I have discovered that I am an anti-bride (although I always had a feeling that would be the case) but even planning a teeny-tiny wedding takes a bit of time.
Here is a quick month by month recap:
JUNE:
Our much anticipated USA trip - Yosemite, Death Valley, Grand Canyon, Route 66, Las Vegas and Hawaii, good times all round topped off with an engagement on Waikiki Beach - doesn't get much better than that! Yosemite was a highlight, we did a bit of hiking and running in some amazing scenery and slept in a bear proof tent cabin. Running on the Las Vegas Strip was a bit of an experience as well.
Came home full of enthusiasm for treadmill running after using hotel treadmills so bought one for ourselves.
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| Yosemite we love you |
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| Glamping |
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| More Yosemite |
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| Death Valley |
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| Big respect for all the Badwater 135 runners, I could barely walk form the car to here |
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| Vegas baby |
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| The Grand Canyon |
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| Grand Canyon and wildlife (and Jared) |
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| The bright lights of Vegas |
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| Long live the buffet |
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| The blue skies and white sands of Hawaii |
JULY:
The month of the deathly illness. Someone came to work with a horrible cold and it spread through the office like a wildfire. It was just a cold not flu but it was a bad one and took me out for a couple of weeks. Jared contracted it too but to a lesser extent. Once that was over training resumed as normal depending on weather. We had a burst of enthusiasm at one point and planned to ride around K2 at the end of August but fortunately that plan got vetoed after Nick contracted a much more severe deathly illness and wasn't going to up to it. I was quite relieved because we had only managed one long ride of just under 4 hours which would have made a 200km quite painful. The weather was really quite crap most of the time so we spent a bit of time on the windtrainers.
Once I was well again I resumed my weekly long runs home from work and even managed to score myself a running partner - we discuss our impending weddings and solve the problems of Auckland transport.
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| A rather chilly ride |
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| Starting to get desperate |
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| Yoga time at the zoo |
AUGUST:
The weather hasn't much improved so riding has been a bit hit and miss but running has been pretty consistent. I should mention I got heaps of cool running gear in the USA which makes winter running much more fun. Under Armour is huge in the States and the Las Vegas outlet store had a whole side of kids gear where I went a bit nuts. I had a moment of enthusaism the other day while driving over the Harbour Bridge and thought I might do the Auckland Half Marathon although at $112 for the entry I became a bit less enthusiastic.
Oh and the biggest news of August is getting a new car! The Silver Bullet has been retired and replaced by the LGM (Little Grey Mazda). The LGM does seem to be quite a bit smaller though so not as convenient for normal size bikes to fit in the back but they don't normally get transported in my car so not too much of a big deal.
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| Getting trendy |
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| Cat in a box |
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| LGM |
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| Jared making friends |
