...And now we have us a cold front! If it's like this tomorrow, it will be very refreshing. 66 degrees outside at 8:36...it doesn't get much sweeter than that! This is about the time I'll be running, so I'm very happy with it like this. Heading out to Dallas tomorrow. Gonna stay with friends, take it easy, enjoy the expo...and be ready to leave it on the course Sunday morning.

It is 4:30am, just woke up and decided to start the day, rather than spend an hour convincing myself that I'm still tired, just to fall asleep for another hour or so. Plus, I could use the hard transition for my race Sunday. My race Sunday. I am officially pumped! I also got (with my last-second purchases yesterday) a copy of Triathlete magazine, which had an interesting article on "Quiet Reserve", which was about using anger to focus your inner competitive drive for the race. I prefer a different word for it: Warrior Zen. Time to get it started and building for Sunday! EDIT: For anyone that doesn't believe us Texans that it is hot down here...we've had record highs 5 of the last 6 days. The normal highs are 87. The temperature has been 99. EDIT: I am pleasantly surprised at how many workouts I got in this month. I needed far fewer off days than I thought I would, got much more mileage in, and basically got into the shape I wanted to be for this race. Having another in two weeks is just icing on the cake. I'm excited about this race, and already excited about what I will learn from it and be able to apply in the next race...and then next year! EDIT: How a day changes things. Definitely didn't feel my best today, but now I have 3 days of taper to get everything ship-shape. Wanted to make sure all my gear would work, biked and ran in my jammers, no chaffing. Gotta get my sleep and my carbs...ready to make this work.

I decided to break the old adage about new stuff before a race, and got jammers, a swim cap (bizarre, I know, but I'd just been swimming without one), and tried to get clip-on aero bars. They didn't fit. What type of screwed up world do we live in where all handlebars are not the same size??? Is it really that %@&!*# hard to make them the same...gimme a %@&!*# break! The bike store people weren't snobby...mainly because I made it clear that snobby behavior might have been met with physical repercussions. There can't be many people more snobby than bike snobs. It's the only thing that annoys the hell out of me about this sport...well, so far. Man, I really am in a shitty mood. Lotta reasons, but really, this is as bad as it gets for me. Anyway, I'm of two minds about this triathlon. Part of me is thinking "I'm ready for this"...the other part is saying "Oh yeah? Go down the litany of races over 90 minutes you've done before". Good points, all. But I'm gonna do it, and that's that.

Spent today cleaning up from the storm, and I can't swim...so I'll just lift weights later. Hopefully get two good workouts in (a bike and a swim), then Wednesday start tapering for the Sunday race.