Another year...

It's hard to believe it's already been another year in Vienna, school's out on Friday, but I'll get to that soon enough. Last I wrote was about a month ago. I've been pretty buys since then! Let's see... life is really about training and travel at this point. My mom came for a visit, which was great! I had to withdraw from the St. Polten Half, which was SUCH a hard thing to do. I've never really quit or not met a goal, so it felt weird. But, we ended up going on a great Czech road trip instead. My mom arrived on May 15, I think, and we spent some time in Vienna and then we went to Cesky Krumlov, Telc, Olomouc and Morovia the first weekend. Renting a car was both fun and challenging! I bought a Garmin and it was definitely a love/hate relationship. Driving through Austria was amazing, I forget how beautiful it is right outside of Vienna, and so green! My mom did a great job driving. I don't have an Austrian license, so I couldn't drive until we got to the Czech Republic. Cesky Krumlov was so cute! It was this small village with a beautiful castle, cobblestone streets, we stayed in a great hotel and the weather was beautiful. We drove from there to Telc for lunch, the Garmin took us on a crazy drive, but Telc was another small cute town. There was a small festival happening in the main square and we sat and had lunch, I think it was about $2.50, I'm exaggerating, but everything was so inexpensive! We then drove on to Olomouc, another really cute small town. We stayed in another great hotel, dropped off our things, went to a wine bar, walked around taking pictures and then had some dinner. Totally relaxing and fun! The next day we got up, walked around a bit more and then headed back towards Vienna. We stopped at yet another really cute town, Mikuluv, and walked around a castle, the main square, had lunch and some delicious hot chocolate. The next week my Mom went to Kiev and I went to work. The next weekend was amazing too! Steph, her cousin, my mom and I did another road trip, this time to Croatia. The first night we went to Zagreb, we arrived late, so just went out to a delicious meal and then bed. The next day we walked all over the city, went to markets, churches, and had a great morning. Then we went down to Plitvice lakes, which was amazing! The weather was, well, interesting. When we first arrived it was fine, we started our hike and then it just started POURING down rain, the kind that just soaks you. It was fine though, we survived and it was beautiful. We warmed up with some hot chocolate while we waited for the boat to take us across the lake and back to our car. We then drove up to this city, Tribalj, and stayed in the most amazing hotel ever. Totally cute, great food and an amazing staff. The next day we went to the beach and rented beach chairs, then got some ice cream then just drove around looking for cool things to see. It was great! The next day we had to drive back to Vienna. Sad. My mom left a few days later, but will be back July 6. I can't wait! Since then, all I've really done is train. Oh, and Steve turned 40, so I took him to dinner one night and then we went out with all his friends the next night. He claimed that he didn't want to do anything, then when we were out a couple nights before, he said he would "allow" me to invite his friends to dinner. Ha! It was fun though. Training is completely insane. I think I am up to 22 hours a week or so, and then trying to work and finish up the school year, it's just crazy. Today I was on my trainer for 5:45 minutes and did an hour run. I had a personal day, so that was nice, but I really spent the rest of the day doing nothing because I was tired, and tomorrow's plan is 90 minute bike ride in the morning and a 2:45 run in the afternoon. It is totally insane. This weekend Steph, Mel and I are heading to Wroclaw, Poland to watch Eurocup 2012. We will also go to Auschwitz and Krakow. Then it is back to Vienna for my hardest week of training and then TAPER. I am SO looking forward to the taper. I'm feeling really good about the biking and running, but very, very worried about the swim. I wasn't able to swim for three weeks and lost a lot of endurance. I really don't know how I will manage the full distance. I am up to about an hour comfortably slow, but need to get up to 1.5 hours at a faster pace. About a month till race day...!