Less than 2 weeks to race day

My first race is coming up 2 weeks from today.  I went back and forth on what race would be my first for the year.  Originally, I was going to do a sprint road tri locally.  Then they announced the Moab race and I decided to do that.  Then I went to Moab and realized the bike course there was over my head and went back to the assumption that I would do the local sprint tri.  After that I started looking at information for the Xterra Pacific Championships in Santa Cruz. The course looked beautiful and the bike seemed challenging but doable for me.  I thought about it some more, talked to Adam about it.  After his uncle generously agreed to dog/housesit for the weekend, the plan was set.  California here we come!

The race is a big question mark for me in terms of how I'll do relative to the competition.  The water will be cold--likely mid 50's, which is always tough for me, but other than my issues with cold water, I know my swim will be towards the top of the age group women.  I am not worried about my run either.  I am in good running shape and know I can run as well or better than most people out there off the bike.  But, the bike is where the question mark comes in.  I've made gains in my skill and confidence on the mountain bike and this course is more of a "fitness course" which is good for me.  There are some technical sections, however. We'll get there early enough that I can do an easy preride of the course on Friday so I can have a better idea of what to expect on Sunday.  Definitely exciting and a little scary!   It will be nice to have Adam there as well as a few of my teammates.

I've been pretty busy and May is shaping up to be a busy month.  My mom and sister visited a few weeks ago and it was really nice to see them and show them some of the beautiful places to hike and run here.  A few days later Adam's family arrived for his cousin's wedding.  It was a unique wedding, with all gluten free food at the reception and a carnival theme--hot dogs, pop corn, candy.  Adam and I had our caricature done and they captured me pretty well, but not Adam as much.  I wanted him to scan it so I could put it online, but he conveniently didn't have time ;)

Once Adam's mom and brother left, Adam was gone the next day to do a 5 day stage race in NM.  Leaving me with the 3 dogs.  Taking care of Frito and Cooper all alone, I've done that.  But add in super high energy, I want to play all the time mickey, and a sudden spike in the neighborhood bunny population, and my hands were full.

I got creative with my training:  A 3 dog relay run with intervals one day.  Another day, a short run with Cooper then run to the dog park with Mickey, Frito, and Mickey's giant Frisbee and then running around the dog park for some extra time.  After 2 days straight of the dog park, my right pec was really sore.  It took me awhile to realize it was from throwing the Frisbee to Mickey over and over.  And all this time I thought Adam was being a wuss when he said he got sore when he took Mickey to the park. I guess I understand now.

The madness with the bunnies.  It all started with Frito trying to stick his head under the deck with out actually going under.

Frito leaning on his elbows 

He was at this for a couple hours until I dragged him into the house.

Apparently, while he was looking under the deck he was missing the bunny party in the front yard.

There were 6 bunnies when I took this picture, I can only find 4 though.

If only I were allowed to play in the front yard...

After this Frito was obsessed.  Anytime he went outside, he was looking for bunnies.

I came outside the next day and saw this.

The bunny was trapped

Frito gave the bunny a good stare down

Frito was on the other side of the fence (he knows he's not supposed to hop over it), and Mickey was out in the open space behind the bunny.  Mickey wasn't quite sure what to do, he kept poking the bunny with his nose.  I didn't want to witness a bunny murder, so I called Mickey off and the bunny went running and Mickey chased him around the open space and then back into the yard and under the deck.  Oh great.

I think it was the next day that Frito got under the deck and got stuck.  Then later both Mickey and Frito were under the deck, I went over and saw Mickey with a baby bunny carcass that had the legs chewed off.  Ewww!   I got the dogs out from the deck and then got a shovel and took the bunny out to the open space for coyotes to eat.

All this had to happen with Adam gone.

I am glad Adam got to go to his race though. He had some good days, some bad days, and learned a lot from his first big stage race.  I'll be so happy to  have him home.  Except I leave to go to Chicago for work tomorrow so I'll barely get to see him.

At least we get to go to Santa Cruz in less than 2 weeks!