Happy Thursday (And happy happy birthday to Markus Auerlius) - my seafaring, mountainclimbing, Swiss convert.

All is well here. You'll be happy to know that I did in fact make it out on my bike voyage on Sunday. I got in about 43 miles and made a new friend while biking. Lately, every time I am on my bike I get to talking to someone. Good times!

This week has gone somewhat smoothly. This is week 17 and the beginning of the taper phase. All of my workouts have become toned down and I'm feeling pretty good! My shins are still bothering me a bit so I have been substituting the elliptical for the tread mill.

We got our heat assignments for the race! So next Saturday at 7:29 a.m. into the ocean I go. Russell will be starting about 15 or 18 minutes after me depending on which heat they throw him into. I am getting sooooo excited!!!

Since I don't have much to say - All I do is work and train - I thought I would recap my favorite and hardest workouts of the past 17 weeks.

Swimming - I don't really enjoy swimming very much. The hours I have spent in my beloved 24-Hour Fitness pool don't really stand out as memorable or fun. I always enjoyed my swims in the Stanford pool. I would have to say that the most fun I had swimming was swimming to Flat Island in Hawaii with Ally. I don't really consider this a training swim as I was spending most of the time checking out the scenery, but it was awesome. At one point there was a huge sea turtle who popped his head out of the water to check out what I was doing - just a few arms lengths away! The most memorable swim was clearly when I almost drown in the Pacific Ocean by Crystal Pier with Brad B.

Biking - Again, the most fun I had was biking from Honolulu to the North Shore in Hawaii with Ally and her family. I think this was about 40 miles or so and absolutely beautiful. Not to discount my favorite ride that I do almost every weekend up the Pacific Coast Highway to Oceanside.

Running - hmm.... I can think of one run in particular - my usual route from my house down Pacific and Mission Beaches to the jetty. It was winter time and the beaches were empty. It was late day and as I was running I watched the most beautiful sunset. I felt like Forrest Gump. Ahhh. If only you knew. I think my most challenging run was the Mission Gorge 15K trail run from hell. You can read all about it (if you're so inclined) back at on a previous post.

All right - I've taken a long enough break. It is time to go back to work. Toodaloo for now! :)

LESS THAN 2 WEEKS!!
I am sitting on my couch - hungover. Yes, its true - It's not part of the training plan, but it was St. Patty's day yesterday. I haven't been drinking much over the past 16 weeks so yesterday's green beer binge during the MSU game didn't go over too well... I need to get up off my arse and grab my bike and get in a quick 50 miles - ha ha ha. I'm sure that will feel real great. ALL right - more later!

Tuesday Tuesday - My last 2500 swim workout! Woo Hoo! I am so happy about that! I am a about 2.5 weeks away from nirvana :-)

This week has been all right so far. They have decided to gut our office building so yesterday we heard a constant pounding, hammering and shuffling around. My head started to pound and pulsate so I took off for the pool by 5:30. After a brief conversation with Kevin, I hit the pool and swam an easy 1500. Getting easier...!!

The weekend was fabulous here - It felt like summer had arrived! Saturday was a 43 mile ride with Rana up the coast (a few miles shy due to impending darkness and fear of losing life to cell-phone yielding soccer mom driving urban grocery getter down the PCH.). Sunday was my last 90-minute run up the beach - It was sunny, hot and fabulous. My once empty beach was suddenly filled with beach-goers including the resident PB meat-head and bimbo population - gotta love it. I almost got hit by about 6 footballs, 3 frisbees, 1 bocci ball and 4 screaming toddlers. I also got hooted at twice. Ahh summer. I miss the serenity of the empty beach, even if it was a little cooler. After the run, I grabbed some CL tall boys, my bikini and my roomie and headed back to the beach for a snooze. Yes, it is a rough life here in San Diego!

Well, I better get back to work. This break is over. More later....

I, like Mel, am often inspired by song lyrics. I have filled up a few tablets with song lyrics of my own that still need the music to be added. In any event, I often love songs based soley on their lyrics.

When I work out, I am often listening to heavier music with angry lyrics. For some reason, this makes me feel really good when I'm in pain. I can often zone out and forget what is going on around me and focus in on the song as opposed to the pain I am inflicting on my body. This has become especially important with my training for this crazy race.

Though I have many favorites, I often find myself switching back to this song on my ipod during my run workouts. I can relate to it. (Plus, I love the Foo Fighters). This song reminds me of people you meet throughout life that can be considered as the ultimate suckages of positive energy - the bad karma producers of the world. I've run into a few. Luckily, I've rid myself of that negativity - it gets pounded out with every mile I run, with every lap I swim, with every mile I ride, and with every day that passes.

I love the line of the song that says "You're everything you're everything I'm not" - It reminds me that I am not this way (negative - energy sucking - bad karma producing). It reminds me that I am better than all of that and I am proud to be who I am. I feel good everyday that I don't have a nobody telling me I'm annoying, too fat, have frizzy hair, am not good enough etc. etc - reflections of himself.

Who's laughing now?
Anyways, enough from me - here it is:

Have It All (Foo Fighters - One by One Album)
You're my size I need to try you on
Someone in between the right and wrong
Through everything you kept your wings apart
Through everything you stayed the same old art
And when I've had enough


She drains me
When I'm empty
She fills herself
She takes it all
In too deep
She's spilling over me
In too deep
She's spilling over me
Don't wanna hear

Winding through this maze you hold me in
Searching all these days to find the end
You're everything, you're everything I'm not
I'm anything I'm anyone you want
And when I've had enough

She drains me
When I'm empty
She fills herself
She takes it all
In too deep
She's spilling over me
In too deep
She's spilling over me
Go on and have it all

Have it all, Have it all

You're everything you're everything I'm not
I'm anything I'm anyone you want

She drains me
When I'm empty
She fills herself
She takes it all
In too deep
She's spilling over me
In too deep
She's spilling over me
In too deep
She's spilling over me
In too deep
She's spilling over me

Have it all

Damn I'm tired. That is the theme as of lately. I'm at work and need to get cracking - The later I start, the longer I stay... But, I'm SOOO tired. Just like that Beatles song.

I got up this morning for the 6am spin class with all the crazies. Lots of fun. Seriously. I didn't feel all that hot - my legs are fried. Everyone in there was a little too perky for me. IN any event, after an hour of spin class decided to postpone remainder of bike workout until this evening. Instead I did some light lifting and core work. Very fun.

Yesterday was rough as well. Got up and did 2500 yards in the pool - 300 yd warmup/form drills/ 2 times of 10 x 100 yds and 200 yd cool down. This took forever and I felt like I was crawling. Got in late to work. Then after work had my run "quality" workout. Did 1.5 mile warmup/strech routine. Then completed 5x800 (hard), 5x400 with 1-minute rest intervals. Then did 1.5 mile cooldown. I wasn't feeling so hot. Went home and crashed hard.

I know this is extremely exciting so I'll end it here. I need to get my work done now. Only 3.5 more weeks to go!!!!!

Sucky Workout Day.
That was yesterday. It left me feeling depressed. SO yesterday I was supposed to run 90 minutes. I got up early and got my hair cut and was feeling good. It was a beautiful day and so I decided to instead tackle Sunday's long workout of 50 miles on bike. I racked up the bike on the car and took off for the Torrey Pines Gliderport. All seemed well at first, but as I was riding down the Torrey Pines hill, I kept getting hit with huge gusts of winds that were making my bike shake. At one point the gust hit my bike so hard, it pushed me about 5 feet out into the center of one of the lanes. A car coming up behind me swerved and luckily did not hit me. However, this freaked me out. I felt out of control on my bike. I pulled over to the side of the road. Then I turned around. I rode back up the hill and straight to the gliderport. I decided to do the running workout instead. I ran 90 minutes along the beach. I have to admit it was a miserable run. I couldn't wait to get done and felt like crap.

I came home, showered and plopped on the couch where I woke up early this morning. Boo. I am going to check the weather/wind reports and take off shortly on my Lemond. Hopefully it won't be as traumatic as yesterday!

It's Friday - Hurrahhh!
Just settled in at work with my everything bagel and OJ. MMMM! I love Fridays. I don't have to work out today! After work, I am going to be LAZY!

Yesterday was a good day. I had some major troubles getting out of bed, so I stayed in it. Essentially, this meant that I was forced to complete all of my workouts after work. Initially, I resisted. I instead visited Target. Then I realized it was time to get to it. Headed to the gym and first did my run. I was only supposed to run 60 minutes. I ran slow. It was actually pretty nice. Then I decided to lift. I've been doing that a bit more lately, only because I have really missed it. I really enjoy it, but haven't had much time to do it with all of the endurance work I have to do. After lifting I headed to the pool. Since I am in the "quality phase", I have three quailty workouts for each of the events per week. Thursday is quality swim workout day. I warmed up with 300 yards, very easy. Then I completed 2 sets of 6x50 buildups (start slow and increase to full speed by end) with 15 sec rest. Then I did 1 set of 5x100 anoxic (meaning take a breath every 3rd stroke). After that was 1 set of 5x100 all out. Yes, I know - this is all terribly exciting. Including warm up, cool down and the rest laps in between the hard sets, I swam 2300 yards. Woo Hoo.

All right - I need to get back to work or I am going to have to stay late tonight.

Ciao Ciao!!