run this amazing day

1. I've got one more ridiculous weekend of riding before my schedule downgrades to merely insane, and I'm not sure I've ever looked forward to a taper as much as I am looking forward to this one.  But being at the top of this build, I've had a few moments of, "you know, I think this is going to be okay."  Even though my legs are stripped with fatigue, I still feel like I had a pretty solid ride on Sunday - my first crack at the SkyMass loop out in the Shenandoah with my weekend smashfest buddies.  I've ridden the first 25 miles of it multiple times but this time around we white-knuckle descended through Luray, climbed the Massanutten cursing the entire way (that was me), and then rode bumpy little rollers the whole way home.   My legs weren't exactly pleased about the two miles I ran off the bike - and the five I ran later in the evening - but I've certainly felt worse after so much time in the saddle.  And this ride had not quite twice the amo

Longest run I will do before IMCdA? Check.  And yes, I am icing my calves with "baby bud broccoli florets."

I decided to do this swim a few months ago because my love affair with open water swimming has always been a bit rocky.  I cover this distance in the pool all the time, but when you get into a lake, there are bugs and fish and branches and lake zombies to worry about.  However, I had no desire to race the distance.  I didn't do any specific race preparation, I didn't taper, and my ZOMG EXCITED race persona stayed home.  I had strict instructions to swim steady and easy, and that's what I did. It's been on the warm side in DC here for the past few weeks, and when we rolled up to the lake Saturday morning, the "official" water temperature was 76º (the guy that posted the temperature commented that he had to boat around to several places in the lake before finding a wetsuit-legal-temp-spot.  Excellent.).  In a triathlon, there is no WAY I would swim in a wetsuit for 76º, but one of the big points of doing this swim was that I wanted to spend more than 35 minute

Okay, so let's start over.  After I posted this originally, Jared from  Kompetitive Edge  reached out with the fabulous news that this was WAY too expensive for printing shirts.  Imagine him with a hero cape on.  So, everything is the same except for the two things that are not.  1. The shirts now only cost $19 (if you Paypal'd me money I am PayPal'ing you back the difference).  2. There are two versions - a "puppies shitting rainbows" version and a "faith not fear" version for those of you that don't want to/can't walk around all day with profanity on your back.  Everything else is the same!  Now you can afford to buy two (don't check my math)!   As you were, proceed with your day.  Remainder of this post is the same, just with an extra demo screen shot. -------------------------------------------------- Aaaaaaaaaallrighty, let's get this party started.   I was going to do a "four things friday" post, but then I reali