a NO suckage kind of weekend

this weekend's training was one of those to write home about. actually, the whole week was great, especially after the wash out we had around here last weekend. i got in my long run on wednesday morning, a 13 miler, and lots of strong rides. this weekend, we hit the hills on saturday and ended up with 76.5 miles and an average speed of 20.1, which is killer strong for this particular ride. this morning, the j-man and i went out for our usual 50 miler and as usual, there are always a few surges here and there...gotta spank a few cyclists now and then. i get way too much pleasure out of doing that. i'm so ashamed...NOT! we averaged a nice 20.8 mph for that ride. once we got home, i did my transition from bike to run and was out the door for my scheduled 4 miler. a big thanks to the j-man for cleaning my bike off, so i could get cranking on the run asap. before i left, i filled my hand-held water bottle with lots of ice and cold water and was on my way. this helped so much because it was hot and the sun was out in full force. i kept drinking and pouring the cold water on my head and that worked beautifully. i'm on to something here! overall, a grand weekend of training and i feel good about where my training is at this time...exactly where it needs to be.

are there any entomologists out there that read my blog? if so, can you tell what kind of bug bit the crap out of me while i was swimming in the pool? actually, whatever it was that bit me was on the kickboard i was using because i was doing a kicking set when i felt the bite but didn't really think much about it when it happened. i'm not sure if it's getting better or worse. if you click on the picture to make it bigger, you can get a better look at it. it itches on and off and when it does itch, i scratch the hell out of it. it's warm to the touch and slightly raised but doesn't hurt at all thank goodness. in the meantime, i'm keeping an eye on it to make sure it doesn't turn into an infection. good times!

i had a A-Ha kind of moment this week. for about the last 3 months, i have had a lot of uncomfortableness on my tri-bike saddle, particularly in the aero position. call it monkey butt, heat rash, hell on earth, whatever you like, it hurt! i tried different bike shorts, bag balm, a different seat, nothing helped. we couldn't figure out why since the first 6 months that i had the tri bike, this was never an issue. what changed? i finally figured it out when the j-man put the new seat on last weekend for me to try and i told him that i felt like the seat was now to high. we had completely forgotten that we flipped my step to make me lower in the front, thus changing my position. last night, we put the bike back to where it was originally and it was like a dream ride this morning. no pain whatsoever. i'm so happy and so is my hoo-ha!

speaking of monkey butt, stay tuned because since i've had the troubles downtown, i've been using the lady anti monkey butt powder and i love it. more details on AMBP and a giveaway coming this week. you know you want some!

i hope everyone who raced this weekend had a good one. looking forward to reading up on all the great race reports tomorrow. while we are on the subject of races, i have a fantastic blog post coming sometime this week that will focus on some quality Q & A's with 2 recent, Ford Ironman Coeur d’Alene finishers. it was their first IM distance race also. i know for many of us getting ready to do 140.6 either this year or next year, we will enjoy reading about their experience since we can totally relate to them. 2 weeks ago, they were just mere mortals, today they are IRON(wo)MEN!

i want to leave you with a funny commercial. i crack up everytime i see it come on the T.V. make sure you turn my playlist off so you can here the song playing on the ad.

there are so many subtle things in the video that catch my attention, like the hoody sweatshirt that reads Hampstar and the street sign that reads Hampsterdam, and all the billboards in the background that are hamster related.  LOVE. THIS. COMMERCIAL!
much love and peace out!