Italy & Greece.... Best trip ever!

If you ever want to take the vacation of a lifetime, I highly recommend Italy and Greece. The food, the sights, the history, the culture, the adventures, the beauty.... there are not words to describe how truly magical this trip was!

After a long trek to Europe, we got to hike through Cinque Terre, the cutest series of costal fishing villages you'll ever see!!



We briefly stopped in Pisa...



and then headed to Florence! We did a spectacular bike tour of lovely Tuscany! (PS it's as beautiful as you'd imagine).



Our next stop was Rome. Ah, Roma. What an amazing city. The history, the nightlife, the beautiful streets that you can wander through for hours... this was one of my favorite places.



Our last Italian city was Venice. Just..... wow. The waterways, the gelato, the narrow streets.... I loved exploring this place!



We then hopped on a cruise ship to take us to Greece! Our first stop was actually Kotor, Montenegro.



Then, we got to scuba dive on the lovely, green Corfu! We did an awesome cavern dive, and even saw an octopus!



Then.... ATHENS!!!! FREAKING ATHENS!!! I was so excited about this place, and it didn't disappoint. The acropolis, the temples, the food... seriously the best.



Next up, Mykonos! We rented a buggy and drove from beach to beach, taking in the amazingly blue water and white buildings!



Our last stop was on Kefalonia, where we did a kayaking tour of the coast. I've never seen water like that, and I've been to quite a few oceans! We saw some awesome caves and squooze (that's the technical term, I think) through some really tight tunnels! What a gorgeous way to end our perfect trip.





Truly, this trip could not have been any more fun, and I'm so blessed to have had this adventure with my favorite person ever!!!
<3 <3 <3

Triathlon Recap!

So. I completed a triathlon! (Over a month ago. Sorry.)

What a wonderful experience! There were hiccups, of course, but it is definitely something I’d do again!

For the hiccups…. Of course, having a stress fracture and being under-trained didn’t exactly give me warm fuzzies. We drove down to St. George a day early to celebrate the husband’s birthday weekend, and as we drove the course, we realized how bumpy the road would be for the bike portion of the race. Since I am allergic to vibration, this was NOT a good thing. My body freaks out on roads less bumpy than that – turning purple and white, getting hives, experiencing unbearable itchiness…. Not fun.

Sooooo I was mildly freaking out haha. Luckily Kip bought me some compression sleeves, and our pharmacist friend recommended a combination of Claritin, Benadryl, and caffeine pills that worked wonders!

As far as race day, it was chilly in the morning, but the water temps were warm, so my whole group decided to go without wetsuits. We set up transition areas, got our bodies marked, and generally tried not to freak out. The boys’ wave was before ours’, and once they started, everything is a blur! Haha

The swim went well, it was just one big loop. I even saw a girl with a snorkel! Genius haha. T1 was really slow for me, since I was trying to get those dang compression sleeves on wet arms. The bike went really well: that combination of meds plus compression was the best thing to ever happen to me haha. I made some friends on the bike, and despite the rough climb at mile 3, the whole thing was quite pleasant. The run portion was definitely the hard part. The sun was unforgiving in the desert heat, and my untrained legs had a hard time haha. Towards the very end, a nice girl passed me, and I could tell by her body markings that she was in my age group. She cheered me on, telling me I could sprint to the finish line. I dug deep and sprinted past her, and ended up getting third place for the age group! Which I was both proud of and slightly guilty over, since she would have placed if she hadn’t been so nice.

I can’t wait for the next one – injury free! :)

I’m so lucky to have a husband that gave up his birthday weekend to do a race he wasn’t even interested in, and that he stuck to the training and did so well!

Being Humbled

Welp. My triathlon is in a week.

Am I ready?

No freaking way haha.

Thanks to a stress fracture at the end of July, I haven't really trained much (besides a few sessions in the pool) for this race. Thankfully, this has led to my foot healing up quite well.
Unfortunately, it means I'll go into the race pretty much untrained.

These last 3 days have been the beginning of my training (great timing, a week out), and they have certainly been humbling...

(read: beyond frustrating).

On the upside, however, it's forced me to take a step back, to listen to my body, to let go of my ideas of what I "need to do" or "will do," and to be okay with whatever happens. For someone as high-strung as myself, those are major steps, so maybe this experience has been put in my life for a reason.

Or so I hope.

:)

Washington, D.C

Thanks to a little piggy-backing on the husband's work trip, we were able to have a fabulous weekend in DC last week! It was a perfect 2-day whirl through the city, and it couldn't have been any more fun!

Day one was our museum day. We hit up Lincoln's Waffles, The Holocaust Memorial Museum (favorite - such a harrowing experience, and we even got to meet a concentration camp survivor who was volunteering there), the National Gallery of Art, the Museum of Natural History, and dinner/Jazz in the Sculpture Gardens. The bike exchange (also favorite) made it so fun to get around the downtown area.

Day two was our monument day. We saw the White House, the Washington Monument, the WWII Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Vietnam Memorial. We also rented paddle boats to see the Jefferson, MLK, and FDR memorials. That night, we ran the National Mall - a little over 4 miles and we got to see so many of those iconic places all lit up (final favorite)! I highly recommend it if you like running in new places.

Good food, cool sights, a nice run, and my favorite person.... what a lovely trip :)

Little Red Riding Hood 2016

It’s funny, for every person who says, “that’s awesome!” when they find out that I have a road bike, there’s another person who says, “ugh, I would never do that!”

They have all kinds of reasons – they hate cardio, the seat is uncomfortable, they dislike physical activity, they think the spandex outfits are stupid, they think it’s boring, they think it’s scary…

But, how strange is it, that people’s initial reaction to something that someone else loves is instant negativity? I’m certainly not immune to this – my friends that do ultramarathons and other crazy-long running events get an, “oof that sounds AWFUL!” from me. So, why? Why can’t I just go, “wow, that’s truly amazing!?” When I tell people about my latest half-century, why are so many of the reactions negative? Why do we make it about ourselves at all?

Food for thought :)


Anyway… I did the Little Red Riding Hood last weekend! I have an amazing aunt who lives up in Logan, and I LOVE this ride and this distance! I chose the 50 mile event, and it was simply perfect – warm weather, pretty scenery, delicious food, amazing (cross-dressing) volunteers, attentive support, fun and supportive participants (all women!), and a great opportunity to socialize and shop after crossing the finish line (okay, okay, I bought all the things. Not even sorry.). It gives me an opportunity to spend time outdoors, be alone with my thoughts, encounter wonderful people, be extremely grateful for my life, and generally appreciate things :)

Hands-down one of the best races/events that I have attended, I’ll definitely do this one for many years to come!