Back from Vacation

Well, we are finally back from our over a week long vacation to California. It was a great trip. We spent the first few days in San Fran and did lots of touristy things. The first day we went into the city and it happen to be Spare the Air day-so all mass transit was FREE!!!! We wanted to take a boat ride and tour Alcatrez but the tours were booked for four days so we opted for renting big clunky mountain bikes and riding along the wharf and the across the Golden Gate Bridge, over into the cute town of Sausilito and walked around. We rode a little further before turning around and taking the ferry back to San Fran. It was a great time even though we get extremely sunburnt!

Our second day, after a long run in the heat and bright sun (even though it was 7 am), we drove around Palo Alto and walked around Standford. We only made it about an hour, since it was over 100 and it was only 10am. So we drove around the campus and the town which was really nice. Then we headed to Santa Cruz and drove up the Pacific Coast Highway 1 for the beautiful scenery. After going through the nice town of Half Moon Bay we headed back to our hotel and then went out for dinner at IN-N-OUT!! Followed by ice cream at Cold Stone, yum yum!!!!

Our third day we went back into the city and started out by walking around Golden Gate Park. Wow, it is so huge. We walked around for quite a while and then walked through the Japanese Tea Garden and the Conservatory of Flowers. Then we ate at a great Dim Sun restaruant. I had really wanted to try Dim Sun, and we tried some really different foods, that normally I wouldn't try. My favorite: Crab Stuffed Shrimp claws. Least Fav: Fried Tofu. After lunch we headed to the where the large victorian houses and did a walking tour that was in our book. Saw some huge houses and absoultely amazing views of the bay. We headed back after a long day of walking around and went to eat at a nice mexican restaurant where we got some fish tacos (shirmp tacos for me!).

Well, that was our time in San Fran...will continue later on the rest of our journey which included the wineries and hiking in Sequoia and Yosemite

Hot and Humid

The weather lately has been absolutely dreadful. I think it would be ok if it was hot, but the humidity is just a killer. I have tried to go out and run lately and even getting up in the morning when it is cooler doesn't really help. I am pretty sure though that we still have another month or so of this hot and humid weather and then it will calm down a bit. We are headed out west on Thursday for vacation and while our plans have changed quite a bit due to ez's torn calf which has canceled our 4 day hike in Yosemite, we are now spending more time in San Fran and going to do the winery Napa Valley thing and spend a day in Kings Canyon and Sequoia so Eric can see the BIG trees! :) I am really looking forward to the trip and just the chance to get away. We have a new digital (waterproof) camera and hopefully I will post some pictures after we get back!

Triangle Triathlon

This past sunday we raced here in Raleigh for our big team race. It was nice that almost our whole team was at the race. The elite female wave was deep this time so I had no hope of actually placing...in fact I finished last out of the elite women...I don't know why I raced elite this year. I think I would have been happier had I raced age group...maybe I would be a little more confident. Actually, my swim is always at the top and my bike is usually pretty good but my running is like I can't run at all.

I have actually been feeling worse and worse when I am running and Eric and I have started to think that maybe it is from my new bike. I am set up on that bike in a much stronger position where I mainly use my quads. The problem though is that I am a quad runner. So by the time I get to the run I have already exhausted my quads quite a bit. I am going to try and start focusing more on running with my hamstrings and get them developed and hopefully next year things will be a little better. After we come back from vacation Eric is going to help me with some exercises that will hopefully help me.

Anyway, if you want to read my race report you can go to www.elitetriangletriteam.com and read it there. I am glad I am done racing for a while. And I am really excited about our vacation next week!

House Shopping

So over the weekend Eric and I were kind of bored and wanted to get out of the house so we decided to go drive around and look at houses. There are a few brand new communities building in a perfect location if I end up getting a job here so we walked around in their model homes.

It was so exciting and it made both of us get really excited about buying our own house soon and it made me want to stay here in NC. I had been debating on whether or not I wanted to stay here but house shopping was lots of fun. Of course, there has to be a job here I can get, and a job I would want, and I would then have to be offered the job after applying. Then EZ reminded me that even if I get a job somewhere else we would be house shopping there too. So I guess it doesn't matter where we end up because either way we will get to have our own home soon (well, kind of soon-over a year seems soon right now).

Now Eric has been fowarding me houses he finds while he sits on the internet at work and the more I see the more I wish I just had a job already and we could find a house and start decorating it...which in my free time now that I am not working, i am addicting to HGTV and all the remodeling/decorating shows! :)

Viva La Tour!!

So yeah, the Tour DAY France started over the weekend. I have really been looking forward to it this year, no offense to Lance, but I thought it would become a great tour since he wasn't going to be there. There are some great riders and I was rooting for Ivan Basso...not just because I ride his bike now, but because I thought he could win (along with most people since he was the favorite).

On Friday I received an email from EZ stating our bikes were now worthless because Basso along with a whole lot of other great riders were being suspended for drug allogations. Really sucks. I mean this whole drug scandle that is going on is huge. Eric mentioned that a couple of the top runners are now also being linked to it as well-which if all of it turns out to be true just is a huge blow to sports in general. How can you look up to someone knowing that they are cheating. It just amazes me how many athletes might be caught up in this mess and if they did use the drugs then how disappointed it makes me (and I am sure others) feel that these top athletes can't do it on their own.

Enough of that though...still excited that the Tour is on and now that I can't root for Basso...I am rooting for good ole George Hincapie-who won the yellow jersey yesterday. I have always liked George (as long as I have been following cycling-which is only a few years), he just seems like a great person and to work so hard for Lance and now be on top is quite an accomplishment.

Should be a great few weeks of racing nontheless...I just wish Bob Roll would stop calling it the Tour Day France.... :)

Thank you Powerbar!

Being part of this triathlon team, we are sponsored by a whole bunch of different companies, one of which is powerbar. Now back when I was swimming, Powerbar only made those chewy powerbars, but now they make all sorts of different types of bars and gels and drinks. Our sponsorship allowed our team a set amount of money to spend on powerbar stuff-whether is be any of the food items, or shirts, hats, water bottles, etc. So our team split the money evenly and then we all placed an order.

Eric and I spent about half our alloted money and what we got was about 15 boxes of different powerbar bars (lots of Pria bars as those are my fav), and each box has about 15 bars in them, plus we got 3 canisters of their endurance drink mix. This is a whole lot of loot that I am sure Eric and I will go through pretty quickly. But we still have a lot money left to spend on more yummies.

I tried the Pria Strawberry Shortcake bar today and it was really good!