STILL ALIVE even though I haven't been here...

Today's training was a brick, written as 55-mile ride and 5-mile run, but I did 56 miles.... figured that, as long as I was going that far, I might as well do half the IM distance.

I rode across the state line into an area of West Virginia I haven't ridden to before.

The hills were what I can only call "severe." They should have a sign, with a picture of a bicycle climbing just about vertically, saying, "Severe Hills."

So of course I'll do that route again.

It's not like there's another route that's NOT hilly. Maybe not THAT hilly, but there's nowhere to go here that's not hilly. I didn't take this picture, got it off the internet, but it looks remarkably like a couple of the brain-torturing vistas that I actually navigated. Without going into my granny gears. Although I did stand up out of the saddle some.

The 56 miles took me 4 hours.

The 5 miles took an hour. Nothing unusual. My usual route, didn't feel too bad, sometimes even felt good.

Tomorrow I'm scheduled for a 30-mile ride. To re-acquaint myself with riding when already tired.

NEW RUNNING SHOES were there when I got back. Yeah, AFTER my run. Oh, well. Saucony Shadow 6000's, a basic no-frills stable shoe I've worn since the original Shadow became the Shadow 6000. Every now and then I fall for the enticement of some new bell, gong, or whistle, and try different shoes. I always come back to the Shadow 6000, usually because it's half the price of whatever I strayed to. Every time I do, I realize all over again how much I like this shoe.

And I just got my bike fixed up. The gears had gone out. Bike guy put on new gear cables... said the old ones were all gummed up with road crap after 3000 miles. Got a new chain, too. Now it shifts like a dream. And new grip tape. No "split ends" hanging off my handlebars.

Early bed tonight. On the 4th of July, I helped my husband move the furniture out of our camper, ripped up the carpeting, helped him put down wood laminate flooring, and executed my husband's scheme of a 4th of July picnic for 10 people (why did he conjure up a picnic and then decide to put down the flooring the same day????); the next day, I drove 50 miles each way to the floor-surplus place for another box of flooring (we were a couple boards shy of a load), did heavy housework for my mother for 4 hours, did 3 loads of my own laundry while at her house, and went to our son's 30th birthday party (I didn't put it on, just went to it); today I rode my bike 56 miles, ran 5 miles, and tomorrow I'm riding 30 miles and then going to work.

I did not do any training on the 4th or 5th -- just plain too much other stuff going on. But I was already tired from the last 2 days before even starting today's brick.

Complain, complain, complain.... no one's MAKING me do an Ironman....
And probably everyone else's last couple days have been spent pretty much like mine, they just didn't moan and brag about everything they did...