It’s been a long time since my last confession, I mean journal entry! I traveled back east to NC to visit Mom & John. I wanted to get a visit in before Kona training cranked up. I forgot how hot and humid NC is in the summer. The Todd’s made a trip to Wilmington and it was great seeing them. Loved catching up with my girl Cheryl!

This past weekend, Derek and I drove down to Oceanside for Surf Monkey. It’s a 1 mile ocean swim and 5k beach run. I wanted to shake up my training with something fun and this silly race totally did the trick. It was cool to see some BIG time pros doing a super casual race. After the race, we hung out with my cousins in Oceanside before heading back to Newport Beach. Cuz Micheal’s place is a total trip, I love it! Even though the race was not a big deal, it meant a lot to see Michael cheering us on. My swim was awesome- 22 minutes and I managed to only slightly get my ass kicked by the waves. I ran with a broken piece of my race belt in my shoe the entire 5k- nice. I think I had a decent run- sub 24 maybe and on the beach too. That’s good for me. I also just learned that Derek won his age group and I placed 3rd in mine!

Sunday morning we headed out early for a long day of training. 6:15 bike and 35 min. transition run. We did a ton of climbing. I started to bonk about 4 1/2 hours into the ride and immediately thought of a conversation I had with Nicole when i was training for IM AZ 05′. I told her I was cranky and she said, “You need a Coke immediately!” Best advice ever. This was my introduction to caffine while training. There is nothing better than a frosty Coke on a long-ass HOT ride. It totally did the trick and got me through the 6+ hrs in the saddle. My transition run was slow- no worries.

Last night we had a great BBQ over at Edward and Fiona’s house. Love those guys and as usual, had a ton of fun and had a couple adult beverages. This made for a painful 2:50 run this morning. Note to self… when you’ve had a 7 hour training day in the heat + a little wine and then try to run the next morning in the heat, it’s gonna really suck! Uncle Chris used to train early the day after a night of partying. His theory was- “Puts more stress on your heart- that’s a good thing- makes you stronger!” Hope today’s painful run made me stronger!