Vacation!!

We are packing up and shipping off for a week of vacation in lovely Louisiana. Every summer since we have moved to Kentucky we have gone back home to Louisiana to spend a week with family and relax. The two parts of the year I most look forward to are Christmas and our summer trip to Louisiana - because we are able to be surrounded by our families.

While we have made wonderful friends here in Kentucky and have really built up a family here, there is nothing like being home. I mean home home. I tentatively call our address here in Kentucky home, but Texas and Louisiana will always be home home.

So, tomorrow morning me, Chad and Emma will embark on a 14-hour drive to Alexandria, Louisiana to Chad's parents house. During our trip I plan to swim, float in the pool, lay by the pool, read by the pool, play with Emma in the pool...you get the drift!

I also plan to get some good transition training in, since I will have readily available access to a pool. I am going to work on my swim to ride transition, as well as my ride to run transition. My triathlon is less than 4 weeks away and doubts and nervousness and excitement is really starting to set in. I feel well prepared for the distance, but I will feel better after doing a mock tri next week.

I am also very excited about getting to see my side of the family next week. Last summer I was able to see my grandmother, aunt and cousin on my dad's side, and this summer I will get to see my grandparents, aunt, cousins and family on my mom's side. I wish there was a way I could see everyone each summer. I can't wait to reunite with my cousins Emily and Amy - we've been partners in crime since birth. And now Amy and her husband Tim have a beautiful baby boy that I will get to meet.

The other great thing about the trip is that my family (my mom, dad, sisters Megan and Michelle and niece Brittany) will be driving over from Houston to spend three days with us in Alexandria. Brittany will be turning 10 (which I just cannot believe) on July 31st, so we will get to celebrate her birthday with her a few days early.

Brittany w/ Emma - 4 years ago. My little babies are just growing up so fast!

My sister Megan has really gotten into Crossfit, so I am going to do a few "WOD's" (workout of the day) with her. These will likely leave me in a heap, but I am going to give it a try.

I hope to have a lot of pictures to post after the vacation. I will also be "live tweeting" our trip down to Alexandria and back. You can follow my Twitter feed on the side bar here, or at twitter.com/meremawbrooks

We have a plethora of items to keep us entertained on the way down. We just picked up a Griffin iTrip so that we can listen to podcasts. I have some episodes of the The Stay Tuned Report, Triathletes Coffee Shop, and Zen and the Art of Triathlon stored up to listen to, and Chad has some Bigfoot podcasts that he has downloaded. You can guess which part of the drive I will be sleeping through!

I also recently picked up David Sedaris' most recent book "When You are Engulfed in Flames" to read on the trip. I am also working my way through John Grisham's "The Client" for the second time. After watching the Ultramarathon Man dvd about Dean Karnazes, I am considering re-reading "50/50: Secrets I Learned Running 50 Marathons in 50 Days."

Well, happy trails (and tails, in honor of Emma)! I will post when we are back in Kentucky with vacation pictures and training updates.

Life and Training Updates

Life Update:
Emma is getting her teeth cleaned today. We dropped her off at 8:00am this morning, and we will be able to pick her up around 3:30 or 4:00 this afternoon. I have the day off of work, so I am spending the day preparing for her return. I am going to make a large pallet in the living room for us to sleep on tonight. The vet tech warned me that Emma should not do any jumping once she is home tonight, so I am going to bring our bed down to her level, rather than making her sleep alone on the floor after a kind of scary day.

Dachshunds have notorious tartar build up problems, so we wanted to get her teeth cleaned while she's still relatively young, so as to prevent future internal problems from the tartar. She will probably need to get another cleaning when she is 8 or so. They are also clipping her nails while she is knocked out, so that will be nice! She hates getting her nails clipped.

When Chad and I dropped her off at the vet this morning I did a lot better than I thought I would. When we had her spayed when she was one, I couldn't even make it through the check in process. I handed her over to Chad and went outside, sat on the curb, and cried. This morning I made it through the check in process and the consultation, reserving my tears for the car ride home. I know it is pretty ridiculous, but I just worry so much about her. I take great comfort in knowing that she isn't having major surgery or having any organs removed - she's just having a routine cleaning. This is why I'm not ready to have kids yet. I can just see it now - "what's that doctor? He needs to have his finger pricked?" as I fall to the floor in a heap of sobs. Nope, just not quite ready yet!

Training Update:
Triathlon training is FUN! I have had 3 weeks of really good training, and I am really enjoying each leg of the sport. The only thing I have been lagging in is my swimming, and the pool I use is going to be closed for the next two weeks, so that kind of sucks. But, we are going to Louisiana in two weeks for a week long vacation at Chad's parents house and I plan to swim in their pool every day. Here is my workout log for the past few weeks:

6/15 Mon: 2. 0 mile run in 19:47
6/16 Tues: 3.0 mile run in 28:38
6/17 Wed: 25 minute swim
6/18 Thurs: AM- 2.0 mile run in 18:57; PM- 22.2 mile ride in 1:39:06 (experienced my 1st flat!)
6/19 Fri: Rest
6/20 Sat: Brick - 7.12 mile run in 1:14:05; 650 yard swim in 15:55
6/21 Sun: Brick - 9.5 mile bike in 38:55; 2.0 mile run in 19:00 (2 minutes in transition)

6/22 Mon: Rest
6/23 Tues: Rest (overslept for a.m. run, too stormy for p.m. ride)
6/24 Wed: Rest (overslept for a.m. run)
6/25 Thurs: 2 mile run in 20:23
6/26 Fri: 12 mile ride in 47:21 with a 15.5 average mph
6/27 Sat: 5k road race in 26:12
6/28 Sun: Brick - 9.5 mile bike in 37:33; 2 mile run in 19:00 (1.5 minutes in transition)

6/29 Mon: 900 yd swim in 21:00
6/30 Tues: AM- 3.0 mile run in 30:02; PM- 16.5 mile ride in 1:05:29
7/1 Wed: Rest
7/2 Thurs: 26 mile ride in 1:5o:37
7/3 Fri: Rest
7/4 Sat: 10k road race (time TBD)
7/5 Sun: Brick - 12 mile bike, 4 mile run (times TBD)

I feel like I still have a lot of work to do in each area, but for my first tri in August my goal is just to finish and have fun. I've really enjoyed my brick workouts, and I feel like they really give me an idea of how race day might go. Two things I really would like to work on are increasing my average miles per hour on my rides, and improving on my running times.

I ran the RJ Corman 5k in Wilmore last Saturday in 26:12, which was good enough for me to take 1st place in the women's 24-29 age group. While I would have like to have finished in 25:30 or so, I was happy with the 26:12 time because it was HOT. My favorite part of this race is that they have iced down watermelon at the finish line. I practically dunked my head in the big ice bucket. That watermelon was so good. I didn't think I would place, so I was happy to learn that I had taken 1st place in my age group. Like I've said before, it's all about the size of the field folks!

Tomorrow morning I am running the Bluegrass 10k. I ran this race year before last, and I remember it as a fast, flat course. There are normally about 3,000 or so participants, so that will be fun to participate in a larger race. Readers who have been with me for awhile may remember that I was verbally assaulted by a homeless woman the last time I ran this race!

Well, I am going to get back to preparing the house for an afternoon with one groggy miniature dachshund.