped and walked. I couldn't, there wasn't anything left in them.

Swimming has always been my strongest and it comes naturally. It's never felt so good to jump into a pool before...all I could think was "this is it, just get through the pool." Of course, it wasn't that easy. The pool was FULL of people and it was so hard to pass. Most people would move over when tapped, but not everyone. And to top it off, my goggles decided that this would be the perfect day to leak. Overall, it wasn't my greatest swim ever, but I was still happy with it.

It was a very fun race and it took a lot out of me...it also taught me how important it is to train properly. I must have liked it though...I just signed up for another one in Socorro in August. :)

Splits -
Run (3 miles): 40:20
T1: 3:00
Bike (20k): 50:07
T2: 2:40
Swim: 9:38
Overall: 1:45:49.45

Unser Half Marathon

Unfortunately, this is not a race report. A few months ago I had planned on being able to give you all a report on this race, but nope...I didn't do it. Instead, I'm hovering around a slow, painful 3 miles right now, which I'll take over not running at all. Instead, this post is to brag a little bit about the hubs. :)

The hubs, for those of you who don't know him personally - and I feel bad for you, is quite the character. He goes about a million miles a minute, asks thousands of questions of anyone and is really pretty gullible and come up with funny and random things all the time, but he'd kill me if I told you that (oops). In fact, my friend T and I say we're going to compile all the Mike-ism we've heard over the years and become millionaires over his hilarity. So when he told me about three weeks ago that he was still going to run the Unser Half Marathon I thought this was another one of his jokes, or something that he got mixed up. He'd been running, but only about five miles at a time for a month or two at the time...but nope, he was serious. So here we sit, at Dion's (geez, now I feel REALLY bad for those of you who don't live in NM, seriously, the BEST food!) and I'm trying to figure out how to keep him from dying on this race.

It turns out I didn't need to worry...not only did he manage to get himself up to the distance in time (although not in any way I would suggest to anyone wanting to run their first half) he did an AMAZING job during the race! I don't have a race report since I didn't personally do it, but maybe I can get one out of him in case anyone else is considering it for next year. He finished in 2:02 and was 121 out of 226...I was very impressed! And now for a couple of pictures (all courtesy of Mugshots & Pawpritnts)...

I can breathe!

I'm finally crawling out from under the rock that is known as tax season and am happy to say that I survived yet another year. Considering I don't actually DO taxes (normally - every Saturday from the end of February till April 15 this changes) survival is a huge feat in itself. I thought this year went much better than last year...at least I knew where I was messing up and could give the reviewers a heads up.

Jay Benson is less than a month away and I'm not prepared at all. I'm trying to go into it with a good attitude - it's just for fun, I'm not in it to win, blah blah blah. It's all true, but I know I'll be bummed when I do worse than I predicted back in November/December when I was figuring this stuff out. It's lame and I need to get over it. Outside of the hubs and the familia, I have three priorities - work, exam and working out. Generally I can balance all three okay but between the little injury at the beginning of the year plus the insanity of work the past few months, plus the pressure that's been put on me with the exam, something had to be scaled back on. As much as I love running, it doesn't pay the bills (or harass me every time it sees me about passing the exam it paid for).

And now for my random vent of the day. I almost feel like I have a few friends who are sitting back and waiting to watch me fail at next month's race because I wasn't able to work out as much as I'd have liked. They question me all. the. time. about how much I ran this weekend, did I bike, have I been to the pool yet? And it doesn't feel like the supportive conversations it started out as...it's more like "hmm...you and you actually think you're going to do this?" A part of me wants to scream and point out that it's not like I'm spending 12 hours a day sitting on the couch watching Oprah and eating ice cream, but the other part - the more rational part - realizes that they probably don't understand how nasty things can get. It's rough meeting my co-workers at 7AM to go out of town to a client's, working through lunch, and getting back to town between 6 and 7PM and having to decide between working some more or studying. And this isn't just through April 15, folks...my real busy season is September - December 15.

Ok, I'm done whining about how hard my life is. Now I DO feel like sitting on the couch for a few hours.

Continuing on...

Thanks to the joy that is tax season and studying for the test that I really don't want to talk about right now (I swear, this is just a quick, 20 min break!) I didn't realize it's been a while since I've been here. A lot has actually happened.

Due to my 1) lapse in judgment; 2) peer pressure from friends I won't name here; and 3) did I already mention lapse in judgment??? I have signed up for my first sprint triathlon. It's on May 10 and it's one I've actually wanted to do for a long while now. Of course, in my crazy dreams and thoughts of doing a triathlon of any distance there has been some kind of serious training plan in place that I stick to. Such is not really the case here. After the hamstring/knee/leg/whatever it felt like injury that knocked me on my ass for two months, I've had a *little* trouble getting back into the swing of things. It's not that I don't want to, it's just that I've found that maintaining a job and the money it brings in is essential to my well being. And that pesky test we're not talking about has interfered a little bit too. Oh, and have I mentioned that I'm lazy? Yeah, during those two months off I rediscovered this little thing called "sleep." Yes, the link is important because I'm sure I'm not the only one who had no clue what it was for a while. Nah, once April 15 comes and goes (and I celebrate with all my work buddies with copious amounts of adult beverages) I'll get a little more serious.

And to help with the seriousness, the world's most awesome, amazing hubs and parents (mine) bought me what you see pictured to the right ---->
It's an early birthday gift and I am super, duper, totally, extra excited about it. I haven't taken it out on a "real" ride just yet (unless you count my driveway) but I'm dying to.

AND beyond all this excitement, the hubs and I leave for our Jamaican vacation in 40 days. FORTY DAYS! Yeah, it's probably not the BEST idea to spend the week before my first triathlon sitting on a beach with unlimited pina coladas, but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do, right?

It eff'ing figures

12 As a 1930s wife, I am Very Poor (Failure) Take the test!

Explain to me how this happens.

I randomly got my CPA exam score today for the last section I took on Jan 16. I wasn't expecting it until next month, so imagine my shock and horror when I saw a huge, glaring "70" staring at me instead of the usual "Error: Score not found...blah blah blah" that I was used to seeing. Just to recap for those of you who haven't heard me stress out over this, you need a 75 to pass, so this was not quite up to par...and add to the fact that I got a 71 on the last section I took, I was not in the best of moods today. In fact, this really explained the jumpy, nervous, overall horribly bad feeling I had all morning...at least that feeling went away as soon as I saw that disaster.

So I'm flarking pissed. I studied way harder for this section and got a worse score...funny how that works. I'm retaking the first failed section on April 3 and I guess I'll be trying to reschedule this one for the end of May now and move one new section to July (the other new section will hopefully be in August/September). At least I forced myself to run this evening and it was awesome...weather had to have been around 60 and I went out in shorts and long sleeves. Granted, that good mood ended as soon as I got back in the car and had time to think about it, but still...it was good while it lasted.