Sunday, July 29, 2007

What I've been up to...

Work has been going well. I have mostly been providing engineering support specifically for Atlantis. Some of my work duties recently changed, and I am learning a whole lot more. Endeavour is still looking to launch on August 7th and I just hope we do not get rained out. Lately we have been getting a lot of evening thunderstorms.

I am wrapping up an Aviation/Aerospace Systems Saftey class and will be taking the final in about another week. I am in the middle of another class which I will be complete with in September. After these two classes, I have only my final research to complete. (Yey!) I'm trying to get ahead in the classes right now as I will be taking a little weekend trip to Seattle this weekend. I am in a wedding and will also be visiting my sister and nieces.

On Saturday I participated in my first triathalon! I swam, biked, and ran in the 3rd annual Astronaut Family Challenge Triathalon. I figured I would try out a triathalon for the first time and make it my "warm-up" for other upcoming races. I definitely learned that swimming is not my strongest. I am more of a runner than a swimmer and my legs were certainly feeling a little weak as I had to transition from swimming to biking. I'm glad I gave the triathalon a try and I would participate in another one, but I need to improve my swimming. Here are some pictures from Saturday.

4 comments:

kevbayer said...

Wow!
Congratulations on your first triathalon.
You fix spaceships, your athletic, and you're a grad student?! Sheesh. I am impressed.
I need to introduce you to my kids.
"See kids. You can do anything if you put your mind to it!"

Ryan J. said...

A little advice about your swimming. From the picture above, it looks like you're picking your head up a little too much to breathe, which would explain why your legs felt so tired. Try breathing just by turning your head. It'll feel a little odd, but it will definitely cut down on a lot of drag. Still, great work on completing a triathlon!

Damaris Sarria Toepel said...

I'll have to try that out... :) thanks!

Nancy Toby said...

Congratulations, TRIATHLETE!! Fortunately, swimming is the thing that you can change fastest with some technique work. Running and biking faster takes longer! :-)