Claire is 24 weeks old and is getting tall.  This week Claire and I started to do what I call our morning tumbling routine on our Tempur-Pedic mattress.  The routine consists of rolling her around, placing her on her stomach and cheering her on when she rolls onto her back, and guiding her in the crawling motion.  She seems to really enjoy it and she's gotten so much better in just a couple of days. 


Jen's friend from high school, Beth, came into town for a quick Sunday through Wednesday visit.  We had steaks and wine on Sunday and then they all left for the mountains from Monday through Wednesday while I stayed home and worked.  That's right, I'm a work horse.


Jen having some laughs with an old friend over some steaks and wine.


Steve got the floor boards down on his deck during the week so all we had to do when I got there was to lay down the boards on the steps leading to the upper deck.  I thought we would plow through it but it actually took a while and I was heading home by 5pm for dinner.


His deck is looking nice and is going to be quite large and in charge.  Looking forward to their first deck party.

RECAP:
Aside from the mentions in the photos we had quite a busy Saturday.  It started off with a wedding shower for Kelley & Matt, followed by the criterium hosted by Sir Clarke Rodgers, and last but not least we made our way over to an 80s themed 40th birthday party for Jen's client.  Quite the night.  Unfortunately, we spent more time driving around than actually hanging out.  On the flip side, I was inspired to throw another 80s party sometime in the near future because the outfits were hilarious.

TRAINING RECAP:
Running: 47 miles @ 6:36 pace average :: 5 hrs 12 mins
Cycling: 63 miles :: 3 hrs 15 mins
Strength: 20 mins
Total: 8 hrs 48 mins

I'm still hanging around in the 40 mpw range and continue to make my 160 bpm runs my focus for now.  My aerobic abilities seem to be developing well so I just need my leg durability to catch up.  Once the two mesh I should be able to kick things up a slight notch.  It's been really nice to run with Jordan for my Thursday and Sunday runs.  Time flies by and I don't even realize that we've put in 10+ miles.  I'm looking forward to being able to do workouts together but I need to be patient or I will most certainly get injured. 

The Saturday Shootout was fun this week.  3T had their first designated bye week so The NTT Nation had a scrimmage.  My team was down by 8 points at the end of regulation and somehow we pulled out the victory with a late breakaway to win by 2 points.

For some reason I get sucked back into endurance sports no matter how hard I try to just live a normal life.  The good thing is that running is not as demanding as triathlon in the form of hours training and set up time.  The bad thing is that I'm OCD when it comes to training and hitting my specific paces and goals.  I'm trying to find that delicate balance between wanting to compete at something and still living an enjoyable life with balance and loads of fun.