Happy Thursday! Here are the Three Things on my mind today:
1. Last night IronHubs and I were taking our dog for a walk when we saw this:
Yes, that’s a BEAVER. Now, you might be thinking, “So what, it’s a beaver,” but I had never seen one in real life before! And this one was so close to my house (less than half a block from my front door) that IronHubs ran home and got the camera before the beaver swam off. I sure do love living next to a creek – I get to see all sorts of wildlife right here in the middle of a city.
2. I’m starting to get nervous about Saturday’s duathlon. *sigh* I didn’t mean to start putting pressure on myself, but whoomp, there it is! The good news about racing a series is that you get to do the same course three times and hopefully improve each time. The bad news of course is that you (and by “you,” I mean “I”) start wondering just how much improvement can be made…maybe a little, maybe a lot. I’m aiming for “a lot,” in case you were wondering.
3. I keep taking unintentional days off, which isn’t helping my nervousness about the race! I have to admit it out loud, I’m not swimming any more. Ironic, no? Now that the weather is beautiful and the pool has warmed up, I haven’t swum a lap in weeks. So every time my training plan calls for a swim day, I can be found lounging about like a slug. No, you’re right, that’s not entirely true. Most of my training days are twofers anyway, so there is nothing sluggy about me. There’s that nervousness talking again – I keep thinking maybe I haven’t done enough to hit my goals.
What’s the craziest thing you’ve seen near your house??
That’s so cool! I’ve never seen a beaver in real life either!
Good luck this weekend! I’m sure you’ll do great. Heck I’m training for a marathon and I’m getting nervous because I feel like I’m doing it all on the treadmill!
A beaver is a COOL thing to run into!
I actually had the same thing happen the winter before last. It was on the road and HUGE!! It was also dark..and I was a little scared of the rodent…until i remembered they prefer trees. 🙂
I would be tempted to lounge poolside too! 🙂 Ours still is not running though….
hope you had a great 4th!
I have seen tons of deer, snakes, foxes, coyotes and just the other day a bobcat. The bobcat is new! I haven’t seen bears but I hear that do come around. The joys of living in Colorado.
Good luck with your duathlon!
Very cool! We had an alligator on our back porch once. THAT was surprise.
(when we lived in south florida, now we’re in Austin…no alligators here )
There is a great blue heron that likes to hang out on our next door neighbors rooftop. It is so freaky to see it’s huge body flying directly towards our window and then it swoops to the neighbors eve and just watches us through our window.
We have coyotes in our common area. That creeps me out that they are right here in a city neighborhood. They killed our cat 🙁
Was out on an early morning (pre-dawn) run last year and stopped on a small bridge to tie my shoes. Mind you, this is a wooden bridge on a back country, hill billy, gravel road. Heard a splash and saw something approach me in the water. Turns out it was a beaver. Never had an animal approach me on a run before (beyond a dog) and I was scared enough to not hang around to meet him. Needless to say, I harbor a bit of animosity toward beavers now.
Since I live close-ish to the river and the park, we have had raccoons and opossums in the back yard eating the cat’s food, and drinking her water. Darn critters! And these critters are big, much bigger than the cat.
I’ve never seen a beaver outside of a zoo before!
I think the craziest thing I’ve ever seen has been a HUGE bald eagle eating a dead deer right on the side of the road. Smelly, but awesome.
You will do great. I cannot wait to hear about how you rocked the course.
We don’t have beavers here so I’ve never seen one in the wild either. In fact I’ve never seen a live one. Having one as a neighbour is fantastic.
Good luck with managing your nerves before the race. I’ve had issues with mine too and it wastes lots of energy. But on the plus side it helps with those pesky toilet issues before the race. I usually have to go so many times that I will never need to go once the race starts. It’s funny how quickly the butterflies (the size of eagles) disappear once the starting gun goes off.
But you kicked butt at your last duathlon! You’ll do great again, yes.
I like Beavers 🙂
You’ll do great … but I think nervousness before a race is a good thing! BTW, great looking header – I haven’t blogged in a while and just now noticed it … it looks awesome!
Good luck with your du! You’ll be great.
Love the beaver, I think they built a dam in the pond out back near us.
Hmmm weirdest thing? sand hill crane maybe? Coyote and foxes too but they’re pretty common.