long distance?

Training totals so far:


764 miles total...wow...that's a whole lotta miles...(although i planned on doing a lot more than that...oops!!! not enough time in my schedule!!!) in fact, i should have doubled the bike miles...oh, well! i'll still finish!!!

pleasant prairie olympic race, here i come!!!!! only 19 days 'til race day!

my busy life...

As of this weekend, I will (hopefully) be fully moved into Bri's! I've moved several times before, but I've never been quite as busy as I am now...so this is quite a challenge! I've almost gotten everything taken care of, though...I just have a few pieces of furniture and a few other odds & ends left, and then I'll be DONE! The funny thing is that we'll barely see each other until some time in September after Green Lake. You see, we'll have the first week together, but then she's going on vacation for a week...and then we've got a few days together, but I leave for Romania after that...and then there's Green Lake...so we'll "officially" live together once September starts, even though we'll be sharing the condo for all of August!

My triathlon training is going well, but WOW, is it time-consuming! I keep forgetting that I've doubled my race distance since last year, so my training times also need to double. (This means that I have to set aside a LOT of time for my bike workout...an hour and a half!!!

I did manage to finish one complete Olympic distance practice course on Saturday...in 3:21:26! I'm really confident on the swim, I WAS confident on the bike (it gets so much harder to be fast when you've gotta go 25 miles instead of 12!), and I'm a pathetic runner, but I'll have an occasional good 10k course here and there... Hey, speaking of triathlons, how 'bout a few more photos?


Aaah, the "wash cycle" swim start...no, I'm not in that photo - but you have to admit, that's a pretty cool shot! (Photo by Patrick Pyszka)


Bike start! These are International (Olympic) distance racers heading out of Prairie Springs Park and onto Hwy. 165 at the beginning of the bike leg. (Photo by Patrick Pyszka)


FINISH LINE! Yep, that's me finishing last year's race. (I came in 15th place in my division!!!)

I think the most exciting thing "on my plate" right now is that I'll be heading out to Romania in less than a month! I haven't done any missions work in SO long, I've never been there before, so I don't know what to expect (in detail), but considering the way that God brought me into this, I can't WAIT to see what's gonna happen there!

Eileen just returned from Cambodia - and she's got photos posted! (www.thetruthministry.blogspot.com) She is the biggest encouragement to me...:) I can't wait to head to Romania with her and learn from/work alongside her!

No power?!?!?!

We had a nasty storm roll through yesterday, knocking down one of our neighbor's trees - which, of course, took all the power lines with it. We were without power for a good 13 hours, I think. (We lost power around 4ish, and it all came back on at about 5:00 this morning.)

So just to add to the fun, I decided to upload a photo of what my room looked like before I went to bed last night. Remember, I live in the basement...


Just look at that detail! HAHA! Yeah, you're thinking to yourself, "But I can't see anything!!!" Well, neither could I!

It was literally that dark -- "I can't see my hand in front of my face" kind of dark...

I still find it amusing that I would actually open my eyes while trying to feel my way around my nightstand with the hope of finding my cell phone (wanting to know what time it was upon waking up in the middle of the night...)

This also meant no workout last night, because: NO POWER = NO SHOWER. I really didn't want to try to figure out where the shampoo was in my pitch black basement bathroom.

So that was my excitement for the night...or lack thereof...

triathlon photos, part 1

I promised a few triathlon photos, so here they are! (i've only got 10 minutes left on my lunch break to post these...let's see how many i can get done before i have to head back to work!)


This one is by my friend, Patrick, who was a co-worker of mine. He's a phenomenal photographer, and he was assigned to cover the 2003 Pleasant Prairie Triathlon while I was competing - so he sent me some of his photos! (I think this is the start of one of the mens' olympic distance waves.)


I think this is one of the 2003 mens' olympic distance competitors again...getting his bike out of transition...hey, i have aerobars like that! (Photo by Patrick Pyszka)


IT'S ME!!! Yep, it's my first-ever triathlon finish at the 2003 Pleasant Prairie Race. I had SOOOO much fun! (Photo by Patrick Pyszka)

OK, so i could only get 3 photos up loaded...i gotta head back to work now...MORE TO COME!