Alaska Adventure

Several months ago some girlfriends and I were planning a girls weekend. Since I was going to be gone, Eric decided he'd take the boys camping and made campsite reservations. Then all my girlfriends realized we had planned on Father's Day weekend and they couldn't go after all.

I wasn't too bothered because I figured I could go camping with my men. Then I was informed that I wasn't invited because it was a "boys only" camping trip... Fine. I decided I'd go to Alaska and visit some friends! Now that you know WHY I went, I'll share my adventure with you!

My plane landed in Anchorage on a Thursday evening at about 11:30pm. It was still "sunset". Talk about strange! Because Alaska is so far north, it never does get dark in the summer time. It got to be twilight, but then the sun came right back up. This made for very late bedtimes the whole time I was there. It just never seemed like bedtime!

On Friday I spent most of my day with my friends the Capaldos. We walked around "the lagoon" and then went for a drive on the scenic highway. This is when I realized just how beautiful Alaska is. It's breathtaking!

I also spent some time on my own that afternoon wandering downtown Anchorage. It's a really small city with a lot of fun quirks.














Saturday I spent driving farther out the scenic highway with my friends the McDonalds. We went as far as Portage where there was a lake that had iceburgs floating in it! WOW! It was incredible!


We also stopped at a wildlife reserve along the highway and the Eagle River Nature Reserve. Even though we didn't spot any large animals, we saw plenty of small birds and lots of beautiful flowers.

Sunday I attended church with the McDonalds and we spent our afternoon shopping for souveniers. Before heading home the McDonalds took me to the local pizza joint. The Moose's Tooth is very popular up there. Everyone I talked to said to make sure I went there before leaving town. They brew their own beer (which was great) and their pizza was unlike any other pizza I've ever had.



















I was sad to leave and I can't wait to go back with my whole family. If you've never been, go! You'll be blown away by the amazing beauty Alaska has to offer!

Triathlon

So now that it's nearly 3 weeks later I thought I should probably write about my experience in my first triathon. (Gimee a break, I lead a very busy life.)

As with any other race day, I woke up having barely slept the night before and well ahead of my alarm clock. I bounded out of bed and anxiously checked and rechecked all my stuff to make sure I didn't forget to pack a single item. Eric helped me load my bike onto the bike rack and I was off to pick up Tina (the one who talked me into this mess!).

Unfortunately Tina had overslept and had only been awake 30 seconds when I pulled into her driveway. She was ready in a snap though having packed everything the night before. After loading her bike on the rack we were off.

As we drew closer to Blue Lake we noticed lots of other crazies on the road headed in our same direction with bikes hanging off their cars too. We started to get more excited! When we arrived we were struck with just how many of these crazy people there were. I mean really? Who wants to get up before dawn on a Saturday to do a triathlon? Apparently we do. *rolls eyes* So we proceeded to get the bikes off the car, grab our stuff and join the crowd of crazies.

After having our race numbers and ages uncerimoniously drawn on our legs with giant Sharpies we found our bike slots. At this point I really started to freak out. I realized I had no idea what I was supposed to do next. As I looked around I realized that everyone else was laying out their stuff under the bike so they could change quickly after each event. Okay. Sure. I can do that.











Then we donned our wetsuits and made our way to the water. I was so nervous. I said to Tina, "I changed my mind. I don't wanna do this anymore. Let's go home." To which she laughed. Finally they called our age division and we went through the gate. They counted us down and everyone jumped into the water at once.



This is when everything I practiced and trained for went right out of my head. (Awesome timing.) I dove into the water headfirst without taking a breath first. Yeah, you know what that means. Lots of water up the nose. Brilliant. That's how the rest of the swim was for me. I spent my whole time being kicked, hit and choking on water that was washing over my face everytime I tried breathing. It was the longest 20 minutes of my life! I just wasn't expecting what it would be like to swim with so many people.









Tina and I keep a pretty similar swimming pace so we finished together. It took me quite a while to change because I was having trouble getting my socks on. My feet wouldn't get dry. I finally got completely changed and hopped on by bike and followed everyone else. Tina was nowhere in sight. I was on my own.












I was pretty confident in the cycling portion of the race because my Dad had built me a sweet bike. It begs to go faster! Tina says I flew past her on the bike, but I didn't see her until later when she yelled at me as we crossed paths again. I felt pretty awesome after finishing the bike race.


That didn't last long once I started running. I was pretty pooped. I ran the whole first mile, but had a wicked side ache the whole time. I finally stopped to walk a while, and ran/walked the rest of the run. 3.1 miles is a long ways after you've swam and biked.

I finally rounded the last corner and spotted the finish line. It was a glorious sight!


As I ran across it I heard family and friends cheering for me. I felt so relieved that it was over, but I also felt a great sense of accomplishment. I had done a whole sprint triathlon! Not everyone can say that.


The icing on the cake came when we waited in the looooong line to get our results. I was only looking at the total time it took me because I wanted to know how close I came to my goal (1:45). I had done it in 1:48: 23! Not bad for a first timer I thought. Then Tina was looking at her results when she yells, "Jess, look! You got THIRD PLACE!" I said, "Shut up. I did not." She answered, "No look, really! That numer there indicates your division place! You got third in our division!!!" To which I responded, "HA! I can't believe it! I guess we're staying for the awards ceremony!)

We did, and indeed I did win third place in my division! I got a cool medal and everything! It was a special division and there were only 7 people in it, but by golly I got THIRD PLACE and a medal!



My complete results are as follows:
Overall time- 1:48:23
Swim time- 21:58
Bike transition time- 5:52
Bike time- 40:34
Run transition time- 2:55
Run time- 37:03

I am proud of those results for my first triathlon. However, I know I can do better. Much better. I'm anxiously waiting for the next time I get to try again!

Hiking Silver Falls State Park

Silver Falls State Park is the biggest state park in Oregon. I think it's also one of the most beautiful! Even in the rain. I believe there are 10 waterfalls and you can hike a loop that takes to past each one.



On our scuba camping trip we hiked a smaller loop that took us past just a few falls. We had small children with us that tend to complain after walking only a mile. Our loop was about 3 miles and we saw 3 waterfalls.





Twin Falls was the first one. I didn't get a great pic of it though.





North Falls was the second and biggest. We actually got to walk behind it and the kids thought that was really cool.









We stopped for a snack/water break at the halfway point. Some of us ate our snacks so quickly that we had time to goof around.


















My brother-in-law, Dave was particularly hungry though.




The final waterfall was Winter Falls. This one was just after our farthest point on the hike.



I also captured a few pictures of the plantlife. I didn't have much time because the kids were running ahead and I didn't want to get left in the dust (or mud).




I think this one is my favorite picture of the scenery. Butt Crack Rock???? We all laughed when we passed it.

Scuba Camping

Have you ever heard of "Scuba Camping"? Probably not since I think it's a unique term that our pastor made up after hearing about a camping trip one of our church groups went on. We got rained on really bad and came home with our cars full of sopping wet camping gear and looking like drowned rats.

Scuba camping can be a totally miserable experience if you're not prepared for it. Here in Oregon we try to always be prepared for such a camping trip.

To prepare for scuba camping you'll need your normal camping gear in addition to a pop-up canopy (or two, or three), five or more very large tarps with rope and/or bungies to tie them down with, extra tent stakes, several golf umbrellas, rain coats and rain boots.

To be the most effecient when setting up your scuba camping site, you must work as a team. Setting up one tent at a time so it remains as dry as possible while the rain pours down on you. The most important thing is to get the rain fly on your tent as soon as possible. This will ensure that the inside of your tent stays semi-dry.

At this point it would also be wise to take one of your very large tarps and drape it over your tent. This is to make absolutely sure it doesn't start raining INSIDE your tent.

The next step is to create a covered cooking/eating space. Set up your canopies close enough together so that you can drape your other very large tarps between them. This will create a no drip zone if done properly. Make sure you stake and tie everything down securely.

You also need to keep an eye out for low spots in the tarps where the water might collect and put your structure in danger of colapse. I advise finding a large stick and emptying these spots on a regular basis.

Now you can "enjoy" your scuba camping experience! If you'd like to be warm, try and start a fire. Hopefully you were smart enough to leave your wood in the car so it stayed dry... Roasting marshmallows by a fire always lifts the rained on spirit.

(Golf umbrellas are great to cover both you and your camping chair!)

Asthma Swimming

Triathlon training is in full swing! That means lots of training swims in the lake. For those of you who may not be familiar with the Great Northwest, let me remind you that lake water is COLD in May around here. That fact makes a wetsuit required for swimming outdoors.

My buddy Tina and I have done a couple training swims at Blue Lake to make sure we can swim the distance in the wetsuit in a number of conditions. First we swam in pouring rain and 50 degree temps. Yesterday we swam in beautiful sunshine and near 70 degree temps.

I have to admit that I don't enjoy swimming in lake water. I always come out smelling like duck poop. So not attractive! I will continue to do it though because it's good training.

Yesterday's swim was supposed to be much better than our first one because the weather was beautiful. However, I didn't count on having an asthma attack in the middle of the lake. The scary thing is that I didn't even have my inhalers with me on the shore! That's a very dangerous oversight to make.

The ironic part is that my friend Kelly just wrote a series of blogs about asthma (http://ridebikesdrinkcoffee.blogspot.com/) as it relates to cycling. I commented on several of them. We discussed how important it is to ALWAYS have your meds with you and how having an "asthma action plan" makes your life so much better. I thought of this yesterday when I was in the middle of the lake struggling to breathe and knowing my meds were a good 20-30 minute drive back to my house. I felt like such a hypocrite!

Thankfully I made it home and am breathing fine again. Lesson learned... for now. I can tell you that won't happen again anytime soon!

Testing, One, Two, Three...

I have four weeks (from yesterday) until the triathlon. That means it's time to really get down and dirty with the training. I've been training for months, but I've never done a bike ride AND a swim or run on the same day. In the next couple weeks I'll be getting the fancy loaner bike from my Dad and I'll be able to combine all three events!

Until then, I still have lots of other ways to train. Take today for instance. My buddy Tina and I decided today was the day we were going to test out our new wetsuits. IN. THE. LAKE. Yes, that's right folks! We went swimming outside, on a 50 degree day, in the pouring rain.

It went well. At least, as well as could be expected. It was cold of course, but the wetsuits did their job and kept us from getting too cold. It took me a couple minutes to catch my breath, but once I did, the swimming went better than I thought it would. We only swam about half of what we'll be doing on race day, but it was only our first time out on the lake. We'll be going back at least once a week until race weekend.

I definately need to work on getting out of a wet wetsuit quickly. I'm not sure how that's going to happen. It's hard enough getting in and out of when it's not wet and sticky. I also need to get over my fear of swimming in open bodies of water where I can't see the bottom. I don't like not knowing what's in the water with me... *shudders* Next time I should swim with my whole head in the water as well. This time the cold was a shock and I didn't want my whole head wet and make it worse.

WHEW! I must have gone crazy!

Drafting Is AWESOME!

I don't know if I've mentioned on my blog that I'm training for a triathlon. Well I am. It's pretty hard core too. I've taken adult swim lessons because my swimming skills leave something to be desired. And I've been taking pretty long (well, for me) bike rides - 20+ miles, to add to my running "skills".

Thankfully, I have a daddy who is WAY into cycling. You see, cycling really isn't my favorite sport. (Sorry Kelly) I enjoy leisurely rides with the family as long as there aren't any hills, but when you start talking about climbing hills and racing I get freaked out.

A couple weeks ago I asked my Dad if he could take me on a bike ride and give me tips on my technique. I remember most of the stuff he taught me when I was young, but racing is a completely different monster. He was all kinds of excited about taking me out for a ride, so we set a date.

I knew going into it that he was probably going to kick my butt. He has a fancy road bike and I have a crappy "Target Special" mountain bike. (He's promised to fix up one of his road bikes for me to use in the race, but it's not ready yet.) He also has YEARS of racing/riding experience on me. He was racing bikes when I was born for crying out loud!

It was a fun ride and I learned a lot. He taught me about keeping a "cadence". Having a good steady rhythm is important on long rides. He also taught me how to draft. Let me tell you... drafting is AWESOME!!!

We rode out to Gresham and had the wind at our back the whole way out. Then we turned around and I felt like I was riding up a hill even though the trail was completely flat. Headwinds are horrible and I fell about 100 yards behind Daddy. That's when he showed me that if I could stay about a foot behind his rear tire and to the left a tad I'd be able to keep up with him much easier.

*insert angels singing here*

I couldn't believe the difference! Drafting is scary... sort of like extreme tailgating, but it totally rocks. He said you have to really trust the person you're following. Unfortunately it's illegal in the triathlon. You can be disqualified for drafting! It's a good skill to have though.

It was fun to learn from my Dad and I look forward to riding with him again sometime. (Hopefully with a better bike.)