Todd's First Triathlon

This past Saturday was Todd's first triathlon!  He and his dad, step mom, and two friends Tim and Trent participated in the indoor Nampa Rec. Center Sprint Triathlon.  Todd has VERY diligently been training with them for 5 months now.  He took first place in his heat and 12th place overall... as a beginner!  I was so proud of him.

Todd, Rex, and Cindy were in the 3rd heat.

Todd took a swim class to learn the freestyle swim stroke and has really picked it up fast.  He swims really well for a beginner.  He has LOVED the biking from the moment he started training and that is his strongest event.  The run was what he was most concerned about because his leg lengths are off from a hip injury in a horse accident as a kid (we both apparently have the same hip issues... weird!) and his IT band flares up really bad from it when he runs.   But he went to an IT band specialist earlier that week who broke up the muscle scar tissue and did some therapy for it.  At the race, Todd had zero IT band pain in the run and did much better at that event than he expected to.  He's excited and working now with his friends for an Olympic distance triathlon in April.  It's become his passion.  It's also helped him lose 40 pounds and feel great!

Here's Todd transitioning from swim to bike.  He slipped those non-tying shoes on, whipped on a shirt, and ran up two flights of stairs to the bike/track area.

 Rex and Cindy taking a cool-down lap after he finished the race.

Our friend, Tim Davis was in the first heat and finshed before the kids and I got there.  (He's in the middle.)  He took 5th place!

Our friend, Trent on the bike during the 4th heat of the triathlon, Rex cheering him on.

A couple friends and I are also taking the adult swim class now that our husbands are done with the class.  I tried to learn freestyle last summer for my sprint triathlon and just couldn't get comfortable enough to even put my face under the water for any amount of time to then learn the swimming technique.  This class has helped so much already.  I can't go this week, but this would be my 5th week at it.  I have a long way to go, but being able to breath at all when doing a swim stroke that gets my face under water is a DEFINITE start!  I did my whole swim in my triathlon last summer with the breast stroke and side stroke... which are super slow.  Todd's dad also did the side stroke with me in last year's race, then took the swim classes, and was able to do most of the swim this weekend in freestyle.  So there's hope for me!

It's been fun, this week, to talk to Rachele on the phone about wedding details.  She picked her dress out and showed a picture of it on the internet to me, it's beautiful.  And she and all of us bridesmaids are searching for bridesmaid dress ideas on the internet.  Her colors are  really cool- chocolate brown, cobalt blue, and orange.  It'll be unique and really cool the way she's planning it.  Her exact wedding date is August 14, 2011.

My dad left for Afganistan late Monday night.  He should arrive there today.  So crazy.  It was especially hard when he left because two days earlier, their dog was hit by a car and died 24 hours later.  The vet thought he might heal and make it, but instead he unfortunately suffered a lot and never did make it.  Moose was his name and he was a very rare gorgeous Klee Kai breed (not sure on the spelling but that's what it sounds like).  They are highly highly loyal to one person and that person was my mom.  So she's having her husband leave for a year and her loyal k-9 companion leave for good all in two days time.  I feel really sad for her.  And my dad really struggled leaving her and my brother and sister who still live at home like that. Mom and Dad got their Valentine's date in early.  He'll be back in time for the next V. date next year.

Brielle and I spent Monday morning making her class Valentines.  They were cheap and fun to make.  I really like doing paper crafts with Brielle.  She's a fantastic helper, artistic and creative, and she's a bit of a perfectionist already at her age.  Not to mention really good at counting what number we're on for how many of something we've cut out (unlike Ashton who naturally makes me lose my count when he helps me by shouting random numbers.)