August, my A**

This morning I spent an hour alternating my glance between the Today show (including a national heat wave report for the east coast), the RAIN outside the window, and the cadence on my old bike as I rode on the trainer. RODE ON THE TRAINER in freakin' August? For chrissake, how is the heat index 106 degrees on TV and it's 58 in Seattle? Where the hell did summer go? Seujan was tougher than me and commuted to work on her bike in the rain, but I knew I just couldn't drag my ass out there without becoming a (more) serious behavior problem. Anyway, I did an hour on the trainer (as my tan faded, I'm sure, sigh) and the workout was fine. Today should also be a swimming day, but the shoulder twinge got more twingy yesterday after lifting weights (perhaps Julie's advice of "stop lifting weights a month before Ironman" should've been heeded?), so I'm trying to back off and not swim again until the lake on Friday. I left the house this morning without a duffel bag and felt naked...I'm half looking forward to the taper and half dreading the mental gymnastics that will, I'm sure, reach new heights by the time race day comes.

Yesterday Seujan and I did bike hill repeats at Madrona after work...good workout as always, and my times for the hill were slightly faster than they were on the same hill a few weeks ago. Nice to see a little progress! Just before I turned onto the hill for the first one, an old fart guy passed me and headed up the hill in front of me...he soon looked like he was slowing down, so I pushed it to catch him and dropped him...HA! Then, of course, his male ego kicked in and he passed me (GRRR), then proceeded to turn off the hill half way up. I was pissed, but the result was my fastest time ever up the hill. And, of course, I still maintained my feeling of superiority as I did 3 more of them and he was long gone.

Hill repeat workout summary (all hills = .85 mile with 1.15 mile recovery):

Warm up: 5.8 miles

Hill #1: 5:33, Avg HR = 143
3:50 recovery
Hill #2: 5:43, Avg HR = 142
4:05 recovery
Hill #3: 5:47, Avg HR = 143
3:52 recovery
Hill #4: 5:51, Avg HR = 143

3.3 miles cool down

Total:
17.1 miles
1:13:17