FSU v NC State

The Thursday night college football game shown on ESPN was FSU v NC State which was right here in Raleigh. One of Marty's athlete's gave us (awesome) tickets, and with the stadium only 15min from our house, we were there!

We hit up the Triangle Seminole Club tailgate first. I was warming up my tomahawk chop after downing some Carolina barbeque.

The Super Noles came by so I had to get a photo op with them. They were flexing so hard in this picture, they were literally shaking.

Most of you know, I didn't actually go to FSU - Marty did. But I cheer for them as if I did go there. Although our seats were fantastic, we were surrounded by Wolfpack fans - and they weren't necessarily the nicest fans I've ever been around.

We did some surreptious chopping and high fiving, but we didn't want to upset the rednecks local fans too much. We didn't end up staying until the end of the game (thank goodness!)

Any Wolfpack fans out there? Is it really necessary to have a permanent sign behind every toilet in the restroom that reads: Please do not throw liquor bottles down the toilet.

Take 2

Today I found myself in the same predicament as last week - but this time I had a plan: youtube.

First, I have to tell you all, dear readers, that I it made me feel much better about myself when I found out that many of you out there also had trouble getting your back wheel on if it had horizontal dropouts. Thanks for commenting.

And for those of you who rolled your eyes and called me an incompetent little girl, thanks for not commenting ;)

ANYWAYS, I youtubed as suggested and found video to help me. The internet is an incredible place. Thanks, Mr. Gore!

And here is photographic proof that I succeeded. Much less soap was needed this time around.

NC State Fair

You might be at the North Carolina State Fair if

You have this conversation:

Me: "Whoah. Did you see that lady with the massive mullet?
Kari/Alysia: "No. Where?"
Me: "Behind us. In the NASCAR jacket."

This was year 3 for me at the fair, and once again it didn't disappoint.

Not the sharpest knife in the drawer

I consider myself to be a fairly intelligent human being. However, last night after spending 30min trying to get my back wheel back onto my bike, I felt like I was the lowest common denominator of intellectual organisms. In other words, the neon tetras in our fish tank were mocking me. I gave them the finger.

I can handle most basic bike maintenance issues – pumping tires (training and race wheels), changing flats (not the speediest, but I can get it done) – I’ve traveled literally across the world with a bike and can take it apart and put it back together relatively easily (although I have trouble getting the pedals off occasionally. I have a fear that the wrench will fly right into my face when I’m putting unnecessary torque on it). Yesterday, I decided I wanted to ride the bike trainer easy for a short amount of time, basically for as long as it took me to watch something on our DVR. My only problem was I still had the back race wheel on my bike from the triathlon I did a couple of weeks ago.

No problem, also in my bag of tricks is the ability to change my cassette. Marty usually does this for me because I give him puppy dog eyes which are equivalent to kryptonite to him, but alas, he was out coaching his high school cross country team in their conference championship. Time to step up and take matters into my own hands.

Now remember, I got my new bike at the end June, and have yet to mess with anything on it. This means I hadn’t taken the back wheel off by myself (see ‘Marty’ and ‘puppy dog eyes’ from above). Got the cassette changed no problem. The issue came when I had to get the back wheel back onto my bike. WTF. This does not look like my Felt. Nor does it act like my Felt. Oh I miss my Felt. Why did I ever sell it and buy this hunk of crap? It doesn’t even look remotely possible that the back wheel can fit back on the bike with the chain in the correct place.

Why am I so stupid??!! !@*$!!%*!

EVERYONE owns a Cervelo. I’m sure THEY can get their back wheel on. Why can I not figure out how to get this back on there?! I graduated as the Salutatorian of my high school for god’s sake. That has to count for something, right? Right?

Apparently not as I ended up sending Marty this picture with a caption that read something like this.

How the f do I get the back wheel on this bike.


My other hand looked similar but I couldn’t figure out how to take a picture of both hands. Tassie was too embarrassed by my stupidity to help me out. Traitor.

I decided not to ride last night. Or perhaps I should rephrase, I did not ride last night because my bike refused to wear it's back wheel.

Keeping Myself Busy

I got over my head cold fairly quick. Fairly quickly? Whatever. Went for an easy run last Tuesday and my calf started killing me halfway through - guess it was my body's way of telling me to give it a break. I just can't help myself when it's so nice out. I just want to run!

I did swim twice last week. I really like going to Master's, it has nothing to do with actual training at this point. Marty had us do some crazy sets that had wall pushouts, and treading water with our hands out of the water, and block starts. Nas forced me to dive off the blocks instead of the side of the pool. I'm happy to report that I didn't have any belly flops and never lost my goggles.

Marty flew to Atlantic City on Friday afternoon, and I drove down to Pinehurst to give a technique clinic after the participant meeting for the triathlon that was happening the next day. Saturday I met Alicia at Umstead for a mountain bike ride on the bridle trails. Beautiful day and good conversation.

This is how Tassie spent most of her Saturday:


Kari and I saw The Social Experiment that night. It was definitely an interesting movie, although I'm not sure how I feel about Facebook. It's kind of nice to just keep your head in the sand sometimes.

This morning Tassie was giving me her puppy dog eyes so I took her for a short 30min run. I donned a compression sleeve for my calf and it actually helped. But now I'm one of those weirdos.

Got Me A Head Cold

I should've quarantined Marty last week.

Pic and Video from Last Weekend

I thought this picture came out pretty good of me coming into the finish line. I was thinking of maybe buying it, something we rarely do, because I also like the fact that Marty is in the background.



Marty was actually videoing this, so here's his perspective. And special shout out to Benji for saying my name correctly!