19 days to xterra!

And I've only ridden my mountain bike 3 times this year!! Oh well, the road tri's are my focus this year, xterra is just for fun!

Quick update, some good things have happened in the past week -
1. Tiger is eating a little more and seems to have a little more life in his eyes. The 'roids are doing their job! He did the crap'n'dash again yesterday, but once again had separation issues, if you know what I mean. Hope he can work on that.
2. I turned in half of my thesis last Friday to Scott! Yay!
Also some bad -
Chris has bronchitis and has been sick with a fever since last Tuesday. I feel terrible for him!

So ... on to what I really want to talk about. I've gotten in some pretty nice training the last few days. I'm trying to do more bricks (bike/run or swim/bike combos). Saturday I rode with Kim. We headed out around 10 and it was a gorgeous day! We rode past Horsetooth Park and met this crazy but awesome old Peruvian Italian man when we stopped for water. He was probably close to 70 but was out for a tough 50 mile ride. Anyway, then we wound through Masonville and past the Eden Valley commune, hit up 34 east to Glade Rode and then back the way we came over Horsetooth. It was nice and Kim kept my pace up when I was in the mood to slack.

My ride was 37 miles and it took about 2:15. When I got home, I put on my running shoes and headed back out for a run. I ended up going for 40 minutes and it was really nice except I got stung twice by something. I never saw what it was but it hurt! It was also really hot, so when I got home I hosed myself down and it felt sooo good! It was a really good workout especially because the last half of the ride was on the Lake to Lake course, but the first half was way hillier than the rest of the course.

Today I rode 13 miles each way to an open water swim out near Wellington. It was another beautiful day, and temps got into the 80's, so I figured the water would be warm - but it was freezing! I didn't have my wetsuit and the water definitely took some getting used to. But it was a really nice venue for a swim - a pretty big reservoir with awesome views of the front range. The course was a 200 meter out-and-back, and one time I just tread water at the far point and just enjoyed the view. But I couldn't stop for too long, or I might have lost some feeling! I only had time for 4 laps, so about 1600 meters, but it was really nice. The swim is put on by a husband and wife team. The wife, Wendy Mader, is a really impressive triathlete (top finishes in Ironman Arizona and Kona Ironman), and complemented my swimming. Sweet. :) I felt pretty good overall but I must say that open-water swimming is way easier when there aren't people swimming over you, kicking you, and frothing up the water. The only bad thing was on my 3rd lap both of my feet started cramping, and cramps started moving up my right leg before I stopped and took it easy for a bit. Need more electrolytes!!

So, in the last 3 days I've ridden 80 miles, ran for 40 minutes, swam 1600, and played a softball game. Not too shabby! Of course, to put it in perspective, I rode home tonight with Joe, a fellow atmos tri geek. He is doing the Cour d'Alene (Idaho) Ironman in a few weeks and is running 17 miles tomorrow - that is more than I run in a week!

Well I am really excited about the triathlons and glad they are getting close. Tomorrow I am taking a day off from training though and hopefully can get a lot of work done! I need to work a lot in the next few weeks so I won't have to once late June comes around. That's it, thanks for reading and have a great night!