Why Couldn't The Trial Be Today?

It's coolish, cloudy, 70's-80's, heck the heat came on in my office this morning. Unfortunately the forecast for the big 3 day USDAA trial this weekend is 'more sun than clouds' and 'mid to upper 90's'. Blech. But it's only Wednesday, maybe a front will blow in.

I've entered both dogs in a million classes, including the Team event. It's probably the only chance we have to qualify for Nationals in the Team event and I've got really good partners so it's a possibility if I can do well. But that's a pretty big if. I hate these pairs/teams events, I feel so bad if I screw up. Why should someone else have to suffer for my incompetence? At least Lola's partner is already qualified for Nationals so at least I'm not screwing up her chances to go. On the other hand maybe the extra pressure will force me to focus a little harder when I'm in the ring. I'm not a competitive person but I like to do well and sometimes I think going into the ring with an 'eh, whatever' attitude allows me to lose a bit of concentration. On yet the other hand if I stress too much over doing well I won't concentrate well either and the fun will be sucked right out of everything. We did really well at Regionals last year and I think it was because I was able to balance everything just right in my head. Hopefully I can do the same this weekend.

I took both dogs to class Monday night so I could get some practice in with both and also because they get jealous of each other and tend to run in an excited state which is closer to how they are in a trial. Cody was a bit flaky at the start but finally started focusing and did well. Lola did great, I'm pleased with her recovery so far. She popped out of the weaves once but did a few reps. throughout the night w/ no problems. I think she's simply out of practice and it's not because her shoulder's sore. It's impossible to say. We were practicing on a masters standard course from a previous trial by judge Tim Verrelli who's the judge for this weekend. It was a tricky course with some weird angles and it definitely favored dogs with good distance skills. Being able to run fast didn't hurt either. I've had this judge once before and his courses were challenging even at the novice level. I liked him though, hopefully it'll be a fun trial.

I worked both dogs on the weaves over the weekend because that seems to be our biggest weakness at the moment and they did great with the various exercises I set up but maybe what I set up was too easy. I tried to remember sequences from trials that gave us a problem but it's hard to set things up from memory and I had forgotten the course maps. I'm hoping to get a few quick practices in before Sat. but it's been so darn hot.

I've been slacking on my swimming so badly I got a row from my swim coach who happened to be in the coffee shop beneath my office when I snuck in there to get a sandwich for lunch. At least she saw me with a healthy veggie sandwich and not a large mocha piled high with whip cream and chocolate sprinkles (because I never order those, oh no, not me). I told her I'd be at practice that night but it was Friday and I was beat by the time I got home. Agility class Monday and a friend's birthday last night means no swimming until Friday again and I probably won't go because of the trial on Sat. Do I even remember how to swim? Running is going o.k. and biking is sporadic. I need to sign up for a race soon or I'm never going to get my act together.

Wonder If The Vet Has Anything For Earworms

Still can't get that stupid Adam Ant song out of my head. The weird thing is it's not like I was ever a fan or anything. I always thought the pirate thing was funny and camp but that he was joking. He meant it all as a joke, right? Right??!! Jonny had to send me a wikipedia link for him which only put the song back in my head today. So I'm sharing the love. Maybe if I watch it enough times it'll go away. Oh and if you really want a case of the heebies click on 'Prince Charming' while you're over at youtube. Go ahead, I dare you.

Stand and Deliver

Friends In High Places

I woke up yesterday morning with the song 'Stand and Deliver' by Adam Ant stuck in my head. Don't ask me why, some questions in life are best left unanswered. In any case, two thoughts immediately entered my head-'the day can only get better from here' and 'at least it was Stand and Deliver and not Strip'.

In any case, the day did indeed get better. We've been having a streak of hot, cloudless, mid-90 degree days and such weather isn't good for much of anything, esp. dog activities. So when one of Jonny's mountain biking buddies invited us up to his place in the relatively cool mountains for a group ride and some grub I was thrilled. Jonny agreed to ride separately with me because there's no way I could keep up with the group who are a collective powerhouse of mountain biking talent. One woman was 4th in the country in the Xterra series last year, another who often rides with them was at the last Olympics. The guys frequently place in the top 3 in their age groups in the various races they enter. Jonny won his age group again this year in the Expert class (next class under 'Pro') at the Winter Park Hill Climb. So even if I was in decent shape there's still no way I could ride with these people. The trails aren't mapped either so if I'd tried to go on my own I likely would have ended up hopelessly lost though I have been watching 'Man vs Wild' and I'm pretty sure that by now I know enough to get myself in a whole heap of trouble. I think they need to start a 'Woman vs Wild' series. Who gets trapped in the wilderness on a day trip with practical items like a bowie knife and a flint? I want to know how to survive in the woods with a camera, tire levers, 2 tampons and some hair ties because that's usually what I carry in my backpack.

Anyway, I'm trying to decide if I want to enter and off road tri in August and the race director has informed me that the trails are 'moderately technical' and I'm not sure if this will be over my head or not. The trails are private and the race director won't say exactly where they are so I can't pre-ride them but Jonny is familiar with another race in the area and the course is likely the same or close. So while he was riding with me he kept pointing out places on the trail that would be similar to what I might see in the race. Some of it I could ride no problem, some of it made me a bit nervous and some of it made me wonder if maybe I shouldn't have brought a spare pair of shorts. In the end we rode about 8 miles in an hour 40 minutes. When we got back to his friend's place the other cyclists had finished their ride and they assured me the trails I had been on were hard but I think they were being polite. I'm still undecided about the race and at the moment I'm not feeling all that confident.

We took Strummer with and left him in his crate in the house while we rode but when we got back he got full run of the place and had a great time playing with his buddy Maggie, an Australian Cattle Dog. They ran around in the grass next to the house, playing with sticks and rolling in who knows what. After lunch Maggie's owner and I took the dogs down to a nearby pond so they could cool off a bit. Eventually the rest of the crowd joined us and went in for a swim. After listening to them all screaming from the cold I decided to take a pass. I'd had enough with freezing mountain lakes after last week. Some kid took up the task of throwing sticks in the water for the dogs and Strummer was in paradise racing Maggie for the stick and nearly always winning. He would have done this tirelessly for hours so I had to put a stop to it after, oh, an hour and a half, 2 hours or so. And he still wouldn't give up, bringing sticks to anyone foolish enough to make eye contact and whining his head off while pawing the stick. That dog is way too obsessive/compulsive and once he gets overtired and/or overstimulated there's no bringing him down. We were at the lake a good 3 hours and he never relaxed for a single moment. He was a nightmare when we got him home, pacing around the house and barking at the slightest thing going on outside. Even putting him in his crate didn't help. From now on we're going to have to take care not to overdo things with him. Hopefully he'll grow out of this. He's already 2 but boys always seem to mature so slowly.

It was nice to be up in the mountains but today I'm back to the heat and reality. Of course as a weird coincidence 'Strip' was playing on the radio when pulled into work and I've had that wretched song stuck in my head all morning. Gonna be a long week.

Buffalo Creek Off Road Triathlon-Short Course

500 yard swim, 10 mile off road bike, 2.5 mile trail run

It's been 2 3/4 years since I've done a triathlon so it was difficult to set a of a goal. My best guess of a finishing time was somewhere around 2:05, if I finished under 2 hours I'd be thrilled. Also not finishing last in my age group (40-45) would be nice though looking at how fit the other women looked I thought there was a good possibility I'd be finishing toward the bottom. Maybe I should shoot for not last overall. I really have no idea of where I'm at and the last 5 days in Chicago with no biking and one 20 minute half assed swim was not boosting my confidence.

I decided to spend the night at home and get up at 4 am rather than try to camp on my own at the race site. I was lying in bed the night before wearing fleece PJ pants, a long sleeved shirt, a sweat shirt and socks while snuggling under 2 comforters and flannel sheets that were also being warmed up by Lola and Jonny and I was thinking I was just about comfortable so how was I ever going to be o.k. camping outside on my own. This was a good decision since I blinked wide awake at 3:55 am on my own and had no problem getting up and at 'em for some freakish inexplicable reason. As it turned out I could have slept in another 1/2-1 hour or so and still had plenty of time. I got there at 6:20 and had to wait 15-20 minutes for them to even open the gate to let us in. I almost hit a border collie in the middle of the highway on the drive down. I had to screech to a stop and barely missed it. There was a second bc on the side of the road and I thought about picking them up but there was nowhere safe to pull over on the steep winding mountain highway. I drove around a turn and there was a house so I figured the dogs belonged there and that there wasn't much I could do. I certainly couldn't keep the dogs in the car for the next 6 hours and even if I knew where there was a shelter in the rural mountains it would not have been open at 6 am on a Saturday. I also avoided hitting an elk crossing the highway, apparently noone taught him to look left/right/left before crossing.

I got a nice spot in the transition area though it was set up in such a way that there was no advantage to any particular location. Why does that only happen when I'm early to a race? I set up all my stuff, globbed on the sunscreen, ate an energy bar, globbed on more sunscreen, ate some peanut butter sandwich, drank a bunch of water, went to the porta potties a million times, yakked with a woman racked near me (who went on to win not only my age group but first place overall of the women with a smoking fast time) and still had 2 hours until my wave started. I never get to races that early, I'm much happier having enough time to set up then maybe 45 minutes until the gun goes off but it was such a beautiful area and the sun was beating down even at 7:30 so I was happy enough to hang out for a while.

The swim was shortened from 880 yards to 500 due to the cold water temperature. However the water was supposedly 58 degrees and when I stuck my toes in I thought it was cold but not too bad so I was a bit disappointed about the shortened swim. Off road tris attract people who are strong on the bike because you need specific skills to ride trails which means there are often lots of people who's swim skills aren't the best and since my best event right now is the swim and my other 2 suck big time it was to my disadvantage to have the swim shortened. Or so I thought.

I was in the last of 3 waves which is good because it means less people in the water but still it was a large wave. There was a 40 minute gap between the time allowed for swim warm ups and the start of my wave so I figured there was no point in warming up and I didn't want to go hypothermic in the cold water before the race even started so I didn't bother. I stood around for ages baking in the hot sun like a sausage in my thick black wetsuit waiting for my wave to start then finally I was on my way, my first race in years-yeeha. It only took 20 seconds or so for the panic to set in. As soon as I hit the cold water my heart rate went shooting up and I couldn't catch my breath. I remembered too late how the cold water makes me hyperventilate at the start and I know from the wretched ice baths I used to take that it takes about 3 minutes for my breathing to return to normal. Yes, I've timed it. Yes, I am a geek. So I figured no problem, I'll just do backstroke until I can breathe again, I've done this before and it works no problem. Except this time it wasn't working. Every time I flipped back over to swim normally I'd make it just 3-4 strokes then feel like I couldn't catch my breath again. Finally I swam over to one of the rescue kyaks and hung on for a moment until I felt like I'd finally calmed down and caught my breath. I told the guy in the boat, 'Don't worry, I'm o.k., I don't need help, I'm just panicking, I'll be fine.' I'm surprised he didn't forcibly pull me out right there. After a few moments I went on my way but again, 3-4 strokes and I was on my back again. I swam to the next kyak, rested a bit then same thing again and I was on my back. It was the worst experience I've ever had in a race and I have panicked during the swim before. Luckily it was just my body panicking and not my brain because I kept it together and made it back to shore. As soon as I saw solid ground I stopped swimming and started running even though I was a way off shore and it would take me longer, I didn't care, I was so happy to be on solid ground. I took my wetsuit halfway off then the ground dropped away again so I had to swim with my head up until finally I hit the beach. My watch said 12:18 and I couldn't believe it, it easily felt like 20 minutes. A swim like that should have taken me around 10 minutes so I was pretty disappointed. I took 15 seconds or so to take the rest of my wetsuit off while still in the water since I think it's so much easier. I don't know why more people don't do this, I ended up having the second fastest combined swim and T1 transition time in my age group despite the crappy swim.

During the swim I thought I'd abandon the race once I got back to shore. The swim had gone so badly and I'd used so much extra energy doing backstroke that I figured there was little point in carrying on with the 2 weaker events. But once I hit transition I'd completely forgotten about any notions of quitting and jumped on my bike raring to go. The bike started off with a short but steep uphill then a super steep downhill on a badly rutted dirt road. I figured I was way at the back of the race at this point and the few people that were back there came blazing past me on the downhill. I ended up picking my way down behind a 54 year old woman who was being very careful. Still, she went down right in front of me which freaked me out a little. I stopped to make sure she was o.k. and she claimed she was and told me to go on. I had to pick my own line the rest of the way but managed with no problem albeit a bit slowly. After the 3 mile downhill we turn onto a flattish trail that follows along Buffalo Creek for a mile or so then we pick up the Gashouse Gulch trail which is a couple of miles of beautiful smooth but steep singletrack. The race director didn't want people passing on the singletrack while riding but we could tell the person ahead that we wanted to pass whenever there was space and they could put a foot down to let others by when there was a good place. I was worried that I'd be the one holding lots of people up but as it turned out I ended up passing quite a few people on the uphill. Some fell over right in front of me on the trail, others couldn't make it up the steep switchbacks and had to stop to walk. I knew I could ride the whole thing but had to walk at least one switchback because I got caught behind a line of people walking. The hardest part was having to start back up again when I got caught behind someone who had to stop. They'd let me by but it's hard to get up momentum on a hill from a dead stop. It was fun though and I did much better than I thought I would. After the singletrack there was a short descent on a dirt road then the hellish 3 mile steep climb back up the badly rutted road that I had been worrying about for the past few weeks. In the end it wasn't so bad though, I passed some people and felt o.k. by the time I got to the top. I was careful not to race people and push too hard on that hill because I still had the run to go and didn't know what to expect. I switched places back & forth many times with a 40 year old guy and I beat him to the top of the hill but he passed me on the downhill on the way back to transition. He turned off at a place that didn't look right and sure enough I saw a volunteer further up the road motioning me straight ahead. Thankfully I didn't follow because it was the wrong way but he was too far down the trail for me to yell to him.

I was fully planning on DNFing at the run if I was too sore to continue because I didn't want to get injured for the rest of the summer but I felt fine so I racked my bike, threw on my running shoes and cruised on my way. The run started on a terrible uphill and I quickly had to resort to walking/hiking. The trail went up and up then finally leveled a bit for some rolling uppy downy stuff, very fun. For the first time in ages the running felt effortless and I had a great time romping through the woods. The trail went out to a waterfall but there were steep steps down at that part of the trail and I was concentrating so hard on not falling that I didn't even notice it. I almost took a wrong turn onto the Xterra course as a volunteer giving out water was blocking the sign for the short course trail but as I headed the wrong way someone noticed and called me back. I had been trading places back and forth again with the 40 year old guy that had gone the wrong way on the bike but I lost him somewhere in the woods and was running on my own for most of the time. The 54 year old woman who had fallen in front of me passed me with about 8 minutes left in the run but I wasn't up for chasing her. I didn't know how far until the finish until suddenly I turned a corner and there it was. I knew there was someone a few seconds behind me because of the spectators cheering and I had a bit left in my legs for a sprint. He came up right behind at the finish and we crossed the timing mat together or maybe he was half a step ahead.

I was tired at the end and oh so happy to finish. I had no idea how I'd done placement wise but I saw at least one woman from my age group come in behind me so I knew I wasn't dead last. The post race food was kind of crappy but I managed to force down a couple of cookies and some chips. They had BBQed hamburgers and no veggie burgers so I was out of luck but to be honest I wasn't very hungry anyway.

Final Stats:

500 yard swim: 12:48 (actual swim time was around 12:18, extra 30 secs. was wetsuit removal

and running up the beach to transition)

T1: 1:42 (fastest in my age group)

10 mile trail bike: 1:13:43 (my speedometer measured over 11 miles but could be calibrated

wrong)

T2: 1:11

2.5 mile trail run: 27:00

Total: 1 hour, 56 minutes, 20 seconds

Placement: 4th out of 9 in my age group

I was shocked that I'd placed so highly in my age group but apparently other people had a rough day in the water and I was so quick with my transitions that I was 2nd when I left for the bike though I had no idea at the time. I was very happy to finish under 2 hours as well so overall it was a great race. I was 7 mins., 16 seconds off of third place and 9 minutes, 4 seconds ahead of 5th place so as it turned out the crappy swim didn't really matter other than the horrible experience. On a good day a swim like that should take me 10 minutes so I really only lost 2:18 and I didn't have an extra 5 mins. in my legs for the bike/run anyway.

I'd definitely go back next year, the bike course is really good for me with lots of climbing but the race director was trying to get the Forest Service to increase his permit to 500 and if that happens I doubt I'll go. I'm not sure how many were there but too many more people on the course, esp. the bike, would spoil it for me. Otherwise though a great, fun race esp. for the climbers. Oh and next time I'll warm up for the swim even if it means just wading in the water for a few minutes (doh).

Did I Forget Anything?

That is a lot of crap. I forgot what a hassle all the gear is. I hope I didn't forget anything else.

Attn. Colorado Readers

Some guy on a running list mentioned that his brother in CO has a husky who recently gave birth to pups (the idiot has an intact male and female, well duh what did think would happen). He claims the brother will 'probably' drown the pups. Now this is hardly solid evidence of anything and I don't want to start a witch hunt but I have the person's last name and a picture of the mom husky and her pups so if anyone knows anybody with a husky who's recently had pups feel free to email me and I can tell you the last name to see if it's the same person. Then hopefully the person can be persuaded to put the pups into rescue if he was indeed entertaining notions of drowning.

Alternatively if anyone knows of a litter of huskies that has turned up drowned or met with any other unfortunate fate please let me know and I'll pass on what little info. I have to the proper authorities. I do have the full name of the non-dog owning brother as well as a way for police/animal control to contact him. A simple DNA test could link (or not) the pups to the mother.

Permission to pass on, cross post, whatever it takes to spread the word.

The Worm Crawls In, The Worm Crawls Out

I'm sorry, but Lola's worms are SO gross. I'm picking up her medicine today after work and it better work fast, that's all I'm saying. The vet tech suggested keeping the dogs on heartworm preventative year round if they're going to get into bad things at the agility field on a regular basis. I'm not a big fan of drugs so I've been giving them heartworm pills only during mosquito season but I think I may try the year round thing. So far noone's shown any adverse signs to the medicine and worms certainly can't be a good thing, esp. since apparently they can have them and not shown any signs.

I've decided I'm doing my race this weekend no matter what. If I'm going to do it I should go into it fully committed and with a positive attitude about it or it's not going to go well or be any fun. Still unsure about the camping though, I'll try one more time to find a hotel but it's mostly tiny mountain bedroom communities up there. If only I didn't get cold so easily I wouldn't mind the camping but without Jonny or the dogs there to keep me warm I'm afraid I'll be awake shivering all night long. Man, I'm such a wuss.

Lola the Early Bird

gets the worm, or rather worms. I just got back from Chicago to discover Lola has some leetle friends in her poop. The vet confirmed it's tapeworm but at least it's the kind that comes from rabbit/rodent poop and not from fleas (phew!). There are tons of rabbits at the agility field and I've been letting her run around off leash so she can get a warm up in while I'm setting up an exercise or walking a course.

I managed to get in 3 runs of around 50 minutes each and a 20 minute swim in my wetsuit in Lake Michigan. No biking as I had no time or access to a bike so my tri this weekend should be interesting. The race director is shortening the swim due to the extreme cold temp. of the lake but he's not sure by how much. He also said booties would be legal but I doubt I'll have time to get some by Friday. I've never swum in them either and trying them out for the first time during a race might freak me out. Still can't decide if I want to camp on site the night before. Waking up cold and jumping into a freezing lake does not sound appealing. However neither does getting up at 4:30 am, driving almost 2 hours then jumping into a freezing lake. Wish there was a hotel nearby but no dice. I could say to hey with it, I'm not in great shape and there's the business of that freezing lake. I'll see how I feel about it on Friday. The only other race I've signed up for so far this summer is the Glenwood Springs Triathlon in September and I'm not even sure I got in so I hate to wuss out.

My trip to Chicago was partly fun and partly stressful. My family's a little crazy and can be hard to deal with at times but it was good to see them. I also met up with some good friends that I've had since high school. One of them has a 1 year old border collie mix that is a huge sweetie and I spent a lot of time playing with her and watching her tear around the Evanston Dog Beach. That beach is quite the experience, I had a lot of fun watching the dogs and talking with their wacky owners. I also spent a lot of time walking on the lakefront paths along the Northwestern campus and Evanston shoreline. Unfortunately all of my runs were through the suburb of Wilmette where I grew up and not along the lakefront but I had to work my fun stuff around my family and that's how things turned out. Wilmette's a rich, sterile, Stepford Wives type place. The beach and park at the lakefront are nice and they've even added a small dog beach but if you're a non-resident the yearly fee is a whopping $150 which pretty much sums up all that's wrong with Wilmette. It's not my favorite town in the world but there are worse places I could have been stuck in for 5 days. Still, the place sometimes gives me the heebies even though I grew up there. I feel like some alarm is going to sound and I'm going to be wisked away by people in white Hazmat suits if I happen to step off the sidewalk onto someone's perfectly manicured impossibly green lawn.

It was a great trip for bugs because in addition to the cicadas I also hit the start of firefly season. The lack of fireflies is one of the very few things that sucks about Colorado.

I'm so glad to be back home though. The only good thing about leaving is the greeting I get when I get back.

I've got some photos but haven't even uploaded them from the camera yet. If I ever get time and if they came out o.k. I'll try to post.

Ree Ree Ree

I’m in the Chicago burbs visiting family and I’ve unwittingly timed my trip to coincide with the emergence of the 17 year cicadas (or locusts as we called them when I was a kid). For those who are unfamiliar, these creepy looking but harmless bugs come out every 17 years and ever since I first experienced them as a 9 year old kid I’ve thought they were cool beans. The last emergence happened the year I left for Boulder and I had to go out to the Forest Preserves to see them because they were completely absent from my Chicago neighborhood and even my grandparents place out in the north burbs was oddly quiet. Not so this year, much to my delight. The place is literally crawling with them and at midday when they become most active the noise they produce is positively apolcalyptic and so loud I was forced into the house to save my eardrums. There are 3 different species that all make different sounds so it turns into quite the chorus when they all get going. There’s a constant droning hum like a power line that’s always going in the background and then a high pitched ‘ree ree ree’ that sort of rises and falls in intensity.

It’s pure Alfred Hitchcock and I love it. At least I thought I did until I went outside the first morning and the second I stepped out the door one of them made a beeline to my leg. Now I know they're harmless and like I said I think they’re cool beans but still, it’s been 17 years and these huge things (they look like hummingbirds when they fly) with their blood red eyes and bright orange wings take a little getting used to so I’ll admit to more than a few moments of initial panic and resisted the urge to scream ‘eeeeeee, geddit off meeeeeee, NOW!!!’ These bugs are fairly laid back too so once they land somewhere they’re not all that inclined to move, esp. not early in the morning when they’re kind of out of it (I can certainly relate) so my leetle friend was in no hurry to vacate my leg. Even worse was the one that unbeknownst to me crawled down my back between my fleece and t-shirt and happily hung out for at least 20 minutes until I finally felt the flutter of wings against my back and realized I had a hitchhiker.

When they crawl out of the ground they’re still in their shells and they’ll climb up trees, walls, or whatever and anchor themselves down before they crawl out of their shells so in addition to the bugs there are shells hanging everywhere and they’re almost creepier than the bugs. I’ve collected a bunch of them to take home to Jonny who’s a bit squeamish. It’s just as well he’s stayed home to look after the dogs because I don’t think he’d be coping very well. Some people don’t do well with insect swarms. Some one the other hand will find a way to profit. Some enterprising soul is selling the little critters on ebay and at least one person was bidding on them last time I checked. My aunt is a school teacher and her school held a cicada eating contest as a fund raiser. At least they were frying them up rather than eating them raw. I’ve even seen a website that has recipes for them and I have to wonder if any of the trendy restaurants downtown are serving any cicada specials. And of course my friend's dog is in pure heaven snarfing up bugs by the mouthful. I’ll stick to admiring them in the backyard thank you very much.

Here's a link to more photos: cicadas
and a cool video showing their life cycle: video

Sticker Shock

Filled out the premium for the big 3 day USDAA trial at the end of the month and YIKES! $352 total if I enter both dogs in all events. So Cody's getting the shaft on the Grand Prix (saves $22) since he has his 2 qualifiers for nationals and his 5 qualifiers for the championship title. I may cut out Jumpers from the last day so we can leave early but that only saves an extra $24. I have $20 worth of worker's coupons so that helps a bit. It's so many runs too what with the Team events and regular qualifying events. I entered both dogs in the Team event this year, it's our only local chance to qualify for Nationals. If we don't I'm not sure I want to travel all over huxpux trying to qualify and I don't want to drive the 13 1/2 hours to Nationals if we don't qualify in Team because it's not enough runs to be worth it. I've got really good teammates if only I can hold up my end of the bargain so it's possible we'll qualify but I don't want to drive myself crazy worrying about it. I'm starting to feel like these Tournament events are way too expensive to enter on a regular basis. The Grand Prix is my favorite event of all agility events/all venues but there's a limit to what I'm willing to spend for 40 seconds in the ring and $22 is really pushing it.

I rode my bike way too hard on Saturday then went for a 1:15 trail run on Sunday after an agility fun match. My legs/hip/pelvis are not happy with me. I'm worried about my race in 2 weeks, I'm not sure I'll be ready and I'm thinking of bagging it. I'll see how I feel in a couple of days if/when my legs finally recover. I was so sore after my run on Sunday that I almost succumbed to an ice bath, something I swore I would never do after I trained for my last marathon. When you find yourself screaming bad words at the top of your lungs from a freezing bathtub full of ice cubes and creatures that revel in eating poop come in the bathroom and stare at you like you're crazy it's time to rethink your hobby.