TRI-birthday!!

Before I ramble on about my birthday, I have to give a huge shout out to my Aunt and Mom (pictured above) who did the Flora, Indiana Hog Jog a couple weeks ago! They walked it out, and I am so proud of them!

Next, thanks so much for the birthday wishes. It was a wonderful birthday weekend parlayed into a wonderful birthday-day, and I am a lucky girl. My birthday extravaganza was also extremely tri heavy - which is awesome. Here's your breakdown:

Friday afternoon - An awesome freaking box of tri gear arrives on my doorstep from my awesome buddy Lauren. I could not believe what was in there - it was a plethora of tri goodness! Chamois glide, new TYR goggles, bike socks that said "I heart Tri":

a necklace (that happened to have half iron distances on the back - I think that was a hint) - just so freaking sweet.

And on top of that, she gave me a gift certificate to one of my favorite tri sites, teamestrogen.com, to pick out some items on my own. I snagged a new pair of Zoot tri shorts and some race flip flops. Lauren, you are way too sweet to me - THANK YOU SO MUCH, DEARY!

Friday night - Swim at Alum Creek with BDD. Let's just say that we had one huge private pool that evening. Thanks to some crap weather earlier in the afternoon, there was nary a soul at the beach that evening. It was just BDD, the fishes and me out in the water for the swim. We knocked out a nice distance then parted ways til the morning. My husband was scheduled to fly in from Florida that evening, and I was super pumped to go get him at the airport.

Saturday morning - 3:45am - FINALLY get home after numerous plane delays, lost luggage, and picking the hubs up at the airport. Poor guy was exhausted, and so was I. I also had a ride scheduled for 7am. Awesome.

Later (or earlier?) Saturday morning - 7am - Due to a missed alarm clock (AHEM), we started out a bit late. It was actually really chilly at the start of the ride with little to no sun. Yuck. Thankfully the sun decided to show up, and it turned into a positively gorgeous day to be out riding. That day, I clocked my first ever 50+ mile ride (53 to be exact). Rock on.

Saturday afternoon/evening - Hubs wants me to open my birthday present - so I did! A bike computer!!!!! SWEEEEEEEEEET. Will install this week - rock on. Sleep

Sunday - Tubing down the Mohican River, and absolutely no training at all (unless you count the "how many beers can you drink while on a river for four hours challenge").

Monday - Yet another awesome box arrives, this time from my Mom. Inside was this AWESOME shirt from Trix. I saw this shirt several months ago and posted on facebook. My Mommy remembered and got it for me. I absolutely LOVE it!!!!!!!!!! She also got me a super awesome towel with my name embroidered on it - guess what that's supposed to be? My new transition towel!!!!! It's in the wash now, but as soon as it is out, I will post a pic. Just so very very cool. THANK YOU, MOMMA!!!!!!!

If my 33rd year of life is starting out like this, I can only imagine how much more fun I'm going to have!!! Thank you all so much for the birthday wishes and sweet sweet tri gear!!!!!!

Bike Idiot

Here's a couple fun tidbits I would like to share.

1) I didn't learn to ride a bike until I was 11. Maybe even 12. I don't really remember. I've always had a little bit of an inherent fear of riding a bike. It has held over until now.

2) Until about 12 hours ago, I thought that when you were on the saddle of the bike, your feet were supposed to comfortably touch the ground. Yeah. Hence knee pain and bikes being "too small". It was because I had no idea that I was supposed to mount and dismount from a bike.

Are you kidding me? My feet are only supposed to touch when I straddle the frame? How on earth did I miss this? When did you all figure this shizz out? What the hell? I nearly killed myself on my newly fitted road bike last night. I was all like "OMG. Why is the seat so high? She measured me and everything. I do not understand this. I was at Roll. I totally trust them." Then the hubs let me know, ummmm, you have to get up on the seat when you get going. I HAD NO IDEA.

3) I finally get to meet a super famous guy on Sunday. BDD and I are off for a bike ride at o' dark thirty Sunday morning. I'm kind of pumped for the ride. And I guess I'm pretty pumped to meet BDD too. :-)

4) Some exciting news on the horizon soon. As soon as I get the thumbs up to share, there's a big announcement coming!

Please send me good bike vibes over the course of the next 5-6 days. I'm probably going to fall a few times. And if I get my hands on some cheapy pedals, I may even start to go clipless. I will need additional good vibes then.

I promise a pic of the new ride is coming soon!!!!!!!

My super short hair

I haven't had my hair this short since 2nd grade. I've had it short in the past four years, but never like this. I got sick and tired of trying to jam all that hair up under a swim cap. First time I have ever primarily cut my hair due to a "hobby" - or dare I now call it my "lifestyle." Thanks, Triathlon, you got me to chop off all my hair. But I'm kind of loving the fact it now takes me five minutes to do my hair. (excuse the formality, I set up a home portrait studio to get a pic for work's website!!!)

In order: The front, the back, an alternate view :-)