My bike commute includes about a mile or so of greenway. On Tuesday mornings I leave at 5:30am in order to join a running group that meets near my office. It is barely light then so I use a handlebar mounted headlight.

And it is a good thing too as I was playing dodge the toad. I started counting them at first, but then lost track. There had to be 20 or more. Most didn't move as I went by, but one hopped across my path. I'm pretty sure I missed them all.

Twelve hours later I was biking home and saw not one, but two, black snakes on the path. One slithered off as I rode by, the other just stuck his tongue out at me. I'm thinking I won't see as many toads next Tuesday morning.

On the same greenway this morning I saw some new signs up that mentioned coyote sightings. The circle of life just keeps getting bigger.

While running on that greenway last week I saw three deer. And about a mile later I saw my dentist. That's all I have to say about that.

A code orange air level today. I don't really know what that means, but I'm drinking orange juice so maybe it'll come to me. The forecast high of 97 sounds a bit intense, but Wednesday is the one day of the week I run with my buddy after work. No wimps allowed. Nor shirts.

Happy National Running Day!

I was already in the water with less than 2 minutes to start swimming when I realized I had forgotten to take off my wedding ring. It isn't that it is loose at all, I just didn't want to chance it coming off in a murky lake.

"Hmm, no pockets and nobody to hand it to," I thought. I quickly decided to untie my swim trunks waist and tie the ring onto that string.

"Swimmers start in 5, 4, 3, 2..."

"Waaaannnnhh," went the air horn. And the novice triathlete men with names starting K - Z were splashing away.

My main concern was to not stray too far from the course. I was also conscious of water movement and/or air bubbles around me that signified the proximity of another swimmer. Somewhere in the early part another racer experienced why you do this as my heel made contact with some part of his person. It was a pretty good whack that I felt, but didn't hurt me any. I did not stop to check on him.

The fish said to me, "Just keep swimming! Just keep swimming!"

A tight shirt does not go on easily over wet skin. I stretched and contorted it on though, continued to get the rest of my biking gear and headed for the start. The biking part is where the novice categorization really shows its meaning. Old bikes, mountain bikes and time trial bikes were all in use. I witnessed this as I passed quite a few people over the course of 17 miles.

The effects of having pushed myself for more than an hour was taking its toll as I neared the end of the ride. I performed the second transition to the running part much better by removing my helmet, changing shoes and crunching my sunglasses. I had taken them off during the ride and put them in the small of my back. When I sat to change shoes, I rocked back and heard a crunch. Luckily they were only scratched.

I grabbed the Gu packet that I had left by my running shoes and downed it as I started out on the running course. Still winded and feeling fatigued, I went up a short hill and followed the arrows. I managed to continue passing a few people as the course wound through a neighborhood. In the second mile I had been slowly creeping up on about four guys in front of me. I hoped to overtake them before the end. Suddenly I was next to and passing them. We had just started up a hill and apparently they slowed down more than I did.

"Ah, a hill," I thought. "I eat hills for breakfast." The Gu energy gel was taking effect and I was feeling better.

The finish was on a grassy downhill that allowed most people to feel good and finish strong. I was thirsty afterward, but felt pretty good. My wife and kids were there to greet me and keep the water coming. My overall time was 1:36:44, good enough for 39th place out of the 170 men.

Overall I am happy with how it went and had a good time. Probably the biggest thing I would change would be eating something sooner than when starting the run. I could have easily carried that gel with me on the bike ride and eaten it before the weariness kicked in. That would have given me more strength for the start of the run.

"This is a long swim," I said to the guy who was treading water beside me.

"Yes it is," he replied.

We both went back into a freestyle stroke to work our way through the second half of a 750 meter swim. I occasionally looked around to make sure I was on track and not drifting too far from the buoys that marked the course. A couple of hundred other people were also making their way around the bay as they trained for upcoming triathlons.

About an hour later I was coming to the end of the bike course. I was pre-riding that route and doing my first brick workout: swim and then cycle. I had been fighting sweaty and slippery hands the entire time. I was also watching my GPS for cues on where to turn for the course.

One right hand turn came up quicker than I expected. A small red pick-up truck was stopped and waiting to turn onto the main road that I was turning off of. I began to turn but couldn't slow down enough to avoid him. I went head over handlebars into the bed of his truck. He must not have heard or seen a thing because he drove off with me still in there. Now I have no idea where I am but at least I have internet access to update my blog.

Ha! Couldn't resist there. That would have been a more exciting story. Truthfully, I did swing too wide and hit the truck. I managed to turn just enough that only my forearm grazed the truck and I kind of bounced off and kept going. I said, "Whoa! Sorry!" and looked back to see that he was continuing on.

I felt pretty good after the swim and bike and could probably have done okay on the 5k that will follow in next weekend's race.

After a week of no running, my Achilles was feeling a bit better. Last Saturday I tested it out for an easy walk/run in lieu of going out with the group runners. My calf is what hurt the most, mainly just some tightness, so I kept it short, around a mile.

Sunday afternoon I went to Fleet Feet to get some new shoes. It was not long before closing, but Jason there was willing to help me out. After trying on a couple different brands, I settled on the Mizuno Wave Rider 13. It is a lightweight shoe that felt the best of all.

Monday night after work I decided to test out the shoes. I still had some tightness in the calf, so took it easy, but did about 3 miles with a short walk and stretching break halfway. The shoes felt fine and seem to have good arch support.

This morning I got out and ran before work, a fun sunrise run. I do enjoy the low angle sun filtering through the trees. My leg wasn't 100%, but was better and not really bothersome. I'll keep up the stretching and hopefully soon all will be good.

I have kept up with going to the weight room pretty regularly. I need to add some variety there as I feel that doing the same exercises doesn't help as much as changing it up sometimes. I also did a bike ride each of the past two weekends. Those were both around an hour or so long, between 15 and 20 miles.

After blogging yesterday I decided to do a several sets of push ups over the course of the afternoon. I started at 2:15 and did a set of twenty, five minutes later another 20, and then a set of 25. And so on for the next hour or so. I did 285 push ups over that time. Then I took almost a two hour break while doing other things. At about 5pm I started up again and over the next two hours, I did another 265 for a total of 550. I'm not sure if this will help in the 100 Push Ups challenge, but I thought it was worth a try.

This morning I got up and did some weights. While there I was looking longingly at the sunrise coming up and thinking I wanted to get out for a bit but didn't want to run as I had done four days in a row already. So out came the bicycle. The temperature was about 50 which made for cold toes and fingers, but it was a good ride anyway. I got about 15 miles in before having to get back and get ready for church. The spinning felt good, though my back is always a bit sore after biking, especially when I don't ride regularly, other than my work commute. I hope to fit some more rides in this year.