Fabulous early morning run - longest ever run.  No time to blog now.

Two birds fly by
They are needed somewhere - Robert Bly

I love that quote.  It alludes to the thought that there is order and purpose to the things going on.  I am willing to be a tool, and to do things and be places that are not for me, but for others who are affected by my presence and actions.  I also recgonize that other people affect me by their actions and presence, and I appreciate them for it.  Especially y'all here on BT.

I'm really happy that I got up and went to the pool today to complete yesterday's work out.  My scheduled bike will be done tonight with the bike club.  I've been cutting the swim work outs too short for too long.  It felt good, and was not too boring.  I did have a pool sprite in the lane beside me for the first 1800 yards.  She was way fast, and I enjoyed watching her stroke, looking for pointers.  (as well as enjoying her form)

The should ship my new bike today.

Today is October 1st.  On November 1st, if all goes according to plan, I will be competing in the Iron Man Florida trathlon.
wow.

Mistakes are a fact of life.
It's the response to the error that counts. -Nikke Giovanni 

I know why this weekend's long brick felt so bad, and I've got to be honest about it in order to make sure it does not happen again: Thursday I went to Dallas.  I drank too much coffee, I did not stay hydrated, and I ignored my nutritional plan/needs.  It was also a tough long day of travel and meetings/bike testing.  All those things, combined with not enough sleep, caused the poor performance on Saturday.  Note to self: do not repeat this mistake before Iron Man.  - Especially just before the race. -- the spouse wants me to travel to Ruidoso the weekend before the race, which means I'll have to drive home on Tuesday then fly out on Tuesday - It sounds an awful lot like the Dallas trip problem.

Got up a little late, and had to take the spouse's car to the shop so I cut the swim to 30 minutes. - Bad Jasha!

Beautiful morning, I really like running before dawn.  Stars were bright and it was quite cool.  I walked a lot to baby the foot and ankle.  mostly a run 3 / walk 2 routine, although there was some run 4 / walk 1.  I think the injury was due to pushing the last long run much too fast.  -- then perhaps the 5 hour drive, although it was probably more due to the pace over the time.

I BOUGHT A BIKE!  Kuota K-factor SL - should be here in a couple of days - Can't wait!

Also made filght and car reservations to IMFL  - Flying in to Pennsecola (sp?) on Tuesday.  Now, to find a place to stay.

It's getting real.

Longest run month ever.

I've got to do a better job of getting to bed when the spouse visits.

Geophysical Society golf tournament today.  I haven't played since last year - have not even hit any balls this year.  Too busy training for IM.  It's not going to be pretty, but we play in the afternoon and the weather should be beautiful, and I'm playing with fun people - so it should be ok as long as I don't take it too seriously.  (so shut up stupid cat  :)  )

I did the work out's today, and everything felt fine, although I'm quite tired after yesterday.  I was so pooped on the bike yesterday, but today's little spin felt very good.  Coming back into town I decided to just make a fun ride out of it and took a couple little detours to just look at the neighborhood houses.  The run was good news because my foot and ankle held up fine with no sign of hurting.  It did hurt a bit stretching this morning.  This week has lots of run volume as well as the longest run of the whole training plan.  Next week has the longest bike of the plan. 

Here we go.  The two toughest weeks are up next.  Then taper.

today I'm looking for a reasonable and inexpensive used car for my son.  Laundry, dishes, general house keeping. 

We can only
Be Here Now. - Gita Bellin

I was worrying about how much of today I've spent working out (8 hours) and the fact that it is already almost 5pm.  but today's inspiration says it all. 

EAGLES!  I saw a huge eagle soar away, just above the misquite bushes as I rode up on it.  Then to my right and high I saw another big bird, which I judged to be a trukey vulture because against the sky it looked black and it was much smaller that the other bird which had a brownish plumage.  The smaller one the flew parallel to me and gave up just a little altitude to swoop ahead of me effortlessly.  I was riding about 15mph, so the bird with no apparent effort must have been doing 18 to 20.  Very graceful.  It then swooped up to the top of a telephone pole and folded it's wings.  As I rode by I looked at it's head to see if it was a vulture, but no,  it did have fairly dark plumage, but was another eagle.  Darker and smaller, is it the mate of the other?  Very cool sighting.

The mocking birds were singing earlier, and I got to see fish in the waters of the draw.

The morning was quite cool ~ 59 in town, but down to 55 out by the churches, and there were some light clouds so it didn't warm up for a long time.  I was glad I decided to take my arm warmers.  The day was quite nice, but the ride... how can I say this?  Sucked from the beginning.  I had no energy and felt tired from the very start.  Usually after a while things get better, but mostly this was a very hard ride.  I stopped at 40 miles for about 10 minutes to refill water bottles and visit with the bike club group who meet at the town and country at ~10:00 every Sat and Sun.  That was fun, and I rode out with some of them who went south.  When they turned around, I kept on going - Still had 4 hours to go.  When I turned on the last leg back to town the wind picked up in my face 10 to 15 mph, and I had nothing to give.  I did not feel like I was bonking, I just had no strength.  I stopped twice just to rest a little and I walked about a block.  Sore and tired.  I wonder if part of it was from riding bikes with strange seats on Thrusday.  I did feel pretty brused at the end of my demo rides.  Fortunately my seat is split but I was still a little sore at the end of my ride.  I got it done, although on most days a 6 hour ride would net me over 90 miles.  today just 86

The swim felt good, although I did get a cramp in my foot toward the end of the time trial.  Thought I'd do 3100, but it's not what the workout called for, and I was ready to stop.  I've got to spend more time in the pool.  NO SKIPPING SWIM WORKOUTS JASHA!

Extreme Veteran Posts: 439 Location: Midland, Texas Online Silver member

I went to both shops yesterday.  I had a GREAT experience with Sean (sp?) at Plano.  He did what I believe is a full fit on the first bike I tried (Kouta).  He is a bicyclist with many years of experience, and took his time and got it right.   He was very willing to share his experience and thoughts, but was careful not to tell me what he thought of the bikes, till I had tried all three he recommended.  While I was out on the first bike he set up the second, and was waiting with it when I came back with the first.  He did the same with the third bike.  It was really an awesome experience and Sean was very, very helpful.  I spent about three hours with him. I was kind of late getting to RBM (5 pm on a Thursday)  they weren't busy, but did not have a Cervelo (which I really wanted to try) in my size.  The sales guy looked in the computer and found one in their Frisco store - called over there to make sure they had it, and sent me over with good directions.  There was some problem rounding up a pair of peddles, but they finally found some. I worked with Chuck at the Frisco store, and I have to say I was unimpressed, and do not feel like he set it up right.  I liked the feel of the bike, but would like to have some more adjusting done.  Unfortunately, by that point I was running out of time and had to head back to the airport.  After setting the seat height, and having me spin some on the trainer, Chuck got his measuring device out and (very quickly) checked the hip and sholder angles and said, "they're within nominal, This is your bike."   It sounded more like a sales job to me than an appraisal.  He made no offer to try another bike.  I would like to have tried the QR, but like I said I ran out of time. So I'm sitting here trying to decide If I want the Kouta, which felt light and quick, or the Cervelo which felt fast and easy and more aero, but needs more fit work. -- more later. By the time I got in last night and got to bed it was midnight.  So this morning I just slept in till 8:30.  what a wonderful thing!  I did get up at 5:15 to feed the dogs so they would not be jumping on the wall outside my bedroom window.

I'm not sure how I glued the whole frame in there but interesting.

Be at Peace and see a clear pattern and plan running trhough all your lives.  Nothing is by chance. - Eileen Caddy.

This is one I'm having trouble with today.  It's just been a hard day for some reason.  I missed the run and swim yesterday, an I had planned to do them today.  I was just too tired.  so I get a second rest day in a row.  although I did ride bikes for about three hours on and off yesterday.  That was really fun.  and to top that off, I missed the Social Security office by five minutes, and they had screwed up my order at the optomitrist.  Got nothing done at work either.  I would have been better off just staying in bed all day.  NOW THERE"S an idea! :)  Good Night Gracie.

Tomorrow 6 hour ride 1.5 hr swim.  I love long bikes.  Up at 4:30.