Happy Birthday, Tassie!

Today is Tassie's birthday - she's two! Here is a glimpse of morning madness when she see's something out back she wants to chase. Her instincts are there...they're just not very good.

Feeling Stronger

Training has been getting better. This morning at Master's practice we did 300's alternating hard/easy. To keep from daydreaming I tried to keep an eye on the next lane and keep up with whoever started when I did. When they pulled away (it was the faster lane after all) I tried to keep up with the next person. It helped me push harder and I swam pretty good in that dang long course pool.

Then tonight Marty and I waited until much later than normal to do our run since it was ungodly hot out today. We ran from our house and hit the trails at Bond Park instead of driving out to Umstead. I convinced him to do some tempo with me and we both ran well and felt good. Or did we run good and feel well? I always get those confused. You get the picture.

So I feel like I'm making some improvement and think that maybe I can still pull off some good races over the next few months.

Back from OBX

OBX, in case you didn't know, is the Outer Banks. It's very 'in' to have OBX stickers on your car, or even as part of your license plate. We saw dozens of these vanity license plates out there. Anyways, it was great to see April and Lou and Louie. I wish they were closer and hope that we don't have that same span of time in between the next time we see them.

The Outer Banks is a nice place - seems laid back but with enough to do to keep you interested. The drive over and back really wasn't all that bad. Training for tri's could be an issue, as there aren't a whole lot of roads to ride on (and the ones they do have are filled with SUV's carrying everything but the kitchen sink of families who ARE ON VACATION SO GET OUT OF MY WAY!) I'm sure we'll go back at some point, though. Marty picked up a surfboard in Corolla and is now trying to convince me how good it will look in our kitchen. So far, I'm not convinced.

I Heart Running

I was a kid in the candy store today because I was going running at Umstead after work! Now that my foot held up through the race this weekend I really feel like I have the ‘all clear’ to start RUNNING again. No more of these baby 25 minute jogs, I’m ready for tempo and fartleks and long runs! I also feel like I may have transitioned from that first-3-week-back-of-running-hell and have now moved on to feeling little parts of my former self. This is good because Marty and I are going to do a lovely Olympic distance race in early August, so I really need to run more than 4 miles. I do mean lovely – at least that’s what everyone says about Lake Logan.

But this weekend we’re headed out to the Outer Banks of North Carolina, to visit Lou and April Snelling (cross country/track teammates from UCF) and their baby Louie (he’s the sixth, talk about pressure for April!) Anyways, we are heading to Duck. Yah, that’s the name of it. I’ve discovered that the Outer Banks has a lot of funny sounding towns – Kill Devil Hills, Oracoke, Duck, Corolla (pronounce Ka-RAWL-a, not like the car). Here’s a map with a nice little arrow pointing towards where we’re heading. I don’t know why Cary didn’t make it on this map, but we’re to the left of Raleigh, so we have quite a drive tomorrow.

In other news, one of my other best friends from college (Anne) had her second baby this morning – Quinn Marie. Her and her husband are in New Orleans finishing up their medical residencies. Marty and I have a lot of catching up to do with my friends in the baby department…

A Few Pics from Triangle

The Gaal's in transition. I have the team bike jersey on and Marty is wearing the team race top, lest anyone get confused and think we are wearing each other's clothes (ahem, Heather).

Me and Laurie before the start. Yummm, Lake Crabtree...

Marty running out of the water in first place

Me running out of the water not in first place

Me on the run

Triangle Triathlon Recap

Gee thanks, Marty. The Bri of only a few months ago would have beaten you by minutes today.

ANYWAYS, the race was fun!! I had no expectations and my only goal was to not be the last elite (and hopefully still come in ahead of all the age groupers but I don't know if I did that yet). I think I had a pretty good swim for myself - went off course quite a bit but tried to pull hard. Everyone thinks it was longer than last year so I'm expecting that split to be slower. It's funny because in most of these North Carolina races I feel like such a horribly slow swimmer, but then when I go out of state I realize that I'm not that bad. We just have some very quick fishies here (and quick triathletes, frankly!).

Onto the bike where I was quite the little wimp and didn't have a whole lot of power. Time to bike more than twice a week I suppose! I was a little annoyed on the bike because I had one squirrely girl around me for most of the ride. I was told she drafted off me for a bit, then I saw her go into the other lane several times, and one time she tried to pass in the middle of me and another guy while I was passing him! She was strong but I don't think she knew any of the rules. I watched my teammates gain lots of time on me at all the turnarounds :(

Then the run -- it was good! I felt good, very relaxed and was so happy to be out there. I cheered for everyone and said hi to people on the sidelines who were cheering for me (nice to meet you Rebecca! I tried to find you after but didn't see you!). For some perspective, though, last year I ran 18:29 here. Today I ran more like a 20:20. I actually am very happy with that time even though it was almost 2 minutes slower - I promise I have not done one single workout since St. Anthony's and have just done a handful of 15-20-30min runs. I can't wait to start actually training again on the run and think I'm ready now.

So I may have been around 7th overall or so, my lowest placing up here but I had a GREAT time! It was fun seeing everyone and being able to ride our bikes to the course and participate! We had a team cookout at Alysia's in the afternoon and before that Laurie and Eric came over and hung out with me watching Ninja Warrior - love that show :)

Saturday

That's Tassie and I cuddling on the stairs the other night. Marty took that picture with his phone.

We had fun last night with my sister and her boyfriend out at dinner and then later at the Flying Saucer (of course!). Even though Shana lives in Raleigh, we sometimes go weeks without seeing each other because of schedules and being out of town.

Today I have quite a bit on tap - mostly stuff that just needs to be taken care: cleaning, folding, writing some schedules, reading some stuff - for the most part I want to stay relaxed because I am going to need every ounce of energy for the race tomorrow! Normally I wouldn't care so much about this for a sprint, but it all depends on what type of shape you're in. I'm looking forward to being out there and competing but most importantly, HAVING FUN! That's why I do these things!

Couple pics from last night at the Flying Saucer, courtesy of Shana's phone :)

Shana and Scott bought me this cute t-shirt from there (oops, forgot to take off my dorky glasses...)