It's All in the Details

May has been a great month (so far!)--another race, another birthday, always lessons :)

The Tempe International is a local race here in, you guessed it, Tempe!  It took place Sunday, May 19th.  It also served as the Arizona Club Championships.  I was really

Pre-Race, lots of people ready to race :)

excited about this race for many reasons. 1- racing when you can sleep in your own bed is amazing! 2- having your family there to support you is also absolutely amazing!! 3- this race has a reputation of being HOT (temperature wise of course ;) ) and this is perfect prep for upcoming races this Summer.  Needless to say I was excited going in!

Race morning started and it was much cooler than I expected...around 75* when I was leaving my car! The race start got pushed back by about 45 minutes so things warmed up really fast.  Water temperature was mid-70s so according to USAT rules it was wetsuit legal, however, I opted to swim without the wetsuit.

Scopin' a buoy, so much easier sans wetsuit!

This was the first detail of the day I was very glad about!  Swimming without a wetsuit, for me, is SO much better--so much more freedom and control.  If you are a former swimmer and you feel like you never quite settle into proper body position when wearing a wetsuit, give a non-wetsuit swim a try--it's been my fastest swim yet this season!

The bike was good, the course was very similar to Marquee, which I raced a month ago.  The familiarity with the course allowed me to take a little bit riskier turns because I knew where all of the bumps and loose gravel were. I still haven't quite figured out how to go "balls to the

Never realized there was so much Flora in Tempe :)

walls" on the bike portion yet, but I'm making progress.

Finally, the run was bittersweet...I brought a cooler to leave in transition with two baggies of ice--one for the bike and one for the run.  I forgot the first bag when leaving for the bike, but didn't really miss it as the temperature hadn't risen over 90* yet.  So on my way out of T2, I grabbed a bag to later stuff in my suit.  The thought of shoving it down the front of my suit sounded shockingly cold so I opted to tuck it in the back of my suit like you would a shirt on a long run, this was a bad idea.  The bag started bouncing out of my suit and while I managed to grab it, not two seconds later, it slipped out of my hands and exploded open on the ground--bye bye ice pack! I didn't let my mind linger on it long and redirected my focus (to other things I needed to deal with like clipping my race belt on).  The whole first mile was dedicated to getting "situated" and after that I must have been on some kind of endorphin high because everything felt easy and I was honestly having a great time.  I rounded the corner to run up the bridge (over the bridge is the end of lap 1 and it's a short bridge!) after just seeing Lucas and my Dad...I smiled at them, happy as can be, and then I realized, I've never done that in a race..? What is so

Really happy to see Lucas and my Dad!

different? I also realized that I hadn't really checked my watch up until that point...I glanced down and realized why I was so happy--I was no where NEAR the pace I should have been at! Oops! I don't know what I was thinking--heat brain, blonde moment--whatever it was I started booking it over the bridge!  My second lap was only ~10-15 sec per mile faster than my first because I just couldn't get my wheels going any faster. So my run split left much to be desired, but at least I learned a valuable lesson that it is much easier to slow down than to speed up!

One last little detail... I won! I've never won a triathlon before, so even though it was a local race, I was super excited!  As always...I'm very excited to see that my hard work is translating into results, but I am definitely not satisfied and look forward to the next opportunity to improve!

About to cross the finish line, for my first triathlon win :)

THANK YOU to my coach Brian Grasky and Trisports.com for the continued support!!!



Last bit of news... I turned twenty-three last week!  It was a very low key, but awesome birthday.  I made it through the whole day without crying about being one year closer to thirty (I have a track record of doing that ;) ) mostly thank you to my wonderful Lucas :)

Watching the sunset with my love :)

Music Recommendations!

Lucas is working on a new project that I'm VERY excited 

for him to release, so coming soon... but for now, he added
a couple of old tunes he's been holding onto since last
Summer when we were living with James (Crimson) in
Brentwood
Check it out: www.soundcloud.com/valeasmusic

Also recently released, Daft Punk put out their first album 

since 2005--Random Access Memories.

Instant Crush by Daft Punk 

^This is my favorite song off the album!

Until next time :)

 @nicoletruxes

Lucas took me to Macayo's for Dinner <3