Tropical Trails

Although my first "Florida winter" has been a little disappointing with lots of days below freezing-- over the past weekend I was lucky enough to head a few hours south to Melbourne, Florida. My husband had a work thing for the weekend and I figured I would tag along to get in some warmer training.

Like most places I go, I love to get in touch with whom Scott calls "my internet friends" before hand to set up some training. It's always way more fun that way! What better way to meet new triathlete friends and explore new places? Lucky for me I was able to set up a solid ride with Emily Nelson along the beautiful eastern Florida shores.

It was a fun 40 plus miles together with lots of girly chatting, sunshine, and palm trees. I was so thankful I had some fun company! Per coaches orders, I added another hour on and traveled along a gorgeous road called the Tropical Trail with a some speed intervals and lots of wind :) Luckily the breathtaking views kept me distracted through my power intervals and I nailed my wattage goals.

I don't think it gets much better than this! 

Post ride I napped some beachside and woke up to this! Hello best rainbow ever!

Sunday, I cranked out a slightly chillier 10 miler along the coastline solo.

And that my friends is a solid training weekend wrap! I'm so thankful for new friends, beautiful creation, and time away with my best friend. Cheers to many more tropical trails and travels in 2014 :) 

Girl-athalon Weekend

This past weekend I was fortunate enough to spend a girls weekend with some of your favorite bloggers: Chloe from Florida and Maggs in Hawaii. Chloe and I planned on celebrating her 31st with a sprint tri and a girls weekend at Pensacola Beach. Maggs, luckily was in town and close enough to partake in the celebrations. It ended up being the perfect ending to the season.

We started out the weekend of course with the Santa Rosa Triathlon Saturday am. The little race turned out to be way bigger than we thought with over 1200 participants. Chloe and I were a little disappointed to find out that our heat was next to last. I definitely regretted my decision not to opt for the elite division. Note-to-self-for-future....We knew the bike would be a cluster-f, especially with dodging these: In end it wasn't that bad. Minus the crazy gusting wind and jelly-fish dodging in the swim, it was fun race that was over in a heartbeat. Not really worth writing too much of a race report....Quick version: swim 600m, bike 18 miles, run 5k and AG win. Yay for the AG win :) In the end, the actual weekend was way more fun and noteworthy than the actual race....

We didn't wast any time getting the post race party started of course. And yes we tried champagne un-corking over the balcony but it didn't quite work out. The rest of the day was spent: sunning to rid ourselves of our permanent bike-short-tan-lines, sipping margaritas with desperate housewives of Tennessee, and getting yelled at by a life guard who looked like a younger version of this:While jumping on the water trampoline his exact words were, " Now I know you girls are triathletes and all.... But you really need to put on life-jackets." We giggled but were a little too incoherent to argue at that point. Funny Stuff. After margarita #2 my day was pretty much over although Chloe and Maggs kept it going. Definitely an endurance event.

We awoke the next day, sore/black and blue, and super dehydrated. Probably more from the trampoline shenanigans than the the actual race. We said our farewell to Maggs...
And celebrated just a little more....

Happy 31 Chloe!

It was the most crazy-girl-fun I've had in a long time :) Call me a dork for saying this, but my blogger friends are starting to replace my real friends... Am I the only one?

You tell me !