Mission Moment

Friday night started the weekend off with a bang when the Biggest Loser team I was leading at the club won the overall prize for the highest percentage of weight loss!! I had also just picked up a newly tuned bicycle thanks to my amazing parents who came to my rescue after reading about last weekends bum ride.

Saturday morning came early and with a few nerves as I headed out to meet up with the team and anticipating the emotions of sharing at our weekly group workout with my own mission moment. As the team gathered around me, I warmed up a bit on this chilly morning and then shared how cancer has affected our family. Tears were shed, but I was able to finish on my own...although I had Coach Michele waiting next to me with her reading glasses on in case I became too teary.

With our mission moment done, we headed out on our bikes for a rather short and sweet ride of 15 miles (my bike moved from gear to gear like butter!! AMAZING what a tune up can do for your ride!)...

...before getting into our longest run of the season. 10 miles on the schedule, but having only hit about 6 miles in length so far this year, I went into it knowing that I might have to cut it short. With some running pals keeping my brain occupied, I made it to mile 4 before determining I should cut it short at 8 miles instead of 10 since my left knee was barking. I found a new friend to turn around with me and we ended up with about 8.5 miles in the books as we arrived back to our parking lot.

The sun came out and we were able to spread out blankets and towels and get our sunny post run stretching on while snacking on those glorious peanut butter filled pretzels that make the perfect triathlon fuel and picking the silly string out of my hair...thank you, oly team, for supporting our ride today ;P  My favorite party of the ride was, surprisingly, NOT getting shot in the face with silly string, but when teammate Alyssa drove by me in the car with a megaphone yelling out that "skirts make you go faster on the bike!!!!!!!!!!!!!". HA! Made my day =D

The sun made all the difference in my attitude and I realized that more of these days are to come. As the weather changes from cold and wet to warm(ish) and dry(er), our swims and rides and runs get longer and more difficult. We know there are hard days to come but we appreciate them more for the challenges and with the knowledge that we are so fortunate to be able to be out there doing it.

Swim, Bike, Run, Love,

Julie

p.s. you can kind of see the skirt I was wearing on Saturday in the pics, but here is some detail...

The kind people at INKnBURN have graciously donated some Sleeves to my on line fundraiser and they also sent me this skirt and a tank, which I will be reviewing after a few more wears (let me just tell you now that I'm living in this skirt!!!). It is so comfortable and CHECK OUT THESE CUTE undershorts...