What a week!

I guess I ate my words after my last Blog. Apparently I injured myself after last Sundays swim and run workout. Trying new and different swim drills, we practiced an open water swim sighting exercise. Basically we had to swim a "fast doggie paddle".. while at the same time keeping our heads above water and focusing on an object ahead. I guess the strain of keeping my head up was too much for me. Later that night my neck began to get stiff... especially on the right side. Needless to say.. I didn't train all week and I was popping Flexiril (muscle relaxer) before bedtime. But by Saturday my neck seemed almost completely back to health, I even road 30 miles on my bike. I will definitely be more cautious as to which swim drills I choose to participate in. My mentor mentioned that I will have to be able to sight during the race.. and I completely understand that. Of course, I will take the time to be aware of my surroundings so that I don't swim off course. But swimming in that position for that long is unnecessary. For those of you that didn't know.. I was in a bad car accident in the Spring of 2007. My neck was what was injured in the accident.

Now as for the picture above.... as you can see that is my bike.. without a rear wheel. On Saturdays ride I got my very first flat tire. I had never changed a bike tire before. Thankfully I was with two other women that knew what to do. Under their guidance and with numbed fingers and a runny nose, I managed to successfully change the tire.. TWICE! Yes.. I said TWICE. The first time we took it all apart and could not find neither a tear or a hole. We thought it was because I had not checked the tire pressure before the start of the ride. I felt silly.. because all I did was "check it" with my fingers and it seemed hard enough. YES... sometimes I can be a real blonde about things...(no offense to blondes). So lesson learned.. always check the tire pressure EVERY TIME before the start of a ride. So we managed to piece it all back together and refilled the tire air. We were only about 1/4 of a mile down the road and again I got a flat in the same tire. This time around we decided to just switch out the the old tube with a new one and it worked. I guess there was tear after all that we had missed. With every new training day there is always something to learn... And now I know how to change a bicycle tire!