The end is near

FOOTBALL!!!!! Last night was the Hall of Fame game, the traditional first NFL preaseason game. I love football. In particular this game, because it signifies nearing the end of summer. Yes it was 95 degrees outside yesterday. But football starting means I can see flannel shirts and sweaters ahead. This heat will break soon. I can see the glory of autumn inline. So the HoF game is a small glimmer of hope, it should be enough to get me through these final days of hell (I mean August [I mean summer]) geez.

Thursday night I had a crappy run, bagged it after only 3 miles. I know better than to run 3 days in a row, but I did it anyway. Should have just gotten on the bike instead. Crappy run left me with hip, knee, shin, and ankle aches. Typical overuse injuries. So I also bailed on Saturday's long run to allow more recovery. Sunday I knew I wanted to get in a long bike ride, and I did 54 miles in about 2:45. It was a good but boring ride. I knew I needed to work on muscular endurance on the bike, so going long was the key to the workout, not going fast.

This week is a recovery/taper week. Really, nothing longer than sprint distance in prep for Sunday's races. The Greenville Sprint triathlon sunday morning is a 400 meter pool swim, 15 mile bike, 5k run. That is going to be followed sunday night by the Go Drive Run 5k that Kelley and I are doing, then Bigun's kids fun run. She's got her pink running shoes all ready for her race. Then we are all going to the Greenville Drive baseball game afterwards where I plan to pig out on hot dogs and beer.

So the plan is for tuesday night to get in a pool swim, wednesday night is 15 miles on the bike, and thursday night is 5k run. Friday and saturday rest up for the two races on sunday. it's going to be wild.

Saturday Bigun and I both got haircuts. She got about 3" taken off. The cool part is that I took her to my barber, who's been cutting my hair since I was her age. My dad also was in there this week, and Morgan went to see him last week. It's amazing to have the same guy cut hair for that many people in the same family. And Bigun did very well getting her hair cut. She had a little trouble keeping her head still, but for the most part things were ok. Here's the before pic:

And the after:

Also on Saturday we pulled an incredible harvest from the garden! Check this out:

A full half pint of raspberries, some tomatoes, the last of the squash, some peppers and cucumbers. It's insane. I cannot believe how well the berries are doing. We have got to dig up the potatoes (long overdue), and I've got a yellowjacket nest in the ground that I cannot seem to get rid of. I got stung in the middle of my back on friday. Ouch! I forgot how much that hurts, I haven't been stung since high school.

Finally last week the house got a refresh. They finished putting the new roof on (thank you hail damage/insurance!) and it came out great. The painters got started, and they should be finished tomorrow. I'll put before/after pics up once they are done. We're changing from brown shingles to black, and from brown bricks/paint/trim to green wall paint (over bricks and siding) and almond trim. It looks great under the black shingles.

Have a great week! Can't wait to read all the race reports. I did notice on saturday that my B2B countdown was at 90 days! GAAAA!!!! let the anxiety begin. 88 days today is scary! I have so many more miles to put under these bike tires before that race.