... and sometime hard work pays off!

Here is to my friend Tarra, who just finished her first sub-five-hour half Ironman this past Saturday at Steelhead. You truly rock, girl! What an impressive performance! Especially given the rough start: rain, lightning, everything soaked, no warm up. But this shows that when you have put in the work--and Tarra definitely had definitely put in long and consistent hours of training, disciplined nutrition and patient focus on technique--the vagaries of weather and circumstance can be overcome.

On my end, in the meantime, things have been quite relaxed. Last week it was a recovery week, and I did not have long, strenuous workouts. Did a two-hour bike on Saturday, followed by a thirty minute run, and then my long run on Sunday was only 60 minutes. I am not trying to sound dismissive of the distances. Early in the season this would have been a big workout, but at this point, it was an easy weekend.

And this less demanding schedule left a bit more room for social engagements: Friday's beach trip with Maria, Saturday a movie with friends, and Sunday a fantastic dinner sponsored by our local "slow food" chapter and held at a nearby organic farm. What a privilege to share in the freshly picked bounty of our surrounding countryside: a cornucopia of veggies and fruit, a feast of humanely raised meat and locally caught fish all spread over a leisurely three hour dinner. And three bottles of wine between four people made the whole evening even more festive (thank you Jacinda and Rob!).

Ok, now it's Monday, and the late revelries did not help me get up for a lake swim this morning. Will try to make up with a 45' pool workout and then time trial this evening (yikes! not really looking forward to that). For now, I better get back to Foucault and friends. Let's work out the brain first, then we'll take care of the body. Au revoir!