....

swimming is a confusing sport, because sometimes you do it for fun, and other times you do it not to die, and when I'm swimming, sometimes I'm not sure which one it is.  I gotta go by the outfit.  Pants - uh oh.   Bathing suit - ok.

                                                                     -dm

There's more to that joke, but it's probably not appropriate.  Swimming quote seemed appropriate as it's the 1st day back swimming w/ a group.  I pretty much swam alone this whole winter, and I probably didn't work enough at the intensity needed.  So I plan to change that.

Back Home....finally

 After being gone since Dec 10th,  we're finally back home.  It's great to be back, my dog can breathe again.  She did not do well in the desert and heat.   Now she can go on hour walks, it's like she's 4 years younger.  Weather's not great, but I've got tons of cold/wet weather gear for training that hasn't been used all year.

    So we never really had a great experience with fish in the desert, so we really ate no fish/sushi since early February.  So the 1st full day back, we ate Sushi at Sinju.  It was unreal.  I know there are supposed to be some more really good places in town, but it's just so good there, we hate to try anywhere else.  After, we walked over to this French wine shop, and got a great (read: strong) bottle of wine insisted upon us by the owner/manager.  He told us to decant the wine for 20 minutes, and for the 1st time ever, we actually knew if we were supposed to do that or not.

    So the race didn't go well, obviously, but what can you do about it?  You can freak out, or get discouraged, or just realize, sometimes you just have bad days, sometimes REALLY bad days.  But I got 4 months of great training in, I'm not trashed, and can get back and start racing right away.  It's April, the season is just barely getting started.  Definitely some things I need to improve on, but I think the important thing is just to get in the races, and remember what it feels like.

     Lots of interesting stuff, I'm analyzing what was working in training, what wasn't.  There was a time this winter when I felt incredibly strong, fit, ready to race, and I kinda lost that somewhere before the race.  The workouts were similar, maybe it was the conditions, maybe just training alone took it's toll, I don't know.  I'm excited about being back, though, and feel good about going on from here. 

uhh... that was tough

so just a quick post, for anyone wondering.  I blew, early...It was just really hot, really windy, I was completely flat, I tried to work hard on the bike, passed some guys, tried to put myself in the mix, and really paid for it, spend most of the ride holding my side, dry heaving, and on the arm rests, as it was killing my side to be in the aerobars.  I didn't finish, but it wasn't one of those, "things aren't great, I think I'll bag it"  I was just totally wasted, and honestly didn't have the ability to be out there any longer.

   No excuses, it was probably a bit of a tough "1st race back",  I went harder than I was really ready for.   Big BIG congrats and amazement at all the people in the race today.  I have a lot of respect for everyone out there, and was definitely humbled by the day, but will keep training, keep trying to get better, and be back (maybe not Arizona though).  It killed me to not finish in front of all my friends and family, definitely the hardest part, but it wasn't really much of a decision, just didn't have it.

   

Race bib # 18

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The Greatest Movie EVER MADE...

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