Everywhere and here

My summer classes are done. Done I say! These eight weeks have flown by and amazingly I have accomplished in this short amount of time what has normally taken me a whole year! See what happens when I put my mind to something. Yes, I am the little choo-choo that could.

Ok, I don't want to get too ahead of myself. I really can't complain about the classes. I enjoyed them but I am glad they are over. Now I can get back to other important things. Like training! Oh, and blogging!

Last night I had a dream about swimming. I think this is the third time since I've started swimming (back in January) that I've had a swimming dream. I love them. There's something so peaceful about dreaming that you're gliding through a body of water. Last night I dreamt that I was swimming in a lake. It kept getting bigger, which is a good thing, since it started out as a tiny little pond. It was never a scary dream. I even questioned in the dream if there were aligators in the lake but some kind dream character assured me there were no aligators, and I believed him. So I just swam around the lake, enjoying the serenity of it all. Can you tell I'm looking forward to my lake swim this weekend?

Tomorrow I am leaving work early to make it to the bike shop before they close for a bike fitting. Today is the first day that I have not had any tingling feeling since my ride on Saturday. I am determined not to have numb hands from my planned ride on Sunday.

I wish everyone luck on their races this weekend!

Time flies...

...when you're busy.

Quick recap of the past few weeks:

• Went to Florida on family vacation. It was hot and a little crazy but it's always nice to spend time with family and get out of the office.
• Mid-terms, and homework galore.

In training news, I'm sticking more to a schedule than I have over the past few months, but it's still not good enough. The triathlon is in five weeks and I am determined to stick to a training strict training schedule over these next five weeks. After this week, I really have no excuse to not stick with the program.

Not that I have been terrible about training. I have been running, biking, and swimming several times a week. Yesterday I went on a 22 mile bike ride around Northwest DC. It was my first time on the Capital Crescent Trail and it was an awesome and beautiful wooded trail! This city never ceases to amaze me. Around Chevy Chase I got a little turned around trying to find the trail and ended up riding along with 3 other people that just got back from a 3 week bike tour through France. I would love to do that some day. The only bad part about the ride was the fact that my hands are still a little numb...more than 24 hours later! I've read enough to know not to be too concerned...as it usually goes away. However, I also know enough to go to the bike shop and figure out just what the heck is wrong. I'm hoping I will just have to adjust the seat and maybe buy some gloves.

Now back to studying.

Weddings, workouts, bears, Oh My!

Weekend Report: I spent the weekend in Danville, Va for a college friend's wedding. I headed down early Friday morning with another friend and our respective SO's. The wedding itself was really nice. I was a reader in the wedding so I was able to pretty much enjoy the weekend with no major responsibilities. We stayed at the Comfort Inn and once again I was disappointed by the lack of a decent sized swimming pool. So I decided to bike instead since I was without decent running shoes after leaving them behind in class after my exam on Thursday (can you tell the exam took up a lot of my brain power?). However, the Comfort Inn in Danville, Va doesn't have a gym on premises!!! Oh, but they do offer complimentary passes to a gym down the street. So I went down to the front desk, asked for my free pass, and then drove to the gym where I worked out on the bike and did some weights. Now that's motivation. Peter said I was probably the only person in two weeks to request the gym pass. I think there may be some truth to that.

The ride home on Sunday was eventful. I somehow got off of Route 29 and ended up 15 miles off course. On the way back to 29 we saw a black bear on the road! It immediately ran into the woods but we got a pretty good view. Amazing!

Monday: Beth and I went to Masters Swimming. We did the stroke clinic again this week. It was great. Every time I go I learn something else. This week I learned that the way I had been taught to enter my hands in the water was wrong. Ho-hum.

Tuesday: I woke up somewhat early (9 am) hoping to get in a short brick workout before the events of the day began. I had a great 10 mile bike ride down Rock Creek Park. There were a lot of people out walking, jogging, and biking. It was a beautiful day, albeit a hot one. As soon as I got back home and put the bike up I headed out for a 10 minute run. When my feet hit the pavement my legs started screaming at me! Now I know why they call it a "brick". My knees were really aching. However, after a minute the pain subsided and my legs felt normal running again. When I got back, red in the face and sweating, I felt so good! It was a lot of fun! I told that to Peter and he just thought I was crazy.

53 days until race day!!!