Keeping up this little blog is no small task when a month is as full of training as this one has been!

The first weekend of the month The Mister took Sporty Spice up to his parents' (about 3 and a half hours north) for a visit/fishing weekend, leaving me on my own back at the homestead to hold down the four-footed-fort, as well as to train and to do the Lake Del Valle open water swim I had already commited to. After several years, now, of almost 100% lone wolf training, the weekend turned out to be a festival of socializing on the move! Friday, my good friend Nancy, of the ill-fated Ironman New Zealand fame (she subsequently went off and got a real job as a veterinary pharmeceutical rep) joined me for a post-swim 2 hour run on the Ironhorse trail through San Ramon. I did some interval work, and Nancy did some running and some interval swearing work (at me). It couldn't have been too bad, as Nancy was up to join me, Dr. Lori, veterinarian extraordinaire, and Kirsten, another veterinary pharmeceutical rep (I am on a mission to bring the entire veterinary industry to the dark side of triathlon)for a ride out and back over Calaveras Road. I rode to and from my house to meet up with them, to get a 60-miler in. Sunday dawned with the early morning arrival at my house of Dr. Joy, another of the world's best veterinarians; we packed up and headed out to Lake Del Valle for the 1.5 mile open water swim. Excellent goodie bags, including a free set of Finis goggles! Score. Beatiful day. It was the State Championships for the actual fast swimmers, which made the crowd a little "swimmerish" (translation: fast). It was Joy's first Open Water swim, and she was in the wave ahead of me,as she was going sans wetsuit. Wetsuit or none, Joy kicked my butt. It was one of my slowest swims in years....lifeguards hovering on the surfboards....escorting me in....and to add insult to injury, I had to run for 2 hours when I got home.

It was SO bad, that I knew SOMEthing had to be done, and to be done soon! I bit the bullet and FINALLY got myself to the Thursday night Master's Swim at the gym. I had been trying to talk myself into it for weeks. I know I'm slow. It's just hard to put it on display like that. The coaches were very nice and gave me and one other swimmer our own slow lane. I'm dying to hear any input these coaches have and it is not really that intimidating. A good move, and I plan to keep going. I'm running out of ideas. I read...I look at videos...I drill...I swim....I sign up for stuff...I'm actually getting SLOWER! What the F?

June included a couple of relaxing mountainous training weekends in Arnold. It snowed so late into the year this year, that the first one still included a down-the-mountain ride. Not one, but two loops of the Angels Camp to Murphys route. The second weekend I could finally point the bike uphill and head for Lake Alpine. A beautiful day, but still windy, still much snow at the Lake. Beautiful. I don't know why the sky seems bluer up there, and the trees greener. Both weekend runs were long trail runs.

I'm loving my I-pod, and more specifically, I am loving listening to podcasts while I run! Makes the time pass so much faster. My favorite podcasts right now are coming from Coach Brett at Zentri.com! Gooooood stuff. And for pure humor, The Secret Show podcasts from my favorite radio hosts Sarah and Vinnie on KLLC.

Today is Wednesday of the third week of three training weeks....C'mooonnnnn rest week! I haven't been skimping either, with Sporty Spice away at grandma and grandpa's for the week...make hay while the sun shines. And lots of naps. The perfect train-rest balance. Sporty Spice will be back tomorrow and I will spend the last of the three long weeks putting in some vertical feet again.