Danish Cookies

They are pretty tasty. Especially since they are sold for cheap in a tin. I like the pretzel cookie covered with those big sugar rectangular prisms.

Friday I just swam. More drills. Some lady in the lane next to me always seems to be at the pool at the same time I am, and she's pretty quick. I get a little competitive as a result, which I need at this point since I'm not racing for another month and a half. That made for a pretty fast 1700y, in about 25:50. When I thought about it about half an hour later, that has to be, without recoveries, a 23min 1500m or so. Not that slow, considering I wasn't even that fast with a wetsuit on in 2010. Some of the swimming was drill/breaststroke too. I wasn't thinking of swimming fast, but apparently my speed is still there to a degree. I still have a ways to go to get the endurance back.

Saturday I met Team CYB mate Alyssa for a ride+run at COLUMBIA. I hadn't been to that course since 2011's race. Whenever I'm there I get really furious... I love that race but I always seem to get angry about past results. I took some rage out on the hills for part of the ride and relaxed in the second half, reminding myself it was meant to be an "easy" ride. I couldn't help but remember the bad thoughts I had last year during the race. Despite probably being out of shape I felt quite good out there. I kept a pretty high cadence on all hills, so my turnover is quick, probably helped by all the high-rpm spins I've had recently. We then hopped out onto part of the run course for a 40min run around the lake and a little more. A test for my hip, I didn't even think about it after a couple minutes of running. It didn't hurt or tighten up afterward either. Alyssa and I then feasted on the DANISH COOKIES from the aluminum tin. I stretched and then rested for the remainder of the day.

Sunday AM I ran with a bunch of Snapple people. I didn't want to run the 12mi that Bart proposed, so I lucked out when several of the girls on the team said they only wanted to run 7mi. That's much more my kind of distance. We ran on the towpath, which seemed to slightly disturb my hip, and it was a little bit tender afterward. I immediately stretched it out and it was fine for a few hours. It got a little tender again in the afternoon, not helped by a walk. But I did some more stretching/strength in the evening and all that went away.

I don't think I made anything worse, but it was a pretty active weekend, so I need to control that a little better. At least I know the stretching works. In fact, I noticed last night after strength that my hamstring flexibility has vastly improved! I am much closer to touching my toes than I've ever been before. I'm probably about 75% down my shins, just above my ankles. I've never really bettered 50% of my shins. PROGRESS. I'm very self-conscious about my hamstring flexiblity. Maybe soon I can come out of my shell and proudly show off my hamstrings.

By the way, my fury at Columbia can be accurately depicted by Ken Shamrock's typical WWF ring entrances back in the late 90's. This guy was the MAN. The most DANGEROUS man.