EGGS!

Every morning either after a work out or before a long day I try to eat my eggs. I generally eat a ratio of 1 yolk per 3-4 egg whites. I add some cheddar cheese and scramble it up and it is de-lish. I accompany this with raisin bran and shredded wheat with skim milk and I love this morning routine because it is very filling and tasty. 

These eggs are from a family in Lexington. They live right in town and have about 25 chickens! I now buy my eggs from them and they are always excellent. Can't get more free range than that. They are all different colors and I learned that the color of the egg is dependent on the color of the chickens ear drum. Strange right? So although brown eggs look fancier and healthier, alas, they are not. All the eggs are nutritionally the same. It is really nice to know where they are coming from!

Tomorrow is the dreaded duathlon. I am going to need to mentally get into this if I don't want it to be a true suffer fest but I am so over this season. Ready for some cross training and gym time! Coach man did put some wonderful race wheels on my Scott and after I cleaned it this week it looks very fast and pretty. So I have that going for me! Race report to flow. Blah.

So Excited Right Now

The blender is out of the box and has just accomplished it's first task. I had no idea what I was doing so I pulled out some old freezer burned frozen mango, 2 frozen strawberries, orange juice, half of a whole zucchini I had left over and 3 huge leaves of kale. I put it all in and it looked like this:

Yum right? Ha I was nervous how this would turn out. I pushed the blend and man the 450 watts my blender put out was intense. It was pretty darn loud and blew out a lot of air at the base. But it didn't take off...just ground up all of those goodies, looking like this:










I finally used a few buttons to grind the kale all the way and got to this:

It's pretty good! When I lift it up to take a swig I smell the kale in it but drinking it is like hyped up OJ. Not bad! I already know some things that could make this better like a banana and maybe some more berries. Honestly though I think this will be a great way for me to get some green, leafy veggies in during the day! Honestly any veggie could be thrown in there. YAY! Success. I am also excited to research on some protein powders and mixes to add in for recovery drinks.

Fall = Spicy

It finally happened! I finally got the blender that I have been dreaming of purchasing. Thanks to Target I got it at a heck of a deal too! Let's just hope it is not a  DUD. I have not been able to use it yet because of busy work days and dog sitting priorities but I should have a chance to use it this evening before/after swim practice at 8. I think it will be a great way to get in fruits, veggies and maybe some types of protein powders during the day when I don't feel like eating a salad or being creative. I must admit this has also been spurred on by all of the others blogs I have read and all of the smoothie drinking involved.

After my blender purchase I had to go to Whole Foods to get some things to blend! I bought OJ, kale, zucchini, frozen mango, blueberries, broccoli, strawberries and I think that is it. Since I plan on putting lots of veggies into these things I will need lots of citrus to make it good. I already have some agave that I can add if it needs a little extra sweet. I also stumbled upon a WONDERFUL surprise: pumpkin butter! I was skeptical when I saw it in the store and its price but I know pumpkin has some health benefits and thought it might be a good snack on some mountain crunch bread.

I was right! It is so very good. I really just spread it on toast and it's so flavorful. It just has pumpkin, some sugar and spices added and it really tastes like fall. I love it. I also hit up the bulk food aisle so I could get little baggies of trail mix, those energy nugget things and some nuts.

After all of this healthy food shopping and living all week I was craving some pizza. So last night, after my rest day from working out, LHA and I ordered some Naked Pizza and watched a movie which was very fun. Below is our creation. We got the regular crust that is healthy whole wheat and probiotics, pineapple, black beans and peppers. He put jalapenos on his side but I am a major wimp and didn't eat those...

Recovery

Every triathlon magazine has at least one article about recovery or rest. I just read an article on slowtwitch that says more recovery is less training. Which is true but without recovery you can't train well. The article is here:

Myth of More Recovery

I think it is true that there can be too much recovery in some training plans because without stress on the body you cannot learn to cope and workout through tired muscles which is basically a race situation. There is a fine balance though because if you are tired/sore going into all of your workouts then your form will suffer and there is no point in training! Part of the reason I quite one of my jobs and am not taking classes is to spend more time recovering and to taking care of myself. The article does stress the importance of sleep and this is the main place I hope to make a change.

Last fall I was taking 2 classes and had 3 jobs. This was fine and dandy but when I added training into this schedule and a social life and applying to veterinary school it just didn't work. I think my new schedule will allow me to sleep at least 7-8 hours a night (which hardly happened last year) and even squeeze some naps in on some days. I am also upping my time stretching and eating properly since I am not rushing off to fit in the next activity. I can breath easy!

I am really excited to have my last race next weekend and then have the WHOLE MONTH of October to do whatever I want. It will be so much fun and hopefully make me miss training so I will be ready for what the winter has to bring.

Physioball

Finally pumped up my physioball! A great workout can be found below:

10 physioball tricks

This was fun to do after my swim and run work outs for the day. I am very very excited for the duathlon to be over so I can overdose on classes at the Y of the pilates/yoga/abs variety. My TRX has not gotten used in awhile since I tapered off of it training for Vegas so it will also get some love. Can't wait!

Nutrition

My nutrition is generally pretty controlled which I like. I have certain "guidelines" that I follow. They are guidelines and not rules because there are exceptions to rules and rules break. With a guideline I create a standard that cannot be changed. Here are a few:

-No red meat
-No chicken
-No pork
-No fried food
-No white breads**
-Take your vitamins

It is pretty simple really. The ** represents a new item. I am not staying away from breads or going gluten free but I recently decided not to eat any white breads. I only eat these when out at a restaurant or friends house because I don't buy them personally but I have come to the conclusion that there is no reason to eat them so...gone! Sometimes at the end of the day I feel awful about myself and have to remind myself it is ok if I ate 2 of the muffins I baked for an event or that I had 2.5 bowls of cereal with my breakfast. Especially when the cereal is raisin bran and plain shredded wheat. I think this is partly because there is nothing better than the feeling at the end of the day when you have been completely healthy. I love knowing that I was conscious of my body all day and really treated it well.

I read a really nice article on Slowtwitch about a month ago about an elite level triathlete who had his blood run through all these tests. It cost like 2K for this blood panel and all the consults required to interpret the results. I am lucky because this guy has a very similar diet to me so I was able to take some things away from this article. He was lacking in Omega 3 and 6 FAs. The nutritionists recommend you get these different types of fatty acids from different sources such as flaxseed and fish oil. By not eating red meat or inhaling quinoa everyday  it is critical to take a B12 supplement. I also take a general multivitamin. These vitamins were it until I noticed that I do not heal from bone bruises very well, based on the 2 that I acquired through clumsiness over the past few months still hurt. So now I also take a Ca+D supplement. The final tally is:

-1 multivitamin
-1 B12
-2 Ca+D (1 morning and 1 night)
-2 fish oil (burpless kind :))
-1 flaxseed oil

That's it! I take them at night to avoid stomach upset and I figure this is the time when my body is doing the most rebuilding so why not give it the proper tools.

I have been doing this for a month now and I hope it pays off. I haven't gotten sick recently which is awesome because I usually get sick all the time. Maybe it's the vitamins! Fingers crossed.

Really? emO Bikers = STUPID

SSOOOO over the years I have become so pro-helmet that whenever I see a biker without one it makes me mad. I don't know if this is because it is against the law or because I am jealous that I can't ride to class without one (it's against my being). I feel like a total geek wearing one around town on my tween mountain bike but I also know how many idiots are driving on the road everyday and I am not taking that risk with my brain. Walking into UK classes knowing zero people is lame enough but doing so with a helmet in tow just screams nerd.

BUT I'm over it. I wear my helmet. Anyways, I was on my way to work today and stopped at a red light at a very busy intersection in Chevy Chase. All of a sudden this hipster comes blazing through the intersection turning left into the traffic just looking too uber cool to worry about cars. Cars are so yesterday....this guy had the whole outfit to a T and his bike was this baby blue track thing with these white wall tires. It was not a sight you couldn't stare at. I wanted to yell at him you idiot, you are not cool and where is your helmet and why are you not paying attention to traffic? I kept my mouth shut and drove on.

I never would have thought about him again but later this afternoon I was in the same area of town buying a baby gift for my best friend LAJ who is newly pregnant (!) and I heard a screeching sound outside the store and something that sounded like a skateboard falling. I didn't think it was anything but a minute later when I came outside the store there stood mister hipster, white wall tires, huge headphones around his neck and all. A woman was just climbing out of a Lexus SUV that had a dent along the side and a BABY BLUE scratch down 3 panels of the car. She said "Now, first are you OK and is your bike OK?" She was very curt which lead me to believe this was totally his fault. He was standing there and with a well placed limp and moan said "well my bike is DEFINITELY not ok and I don't even know about myself yet..." I wanted to punch him right there. I have no doubt he was zooming through the streets again and feeling way to gangster to notice the cars around him. I came so close to saying something but just walked away and let them have at it.

Moral: Eric Matthews said it best: "life's tough, get a helmet". I would rather look like a geek than pay to fix a Lexus or my face :)

Back in the Game...maybe

YAY! Major race over so time to relax? Not quite. If I was rich I would be done. Alas, I am not that rich...so one more race lies between me and the end of my long, fun, arduous season: the Corman Duathlon. Last year at this race I won $1,000. This year this feat will not be easy, again, but I have to try. I will have some really good competition there toeing the line with me. This race also highlights my weakest event, running, so I am dreading the burning to come and really the mental trickery I will need to employ to get myself going for this race. It is comprised of a 5K run, 18 mile bike ride, 5K run. The bike ride is quite hilly which is a plus for me. I have to smash the bike course to have the slightest chance of winning.

Today I had the following workout
7.5 miles as follows:
15 min warm up with 4 x 30sec speed bursts
     6X the following: 3 minutes under 6:30 min/mi pace
                                  1 minute walk
                                  2 minutes jog
    Cool down home

I am not a fast runner so for me this was a hard pace to hold for 3 minutes. If I had not done MCR's Pure Barre class 48 hours before I think I would have been much better off. My quads felt like thick non-yielding rubber when I started my warm up so I knew it would be ugly. It sure was. I am done now though! I had a really nice lunch at a new restaurant called The Local Taco. I just got the veggie plate that had lots of peppers, squash, zucchini and rice and beans. Tasty! The rest of the day was full of a love session with The Grid (esp on my poor thighs), zucchini bread making for some friends and babysitting.

I also stopped by Great Harvest Bread Co to pick up some of their mountain crunch bread. It is a wonderful food to have around for a snack and sandwich making. It is loaded with seeds and lovely wholesome ingredients.

A profile of Vegas

I have loaded up my bike and run files from my Garmin 310. I love my Garmin because the satellite is very accurate and I can see where I need to improve during a race. I was interested to see if I could tell the total amount of time I had to stop each time to fix my chain. It looks like 2-3 minutes.

Bike

Run

Around miles 7 and miles 10-12 of the run I was feeling at my lows according to my splits and thinking back on the race I think this is accurate!

Racey Race

We got in the water 20 minutes early so that gave ample time to swim around, get cold, swim around some more, get cold and on and on till they blew the horn. The swim was an out and back and pretty uneventful. Before the first turn buoy I was with quite a few girls, swapping positions. Once we turned I was all alone all the way to the finish which was nice because I didn't have to swim guarded from arms/legs. I grabbed my bike and accessories and ran up the hill with my bike out of transition where I saw my fabulous support group cheering me on. I had no idea what position I was in but my rack was full of bikes so I figured I was in a good place.

The bike course starts out uphill out of the resort and makes its way out to the National Park. On the first uphill I realized something was wrong with my rear derailleur because whenever I shifted into the top half of my cassette it made this awful grinding noise. I just accepted it and freaked out anyone I was passing since I sounded like a bulldozer. Once in the open desert it was climb after climb. I caught some girls and was taking in my nutrition well. There was definitely and increase in temperature when entering the park and I could feel the heat sitting on my back.

Terror struck when I was flying down a hill and all of a sudden my pedals stopped. I couldn't move my feet backward or forward. I tried to shift out of the jam but my chain had fallen outside of the smallest cog on my cassette and I realized I would have to get off of my bike to fix it. I got aero to take advantage of the rest of my down hill speed then pulled over. I clipped out, almost fell, tried to fix the chain but couldn't until I fully dismounted my bike. As I am placing the chain on and shifting my front chain ring people are just flying past me. I finally got it all back in place and took off. I had been working on chasing down 2 girls in blue from my age group but they were now nowhere in sight. I told myself to just get on with my race and forget about it. This plan went well and I was right on top of my nutrition until about mile 35 when the chain fiasco occurred AGAIN! This one sent me to a bad place. Once I got going again I only had thoughts of dropping out, hoping for a flat and wishing I was 75 so I could go slow for the next 45 minutes. I finally, with 10 miles to go on the ride, shook myself out of the depression, got my nutrition back on track (which I had been majorly neglecting during my drama queen moment) and tried to finish the ride confidently with the idea of dropping out once in T2 because there was no way I could complete a half marathon in my current state. I was tired.

Once I pulled up and saw my family I got a surge of motivation and made it out of T2 with my running shoes on and the gait of a large hippo awkwardly bounding towards the water stops. My legs finally fell into a nice rhythm and woke up from the bike ride in time to face the first 2 hills. At each water stop I took in perform, then water, then more water to drink and more to pour on my head. I also grabbed the cold sponges whenever I could get my hands on them. Each lap I got to see my family and LHA twice which was wonderful. LHA reminded me to take in my salt sticks and this could not have been more important. I took one every other water stop and after missing a few I could feel my kidneys getting angry so I got back on track. The run was a roller coaster of feeling crappy and feeling like I could finish. I did get pulled out of stomach cramps when I drank some Coke. It was so good! I took that in for the next 4 miles then stopped because my stomach was revolting again. I loved the 3 loop set up in the end though because the last loop was so very exciting. I chased down a girl from Germany the last up hill and took the last mile downhill as fast as I could manage so she wouldn't catch me. I crossed the finish line very happy! I had no clue what place I had gotten till my family told me I had come in 5th.

With this I was very pleased considering all of the ups and downs of my race. I have raced quite a few times now and not once have I had a mechanical issue on my bike. For this I am thankful. It is entertaining when this happens because anyone that passes you before or after you just want to yell "I had bike problems! I did!" to justify your position. I have no idea if I could have gone faster without these issues because they did give me a little break in the pedaling. I would like to think not entering the negativity cave would have been a time saver for me but who knows! I am definitely looking forward to trying to qualify again this coming year so I can tackle the course again. It was beautiful and a wonderful challenge to have completed.

Expectations = Nada

Driving the race course, running the run course and knowing no wetsuits would be permitted on the swim left me having 0 clue of what to expect of myself in Vegas. This course was brand spankin new with no past results to measure myself against. My last 70.3 was in April 2011 and I was nervous doing another one let alone one with so many challenges.

The swim would be tame, just the general kicks to the side and arm throwing expected in a wave start swim. Lake Las Vegas was partly their choice of swim venue because with the average temperatures no wetsuits would be permitted. The bike was a beast of a course; 5,500 feet of climbing over 56 miles with a lot of the climbs taking minutes at a time to get up. With the open landscape the climbs could be seen from far away to ensure maximum time for dread. To make sure we did not arrive in T2 feeling fresh the last 15 miles of the course were on a gradual incline that would require big chain ring mashing (in my case :)).

Once off the bike the run awaited, by then nice and heated up. The first mile is down hill, followed by a mile uphill with a pass by the finish line that you can't imagine ever getting to followed by one more mile up hill. The last mile of the loop is thankfully downhill but you again pass by the finish line chute and the announcers wonderful voice. This flows right into the beginning of the loop which is completed 3 times. SOOO that makes ~6 miles uphill. FUN!

Considering all of these barriers to speed and the course directors predictions that the pros would go ~30 minutes slower than their usual 70.3 times I had no idea what to think for myself and how I would stack up to anyone around me. I knew there were 59 women in my 25-29 age group but that was it. I also knew my IT band, calf, hip and random places on my knees had been acting up just with the season coming to an end and being my body telling me it had had enough. All I could do was fuel up on trail mix and look forward to the impending challenge!

Back tracking

I'm BACK from Vegas and feeling pretty good! It was an awesome trip thanks to so many things: a fun city, wonderful resort, good race but mostly the awesome support team that was out in Vegas with me and the cheerers from home! It was so nice to receive so many lucky vibes from people and have the support out on the course. I am very satisfied with the trip and couldn't have asked for anything more.

I am going to back track to the beginning of the trip and cover the whole thing with different installments. I am realizing the more I blog that I am using this for record keeping so if it is a snooze I am sorry!

4:50 am on Sept 8th was wake up time and after 2 flights donned in compression tights we had made it to Vegas and to our resort, Loew's Lake Las Vegas, at about 2:30 pm. LHA and I were very tired so laying by the pool and going down the resort water slide a few times was a perfect way to wake up. Something that I must mention now was the over abundance, literally the whole weekend, of hot bods. It was insane. I have never seen so many extremely fit people in one place ever. I immediately got very intimidated. By the pool all the guys were in speedos. Gotta love that European style! LHA sadly forgot his...

After cleaning up and figuring out some logistics for the days to come we went on a drive of the 40 miles of bike course that is in the Lake Mead National Park. It was beautiful. And hilly. So hilly. Some pictures:

These are not very good because there was a storm rolling in so the light was not ideal and it was sooo windy. That night we went to the strip and I won $24.00 on a slot machine, my favorite gambling tool!

Friday was full of packet pick up, a nice 30 min swim in an awesome saltwater lap pool and a 20 minute run on the bike course. I got a nice preview of the hills to come on the run as well! That night we got to witness the vow renewal of my brother in laws parents in an Elvis chapel. It was amazing. Our jaws were dropped for the entire performance. We also got to go to the Old Las Vegas strip where one of our friends boyfriends attracted a HUGE group of people as his 6'7" frame did the dougie. It was epic. We concluded our night at the Sugar Factory on the strip across from the Belagio and saw Mr. Belding! From Saved by the Bell. ZWM spotted him and I'm pretty sure it made his birthday complete.

Saturday was a bike ride, short run, bike drop off, run bag drop off and some relaxation in a hotel robe for the afternoon. I was hanging out by our porch trying to get cellphone service when I saw some people going for a swim in the lake. I immediately wanted to join as I had not swam in the lake so far. LHA and I got in and I am so thankful that we did because my goggles had gotten warped around the eye piece and were leaking! Thankfully LHA and I swapped and I was good to go. If that had happened during the race I would have been swimming in circles with one eye shut! We then had a nice Italian dinner at a local place in Henderson. I always eat pasta with simple marinara and shrimp on top and some bread to go with it. It was very good and LHA won $85.67 playing video poker at the bar before hand. Win win. At dinner and throughout the whole day I was getting very excited to race. The anticipation of it all was awesome!

I slept very well and awoke at 5:00 on race day. Ready to go!

I am so sad to be back from vacation; it truly was a wonderful one.



Check

Just packed for Vegas and think I am ready to go. Had to say goodbye to SHS and am sad she and JCS are not going but someone has to take care of my neph-fur! I also know they will be very good cheerleaders from home. Hopefully there will be something good to cheer for...waah waah. My bike is all packed up and ready to head to Vegas with my sister. She is taking it on her flight because Southwest only charges $50 each way for a bike!!! Such a great deal.

I packed all of my stuff (I hope) for both a regular trip and for racing. It is a tough checklist to get through but I just visualize myself race morning through the finish line to make sure I have all of my racing essentials. The forecast is now calling for t-storms on Sunday and Monday which would be unfortunate BUT with them comes cooler temps. So I will take the risk. I already packed my wetsuit just in case this happened! A wetsuit legal swim would be great for me because although I have gotten better in the water I would still majorly benefit from the flotation.

The only bummer is I could not fit my aero helmet anywhere safely so I will be carrying it on with me like a true dweeb. At least it will match my compression tights.

Zucchini Bread

Today I made Zucchini bread for the first time. I generally go with banana but I didn't have any rotten bananas so I tried something new and I am so glad that I did. I was making it for a friend who loaned me his bike box to take to Vegas. I ended up having enough batter for 2 loafs and 2 muffins! One loaf for my friend and one loaf for my coach and his wife and 2 muffins for me (well, 1 muffin for me and 1 for lha)! I was so impressed, this was an awesome recipe. It can be found here:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paulas-home-cooking/chocolate-chip-zucchini-bread-recipe/index.html

Thank you food network. Today was lots of running errands for Vegas and some working. I did a simple swim workout to work out some kinks and it is below. I feel pretty ready I guess! I also got a massage from one of my best friends. She worked on my calf and I feel faster already.

Boring swim workout:
warm up: 500 swim, 400 pull, 300 kick, 200 drill, 100 swim
more warm up: 600 with 25 swim, 25 stroke, 25 swim, 400 pull, 300 kick, 300 with 25 easy 25 fast
warm down: 100 swim

3200. No real set. Oh well! Just need to maintain till Sunday.
I ordered a new tri suit from Kiwami today that should be super fast in the water. It is also white which should keep me cooler than my black tri suit in the Vegas heat. I hope all of this planning gets me to the finish line in one piece.

Post Race

Post race with LHA

Post Race Fresh

Yesterday was the Tri for Sight. This is a great race right here in Lexington, KY. The turn out was awesome especially considering it was labor day weekend. The race was scheduled to go off at 7:15 so we headed over to the race at about 6. I always try to wake up 3 hours before an event so I got out of bed at ~4:45 and started to eat my Zone bar (my staple pre-race food) and drink G2 while packing up my stuff, which I had not done the night before. Oops! By the time it was ready to head to the race I had packed and finished some dry frosted flakes, my other pre-race snack.

The best part about local races is seeing so many familiar faces. Everyone was so friendly and excited I didn't even think about getting nervous. I got body marked, set up transition (with my bike on the outside of the rack for a quick get away) and slipped on my shoes for a nice wake up jog. LHA likes adding ninja kicks and parkor moves to his warm up but I stick with a nice steady pace because I am a wimp.

I was number 22 with a time trial swim start so getting into place I had quite a few people in front of me. The race got started on time and into the water I went. I felt way better than I thought I would and this might have been because it was so nice to be back in UK's pool after it was closed for the whole month of August! Through the first 300 I passed 3 people and reeled in 1 more. Halfway through the swim I looked down the pool and saw LHA pushing off and tried to pace myself with him down the lane. I was able to do this for 200 more till he got out of the pool. Right when my shoulders were verging on too tired I was done! I ran quickly to transition, which was pretty far, and got my helmet on, glasses on and was off. I met up with quite a few people in transition and exited around them. JM and I played leap frog for the first part of the bike ride but thanks to hills I was able to pull away from quite a few people. The bike ride was pretty uneventful and I just tried to keep the pace up and keep people that I passed behind me. I got passed back a few times but I was ok with this because they were large, fit guys and I needed to stay out of their drafting zone so I didn't get a penalty. Heading out to the run I felt pretty good and brought my Garmin along to try and keep my run splits fast. I was trying to go for a 6:40/mi average and ended up at 6:47 which I will accept since 47 is a lucky number for me and I honestly felt pretty decent the whole run.

The finish line felt great and I took home the win. I won a very fancy and heavy trophy and a great Kiwami gift certificate and a custom made-for-the-race necklace. Great loot! This was also the last race in the Kentucky Race Series and I was the winner for this so I got another very nice trophy and a gift certificate to Swim Bike Run of Kentucky from the door prizes.

Overall I was happy with the race. My focus was not on this race with Vegas so soon. All I can think about is that race! So it was nice to have fun before trying to make myself halfway serious while being extremely intimidated by fancy triathletes from all over the world. The land of compression gear is a scary one :)

I have been having calf problems and this was sore during the bike and run but I figure some massage should get me through Vegas. I had this same problem last year and know how to deal with it so I just need to be careful!

Fix

Whether meeting up with a friend, on my way to work or having just finished a workout I want to go to a coffee place and get a drink. I don't know why but I just love it so much. I switch it up, hot or cold, depending on the season but it is generally a caramel flavored something with skim milk. I just finished an easy hour bike and 2 mile run so today, an icy frappuccino. I like my drinks to last awhile and this one does. It is very hot today; the heat index is over 100. I use the excuse that they are OK to have everyday because the dairy is oh so nutritious ( :/ ) and the protein/carb combo is great post-workout. Probably not necessarily everyday...but I figure they make me so happy it's worth it. They are expensive though. I have calculated how much money I would save a month without them (~$75) and I should not be buying them. Until I can ween myself off of them they have my money! That would be a perfect sponsor for me though. A coffee shop that gives me unlimited lattes. yum.

GETTING STARTED

A fellow triathlete and friend just reminded me of the importance of an online presence when attempting to jump into the serious triathlon scene. So here I am!

Tri for Sight is this weekend and a week from this race I will be on the start line of Vegas 70.3. After qualifying for Vegas back in April this race seemed way into the future with ample training time to get things going. Here I am just having finished my last long work out, a 10 mile run, during which my legs felt like lead. This does not make me feel very positive as I head into a nice long taper but there is nothing I can do now besides eat well, use the grid to stretch, and rest between now and race day. I am actually excited to have more free time without multiple work outs through out my day. I might actually have a clean apartment when I get on the plane to Vegas next Thursday. I need to stay crazy hydrated between now and then as well because the highs in Vegas have been like 108! No humidity but my friend from Tucson was just telling my this morning how you have to drink double water there to even attempt to stay hydrated.

Can't wait!