Duly Noted

I now have a triathlon under my belt and I am ready for another! Tomorrow! (No need for concern, I don't actually have another triathlon tomorrow, but I would totally do one if I did.) Here's how it went (Skip ahead to the last paragraph if you don't want the nitty gritty details): I woke up at 5am, hit snooze, and then rolled out of bed five minutes later. I had my race breakfast- coffee, oatmeal, banana. I prepped all my stuff Saturday night so I didn't really have much to worry about in the morning. I checked the weather- high of 80 but not until later in the afternoon. Perfect. I drove myself to Lake Nokomis, biked over to the transition area, pumped my tires and set up my gear in my assigned transition spot. Luckily, my transition area was easy to identify and I was there early enough to get a prime location. My gear included a small towel to place my stuff on, running shoes, tri shorts (with gummies and a mini cliff in the pockets), tank ...

Photo from twin cities business mag. Yesterday night I took my new tricked up road bike (okay, road bike is used but it is now full of new tricks thanks to Grand Performance) on a 10 mile journey to Wirth Park for my trail running club. The bike ride was glorious as the heat has broken and my bum no longer hurts due to the awful men's bike seat. Our trail workout was also a blast: 1.5 mile warm up, 9x1 minute hill repeats with abs and arm exercises between sets, and 1.5 mile cool down. I love hills. I am weird. The bike ride home was equally delightful. My trail club coach was heading in the same direction so we biked together as she gave me tips for an upcoming triathlon (she is an ironwoman). After she broke off, I finished the ride and crossed the bike bride in the photo above. I really wanted to take a photo like this one as I was crossing the bridge but I was also dreaming about dinner at the time...But, nevertheless, the evening air was just magical and I f...

This summer's training runs have been more helter skelter than ever. I'm currently training for two triathlons in August- a women only sprint tri in Minneapolis and then a longer, Olympic distance tri in Maple Grove. So, I approached this summer with the attitude that I will run when I need to and focus on biking and swimming consistently. This plan has sort of worked out. I've been running at least four days a week: two days of trail running workouts with my club and then two days of running with Washburn Cross Country Team as a new coach. This adds up to at least 20 miles of running. However, I have some beef with this schedule. Primarily, I don't get to run as much with Rachel or by my lonesome or with my other best running girlfriends. Thus, I've sneaked (snuck?) in some extra runs to accomplish this. Perhaps as a result (or due to the fact that I never recovered fully from the marathon), my left hip is creaky. I don't like it. It's not painful...

As a teacher, I have the luxury of ten empty weeks. Somehow, I manage to fill up seven of them pretty quickly with camping, coaching, traveling, paneling, and painting. Today, however, I spent Monday morning exactly the way I wish I could spend every Monday morning for the rest of my life. Dramatic? Yes. Sincere? Very. I baked a batch of millet muffins and drank some coffee. I opened all the windows and let the cool morning air drift through our home. Then, Anna, one of my favorite tri/run buddies biked over and we headed to Lake Nokomis to try out some open water swimming before my sprint tri in a few weeks. Despite the cloudy water and the ill spread buoys, I felt strong and fast. I really had nothing to measure my speed against, but I imagined coming out of the swim in first place (this will not happen but it was fun to imagine!). The sun was beaming down on the waves and I felt absolutely alive and grateful. Thank you parents for signing me up for swim team at age 6. Hi...