Surprise, surprise

I usually hate suprises. HATE THEM. I can't stand them. I was the kid who would go through mom and dad's closet before Christmas to find all the gifts before they were wrapped, or even worse, carefully peel back the wrapping if they were already under the tree. Even as an adult, I would find gifts hiding in closets or drawers. I considered myself a very good sleuth.


But my husband recently surprised me with a trip to an island - all I knew, for two weeks, was my Passport was required and I would need to pack my bikini. I had no input into where we were going, what we were doing, where we were staying, and I was actually kind of enjoying it! There were 20 different ways I could have found where we were going, but I didn't. I held my tongue, or rather my snoopy fingers, to not find out. My colleagues, however, were doing their own sleuthing and even got the exact location from my husband. (They were having a little too much fun taunting me!)


We ended up in Jamaica, and it was beautiful! (My guess were the Bahamas.) I hadn't been in more than 15 years. I'll post photos from the trip later on; they're on my other laptop.

Did we get any training in? Yes, many bicep curls and good calf work walking through the sand. We did get in some laps in the ocean; it was so clear and crystal blue and smooth, and the hotel had roped in their swimming area, so we bought junior-sized goggles from the beach gift shop. They were tight, but they did their job. I guess we swam about 20 minutes until we were ready to take our afternoon nap. :)


On the way back, in the Jamaica airport in Montego Bay, I went through the gift shop and bought Islands magazine to pick out our next spot. I'm thinking Kauai or Costa Rica!

I want to tour the Tour

Is anyone out there planning to go to Tour of California next week? I want to go so bad but we just haven't gotten around to make any plans for travel.

Bryon and I have also been throwing around the idea of planning our MUCH delayed trip to Europe with a stop in some stages of the Tour. That would be really cool. We think it would be awesome to see Lance's return to the race while seeing some good spots of France. Never have been to France, or Europe for that matter, I am definitely up for this. But isn't July really, really hot there? (Not that they have much to compare to our Texas weather/summers, but do I want to be walking miles and spectating with heat?)

Training update

Besides work lately, I've been training. And the training's getting hard.

I missed last Thursday's swim - stayed up too late waiting for Bryon to fly back home.

Friday was group morning run - 40 minutes in Zone 2. Got 39m 43s...close enough. :)

Saturday was:
20 minute open water swim in Grapevine Lake
3.5 hour bike ride in Zone 2/3 - 60 miles
15 minute run in Zone 2

Sunday was:
30 minute bike ride in Zone 1/2
1.5 hour run in Zone 2 (8 minutes faster than last weekend!)

After our workouts this weekend, Bryon and I shopped for a new couch. I don't know why we don't just take a day to lay on the couch and relax! My feet are always aching - Bryon should learn to massage them... :)

Didn't hit swim this morning, but plan to make that up in SAN DIEGO this week/weekend! So excited to see my grandparents and go down to Mexico and stay at our family's beach house. Private beach and no crowds...gotta love it! :)

Rest of the workouts this week are similar to last week - but I'll be missing out on the bike rides. Luckily that's my best sport of the 3, so I'm not too worried. Gotta make sure I get all the runs in though - I'm thinking beach runs in 65 degree weather.

Jealous yet? :)

Mark my calendars!

We've made a decision! Instead of pursuing Ironman New Zealand next March, Bryon and I are tackling the PARIS MARATHON in April 2009!! How exciting?

And yes, we do know how expensive Europe is right now; the dollar is horrible; yaddayaddayadda. However - have you looked at how much a flight is to Sydney or Auckland? Let alone ship two bikes each way and enough luggage to carry ALL the gear that's required of a triathlon, let alone an Ironman? I didn't think so. :)

So, we're planning on the Paris Marathon, April 5, 2009, and do a two-week tour of Western Europe. I'm so excited! Never been to Europe, this is a big deal as it's always been a goal to visit Europe before having kids...I'm sure this is why Bryon is excited! :)

So instead of having NY Marathon my first marathon-only marathon (no swim or bike before the run), it'll most likely be the Marathon de Paris!

Any suggestions for the top 5 cities to visit? We're thinking London, Paris, Venice, Florence and Rome. Maybe Munich?

Flying these days

I returned from NYC last night. It was a whirlwind trip - it was a one-night stay. However, 21 hours of the 36-hour business trip was spent in either DFW or La Guardia or on a plane. I didn't get to my Midtown hotel until midnight and I had a 4:45 a.m. wake-up call, followed by a 7 hour media tour. It was tough, but the traveling was killer...

Air travel has gotten seriously tripped up and horrible. Sunday and Monday, American Airlines canceled flights left and right. At one point, my flight on Sunday (after being rebooked after a canceled flight) had 150+ people on stand-by. 150 people! Monday was no better - my original flight was delayed two hours and the two left-over flights back to Dallas had 50+ people on stand-by. I was even accused by a flight attendant on the way up to NYC that I didn't know how to turn off my iPod - we were getting ready to land and she walked by twice as I was trying to turn it off. She then continued to stand over me and saying she could turn it off because obviously I was having issues. Excuse me, but I know how to work my own devices that I've owned for years and I'm telling her this as I'm showing her that I'm pressing down on the button and nothing is happening. She then proceeds to take the iPod and "work her magic" thinking she'd get it to work b/c she worked at Apple, yet she couldn't. No shit! Frustrated the hell out of me. Don't tell me I don't know what I'm doing without knowing my situation while embarassing me in front of the other passengers. Of course, I was a little more sensitive at that point - I had been traveling (or, going nowhere in an airport) for 12 hours already.

It's not bad enough that my flight, booked two weeks in advance, was nearly $1300.

But, NYC is fun. It was hot, but it was fun even if I only had 2 hours to walk around to shop. Surprisingly, I didn't buy a thing! (Bryon's shocked!)

AA is getting unreal

I just did a search for flights to Chicago on American, and it would cost me $1300! WHAT? I can't even think about Delta or the others - they don't fly non-stop out of DFW!

Are we going to have to start pulling out loans to fly anywhere? Or am I land-bound? Do we get more vacation days in order to have drive-time to destinations? I think not...

I'd rather ride my bike cross-country than pay that amount of money. Maybe the airline industry should start lobbying against the oil giants instead of trying to lose customers.

MC200 photos

Photos from this past weekend's Madison to Chicago 203-mile, 12-man running relay.

Steamed Muscles Team 2 before the race start last Friday

Handing off to Bryon on our first legs - I PR'd my 5k time, and my next leg which was a 10k!

Our last legger running down the finish chute at Montrose Beach on day 2. We finished in 25 hours and 41 minutes.

Steamed Muscles Team 2 after the race on Saturday. Time for sleep!

Bryon, me and Kevin (Bryon's brother) - Team R at it again!

So far behind

I'm so far behind on my posts, it makes it so hard to catch up! I do owe a race report for last weekend's CapTex. I guess you can say I'm still recovering from my heatstroke and spending 45+ minutes in the med tent this past Sunday. But, all is well, although I have yet to do a workout since the race. Oops!

One week till MC200!

Driving down the 101

My sister and me at her graudation

Whew. What a weekend. I actually left this town and left my laptop and work behind! (Although I will admit I did - briefly! - check my email on Saturday.) Hence my lack of posting, as well. So I'll try to catch you up...

Thursday afternoon I left for LA and actually ended up flying with my parents (we didn't book them together), which was nice. Bryon met us at the airport and we drove off into the sunset of Santa Monica...or at least into all the smog.

I love SoCal! Of course it had to be the hottest weekend of the year, so far, for them (temps were beating records set back in 1880-something!), but it was fun nonetheless. Saw William Shatner at LAX picking up luggage next to us, and my parents were antique shopping in Santa Monica next to Marcia Cross. Bryon got to see the Hollywood sign up close for the first time and down Sunset Blvd and Rodeo Drive. Ugh - I do hate the LA traffic though. (Where do all these people come from? And how are you able to go to the beach on an early Friday afternoon??)

The R's take Hollywood!

Friday morning, bright and early, we went to the USC campus to see my sister graduate. I was happy to say I got her her first piece of alumni gear! It was very exciting but extremely hot and stuffy, especially in the tent we were stuck in for 2+ hours! We saw her walk, helped her move out of her "apartment" (it was an attic added on to an o-l-d house that looked like it could be blown over with one puff of air), and made it to the beach for a couple of hours before we met up again for dinner.

My workout for that day: 5+ miles of walking in 93+ heat, all before noon!

Saturday was busy busy too - Bryon and I woke up and ran 6.5 miles down the Santa Monica/Venice Beach boardwalk. It didn't seem like 6.5 miles but it was - we were so distracted by the variety of people that show up! Plus, it was the first visit for Bryon so he was quite amused. And bewildered. He didn't realize that area was so dirty... After the run we rushed to get ready and went to the 3rd Street Promenade to meet the family for breakfast and shopping, took off for the Hollywood Hills and then came back for dinner at an Italian restaurant in the Promenade that Bryon and I ate at Thursday night (but it was really, really good - but the service SUCKED!).

Sunday, we raced. Of course! Can't take us R's anywhere without wanting to race. We did the Playa del Run Santa Monica aquathlon - 1000m ocean swim and 5k run. It was small and Bryon and I could actually place our transition spots next to each other, as well as start at the same time! And dang the water was cold! 63 degrees. And then we had to trek what seemed FOREVER up the beach through soft sand to get to our shoes. My legs were shot from the days of walking the whole weekend and I definitely wasn't fresh, but it was good to do a race and get an ocean/wetsuit swim in, and before CapTex this weekend! I did do what I estimated I would although I know my run could be faster. The ocean current was strong, and there were 3-4 swells that you were paddling through and all of a sudden you were stroking through air and not water 4 feet high - what a rollercoaster ride that was, so my swim time was fine with me. Plus, I finished right before Bryon! I finally got to a point in the swim at the end where I could stand up and start running out and for some reason I look behind me and there's Bryon popping up from a wave! We were at our transition spots at the same time and Bryon offered to help me out of my wetsuit, but I said no - I didn't want to keep him behind! The run was tough - I think I swallowed too much salt water and the heat was pounding down. But I kicked it in gear after getting over a stomach cramp and finished in 50 minutes.

What you don't see in the below photo is our two plates of Krispy Kreme donuts and croissant rolls! Yum. :)

The R's after the race. We tried to show those LA Tri people what's up. But uh, they were pretty fast...

After the race we cleaned up, packed, laid by the pool, said bye to my family and left for the airport. Again - whew!

Now it's Tuesday, and I haven't done anything remotely active... eek!

Oh, and can't forget - it's supposed to rain all weekend not only in Dallas, but Austin as well!! This better not be a repeat from last year when it was rained out!

Here's to the weekend

This weekend's been eventful. Friday we went to dinner at The Porch (GREAT food by the way) and saw Troy Aikman! That made the first visit even better.

Saturday I didn't ride, and I'm almost glad for it - it was so humid. Ugh. I didn't feel well either and ended up sleeping most of the morning and then cleaned the house while Bryon was still riding. I do need to get on the bike though - it's beeen too long!

Today was nothing like yesterday - we woke to 55 degree temps and not humid at all! Ran the lake again and did awesome! 9.26 miles in 8:54/mile pace for a total of 1.22. I'm getting stronger and faster and better! I'm so excited. Hopefully this isn't sucking up my bike strength. We'll see next week at CapTex! I can't believe it's so soon already.

Also, can't believe that I'm getting to go to a beach this weekend - I keep forgetting that we're flying to LA soon for Taylor's graduation. I feel I've lost track of time...

"Heel Duke! Heel!"

Bryon's out of town again. Which meant shorter swim workout this morning. Got in 1950 yards and had to leave in the middle of a 15x100 at 1:50 pace (was doing them each in 1:30 or so though - and leading the whole time. That's hard work!).

I did take Duke, our rescued 2-year-old Lab, on a short run this afternoon. He's been through training and we're currently working on him and would like him to be our running dog, but hadn't taken him out on a run since he had been trained. He did awesome! There was only one or two instances that he was getting a little too close to me, but he heeled at stop signs and for cars when I stopped and kept a good pace! Yay! Of course, we really need to run him because he's learned how to get into the container of dog food... We're going to have to fix that. Took him back home (didn't want to stress him out too much on the first run) and went out again. Ugh - it was hard, with the humidity from this morning's storms (and the ones looming for tomorrow) and allergies, it wasn't fun. But I got a good 3 miles in. Didn't want to do too much since tomorrow's track if it's not raining.

One more week until LA! I'm excited - I love SoCal and I miss the beach. I miss surfing. I miss my nice golden tan. I miss the cool breezes. Bryon's actually been in San Diego the last two days and teased me this morning by calling me right before a 6 mile run on Pacific Beach.

Not cool, Bryon, not cool.

One day...

Anyways, still have two options to race next weekend, a running road race on Saturday and an aquathon on Sunday. Not sure which night we'll be out late celebrating my sister's college graduation, so it probably be a pretty late call. Can't wait!