AND.....now we rest. Whew. That was a HEALTHY bit of training I just threw down. I'll admit it, I've been having way too much fun as of late. Okay, sometimes the swimming isn't as much fun as I would like....even with my new green flowery suit, and my special ops goggles. At least I rarely swim alone any more. Between Michelle and Troy, I have a steady set of swim homies and that does make getting in the yards a bit easier. Troy is now better suited to swim with Michelle than he is with me, but on hard days I do fight like hell to keep his bubbles in sight and that is making me stronger. I do not consider it a good day unless I look like a rainbow threw up all over me!

Troy started a new job which he loves. He took a week off between the two and that was super fun to have him around to train with. BUT, this happened, and it made me feel strange. Here is both PIC and Troy....on bikes....

Slightly awkward when your daytime spouse (PIC) and your nighttime spouse (Troy) are all together? What do you talk about? It's like the universe shifted that week...I just put in my headphones. Sensory overload!

Troy now works from home. When this went down I was like "sweet" this will be awesome, he's home and I'm home, we're all home, one big happy family, at home, all day, together, home. Um, it's taking some getting used to. ONE...he eats a lot of food, and now he works in the same building as our fridge. He's always eating. But, TWO, he doesn't have to dress even casually for work now, so I get treated to half naked hotness daily. However THREE, I can't rock out loudly at my time of choosing, and FOUR my daytime spouse can't change from biking clothes to running clothes in the kitchen anymore. It's only a matter of time before daytime spouse and nighttime spouse see each other nude. This must be avoided at all costs.

Luckily I'm training tons so most of my days are spent outside, lots of it riding my bike with PIC, where apparently (if you believe my pictures)...we spend most our time stopping at convenience stores for food (wearing the same kit every freakin' time). It's not enough that we wear the same kit all the time without discussing things before hand, but we even wear the same shorts under our shorts on long days without discussing (long ride day = double shorts day). Friday, I was in the bathroom when PIC made her purchases at the convenience store, then I bought my stuff. We sat down on the curb looked at each other and both realized we bought containers of grapefruit. I've never bought grapefruit on a ride, neither has she, but we both did at the same time without discussing. This is officially getting strange.

This week we rode our bikes a very long ways. I haven't ridden this far since 2009 when I did lots of crazy shit for the sake of doing cray shit. Now, I'm doing crazy shit for the sake of getting faster at Ironman. There is a difference between the two, and it takes a smart coach, and a smart athlete to understand and execute that difference. That being said, doing crazy shit just for the sake of it is a great way to stay healthy and happy....so if that's you...keep it up, why not!

We had an 8 hour ride on the schedule. This is something I think Dirk will give me maybe 1-2 times a year when I am very very ready for it and it's a time thing, so if I make it 90 miles, no big deal, but Friday we made it 146. It actually was great and felt fun and about like a 80-90 mile ride, it really clipped along. I didn't look down 4 hours in and go "Oh no 4 hours to go." Nah, it was fun.

Whenever we have done this stuff in the past, we always had man-wheel of some sort. This was cool because PIC and I had no man wheel to set tempo, it was us girls. 10 years ago I never thought I would have been the type of woman to ride 146 miles without man support. I don't even worry about getting into trouble any more. PIC and I are more handy with a bike than most men, we have our phones, we know how to stay out of trouble, and we are fit. Winner winner chicken dinner!

We totally ran out of road on this ride. We literally took a road that most people who live in Colorado think goes FOREVER, and we rode to the end of it. We were shocked when exactly when he had planned to turn around the pavement ran out.

We rode to Agate, CO. Go look it up on a map. BFE! In fact...don't look it up, it's a little depressing, I think there are like 11 permanent residents! But we have been there...here's the post office to prove it, we almost sent a post card to Dirk. Haha!

Well, after this restful weekend life gets 100% crazy fun! Like totally bat shit crazy fun. First I get to go to IM Wisconsin for Troys 1st Ironman. I hear this town is awesome at hosting the IM participants, plus they have a Trader Joes, AND I get to meet Mike, who I have coached for a year, and he lives in Portugal! Troy is going to love it, and he's going to have a blast. For once I get to be the person to pack all my stuff in a tiny carry-on for the trip.

Then, after WI I'm home for about a day and then I leave for Hawaii to train. I get to go to Kona for a week before the craziness begins and just train, and swim with turtles, and have a refresher with Karlyn, and run to the Energy lab, and eat pineapple, and fish and Acai Bowls. I'm hangin' with my friend Laura, who is British (cool accent) and we are just going to have fun being girls with bikes. Oh happy day!

Then I'm home for a few weeks and we leave for the BIG DANCE. Back to Hawaii for the business end of the Ironman. And this time I get to hang with friends, sponsors, half naked people at the underwear run, turtles, Macca....you know, all my BFFs. Oh yea, and then I get to race 140.6 through shark infested waters and molten lava. YES PLEASE!

I had the coolest talk with Kendra Lee a few days ago. She created a little stir when she had the fastest time at Ironman Canada last weekend. She's an amateur. Her time was faster than all the PROs in the race. Can we say "awkward!?" But not with Kendra, she is gracious, awesome, and full of PERSPECTIVE! We had a good chat about her race, and turning PRO, and she said "Every day that we can get out and race we are lucky. All of our parts work, you gotta take the good days and the bad days for what they are, an opportunity to compete and push yourself and have fun." If the girl who won Canada as an amateur can say that, then we all can afford to adopt that approach.

And, because 2012 is the year of cute little inspirational quotes on Facebook, here's yet another.