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Hello...from Charlotte!

Caption contest....
"Campy, did you do this?"



Right now we are in beautiful Charlotte, NC - one of my most favorite places!
In just a few hours, Karel will be racing with the BIG BOYS at the Presbyterian Hospital Invitational Criterium. For those who ride their bikes for a day-job, they will be racing for a HUGE prize purse of $50,000! Karel is hoping for a finish after 50-miles of crit racing in downtown Charlotte tonight at 7:30pm. Two-hours of suffering on a crazy tough course. If Karel wins some gas money, that's would be icing on the cake but I know he will take a finish as this race has been on his bucket list for the past few years.



http://www.charlottecriterium.org/

After a 6-hour drive (I mean 9 hours all thanks to sprink breaker traffic congestion, errr) we arrived to our good friend's house (Christi) who will be participating in her 8th Boston marathon on Monday! She has raced every year since 2004....so excited for her streak! Campy played with her dog Milo (more like Campy running circles around Milo) and we eventually made our way to bed.

Sleeping in felt wonderful. I took my time with a large list of emails that I didn't get to on Fri thanks to a busy day at Baptist South, followed by our trip. Around 9am, I headed out for a "bonus" run on the trails by Christi's house. I finished all my workouts for the week on Tues, Wed, Thurs and Fri (including two longish bricks on Wed/Thurs) because I wanted to leave this weekend FREE of any "structured training". I use to be the type who had to stick to my schedule wherever I went but now, I don't really enjoy "training" while traveling - unless it is the purpose of my trip. I find that when I travel, I really enjoy taking a break from structure. Certainly, I love exercising and seeing new sights but I'd rather go for a bonus run because it feels great rather than abiding my specific zones or intervals or feeling the need to travel with my bike or find a pool. Even if I didn't have the flexibility this week to change up my routine, I still wanted to enjoy myself this weekend and I certainly know that missing 2 "long" workouts would not affect my fitness. If anything, it is always nice to take a break and rest the body when it doesn't expect it.

I ran 6.5 easy miles on the trail (average pace 7:43 min/mile) and it felt amazing. I felt so free and despite having my music (radio on my nano), I made sure to listen to the sounds of nature. I love hearing my feet on gravel and on the paved trails..it is so peaceful to just move the body and feel so free.

After my effortless run (yes - it was just one of those runs...totally could have kept going but didn't need to prove anything to myself) I got Campy back at the house and he took me on 1.5 miles (about) with a few walk breakfs in between. I suppsoe the hills here in NC pooped out my little man....



After a refreshing smoothie and my ritual butt-rolling (piriformis) with my Trigger point ball on the wall (much better than on the floor), Karel came back from his warm-up ride and we headed downtown Charlotte (about 9 miles away) to pick up his number and check out the course.

This place is amazingly beautiful...can't wait until tonight!










*A big congrats to the Gearlink Cycling Team on some great performances at St. Augustine VeloFest!

Don't want to wait for my race report on Karel's crit??? Be sure to LIKE trimarni coaching and nutrition on facebook for quick results after his race!