Twas the Tuesday before the Red River

And all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even the dogs or cat or horse or snake. Mainly because it's 8 million freakin' degrees outside. Hoo doggies, it's HOT. And despite the Sahara Desert temperatures, I have some sort of cold or allergies or something. Snot is dripping down the back of my throat and my throat is so sore, it hurts to swallow. I'll take some Benadryl and try to get a good night's sleep.

Training last week went well. My friend Matt offered to kayak for me at Branched Oak lake so I could get in one more long lake swim before the river. It was the Saturday of July 4th weekend, but we set out at 8:30 a.m. so I think most of the boaters were still sleeping. That, plus the wind was blowing hard, causing white caps. This is pretty fun when you are swimming with the wind, smoothly sailing across the lake. It turns into a boxing match on the way back. I didn't mind and was glad to have the challenge. I'm so grateful to have a kayaker. But, I really need to find a few more - HINT HINT - so I don't wear out my welcome with Matt. It's so much more fun being able to swim across the lake instead of swimming from buoy to buoy, stopping every 10 yards to see if a jet skier or speed boat is about to mow over me.

Swimming to nowhere
Another little training adventure this week was swimming with a tether in our backyard pool. It's a lot harder than swimming unencumbered -- more like pulling with paddles. It's not the sort of thing I could do for hours, but it'll be great to have that option when the temps start dropping. Excellent for cold water acclimation. Can't wait <eyeballs rolling>.

So, now I'm getting packed for the Red River 27-mile race on Saturday. It seemed so long ago back in January when I registered for it. Vacations and big events are always like that. The planning, the anticipation, the dreaming ... then all of a sudden, it's here. I suppose life is like that. I still can't believe I'm 47. How the hell did THAT happen? I wouldn't mind if the days would slow down a bit. I'd like to savor them a little longer.