Now that's what I'm talking about. Windy again, but I decided that instead of feeling all sorry for myself for being stuck out on my bike in the wind, (again!!) I was going to muscle through and see how fast I could make myself go. Still had plenty of gas in the tank by the end, and the capacity to have gone harder, so this seems like good news for Sunday's Aquabike.

You can see in the LAP data where I turned into the wind. I lost 1 mph.

Nutrition = 3 Oreos before I left the house + 1.75 bottles of Infinit Whizzer. Heh. That makes me laugh.
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It rained on me, but it ultimately stopped and I was treated to a very nice rainbow.

Thanks Christine!

7:29 AM. I slept through my bike ride. On purpose. *sigh*. Alarm went off at 4:40 AM and I said... Idonthinkso. Will have to ride 1:55 in Z3 tonight after work. In the heat. Oh well. The sleep felt great. It was worth it.

This was a year or so after I started working, circa 1994, and the dress code was still suits/dresses and nylons for the girls and jackets and ties for the guys. Mark, that clown behind me, was new to our office. He'd just moved back to Illinois from a short stint in Minnesota. Funny thing about Mark that we found out entirely by accident... he went to college with my bff Rachael and he kissed her on her sorority house steps after a dance. She ran inside and never came back out. Awesome. Nice rabbit ears.

He and I still work for the Company... everyone else has moved on.

OWS in Crystal Lake. The water today left quite a stench on my suit and hair. Not sure what's in the water, but it's positively smelly.

No wetsuit. If I can avoid it, I do.

Swam all around the lake, here and there... Mostly off course... nothing to sight off of, and I was ahead of everyone else. The sun was in my eyes on the way back, so I wove hither and yon thru the water.

HOT HOT HOT HOT HOT

Used the Infinit "Whizzer" mix tonight. Orange flavored. Pretty good. More appealing than Heed. And much more appealing than Perpeteum.

Did the whole run/walk thing again tonight. This is how we build volume without hurting the Whizzzzzzzz. I'm fragile, you know. Knees...notsogood. Need to keep them intact thru IMWI 2009.

No small task.

What a day yesterday was. My heart breaks for Christine's family. Her boys. Her husband. I'm speechless. I'm saddened. How the world just goes on turning when all this stuff is happening is beyond me. I just don't get it. There's a plan in place, I believe that. But I don't get how we all play into it and why it has to seem so random. And how losing someone I've never met can hurt like it does.

 
T home from the hospital, and dumpster.

Me and T. She still had her little vet bandage on... from where they gave her the IV Phenobarbital.

So happy she's home. Hope for no more seizures.

Recovery Day!

Taetum stress, training stress, work stress. EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK. I need a day to turn it all off. Unfortunately, I only get to turn off the workouts today.

Taetum jumped up the 3 vertical feet to my bed, and waited for me while I was in the shower. I am amazed that she got up there on her own, as **I** sometimes have a problem getting into my own bed. And I'm not a geriatric dog. Well. Not in the literal sense, anyway.

Windy! Again!

Am disappointed in the average speed. I felt surprisingly strong after yesterday's run, and thought my average speed would have been faster. Was able to ride the cross wind waves from time to time... but generally was just trying not to get blown into traffic.

I suppose one good (weather wise) ride is all I get per season, huh? The Udder Century was pretty close to ideal conditions. Everything else this year has been a windy, hilly, horrifying torture fest.

Garmin says 2,862.1 ft elevation gain.

Ran around Moraine Hills State Park. The positive of that place is a crushed limestone path, which is easier on the old joints. The negative of that place is the hilliness. It's hilly.

Garmin says 2,442.7 ft of elevation gain. That seems like a LOT. I don't know if that's correct or not, but it sure as heck felt hilly.

Here's a tip: Do not put your FUEL BELT on BEFORE spraying yourself with insect repellent. Perhaps it would be better to spray yourself first, and THEN put your FUEL BELT ON.

I wound up spraying all my fuel belt bottles with OFF! They all tasted disgusting. And God only knows what DEET will do to me after ingested.

Corework

Misc fitness ball this and that.
2 x 15 hip lifts off edge of steps
2 x 10 prone hip lifts
2 x 15 Around the world on balance plate.

Lousy sleep last night.

Taetum had another seizure, so that woke us up around 3 AM. Tried to get back to sleep, but waves of thundestorms came through one after the other and kept us awake. I got about 30 consecutive minutes of sleep between 3 am and 7:30 am. Poo.

Long run today. My first, over 1.5 hours this season...   Done! I'm glad that's over.

200 swim
200 kick
200 pull w/ paddles
200 IM (2 x 100)
400 swim
4 x 100 (swim/IM/swim/IM)
300 swim
3 x 100 (swim/pull/swim)
200 swim
2 x 100 (swim/kick)
100 swim
100 easy
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2800 Meters

Kept the 100's moderate, finishing around 1:43-1:45.

Felt pretty good in the water tonight. Surprising, because I've been a bit tired and strung out the past couple of days.

7:07 AM: I slept through Masters. On purpose. I got up and it was raining and storming outside... I thought about the long day I had yesterday and the longish day I was going to have today, and I opted for SLEEP. Got about 2 extra hours of sleep. I'll take it. Swim will have to happen tonight.

I got my bank account linked to PayPal and verified, so I was able to make the withdrawals to myself and to ALS today. Look at our BT donation HERE. Just awesome!

Now, for a happy picture. I will scour the archives looking for something to brighten your Friday... Please Stand By...

OK, so how's this: (Or perhaps the question is more like "What's this?" )

Here we have a Halloween exchange, 10/25/1990. Costume, obviously. (Well, I hope you can say obviously....) On the left, Whitney and Michelle were Playboy Bunnies, Tristan, on the right was a biker-chick. I was a McDonald's employee gone wrong. Can you see my McRib pin? Ketchup packets? The sign on my chest says "BURGER THING". Yes. I worked @ McDonalds in college. For 3 years. Yes I did.

The most bizarre weather situation I've ever had the pleasure to run though.

I decided I'd give it a try outside since the thunderstorms looked like they were passing...

To my left, a pinkish, yellowish sky with the bright sun setting beneath a line of storm clouds.

Overhead, storm clouds and intermittent horizontal lightening. Very mild drizzle, and very breezy.

To my right, a huge double rainbow.

I got a little spooked from time to time when the lightening overhead would flash, but the drizzle and the breeze kept this nice and cool. The only issue was a pretty strong headwind on the return trip.

I haven't seen my splits yet. Used the electrical tape again.

Saw a family of deer standing in a cornfield. It was striking because they were backlit by the setting sun, which was just underneath the storm clouds. Very picturesque indeed.

That's my foot (circa 1986) and my little puppy Penny. I brought her home on my bike for my 16th birthday. Some guy a couple of blocks over had this basset hound in his front yard. The dog got pregnant and he was stuck with 7 puppies. He just handed me one. And I took it. Rode home with one hand on the handlebars and one hand holding this squirming puppy. Told my parents it was for my birthday.

Unfortunately, Penny met an untimely demise as she was hit by a Commonwealth Edison truck on Christmas Eve, 1986. My whole family witnessed the event and it was awful. Wrecked Christmas. Commonwealth Edison sent a representative to our house THAT SAME DAY, and they promised to get us a new dog when we were ready. We did replace Penny, but it wasn't the same.

*sigh*

Make sure you give your pets an extra hug today.

Yikes! I'm quite the downer. Have a great day, in spite of me.