Most excellent run today.  I'm convinced that God wants us to be happy.  With that thought in mind I had a truly enjoyable run and was simply happy.

I had good energy throughout the run.  Left knee hurt a little.  I had planned to walk at least a mile or two in the middle of the run, but only walked about three minutes to let my knee recover  ~ mile 7ish.  What made the run so good was I felt like I had energy all the way through.  Never felt like I just had to quit.

Factors that could have contributed to a really good run:

had coffee this morning.  This run was the day after a race.  I seem to do better a day or two after a good effort. Took a salt tablet and Sport legs before starting.  I did cliff blocks one every 5 min.  one swallow of drink every 5 min.  I took one protein bite thing every 1/2 hour.  Gel at 10 miles.  Wet my hat at the college, and mile 6ish and the parcourse.   I ran super easy.  Conversational pace throughout.  Mostly I think it was the nutrition.

Time may be a bit long.  I had to negotiate my way around a couple of barbed wire fences, and through two culverts.

Good run.  Stretched afterwards, shower, then cold bath.

A life full of endorphins is good.

Actually I've been thinking of how I might advise one of my young lady friends.  She's gotten back together with her husband, but is clearly not happy.  And they are not good together.  From those thoughts came my thought that God wants us to be happy.  Running with that idea in my head made me super aware of the world around me, and it was magnificent today.  Blue, blue sky, so many colors of green in the trees, and they seemed so three dimensional today.  Saw birds and lizards, and jackrabbits today.   Followed rabbit trails across the prairie on my run today.

1st place AG.  It would have been good enough for third in the younger AG.  Good thing I aged up.  The fastest guy in the younger age group ran a sub 8 min pace, and over 20 mph on the bike.  Those are my goals.

I might have been a bit better primed to race if I had worked out at all this week.  Ah well, that's the price I paid for pushing the biking last weekend.  Good race though.

16 of my new triathletes raced!  And mostly they all had a great time.  This race is a time trial start with ~ 120 athletes.  It was really fun watching them start one by one, and I saw lots of them on the course.  The younger, fairly fast guys (who swim slow) were finished when I started out on the run, but it was good to see them as well.  Great day, and it's fun knowing lots of people out there.  The Race Director mentioned our training group in his pre-race meeting. 

Great day.  A bunch of us had lunch together at the burger place across the street.  Mike Greer, who runs BSLT, was eating alone, so I went over and invited him to join us.  He had finished eating but came over and congratulated the new triathletes, and invited them to come race at Lubbock.  Had a nice little visit.  He's a charming guy.  Raced our race.  He's 73 years old.  Still looking pretty good and moving well.  What a character he is. 

I had a great day.  It's really fun when you've helped a bunch of people get ready then they race and have fun, also many of them got on the podium!

If we can really understand the problem, the answer will come out of it, because the answer is not separate from the problem. - J. Krishnamurti

This is so true.  Often if you can state the whole problem completely, then at least some of the answer becomes obvious.

Rest day today.

Swelling is going down.  Will it be enough to ride a bit tomorrow.  Think I'll take a page out of Yanti's book,  I'll probably race anyway.  After all, why do all this training then not race?

And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive. - Matthew 21:22

Some truths are self evident, and universal. 

Supposed to be a 2hr run this morning.  Sore places on thighs still too swollen and thighs rub when I walk. 

By noon swelling is down a bunch, ran over to pool and back with a little swim in between.  Still recovering from the infection and or big weekend.

Hope I can race on Saturday.  The big question is can I sit on the bike saddle. 

My tri group wants to go to dinner on Friday night.  Sounds like fun.  If this was an A race I would pass, but an invitation to go to dinner with three lovely young women just cannot be passed. (even if their husbands are coming. :)  )

Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing, because he could do only a little. - Edmund Burke

I thoroughly believe that we were put here to be ourselves.  That our contribution is valuable.  Just because I'm not the president of the United States, or the winner of Le Tour, does not mean that what I do is not important to the overall fabric of my world.  I try to fit and to contribute.  It is amazing to me what I can do once I start.  I am thankful for my attitude, my training, the lessons I've been presented with, and the abilities I've been given.

Doc gave me more antibiotics.  Feel better already, although thighs are still swollen and sore.  This is the worst it's ever been, and it's really my fault for ignoring the beginnings, and for continuing to ride even though I was in pretty great pain.  Interesting results to my behavior.  I hope there's no serious or lasting damage.

The mind can calculate, but the spirit yearns, and the heart knows what the heart knows. - Stephen King.

Sometimes it seems like I can get information and make decisions from three distinct places.  Mental logical reasoning, intuition from the head, and from my gut or heart.  Sometimes one leads the way, sometimes another.  It's really nice when all three can agree.  And decisions are tougher when the mind says one thing, but the heart says another.

Dr appointment today.  Perhaps after a dose of antibiotics, we can do some sort of maintenance version.  When I was a teenager the dermatologist put me on a low dose to help with acne, and that worked.  The last 14 days I was on the antibiotics I had no signs of saddle sores, but the week I went off the drugs, here came the little irritations that lead to big ones.  I've ridden a lot in the last few years, and I've been searching my brain for what could be different this year from before, and I come up with nothing. -- my current doc didn't have any ideas last time.  I see the skin doc in a few weeks, perhaps I'll get him involved in the discussion as well.

I was not happy with my performance this weekend.

Just could not hang on on Sunday.  Could be a sore butt, could be no massage on Saturday, could be that I rode harder on Saturday than last year, could be that I'm just not in as good a shape as last year, could be the hard start on Friday night, could be nutrition.  The body is an interesting thing.  At great distances many things can have an effect.

Looking at the numbers, I should be happy, but I just didn't have the strength or energy that I felt like I ought to have had.

Legs real sore this morning so I chose to make it a rest day.