Watching Over Me

In case you haven't heard. It's raining here. We go through 2 to 3 years of drought, then in two weeks, we totally make up for it. Somethings wrong with this picture. It has been raining non-stop for four or five days, and off and on for two weeks.

I ended up bagging my ride Wednesday because of it. The thought of riding on the trainer was unappetizing. I managed to get my swim on Thursday. I {heart} my gyms indoor pool. Since soccer practice was cancelled, I got to go to Jimmy's football game in Gwinnett County. The game started off OK, but by the end of the first quarter, we were in lightning delay. This was followed up by the monsoon rains. Being football and all, once the lightning passed, they were out there in the mud and rain, playing. I'm sure the kids had a good time, but it was a mess.

The scheduled run on Friday didn't go off either. I signed up to ref a few games of soccer this weekend, and I didn't want to over do it this close to my race. My youngest son, Matthew, managed to squeeze in his soccer match early Saturday morning, between thunderstorms. I think his was one of the only games played over the weekend. All of my soccer games were canceled.

There was a break in the clouds Saturday afternoon just long enough for me to get my brick in. The workout called for slightly faster than HIM pacing. I did 20+ miles on the Silver Comet, followed by 3.26 miles at a 9:12 pace run off. The extra rest was paying off and I felt really good. I held 20+ mph for the first hour of my ride. If I can just do that in Augusta, I'll be a happy camper.

Sunday morning, I met a friend at 8 AM at Red Top Mountain for an open water swim. We wanted to get one swim in with the wet suit before Augusta. This would actually be the third time the suit got wet this year, and one of those was a soaking in the tub! Saturday night, my friend pinged me on Google Talk to make sure I was still coming. I was like, Dude! HTFU!!! We are triathletes, we don't get to pick the weather we race in. Let's just do it.

Once again, Mother Nature smiled on us. We suited up in a drizzle and really only got hit by monsoon type rains for about ten minutes of our swim, but really. What the hell? We were already wet so who cares? We tootled around for about thirty minutes. Reminded our shoulder muscles what resistance felt like in a wet suit, then got the hell outta there. Just in time for the real thunderstorms to show up.

I can't help but think that God is watching over me. The weather broke so that I might get my training in, yet it forced the cancellation of all my soccer matches. Just sose, you know, I couldn't do anything stooopid and ruin my race. It's almost like somebody wants me to go sub-6. Right? Now, all I have to do is my part.

and I will...