Titanium is still a magical ride

I ran a 5K last Saturday.  The good news is that I dropped 1 minute from my last 5K last month... I'm hoping that the trend continues.  It was a fun race, as there were a lot of people in costume.  I was chased for the entire race by women wearing reindeer outfits.  I managed to just barely be in front of all 17 of them.  Sheesh!  No way could I run that fast wearing a skirt!
Today, I went for a bike ride.  It was 60 and sunny, and it felt so nice!  I was riding my Arizona bike.  For a bike that I don't get to ride that often, it sure is nice.  The only aggravating thing on it are the rattling STI shifters.  But that's a small problem.  Otherwise, it's a sweet ride.  People say that the frame material doesn't make a difference, but a Ti frame, if it is made right, has a pretty special ride.  I definitely feel fortunate to possess the bikes that I have.

Since it has been a year since I rode here, I had forgotten how to get up north.  I ended up on a road with no shoulder and no bike lane, and quickly realized that I had made a wrong turn (or lack of turn, heading straight when I should have turned right).  Oh well, I found a way onto a much less busy road in a short time.  Then, it was pedal uphill into the wind until it was time to turn around.  And then... wheeee!  Downhill with a tailwind, spinning out for 5 miles.

How do you spell cattywampus?

I started swimming on Friday.  Or rather, I tried to start swimming on Friday.  Bruce offered to help me with my swimming.  Since it has been 6 months since I last swam, we thought that I might have forgotten my bad habits, and it might be easier to learn good ones.  So, after I swam 100 meters, I was exhausted, and felt like I was swimming all over the pool.  Bruce confirmed that I was swimming pretty crookedly.  He decided that I shouldn't swim, just kick.  After trying to kick a 50, Bruce told me that I over-rotated on the left and under-rotated on the right.  So... I'm not "allowed" to swim, just kick, trying to straighten me out.  The goal is to make me bigger, faster, able to swim an Ironman in 50 minutes.  Well, not really.

I ran yesterday, and today, I'm sore.  I was in Auburn and headed out onto the Interurban trail... in the dark.  Why?  Ryan has fielding instruction in Auburn every week, so I figured that I would run while he fielded.  The Interurban was fine.  Unfortunately, in order to get to the Interurban, I needed to head north for 1.5 miles, then I decided to head south towards the SuperMall.  Because I didn't want to run that far, I decided to head back via the West Valley Highway.  The good news was that the West Valley Highway has a good shoulder and a sidewalk for much of it; the bad news was that some of the West Valley Highway has neither.  So, I was jumping back and forth from the road to the bushes whenever a car came by.  Probably won't do that again.  I was pretty happy with my new Forerunner 310XT.  It chirped and vibrated every mile.  So, even though I didn't look at my wrist, I still knew when I had gone a mile.  My previous Forerunner 305 lost its chirpiness a while ago, and it is now barely holding a charge.  Merry Christmas to me!