Discovery Channel

No, not the Tour; rather, something else entirely. On Friday afternoons, our department has what's known as 'social hour.' This event consists of two long tables filled with all sorts of things that are terribly bad for you, along with an occasional sorry-looking bag of baby carrots to balance out the junk, and an ice tray filled with as much beer as possible. Because the department consists primarily of cash-starved graduate students and postdocs who get all twitchy at the prospect of free food (and beer), the social hour inevitably takes on the character of those 'Nature' specials where the divers release a drop of fish blood, the sharks appear out of nowhere, and a feeding frenzy ensues. People eat anything and everything in sight. Who says cookies and doritos and hummus and beer and dark chocolate truffles and salsa and pastrami and bean dip and gummy worms and smoked salmon and chocolate-covered espresso beans don't all complement each other nicely? From experience, I can now tell you that these delights may taste good going down, but it is not wise to attempt a swim workout 30 minutes after social hour. I guess I'll have to re-examine my nutritional intake strategies for the actual triathlon. In any case, social-hour induced pudge is one prime motivator for doing all of this training.

On Saturday I went on a somewhat epic (for me) bike ride. While many of the spandex-encased cyclist studs who live around this area may take issue with this ride as being "epic," it was pushing the outer limits for me. I rode down to Cupertino, up Mt. Eden Road, up Pierce, up Hwy 9 to Redwood Gulch, down to Stevens Canyon, back up foothill to Alpine, up Old La Honda to Skyline, down 84 to Sand Hill, and then back home. 65 miles of hilly fun. The main discovery of this ride is that I'm fine as long as I have enough food along - energy is not a problem (don't quite know how to address the sore back, shoulders, and butt though).

Today I went for another meandering 6-7 mile run through the tonier neighborhoods of the Peninsula - they're great because of the nice flat dirt shoulders on the roads. Someday I'll have to brave running the hills. This afternoon, Michelle and I braved the fast lane in the pool at Stanford. For the first time, I felt as if I was actually swimming somewhat correctly. Not fast, but I was cruising and gliding! Good news.

Sunday weekly total: 5080 yards swimming, 107 miles biking, 10 miles running (a bit light on the running, but my joints are thanking me).

June monthly total: 9.5 miles swimming, 468 miles biking, 37 miles running. Seems like a lot!

Fundraising has hit a bit of a plateau - I'm about halfway to my goal, and still need to send some letters and emails out to people. Are you one of these people? Thanks!