Nashville is fun Ya'll, and Beautiful Oregon

Summer Vacay!

I put the running shoes, bikes and swim gear aside for a weekend in the dead middle of summer for the first time in forever a few weeks ago when I traveled with some friends to Nashville. No training allowed, and no workout clothes were to be packed on this trip! I did sneak my running shoes along, no one knew. I am a very early riser compared to this crowd so I thought I could quietly fit in a run early one morning, but ended up having too much fun to get up and go run.  Plus the goal for this trip was to have fun first, then fit in workouts, vs. workout, then fit in the fun.!  This girls weekend had been planned for quite some time.  Just a short weekend away to be girls and have fun.  5 of us loaded up in my Forerunner and headed out very early Friday morning to get to NashVegas in time to chill have dinner and then head out on the town.  But 5 girls, chatting sleeping, looking at phones, and no one paying attention, we found ourselves here:

Ohio.   

Eventually we did make it to Nashville by way of Cincinnati ……and a whole lot of construction, pit stops , laughing, swearing and several extra hours of drive time. It just made getting to Tennessee that much better! 

Tennessee never looked so good

Once we checked in to the hotel, the fun never stopped. What a fun city!  We shopped listened to music danced laughed, stayed up late and had a blast. Everyone is friendly in Nashville, ya'll.  We made all the correct states on the return trip home and arrived back in about 1/2 the time and I was even  able to fit in a run with the sun going down. 

2 days later Jack and I were on a plane home to Oregon. 

11 yr old with Beats and a phone

Beautiful Mt Hood

Some of my old Wattie friends have been wonderful and kept in touch over the past year and Robert Flannigan invited me to come join in their  Bend training camp. Bend is very hard for me to resist.  It happened to fall on a week when there was not much going on and I wanted some serious time off in the middle of summer.  I spent several days at home, then drove over to Bend and stayed with my wonderful friends Peter and Tina Leavitt. I played some trained some and mostly just loved it up in Bend. I could live there in a second you know. I fell in love with Bend in undergrad days of driving over from college to fraternity parties and skiing on Mt. Bachelor.     I did some amazing rides with incredible views,  one killer trail run that was so beautiful I wanted to look around in awe at every turn but had to keep eyes on the trail or I would have tripped and face planted. 

Post run ice bath

I spent my last morning in Bend Mtn biking on some fun trails. This was a random addition that absolutely loved. Next time I'll be faster with mtn bike shoes!  I was privileged enough to ride with Peter  post surgery on his first ride bike since his epic crash in California. What I learned is I need to ride more trails!

I had entertained thoughts of racing at AG nationals since it is in Milwaukee and so close to home.   I even trained for it a little.  But my goal this summer has always been to have fun first and enjoy some of what summer has to offer that you miss out on when you are staring at a lane line, or your head is down in aero position for hours. Its been a nice change to  go on different adventures,  break away from my old normal and not have my life revolve around triathlon, races and training.   So the minute I have felt stressed about having to pack a bike get up early to race, or train and it feels like work, I'm out. What I've noticed is that I haven't missed triathlon this year, and I have managed to stay in shape and still work out hard, but I do miss competing. I have a 1/2 marathon coming up  and soon lots of CX races to get my fill of that.