Surfs Up!

Went for my early morning swim with my masters group then came back to the Rez so Strummer could have his turn.

Yee Ha!

Normally on Rez days I go for a bike or run after my swim so I only need to take one shower but it's taper week and my legs are still tired so only one workout today.

Strummer loves swimming

He's obsessed with water.  I've been doing some dogwalk boot camp in the back yard and rewarding him with the hose.  The other day he dropped a raw hide chew because he saw me walking near the hose.  If there's a hose at an outdoor trial he'll pull my arm off after his run to get to it and once he went tearing out of the ring early for the hose because we were near the ring gate and he thought we were done.

Please to throw the ball

I don't typically care for the north side of the Rez because it's full of rattlesnakes and naked hippies.  Usually I go to the south side but it's shut to dogs during the summer season.  Times have changed though and the rattlesnakes and naked hippies have been replaced by zillions of ill trained, pushy, in your face labs.  Technically dogs are supposed to be under voice control but none of the dogs I saw today were.  We avoided the sandy beaches which were busier and found a quiet little shady spot to ourselves but we still got invaded by numerous over exuberant labs.  Strummer could care less as long as they leave him alone, he just wants his ball, and I managed to fend them off with the Chuck-It.

A little bit of haze over the Flatirons but still a pretty morning. 

Racing Underground 1.2 Mile Swim

Trying to squeeze in the last little bit of open water swimming left at the Rez so I decided to take advantage of Racing Underground's Open Water Swim race this morning.  Mostly I wanted to get some confidence for Nationals for the mass swim start.  I've never done a mass swim start, always had waves.  The Stroke and Stride a few weeks ago was a mass start with about 91 people but last year there were 255 people at Nationals.  And while this is nothing compared to an Ironman mass start of perhaps over 1000 people (you can check out photos here if you want to see how scary that is and huge kudos to Molly who just finished this Ironman and threw herself into the fray of the swim) to me 255 people all at once is an intimidating proposition.  So I wanted some practice to build my confidence.  I also wanted to experiment with pacing and pushing myself a little harder in the swim than I normally do.  Plus I love swimming in open water and last week is the end of swimming in the Rez for the year.  It was such a gorgeous morning, so glad I went.

This photo is from practice a week or so ago but you get the idea.

I'm at the Rez by 6:20 a.m., plenty of time for the 7:00 a.m. start.  I watch a beautiful sunrise over the Rez and pull on my wetsuit.  As I'm squeezing into the neoprene I see a father helping his 11 year old daughter put her wetsuit on for the first time.  So cool to see such a young girl at an event like this and she does indeed finish the 1.2 mile swim, her dad swimming with her.  Can't imagine doing something so intimidating when I was 11.

The race has a total of 198 people and is a mass start, sort of.  There are no waves but it's chip timed and you can pass over the timing mat whenever you want so there's no advantage to starting with the pack and people can wait for up to 15 minutes if they're nervous of swimming in the pack.  But I'm here to practice swimming in the pack so I seed myself where I think I'll be at Xterra Nat's., about 2/3 of the way back in the pack.  My plan is to swim the first half of the race easy then pick up the pace for the second half.

The course looks intimidating from the shore line - one large 1.2 mile loop.  I can't even see all the buoys at once from a single spot on shore.  You can do either 1.2 miles or 2.4 miles, the distance of the swim for the 1/2 and full Ironman.  And Racing Underground is so well organized and accommodating that you can change your mind about what distance you want to swim during your race, you just have to tell them what you swam when you get out.  I've chosen 1.2 miles since it's closer to the 1500 meter distance that I'll have at Nat's.

I start the race feeling confident.  No jitters or panic-y thoughts.  It's crowded but not too bad and I find myself on the outer edge of the group.  We're swimming directly into the sun so I can't see the buoy at all and all I can do is follow all the splashing.  I have no idea where to position myself in the crowd for a straight line to the buoy so I fall into the group as best I can but somehow keep finding myself on the outer edge.  I get jostled around a little, a few light kicks and slaps but nothing scary or crazy.  Best part is that I'm totally confident, no worries or panic at all.  The water is warm-ish, probably 70-71 and with the morning sun there's no chill to it at all.  Average temp. for Nat's. is 65 degrees, similar to what I had at Mountain Champs.  Cold but do-able.

I pass a bunch of people for the first half of the race then when I make the turn for the journey back I find myself mostly on my own.  I can see a pack of people up ahead and try to catch up but they're out of reach and if anything moving ahead of me.  Despite all the people I'm never able to catch much of a draft and the rest of the race is a bit lonely.  I pass a few people, a few pass me but mostly I'm alone with my thoughts.  I shift around focusing on various aspects of my stroke, especially pulling hard and getting the most out of each stroke.  I pick up the pace as planned for the second half but the buoys seem to take forever to pass by compared to the first half.

The course sits on a funny angle in the Rez and when I come around the second to last turn I can't see the finish line and I'm completely disoriented.  I've been battling to keep ahead of someone coming up behind me but I stop to tread water for a moment and get my bearings because I'm wondering if I've swum past the finish and started a second lap.  It takes a few moments but I finally spot the finish and get going again but the person has passed me and another has caught me up.  Oh well, I'm here for practice and the lesson here is to follow the buoys and don't doubt the course.  If I'd kept going for another couple minutes I would have seen the finish after the next turn.

Finally I see the finish and it can't come too soon.  I can't figure out why I'm so tired though, I've been swimming 3000 meters/3281 yards for a good chunk of July and August and only in the past weeks went down to 2000 m/2187 yards.  At this point I'm very glad I don't have another lap to do.

I get out and immediately see 2 people I know from masters, one of which was at the Stroke-n-Stride a few weeks ago.  It looks like they've been done for a while and I'm surprised to see them out of the water so long before me because at masters we're pretty close in pace and I was only 9 seconds behind one of them at the Stroke-Stride but I figure maybe they started well ahead of me.  I'm wrong though, their times are about 4 minutes faster than mine.  In the end my time is 44:05 for an amazingly slow pace of 2:05/100 yards.  I'd almost think the course was measured long but I came so far behind people who normally swim close to my pace so I'm sure it was me and not the course.  On the plus side I came in 2nd in my age group out of 9.

I can't believe I was so slow, I really felt like I was pushing myself the last half of the race and especially at the end when I was fighting to stay ahead of a couple of people.  I think it's a sign that I'm not yet recovered from my race last weekend.  I've also had a bit of a hard week physically and the fatigue yesterday was terrible.  I'm feeling better today but obviously not all the way recovered yet.

Came home and dug up/re-seeded the lawn.  Exhausting work, I don't even want to know what my back will feel like tomorrow.  And oh yes, I have an agility trial tomorrow.  Gotta love summer.


RACE STATS

Water temp. approx. 70-71 degrees, air temp. high 60's

1.2 miles/2112 yards

44:05 (2:05/100 yards pace)

2/9 Age Group

21/53 women

36/84 overall

Neoprene Season Starts Today and I'd Better Start Hitting My Bike

Open water season at the Rez started this morning and it was a perfect day - unseasonably warm air temperature for this time of year and the Rez was in the low 60's which is also warm for this time of year but not warm in general.  I did one 1000 meter loop and called it a day.  I was to the point where I couldn't tell if I was cold or not and figured that was a bad sign for doing another loop.  Probably should have manned up and at least done the shorter 500 meter loop but I had a good swim workout yesterday and I need to get on my bike today.  When I got home I noticed a pinkie finger was white so it was probably a good decision.

I'm feeling a renewed urgency to hit the bike because I haven't ridden in ages and someone posted the following to the Facebook page of the group that puts on the Curt Gowdy Xterra:

Time for some input on Xterra Curt Gowdy bike course.
OK...I agree that it's not mountain biking unless there's blood, but . . .  I rode the course last week and all I can say, prepare for carnage. There's "IMBA advanced" and there's "Xterra advanced" and that is one major difficult, technical and long course. Beginners are gonna freak. 

I'm not a beginner but I don't like super technical trails, especially when I've also got to swim and run and do it all under race conditions.  I can't get up to Wyoming to pre-ride the course until 2 weekends before the race unless I go up on my own during the week which I'm not tempted to do. I'm not to the point of panic, I would consider the trails I ride up at West Mag to be Intermediate level trails and those trails at Curt Gowdy are labeled Intermediate.  There are a few short sections on the course labeled Advanced and the race director did warn there would be a few short technical sections that some folks would have to get off for.  But I wasn't expecting a super crazy hard course with extra carnage.  The only thing for it is to bike bike bike and keep calm until I can get up there to check it out for myself.

How to Get Hypothermia in an August Heat Wave

I have a triathlon tomorrow so of course we're having a heat wave at the end of August.  Last year I blew up in the unseasonable heat in this race and conditions look like a repeat for this year.  I've also been struggling a bit with swimming in the Rez in my full wetsuit in the warmer weather.  I'm o.k. for a lap but by the second lap I'm getting too hot.  Or at least I had been for the past few weeks.  Once I even took off the wetsuit for the second lap and was a little chilly after I got out but was mostly o.k.  I didn't even own a wetsuit when I did my first couple of Olympic Distance (1500 meter swim) triathlons in the Rez way back in the day.  So I came up with the idea of not wearing a wetsuit in the race tomorrow in the hope that I might be a little chilly when I get out of the water and I won't overheat too badly for the rest of the race.  It's only an 880 yard swim, how cold can I get?

I was a little toasty after my first 1100 yard loop of the Rez yesterday morning so I thought I'd test out this theory and take my wetsuit off for the second lap.  The coach suggested I just do half a lap but I told her I'd done this a few weeks ago and was fine for a full lap.  Unfortunately I'd underestimated how much the Rez had cooled down in the past few weeks and I was cold as soon as I took my wetsuit off.  But I needed more yardage and there's no way I was getting the suit back on while it was wet so off I went figuring that the sun was blaring warmly on the water and I'd warm up once I got going like I did a few weeks ago.  Except I never quite warmed up.  I probably swam my fastest loop ever though even without the advantage of the wetsuit.  Even when I got to the place where I could head back to shore for 1/2 a loop I stubbornly kept going, need more yardage, can't turn back until I get a full workout in.  I was already cutting the workout short by doing only 2 laps.  I made it back to shore and thought I was o.k. and even changed into dry clothes at the car but when I got in the car to drive home I starting shaking, well beyond shivering even.  I blasted the heat and luckily the Rez is close to my house because it was an interesting drive home.  I got in a hot shower and 50 minutes after getting out of the Rez I finally felt o.k.  So the plan for tomorrow is to wear my wetsuit because the water will likely be a couple of degrees colder even than the Rez.  At least I figured that out before the race and didn't have to try to navigate a mountain bike on single track while shaking uncontrollably.

Unlike last year I've been training in the heat this year so I'm better prepared.  My plan is to have a small cooler in transition with a bottle full of ice water to pour over my head before the run and a small water bottle to carry with me on the run to pour over my head as needed.  Last year the water supplies for those of us at the back of the race weren't so great.  There aren't many aid stations which is understandable but when I finally did get to one they gave me a cup of water filled maybe 1/4 of the way.  I think they let me have 2 cups but it still wasn't nearly enough.  I hate to carry a bottle, it's such a nuisance and extra weight to haul up the hill, but I don't trust the race to provide enough water and I'd rather be sure to have it.  Also I can have it when I need it and not have to wait so long between water stations.  I'll be able to go faster if I can keep coolish so it'll be worth it.

This race is not an 'A' race, it's a fun end of season go out there and enjoy race.  But I am going to race my hardest, especially looking to improve my running.  But I haven't been training in earnest, no more 2 a day workouts, no more intervals.  I did the bike in 1 hour 22 minutes for the last 2 years, weird since the courses were different each year, and I plan on cutting some time off of that.  And I'm always trying to better my swim.

In other news Strummy finally got to go play at agility this morning.

If you throw the ball I might forgive you for ignoring me all summer.

I finally got him doing some dogwalks.  Set-up was curved tunnel on one end, jump on the other.  If he hit the contact he got his toy, if not I kept going until he did.  He got all 4 reps with the jump at the end, all 4 perfect contacts.  However he only got 1/4 with the tunnel at the end and it was the 4th tunnel rep that he finally got.  I ended there but played with him a bit so he didn't think hitting the contact with a tunnel there meant the end of his fun.  Even at 7:15 am it was too hot to do any more dogwalks after that.

Then my training partner and I worked on a little exercise that was already set up.  We managed to work everything in - weaves, teeter, table, A-frame.  Strummy was pretty perfect except for leaving the teeter when I moved ahead to front cross.  His teeter had been so good but was getting sloppy at the last trial so I'm back to working it in practice.  Weaves were pretty awesome even with coming at them at speed out of a tunnel and me doing a rear cross.  Good practice over all but it was quickly too hot to do too much.  Bring on the fall!

Team Feat rocks the Stroke-n-Stride

My friend Amelia and I teamed up to do one of the weekly Stroke-n-Stride races down at the Boulder Rez.  They've been going on for years and I've never done one mostly because of the cost.  I can swim with the masters group for 'free' (I have a yearly pass) then go for a run on my own so why pay?  The fees are very reasonable-$20 if you sign up in advance.  It's a bargain and Racing Underground do a great job of putting on a fun event but still, free is more of a bargain.  Nonetheless I thought it would be fun to do it as a team and great practice for my open water tri's.  Amelia's a super speedy runner and she also wanted to a get a hard practice in.  It's easier to push yourself if you have a race and that's exactly the purpose of these races.  There aren't awards for individual races but they do keep a tally of your points from all the races and most amount of points at the end of the season in each age group gets an award.  So really these races are for training.

The other reason I've never bothered to do the Stroke-n-Stride is that it seemed so competitive.  I've looked at the finish times and worried that I would be slogging away by myself at the back of the pack and it wouldn't be very fun.  Lots of the uber competitive triathletes come out for these races to practice.

You have a choice of a 750 m/820.2 yard swim or 1500 m/1640.4 yard swim then the 5k run.  Since my tri race swims will be 1000 m/1100 yards and 880 yards I decided to do the 750 m swim.  I thought it would be fun to see how fast I could go for a short-ish swim and no bike and run afterwards.

The typical evening storms were starting to roll in and the skies at the other end of town looked downright ugly as I stood in the water waiting for the start.  But thankfully there was no thunder or lightning and the race went on with just enough cloud cover to make sighting the buoys easy.  I experimented with starting a little closer to the front but not in the heat of the pack.  I normally start further back but I think I seed myself too far back because then I have to fight my way through the people doing breast stroke and I think that's worse than a few faster people passing me.  The good news is I didn't feel the least bit afraid or nervous at the start and in fact was feeling pretty confident.  When the race started I had to sight a little bit more than normal because more people were around me and I didn't want to run into someone or get kicked but I managed the crowd no problem other than some butt slapping.  I wonder if there's any other sport where it's acceptable to slap a competitor on the ass?  I couldn't find any feet to draft off of though.  Every time I tried the person was too slow or swimming too erratically.  I was able to focus on my stroke a bit and not worry so much about the people around me.

The last buoy was a bit tricky, somehow I wasn't sure at first if I was headed towards the right one and I think I drifted a bit off course.  In order to motivate myself to go faster I picked out somebody to try to pass on the final stretch.  For the longest time it seemed I just couldn't catch him but as we got towards shore I finally passed him.  Ran across the beach to give the timing chip to Amelia and sort of wished I'd signed up for the longer race.  It was done before I could blink.

I changed into my running shoes and did a short run in the dirt at the side of the official race course while I waited to cheer Amelia in.  So many scary fast runners cruising past me.  I kept waiting for the slower folks to come plodding along but they never did.  I timed my run perfectly and Amelia came running for the finish just as I was nearly there myself.

I was kicking myself for not bringing my camera, rays of sun were poking through the dramatic cloud formations over the mountains.  It looked like something out of a painting.  Ah well, maybe next time.

Final Stats

Team Feat (a combination of our initials) came in 2nd out of 4 teams and 9th out of 113 overall (men and women).  The 1st place team came in 2nd overall and was about 4 minutes ahead of us.  Third place team came in 28th overall and was 4 minutes behind us.

I was 30/113 overall and would have been 1st in my age group by 1 minute, 21 secs. if they included the relay participants.

Amelia was 18th overall runner and also would have been 1st in her age group by 2 mins., 10 secs.

My time was 16:56 or 2:04/100 yards.  I'm a little disappointed with this, I was sure I'd go below 2:00 but it's good feedback for what to expect for my races.  Could be I went more off course than I realized.  My time for the 800 m/875 yard swim portion of the Lory Xterra from last year was 17:44 or 1:55/100 yards.  I suppose all of this depends on how accurate the course is measured and how closely I follow the course.  I followed that Lory course very closely, it was a simple out and back.  The Stroke-n-Stride course was more of a loop with the buoys further apart and only 3 of them for the whole course and thus harder to sight.

Overall a very fun race, great practice.  There's only one more race for the season and it's too close to my tri but I think I'll have to try to do more of them next year.  I can see the value now in practicing the swim in a race scenario plus it was fun.

DOCNA trial tomorrow.  Only one day but 6 runs outside.  Oh yes, and it's July so it'll be hot.  I know, DUH, but I wanted to get in at least one day of trialing in this month lest our skills completely vaporize.

Heckuva week

In short, woke up Sat. morning to an unstable knee, probably the partially torn meniscus has flipped over, happens sometimes for no apparent reason but hasn't happened for ages, maybe more than a year.  Limping around, can barely walk dogs but manage a bike ride on Sunday. 

Take Lola in for her chiropractor appointment on Monday, doc sees my knee brace and wants to know why so I tell him my tale of woe.  He's also a people chiropractor too and a few jerks and pulls on my leg and voila I can walk again.  Amazing.  And he doesn't even charge me.  I can hardly believe any of it.  Wake up Tuesday morning and my knee is perfect.

Go for a bike ride last night with some friends on a trail that's not very hard, ridden it a zillion times with no problem.  Friend of a friend of Jonny's-a 70 year old mountain biker that's visiting from England-rode the trail over the weekend, went over the handlebars, landed in a pile of unconscious and blood and just had serious neck surgery to fuse his vertebrae together or something.  Going to get sent back to England in a Lear jet with a medical team on board because he's so unstable.  He has really really good insurance.  Anyway, he crashed on a part of the trail that I'm not even riding last night but somehow before I knew this I'd convinced myself he'd crashed on a part of the trail I was riding.  So coming down it I'm freaking myself out and telling myself don't be an idiot, worrying about crashing will surely make you crash.  I finally stop worrying and then I crash, about 2 minutes from the trail head at the end of the ride.  I was trying to scramble out of the way to avoid some women coming uphill while coming around a turn and my wheels skidded out from under me.  Not a serious crash by any means, just a stupid slip on some loose dry trail but of course I land on my right knee right on the part that's always sore where the meniscus is screwed up.  Huge swelling bleeding welt on my knee and it hurts to walk and I've somehow also managed to hurt my left pinkie/palm.  Nothing broken but it hurts to move it.  I don't tell my friends, I'm too embarrassed at my idiocy.

Strummer has forgotten how to weave then sort of remembered, we'll see how he does at the trial this weekend.  I hate being unprepared, have only practiced at the field once since the trial last Memorial Day.

And to top it all off I killed a baby prairie dog on my way home from the Rez this morning.  Sucks Sucks Sucks!  There was an oncoming car so I couldn't swerve to avoid him and as an added gruesome bonus that car also killed the baby prairie dog on his side of the road.  I see them both squished in my rear view mirror and my stomach turns over a million times.  I guess the carrion eating birds will have a nice breakfast.

Lots of ice and compression in my future and we'll see if I can run that crazy dog on Saturday.  Swimming helped my leg somehow, I hobbled down to the beach barely able to put weight on it and walked back up the hill to my car without even thinking about it.  If I can't run by Saturday I may enter a swimming race at the Rez that my masters group is sponsoring.  Or maybe hide in the house with all the blinds drawn and my feet up and hope that nothing else happens.

Friday please

I start out this very long day at 6:30 a.m. with an interesting swim in the Rez and finish it up finally at 9:15 p.m.  It's blowy when I wake up this morning and I have this rule of no swimming in white caps because I'm a wimp.  It turns out the water is a bit choppy but no whitecaps so it's a go.  Oddly enough I have no trouble swimming a straight line, I have to sight more than normal but no big deal.  Unfortunately there are a lot of people out there having issues and I get cut off by people swimming right in front on me several times.  I don't think they even see me.  Some of them are outright scary.  Lots of people stopping to tread water too, not sure what that's about.  One person cuts me off then stops to tread water right on front of me.  Gotta love those Boulderites living in their own Private Idaho.  Knock off the first 1000 yard loop no problem and decide to go for round 2 despite better judgement.  Here's the thing about the no whitecaps rule, it's a good rule but there's not much you can do about it if you're in the middle of the lake and the winds start gusting stronger than they were when you started and suddenly there are whitecaps.  And waves.  Smacking you in the face because you can only breathe competently to one side despite years of practice and of course the waves are coming at you on the breathing side.  And the crazy lady from above that cut me off and stopped to tread water is swimming near me right about the time the winds kick up.  She drifts way off to sea away from me, well off course from the buoy and I'm somewhat relieved only to have her appear from nowhere a few minutes later to cut me off again.  I decide screw the buoy and head for shore on a more direct route.  I figure crazy lady will follow but as soon as she realizes she's off course she swims away back to the buoy and directly into the chop.  Talk about crazy OCD triathlete.  I get to shore, take of my wetsuit, head up to the parking lot and as I'm getting into my car I see her out there still thrashing around.

I wasn't happy while I was out there in the whitecaps but I didn't panic and it's good to know I can do it if I have to.  But let's hope I don't have to.  Ever again.

I sit down to work this morning and figure hell my day can't possibly get any worse than what I've already been through.  But I'm wrong.  Bring on the weekend please.  I'm going to take at least part of it off for sure.

My turn at the Rez

I love the smell of neoprene in the morning. Some triathletes love the smell of chlorine and I've never understood that. Pool chemicals-gross-and so bad for you. I prefer the smell of neoprene because it means my wetsuit which means summer and the excitement of race morning and open water swimming without the limits of lane lines and walls and stinky chemicals and psycho overcompetitive triathletes tailing me and watching the clock and are we on the 7th or 8th 100 out of 12 and what was the interval again? I love swimming in the Rez, enough to get up at 5:30 a.m. so I can be there on time for my early morning masters group swim. Usually the water is freezing at this time of year but temps were in the 90's yesterday and more of the same predicted for today. I had Strum at the Rez last night for a swim session and the water felt o.k. but I didn't venture in past the shoreline so I figured it might still be cold further in but when I got in this morning I was shocked at how nice it was. Now it was not warm, I needed my full wetsuit, but it wasn't that horrible take your breath away, what the hell am I thinking type cold either that you would normally get this time of year.

There's always a tense moment when I have to squeeze into my wetsuit for the first swim of the season. Will it fit? Some wetsuits have a decent range of weights/body sizes that will accomodate each suit size but mine fits relatively closely and doesn't allow a lot of room for winter indulgence. Somehow though I manage to squish my butt in for yet another year. Phew, what a relief, those suits are expensive.

Usually my first open water workout of the season is spent swimming back and forth parallel to the shore line for maybe 10-15 minutes because for some reason I freak out the first time I'm back in the open water. But today I started right into the 900-1000 yard loop course with no fuss or muss. The courses vary so it's hard to compare but usually they take me 20-23 minutes or so. Today's took just over 19. Of course it could be shorter than normal but still I was pleased enough to be able to do a whole lap my first time out let alone at a good clip. I felt like a wuss getting out after only one lap but I didn't want to push it and poor Lola was in the car freaking out about being at the Rez and not being out in the water playing with me. She was barking when I left her and I hope she didn't bark the whole time I was gone. I thought Memorial Day was the cutoff for dogs being allowed at the Rez but when I drove in the sign said May 15th (oops) so she was S.O.L. I let her out at the entrance to the Rez to play on the grass there but it's not the same as being in the water. Maybe tonight I'll take her to the north side of the Rez which is open to dogs year round but fills up with naked hippies and rattlesnakes during the summer months so I don't like to go there normally.

I got to work feeling all relaxed and happy only to be greeted with the news that my swim coach's brother, Dave Scott, had been hit by a car over the weekend while cycling on a street in my neighborhood where I walk the dogs all the time. For the non-triathletes out there, Dave Scott is something of an icon in the triathlon world. He won the Hawaii Ironman a zillion times as a pro and continues to race and coach athletes here in Boulder and is an all around nice guy. His sister Jane has been the swim coach of my master program since I started a zillion years ago and though I thought it weird that she wasn't at practice this morning I didn't give it all that much thought. I'm not sure if she was missing because of her brother but it's not often that she misses practice. There weren't a lot of details about the accident, only that it was bad enough that he needed shoulder surgery and that there was a big dent in the car. The stretch of road where he was hit is a very quiet, low speed suburban road, not a place you would expect to get hit. Anyway, that was an unfortunate jolt to the morning and I'm hoping he recovers quickly.

In completely unrelated news I rode a new (to me) trail with some friends over the weekend up near Horsetooth Reservoir in Fort Collins. The Blue Sky trail is only a few years old and it was fabulous. Beautiful smooth single track, rolling green hills with red cliffs at the top, gorgeous wild flowers, quad busting climbs and whee-ha descents, who could ask for more? Unfortunately I forgot my Camelback so had no way to carry my camera and didn't want to risk it falling out of my jersey rear pocket so I have no pictures. Darn, I guess I'll have to go back to get some.

There was a USDAA trial this weekend that I missed for various reasons but mostly to save money since it would have required an overnight stay and I have to say I'm sure I had just as much if not more fun riding that trail than I would have had trying to drag Lola around an agility course in the hot sun on Sunday. I'm debating whether I should enter her in the July 4th weekend trial since it's usually so hot. I was only planning on entering Standard and Gamblers with her but maybe I should bag it altogether and spend the money on triathlon entry fees. On the other hand my knee has been so wonky I go back and forth about whether I should race this year and surely Lola would be o.k. with 2 runs for 2 days, especially with the first run of the day and it's only 45 minutes away. Ah, decisions. At least they are good decisions.

I have lots to write about Strummer's dogwalk but the internet went kaput at my house and I've sort of been enjoying not being on the computer at home so I probably won't have it replaced anytime soon and I've been busy on my lunch hours at work so not much time for blogging I'm afraid. This weekend's DOCNA trial should be interesting. Thankfully there's only one dogwalk in Standard to worry about if I keep him off it for Gamblers. This running dogwalk training has certainly challenged my training abilities and my sanity. Fun! I think.