2 Weeks to Go!

I've been sort of hyper-focused on the NJ State Tri lately, obviously, and now that it's only a couple weeks away, I am definitely getting nervous. It's not the distances themselves that intimidate me, it's living up to my own (and my dad's) expectations about how I should do. Same deal with the 5k this weekend- will this be the race I can finally break 20 min? I really hope so, with all the training I've been doing with Pete, both he and I think that I should be able to.

In the past week, I've also been super anxious about money stuff, especially when it comes to training. Now I need a cyclocross bike, a new kit, a new Rutgers Cycling kit, a mountain bike, plus a few more race fees before summer is over. But on the other hand, there's rent, school, utilities, and general 'real life' expenses that need to come first. And even with money saved up, I can't help but be worried about spending it. This whole "working a bunch of part time jobs" thing kinda sucks in that respect, but on the other hand, it allows me to use the next couple of years to focus on training and school. Really, if not now, then when? If this summer continues to improve race-wise, it'll be time to start thinking about what to do next with racing, I suppose. It would be awesome to have even a small-scale sponsor, so that's the new goal.

Anyway, in other news... I started "interning" at Kim's Bike Shop, which is run by the parent's of one of my teammates, Dave. Hung out with the mechanics and basically observed and asked a million questions. I'm hoping that I can learn enough to be a semi-proficient mechanic, and be relatively well versed in "bike stuff."

Other than that, it was a pretty relaxing day- lots of tutoring, and I was exhausted from a tough training week, so I just did an hour on the trainer with single leg drills, then hit the gym for a 45 min trainer "hill climb" session as a prelude to a fairly brutal 45 min weight set. I've been riding around on Robbie's bike the past two days,a fter my mountain bike got a flat en route home fromthe gym Tuesday night. I have no clue how that happened. I was waiting until tomorrow to fix it, since I was planning on replacing my Cannondale's tires as well and figured I'd dot hem both at once, but I needed to get around. Never mind that Robbie is 6'2" and has a frame significantly bigger than mine with a seat that wouldn't lower. Ouch! Luckily I haven't had far to go in the past couple days.

I was so psyched when, at work today, one of the women actually told me how TAN I look. I have never in my life been called tan, and now with all of the hours of outdoor training, I finally have some color- except for right where my sports bra lines are, which is right over one of my tattoos, so it looks almost like I purposely left the Pan- the tattoo is a young version of the half goat half human Greek god- untanned. Looks like I need more dresses with racerbacks so no one will notice!

I miss the beach and I miss surfing- I wish I had more time to just bum around and hang out at the beach, but I'm busy with training a lot and Robbie isn't overly fond of the beach. Plus, we would only be free to go for a whole day on weekends, which are always too crowded, beacuse weekdays our work schedules just don't mesh at all. But August 15 we'll be down in VA with the family at the beach, thank God- and I can start some longer distance 70.3 training at that point!