167 days and $2615 to go!

"True sport is always a duel, a duel with nature, with one's own fear, with one's own fatigue, a duel in which the body and the mind are strengthened."
Yevgeny Yevtushenko

I'm still trying to make sense of my tight calf muscle on what should be long easy runs these days. The week started with morning runs in Southern Florida where I spent monday through friday - at my company's home office. Interestingly enough, I found myself feeling a little cold starting out on at least two of those mornings. I never expect to feel cold in Florida. I always travel light on those weekly work jaunts and never plan on more than shorts and (maybe) a tee shirt - shoes, of course :-) - on those morning runs. My current (short) prescription for cramp-free running is: water, bananas, stretching, and a short walking warm-up before the run. It'll probably all change next week since I am still trying to figure this thing out.

I drove to Oberlin, Ohio this morning for the first of 8 monthly swimming clinics. It was a gorgeous 1 hour drive on an absolutely beautiful day. Someone said that Oberlin College is the oldest college in Ohio. Don't know if it's true or not, but Oberlin is a beautiful college town. As college towns, it ranks right up there with Oxford, Ohio in my book. So, I spent about an hour this morning doing mostly kicking exercises. I hate kicking exercises! Mostly because I have a lousy kick. Of course Rob, our instructor, is probably going to also show me what a lousy stroke I have as well. I can say that after a year of training, I do feel far more confident about the swimming than I did for my first triathlon in Philly. I am not concerned about finishing the 1.2 mile swim next May. So, I will spend some time learning to smooth my technique to make the swim portion more enjoyable. If Rob said it once he said it a hundred times today, "Swimming is technique". So, that is what we will be working on.

When I returned home, the sun was shining and the air was cool so I finished out my training day with an easy 15 miles on the bike.