Things are looking lovely in the yard. This is out front, because we like to give a nice impression to all of the people who pull up the drive. So many people don’t. And they’re missing out. But that’s OK. More flowers for us.
We’ve been running a gag with a friend about bad photo composition. This is my contribution to the joke.
But, lurking up above, the promise of early August.
The ripening is underway.
Does anyone want some peaches?
In the fall of 2020 I was interviewed by a student working up a profile of my lovely bride for a class project.
He asked me what’s it like being married to an All-American, D-1 athlete, FINA Masters World Championships swimmer, three-time USA Triathlon national championship-qualified triathlete and two-time Ironman finisher.
(Except now she’s a six time USA Triathlon national championship qualifier and a three-time Ironman.)
This, I noted on social media, is what it’s like.
A few days after that 2020 interview I said “I’m going to go spin out my bike for a bit in the bike room.”
She said, “I’ll join you for an easy ride,” and then I watched her put out about 230 watts going uphill for an hour on Zwift. Sometime soon after that we were on a group ride and she was out front. She sat up and re-did her braid while we were chasing back on to her wheel. At the first sprint point on that ride she was laughing as I tried to go by her. She was LAUGHING during a full sprint. I didn’t win that one. So we got really, really serious about the five sprints after that.
But all of that was five years ago.
Today, I set a hard pace for eight miles, and then she went around me. Then she went away from me. And so I had to chase on for about six miles, hard, to get back. Thinking about that 2020 interview the whole way.
And here is when I finally caught her. We were going up a little hill, and I was doing 26 miles per hour up the long slow hill just to stay on her wheel. Look at how casual she is here, as she’s about to get to the top of the thing.
All told, Strava says this was the fastest 30K I’ve ever recorded.
What’s it like being married to someone like that?
Awesome — unless you’re trying to keep up.
