Tassie has gone.

Our family dog Tassie, Bri and my original baby, left us last week.  She had been dealing with congestive heart failure for a few months and things got progressively worse.  We were able to do a lot of medical management, but in the end her heart gave out and we had to euthanize her.

 A really difficult part of this for me is that she suffered a 'straw that broke the camel's back' event while Bri and I were maneuvering her in order to get an ECG reading at home.  Anything could have done it, but I hate that it was the two people she loved most in the world.  I hope she forgives us, and I'm so sorry I didn't share one final beer with her.

Our vet was good enough to come to our house to let her die at home.

My sister put together a nice video memorial.  I watched it last night and wound up crying like a baby.  You can see it here.

https://animoto.com/play/YISWu6rlTpSt18zpiCbnNQ

Save some kisses for me Tassie, where ever you are. We love you.

TOA sprint & White Lake intl reports

It was nice to do a couple of races over the past couple of weeks. Once upon a time I would do some sort of race/event 2-3 weekends out of the month.  It's hard to maintain that sort of pace indefinitely but is fun to return to once in a while.

My fitness on the bike is slowly coming back around.  During the TOA sprint I was able to keep ahead of the field, but at the White Lake 28 mile international course my spirits were crushed by folks riding much stronger than I.  A few years ago, I rode the 56 mile course at a pace faster than what I was able to do the 28 mile course in.  That is what time and lack of volume/intensity will do to a guy!  Say la vee, you know what I'm sayin'?

I managed a 2nd overall at TOA sprint and an 8th overall at White Lake olympic.  The run course was about .4 mile long which was tough for a guy who doesn't like running hard 10ks anymore.  It was the first international+ triathlon I've done since a tough run meltdown at USAT Nationals five years ago.   Ran much better at this one, my 10k would have been about 43:15 which is totally acceptable to me!

A couple pictures of the finish line at TOA - Junior Awesome was there to cheer us on and I thought he might enjoy running in with me.

You can see my training logs here.

Next up is the Cary duathlon this weekend.  Local - will ride my bike to the site!