Off season and other odds and ends

I have been thinking about ways to write this blog. A lot of things happened this past tri season - I did my first half ironman, started working with a coach, my first -almost-century, and I got engaged. This was also the first season I have actually done serious training. It was hard to adjust to the regimen, seeing as I just winged in grad school and I was slower than I have been previously, but that is probably due to my body adjusting to a higher training volume. Now I am really enjoying the scaled back workload, but I am pretty psyched to get ready for my Ironman next May!

I guess I will start with summarizing the proposal. Fact is, I knew it was coming since I picked the ring. I am a control freak and had a very specific design in mind. Anyway, it was delivered during Monday night football, on our 4th anniversary (perfect timing). So basically, it was pretty low key, but we did celebrate with some wine. Anyway, we are super excited for our wedding (Oct 25, 2014 - save the date) and having our family and friends in Santa Fe. Even though I knew we would get to this point, I can't believe I am actually in the planning process - I am serious when I say I have been dreaming about the dress since I was 5.

                                                     So shiny!!

Next up is the horrendous century ride I did last weekend. It wasn't horrible in terms of physical fitness, as I was in shape for it, it was horrible because of the mechanical issues I had with my road bike. That bike is cursed. Every time I ride it, some unexpected issue comes up. Seriously, I hate that bike and I think it knows it. I think we were around 25 miles in, when a car ran over a glass bottle and I didn't have the time to avoid the glass. My tire got shredded and obviously was flat. So we patched the tire and changed the tube and as we were putting it back on the bike, the friggin tube blew. The next tube we put in didn't pop, so I continued on to make the ten miles to the next aid station. When we stopped, the tire was bulging where it was patched, so we called the support team to see if they had an extra tire, and luckily they did. So the tire was replaced and my bike was good to go. Unfortunately, I think we at least waste 90 min total on mechanicals. For the next 30 miles all was good, but as we were coming down the very last big climb, my front tire flatted. At this point my mood was pretty shot, but we fixed that flat and decided to just head back to the finish since it was getting pretty late. It was a good decision, since at that point my chain was slipping from all the messing around with the back wheel and I was pretty cranky. We still got 87 miles in, not the 100 miles, but it was the longest ride I have done to date. I was not upset about it though, since I will have plenty of time to make it up in Ironman training.

Although I didn't go as fast as I wanted to this season, I am pretty excited for the opportunities I have next season, not to mention my wedding! I have a lot of work to do and I am scared to death of 140.6 miles, but I can't wait to say I finished!