A Greenville Thanksgiving

I have a lot of great memories of Thanksgiving with my family. Being with my dad, mom and brother (and often extended family) was a special time for it wasn't that often that we would all be together at the table. Since my dad passed away in May 2014, I find myself thinking of all the laughs, good food and memories that we made together as a family on Thanksgiving.

This year was low key for me and Karel. With my mom out of town, we joined the family of my friend (and swimming partner) Kristen for delicious food, stories and laughs. Kristen use to race as a professional Ironman triathlete back in the late 90's so I had a lot of fun scrolling through her scrap books as she reminisced about her past Ironman/triathlon days.

I yummed over my Thanksgiving plate - it was filled with color and just enough (but not too much) food to leave me satisfied and feeling good in my belly. Pictured above is mashed potatoes, roasted vegetables, a wild rice mix with cranberries and my pomegranate kale mango salad. This is my 26th Thanksgiving as a vegetarian.

Per tradition, Campy had his Thanksgiving plate. He scarfed it down in a minute and then asked for seconds.

On Friday morning, I was itching to get outside on my road bike. With the temps barely over 30 degrees, Karel was not keen on this idea. However, he agreed to join me for nearly 3 hours. I don't think the temps got over 32 degrees but luckily we live in a very hilly area so we had plenty of punchy hills to increase our body temp. We managed ~3000 feet elevation gain in 2:46 (43 miles). Karel was grumpy about the cold weather so I made us some homemade teff banana bread when we got home. The roads were empty so it was a perfect morning to be outside - even though it was super cold.

On Saturday morning, Kristen joined us for a 4000 yard swim at Furman. Anytime we swim with Kristen we know we will have a tough workout as she is super speedy in the water. This was the first time in a while that I felt good in the water so I was really happy with my start to the day. Karel also swam really well and was keeping up with me for the 100's (1:20 down to 1:16).

In the early afternoon, Karel and I headed out for our "long" run. We didn't run together but left around the same time. I went out on my favorite route that starts on rolling hills in the country and finishes on the Swamp Rabbit Trail through Traveler's Rest. I included a few 10 minute steady efforts after my warm-up and finished with smooth, form focused running. Surprisingly, I felt good and found a good rhythm as I listened to triathlon podcasts.

As I was finishing my run through Traveler's Rest, I noticed that there were a lot of tents set up for Small Business Saturday. I wanted to check them out so as soon as I got home, I had a recovery shake, grabbed Campy (and Karel) and we drove a few miles down the road to check out the local small business vendors. We picked up a few items to give away as holiday gifts. Campy enjoyed a lot of butt rubs and two bags of dog biscuits.

Since moving to Greenville in May 2014, we have tried to make it a habit to take advantage of all the outdoor activities that Greenville has to offer us in the fall. However, we seem to fail at this habit every year....until this year. We are finally sticking to our plan to hike more in the fall and to enjoy more non-triathlon activities in the fall/winter. While we are still dedicated to our triathlon training, we are making room for those extra activities to keep us outside, enjoying nature. And of course, we can't pass up an opportunity to make memories with Campy.

Around 9am, we left our house (with our friends/neighbors Tim and Joey) to head to Jones Gap State Park to hike Rainbow Falls.

It was a perfect day for hiking as it was sunny and in the upper 40's to low 50's. The only downside was the mud/rain that collected on the ground after a downpour on Friday evening. Thankfully, this was only a problem for the first 1/2 mile and then the route cleared up.

This is a very technical hike that works the quads and the calves with lots of traversing over trees, stairs, rocks and debris.

In total, this 4.85 mile hike took us 2 hours and 35 minutes. The hike goes uphill to the waterfall and then downhill back to the parking lot. We accumulated 3750 feet of elevation gain according to Karel's Garmin.

The time passed by as we chatted our way up the hike and marveled over the beautiful sights as we hiked up the mountain.

Campy was a true sport as he hiked the entire way up and down, jumping over rocks, trees and wooden stairs. I only carried him through a few water sections where he didn't quite understand how to jump on the rocks. His approach was to walk through the cold water. At the age of 11 years, Campy continues to impress us with his endurance, strength and tenacity.