I am a (tri)ROCK STAR!

I am in here somewhere!

The entire Team Challenges were in the first heat. We wore orange swim caps. It was so crazy to see us jumping little by little and settle at the starting line. I was pretty calm. The night before coach Paul gave us an awesome speech. A prepared and ready athlete is the calm athlete! I was! Shortly after we entered the water, they announced a minute warning...45 seconds..10...9...8....My OH CRAP mode set in for like a second, and then I was ready. I said to myself, "Here we go Jess. Let's go! Swim". I was convinced I was one of the last people in the water. It was tough! I was pushing myself. I was breathing hard, but kept  going. My goggles were giving me trouble by getting foggy and I still need to work on my sighting. I had to stop a few times, but kept pushing through saying to myself, "You got this Jess. Keep going! You're almost there. Keep moving, and you'll get there". 

Once I got out of the water, coach Sarah yells, "Look at you!" I  was surprised. That gave me confidence and the boost I needed. I was happy that I was doing so well! I was out of the water in a little under 11 minutes. On my way over to the transition area I saw a few friends and it was the nicest surprise to see them cheering for me. I was running over to the transition area, but slowed down a bit or else I knew I'd fall over. When I got to my bike I was kinda shaking. I think it was part nerves! I thought, "Breathe Jessica. Breathe. Get out of your wet suit, get your shoes on, helmet, glasses, go. What are you doing? Don't dry off! Go!" haha. I had my energy goo, got going, and mounted. 

I was a bit out of breath when I started the bike. I tried to keep up with a teammate who also started the bike portion around the same time. After hitting a few bumps my kickstand was getting in the way. Prior to race day, my kickstand was getting in the way of the wheel, making this horrible sound. I had it looked at, tightened, and even had to get it replaced. Race day, same thing. It was making a horrible sound and I tried to ignore it and keep pushing, but I was worried it would mess up my wheel. I had to get off and that set me back a little. Janet caught up with me though! I had a few more slower moments when I had to get water. I still need to learn to grab my water bottle and put it back in it's place while riding. Irregardless, Jan and I finished and started running together! :) I was ready to get off that bike and to running! I hated the bike portion, honestly! Not my favorite. 

Here I am crossing the finish line! It was great! My calf and Achilles was kinda hurting  halfway through the running, but kept thinking, "GO, GO, GO". I did have additional motivation. My goal was to finish, strong, and catch up with my teammate, Cassie. She passed me on the bike portion.  

CONFESSION: I saw here on the run and said to Janet, "There she is. Let's catch up! Let's go". Sadly, Janet and I didn't stay together, but we finished!! I was in a mode that just took me over. I powered through and wanted to finish fast. I thought, "The faster you go, the sooner you can stop". I tried to keep thinking this than focus on the pain in my leg. Needless to say, I got new running shoes the week after. 

The sister and I with our lovely medals. We're TRIATHLETES! 

So, when's the next one??

Day before race tales

The day? Saturday, Sept. 8
The location? San Diego Hilton
What? Pre-race day!

When we got to San Diego we went straight to the Expo area and picked up our "Swag Bag" with our goodies. Here are mine:

We checked out a few booths. The sister, Cassie, and I signed up for the Rock N Roll Las Vegas Half Marathon and got free shirts! WOO! :)  Afterwards, we went back to the hotel and we reviewed our materials and put our timing devices on. It looked like we had excaped from jail or were under house arrest. Don't we?

Once we reviewed everything, we went back to our rooms to relax a bit. We had some time before our big Team Challenge dinner so we put on our race number temporary tattoos. Here's Janet blowdrying hers. Cassie accidentally got it wet witouth peeling the back. 

When we went to dinner, we met in the lobby as a team and made our way over. We were greeted by the following: 

It was really cool to see so many people cheering for us! :) We had dinner with all the other teams part of Team Challenge. They came from Seattle, San Francisco, and a few other cities. It was awesome. We gave shout outs to our coaches, managers, top fundraisers, and had awesome, inspiriation speakers! 

After our lovely dinner, we had our last team meeting before race morning. Here are some photos from our meeting. 

We painted our nails orange & blue, our team colors!

I knocked out soon after; my bedtime was 11pm. My set up race morning - 

First thing in the morning, WATER!

My wake up greeting!

Splash Splash

The night? Wednesday 

The place? LMU swimming pool 

The mission? Complete our last team swim practice.

Getting ready to dive in

Yesterday, as usual, we ran through the Wednesday motions. I make my way over to pick the sisiter at work at 6pm and we face the feat of getting through LA traffic to make it to practice by 7pm. We usually get there right on time but the last two weeks we've made it with 15 minutes to spare. We got to practice and our coaches talked through a few logistics for the weekend and afterward we got in and ready for business. We did a warm up and sprint work. We were teaching our bodies to swim through an elevated heart rate. It was good! I felt good! However, last night (& this morning) I'm feeling it.

After about 200m, I'm all warmed up (pre-shoulder pain)

The Problem: My left shoulder feels a bit strained so I'm trying to take it easy. I googled what could the cause of the pain could be. I believe I've found...

The Answer: I normally breathe on my right side. As I bring my left arm to enter the water, instead of having my hand come forward as it's entering the water (fingers pointed at an angle), my thumb will enter first, putting pressure on my shoulder. Definitely got to work on the mechanics of my stroke a little bit. 

Before the shoulder pain, we were instructed to get out of the pool and we knew what was coming. Last week we went through a drill where we, little by little, jumped in the pool and made our way through the lanes, like snake. 

Last drill - we snake through the lanes, from one end to the other

I usually stay behind because I don't want to be in the front with the faster swimmers or those who are secretly competing against other teammates, but last night, I thought, "Why not?" So I made my way to the edge of the pool, jumped in, and swam! It was kind of competitive. There was a point when I tried to pass two teammates and one of them slightly knocked my googles and they almost came off. I recovered, though. Once we were done, we made our way into one swim lane. Coach Paul quickly explained that we were about to complete a "rite of passage." We were all given paddle boards and were instructed to make the swim down the lane impossible, or as near to. Check out the video of me and a teammate making it down the lane. It wasn't too bad, if I do say so myself! 

After practice, we went to Tower Pizza for our last meal. We ate, we were merry, we're ready for Sunday! 

Julie & Julia / Jessica & Janet

Have you seen the film "Julie & Julia"? 

I recommend this film! However, BEWARE: it WILL make you hungry!

I began to watch it on E! last weekend and I found it DELIGHTFUL. The cooking, the french food, the lovely acting of Meryl Streep and Amy Adams, it inspired me to get my butt into the kitchen. 

Tuesday Night the sister and I made our way to Trader Joe's and picked up a few goodies and decided to experiment a little in the kitchen. While what we cooked was technically Italian food, a change from the French cuisine in the film, it was still fun! 

My dish: I made angel hair with tomato sauce and basil with some vegan meat, and bruschetta! I toasted the sourdough on the stove, and it was SO yummy and crunchy! I made the bruschetta without olive oil (sadly, we had just ran out!), so I don't know if you can technically call it bruschetta, but the freshness of the tomatoe and basil was delicious. It was carbilicious! 

Trying my hand at some Italiano food

SO MANY CARBS! lol

Toasted bread with my version of bruschetta!

Jan's dish: The sister has had garlic pizza dough sitting in the fridge for a while now so she decided Tuesday was the day! She prepared it, put some tomato sauce, and covered the pizza with broccoli, vegan Italian sausage, kale, mushrooms, and baby tomatoes, with a few pine nuts to top it off. It was tasty!

Jan & her vegan creation

Thank goodness we're racing in the Triathlon this weekend! Luckily, Jan and I always try to make our food as healthy as possible. 

Happy Cooking!

ONE WEEK!

less than a week, technically! 

We got to Saturday practice and were greeted by our teammates and their friends & family. Lorenzo (Jan's bf) came along with us. We started the morning with an easy 30 minute run! I felt pretty good (despite the festivities I partook in the night before celebrating a friend's 21st birthday)! I rocked the run :) We ate afterwards and had a small team powwow to discuss the logistics of this coming weekend! We got our gear, and now we're riding along until race day! 

TriRock San Diego, here we come!

Janet and I ready for TriRock!

Our "friend" Stephen decided to take a photo with us lol

More open water swimming!

We swam 1800m yesterday at a teammates sister-in-law's house. It was such a beautiful area! We swam, ate lunch, and chatted with some teammates. It was a good (hot & tiring) Sunday! 

Some of our awesome crew! 

Miss Cassie, myself, and Jan ready to swim our booties off

Jan getting ready to jump in!

There and back was around the race swim distance

Battle Wounds

THE TALE:
Yesterday, the sister helped zip up my wetsuit and left a little lip of the velcro sticking out. 500m into yesterday's open water swim, I was feeling some irritation. I pushed through and adjusted it and kept going. By the time I got to 1000m, it started hurting a little more. Grrrr! This is the second time this has happened - the chafing. It looks like I have hickey!...or is it really? ;) haha

THE TALE:
On Saturday, I attempted to "gracefully" dismount my bike while it was still moving. The idea was to swing my left leg over and  land on the right side of my bike. I got my leg up, but I didn't commit enough and started to place too much weight on my right arm. The handle bars started to turn in and I tried to land on my feet to stop myself from completely falling over. I managed to do so, but not without having my handle bars cop a nasty feel on my upper thigh. Here is the evidence.


My wetsuit and bike may have won this battle, but they have yet to win the WAR! 2 weeks and counting!

Race Gear

Some of my gear -

Brooks Adrenaline kicks - getting mine from Top to Top (but had to be ordered because I have Hobbit feet like my sis aka wide feet! haha)

CLIFF gels for energy

Race belt - $10 at Sports Chalet

Body Glide - helps prevent chafing from wetsuit

Mind / Matter

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQYpF2pCkLI

Young the Giant, "My Body"

My body tells me no
But I won't quit
Cause I want more

My friend sent this to me. She said the chorus reminds her of my tri-training experience!

Breakfast of Champions

This morning's breakfast

This morning I made myself some quinoa with almond milk, a little bit of cinnamon, and strawberries. Yumm! I recommend :D

36 hours.

Nothing is impossible if you have passion!

5 days ago, I was $900-$1,000 away from my $2,800 fundraising goal. 

I'm pretty sure some people de-friended me on Facebook due to my incessant posting and begging (lol) for money. Good riddance! 

I'm so moved and inspired by the amount of support, donations, and kind words that people offered in the span of 36 hours. In a previous post, I mentioned that I had a goal to finish the weekend at $2,000. At midnight, I was still a $100 or so to go. I was hopeful, however. Before going to bed, I messaged and emailed friends! Morning came and I was over $2,000! 

I luckily had the day to send as many emails and messaged to friends asking them to support the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America. The weekend had worn me out so I thought I could use an extra day to bounce back. I had a pretty productive day! By the afternoon, however, I was beat! My shoulders and neck were tight and incredibly achy. I had spent hours messaging and emailing. I was so desperate for relief that I scheduled a massage because my arms and neck could not take it anymore (ALL IN THE NAME FOR A GREAT CAUSE!). Monday night came and Janet was done with her fundraising. I was still less than $200 away. I knew I'd get there. Despite my achy neck and somewhat discouraged attitude, I BELIEVED!

I DID IT!!

By lunch time the next day, I had finished! I had raised $800 in about 36 hours!!! What an incredible thing! I was so proud of not only myself, but of my friends, who were kind enough to, not only put up with my constant messaging, emailing, and status posting on Facebook, but to also donate! To believe in the cause, just as much as they believe in me to accomplish my goal - fundraising and  participating in this triathlon. Their supportive words, and donations inspired me! They INSPIRE ME! I know that it's a matter of pushing, and believing!!! 

Thank you -

My Mom!! and Dad

Helga
Alexandro
Simon
Ashley
Marc
Paul
Eugene
Ian
Alexandra
Job
Justin
Addie
Albert
Adrian
Josef
Robert
Mary
Crytal
Obi
Ramon
Kim
Erica
Roland
Jose
Sergio
Mark
The Torres Family
Tia Yolanda & John
Susan
Pat
Lorna
Julie & Simon
Janet
Ian
James
Tara & Paul
Josephine
Anthony
Summera
Shannon
Leslie
David
Justin
Jessica
Kurt
Gerard
Mary Ellen
Matthew
Alex
Tiffany
Warren
Kelly
Fabiola
Andrea
Susan
Sabel
Erika
Lorenzo
Alejandra
Kamunge
Bo
Nathan
Alyssa
Brenda
Brittany
Christine
Mary
Michelle
Amber
Chester
Wesley
Scott
Sujean
Nayley
Nicole
Marie
Josue
Kellie
Laurie
Thomas
Steven
janice
Jasmin
Jovo
JJ
Elizabeth
Jennifer
Anita
The Farags
Terry
Derek
Fr. Paul
Deacon Tom
Ed
Gabe
Joaquin
Countless UCC, Temecula, and Family Folk who helped with monetary donations, donations for our garage sale, donations for baked goods, and their supportive words!

Pizza & Beer!

Ms. Cassie pouring our shared pitcher

Celebrating our training so far as well as meeting our fundraising goal!

Lily, me, Cassie, Jan - post-swim!

After last night, we only have 2 team swim practices left! It's crazy how the weeks have gone by. Our practices are held at LMU so every Wednesday we brave the traffic and get our butts over there! It's been fun! They're gym is nice! I really like their pool too! Ok, focus Jessica! 

Jan and I got to the pool late (again! Darn traffic). We got our swim on! 4X100 with 15sec rest. 1X200 with 15 sec. 4X100 with 15 sec. 1X200 with 15 rest. 3X100 with 15 sec rest. We had a busy hour! It flew by so fast! 

I felt good in the pool despite having a sore arm from having a shot earlier at the doctor's. I don't know if I was pushing myself, or if it was my usual pace, but I felt bad because I was wanting to lap some of my teammates. I slightly crashed into someone. SORRY JOE! SORRY STACY! SORRY SEAN! SORRY LILY! lol Despite these mishaps, Jan and I had a pretty good workout. Coach Paul said that we did well in the pool; he said, "You and your sister swim a lot better than you think you do". That was pretty cool! :D

After every team swim practice we hit Tower Pizza. I always drink water after the workout, but I got my drink on! I was done fundraising! Good practice! Let's celebrate a little!! :)

It's Mrs. Crocker to you

After we got back from our San Diego excursion, the sister and I decided we needed to plan something quick to help us in our fundraising efforts! THINK! QUICK! ...BAKE SALE!

Janet is practically the next Betty Crocker...with a twist. She's been honing her skills and she makes pretty good pastries! Not only are they delicious, but her goodies are vegan! Sadly, our treats on Sunday weren't completely vegan (we were out of butter!). There goes our devious plan to turn our friends into veggie lovers/no meat/animal product eaters! GRRRRR. lol

Betty Crocker in her mumu 
making lemon squares!

After the 10:30am Mass, we were $110 or so closer to our fundraising goal! We had generous donations from Fr. Paul and other lovely folks. While we waited for the next Mass, Jan and I made some more goodies - sugar cookies, lemon squares, and cookie/cake pops. We improvised and it turned out pretty well! After the 7pm Mass we were in total $228 closer to our fundraising goal ($114 each!). We had, again, generous donations from Deacon Tom, Ed, Gabe, and several other friends. 

Overall, we had a productive day and it definitely helped with making our goal! By the end of Sunday night, my goal was to make it to $2,000. I was just short by the time the clock struck midnight, BUT...the most incredible thing happened during the next 36 hours or so..

Stay tuned.

Sugar cookies! 

Team Challenge takes over SD!

5am - wake up call
7:45am - train
12:30pm - start time
3pm - lunch
4pm - train

Team Challenge goes to San Diego!

6am drive to Anaheim Amtrak - SO BEAUTIFUL! :)

Getting ready to do the bike & run course

We had an early Saturday morning start to the day. Jan and I woke up at 5am (after going to sleep past 12am! gah!), got ready, got our booties into our car and made our way to Anaheim. We got there and our bikes were boarded onto a U-haul. We made our way into the train station and were greeted by our lovely teammates. We boarded, and had a nice 2 hour ride! We got to know each other some more, had good conversations, told some funny stories, by the time we knew it, we were in San Diego! We wasted no time and made our way to the Hilton hotel where we will be staying the night before race day. It was a LONG walk haha. It was HOT! Many of us were moaning and groaning. 

Once we got the Hilton, we went through some logistical stuff on how it's going to work on the night before the race, race morning, etc. We checked out where we will be swimming (Check out photo!) Next feat - 12 mile bike ride, followed by 3 mile run. 

Where we will be swimming 500m!

HOLY MOLY was it a hot day! Luckily, our race will take place at 7am so it won't be too hot. Overall, we pushed through and finished strong I think :) We got a little taste of what race day will be like.

Wooo - 3 weeks left!

Call me Mrs. Cookie Monster

Bake Sale Fundraiser - $110 at the morning Mass

Inquiring minds

Good Friday everyone! 

I've already received questions from readers and I'm prepared to answer them. Get ready!

Questions from our reader
1) any hot guys on your team?
2) can you  get wedgies from a wetsuit?
3) where's the hot eye candy at?
4) do you know how to put a swim cap on yourself now?
5) show us the pics of the cuties with the booties on your team
6) hook it up for a roommate
Answers
1) They're triathletes! Of course they're HOT! ;)
2) YES!
2) continued...haha so because you have clothes underneath, that's what can cause a wedgie.
3) RIGHT HERE! duh!
4) Putting on a swim cap can be tricky, especially with long hair. Luckily, I've mastered the art!
5) Future post!
6) His name is Fabio, his email address is sexyathleticitalianman@HOTmail.com. He's expecting your email!!! 

The questions were brought to you by the silly one known as Ms. Ashley

A mentor's (& mother's) story

We asked our mentor, Stacy, to feature her story on our Facebook Fundraising Page. Here is her story!

Yay, Janet and Jessica! They asked me to share information about my son Lowell, who is 12 years old and has Crohn's Disease so you all can see why this is so important! 

Lowell has been living with this chronic illness since he was 2 years old. He has faced many challenges over the years including medical procedures, different medications, injections, blood tests, stomach pain and fatigue but he has always been determined to do all the things he loves, despite the fact that he might not always be feeling his best. He has a love of piano and a passion for all sports. This past year, Lowell was hospitalized 3 times due to pain and dehydration. He currently is doing well on a new medication but also has nightly tube feedings to balance his nutrition and get enough calories so he can grow. He is a real trooper, and inserts the feeding tube every night that gets hooked up to a pump that gives him the nutrition he needs. CCFA has helped fund research toward understanding this disease better, and helped to provide new medications and treatments. I am training for my 6th Team Challenge Even, having run 4 half marathons and the triathlon last year. Team Challenge provides support, builds lasting friendships, and shows how strong we really are. It has been an inspiration to meet so many amazing teammates and to know that one day soon my son and all the others living with these diseases will not have to suffer. Thank you for your support!

 Please help us help find a cure for Lowell and others like him.

http://www.active.com/donate/trirock12gla/beboldjess

My sister is also doing the triathlon - http://www.active.com/donate/trirock12gla/dontstopjan

Stacy, our mentor, and her other son, Jonah.
They both are part of Team Challenge this year!