BIG week in photo review.....

As Matt posted a few days ago, I have been wanting to post some things for almost a week now. Luckily, Matt has covered many of the events and details. But now that I have a moment, I would like to add my 2 cents (don't I always?) and some photos of the past week. We recently used our reward points from a credit card to purchase a new camera. It's much smaller and more compact than our big camera, but still has many options and a great zoom. I've been wanting one to take with us on bike rides and to be able to slip it in my bag for occasions when it's too cumbersome to lug around all the camera gear. So, I've been playing around with it this past week. Here are some of the results. I'll try to keep my commentary to a minimum.

Last Tuesday nite we went to my friend/co-worker Eleftheria's house for dinner and Greek cooking lessons. She was preparing some of the food for the fundraiser luncheon. It was an amazing evening full of laughter and so much delicious food. I love going to Eleftheria's house. It is truly a home. A simple place that you immediately feel comfortable and at ease. She has a way about her of making you feel so welcome. Very similar to 122 Biddle Street. Maybe that's why I love it there so much.

Here I am giving Eleftheria a big squeeze in her kitchen!

mincing garlic for my first batch of tzatiki.



This video clip is one of my favorites.
2 opinionated women in the kitchen...ha!



Our 3rd Annual Greek Luncheon Fundraiser was held this past Thursday. It was a great success! Thank you to Eleftheria, Mary, Christin, Bonnie and Hermine for cooking. These women ROCK!

Eleftheria and Corina celebrating with dance.

Me, Mary and Eleftheria

Self portrait of me and Christin.

I decided at the last minute to sign up for the Jersey Shore Kick-Off Sprint Triathlon. It was this past Saturday. It was a very early wake up call at 3:30am to meet up with Maija & Alexis to make the drive down to Toms River, NJ. I drove us down in the Golf. Let me just say how much I still love my VW Golf....3 women, 3 bikes and 3 tri-bags all fit quite comfortably. Nice. It was a perfect morning for a race. the weather was low 60's, a bit windy since we were on the shore, but beautiful.

crack o'dawn on the bay

The purpose for me doing this race was a practice for Mooseman. It was the perfect race for it. It was women only and about 100 participants -simply laid out- small transition area and well organized. The .3 mile swim was in a very calm bay. My first salt water swim. it wasn't awful, but can't say I'm a fan. Luckily it was short and well marked with several buoys. I felt good on the swim and was actually one of the first in my wave out of the water. Shocking! My time was 7:39 for 15th best swim time overall. Crazy talk.
The bike was super short - 10miles and flat....really flat. I pushed as hard as I could but I could feel the fatigue of my insomnia and the windy conditions sometimes slowed me down. But overall I was quite happy with my ride. My time 33:44 for the 12th best bike time overall.
Then came the run......ugh. My legs were super fatigued, but I felt like I could have attempted to push thru if not for my upset stomach. I find this so frustrating. I'm not sure if I didn't eat enough, not the right foods, salt water, or the gu I had at the swim start w/o water. At any rate, I was only able to get in an abysmal 9:51 pace for the 3mile run. ::sigh:: 30:32 and 52nd run overall. That brought my total race time at 1:14:45 and placed 22nd overall out of 97 racers.

Me, Maija and Alexis post race.

Sunday morning Matt & I went to an open water swim practice in Oxford,NJ. It was another beautiful morning. The lake was nice and the water temp was quite tolerable. It was set up to replicate the Jerseyman course. We were able to get in a good warm up swim to the first buoy and back. Then it was 2 times around the course. It was great practice for me and allowed me to focus on starting and navigating around people to find "my spot". I also was able to see how fast I cold pace myself without the worry of getting winded or lost in the shuffle if I slowed down as in a race. This practice also reminded me of the fact that I actually enjoy swimming in a lake versus a chlorinated pool with walls every 50m. Too bad all of my swims can't be open water.

pre-swim pics...I'm not quite awake yet. And I can't help but wonder how much sweat Matt could produce if he went running in his wet suit. :-)


After our swim we went to Gronsky's Milk House for second breakfast. Tons of food for a post swim/ pre bike feast! We ate until our bellies ached. Then it was home to change clothes, load bikes and head out for a ride before our massage appointments. We got in 22miles in an hour and a half. My ride felt decent - better than most have recently, so that was encouraging.

Post race/swim wet suit scrub in the driveway.


Unloading the bikes...ready to ride!

Massage was good. He spent 1hour 15mins on my legs & lower back (and a little on my mid/upper back on a few points he found. He spent most of the time on my calves, hamstrings, pirformis, and gluts med. It's still amazing to me how something that hurts so badly it makes jump off the table can provide such sweet relief.

Last night was yoga with all the usual suspects and then we met up with some of our master swimmers to go out for $1 tacos and guacamole! It was a fun time, but now that Shaun & his wife are moving to Atlanta and Coach Elana is headed to Boston, it may have been the last time we were all together. :-(

Tonight was our last scheduled swim lesson with Coach Q. We just made it to the lesson on time. I was late getting home from work. It was raining which automatically means a longer trip than normal. That paired with the fact that I was so tired I actually pulled over to sleep for 10mins made our departure time for swimming down to the wire.

And there you have it... a pictorial week in review.