No no no, I am not getting married. But this weekend was a wedding filled event. I went to Pensacola, FL for my good friend Laura Reid’s wedding. It was a fun weekend, though I was ready to get back and into the swing o’ things. I really ‘girled’ it up…we had pedicures and manicures on Thursday upon my arrival (which I have to say…I really like my nails, which usually I cannot stand to paint. My toes are ALWAYS painted but never my hands…feel like it suffocates them..?!) and Friday we went out on a mini-sail boat. It had a name, something like a Hobe? It was great! Very cool. Then it was the rehearsal, rehearsal dinner, drinks of course, and Saturday was just filled from start to finish. We even went to an Aveda salon and got our hair done (as I was in the wedding). The wedding was at 5:00, went off without a hitch in one of the most beautiful churches I have ever seen, I believe it is one of the oldest churches in the country? I will post a pic if I get one from someone…and the reception was just a fun time. I am not into going out to bars to dance, but I sure love to at weddings! This morning I returned at 6:30 AM, which meant my wake up call was 4:30. So…needless to say, I am pretty tired and managed to ride for 1.5 hours this afternoon but in the 99-degree Austin heat it was a struggle. But, a very fun weekend! A refreshing change of pace, for sure.
Also…I decided to ‘go for it’ and sign up for Chicago Triathlon! This was on my schedule, but I was feeling ‘raced out’ a bit. However, I have some great college friends who will be competing as well and I will stay with them. And I have been finding myself very excited to race this year, which is a change from past years. I have NEVER ‘disliked’ racing but usually I am happy saying “I’ll skip it…” and just keeping my races limited. But you know, I do not wake up at the crack of dawn to train most days only to hit up a second workout mid-day for nothing! The races are the reward…even if they don’t go as I want them to, I rarely walk away without learning something and/or just enjoying myself!
So this week will be a big bike week! I just re-wrote my schedule based on doing pretty little all weekend, and I am anxious to stick to it. The weather in Austin is at its hottest of the year, predicted to be upper 90’s all week, which means I have to try my best to either ride in the later morning or do a ‘key ride’ on my trainer. It is a STRUGGLE to say the least in this heat. Well it is time for dinner and some relax-time now. I hope you all are well…and thanks for reading. 🙂
Yep, I finally did it. I bought an IPod. For all these years, I have thought how ridiculous they are, why are they necessary? We have CD’s, we can play our music, even put it into our computer and chill out while working. But an IPod? So I can be connected to my music while running, cycling, reading, travelling, etc…? Not necessary. But I finally gave in, however I have to admit that my …good gosh, at least 12-year old…Sony radio walkman has served me well! But I am afraid it will have to move over to my new toy. Well, it is actually not a real IPod but a Sansa. Whatever it is, it holds 2,000 songs and they are all to my liking. 🙂
Part of the reason I broke down is that I leave Thursday for Geneva, New York for a race on Saturday. This is an ITU race, draft-legal style format. I figured, what they hey, I have not raced these in about 2-3 years and I used to do only ITU racing. It will be a fun change for once, to actually get to draft on the bike. I have a homestay (whereby nice people open up their homes to allow me to stay! And helps immensely as it saves me 3 nights of a hotel!) and I am looking forward to a lot of Kelly-Time. The race is not until Saturday at 3:00 PM EST, so this gives me a plethora of time to chill out before-hand and get good and nervous! I found myself doing just that the past few days, but then I told myself that, well, this is not ‘my thing’ anymore…I am completely sold on the longer racing! I am so looking forward to racing in Racine, Wisconsin on July 22nd, this will just be a fun little ‘tune-up’.
Now that my bike is packed (yes, a day early), I will continue to download music into my ‘Sansa-Pod’. Gotta take care of all the important stuff, right?