Moving and Triathlon

   I've gotten behind on my posts this week, but I have a good reason: I moved. Just across town - not to a different city or anything. But it has completely thrown off my routine, training and otherwise. For most of the week, I was OK.  I planned ahead and pulled out whatever workout clothing I needed before packing. But later in the week (closer to Friday's moving date) things got a little chaotic. I completely missed my swim on Friday because, let's face it, that just wasn't going to happen with movers and what not going on. I did get my Saturday ride in, though I did have to stop off at a bike shop to air up my tires since I have no idea where my bike pump is. The best was this morning though. I was supposed to run first thing, but I couldn't find my running shorts or shoes. Fortunately, I have an extra pair of running shoes and I finally found one pair of shorts, but by then it was stupidly hot and humid. I "ran" anyway, though it wasn't pretty. All of the stress of moving, and the running back and forth between houses wore me out. I just didn't have anything left in the tank.
   One thing I realized though - I've possibly moved to the hilliest part of Nashville. I'm not kidding. It's literally called "West Meade Hills."  I never need to go anywhere further than my driveway for hill repeats because it's a doozy. The hills are good because IMCHOO is hilly. Really hilly. But hills are also painful. I know they'll make me stronger, but running up that hill back to my house today made me question my sanity. OK, I'll be honest - I walked up the hill back to my house, but I was still questioning my sanity.
   I'll get back to my FTP Ironman Camp posts later this week, but let me leave you with two sights from my weekend workouts. The first was seen on the Trace yesterday, right outside of the Garrison Creek rest area. There were four mules (or burros) just hanging out in the field next to the parking lot. This isn't a fenced in area and these guys usually aren't there. Rumor has it they were Naomi Judd's mules, but I can neither confirm nor deny that. She does live very close by though, and they were very well-maintained mules, so I'm going with it. The Park Ranger was there trying to rein them in when I left. I hope they got home OK.

Do YOU see celebrity mules on your ride? No? You must not live in Nashville.

   My other sighting, and I WISH I had a photo of this because it was CRAZY, happened this morning during my run. I was about a mile or so away from my house when I heard something like metal being scraped. I looked around to see 20+ (yes, I counted), VULTURES perched on one of the neighbor's tin roof. They were everywhere. They were all looking down into the neighbors back yard and they all had their wings fully expanded. I'm assuming they were sunning themselves, but it looked like they were performing a ritualistic celebration of some sort. It was very cool, but VERY creepy. I ran back to the house to get my camera, but by the time I got back, they were gone. If I lived in that house, I would have been freaking out.  

   Only 7 weeks left until IMCHOO, y'all!