Ok so today's first bit of good news is that Mike Shaddock agreed to be an usher. So yea! It'll be good to have him in the wedding! He's also trying to sell me his Bianchi, which I'm sort of interested in. So we were both happy when we hung up the phone last night. He leaves for France on Monday, so hopefully he has a great trip!

I talked to the Holiday Inn South County Center in St Louis yesterday. They'll hold 10 rooms at $79/night until Nov 11. If more rooms are needed, they'll honor that price for the additional rooms as well. That's pretty cool, it's a really nice place. It started life as a Sheraton and has niceties like an indoor pool, workout room and business center for those who will need to work that weekend. So they're sending me some paperwork, and after I get that back to them, people can just call and say that they're with our wedding party to reserve the rooms. I'm also going to look into the Oak Grove Inn which is across the street. It's a budget motel, but still reasonably decent. It runs $50/night. Both of them are near restaurants and about 15 min from the Church, 20 from the reception, so hopefully this works out for everyone!

This past weekend Chris and I were talking about his coaching company, Cycle-Smart. They had worked up a schedule for me last year when I was preparing for the tri. I was telling him that I felt like I needed some of that external push to really get into a good exercise routine, and that I want to do tris again next year, so I'd probably get Cycle-Smart to do another level 4 plan then. I've been frustrated with the lack of workouts I've gotten in the last 6 weeks due to the general chaos and just not feeling well. Anyway, last night I get a call from Kurt at Cycle-Smart. First of all, I thought that it was someone else, whom Chris had bumped heads with. Secondly, I thought John at Cycle-Smart had flaked out and sent him my stuff from last year on accident. So after a few minutes, I sluffed him off, and when I hung up the phone, told Chris "Guess who I just talked to?" At first he thought it was the same person that I was thinking of. Then I said something about John must have sent him my paperwork from last year because he was asking about a level 4. At which point it came out that he had set up the coaching as a surprise for me. :) We called Kurt back, and after I finished giggling, discussed timing on this year's exercise plan. He's putting together a schedule with a core of 3-4 days a week with options depending on how I'm doing with time. So if I'm road tripping on a weekend (who...me?) or bogged down by either work or wedding, it gives me some flexibility. I'm psyched, I should get the plan next week. Turns out Kurt has just gotten married 2 years ago, and his wife did her first tri last year, so it's cool that he's personally been in the same situations. That makes me feel really comfortable with him as a coach!

Hope all is well!!
cb
- posted by cam @ 8:11 AM