Went for a long ride- here's the lowlights:

Difficult ride... still smiling!

- Went to meet my friend, Marcy for our last long ride before taper.   As I turn off to the meeting place, my car died on a busy three lane road during rush-hour traffic.  No shoulder.  Traffic had to divert around me. I've only had the car for a year (It's a 2011! What the heck?!).  Sounded like the transmission just gave up. Horrible grinding noise.  Thankfully I had help to get it pushed out of the way-- amazing how many people aren't willing to help.  Had to have it towed.

- Got the bike loaded onto Marcy's car (an hour behind schedule) and got to the Trinity Trail.  The wind was constant at 25mph and gusts to 40mph!  I went off-roading twice and Marcy almost ended up in the river.  So scary. 

- Ride was detoured all over the place for a Mayfest event- so we road a lot on gravel.

- Saw some raccoons that apparently had been injecting some Human Growth Hormone. Seriously, they were the size of dobermans. ??

- Rode past some guy just lying flat on his stomach in the middle of the trail without his shirt on. He was moving, so we knew it wasn't a crime scene.  ??

- Marcy got stung on her leg by something.

- Marcy's car got broken into- they busted out her back window- while we rode our last leg.  They stole her wallet (hidden in the console), her cooler and my transition backpack.

- Can this day be over yet?  



-Ran the Heels and Hills Half Marathon this morning. 

Michelle, me & my mom

- Severe thunderstorms/ hail looming.  We had a huge downpour that soaked us about 20 minutes into the run.  

- "Due to severe weather, for safety reasons, depending on the time when participants hit certain checkpoints on the course, police may have delayed them or had them complete a shortened version of the course" (I was lucky to make it the full distance)

- Temperatures dropped and the winds picked up...

- PR'd by 3 minutes from Cowtown in February!   New PR for me:  1:53:39!  That's 10 minutes faster than I ran this course last year.

- I didn't even know that he was going to be there, but Jason from CookTrainEatRace spotted me at the finish line and yelled out at me. Helped me undo my chip and then we got to cheer his wife, Karen in to the finish.

- My mom ran the 5k and came in first in her age group!  And not only that, her time was fast enough to beat the top spot of the runners 2 age groups younger than her!  Way to go mom!!  Speedy!


- A huge congratulations goes out to Michelle who ran her first half marathon today.  The weather dampened her plans on being able to finish, but she went out there- endured and did an awesome job for the distance she was able to accomplish. I am so proud of her and look forward to being able to run another one together in the future! 



April was an incredible month for me in training. I pushed myself. I embraced the build weeks and I just went after it.  I did what I could (missed a couple of swims due to doing long bikes during the week day), but I am feeling confident about my training.  I've dealt with some mentally tough training sessions and Mother Nature has definitely been messing with me, but I know that it was all just to make me stronger. My taper begins now!  :)

April's totals:
Bike:	708.37 Mi
Run:	105.55 Mi
Swim:	35012 Yd