I Tri-ed it, and I liked it!

Last year I met my goal of completing a half-marathon under 2 hours! I'd been training for months, and made my first go at it in the Seawall Half-Marathon in Galveston in November and I failed miserably. Those might seem liked strong words, because hey, I did complete another half-marathon, but I was not even close to meeting my goal, and I even had Cory and some friends there to cheer me on, so I was really disappointed. Everything that could go wrong for me that morning did, and I finished in 2:16:44.
So I tried again in December at the RunGirl Half-Marathon at Alexander Deussen Park north of Houston and finished in 1:58:40 - I did it! I was and am still so excited about that! I knew all along that the goal of interval training and fartleks was to make me faster, but it was amazing to see it actually happen! Here's my results from all my half (and one whole!) marathons that I've done:

So with that goal accomplished, it was time for a new fitness goal. I'd been thinking about doing a triathlon for a couple years, and with the encouragement of my friends Lisa and Melissa, I finally decided to do it. I joined a pool in January and started swimming with Alicia twice a week. I was surprised how much I really liked swimming! I borrowed a bike from my neighbor/former-coworker/friend Randy in April and started riding around our neighborhood and doing bricks (a bike followed by a run). The bricks were the hardest part for me. I thought the running would be the easy part, but getting off that bike and running was tough!
On May 8th I completed my first triathlon in under an hour! It was a super sprint distance, with a 200 yard swim, 8 mile bike, and 2 mile run. It was so much fun and I was so proud of myself! I finished 20/55 in my age group (30-34), 101/330 overall, in 56:29. I also finished 5/55 for my age group in the swim, which I was really proud of. The rest of the results are here TriGirl Super Sprint, and here's a pic of me and the girls, pre-race:
The next weekend Lisa went with me and I bought a triathlon bike which I am slowly learning to use. The first time I tried to clip into the pedals, I promptly fell over on my driveway and tore up my hand and knees (and cried). I got right back on the next day though and am slowly conquering my fears! I even went out on an actual road with cars and traffic lights with Lisa this past weekend for my first 'real' 10 mile bike ride, where I successfully clipped and unclipped multiple times without falling. Next up, getting down into those aerobars! And here's a pic of my pretty new bike:
I realize I could have called myself an athelte after training for and completing multiple half-marathons and one marathon, but I never thought of myself that way. At age 30, I finally feel like I can call myself an athlete - and that feels great! I can't wait for my next triathlon!

Eating with Erin

I know, two blog posts in one day, I can hardly contain myself either! Here's a collection of all the yummy treats I've been baking since before the holidays, all courtesy of my IPhone camera.

Catch-up Post: 30th bday

Wow I am a bad blogger! I probably shouldn't admit this, but one of my New Year's resolutions was to blog once a month. I obviously didn't do that, but I'm here now with a renewed effort!

I turned 30 in February and had an amazing birthday! My good friends Beth and Lisa have birthdays near mine, so we had a combined birthday dance outing with the girls and it was a super fun night! Here we all are dressed up and ready to party:

My wonderful hubby got me a LeCreuset Dutch Oven that I have been coveting for some time now. I've used it a bunch already and I love it!

Then in March, me, Heather, and Carolyn, PSU Besties for life, went to the Dominican Republic for our much anticipated 30th bday bash. Carolyn's birthday is the day before me and Heathers, so we've been talking about doing something BIG for our 30th birthday for years, and I'm so glad we did! We stayed at an all-inclusive resort in Punta Cana - it was beautiful, the food and drinks were great, the beach and ocean were gorgeous, and the weather was perfect. We had an amazing time eating, drinking, tanning, swimming, zip-lining, dancing, and talking our faces off. It was great to be able to spend 6 days together; we haven't been together that many days in a row since college. We have a ton of great pictures, but here are a couple of my faves:

Time to start thinking about where we're going for 35 ;)
Thanks for making my 30th bday so great everyone!

Eating with Erin

Man I just can't keep up with this blog anymore! I have a bunch of things to post, we have been busy the past couple months! But in the meantime, here's some tasty things I've whipped up lately to hold you over!

Cherry-filled Almond Cupcakes, from Love & Olive Oil
recipe here: http://www.loveandoliveoil.com/2009/12/cherry-filled-almond-cupcakes.html
I made these for Lindsay's baby shower and wow they were good! And so cute!

Cupcakes. Clockwise from top left we have Pancakes and Bacon, Chocolate Orange, Baklava, and Pina Colada.

I made some of these for book club at Nujoud's (the two on the right) and froze some of the cakes. Then I made the other two right before we left for North Carolina and defrosted the first two, and frosted them all. So I had 4 yummy cupcake flavors to take to the beach for my family to try! These were all my recipes and they were all a hit!

Pancakes and Bacon - Buttermilk cupcake with maple frosting and bacon crumbles
Chocolate Orange - chocolate orange cake and chocolate orange buttercream with candied orange peel
Baklava - phyllo layers topped with honey cupcake with candied walnut/cinnamon/honey topping
Pina colada - Pineapple rum cupcake with pineapple filling and Malibu coconut frosting

Blackened sea scallops with oven-roasted asparagus. We brought back some scallops from NC and I tried blackening them for the first batch. They were good!


Cinnamon Swirl Bread, from Pioneer Woman.
recipe here: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2010/08/homemade-cinnamon-bread/
Really good, also, really impressed with myself ;)


Pesto Zucchini Pasta
I had leftover basil and spinach before we left for vacation, so I threw together this pesto (with garlic, olive oil, pine nuts, and parm cheese) and froze it so I didn't have to throw anything out since it would go bad while we were gone. For this meal, I sliced zucchini lengthwise as thin as I could by hand, cooked some pasta and threw in the zucchini for the last minute (this is a good way to feel like you're eating more pasta without all those carbs and calories!). Mix it all up with some baked chicken breasts and dinner is served!


Chocolate-Peppermint Whoopie Pies, from a mix
Syd came over last week while her dad was away and her mom was at a class, and we baked up some whoopie pies from a mix I had. They turned out delish, in fact we ate them too fast for me to get a picture! It was fun baking with my little Apprentice ;) Having her stand on the chair to reach reminded me of baking with my mom when Heather and I were little. That's exactly what we did, one on each side of our mom!

Please forgive the poor picture quality, sometimes I just take them with my phone because I'm lazy. That's really helping me learn more about my camera, right? ;)

More soon on our various summer vacations!

California Love

I got to go to California for work for some meetings with the company SpaceX. They happen to be flying a vehicle to attach to the ISS in the coming years which should be pretty cool. I was in the LA area from Wednesday through Friday. I saw a lot from the rental car in a very short amount of time. After LA, I drove down to La Jolla, just north of San Diego to spend the weekend with my buddy Sean. The highlight of my trip had to be playing 18 holes at Torrey Pines. Check out the slide show, Cali was beautiful.

Family Portraits

My good friend Jaime is sharpening up her already excellent photography skills, so she offered to take pictures of our family. So this past Sunday we went to Herman Park and she worked her magic. I'd never been to Herman Park, and it was quite the gem to be found in Houston - it was beautiful there. Here are a few of my favorite shots!

Thanks for a fun morning, Jaime, and for some great pictures of the three of us!

Fun stuff with friends

A few weeks ago Beth hosted a Sex and the City shindig. We dressed up and went to her house for apps and cosmos, then went to see the second movie. While completely over the top and full of ridiculousness, I still liked the movie and had a great time hanging out with my girlfriends, as usual. Here we are looking fabulous!

And here are the scrumptious Dulce de Leche Cheesecake squares I made!

Over fourth of July weekend, the Mauldins came over for dinner and we drank some wine and I ogled over the adorable Charlie. We also went to a pool party at the Parris's but sadly there are no pictures from that fun event!

That weekend we also rented a limo and went out on the town with some friends. We had so much fun, perhaps a little too much fun for some of us!

The week before we went to PA, my friend from high school, Dave Madden, was playing at a local wine bar, and we went to see him. He put on a great show, and it was great to catch up!

Also, a couple pictures from PA since I didn't have any when I posted about that; my sister- and brother-in-law and their adorable kids, and Sydney water-skiing!