A week in review and other things too

Training:
I cannot believe there are only 2 more weeks until Boulder 70.3!  Yikes!  It is coming sooo fast!  I'm starting to get anxious, nervous, and excited.  I think I'm ready, but I'm still really nervous about the swim.  I know I can do the distance, but I just HATE the panic/freaking out I experience during the swim.  I guess all I can do is hope for the best and accept that it will be what it will be.


* My master's swim coach decided to do an evening OWS practice at the Cherry Creek Reservoir on Monday night.  I was so excited because I really wanted to get in more open water swimming.  My husband joined us after work and played with the boys at the swim beach while I swam.  I met some really nice women who are all doing the Tri for the Cure on Aug. 2nd.  For most of them, this was the first time they had done any open water swimming.  It was such a great atmosphere and I had an awesome swim.  I ended up swimming almost 1.2M (the distance for my HIM) and I felt great the entire time!  

* Tuesday night I was supposed to do the 1M Aquaman swim race.  But, this picture pretty much sums up what happened.

Yes, that is pouring rain.  And yes, it was canceled again because of rain, thunder, and lightning!  Now, I love rain, but why does it have to come when I need to practice my mass start swimming??!!  Hopefully, next week the weather will cooperate!

* I had a great tempo run on Thursday!  I took the boys to kids club and ran on a treadmill at the gym.  I did 1M EZ, 4M tempo, and 1M EZ.  It was a great run, but I was sweating so much!  I felt sorry for the people on the treadmill next to me because the end of my pony tail was dripping with sweat and kept letting droplets of sweat fly through the air.  Maybe that's why no one ever stayed very long next to me.  Either that or I completely stunk!  Ha ha

Other stuff too:
*  Awhile ago I won a giveaway from Patrick at The Road (A Multi-Sport Blog).  I finally got it in the mail this week, and this is what I won:

Erin Baker's granola and breakfast cookies galore!  Yum, yum, yum!

* So, on Monday when I was finished my OWS I went to put my wetsuit in the removal waterproof bag that is part of my TYR transition backpack (You can read my review of it here) and the seam where the zipper is completely broke and the zipper fell off.  I tried to fix it, but I just could not figure out how to do it.  So, I called TYR customer service to see if there was any way I could get it repaired.  I explained what happened and the customer service rep. told me she would mail a new one out to me that day free of charge!  I was so excited and thanked her profusely!  And, guess what came in the mail yesterday?

My new bag with perfect seams and a working zipper!  :)

*  How cool was it that Andy Schleck got the stage win yesterday!  I totally thought that Contador was going to make a move and sprint to the finish to win, but he didn't.  My guess is that he got so much slack for what he did to Schleck when his chain fell off that he needed to improve his image.  Regardless, Schleck deserved that win!  I really hope he's able to win back the yellow jersey.

*  I'll be doing my giveaway tomorrow so stay tuned!

I hope you all have a great weekend!  :) 

The Sunday Sampler - Fitness

Welcome to another installment of The Sunday Sampler.  This is the day where I share my insights, thoughts, and opinions with you about different things in three categories: fitness (gear/clothing/accessories/etc.), parenthood, and health, rotating each category each week.  I hope that makes sense! :)  

My hope is that I will be able to help you along your adventure just like so many others have helped me. So, let me know what you think!  I'd love to read about your perspectives on these things as well!  :) 

Fitness:

TYR Transition Backpack:

When I first started doing tris I used a regular backpack to carry all of my gear for my races.  While it served it's purpose, I soon found that it just wasn't enough room.  Especially for the races where I needed a wetsuit.  It also drove me a little crazy because everything I needed for the race was basically just stuffed into one main compartment.  

Now, anyone that knows me knows that I like to be organized.  I will fully admit that I am an organizational freak!  I guess I just like for everything to have its' own place and know where to find things easily.  Enter the TYR Transition Backpack.

Here is some general information about it that I got from trisports.com:

 Outside Features:

Padded Adjustable Back Straps

2 Padded Side Pockets for cell phone/MP3 Player w/ Slit for headphone wire

Completely unfolds with dual zippers

Two External Mesh Water Bottle Pockets

Reflective Binding on padded straps, side pockets and front face of bag

Large Outside Mesh Pocket

External Helmet Pocket with Safety Clip and Bungee Straps

5” Expandable Mesh Bottom Compartment for a Wetsuit or Towel

Inside Features:

Two Large Internal Mesh Shoe Pockets – Running and Cycling

Removable Waterproof Bag for Wet Items (with clip for wetsuit)

Pros:
* Being the organizational freak that I am, this bag has enough separate compartments to split things up.  For example, I put my shoes in one, nutrition in another, accessories (garmin, race belt, visor, etc..) in another, etc.  This is also nice because we all know how we check, double, and triple check all of our stuff the night before the race to make sure we have everything.  Because there are different, see-through compartments, I can tell that I have everything I need without having to unpack everything.   

The gray pouch in the middle is the removable wetsuit bag.  It clips onto the bottom of the bag to keep it in place.

*  It holds everything you will need for race day.


*  It is actually really comfortable to wear, even though it's big.  For a couple of my races last year I actually rode to the race site so my husband and kiddos didn't have to get up at the butt crack of dawn to drop me off.  I wore this backpack and it worked perfectly. 

*  The removable wetsuit bag is awesome!  It is big enough to fit your wetsuit in, but small enough so that it doesn't take up too much space.  Plus, it prevents getting all of your other gear wet after your race.  And, you can remove it if you don't need a wetsuit for your race. 


Cons:
*  It's pretty big for a backpack.  When I first put it on, because I'm so short, my husband joked that I looked like a Kindergartner on the first day of school carrying a huge backpack.  Ha ha!  

*  It takes up more space in the transition area than a normal backpack.  But, what I do is lay out all my stuff on my towel, then scrunch down the backpack making it as compact as possible so it doesn't take up too much space for other people.  


*  It costs about $60.  But, they are always on sale somewhere online. I got mine for about $45 last Christmas.  And, for what it's worth, I think trisports has them on sale right now.      




All in all, I really like this as a transition backpack.  Yes, it's a little big, but to me it's worth it.  It works perfectly when I ride my bike to the race, it keeps all of my stuff organized, and it's nice to be able to get all of my stuff I need to the transition area in one trip. 


* Please note:  I was not contacted or paid by TYR or trisports to review this product.  This review is my own opinion and is based on my experiences.