Random musings...

- At least once a day when riding my bike to work, the background music for the Wicked Witch of the West from the Wizard of Oz starts running through my head. Da-da-da-da-da-daaa, da-da-da-da-da-daaaaa....

- Today's bike commute was full of pleasant, cordial, polite people. They warned you when passing, people I passed said "thank you" when I let them know I was on their left. Cars did not try to run me over when I was in a crosswalk. The sun was out and the birds were singing. This was in sharp contrast to yesterday's commute where I was almost run off the bike path by some guy who magically veered to the left as I warned him as was passing. I was also almost run over by a lady in a mini van when I was in a crosswalk (WITH THE RIGHT OF WAY) - she then proceeded to gesticulate with her hands, making it seem like it was all my fault, being in her way and all... There were no birds singing yesterday, but a bird may or may not have been flipped...

- I've already started thinking about this year's Christmas card. I KNOW it is only August, but last year's card will be hard to top. Besides, I start listening to Christmas music this time of year anyway.

- I went for my first post-IM swim this morning. Hello muscles I haven't used in two weeks!

- It only took me a week to eat the 1 pound bar of chocolate.

- I like my dog. No, I LOVE my dog. Sound strange? Ask Mark, it has been a long process for me to get to this point. He's a very sweet dog; but, for a time it was hard to focus on his sweet personality when he was eating all of my Banana Republic clothes on a daily basis and my running shoes two weeks before Ironman...

- Hehe, take a look at the labels for this post.

Bike TT

Today's workout - a 30 minute all-out time-trial on the bike. Fortunately, I got to do this one on the trainer so I didn't have to worry about the dark, falling off my bike, avoiding joggers, avoiding cars, stop signs, and the like... And I did a fabulous job at procrastinating, jumping onto my bike after 9pm - awesome. And, truthfully, like the swim, this TT was less painful than I had been anticipating, both physically and mentally. It wasn't easy, by any stretch, and a few swear words slipped out (nobody was home), but I didn't hate the workout, I was only counting down the minutes a little bit, and it went by relatively quickly. And boy did I get my heart rate up higher than I ever remember getting it - it was in my running zone 4!

During my procrastination stint, I browsed through Dan Hicok's photo gallery from IM Florida - not all of the pictures are up yet, but most of the pre-race and night-before-dinner are up. I found myself getting a little nostalgic about the night before pictures. It was such a great feeling that night - anticipation, excitement, a tiny bit of anxiety and nervousness, and feeling tired yet ready. It was also a beautiful night and the team dinner was at a restaurant right on the water and we had a great view of the sunset. I'm already super excited for IM Wisconsin. And EXACTLY five months from today is IM France!!! I'm so ready for it to be here!

Unfortunately, no good metro stories today. But for your amusement, you should check out this blog - sleeptalkinman.blogspot.com. Somewhat inappropriate material, but it's comical because he's asleep when saying all this inappropriate stuff. "Monkey Power - Straight from the Jungle!"