yo, slow your roll!

these last few days have been a little annoying trying to fight off a cold and trying to figure out the knee tightness. honestly, i think my body finally decided to step up and send me signals i could feel to remind me to... "yo, slow your roll!" i ended up stopping at the store on thursday instead of going swimming because honestly, i was feeling a little beat up with a headache, sore throat, achy body. i couldn't figure out if i was sore from the weight training and abs from my easy morning workout or if it was the crud trying to get me. nonetheless, i stopped at the store to stock up on cold supplies...chicken broth (low sodium, no msg of course) and sugarfree theraflu. yes, they now make sugarfree theraflu...that's how huge the diabetic market is! a huge money making diabetic market! anyway, so i got home from the store and for a split second, i thought about hopping on the bike for a ride but that thought didn't last long. i decided i needed to just chill out and as hard as it is for me to do that, i did. i figured if i just get some good rest that i would be able to wake up feeling much better and do the workout i had planned for the next morning.

27.6 miles (5.5 run, 1.1 swim, 21 bike)
was my workout, in that order, on friday morning before work and i actually felt great! a few funny things that happened during the workouts that i must share. first, there is this lady at the Y who gets to the pool about 10-15 minutes later than i do so i'm swimming by the time she gets there. she proceeds to stand in front of my lane and as i'm swimming up to the wall, i can hear her yelling in her very new york accent, 'how's the wata?" the first time this happened, my goggles were so fogged up i couldn't tell if she was yelling this out to me or the lifegaurds across the way. i finally realized it was me. now i'm just used to it. yesterday, my swim buddy and i decided to be brave and try out the long course because frankly, we had no other choice since friday mornings are set up for the long course. for those who aren't familiar with how that works, here's a quick explanation. most pools have schedules set up where they will place the pool lane dividers across or long ways. the short course is 25 meters and the long course is 50 meters. since i started swimming at the beginning of january, i have conveniently opted for the short course however, yesterday i had no trouble getting comfortable going long. 

 something else that made be laugh at the pool yesterday. remember the lady from new york, well apparently, she knows everybody and their schedules. she tells me and swim buddy, that there is a swim team that gets there at 6:30am and they ALWAYS use the first 2 lanes, the lanes we just so happened to be in. my first thought is, what's wrong with the 2 end lanes on the other end of the pool? but whatever, we'll see if they get there and deal with it then. sure enough, right around 6:30am, i see a general mao-tse-tung look alike hovering above but he doesn't say anything, he just glares, so i keep swimming. then he sits down in front of our lanes. i'm starting to wonder to myself, is he going to ask us to move or what? seriously, he was annoying the hell out of me just being there watching. then i noticed 2 or 3 young swimmers standing there watching with him. finally, i looked at him and said, do you want to use these lanes and in a very drab manner, he says yes and that was it. no thank you. no, here let me help you move all your shit to the other side of the freakin pool...jackass! swim buddy and i decided we don't like the friday crowd all that much. unfortunately, the way the weather has been acting, we've had to adjust our swim schedules a bit. pretty soon we won't have to worry about that at all thank goodness. i miss the days of 90 degrees and 100% humidity. i'm over having to check weather.com every morning.

today we (me and favorite riding partner, jc) beat the rain and got in a 52 mile ride with a couple of riding buddies. i still felt a little shitty because of not getting enough sleep but rode well under the circumstances. i have to be on my death bed to not get my fun in for the day.  tomorrow i'm feeling a long run coming on. i forgot to mention that during my run yesterday, that odd side knee pain was fine. again, one of the loud and clear messages my body is sending to say, "yo, you need to stretch more too!" i made sure i did my stretches throughout the day, before and after i ran and biked. all good...knock on wood.

my new toy just got here today! my ipod touch! now i gotta learn to use it. already sync'd all of my music but now i need to research some of the really cool apps out there, like the nike+. i'm letting it charge up now.

have a lovely weekend everyone. much love and peace out!

irritated!

for some reason, i have been out of sorts this week and for the life of me, i can't put my finger on why this is. LOL...oh who am i kidding, i know why. when my best laid plans go down the drain, i get slightly irritated, just slightly. such is the case this week with the pool and not being able to get in there in the AM as i had so diligently planned, which in turn throws all of my other plans off. i was ready and willing, awake, bright-eyed and bushy tailed but not the weather. i've become a prisoner to this stupid, can't-make-up-its-freakin'-mind, weather here. now my panties are all up in a wad and i can't fix em'!

so i guess i'll just go take me some of these fine pills and down my 3rd cup of coffee and be all good in an hour or two. i'll be hitting the pool today and tomorrow to get in my last 2 sessions so i don't need to worry about squeezing that in over the weekend. maybe, and i say that reluctantly, i'll be able to swim tomorrow morning if the temp cooperates. i'll keep my fingers crossed because i really prefer to swim in the AM versus after work.

i forgot to mention the other thing that has me all up in a tizzy. yesterday i was running along the golf course where there is a small, uphill section that you need to run through. anyway, after i ran that part and got back on the flat, i felt like nancy kerrigan after tonya hardings henchmen whacked her in the knee! it came out of nowhere. thank goodness i only had about 1 mile left but i had to stop about 3 times to stretch out, which did make the odd pain go away temporarily. i suspect i'm not stretching enough...gotta fix that asap.  i didn't run this morning, so we'll see how everything feels when i run  tomorrow morning.  until then, i hope everyone's work week is flying by. next post will be a happy post as i should have my new toy...the ipod touch very, very soon.

that's all i got for now...peace out!

i'm convinced, exercise is the best medicine

sometimes i find that when i write about something, something that isn't necessarily positive or good news, that it makes me feel better, so here goes. i have a really wonderful friend i grew up with who recently received bad news regarding her mom's health with an unofficial 2 months left. as i read her email this morning, it brought back so many memories for me, some good and some bad. i was in her shoes almost 3 years ago. i lost my mom, then my dad 3 weeks later. my mom's death was expected as she was ill for a long time but not my dad. nonetheless, it's never an easy thing to except or deal with but somehow you find a way. my way was through working out, not medication. medication would have been too easy.

the reason i'm writing about this is because my friend mentioned that she was feeling a little guilty about an upcoming event that she wasn't sure she'd be able to be ready for with so much up in the air. i lived with those guilty thoughts for so many years with my mom's health always hanging in the balance and it's a strange place to be. i'm off at a race having fun, my mom is in a nursing home suffering and my dad is there with her all day? you just never feel quite right and you question yourself a lot...am i being selfish? am i a terrible daughter?  i know the answer now and it took a while to figure out. you can't stop living your life and you can't stop doing the things that make you who you are and bring you happiness. sure you may have to improvise a bit with your schedule but it is so important for your well being to keep the things in your life that help center you and make your heart sing.

                  *******************

well, i was supposed to swim this morning but weather.com said it was 42 degrees so i didn't risk the chance that the pool would be open and instead ran a glorious 6 miles and biked 10.5 miles...to be continued later. i'm thinking hit the pool after work, and add a few more miles on the run and bike to top it off. i feel great, why not!?

have a great day everyone!

looking back & looking ahead

last week started off nicely with having mlk jr. day off. bear with me now as i go into a whine-fest: i got to get in an extra bike ride with my love BUT did not make it to the pool that afternoon like i normally would have done had i worked that day. and that has eaten at me all week because i only made it to the pool twice! that's just me, no surprise there. i was also disappointed that i only got in 23 miles of running for the week too. i like to at least get in 30 miles per week when i'm not training for a marathon. friday morning was supposed to be my last running day of the week and i would have gotten a tad bit over 30 miles for the week but it was pouring down rain and i mean HARD rain. i don't mind running in a light rain but not a torrential downpour. and since the entire weekend was in the 70's, i rode my ass off and didn't run. needless to say, i got in more than enough biking. but that's in the past now and in looking at the big picture, it doesn't really matter. there were some good highlights of the week, particularly tuesday and thursday morning. i had some killer workouts...i got to run, swim, and bike all in a row before heading to work. that was so much fun and i look forward to throwing those in frequently.

unfortunately, the upcoming week's weather isn't looking too promising for a tuesday morning triathlon but we'll see. the 7 day forecast above is not specifically for our area where it can be about 5-6 degrees colder so i've seen some lows forecast for that morning, for our area, at right around 42-43.  if that's the case, then no pool access until weather.com says it is 43 or higher. one of my goals this week, besides getting back to my 3 swim sessions, is to get in a long run. i have another 3 weeks or so to wrap up the half marathon training...tuesday morning may be the day for this.

i patiently await my new toy...the itouch. should be arriving sometime this week and i'm looking forward to all the cool podcasts i've been hearing fellow bloggers speak of highly. i can hardly wait to explore all the neat apps i can download for training on the bike trainer too. i still love my teeny tiny shuffle but this...this is gonna be a whole new world opening up before my very eyes. what podcasts do you absolutely love? what apps are a must have? i'm open to suggestions so please feel free to leave your comments~they are much appreciated.

here's to a great week ahead and putting last week behind me.

much love and peace out!

a very, very late marathon race report

                 

october 18, 2009: nike women's marathon, san fran:  i didn't have a blog back when i ran this very cool marathon unfortunately, but felt like itwas worth writing about. this was the nike women's marathon in san francisco, california. to get in to this    marathon, you have to fill out an application by mid may and then much like the NYC marathon, the runners are picked out lottery style. much to my surprise, when i registered for it, i thought i probably wouldn't be one of the chosen one's but by the end of may, i received an email with the good news. my thoughts at that moment...COOL! then i remembered that since this marathon is in mid october, most, if not all of my long runs would be run in the dead heat of summer. and guess what, they all were run in the dead heat of summer!! funny thing is, the weekend of the marathon, the weather in florida was colder than it was in san fran. anyway, so back to the summer training. my strategy was simple, get up by 4am, out the door no later than 4:30am and git er' done before the sun comes up, so that's exactly how i did it and i did this during the week before work so that i could ride, ride, ride all weekend long and not have to have that "long run" weighing on my mind. worked like a charm too.

we got to san fran on friday, october 16th, 2 days before the marathon. we went directly to the expo to retrieve our race packets and pick up some freebies like luna chews, smoothie samples, and of course ghirardelli chocolates (lots of em').

inside the expo, under the tent, there were big screen plasma tv's showing the guest speaker of the hour. it's hard to see, but joan benoit samuelson is the guest speaker up on the screen. i thought the expo would be cream of the crop but it wasn't. when you've been to the boston marathon, nothing, and i mean nothing compares to boston's expo, to the city, and to the marathon course itself.

this is the view from one window of our hotel room on the 23rd floor. if you look at the bottom, middle of the picture, you can see the red wall at niketown with every participants name on it.

not the most flattering picture...my name was so far up that i just pointed up to where it was. i couldn't get close enough to the wall because there were so many people crouching down to take pictures at the very bottom. it was wall to wall people, totally not my scene.

race morning!! me and 20,000 others. first mile sucked. i had to elbow 2 runners going around a corner. felt like i was in rush hour traffic on 275. anyone who knows me, knows i'm a raging lunatic when i'm stuck in traffic. i hate feeling trapped. anyway. got past that crowded up first mile and set my pace at between 8-8:30's the whole way. one of my fav parts of the run was at mile 4, running by the famous boudin bakery near the wharf. those sneaky bakers pipe that fresh bread smell out to the street and it smelled so good! shameful that they weren't handing out samples. mile 6 to 7 was probably the hardest as it was all uphill and the downhill was off the chain. i felt like a runaway freight train barreling down the tracks. no joke! overall, the first half of the marathon was the hilliest.

this is me at mile 16 feeling AWESOME. my friend bella took this picture of me and i remember looking at my watch, looking at her and telling her, i feel great, i'll see you in about an hour and a half. i stayed true to my word but about 2 miles after i said that, my quads started to cramp up. the downhill effect was now starting to kick in. i wanted to stop and walk so bad. i knew that if i did that, i might never be able to get running again so i trudged along.

that's me with the white cap on finishing strong. i finished in 3:39:37 and was very happy with that time considering the way my legs felt. as a side note, this race is a huge team in training/leukemia & lymphoma society run so you see tons and tons of TNT chapters out there...a sea of purple. many of the walkers/runners who ran for TNT started the race 90 minutes before everyone else, thus the 3 ladies in front of me so NO, they did not beat me to the finish line.

bella and i at the finish line! yay! she was my photographer, my cheerleader, my mule (she carried all my stuff), and my chauffeur around town. her reward, an official race shirt. somehow i ended up with an extra one but i won't say how. thank you bella!

the best race reward ever: a finishers necklace designed and made by tiffany. it's silver and on the front it says run like a girl and on the back it says nike s.f. 2009. much better than a useless medal that would have gone straight into the shoebox with the rest of em'. it is so beautiful that i'm scared to wear it because i may lose it. it's only for special occasions.

and it never fails, brand new pair of running socks with no holes 4 hours before...and after 26.2 miles, with holes.

my overall impression of the race on a scale from 1 to 10, 10 being boston marathon awesome...it was a 6.5. san francisco is a great city, my 2nd marathon there, but i still think it's such a pain in the a$$ to travel there from the east coast, the city is so expensive, the hotels nickel and dime you to death and getting around isn't that easy so you are kinda forced to either take a cab or rent a car. if you are on a budget, this is not the marathon to do. if you want to PR (run your fastest time), this course is too hilly for that. pick a race in florida like jacksonville marathon. will i do it again? probably not. once was enough. for me, boston marathon is where it's at...no other marathon will ever compare to that. perhaps that's where i will be april 2011. until then, i have an ironman to train for and i'm in it to win it (ok, not to win it, but finish it which is winning in my book).

to the hills tomorrow for a glorious ride with some fabulous friends.

much love and peace out!

                                  

i love threesomes : )

i can't believe it's 9pm and i'm still wide awake. i did a threesome (minds out of the gutter) again like i did on tuesday but this time biked an extra 8 miles and got to ride outside. i'm so happy that it has gotten warmer.

my part-time job workout went something like this...ran 5.6 miles, swam 1600 meters, biked 29 miles, then proceeded to go to work. surprisingly, i feel great, not exhausted at all. this week was the first time i got to test the waters, so to speak, in the early am. i wasn't sure i would like it since i was getting used to going after work, but it worked out real well. my morning swim buddy is really cool and the lifeguards are super nice. although i still prefer to get to work early and leave early, these tuesday/thursday 3-somes are too much fun, so i shall continue to do them.

i haven't decided what tomorrow morning's workout will be yet. i may just make that decision when i wake up and go with whatever i'm feeling the love for at that moment.  i hope i don't shut the alarm off in the morning and continue sleeping like i did on tuesday. that makes for a cranky kc and i can't stand it.

great news for the weekend...the weather is looking absolutely fabulous. many, many miles will be logged in the hills this weekend that is a big for sure. i can't wait! i also plan on catching up on all of my fav blogger's blogs and leaving comments like a mad-woman. google reader is my new favorite website. i can read all of the blogs i'm subscibed to all in one place. it's simply genius! check it out if you haven't already-you won't be sorry.

good night everyone!

my favorite riding partner

a while back i wrote a post about my favorite running partner so i think today would be a great day to tell you about my boo, the love of my life, hunk-a-hunk-a burnin' love, my side kick, my best friend, my husband...you get the picture.

my favorite riding partner's name is jc and we have been married 13 years but we've known each other over 20 years! it was love at first sight. he worked in the mall, i worked in a kiosk in the middle of the mall, conveniently located right in front of where he worked. i had a lot of fun watching him sell shoes too.

neither one of us cycled or ran when we first met but somewhere along the way, we decided to buy cheapo "ten-speeds" at wilson's sporting goods (no longer exists today) and began riding a bit here and there. by riding, i mean a couple of times around al lopez park which was a 1 mile loop (back in the day it was known as horizon park) and if we went around it 5 times (5 miles), that was a big deal. i wouldn't even dirty a pair of cycling shorts or a jersey for five miles now, that's ridiculous...why bother? but that's how good things sometimes begin...by accident. and how times have changed since then.

we then bought our first mountain bikes around 1993. both schwinn's with zero suspension for about $300 each. nothing too fancy, just enough to get us going on some local trails without falling to pieces like a huffy would. we really started to get into that and quickly upgraded to cannondale f400's with front suspension...the front suspension made of elastomer. amazing to think how far technology has come with front suspension since those first rock shox, which by the way, you could barely feel the dampening when you hit a bump or root. so we rode those into the ground and then moved on to full suspension rigs. once you go full suspension, you never go back. i'd like to think we graduated each step of the way and earned better bike each time. as you can see, most of my early cycling was on trails, so my bike handling skills have easily trasferred over to the roadbike. can't say that happens as easily for those who started off on roadbikes and then tried to mountain bike. i've yet to be proven wrong on that theory by the way.

jc is my personal cycling coach and he is tough on me. he taught me to jump a log even though i was scared. he stood next to the log to "catch" me if i was going to fall. he taught me to go down all the stairs at the tampa convention center on the mountain bike. that was way cool!  i can remember busting my butt behind him mountain biking and he would stop, make sure i was ok, and tell me to brush it off and get back on.  he would tell me, "you have to just get back up and keep riding, you can't ride scared."  so that's what i did and i'm so glad he didn't baby me. i've broken bones mountain biking, crashed and needed stitches. just as long as jc was right there, all was fine. he also pushes me like no one else on the roadbike. because of him, i have learned to love the pain of lactic acid burning in my legs trying to stay behind him. i cherish the rides we have together and we don't even have to talk all that much, just riding together is so much fun.

he was just informed recently that he has been officially hired as my ironman cycling coach. one of his goals is to teach me to change my own tire. i have the concept in my head and have helped someone change their mountain bike tire but that is much easier to do than a roadbike tire. he's always there if i get a flat but i will be on my own come october 23rd, so learning to change a flat is a big deal for me.

i don't want to be helpless like the prissy, damsel in distress in the above magazine cover.

So that's my jc. i did forget to mention that he is the greatest bike mechanic (self-taught) and he can build a bad-ass bike from the ground up. he continues to impress me to this day and i still get butterflies in my stomach when he's on his way home from work.

as a side note on the training front today, nothing really worth writing home about. after the a$$ kicking i inflicted on myself yesterday, weights and abs was all she wrote for me today. i will repeat that same kick in the butt again tomorrow but the ride will be outside since it will be warmer. that makes me very happy.

much love and peace out!

finally, the 43 degrees or less curse is over...for now

unbelievable! i finally got the opportunity to swim this morning because the temp finally climbed above the Y's magic number of 43. my new swimming buddy and i have been trying to meet in the AM for a swim since january 5th to no avail. they absolutely will not allow us to swim if it's below the magic number. i can completely understand where they are coming from and i don't fault them for playing by the rules. one of my friend's informed me recently that the reason they do this is more for the lifeguards...poor things have to be barefoot out there. i know if i'm cold while running or cycling, they are even colder because they just sit there. you couldn't pay me enough to do that job. bless them for being there and being so tough.

so this is how my day went...i woke up at 4amhad my coffee, then out the doorfor a 5.5 mile run, which felt really good and helped to wake me up. came back home, threw on my swimsuit and hopped in the car heading for the pool. started swimming by 6am and done by 7. i decided today to not focus so much on counting laps and to just pay more attention to form. this is not easy for me to do because i'm a volume person. i believe it comes from my philosophy of high mileage running and cycling makes you better. by no means do i mean overdoing it. everyone is different but in my experience the higher mileage has worked for me. this is not true with swimming. swimming is a skill in my opinion, it's learning to move thru the water with efficiency, not trying to fight the water resistance. i'm a fighter right now but i'm trying my best to change my thinking to work on drills versus how many meters i swam. in other words, quality versus quantity. this old dog is gonna learn some new tricks! ok, back to my morning triathlon...so after swimming, hopped back in the car, came home and jumped on the bikefor an hour of intervals which is approximately a 21 mile ride. all in all, a very good morning workout that i will repeat on thursday.

i really thought that after that marathon of a workout this morning that i would be falling asleep at my desk by 4pmbut no, i still have tons of energy. although tonight, i will probably sleep like a log.

that's about it for today. is it too early to be looking forward to the weekend? at least it's a short week.

much love and peace out!

j-lo booty

my husband is a very lucky man and he knows it. i was born to NOT shop. i dislike everything about shopping, however, i do love to shop online especially when it comes to workout gear but i only buy what i need, at the best price i can find and i don't go crazy purchasing things that aren't necessary. i've been telling the love of my life that i really need to go to sports authority or dick's sporting goods and pick up a new swim suit. i was actually surprised a while back when i found my 2 nike two piece suits from 5 years ago still intact and not eaten by dry rot. one is black and the other is dark blue. the tops still fit perfectly (surprise!) but the bottoms, not so much. what the hell? did i have a j-lo booty before and not know it? the bottoms are a bit baggy in the buttisimo for my taste. no can do! i've used them for the last 2 weeks and that was enough. we took a quick ride to dick's sporting goods and they had a very poor selection of 2 piece suits. what's the problem? did a memo come out that said one piece is the only style that is "in?"  i really don't care for one piece swim suits at all. wore em' as a child because i thought i was fat and maybe i was a little fatty but refuse to wear them now. i ended up finding only a speedo bottom and it is darn cute and marked down from $30 to $5...that's what i'm talking about and they fit perfectly. no baggy butt for me! couldn't find the top and not sure if it even came with one but my black nike top will work beautifully and no one will know they didn't come as a set. now the goal is to find some more and preferably with tops. next week i'll hit sports authority. i can only take so much shopping in one day and that 30 minutes i was in dick's today was my quota for the week.

as the ironman distance race i'm doing in october gets a little closer, i will do my research at splish to see what kind of unique suit i can design. i recently stumbled upon this over at a fellow blogger's blog. her name is heidi and you can see her really unique suit that her husband helped her design here. the coolest swimsuit i have ever seen for sure.

it was nice being off today for mlk day. got in a nice 50 mile ride with my favorite riding partner and we fought the wind like warriors. tomorrow i'll start the day running, swimming and cycling...a triathlon, then to work, then home to crash! i can't wait.

much love and peace out for now!

10 things that make me happy...

                                               
i was recently tagged by a fellow triathlete and blogger pal over at journeys of a triathlete father of five, to write a "Ten Things That Make Me Happy list. Here it goes and in no particular order:

1. being married to the most incredible person
2. knowing i have a secure job and loving what i do
3. thinking about my wonderful childhood
4. thinking about my late parent's and remembering what an awesome upbringing they provided
5. having caring in-laws
6. all of my bikes : )
7. the roof over my head ~ my humble castle
8. having a paid off car
9. group rides with some genuine folks
10. early morning solo runs...this is when i think about #'s 1-9 above and feel like one very lucky lady!


i'm sure i could think of more but those are the first one's that came to mind. thank you Mark for tagging me. loved your list!

sunday randomness

wasn't sure what the plan was this morning when i woke up to rain. should i wait until it stops raining then go mountain bike? should i just ride on the bike trainer (again!) and weight train? should i wait until it dries up then go ride the road bike? and all of a sudden i remembered, i'm supposed to be training for the gasparilla half marathon and i haven't done a "long" run in over 2 weeks. as soon as the last bit of rain moved out, i was out the door for a 12 mile run. my last long run was on january 2nd and it was just a tad bit over 10 miles, so i needed to get this run in. started off not feeling too great...must have been that whole wheat bread with natural peanut butter. gross! i usually run my best on an empty stomach but i ate the above mentioned breakfast prior to making the decision to do the long run. my bad! it took a good 2-3 miles and then finally one really good burp and i felt much better and my favorite running song came on, so life was good for the rest of the run. my pace wasn't too shabby either~1:30:34, which was a 7:33/mile average pace.  most of my run was in my personal disney world (flatwoods park). i must say, after running in such cool weather lately, today felt really HOT. my face was beet red when i got home. but i'm not complaining because it really felt good to sweat and taste the salt on my tongue everytime i threw water on my face at the water stations.

on our ride yesterday with the group (see previous post), i noticed signs posted on some of the trees that read something like this: warning: hunting boundary. hunting? never, ever has this park had hunting allowed in it, so i thought maybe someone posted those as a joke. however, on this mornings run, as i ran thru my secret passageway into my personal disney world, i saw this sign posted:

interesting sign, huh? hog hunting!! and what a coincidence that i just blogged about this. see my other previous post from friday, january 15th for more details. apparently, the traps they were setting weren't the answer to this overpopulation of hogs. for every one or two i saw them removing, there were probably 10-20 babies being born so it was like 1 step forward, 4 steps back. next time i go mountain biking, i will take my camera and take a picture of the destruction these hogs can do. you would think a huge piece of farm machinery had plowed thru the area. bad for the ecosystem and other living creatures in the area that need food too and bad for cyclist : )

here is another common sight in this area:

this cute little guy was at our local post office pond this afternoon but you can pretty much see one or two in every pond in this area. i never saw gators growing up in florida (i know, hard to imagine) but as soon as i moved out to this area, they've become common to see and i look for them constantly. my only fear is that one day i'll be running in the dark and one will have lost it's bearings (they do that a lot in mating season) and will be on the path and i won't see it until i trip over it or step on it...yikes! i do try to be hyper-aware when i run though so hopefully that never happens. remember this picture the next time you do a triathlon in a lake in florida. they are there even if you don't see them. how's that for making you want to swim as fast as possible?

go vikings! go brett favre! hope everyone had a nice weekend and maybe you have tomorrow off too...which means more fun-more time to train! i'll be riding and swimming tomorrow for sure and very much looking forward to it.

much love and peace out ya'll!