Pictures from Grandfather Mountain

It was really windy on the swing bridge.

Marty hanging off the edge of the mountain.

Contemplating the view

It was a bit hazy, but we still got lucky with a nice day.

Feeding time at the zoo

Here's a short video of me feeding the bears - it was pretty neat

Relaxing Weekend? Not Quite

It's tough to get caught up on life when you're gone several weekends in a row, but that's summer time, right?! It should come as no surprise to anyone that Marty skipped the Mission Man sprint triathlon on Saturday. This actually worked out better for me because I was able to get in a good bike workout . I made Marty go with me and he grumbled during the intervals but got his butt moving, which he needs ;) Then we packed up the car and Tassie and drove to Sugar Mountain, which was about 3.5hrs away. We had a nice time visiting my mom and had a great dinner with her and Dan. This morning Marty, Tassie and I went for a very hilly albeit short run. I guess when you're staying in the mountains you're either going to go up or down.

We showered and got my mom and then we all headed over to Grandfather Mountain where we had some pretty great views on the mile high swinging bridge. I'll put up some pictures later and also a video of me tossing some food to the bears that they have there. We took Marty into Boone for lunch since he's never been there before we packed up and drove back home. Now we're meeting Paul out for some dinner - no rest for the weary!

Sugar Mountain

We’re on the move again this weekend, this time to visit my mom who has been vacationing at Sugar Mountain. We joke that she is more excited to see Tassie than Marty or I. It’s only kind of a joke! Saturday we’ll get up bright and early and head to Burlington where Marty will be racing in the Mission Man sprint triathlon which is part of the TrySports series we sponsor (edit, Vegas has 50-50 odds that Marty will get up and race this tomorrow morning). I’m opting out and hoping to get some riding in right when we get there. Then Tassie and I will be cheering everyone on during the race. Afterwards we’ll continue our drive to the mountains. We’ll be back Sunday night, just in time to hang out with Paul Power, who has attended a couple of our camps over the years. Paul lives in Long Island and does not lack in the humor department. Here's an excerpt from his IM Lake Placid race report:

The bike, not to sound like an idiot, but took it super easy on the first loop and was psyched about my time started the second loop and knew I could either negative split or do the same time at least. Hit the 100 mile mark at right around 6 hours so knew I was on track for a 6:40 or so, so was happy as can be and feeling great. Then around mile 102 or so not really sure but it was on the road going up Whiteface my little handy man special pedal snapped off the bike. Dumped me down got a little cut up. Felt bad for the guy that passed me and blew out his tire on my sheared bolts. OOPS. Knew I had plenty of time to finish and was not going to let that ruin my day, put the pedal in my pocket and pretended I was on the trainer doing one legged drill up the mountain. Here we go! Was able to make it pretty much to the top of each hill had to walk a couple of times over the crests. Went about 4 miles or so to the aid station to see if they had tools almost was able to take a c-clamp and make a pedal but no luck. They called the bike support team but I decided to forge on. The guy was like you should wait. I told him to have them look for me on the course. He said how will they find you? I said look for the FAT GUY in a blue shirt pedaling with one leg! Well they came and fixed me up just in time for the last two hills which I had no idea where Papa and Mama bear (which were not that bad). And cruised into the transition and hour past my scheduled arrival time. Oh well, still knew I was going to finish.

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…