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! :)