the old lady lifestyle

it's the late hour of 8:57 and i'm 27 minutes late for my 'getting ready for bed' time. what an old lady! well, this old lady needs her sleep or else she's a crankster.

i'm officially signed and paid for ironman 2009. whew! my credit card has gotten quite a workout this season.

today i did a very relaxed slow run for 1:54 (i was aiming for 2:00 but my legs involuntarily speed up a bit on the 2nd half) and made it a point to zone out and chill out, kind of like hitting a "reset" button in my head. my stomach still feels like it's been stapled--i have more details to share but i'll refrain-- since i think i swallowed quite a bit of water yesterday during the race. i had a great idea of jogging along riverside park only to find that it is like strolling in a garbage dump, so it wasn't so bad so long as i looked at the trees and breathed through my mouth. tomorrow morning i believe i'll work more on running intervals before bracing myself for swimming at columbia (where the competition isn't the friendliest but at least it makes me more stubborn to stick with it!) i'm always worried that my stroke is slipping b/c the coaches give workouts but don't coach much b/c they train mostly the columbia swim team and then the rest of the class does a lighter version of the columbia team's workouts. but i find that it's pretty much non-stop swim for me since i've put myself in a faster lane and am determined to stay there.

a few more thoughts on yesterday's race-- i think it was a bit of a stretch for me to say 2:34 is "almost" a 2:30 b/c i realize that a lot has to change in the bike to make it easier for me to do the run. i'm not complaining about the training and am excited about at least knowing how to train to get better. i really appreciate the encouragement and advice from the veterans.. thanks! and thanks to matt and G for the great race pictures. thanks even more for your graciousness in discerning which pictures not to post! i must say, my looks of desperation and confusion during the bike and run are rather amusing, which is why they are not posted here =o)