Spirit weaves itself through and around our lives, giving us structure and nourishing us with a ceaseless flow of abundance. - Patricia J. Gentry

The essence of being a human is being able to direct your own life. - Stephen R. Covey

It's unclear what I have to do because the rules change and there are unspoken and un-agreed to expectations.  I remember sitting in the cafeteria at college one day sipping tea and thinking about what I needed to do.  It was simple then.  Go to school, get good grades, graduate and move on.   That was one thing I really liked about training for the Iron Man.  Simple.  Eat, Sleep, do the work outs, build, recover, build some more, recover from injury or overtraining, get back on track.  There is a simple goal.  Get to the start line prepared to run the race.  I'm working on simplifying my life but in the mean time it remains messy. 

I reread Friel last night on recovery from Iron Man.  And I've re read the thread on recovery here on BT.  So today rather than go swim, I slept in a bit more, did some very, very light weights, and rode my mtn bike 15 minutes to work.  I felt tired when I awoke this morning.  Rest and recovery are good.  It's almost nap time.

Part of my current plan is to look at BT ONLY durning lunch.  No sneak a peak at what everyone else is doing during the work day!  Even if it is coffee break. :)

If I feel trapped , let me look at how I built the trap, and how I  can take it apart.  Where I used to say, "I can't," let me practice saying, "I won't." - Casey and Vanceburg

This morning I'm wanting to get out and do something.  The bike commute (all of three miles) has felt wonderful each morning this week.  Sure not ready to run yet, although the swelling in my feet seems to have gone all the way down, the bottoms of my feet are still just a little tender.  Perhaps a short ride to the pool, short swim, ride home - then commute to work for tomorrow.  I want to get back to the weights as well.  ski season is coming.  Think I'll still wait a few days before I demand much from the legs.  Perhaps a 1-2 hr ride on Saturday.  sure hope my bike arrives in time for me to get it put together and ride it on Sat.  If not, the old one will do.

Need to work on the RR as well as reducing pictures and uploading them.

Desperately trying to catch up after IMFL.  Trying real hard not to spend hours on BT.  Tomorrow I'll update.

Oh, tired.  how could that be?  Feet were quite swollen last night so I iced them. Brrr.  Lent my car to my son, so I had to bike in today.  It actually felt pretty good, and I think the easy spin is probably good to help the legs and especially the feet recover.  Now, at the end of the work day they are hurting again a little and feel swolen.  I set my timer to beep every 30 minutes today so I would remember to get up and stretch just a little.  A couple of times I stood on my head - makes the feet feel very good.

I need to be working.   Thinking I'll be traveling to Albuquerque to see my sister and spend a couple of days with my dad.  so not much time to work.  Got to pay the bills you know. 

I really want to get back to everyone I met at PCB and at least say hi.  RR's to read as well.     ....Oh and write.  I keep thinking about what a wonderful experience it was.  Writing the RR will be a fun thing.  I just spent some time getting my splits off of the website.    Interesting.  I sure had a ball.  AND I sure enjoyed all the BT folks.

 What to say about the incredible event yesterday?  It's still sinking in.

First I guess, is the support of the BT community and BT friends is really undiscribable.  To have people care and understand and are on the same road - incredible.  Thanks Aimee, and Sue, and Brittney, Sean, and Jay.  Folks I saw again and again on the run who made the journey to 140.6 a group endevor were awesome. Really.   Thanks to Speedleopard for originally inspiring me to do this thing, and to Kathy and Karen for all the lessons.  Thanks to all the BT folks who chimed in with answers to my thousand questions about training, the journey, and life in general.  I know I'm missing someone who was key, I don't mean to leave anyone out.  I've had hundreds of conversations with people, each of whom inspired me and contributed valuable and key information.  Thanks to my friend Carol who gave me very key nutriion information.  You-All are truely, truely awesome and wonderful.  Thanks to everyone who chimed in on the IMFL insanity check - it was really nice to take this trip with folks suffering from the same problems, dilusions, and fantasy. :)  I've sure enjoyed this road with you - and more so because of you.

The shear physical endevor is beyond discription.  I did make it to the finish line, although the last three miles were perhaps the longest miles of my life.    I did ask myself a couple of times, do I have what it takes to make it to the finish line?  The answer every time was a resounding yes.  I did however run past my training.  I guess that's part of the race itself.  The whole experience has sure changed my perspective - as well as my body.

One funny thing (in my mind at least).  Somewhere along about mile 23 a quote from Star Wars came to mind.  "Is there pain Obi Wan?  There is pain Luke... but the pleasure is greater."   You probably had to be there. :) 

I am sore today.

The race: I think my pacing was very good.  Nutrition - good, hydration - good.  I'm very pleased with the swim, the bike, and the run up to 20 miles.  More later, and in my race report.  I've got to pack - leaving at the crack of dawn.  I'm thinking I'd like to swim in the ocean one more time, but I'm running out of time.  And the award dinner is in about an hour, one more chance to mingle with the great BT folks here.  I've got to get packing - its getting dark and I've got to get going.