Rain Doesn't Frighten Me

I did my bike ride in the rain today and thought - whooeee... I'm glad I had a chance to do that before the race. At the beginning of summer, I did every workout for a week in the rain, but by now I was a bit rusty.

...As I realized when I was cornering and hit a paint strip. My rear wheel fish-tailed and I shook, then recovered. After that I was a little more cautious (at least at first). It'll change the whole tenor of the race if we get rain on September 10th. Now I can visualize myself proceeding calmly, collectedly, and quickly!

My swim was interesting too. I couldn't get my wetsuit zipped by myself and ended up asking the custodian to help me. (Made his day.) Then I realized that I'd forgotten lubricant, so I had to improvise in order to prevent the "wetsuit kiss." I remembered a swimming drill where my coach had me swim with a tennis ball tucked under my chin. If I could swim like this, that would decrease the rubbing, I figured. Well, when my coach had me do it, the tennis ball popped out every stroke. However, today I must have done better - I can happily report that I have no wetsuit kiss.

Stats for today:
1 1/2 hour bike ride: 30 miles, Av. heartrate 119 - felt strong
30 min swim: Av. heartrate 104 - arms and shoulders felt tired, but OK
Calories burned: 1300
Nutrition: 1 Gu, 1/2 PB&J sandwich, 40 oz. Gatorade

Of note - 2nd day without knee pain!!

Tomorrow's a longee - bike 1, run 2. (hours) The true test for my knee...

Classroom looks great! Whitewash your brain of primary colors and picture instead...

- Muted, cool colors with some of our unused wallpaper used to brighten up the darker walls

- Strings of lights on the walls, lamps located in little nooks throughout the room
- A couch & recliner; I'm trying for a homey, curl-up-with-a-book feel

What tween would not want to walk into this room and spend 8 hours of quality learning time??

I'm starting to be OK with school starting. At first I wasn't ready to blunt my IM passion/share my time & energy with anything else, but maybe there's enough of me to go around - especially with taper. (And hey - who'm I trying to kid, school's gonna start with or without my approval!)

That's it for now. Happy training!