Showing posts with label racing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label racing. Show all posts

Monday, June 20, 2011

If I could make the sound of a bugle call into words that would be the title of this post......

I will have to finish up on my post(s) about my week of vegetarianism later…. Because this is just too freaking fantastic to wait….

It was scheduled to be a “normal” weekend for us, dinner on Friday with an out of town friend, training, baseball, a little lounging, a birthday for Bill’s niece, and celebrating Father’s Day with Bill’s dad.  Busy but typical.  I had a scheduled hair appointment for 9am Saturday morning.  I love going to get my hair did.  It is probably one of my most favorite things to do.  I woke up early on Saturday; refreshed and ready to start the day.  I hopped in the shower, piddled around, got dressed and picked up my friend Laura (who’s in from out of town) and we went to Starbuck’s.  She went with me to get my hair done.

Our plan for after my appointment was to head back to my house, meet up with Karen and her boyfriend, Randy, grab Bill (after his baseball game) and head to lunch before we spent the day getting’ mani/pedi’s and just having a fun girls day.  Laura had never been to the house since I relocated to Bill’s abode so we were going to meet there.

We pulled down my street and up to the house…. I saw my mom’s car in my driveway.  I was very confused; but thought maybe she stopped by b/c she was in the neighborhood or something.  Laura walked in before me as I stepped through my front door I heard “SURPRISE!!!” and about 25 people were standing in my living room!

I had zero idea of what was happening.  

Then I started looking around and saw the 30th bday decorations, the premade drinks that Bill made; the Happy Birthday plates, cake, and napkins.  It sunk in…. **Yes it took me a while to figure out that this was for me! **

Bill had Cayla hand me a gift wrapped box…. I opened it and inside was a new dress and a HUGE FLOPPY HAT!!! It was so cute…. Then he told me that in about an hour a party bus was picking all of us up and taking us to the horse races.  

YOU HAVE GOT TO BE FREAKING KIDDING ME!!!

I was stoked!  I ran upstairs and changed into my new outfit as fast as humanly possible.

When I came down; people kept showing up – and I was definitely brought to tears at one point for how thankful I was and how loved I felt.  I have never been short on words; but all I could say over and over was THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

The party bus arrived and we were off to the races…..

We arrived at the track and I saw this……


And this…..



And then this when we walked into our air conditioned semi-private room (complete with all you can eat buffet….boo ya! And private bar!)

The ponies raced, we laughed, drank, won some, lost some –but it was an epic way to spend celebrating my impending birthday!  I cannot believe Bill went through all this trouble for my birthday.  I know it must have taken him weeks of planning, secret keeping, and all around sneaky-ness and I was nothing but SURPRISED!!!!  

I thought I would share some pics with you…. HOW FUN IS THIS!!!!!?????!!!!!!!!!!

On the party bus!
Little Stinker Laura told me she was in town for her own going away party!
 
Cayla and Amber - best secret keepers ever!
Amber hadn't spoken to me all week b/c she was afraid she would give it away!
Cayla - talked to me everyday and didn't once give me a CLUE that this was happening!


GIRLS!!!

Cayla and me in our Derby hats!


Cousin Sheri, Me and my mom
  
Guy's Wife Stephanie couldn't be there so he pretended to pose with her!

Best boyfriend ever.......
 
Loved his hat!

Even Dave-o loved my hat!
 
Paul (bill's brother) and Alaina - Paul had lasik on Friday and STILL CAME! (hence the weird goggles)
 
Jonas and Cayla


Newly engaged TIm and Claudia!

I had to get one of our new outfits... Bill went all out - ordered his pants at vintagethreads.com, bought the horse shirt and the gambler Fedora hat... all for my Derby themed 30th bday party!

The tickets even had my freakin' name on them!


Precious Della - 22 weeks pregnant!


John, Amber, me and Bill!  LOVE THEM!
 

Bill and Jonas sharing a moment; I mean margarita


Me and Cay
I am so thankful to have so many wonderful friends and family to celebrate turning 30 with.  Wednesday's the big day - for now I'm going to enjoy the last 48 hours of being in my 20's... **Tear**

Friday, June 10, 2011

Pre-Race Report - Metroplex Sprint Tri

I'm racing this weekend...first time since NOLA69.1 70.3. 

It's not put on by my favorite group; in fact the RD can be A HUGE P.I.T.A. (Pain.In.The.A**)  But it's a great fast and flat course and it's local AND it's cheap...so Win, Win, Win!  Cayla is racing with me and this will be her first race of the season in preparation for her first HIM in October; the Longhorn70.3.  We haven't raced together since 2009 the 2010 season I only raced one tri b/c of my shoulder surgery so I'm VERY excited to race with her! 

SWIM
The swim is 400m and a triangular course.  I'm assuming the buoys will be on our left and if I can estimate correctly it will go something like this...actual map I just added the distances.

My goal for the swim is 2fold.... #1 Control the Freak Out.  Although I've swam a few times in open water this season with Jason and Greg - I have yet to RACE in open water.  Two totally different things.  The distance is short but I still have to control the mental aspect of this discipline.  For me - it's all about focus and not fighting...just go with it; swim and before I know it - it will be over and my feet will be on dry land.

Secondly, it's about time...I would like to push myself through this race.  It's a shorter course and I think I really "leave it all out there" this weekend. 

Distance: 400m
Goal Time: 12 min (3:00/100)

BIKE

The bike course is an out and back, fast and flat course.  (just the way I like it)  I want to hammer down on this race and push myself. The run is only 2 miles so I think I can push hard on the bike and still have enough in the tank for a successful two mile run.  Plus Cayla is running with me and she is a strong runner so I know she will push me through the run. 

Distance: 11m
Goal Time: 40 min (16.5 mph)

RUN

As I said before, it's a 2 mile run so I'm hoping I can bang out an average of 9 min. miles on the run.  It's inside the park and flat as well

Distance: 2miles
Goal Time: 18 min. (9:00min/mile)

COURSE:



Total Goal Time: 1:10:00 


**of course I will have my T.A.A.N with me all day!

We shall see - stay tuned for a race report next week!  AND head over to Mrs. Adventure for her day of giveaways...

Giveaway #1 - Wholly Guacamole! (delish!)

Giveaway #2 - Vedette Shapewear

Giveaway #3 - Big Kitchen's Ceramic Knives

Giveaway #4 - Healthy Steps (kitchen fun!)

Giveaway #5 - Blue Platypus (tshirt)

Giveaway #6 - Stonehouse 27 (sauces)

Giveway #7 - EO Products (bath products)

Giveaway #8 - John Boos Cutting Board

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Since I’ve been in a bloggy funk – I thought it was appropriate to update you on a few things that have been happening around my crazy filled life…

Work:
As I stated yesterday, work has been crazy.  I also started the second of three classes that will earn me my professional designation of ARM, Associate in Risk Management.  I know I’m a nerd…. Between that and managing an entire 4 state territory all by my lonesome I’ve been jammed packed with requests for quotes for international insurance and servicing our already existing account base.  Enough with the nerdy insurance talk…

House:
Days on Market: 64
# of showings: 13...which averages to approximately 1.44 showings per week.
# of price decreases: 2

My loving sister, Anna, repainted my kitchen for me over the last two days.  Apparently people don’t like the color grasscloth as much as I do.  My kitchen was soooo cute – but now it’s Brown Teepee; still cute (same color as my living room) but not FUN green!  Hoping this entices more buyers and makes the house more “turnkey” – coupled with the price decrease, the end of school and the summer approaching I’m hoping my house sells F.A.S.T.

Car:
I bought a new ride.  It’s pretty sweet if I do say so myself.  A 2009 Honda pilot touring edition; Gray on the inside, Gray on the outside. (to the tune of “cream on the inside; clean on the outside – ice cream, ice cream, ice cream paint job” – anyone with me on that?) Anyway…

It’s a dark gray on the outside and light gray leather interior, navigation, Bluetooth, six CD changer, power seats, windows and doors…third row seating and enough room for the doggies!!!!  I got a great deal on it at Sewell Cadillac in Grapevine – so if you are looking for a car and you are in the area – you should go there…they are awesome!

I’ll post pics soon!

Triathlon
My training has been lax for better terms……. But I’m excited to get back on the band wagon and start training for my Olympic distance race in June.  I've also planned out my race schedule through the end of the year so now I have something to look forward to - and not just training to train with no goal in mind.

Here is what I'm thinking:
June - Olympic Distance Race - Play Tri Festival
July - Olympic Distance Race - Disco Tri
August - Hula Girl Sprint Tri - put on by the FABULOUS Shannon
September - Prairieman 70.3
October - Cheering on Cayla, Jason (and whoever else decideds to race) at the Longhorn 70.3 + Livestrong Challenge for year 3
November - DRC Half
December - Full Marathon!! Either Vegas or White Rock.....depends on funds

I ran 4 miles on Monday, took Tuesday off b/c of work events and rode on my trainer for an hour tonight.  Tomorrow is OWS with Jason and possible others, then run on Friday, bike Sat/Sun (maybe a swim Sunday depending). We are headed to San Antonio on Saturday for Cayla's sisters wedding...so that should be fun!

Other than that .... next weekend, May 21 I'm getting my SPIN CERTIFICATION!  I love spinning...whether on my trainer or at the gym and I love people so combine the two and I thought - HEY what a way to earn a few extra bucks and do what I love!  We shall see how it goes - but I'll keep you all updated.

Now I'm off to make homemade whole wheat pizza and salad for dinner!