Sooo, the lunchtime swim didn't happen. I spent nearly two hours driving around looking for a place that had a cycling-appropriate wind-resistant, water-resistant jacket with zip-off sleeves. Finally found one, thank goodness, along with some other cold-weather cycling gear, so it looks like I'm once again good to go for the ride tomorrow. Score! Thank you, Bicycle World in Rice Village! Over the course of those two hours, though, I got to see the new-and-improved (expanded) Whole Earth Provision Company, which rocked in a big way. Picked up a cute, basic new shirt, had a very hard time not trying on all the other cute/useful clothes they had (e.g., etc.), and picked up some tri-berry nuun. Never had the stuff before, but I'm fast becoming a convert. I LOVE that you can just drop a tablet in your water bottle and it does the mixing all by itself--no shaking, no mixing, no weird leftover powder residue at the bottom of the bottle. Genius. It's just like Airborne, except without the weird foamy stuff at the top. Quick bike ride on the track after installing my new seat. New seat feels great, legs don't feel quite so good. Or didn't, anyway. The tweaky thing reared its ugly head, and after 20 minutes on the track I finally realized why it so randomly started hurting today: I was tapping my foot a lot at the concert last night. And that really got me down, the idea that something as simple as tapping my foot can make the muscle flare up. Squeezed five more minutes out of my precipitously dropping motivation and stopped. Got back to the car and wrestled with myself for a few minutes as I took my helmet etc. off and put the bike in the car. I didn't want to get only 25 minutes of exercise today, but I really just wanted to go home. Eventually picked up my bag and headed to the gym for a swim. Motivation was severely lacking, and at 850 yds I was ready to be done. Told myself to keep going, and got to 1300 yds. Was definitely ready to be done, but told myself to do the two 75s. They were sloppy, I was tired, I felt like I was sinking, my stroke was wretched. Told myself to do the final 2 150s, and decided to make them a single 300. The pulling was actually better--I got into a rhythm, felt more balanced, etc., and I did end up finishing the written workout. I'm sure that over the next few days when I step on the scale I'll be glad I pushed through. And part of me is glad I didn't give up. Most of me doesn't really care right now... but that's okay. I haven't had one of this kind of day in quite a while, and I think it's just my leg that's getting me down. Let's hope so, anyway. Presumably tomorrow morning's ride will be better.

This really isn't my week for biking. Got to campus, set up the bike, got all my gear on, and headed off to the bike track. Didn't get more than 50 yards away before I noticed a swishing sound coming from my front wheel. Stopped, held the front end up by the stem, and gave the front wheel a spin... and it didn't even make one full revolution. The tire is rubbing against the inside of the fork. The good news is that it's only rubbing for part of it, so I'm guessing that the problem is just that my wheel's out of true, rather than something being wrong with my fork. The bad news is that I don't know how (or have the equipment) to true a wheel, so I need to take it to the shop and have it fixed. I guess this means I'll get to start looking at new seats earlier than I thought! So, it turns out that I'm a dork and apparently don't know how to put my front wheel on properly... when I took it to the shop, the guy took a look at it and said, "oh, it's not on quite right." And he tweaked the quick-release lever and voila, no more rubbing. Apparently the wheel is a little out of true, but not as much as I thought. But boy, did I look like a dork. Went straight from the shop to Memorial Park, which was indeed easy to find. Lots and lots and lots of people. I can see why so many people use the path, though... it's great! Not a bad run. Probably should have kept to a slower pace, and my leg thing did tweak a tiny bit, but overall not so bad. And there was so much people- and dog-watching to do that I hardly missed my ipod (which I accidentally left at home).

Easy swim to loosen up. Arms were a little tired in the beginning, but felt better toward the end. Would have gone longer, but I got to the pool late and didn't have time to do more... 'cause I had to go to my 90-minute sports massage. Love. It. Not loving what my weight's doing the last couple of days--here's hoping that it's just post-race weirdness and that I'm not backsliding!

REST DAY!!! Was going to go for a short (1000yd) easy swim to loosen up, but in my zombie-like state when I left the house at 5:30 this morning (to take Steve to the airport, and myself to work) I forgot the ID that gets me into the pool. Just as well.

Beer bike was canceled due to insanely wet weather and the (unrelated) death of an undergrad on campus. I was glad to have the extra time, actually, so that we could be more relaxed about getting down to Galveston for the pre-race meeting and packet pickup. Ended up taking a rest day.