Fueling The Female Athlete & Goodbye Nate!

Last week was a bit of a blurrrrr!

I think I mentioned I had many activities outside of training and work that made coordination just a tad bit touchy (and also resulted in a general lack of sleep and disgruntled attitude at times - sorry family, friends, husband etc.). However, I manged to keep things going and for the most part, had a good time making new friends and keeping my sanity!

Wednesday night I was one of two speakers featured at Trek of Shadyside for their winter lecture series. My topic was "Fueling the Female Athlete" for ladies night (and the feelin's right, oh this is ladies night, oh what a night :)

I was very excited to see such a great turnout and some females who like to get out there, ride their bikes and just generally support each other and learn!

The snack table - always a winner!!

Gray, my contact coordinator, did an exceptional job promoting and planning the session. They even had a representative from Trek come in and show all of us some basics and refresh others of us on changing a tire (I'll take the tricks and tips I can get there!) and allowing us to ask all those questions about our seats that as female in a male group, we sometimes feel silly talking about!

Even though we started at 7:00pm, the first speaker didn't finish until about 8:10pm. I was more than a bit worried, because if these ladies were anything like me, they would be dropping like files when the close got close to 8:30 and I had an entire full hour presentation planned :(

Garvin, my mechanic, and really, really good friend! He's the man - (see him a Top Gear most of the time)

This cute little guy riding like a pro. Loved it!

So, as the talk went on, I kept letting these ladies know that if they had to leave, I certainly wouldn't be offended. However, they just kept saying "Nope! We love it! Go on!!" So I did! Until 9:24pm - which I promptly announced was usually my bed time!!

They were a really wonderful audience and they had some excellent questions. The best part of sharing nutrition advice is that you really feel like you are helping people and breaking it down in a way they can understand is probably the hardest (and best) part of what I do. It was a blast all in all, and I was so happy I was able to help out.

I'll be back this week talking about "Your First Triathlon" at the shop on Wed. so please come out if you are in town. Chad and I will be discussing our Sprint and Olympic Distance Triathlon Training programs for the summer. We had a wonderful group of athletes last year, and this year shouldn't be any different.

Then it was finally the weekend. Kyle and I had a big evening planned on Saturday with a surprise party for our friend, and local athlete, Nate, who is leaving town soon to take another job.

We didn't do that well with knowing what to yell at him when he came in, but I still think he was pleasantly surprised and had fun. We also sung Happy Birthday to him just for fun.

I brought a chocolate cake that was from my office that I'm pretty sure was so rich it might have actually killed someone. I attempted to eat a whole piece (as did Jocelyn above) but it just didn't happen!

Kyle and Jeremy (the other Cornman, as I sometimes call him!). They looked very nice that even.. proper gents!

Little Matty

My Christmas Present (I hope! :)

Don't even ask, but I don't think this picture looks anything like me for some reason!

Joc and I!

Chad and Jen

A sad face that Nathaniel is leaving us, but a happy face (that you don't see here) in the hopes that he will like his new job in Maison! We'll miss you Nate!

Hope all is well out there in blogland!