Proud that I have swum twice this week so far, Seeing that I have lost my desire and motivation to get in the water over the past several weeks.

I have gone once in the evening at Creigton on Monday and at masters this morning. I forgot how great the people were at masters. It truly is a wonderful group of people, so genuinely nice and sincerely caring. I know that many of them would go out of their way for me, and I would do the same.

I was thinking about where this 'lack of training mojo' was coming from. My swimming has been pretty steady this past year, I have swum on average 3 times a week for over a year. Every week. I had times where I would do a swim emphasis in my training and not only swim at master's, but also on my own. Did this additional effort get me anywhere? I don't think so. I don't feel as though I am swimming any 'better' than I was a year ago. I had one goal this year of swimming 2.4 miles and feeling refreshed enough to bike 112 and run a marathon after that and I now know that I can do that. I have the same task looking at me for this next July. Do I know that I could do the same with my current level of fitness? Probably. What can I do with this level of fitness? the same time/ effort. How badly do I want to change my swim time? Seeing that I have dont a 33 min half iron, there is no reason that my full should be over 1:15. Maybe that could be a goal; however, a time goal like that my be detrimental because it is so dependant upon how big of a crowd I am in at the start. Do I want a time goal?

On another note, I am still having fun riding the P2C, even on the trainer. I love my bike. A 90 min trainer ride today at the PTC with a 40 min tempo ride in the middle and a 20 min run. A very very cold runoff in the blustery weather. I am still liking the tempo rides for what they are. My legs are now getting that constantly sore feeling back in them from training and I forgot how sickingly good it felt to know that my body in full swing training. The combination of the lifting and tempo rides are taking its toll on the legs, but it is good.

Unfortunately, Thanksgiving break is coming to close, and as with most breaks I have been completely unproductive in the most royal sense ot the term. A nice long run on Friday afternoon coupled with some coffee with High School friends later that night led to some unfotunate incidents at WalMart. My best friend from high school, Kristin, and I ended up reliving 'the good 'ol days' of late night trips to Walmart in High School and sirred up sone shenanigans in the store. (ironically, I now feel badly that I made fun of the crap that they sell when we obviously had so much fun with it).

On Saturday I finally got to get in the long ride that I had been wanting to do for some time. It is one of my favorite routes in WI. The weather was cold, overcast, and there was a mist in the air, but I managed to bundle up and bring the Pod with for some good tunes. I headed up north from Onalaska towards Holmen and turned east up one of the first big climbs up the bluffs. Over a mile long of constant switchbacks, but once at the top, it is several miles of riding along the ridge and one can see all the way over to the Mississippi from the elevation. I love this climb and I always love to do it when I am home as sort of a 'test' of my fitness. Here I am riding along the ridge with the 'non- Mississippi' side in the background. There were also some pretty horses that I took a picture of out right before I got to smell the fragrant aroma filling the air while passing by some apple orchards. This ride also has one of my favorite descents- a long straight descent down the bluff that I always seem to hit my highest speed records on. My record is 55mph, but I only hit 45 this time. I am blaming it on a lighter bike ( damn carbon bike - hehe) After being chased by some dogs, and heading on the rollers through West Salem and heading over to Bangor, I got to my next favorite climb. The sun managed to ever so slightly peek through the clouds right before I headed up the climb- which is the next picture. This one immediately descends down and there is about five miles of rollers to go until Barre Mills. Here is just at the end of the descent- a pretty coulee full of dairy farms below. A really fun ride, but I was definitely glad to be warm inside again after being on top of the bluffs in the wind or sweating through all of my layers on the climbs. It was one of those rides that I needed to push myself out the door to be in that cold, but once out there, I am reminded of how much fun it is to see the world by bicycle even though my legs were screaming after doing my long run yesterday and my tempo ride the day before that. It was some great training and great to get the change of scenery and terrain over the prairieland of Nebraska.

Well, in the spirit of Thanksgiving, I got in my 75 min tempo ride to warm up for the feasting in the afternoon. It was great to be back in the roads in WI that have become so familiar over the years. I needed to stay on the rolling hills for my tempo ride and save the climbs for my long ride. I took the route that headed up through Holmen and east into some of the coulees. My legs were burning, but I thought about how my training has fallen into a 'comfort zone' this past year. I have pushed the envelope on what 'far' is. I have turned 'far' into something that used to be a couple hours to something that if it doesnt hit thr triple digits, it may not even count as a workout. I can ride a bike all day at a nice, steady, respectable speed, and I can run all day at a respectable pace but that it is. (don't ask me about the swimming- I ahve given up on that). I can go ride my bike for hours and it no longer produces the fatigue in which it once did- sure, my legs may be a little sore the next day or so, but not the terrible legs on fire can't walk up stairs that I had once come to thrive on. Bottom line is that I need to reevaluate my training and now focus on defining what 'hard' is. Hard is no longer defined by a distance or time, but an overall effort.

Once again, the beautiful sights got me thinking and I couldn't help but think of some of the things I am thankful for (a little cheesy seeing that it is Thanksgiving and all- but if not today, when?). The past couple of weeks have been really hard in the sense that some people were blatantly treating me less than a friend and couldn't help but think what is my critial error as a person that I deserved to be treated that way. I really am not sure who is a friend anymore and a lot of things needed to be sorted out. Bottom line is that it made me realize how thankful I am for the true friends that I have and for the wonderful people I have in my life first and foremost especially my family. I did come up with a list of my favorite things in life- some are invaluable, some are materialistic (and I am not ashamed of). Here is the start of the ongoing list (in no particular order):

1. eating a good meal with good company- quite possibly one of the best things in life and one of the reasons I love to cook
2. that moment in which you realized you have just gone outside of your comfort zone
3. a long, sustained hug
4. wool socks
5. waking up early in the morning when the world is so still and quiet
6. staying up late at night
7. a good cup of coffee
8. walking around in underwear
9. animal companionship
10. pirate jokes
11. being woken up by doggie kisses (can you tell I am at home?) (hence the picture of my doggie, Rugbie)
12. running during a snowfall (especially when it crunches under your feet)
13. that overwhelming feeling of warmth when you come in from the cold
14. live music
15. heated blankets
16. good times with good company
17. a fire
18. a crisp fall day

A trip to Walmart.... Yes, you heard it correctly- I have made my biannual pilgrimage to the supercenter of all supercenters. Don't get me wrong, I am not one of those 'I hate Walmart because I want to be a non conformist' type of people. I actually respect Walmart because they are marketing geniuses, but passionately hate the cheap, low quality, completely uneccesary crap that they sell and the filthy stores in which they sell it from. (which is why they are geniuses- they have perfected the art of making the uneccesary to be desireable under the worst possible conditions). A prime example of some items that I saw: a metal turkey stuffing cage- why place and remove the stuffing from your bird by spoon when you can place and remove it in this metal cage perfectly shaped to a turkey's empty peritoneal cavity?

So anyways, I think I surely got my my 6 month dose of what I like to call, 'free birth control.' In other words, after being around the crowds of children there at 8 at night for about 15min give or take, I really swear off having kids. This effect has about a 6 month period of time that the image sticks in my head. Snotty, crying, greasy, stinky kids- all tired beyond belief tearing up the toy department as any good Walmart parent would let them. The crowds were prime last night and it was an effective image- kids now frighten me.

As I meandered the aisles trying to find the one thing that I needed- a drawer organizer, I suddenly realized that I have found another thing I can get for free at Walmart. This is free weight control. Wow! why haven't I figured this out sooner? The image of the morbidly obese waddling up and down the aisles with their carts full of wonder bread, soda, and cereal was frightning. This is great- we'll see how long this image lasts- probably until I eat pumkin pie tomorrow. :)

Well, I guess this is it, my maiden voyage into the world of blog. Oh well. Another beautiful fall day which naturally begged for a ride on the p2c since I got home by 4. A tempo ride in the hills north of Omaha that definitely made the legs burn. I forgot how, er, good it felt to push a big gear after working on high cadence everything for pretty much over the past year. Things are good, but it was quite an introspective time. Maybe pain does this to me. Life, what I am doing out on these roads on a bicycle, and simply the changes that my life has taken in dental school. Changes for the good, I hope so, but there are times that I feel as though I am in a boot camp and my mind is being made-over for the 'greater good' whatever that may be.