100 Things About Me

Reading these from my blog friends has been fun. :) So here's goes... my turn!

1. I grew up in the mid-west.

2. I have lived in Hawaii for 10+ years now and can't picture myself moving away back to that mainland.

3. I have an iPhone 4 and feel behind the times, but really it functions just fine for me.

4. I've never been one to care about brand names, though now that I'm an adult I do enjoy good quality clothing.

5. I rarely choose to spend my money on high quality clothing.

6. I work from home so lot of days I just wear training clothes or pajamas.

7. I drink at least 3 servings of coffee each day.

8. If I skip coffee I can still function just fine (no headaches).

9. I procrastinate training a lot, but rarely if ever actually skip a workout.

10. My training is better all around when I have a coach and just do what she says. :)

11. I love running in the rain.

12. I don't like biking in the rain but I do it anyway.

13. I have a set of rollers that I ride sometimes but I don't own a real bike trainer.

14. I am procrastinating swimming right now by writing this blog.

15. I think I eat too much peanut butter. I mix it with honey and Osmo Recovery powder and OMG so good.

16. Sometimes I melt chocolate chips into the above and it tastes like fudge.

17. I think Roka Sim shorts are the best invention ever for swimmers. I am wearing mine right now as I type this (see #14).

18. I knew nothing about chickens before I got a few last spring.

19. Now I know quite a lot about chickens, thanks to the Backyard Chickens Facebook page.

20. I check Facebook too much.

21. I don't know most of my Facebook friends. I hide a ton from my feed b/c it's all just too much.

22. When I was 16 I spent a summer in Australia with a group called "Sports For Understanding". We swam with different swim teams there and it was awesome.

23. I went back to Australia after my 2nd year in college and spent 3 weeks being drunk or hungover.

24. Since I'm on an international travel theme now... I went to the Barcelona Olympics with my dad in 1992. We saw some events live but honestly I enjoyed watching them on TV better b/c of the close-ups and slow motion.

25. In 1999 I raced Wildflower 1/2IM with a swollen lymph node thinking maybe I had mono.

26. Four days later I was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma.

27. I spent the rest of that year being sick and got really skinny because I never wanted to eat.

28. I'm now 15 years cancer free!

29. Because of the chemo, I wasn't sure if I'd be able to have kids.

30. I didn't mean to get pregnant and was pretty freaked out when I found out.

31. that said, having Moana was the best thing I've ever done.

32. I know moms tend to beat themselves up thinking they're never doing it right, but I think I'm a pretty good mom. I don't stress myself out about being perfect in this regard.

33. I was a teacher for 5 years. I taught 3rd, 4th, and 6th grades.

34. I think teachers are underpaid.

35. I also worked for Big Pharma where I worked half as much but tripled my income. I kinda felt guilty about that.

36. I love my job as a coach right now. I think it's exactly what I'm meant to do and I think I'm good at it.

37. I hate shopping at Costco but do it every other week anyway.

38. If I have to drive more than 10 minute to get somewhere, it seems really far away to me.

39. I have 2 cats and I admit I love one more than the other.

40. I was a gymnast growing up and spent 15-20 hours/week in the gym as a ten year old.

41. I was a springboard diver in college and won the Big West Championships (on 1-meter) my freshman year.

42. I'm still pretty flexible.

43. I subscribe to MWOD and watch those mobility videos almost every day.

44. I have pretty much every ball or soft tissue 'tool' you could possibly imagine. And I use most of them almost every day.

45. The Supernova ball from Rogue Fitness is my favorite one.

46. This might come as a surprise to some, but if I had to chose only one sport to do for the rest of my life, it would be running.

47. If I ever stop doing triathlon, I could see myself getting into weight lifting.

48. My gym sessions are my favorite sessions of the week right now.

49. I'm excited to race this year, more so than years past I think.

50. When I'm alone I like to turn on a podcast (loudly) and clean my house from top to bottom.

51. Cleaning on Fridays is a waste of time b/c my husband and daughter are home all weekend so the cleanliness doesn't last.

52. A dirty/messy kitchen is a pet peeve of mine.

53. I hate doing laundry.

54. I love the ocean, though I think I like the ocean in Hawaii better than anywhere else b/c it's so swimmable (visibility and temp).

55. I used to hate choppy ocean swim conditions and it took me exposing myself to them all the time for like a year before I finally figured out how to swim through it. Now I go in search of choppy conditions.

56. I hate skiing. Like, can't do it at all and don't even want to try again to learn.

57. At one point I thought it would be cool to be a bad-ass mountain biker chick, but that never worked out.

58. I enjoyed trail running when I lived on the mainland, but Hawaii trails are often wet, muddy, rocky, roots, and straight up/down. So I don't trail run here.

59. My favorite race is Honu. This year is going to be my 9th time racing there!

60. I have to go swim now or else I'm not going to have time to finish my workout before the pool closes.

61. Right now I feel a bit nauseous, which is common after a long/hard swim.

62. I just made 10x400's @6:00 (long course meters, with paddles). First time ever even attempted that send-off for that many. My eyes were closed for most of the last one.

63. I pride myself on being a workhorse.

64. We eat out maybe once a month. I cook all the other nights, and that gets old.

65. We eat a lot of vegetables, and both Scott and I genuinely like them. Not surprisingly then, Moana likes them too.

66. My desk is a mess.

67. I suck at paperwork.

68. And taxes. OMG don't even get me started.

69. I graduated from Arizona State University.

70. I still love Arizona and if there's one place I could see myself living on the mainland, Arizona would be it.

71. When I was done with college I followed a guy to Northern California. That relationship lasted ~3 months and then I was stuck in Northern California without any real friends.

72. I've found that making real friends as an adult is way harder than making friends when I was in school.

73. When I was 26 I spent a year teaching 3rd grade in Jakarta, Indonesia. I learned more that year than any other year of my life and am so glad I did that.

74. That year I traveled a lot around Southeast Asia by myself. Ignorance is bliss maybe but I was rarely afraid of anything.

75. My house is still decorated with lots of stuff I brought back from Indonesia.

76. I love this house/neighborhood we are living in now and can see us living here for a very long time.

77. I don't skip meals. Like, not ever. I don't understand how or why other people skip meals? I love eating.

78. I have had my Cervelo P3 for years and love it so much that I don't even get bike envy when I see other people get new bikes.

79. The Hoka Cliftons are now hands down my favorite running shoe.

80. I reach for my Coeur Sport tri shorts more often than any other because they are simply more comfortable when I'm riding.

81. I don't use chamois cream.

82. I hardly ever wear make up or earrings.

83. On the rare occasion I do, Moana loves it and always comments about how pretty I look. ;)

84. I don't know how I ended up with such a girlie princess for a daughter?

85. She is seriously such a sweet kid though, and I'm not just saying that because she's mine and I'm biased (though both of those are true).

86. I met my husband on Match.com. True story!

87. We got married less than a year later in the Botanical Gardens down the road from where we live now.

88. I run through those gardens quite often and always think about our wedding day when I do.

89. At 40 (almost 41!) I am more comfortable in my own skin than I've ever been.

90. I started blogging when I was pregnant b/c I saw it as a way to keep my family and friends in the loop with how it was all going.

91. I had no idea at the time how blogging would change my whole world (in a good way!)

92. I like social media, but I have some fears about what it will be like for Moana when she's a teenager and involved in it all. Girls can be so mean.

93. I am actually excited that Grey's Anatomy is finally coming back on tonight. :)

94. I get most of my news via The Daily Show. And Twitter.

95. I don't ever watch daytime television, unless I'm on the treadmill at the gym and it's on.

96. I actually like running on the treadmill sometimes. It reminds me of swimming in the way that it is so controlled with pace and intervals and rest, etc.

97. I have a hard time getting back to sleep if I wake up in the middle of the night.

98. Commonly I don't fight it and just get up and start working. I'm most productive from 3-6AM.

99. I'm in bed (latest) every night by 9PM.

100. I used to love reading books, but read much less often now.