Whiskey Offroad Bike Race

This was a big event for our little town. Last year I blogged about it on my Luna page here.

Once again this was an event our family was not going to miss. This year was special as both Paul was racing and Tyler wanted to race the kids race.

The weekend starts off with the Pros racing up and around The Square to secure a spot in the starting line. This is called the Crit and if you blink you miss these guys and gals go by!

After the Crit the kids had a chance to go over and say hi to a Luna Pro Chix teammate. They enjoyed chatting it up with Georgia Gould (who won the Bronze this past summer in the Olympics). T busted out the phone so he could show off a couple pictures of him catching some sweet air on his bike. I think he thought he could take her on-medal and all!

The next day was P's race. His race was 30 miles with lots and lots of climbing. It took him around 4 hours. The race seemed to grow in popularity this year so that meant many more riders and unfortunately for him there was quite a bit of waiting around especially on the steep narrow sections where so people had to get off their bikes and walk. He had a great cheering section waiting for him when he arrived closer to the finish-line.

courtesy of EpicRides.com

The next morning it was T's turn to race. I think he was excited (it's so hard to tell with him). He lined up ready to ride alongside Dad. Off they went while D and I waited. As we walked over to meet him at the end of the race I could tell something was wrong and that he was hurt. His poor little face was all beat up. P said he lost control at one point and flew off the bike. His head smacked the concrete so hard that he cracked open his helmet. He is ok but pretty badly beat up in his face, arms and legs. He has got some serious bragging rights today at school, though! He was shaken up and I hope this will not discourage him from riding again. We are heading out today to let him go pick out a new helmet. Thankfully he was wearing his helmet (well not an option in our house) and that he was wearing it properly. 

 Despite the bad crash, he still got his medal!

Later that afternoon we finished off the weekend buy watching the Pros race the 50 miler at a secret- not so secret location. I guess word got out that this was the spot to catch the riders as they crossed the rocky creek. You can tell how popular this spot was from this video:

What an awesome weekend. I couldn't be more proud to live in this town. I can't tell you how many times I heard strangers say: "Wow this is such a cool town, I wish I lived up here!"

I am also so proud of hubby. This was a tough race and I know he felt like he could have done better but to us he did the BEST! 

More Whiskey Offroad photos can be found here.

Now, who wants to come out next year to do this race?

12 weeks to Vineman

I just Googled "12 week Half Ironman training plan."

I think I am going to vomit. I better get my a$$ in gear if I am going to survive this. And at this point it's all about survival mode.

Thankfully I found this plan by the Tampa Tri Team. I don't know them but I trust that this will get my butt into gear. I like that it is not specific with the swim instructions. I hate the plans that say you "must swim 1000 meters by 3 times at blah blah blah pace." They lost me at "meters." Shoot I can't even count laps when I swim so if they think I am going to have to keep track of the distance and the time or pace- forget it.

Here is the plan, I hope I can stick to it. Because you all know how I hate training plans. What terrifies me are the days when it says to bike for 3 hours and swim for 1 hour. Yes because with 2 young kids and a husband that is gone half the week, I have all the time in the world. (Insert major sarcasm here)

But then again, it was MY idea to do this.

Half Ironman Tri Training 70.3

Each arm over my head, keep pedaling up/down and one foot in front of another...
just to get here:

courtesy of Vineman.com

Boston

Thank you Mindy at Road Runner Girl for creating the image.

Jamaica, Mon!

Jamaica in photos:

We stayed at Couples Resorts Swept Away and highly recommend this place. It exceeded my expectations. I also loved that it was an adults-only resort. While I have no problem with kids I just really needed a break from any and all kids. I didn't have to worry about screaming kids on the beach or hearing "Maaarrrcoooo Poooooolo" all day long at the pool.

After a LONG day(s) of flying, we made it. We took a "red-eye" and it just seemed to drag on forever. We left PHX at 1:00 am. Landed in Charlotte around 6:00 and caught a flight down to Montego Bay. We did that so we could be on the beach and partying it up by lunchtime! We traveled with our dear friends Ken and Christy and later found that it was really enjoyable to have another couple to hang out with and to share in all this fun.

We have arrived!

From airplane to the bar.

Ordering up our first round of Bob Marley shots...which happened to be the only ones. Very potent and we had whole week ahead of us! 

Lunchtime.

Our little patio. The rooms were great. We had plenty of room and we just loved hanging out on the patio. Every morning I would wake up before P and have coffee and fresh fruit delivered. It was so peaceful. Then he would wake and we would hit the fabulous restaurants for breakfast

I think I found my happy place. I was barefoot and had my toes in the sand, while sitting at the palapa bar.

My love of 10+ years.

beach view

Sunsets on the beach were like a postcard.

Rasta Paul

All water sports were included at this resort. That included diving, snorkeling, waterskiing, Hobie cat sailboats, stand-up paddle boards, kayaks, wake boarding and Catamaran cruises. You couldn't get bored at this resort.

Ken and Christy prepping their gear for the dive. P and I did not dive. I am afraid of going down that deep and fear panic attacks about the fish so it was in my best interest to sit that out. We did snorkel and it was fabulous. We saw tons of colorful fish, stingrays, urchins, etc.

Vendor on the beach. I worried about this. Paul has a quick temper when it comes to vendors on the beach so I feared this might be a pain. But while they walk up and down the beach they do not approach you. If they stop and linger for too long the hotel security does an excellent job of moving them along. They are not bothersome at all.

Catamaran Booze Cruise on one of the nights. 

There are many restaurants on the resort but there are two that you need reservations for. You would have to make your reservations a day or two ahead of time since they were that popular. My favorite  of the two restaurants was Lemongrass. I liked that it was outside (the other was not) and the menu was so much better at Lemongrass. The Coconut Soup was to die for! Seriously I could have easily had 4 bowls. And since it was all-inclusive you could have done that. But I did want to be able to button my pants for the trip home.

The food was good at all the restaurants and we tried them all. The first day we arrived the guys mocked us for wanting to go to the "Veggie bar" for lunch. They claimed it wouldn't be good or fill them up.  The place only served veggie burgers, sweet potato chips and other specialty veggie dishes and salads. But by the end of the trip the guys were the first ones to request the Veggie Bar for lunch!

Tree frogs were everywhere and they sang to you nightly. Such a peaceful way to fall asleep.

Paul and Ken swimming to the sea caves.

C and I's "Romantic Couples Massage." We originally planned to have our husbands come along with us and it was supposed to be very romantic. Then the husbands starting asking questions like "How long is it going to take? or Do I just lay there the whole time? or But the wind is so good don't you want to sail instead? At that point C and I just said for them to go find something else to do because clearly this was not on their list of things to do. They happily agreed, handed the women the cash and it was the best massage ever! C and I had a good laugh and it was really cool that we could enjoy each other's company.

Sailboat races. This is what the guys aspired to do instead of the couples massage.

Drinks at Rick's Cafe

We only left the resort once the entire week to go shopping in town and Rick's Cafe. We had so much fun at the resort, that we felt no need to leave.

Hold my calls.

Hold my calls.

In 24 hours I will be on the plane to paradise and can finally relax. The week has been extremely busy getting everything in order for myself and my kids. As excited as I am to get away, I am also feeling a little sad about leaving the boys. It's been a tough couple weeks on my little guy. He doesn't quite understand and my once perfect sleeper has now been waking every couple hours asking "are you leaving for Jaaa-make now?" Talk about pulling on the heart-strings. I keep telling myself they will be in the best hands (the grandparents) and that I need not worry at all while on vacation.



unless I see a shark.