Tired.

Morning started bright and early with a puppy yacking in his crate. Race ensued to free said puppy from said crate and shove him out the door.

After a romp on the high school field for all the dogs, I headed out on a bike ride. Today I rode from our house south into Almaden and out to Calero County Park and beyond. Along the way I ran into Jeff and our friend George who were out for their own ride and spent about half an hour riding with them till they turned off of my route (yes, for once, I was actually going LONGER than the men). Also got to see some of the folks riding in the San Jose Mountain Bike Sprint Triathlon. It's a few weeks earlier than it was last year, but this was the race I did in 2007 as my first triathlon. Now you couldn't pay me to get back in nasty Lake Almaden again. Anyway, I digress... Good ride, stuck to my goal pace, and experimented with using my brand new aerobars. I wasn't sure at first and steering felt difficult, but I did get the hang of them and YES! they do improve speed, especially as I was motoring back home into a headwind. End mileage, about 38.5 miles.

After a quick potty break at the house and a change of clothes, I went off for a 1-hour run. I tinkered with my target heart rate zones on the heart rate monitor this morning. I'm pretty sure I'm in better shape than when I set these zones back in February and needed to adjust them accordingly. It was much easier to stay in the goal zone for the run today than it has been lately. It was also quite warm out, which normally would not please me for a run but I'm training for a HOT race so I want ALL THE HEAT I can get (this means you have permission to flog me if I start complaining about it being hot). My legs felt good and I'm starting to feel very positive about Vineman. I would really like to complete the race in under 7 hours (if only I could swim, imagine how much faster I could be!). Next weekend I'm going up to Sonoma County to bike most of the course so we'll see what I think after that.

Now it's off to shower, practice some agility with the puppy, and run errands, including packet pickup for tomorrow's race. Jeff and I are participating in Muddy Buddy, where we run and bike as a team, perform obstacles along the way, and end the race by crawling through a giant mud pit together. Should make for good photos :) What better way to celebrate our almost-1st-wedding anniversary (it's on Monday).