A random post

Beaver Creek is now less than 2 weeks away.  I feel really good about my climbing ability on the bike and run right now, especially on the bike after the last few weeks, but I keep hearing about how hard the climb will be, I can't help but worry a little.  I want to go ride it prior to race day, but I am not sure I will have a chance.

I race Boulder Peak next weekend.  I am a little more excited about this now that I have been out on my tri bike a few times and feel like I am starting to get into peak shape.

I have finally started going to swim at the Chatfield gravel pond.  When I was in NJ, I was always wishing there was somewhere close where I could open water swim.  Here there are a few places and yet I wasn't going.  Once I finally got myself there, I was glad I did.  It's a 35 minute or so bike ride from the house, and with a 97 degree day yesterday I was so happy to start swimming.  I brought only my swim skin and froze!  I think it is high 60's to low 70's.  Pretty weird to be shivering when it is over 90 degrees out.  I will be wearing my wetsuit there for at least a few more weeks!

It was hot here last week and really hot last weekend.  My dad came to visit and we got out in the early morning and evenings, but spent most of the days inside because it was just so darn hot.   I am starting to think that 95 and dry with no shade is worse than 95 and humid and with shade.  I don't know how people live in AZ and NM in the summer.

It was so nice to have a long weekend even if it was a scorcher.  I took Friday off and rode up high grade and felt awesome.  Then spent the rest of the day baking as we went car shopping in the midday sun (this was not fun part of the weekend).

Saturday, Mickey and I went up to Boulder to watch Adam do a hill climb.  Actually, we dropped him off, then drove up the canyon and to the Eldora Nordic Center where the race would finish.  I realized this is where Xterra Indian Peaks will take place in early August.  Originally I didn't want to do the race because I thought the bike would be too technical for me, but coming up here and seeing how beautiful it was made me want to do it.

Mickey and I ran while we waited for Adam to finish.  Running at 9000 ft didn't seem to slow him one bit.

Adam wasn't very happy with how he finished, but sometimes it isn't your day and there are a lot of guys that are just really good climbers and that's their thing.  I was proud of him.  If I get a road bike, I'd like to do it next year.

After his race we headed to the airport to pick up my dad.  We had a nice relaxing weekend with him.  I took him over to Deer Creek Canyon Park and he hiked with Mickey while I ran with Frito.  We also took an evening bike ride together along the bike paths and took the dogs to the dogpark so Mickey could show off his tricks.

Frito had a rough weekend.  It seems like everyone here lights off their own fireworks.  Last night we didn't want to leave Frito at home because he starts to dig his way to safety (in carpet, doors, walls) when his alone and really scared.  So we brought all the dogs along to watch fireworks.  I thought we would see a lot from our backyard but...we found a spot first at one of the high schools.  We got settled, then a guy pulled up next to us and started shooting off bottle rockets.  Frito started digging to safety on the drivers side floor, so we left.  We got a spot at another high school higher up the road.  Sat on the grass, stayed there for awhile, Mickey met his female twin, then a lot of fireworks started to go off and even Cooper was shaking.  So back to the car and then up to a high point nearby where we could see a few different shows.

I have never been bored during a fireworks show--until last night.  There were delays and it just wasn't that good.  I guess I was spoiled with a good show back in NJ.  After awhile, Adam and I decided it was really boring and drove home.  At home in the back yard we concluded we probably could have seen a lot of the show from our backyard.

And someone in our neighborhood decided to treat everyone to a really loud fireworks show after 10 pm that lasted awhile. Don't these people have to work in the morning?  Frito found comfort by curling up in the closet, behind a row of Adam's shirts with Cooper joining him nearby.