Catching Up and Camping Out

First: the camping.

This last weekend Britney, Kelsey (her sister), Emily (my sister) and I went camping for the weekend, just for fun. It was a nice chillaxed type of weekend.

Highlights included: Toasted pizza sandwiches, loud political/philosophical neighbors, an awesome golden retriever named Marley, paddle boating, roasted corn on the cob, bananagrams, and hundreds of earwigs taking shelter in our tent.

Here are a select number of pictures from the weekend:

Emily and Britney breaking open the first beers of the weekend.

 
Britney and her sister don’t look ANYTHING alike…yea right.

 
The 4 of us getting ready to head to the beach.

The girls paddle boating.

Me and my better half.

Enjoying roasted corn a la Britney!

Getting ready to head back to civilization.

Second: the new quilt.

My aunt Julie had a t-shirt quilt made for me as a graduation gift, and I finally got it this week! Since my first true love is Dance Marathon (a philanthropic event that raises money for Children’s Hospitals through the Children’s Miracle Network) the blanket is all Dance Marathon shirts from the University of Iowa and Loras College. Check it out!

The next one will be of race shirts, I promise.

Finally: the tri-stuff.

Just a reminder, Racine is in 5 days. I’m starting to gather my final thoughts before the race, but with my big move looming ahead, I’ve been kinda distracted, which may or may not be a good thing.

The girls, Britney and I are heading to Milwaukee on Friday to crash at my cousin’s place. I just plan on enjoying the weekend, including the race. This is my first half and WTC Ironman experience so I’m going to take it all in. (Read: I know that I undertrained so I’m not expecting anything but to finish)

I’m getting my bike into the shop on Friday so my fork will be fixed and I’ll be able to safely ride Frankie on Sunday.

I’ve been taking it relatively easy this week. I didn’t have many hard training weeks, during this disastrous summer, so I didn’t earn a taper week. So far it has consisted of a 4 mile run on Monday, and a 15 mile ride today (which had awesome numbers). Tomorrow I’m hoping to squeeze out a run in the morning and more spin time in the evening.

Finally…I’ve hired myself a coach! I’m super excited to start working with Grant Anderson in September after I get settled in Texas. He’s a Houston based coach whose clients have awesome things to say about him. The goal: get me coached up for Redman 2011 and possible IMTX 2012. I’ll be sure to keep you posted when I start working with him!

Ok, bedtime for this bear. Up early tomorrow for a run before the temperature hits triple digits!