Father's Day

We had an awesome weekend down in SC. Went back to Greenville to visit the folks, celebrate father's day, and the SC portion of Bigun's 5th birthday. It started with a party:

Uncle Michael and Aunt Summer got her a princess costume that was adorable! They had cake, it was so much fun! My grandmothers both came over for the dinner, as well as plenty of old family friends. Earlier saturday, we (me, Kelley, Morgan, and Michael) took Bigun and Evil Genius to the movie theater to see Toy Story 3. It was a pretty good flick, and EG's first time at the theater. She LOVED it. The first time we took bigun, the big screen and loud sounds scared her pretty good. But not with EG. She was right at home.

These guys were just hanging out at the dollhouse porch all weekend. Hilarious!


Sunday we all got in the pool:

Fun in the sun!

There has not, however, been very much fun in the sun on the training front. It has been HOT down here! Yowza hot. So I've been inside training as much as I can. Last week I got in a few good workouts, including a nice brick thursday night. I'm falling into a pattern of a long bike ride monday, run tuesday, lunchtime swims, and a thursday night brick. It's certainly much less training than I've been doing this year. But they are all good quality workouts. Last thursday's brick was an hour of tough hills on the bike followed by a 30 minute run. I was watching the Celtics lose game 7, which was tougher than the brick. I wanted to keep running but the gym was closing.

Yesterday we got back into town about 8 pm with a full uhaul - the last of our stuff from SC! We got it all unloaded, returned the truck, and got the kids down about 11 pm. ugh. Also, I seriously wrenched my lower back into some serious pain. ouch! So as bad as I was stuffing my face on Mom's Good Southern Cooking all weekend long, I was unable to jump back into regular workouts today. Tomorrow I'm going to the chiropractor for an adjustment. I think some swimming might help too. Then tomorrow night it's date night! We're going rock climbing, as strange as that might sound. Indoor rock wall with a local group of climbers, then joining the group for dinner later. Fun times as long as I'm not in agonizing pain.

I'm going to have to step back up to the plate to really be in shape for a 6 hour half ironman by september. Did you know today was the summer solstice? Longest day of the year. I do hope you got to enjoy the extra daylight. Here in the south we're going to have light outside until about 9 pm. But that means tomorrow, the days start getting shorter. And that means fall is on the way and we've only got a few months of this dang heat left. It makes me optimistic.

Ya want to talk about Evil Genius? Why do we call her Evil Genius? Today she took a dump on the floor at the local DMV. Then she accidentally stepped in it. I wish I could say that was the worst smelling thing in that office. Future parents beware.

EG Got Cut & Swim Preview

Evil Genius got her first haircut ever today! She's three years old now and was born with a full head of hair. We've never even had it trimmed before. It was getting too hard for me to wash, so it was time to get chopped! Bigun was also in dire need of a trim. Here's the before:



How insane! Hair down to their elbows. Impossible to maintain. The bottom several inches were just tangles.


EG did really well in the chair. She looked down when the stylist told her too, and sat up straight when she needed to. It was the only time all day she was actually well behaved.


After. How ADORABLE is that?


Of course Bigun got a summer 'do to. She loves it. Very cute!


I also went this afternoon to pick up my packet for the OWS tomorrow. The Jordan Lake Open Water Challenge has a cool shirt. Water temp is 81 degrees today so no wetsuits. Got to plan my "race outfit" carefully tonight. Wait, all I can wear is the swim cap they gave me and a black speedo. That was easy.

I've never tried just a swimming event before. I feel very well trained for this one. I've been in the pool a bunch lately, never swimming less than a mile. So I'm in good shape for this event. There's an open water swim clinic starting at 7 AM, and the race starts at 7:30. My goal time is 40 minutes.

I'm doing this event specifically to try and conquer a problem with open water swimming. It always ends up being the most hated part of a tri, and I think I have the most room for improvement by gaining appreciation for the open water. This one is a precursor to the big deuce 2 mile OWS on july 24th. That one I'm going to have to really increase my swimming endurance for. Might even have to find a bigger pool (like a lake for regular OWS).

Go Total Immersion! I hope TI really makes this fun tomorrow.

**update: Thunderstorms kicked in loud enough to wake me up about 3:30 am. I checked the weather report, the storm wasn't supposed to pass until about 9 am so I just turned off the alarm clock. Woke up at 9, made pancakes for the kids and us for breakfast, and found out that the storm passed early and it turned out to be a beautiful day and they had the swim anyway. I wasn't about to swim in a like while it was lightning, so I just plain missed it. I ended up putting a mile in the pool in 34 minutes today instead.

Game ON

I just completed registration for the Patriot's Half - a half ironman in historic Williamsburg VA. I've been waiting and waiting for the OBX half ironman to open registration, but they still don't have all of the permits in place. I've been training at a level that I expect will allow me to be quite competitive in a half iron distance in September, and the Patriot's half is the weekend before the OBX was supposed to happen. So I'm not considering the OBX anymore, it's VA all the way!

It's on like donkey kong, people. Come on out to VA and join me!

May's Review

I am at a loss of words to describe May. it's been an incredibly wild month. We got closed and got moved into the house. I did very little training and no races. here's the low down:

Swim: 5.5 miles, 6 swimsBike: 90 miles, 5 ridesRun: 18.75 miles, 4 runsStrength: 4 times, 1 hour total
Yoga: 4 workouts, 2 hoursand we moved into a new house. there are so many boxes. The furniture was so heavy. We haven't seen that stuff in 2 months. there are more boxes than I can remember. It's rendered me incoherent.

Yesterday Evil Genius turned three years old. I have some pictures to prove it.


She wanted cupcakes instead of a real cake. I say good call.


The proud big sister!


Cupcakes again. They were just that good.


Her favorite presents were a new baby doll, bean bag chair, and a princess blanket


So CUTE! We are so proud and blessed to have our little 3 year old EG!

I have high hopes for june. I just haven't figured out what they are yet. I know saturday Kyle is coming with me back to Greenville to load up the storage unit. We're going to climb paris mountain on the bikes a few times while we're there. And the next weekend I've got the 1 mile open water swim. Nuts I tell ya.