i never give up

Firstly, thank you all for the encouragement and confidence in my last post. I guess I've somewhat finally learned from my past mistakes, trying hard not to repeat them... Know what I mean?

Sunday turned out to be a fairly good day for boosting my confidence. Up early to meet the group for a ride... long sleeves needed as it was fairly chilly. After riding mostly flat routes in the last few weeks leading up to my triathlon, the hills took no time to remind me what they were all about. Yet, I felt strong. I was leading the group, and one guy had caught up, and asked me if I had given up, wanting him to go in front... I told him that I don't give up on anything. He didn't reply.

Once at about the half way mark, I stopped for water, and waited for the rest of

the group to catch up. As we started rolling forward a bit, I felt a sharp stab on my finger, looked down and swatted away the wasp... the bugger bit me. That was a first, I've never been bit before! Saw a welt starting, so we went down to the lake where one of the guys got a small pile of mud and put it on my finger, apparently supposed to draw out the poison or whatever. After about 3 or 4 minutes, I apologized for the interruption, and we were off. That wasp musta really pissed me off, because I really picked up my speed on the ride home, riding completely solo, with everyone a good distance behind, powering up the hills. I got back to the store, and the one that asked if I was ready to give up rolled in a few minutes later saying he just couldn't keep up. It was my last ride as a 31 year old... I was determined to make it a good one :)

Last evening I had the house to myself, with nothing going on, really felt like swimming. Typically I swim on monday nights, but I have a really unusual work week this week, and thought I couldn't give myself a rest day for my birthday. I also didn't want to regret the opportunity to go in case Monday night's swim wouldn't work out. I finished 3000 meters in the pool, including 3 sets of 700 meters each, making me feel more comfortable about the sprint triathlon, yes, I registered.

Thankfully I went for my swim last night. Today turned out to be a very long and stressful day, with the rest of the week looking like it'll be the same. This should be a taper week leading up to my second Try-a-Tri on Sunday... but I'm hoping to get in a few easy runs, rides and swims anyway. I'm gonna have 32 on my calf for my next tri!

Check out the shirt Jay got me for my bday... after my last post, it may have just been perfectly timed...

I am behind in your posts, and may not catch up until the weekend given how this week looks... please forgive me!