Stats taken after ride and before dinner, %water 58.6. Work ended later than expected and I had to settle for a bit shorter ride than I wanted this evening. Cold front definitely went through as it was pretty dry out and so it actually felt a bit chilly. It was still quite pleasant. Just toured around the Middletown Valley until it was time to come back. Nice ride, considering. Now from the climbing the last 2 day, my left Achilles is bothering me a bit. Have to gauge this during the run tomorrow. Probably will have to ice it later. Fri - swim, weights, run Sat - brick on the WMRT Sun - century ride??? Mon - off or swim.

Stats taken after ride and before dinner, %water 58.4. Hmmm. While I'm low on water relatively speaking, I'd still expect my %BF to be down a bit more...(sigh)....still, it was good to see my weight below 160 which hasn't happened in quite some time. Will work on the %BF. Well, the weather was just perfect for an evening ride with light winds, temps in the low 80s, low humidity, and mostly sunny skies. And so, I decided to do a modified version of the 56+ mile ride that I enjoyed so much a few weeks back. I wanted to do some of the same roads, but didn't have much time to spare. Started near Walkersville rather than Monocacy Middle in Frederick and found the best route from there on those roads. And other than my bike computer having a problem intially, I really couldn't have asked for a much nicer ride! Roads were relatively quiet and I just enjoyed the ride and being alive at this point in my life! Had thought about going on 194 for the whole last 9 miles but I wanted near 2 hours and 30 miles. So deviated and went on 550/Dublin instead. That would be a bit longer and really a bit nicer route considering 194 is a major road. Good ride! Tomorrow: another ~2 hour ride scheduled. Might do hills in the northern valley, but perhaps a Wash Co. loop. Friday: swim, weights, run Sat: brick on the WMRT Sun: maybe swim first and then I am considering a self-supported century. Mon: off.

Will take stats later. As it may storm later, decided to get my swim and strength in first this morning and then hopefully either run or bike later when it's warmer. I'm thinking of running to the middle school track, doing some intervals, and running home. But, will see what the weather's like. If it's storming, I will do the Time Trial DVD that I like to do sometimes. The swim went pretty well though my right shoulder is still sore from Sunday's OWS. So, I was being easy with it as best I could. And it went okay, actually getting down to 6:20 for the last 300, decent for me at this point. I'll have to ice the area and maybe put some pain lotion on it later. More this evening... No storms/rain and turned out to be a nice evening. So, decided to go to the local track and do some interval work. I'm not positive if I counted everything correctly because of the overall pace for the time, though. Perhaps I missed a 660. Just seems too short for the effort, though the 220s were definitely in the 6 pace area. So first warmed up for a mile and then did 12 x 660, where 220 was sprint/fast pace and 440 was a recovery. Need to do these weekly if I can up until the HIM I think. Might try to do these at the track near work too along with doing stairs. Tomorrow if it's nice, I plan to do a bike ride after work. Perhaps something similar after work on Thurs too. Friday, swim, weights, run Sat - brick perhaps on the WMRT Sun - I'm considering a century ride. Monday - off

Scheduled rest day. Thought about not taking the day due to last week's illness, but thought I should stay on schedule. Plus it's raining and my shoulders are a bit sore from yesterday's swim. I may spin easy on the bike later and will note that if I do. Tomorrow: swim, weights, run Wed, bike Thur bike Fri swim, weights, run Sat or Sun, longer brick either on 194 or WMRT. Also, might do a 100 mile ride one of those days, preferable Sunday. Monday : off

Stats taken before dinner (but a couple hours after ice cream :) ), %water 58.6. First Open Water Swim practice of the season and I did fairly well considering. As he only had one kayaker, Ken Racine could only setup a 75m course. I had already decided to do 600s today and so it was 4 laps per. Initially cold but not that bad getting in the water. Just getting the face wet initially. Vegetation was fairly dense on the right side of the course today and I had to deal with that quite often. Good number of folks there too and it got a bit crowded but in some ways, this made for better practice. Also got to try and draft a bit here and there. First lap was slow and I picked up a bit for the next two. I think during the 2nd one, the vegetation seemed awfully solid and look to see fishing line. I'm getting tangle a bit and I motion the kayaker to come over to take this so someone else doesn't get caught. The hook actually stuck in my wetsuit just at the tip and I had to be careful not to rip anything. After the 3rd 600, decided to do 1 300 and attempted at a slightly faster stroke rate. Hmm, if I could maintain a 6:16 pace, that's 1h 27 min for IM swim distance. I've always thought about 1 1/2 hours for the swim is probably right for me, maybe a bit better if it's wetsuit legal. I'll have to test non wetsuit another day when it's warmer. Nothing else possible today :( Monday off Tuesday swim, weights, run Wed bike Thur bike Fri swim, weights run Sat or Sun may be a 100 miler bike depending on whether Mike still wants to go then. The other day should be a brick. This time perhaps 30-36 miles bike/3-4 miles run on 194.

Stats taken after brick, %water 58.6. Okay before I go on, this is who I got to meet today: 4X Ironman World Champion...Chrissie Wellington!! Yeah, she was on a book signing tour of her book "A Life Without Limits". It was a free event, but of course, you had to pay for the book. Still, to get the chance! It was awesome! I really wished I could've asked her some questions but we had so little time. It was still oh so VERY cool! What I asked her to sign: Such motivation, huh? Well, gotta read the book now. I know some of her story and I saw all 4 IMWC races she was in. Still, I'm sure this will be an interesting tale! Now, much later, I was able to get my brick in on route 67 near my house. This is a rolling route and I also used my road bike as I ran out of time to get my tri bike prepared. It wasn't the goal today anyway but I really need to get it prepped pronto for more training. Less than 2 months until Muncie. Bike was relatively slow for me on this route. Decided to either go out 10 miles or 45 min, whichever came first. 10 miles did and I headed back. Practiced getting out of my shoes on the bike and that went okay as usual. Then decided on 30 min on the run, 15 out and 15 back. Went decent too, though I have gone faster for this route and brick. It's okay, it'll get better I think. What a day! Tomorrow I have early morning OWS practice. Then it's Mother's Day, so not sure if I'll get a long run in tomorrow or not. Monday considering I had to take a couple of days off, I was debating taking Monday off. But there are things to do and I'll just take it down as planned. Tuesday swim, weights, run Wed Bike Thurs Bike Fri swim, weights, run Sat longish brick Sun swim, weights, run

Feeling whole lots better than yesterday but still out of sorts. Some sort of intestinal issue and it was pretty bad. Hit rather suddenly and I actually suspect undercooked food for dinner was the culprit. Seemed like it was definitely something I ate. More later if I feel like doing something today... As nice as it is outside, I'm going to take another down day. My insides still aren't 100% and I had a nasty headache this morning. That did go away but I'm just not feeling up to doing much. Hopefully, good to go tomorrow. Speaking of which...might have an interesting log tomorrow. Stay tuned....