Tejas Tri 2009

Another tri bites the dust :). Today Lisa and I did the Tejas Tri - 600yd (0.34 mile) swim, 11 mile bike, 3 mile run. I did it in 1 hour and 30 minutes. My swim was a bit longer than I would have liked, but I swam almost the whole distance freestyle (only used the breaststroke once or twice to catch my breath or to sight better)- which was really my main goal, so overall, I am very happy with my results. The run was challenging because it had warmed up pretty good and its was pretty miserable out there. I am glad Lisa finishes before me...she's there to cheer me on at the finish line (and today I needed it!)...hmm, maybe I need to train harder so I can reciprocate...or maybe some of you should come cheer both of us on (hint hint, nudge, nudge).

Post race

My bike performed awesome, I really enjoy riding it- my fear of riding is slowly fading to a more manageable level...although it wasn't helped by the poor gal I rode past who was being administered to by the paramedics...look likes she took a head/face dive off the bike and was strapped to a body board and was "red"- I stopped looking at that point...crashes are going to happen...::shudder::

Lisa and her gear

Besides the new bike, I also broke in what's called a trisuit. It's a once piece shorts/tank top combo. I got the Orca 226 and I LOVE it...my shirt was always riding up and I don't like showing my stomach...I didn't have to worry about that with the trisuit..plus it allows for great range of motion, it wicks water and sweat like there's no tomorrow...great investment.

Me and my gear

I will say that one of the things I did not like at this tri was the lack of the wet, icy towel they usually hand you at the end of the race to wipe your face with and put on the back of your neck. I never realized how amazing that towel is until I had to do without...ah..icy cold towels...

Funny

Lisa and I went to Bike Barn today with our bikes to get a tutorial on how to change a bike flat- neither of us knew how and its an uncomfortable feeling racing knowing that you could get bit by that lack of knowledge at any moment.

My favorite moment from the "lesson" (the lesson that was interspersed with abundant stories from Bike Barn Clint about bike crashes and wipeouts by the way- yeah, those were edifying ::eye roll:: ).

BBC- "So you guys do tris?"
M&L- "Yep."
BBC- "Wow you are retarded."

Okay, not the most PC comment, but entirely unexpected which made it all the more humorous to me...really, I could have giggled about that for about 5 minutes, but I had to have flat-tire-fix focus brain instead...

:D

Work language

So one of my roommates, Pam, came home today and told me she had a new word for me...it might just be the second best word ever...are you ready for it?

Fasgrolia- the FASt GROwing Language of Initialisms and Acronyms

Ha...this is what we speak every day at work. Love it.

(By the way, the look on Claire's face as I expressed my genuine delight (I think I may have jumped up and down...) at this new found word was priceless- she didn't think someone could get that excited over a word. Ah Claire, welcome to another facet of Melissa :))

So the next time someone says something to you that is high-tech and full of acronyms, just tell them to stop speaking fasgrolia. hahaha...ha.

:D

Tea Party Invitations

Here are the invitations I came up with for our upcoming Girls Group Mother/Daughter Tea Party...it's been awhile since I've done invitations- I had fun with them even though it was a simple design...very girly- I like it!

front


inside-minus the details of course :)


invitations...

Words

So I am reading this really phenomenal book called "The Meaning of Everything- the Story of the Oxford English Dictionary" by Simon Winchester. As most of you know, I really like words and I thought, well, what better to read than a history of the OED (yes, I realize the nerdiness in this statement...oh well). I am enjoying two things about this book 1) it reads more like fiction than non-fiction and 2) Mr. Winchester employs many new words I have never heard of and/or words that I recognize but could not define. He's also pretty masterful with these footnotes that contain the more humorous aspects of history or nuggets of trivia.

My two favorite trivia nuggets so far:

1. If you were to write "what!?" the combination of the '!' and the '?' is called an interrobang.
2. The word "paperclip" was first used in 1875

I'm also finding it pretty funny (probably as only I would) that I am using a Merriam-Webster dictionary to look up the words I don't know...(and yep, I am TOTALLY writing the definitions in the book as I go :) ). That's probably why I couldn't find the definition of "machicolated".

Some of my new favorite words:

1. bellicose- war-mongering, belligerent
2. erudite- scholarly
3. malapropism- humorous misuse of a word

...looking forward to the second half of this book....

Still processing...

I've had several people ask "so where's your Next blog?" Next as in the conference I went to this past weekend. It's coming folks...I'm still processing the amazing messages I heard. So until then, here are a couple of pics to tide you over. We took 13 people to this conference (more than double from last year!) and it was a great group. Dustin and Megan are our singles group leaders and Dustin was a trooper, having to hang out with 12 women for 4 days...I'm sure it was really rough... ;-)

Our group

Me and some of my girlies

My new toy!!!!

So after at least 6 months of research and pricing and questioning and praying...I finally got a bike today!!!!

Seriously, I think I have now spent about 6 hours in bike shops asking questions and trying bikes and probably annoying the serious bike guys with my ignorant novice questions.

I was supposed to go check out a bike I had found on craigslist this evening. The components were good (Shimano 105- which is what I was looking for), the price was good, but the frame wasn't exactly what I had in mind.

A co-worker of mine is an avid cyclist and told me to go to the bike shop where he gets his bikes. So I did. I walked in and said "this is what I want and this is how much I want to pay, what do you have?" And lo and behold the owner said, "oh, I have something your size" and he pulls out this:

It's the '08 Specialized Roubaix Compact- aluminum frame, carbon fork, ALL Shimano 105 components...and he gave it to me for about half the retail value!!! And even better, if I decide that I want to upgrade to a better bike or a tri bike later, I can TRADE this one in...I don't know of any other shop that has offered that...how cool is that?

So yay for this blessing. I know, I tend to be a bit frugal, but I just want to make sure that I am being a good steward of what God has blessed me with...I am glad I waited for this one! Fast like lightning- whoosh! :D