February Updates

On February 17, 2017 By JennaIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

february

This month sure is flying by, and it’s been quite an eventful one!

Kicked off the first weekend of the month with Les Mills SPRINT training. Mike & I had both signed up in December, and were excited to take our cycling teaching to the next level. Another plus was that it was hosted in our home gym, so we didn’t have to travel.

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Let me tell you, Les Mills weekend trainings are no joke. I first got RPM certified in April of 2011. It was an all-day Saturday, and all-day Sunday training. I remember being so exhausted and sore when it was all over. It was no different this time. Here’s how the website defines what SPRINT is:

“LES MILLS SPRINT is a 30 minute High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) workout, using an indoor bike to achieve fast results. It’s a short, intense style of training where the thrill and motivation comes from pushing your physical and mental limits. A high intensity, low impact workout, it’s scientifically proven to return rapid results.

The 30 minutes you put into a LES MILLS SPRINT workout drives your body to burn calories for hours. You combine bursts of intensity, where you work as hard as possible, with periods of rest that prepare you for the next effort. The payoff? You smash your fitness goals, fast.”

I am excited to teach it. The training was pretty tough, and we finished on Superbowl Sunday. I tried my best to stay awake to watch the game, but was sound asleep by 8:00pm.

The following week I attended my TMEA (Texas Music Educators Association) convention in San Antonio. I traveled up with my dad, and then my mom joined us the next day (which was a nice surprise because we weren’t sure if she was going to be able to attend). I always thoroughly enjoy this convention and was overjoyed to be able to see my TLU choir director as well as my co-op teacher who I student taught with back in 2009.

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To top it all off, I got to see my Gamma girls and meet mi Raspita Lexie’s baby Korben! He is the most precious little thing! When I drove back home that Saturday, my heart was fulfilled to see so many people who mean so much to me. 🙂

gammas-tmea

Back to work and started this week off getting into the routine. But on Wednesday morning at around 3:30am Mike & I woke up to quite a scare. We discovered masses amount of blood all over our living room and kitchen floor. Our poor Sandie baby! Long story short, Wednesday morning was a nightmare. Rushed her to the vet and thank God our veterinarian is so wonderful. She took care of her right away and hooked her up to an IV.

sandie-sick

It turns out Sandie got HGE, which is a bad bacteria that caused her bleeding, vomiting, drop of body temperature, among other scary things. They kept her on an IV overnight Wednesday. Yesterday during my lunch break I rushed over to check on her.

sandie-vet

She already looked so much better. They told me if she continued the way she was going, she’d be able to come home that night. Praise God, when I got home from work, Mike had brought her home. I am so grateful she’s going to be okay.

Because of all of this, Mike and I are/were on the fence about the Austin Half Marathon this weekend. As of right now, if Sandie’s doing okay when we get home tonight, we’re going to drive up to Austin tomorrow, run the race Sunday, and head back home that same day.

I am not by any means trying to PR this race. This will be the 5th year I run it, and I feel the most unprepared because I haven’t really dedicated enough miles and time in training. Plus, those hills are BEASTLY. But, I’m just going to have the mindset of running to finish. I’ll be happy to collect my medal and be on my merry way, haha.

So there’s February life updates so far. And the month isn’t over yet, we still have Charro Days coming up!

Jenna

California Christmas Trip & Life Updates

On January 20, 2017 By JennaIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Took a long blogging break, but I’m back! The last couple months of 2016 flew by and were full of some wonderful times including my best friend’s wedding, Thanksgiving break, my school choir Christmas programs, and an amazing trip to California for Christmas.

Sandie girl was the lucky dog picked to travel along with us! We had her registered as an Emotional Support Animal, and so she was allowed to fly with us. I get anxiety while flying & she really did help calm me down. She was an angel the entire trip.

We landed in Oakland at midnight Cali time, and after getting the rental car, didn’t get to bed til 2:00am (4:00am Texas time)! The next morning we woke up, had breakfast, and headed out on the drive to Yosemite.

The drive is about 3.5 hours from Oakland up into the mountains. We enjoyed passing the time by singing Christmas carols the whole way. Mike is obsessed with Christmas music; he even listens to it in the summer (I’m not kidding).

When we arrived to Tenaya Lodge (which is where we had spent our honeymoon 3 years before) there was no sign of snow. It was in the 40’s and I didn’t think we’d see any snow on this trip. But Mike swore to me it was supposed to snow the following day.

We got to our cute little cabin and got settled in. Then we headed to the beautiful lodge to see my favorite part:

This amazing Christmas tree! (I know the 2nd picture is crooked, but I wanted to show the scale of it next to a person standing). It’s huge and real and beautiful!

We found a couple of chairs right in front of live music and enjoyed a glass of wine.

We got back to the cabin, lit a fire and relaxed the rest of that evening.

The next morning we took turns walking to the gym because we couldn’t leave Sandie alone in the room. Mike went first and when he got back he told me it was getting colder out and to bundle up. I walked the half mile to the lodge’s gym, which is very nice. I did about a 45 minute workout and as I made my way back to the lobby I saw that Mike had been right, it had started snowing! And it was snowing HARD. I was so excited we were going to have a white Christmas.

I was in awe of the beauty. Seriously breathtaking.

On Christmas Eve we got to take a wagon ride & Sandie came along too. They stopped at a beautiful little area where we enjoyed hot apple cider and roasted marshmallows.

That afternoon the 49ers won their 2nd game ever and Mike was ecstatic. Sandie & I were super into the game too:

We enjoyed the snow on Christmas day, taking Sandie around to take pictures and play in the snow.

We had planned our trip to end with a couple of days in San Francisco. I was excited to head back to the city.

We found a dog-friendly Happy Hour at this place called MoMo’s . $1 oysters, yes please!

The next day we decided to drive to Sonoma (my happy place). It was as beautiful as ever. We were just going to go to Sonoma Square, and as we were about to pass Viansa (my favorite winery) I made a comment that I’d wished we could stop there. Mike made a quick right turn and took me in! I was so happy!

It was a perfect sunny 60 degree day & this place is just so gorgeous!

Enjoyed some delicious wine & headed into the little town for lunch.

On our drive back we stopped at a lookout point for a Golden Gate Bridge pic too. 🙂

It was an amazing trip that I’ll always remember & cherish.

And now…2017 and almost one month in! I’ve been back to work for almost 3 weeks and back on the regular routine. I’ve started tri training again, but I am not signed up for any triathlons yet. I am, however, signed up for the Austin Half Marathon on February 19. Need to start racking up some running miles on these legs!

I’m excited to represent Big Sexy Racing team this year, and was super happy to find out that I made Bronze All World Athlete status for 2017! So I HAVE to sign up for some Ironman-sanctioned events to enjoy my perks ;).

So there’s a quick little trip recap and life update!

TRI WITH JOY!

Jenna

The Other Side

On October 24, 2016 By JennaIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Yesterday I had the time of my life cheering on my friends and other runners for the Brownsville Historic half marathon. I pulled all the stops; brought out Flora the Flamingo, my feather boa, cowbell, rockin’ playlist, & mimosas of course!

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I know how much I appreciate spectators when I’m racing, especially if they’re making fools of themselves. It takes your mind off of the pain, even if just for a little while. This upcoming weekend I’ll be out there swimming, biking, and running, and I’m so glad the Longhorn course is a 3 loop run, so I’ll never feel alone. The spectators are awesome at this race, and they really do keep me going.

It was really nice to be on “the other side” of the race & making people smile!

6 days out from Longhorn 70.3! Race/Taper week!

TRI WITH JOY!

Jenna

A wonderful 5 days & Austin Half Marathon Race Recap

On February 15, 2016February 15, 2016 By JennaIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Riding home from a very enjoyable trip out of town. I headed to San Antonio with my parents last Wednesday for my TMEA conference. We had a blast. Not only did I attend some great music teacher sessions, but got to spend some quality parent/daughter time together!

I also got to meet up with some of my Gamma sisters for dinner, and it was so wonderful catching up and celebrating the soon-to-be Mommy, Ashley!

Mike picked me up in San Antonio on Saturday, and then he and I continued on to Austin to check in for the Austin Half Marathon on Sunday.

We got to the Palmer Event Center and made our way around the massive expo. Ran into some friends too!

Mike and I had a late lunch at Shady Grove and enjoyed the beautiful weather.

Had dinner at North in The Domain with friends we were staying with. It was delicious!

Race Recap:

Wake up call was 5:00am. Not bad! Got ready and had a Bonk Breaker for breakfast. We drove and parked in the capital (because we had the hookup 😉) then headed out to the start line.

We kinda separated to find the pacers we wanted to run with. I hooked up with Alyse at the 4:00 marathon pacers, which said about 9:00 min miles (give or take).

The National Anthem was sung and then we were off! I had my Wahoo heart rate monitor synced up and figured I’d use that as my mile pacer to notify me. However, it never talked to me the whole time! I didn’t want to mess with it since it was playing my music, so I decided I’d run this race based on feel.

I think that was a good decision because before I knew it, we were passing the 5k mark, 5 mile mark, 8 mile mark; they were just flying by!

Alyse kept me on my toes; she’s so fast! And those hills were killer! The first super steep one was at mile 8. I’m not sure if my hill running technique was right (because I have absolutely no hills to train on at home) but I leaned into them and took long strides. Somehow that did the trick.

We got to the famous mile 12 killer hill and turned it up! That hill is quite a beast, but I did NOT want to walk. And I didn’t!

Once I saw the back of the capital I started booking it (the finish line was around front of the capital). Ran my heart out through the finish!

My goal was to do better than I did last year. Last year’s time was 1:58. Sadly, not only did my heart rate monitor not track, but my race bib didn’t register over all of the trackers throughout the race! Frustrating, but I figured out my time because I remember running through the start line at 6:00 minutes and the finish said 2:01. So with a little simple math, I figured I finished in 1:54! I’ll take that!