Spontaneity

The Line-Up

Normally everything I do is planned in advance... at least a week, month, maybe more.  Last weekend I threw planning out the window and took the most spontaneous trip I've ever taken!  Lucas and a couple of his buddies have been planning to go to Coachella pretty much since it ended last year.  A few hours before he was set to leave, we found out there was a ticket for me AND his friend was going to give it to me for free... I decided that if I was ever going to make a last minute decision, this was the time!!

For those of you that don't know, Coachella is a three-day music festival held in Coachella Valley, CA.  It started in 1999 and has been turning heads ever since.  Over the years, this festival has become so big

Sunset on the first day :)

that they had to make two weekends to accommodate all of the festival goers.  Along with the amazing performances at this festival, there was rarely a dull moment of people watching :)

I've been a long time fan of the Postal Service even though they have only ever put out one full length album. I absolutely love their song Nothing Better...so I think this takes the cake as my favorite performance--great stage chemistry, excellent live vocals, and this song is a valuable piece of nostalgia to me :).




Another highlight was Sigur Rós, who I've also been a fan of for a little over 7 years now!! They are an Icelandic band with some absolutely beautiful music. I have never seen them live before and seeing this made me want to go see them a million more times!


(ps both of those videos are stolen from youtube...I did not capture any excellent video footage of any of the performances!)

What I took away from the weekend (other than a deep desire to play music again) is that sometimes it pays to play it by ear: no plans, no expectations, just living :)  I never would have thought I would

One of many cool pieces of art showcased over the weekend;it slowly moved around the whole  venue!

enjoy something so unplanned. I tend to be a control freak in the worst kind of way... normally I need to have an idea of how everything is going to play out before I even think about doing something and with this I had about 30 minutes to decide to go, and a few hours until we were actually there and it was SO MUCH FUN! Plus, spending three days out of my normal training schedule, doing different workouts in a different environment, made me anxious and excited to get back to the normal training regimen :)  Thank you again to Angel for the ticket and Lucas for bringing me along :)

Day 2 Lucas, Angel and I on our way to catch the evening shows :)

On another, more tri-related note...earlier this month I raced in the Lifetime Fitness Marquee triathlon.  This race was on the heels of Collegiate Nationals at the same venue and almost the same exact course. I happen to live just outside of Tempe so this was a really fun weekend for me!  On Friday and Saturday I got to go and support my former team, the University of Arizona Tricats who are also coached my by coach, Brian Grasky!  Friday was a draft legal race and Saturday had a non-draft race in the morning and a draft legal relay in the afternoon. The Tricats did SO well as a team with the highest women's team ranking in Tricat history; I'm so proud to say that once upon a time I was a Tricat too!!

Sunday was a big day of racing all its own--not only was there a Sprint and Olympic distance for Marquee, but there was also the Leadman 125 that went off an hour before my race start.  Leadman had a pretty large pro field and seemed like a pretty tough course!

Feel silly with a watermarked pic but it's all I have! Crossing the finish :)

Marquee was a really neat race for me because although I am from Tempe, I have NEVER raced there!! It was so much fun to have my parents (and Lucas of course!) come and watch and to run into different families that I knew back in my swimming days!
The race itself was a toughie, the bike course was designed to have 3 extra miles and it doesn't seem like much on paper, but when the rubber meets the road it makes a pretty big difference!  My focus going into the race was to give the hardest effort I could on the swim and bike, perfect transitions and
hold on for as long as possible on the run.  I rarely ever go into a race with this mentality...usually I am conservative to start and save something for the run.  It was very interesting throwing caution to the wind and I learned that I can really go a lot harder than I ever thought possible!  I was first female out of the water and ended up 2nd overall to an Australian olympian, Maxine Seer!  Like always, tons to improve upon; each race is a little lesson in my pursuit to be the best I can be!!

                                             ^Lucas caught the last part of my run on film :)



Naturally while at Coachella I came across some new sounds that I enjoy so I thought I'd share my discoveries with you!!

All of Me by Tanlines
^fun, "dancey" sound, makes me want Summer time to come faster!!

What You Know by Two Door Cinema Club
^was really impressed with their performance and I actually really like their Pandora station!


Until Next Time :) @nicoletruxes