MIA

hey guys! sorry i've been so MIA lately, even though it's summer somehow my life has been surprisingly crazy in a good way (work, CrossFit, fun with friends & family). and i also found out last week that i got an internship at a physical therapy office for 8 hours a week for the rest of the summer, which i am unbelievably excited for. this whole past year i've been stressing far more than i should about not knowing what i want to do in the future or even what major i want to pursue. i am so blessed & lucky to get this opportunity - i know it will help me figure out if physical therapy is something i potentially want to do (and if i hate it, well, at least i crossed it off the list, haha). hopefully i enjoy it, i really think i will!

anyway, i have so much to share with you guys now that i don't know where to begin! i'm hoping to get into more of a routine with blogging so that all my posts aren't like this one in that brain/photo dump  sort of style.

eats of late:

coconut flour pancakes with strawberries, egg whites, and bacon

this tastes like cake batter. i die. 

typical CrossFit. lol! 3 eggs and bacon. 

fourth of july dessert: homemade shortcake with berries 

homemade white cake with lemon curd, cream cheese frosting, and coconut & a scoop of ice cream

best. dinner. EVER. brussel sprouts, alexia sweet potato fries, and a turkey burger with cheese and bacon. 

my lunch today after biking all over the place (see below)! a huge burger, totally hit the spot.

notable CrossFit achievements of late:

• i did a full rope climb! and completely tore my shoes. so i ordered some reebok nano 3.0s. say whaaat? i'm so excited for them to get here. 

• i did 90 handstand push-ups in the WOD yesterday. although they weren't full HSPUs by any means, i'm definitely improving! 
• i did a total of 250 pushups in a WOD last week. it was RJ, which was 5 rounds of run 800m, 5 rope climbs, and 50 pushups. there was a 45 minute time cap but i was on the last round in at the end so i ended up finishing out the workout in 51 minutes. 

other fun/random things:

• i saw 4 movies in the past 3 days! man of steel (can i marry superman?), monsters university, world war z, and despicable me 2. i think man of steel was my favorite!
• i fell asleep on the couch at 8:30 pm on the 4th of july. party animal over hereee! i think i was exhausted from working 5 days in a row, haha. 
• i had the best day today with one of my best friends! we drove to sausalito, biked up to the golden gate, watched a sailboat race in the america's cup, mountain biked in marin headlands (and explored all these old military batteries which was really cool), got lunch at the bottom of the golden gate, walked around sausalito, and then drove over the golden gate and spent the rest of the day biking along the water around crissy field. i had SO much fun! reminded me of how much i love the bay and how much i love the outdoors. i couldn't have asked for a better day! 

how was your fourth of july weekend? 

My Second Sprint Triathlon!

I finished my second sprint triathlon this morning - and had so much fun!! It was a local triathlon 'for fun' so it was geared towards beginners and people who have never done triathlons before. I did it two years ago with my mom and had a blast, so when I saw that one of the dates fit into my schedule this year I had to sign up! {also, my brother is the best - he signed up to do it too!}

Alarm went off wayyyy too early this morning! But I made sure to eat some cinnamon raisin toast with almond butter and coffee in the car (also woke up hungry for some reason.. weird!)

Check in started at 5:30 and we got there around 5:45. Only mistake we made is that we forgot our picture IDs - but luckily since this was a very low-key event they let us get our bibs anyway. I almost thought they weren't going to give them to us which would have been horrible (money wasted, early wake up call, and not getting to participate) but thankfully that wasn't the case. 

We got our bibs, got body marked, and set up our transition stuff. I forgot to take a picture of it, but here's a list of everything I brought/wore:

• triathlon shorts
• sports bra
• dry-wick tshirt
• 2 pairs socks (just in case)
• running shoes
• swim goggles
• swim cap
• bike helmet
• 2 towels - 1 for me, 1 for the ground
• water bottle on my bike 

Then we waited around a little bit for the start, which was at 7am. 

my "i can't believe i'm awake smile"

excited but cold!!

At 6:45 they had a little info session for first-timers - I listened anyway because the last time I did a tri was 2 years ago, plus this was my brother's first one! Then the director of the event organizer that puts on the tris every summer spoke a little bit because this year marked the 25th anniversary of the Tri For Fun.

And then it was time to put our swim caps on and get ready to go! 

They organized everyone in waves - the 1st wave was the 'competitive' wave (aka everyone who knew what the heck they were doing! haha) and then every wave after that was by gender and age. The last wave was for people who were first-timers, especially young or elderly, or who were just nervous about the swim (two years ago that was the wave I was in and it defintely eased my nerves a little bit). This year I went in the women's 17-29 group and it worked out perfectly. My brother was two waves in front of me, so I didn't see him much, but it was nice to know that he was somewhere out there too!

The swim actually went by relatively quickly - it's always a little unnerving when the water's murky and there's reefy things in the water, but I managed not to panic. I swam breaststroke for most of it because it was easier to see where I was going and allowed me to get a little bit more air. 

The bike ride was mostly flat, but definitely was my least favorite part. There wasn't too much scenery and I felt like I had to pay attention all the time to make sure I didn't crash or anything. I'll take running over biking any day!

leaving for the run! 

The run was, of course, my favorite part. I passed a lot of people and it was actually a cross country course that I used to run in high school, so I felt completely in my element. It was also fun because we passed the same water station three times (the course is kind of like a figure 8) and there was a truck there with all the water stuff that was playing country music. I was like 'come with meeee!' haha but just the few seconds of music I heard each time I passed was nice. And all of the volunteers and fellow athletes were so encouraging!! The atmosphere was just so awesome :) 

Headed towards the finish line! 

I finished with an approximate time of 1 hour and 13 minutes (it wasn't chip timed or anything - the clock was just there 'for fun' i guess you could say)! Everyone cheering at the end made me so happy :) 

{Side note: my triathlon shorts I got the other day were AWESOME! dried quickly, really comfortable on the bike and run too. the brand was Zoot if you're curious!}

leg numbers!

My brother said he really liked the race too! Since we were in different waves it actually worked out perfectly for my dad who came to watch - there was barely any time where he didn't see one of us doing something. & a big thanks to my dad who woke up the buttcrack of dawn to put our bikes in the car and then took all of these awesome photos! 

And when I got around to thinking about it.. if I'm doing this at 17 years old - just think what the future holds! I am so excited for the many races ahead :) Doing things like this also just makes me realize how much I LOVE being active and how grateful I am to have a strong body and my health. 

Also, reppin' the body numbers today ;) 

have you ever done a triathlon before? 

Zucchini Muffin Fail

Today has been such a fun and relaxing day - I <3 Sundays!

This morning I woke up nice and late and had a yummy egg/veggie/potato scramble with a side of berries.

Then I headed to church to hang out with some awesome preschoolers. I volunteer 1-2 times a month in Sunday school at my church and it's a lot of fun. We mostly play since they are so little but we also include a little bible story each week as well.

Came home and had a snack of carrots and red pepper hummus before taking off on a bike ride for lunch!

But, right before my mom, brother, and I were about to leave on our bike ride, I toppled over in our driveway. Fail.

What happened was I had one foot hooked into the pedal cage-type thingys (for when you want to "clip in" but don't have fancy shoes) because I was all ready to go. As my mom was putting on her helmet, I leaned a little too far in the wrong direction and fell right over, bike and all.

I ended up with a few battle scars like this

But we continued on our way. We had lunch at Whole Foods and I made myself a fantastic salad.

I piled mushrooms, carrots, onions, chickpeas, a giant white bean salad, chicken, feta + cheddar cheese, hummus, and a mini pita on top of a bed of mixed spring greens. There was so much flavor in this salad there was no need for dressing!

After we biked back home, I got to work in the kitchen. I wanted to make use of the zucchini we got at the farmer's market yesterday so I looked up a few recipes for muffins/bread and went for it.

The batter looked (and tasted) fantastic and I was quite happy with them when they went into the oven...

But not so happy when they came out. They were baked on the top but gooey in the middle and I'm not sure what went wrong! They also sank a lot after coming out of the oven.

This was my second time baking with flax egg and it's the second time that the result has been gooey and not cooked! I'm not sure if it was the flax egg or too much zucchini but they definitely didn't work, which was a bummer.

Anyone have any fool-proof zucchini & summer squash recipes for me to try??