Today I wrestled. With the wind. With my progess. With my attitude. It was a beautiful day to ride - just warm enough to wear shorts but needed gloves. I felt fast. But my times did not reflect "fast." It was very frustrating after the last few weeks of really hard bike workouts. So I worked on my excuses.

During Ironman training, unlike marathon training, the biggest struggle for me is the exhaustio

If there's one thing I've learned in my many years of being an endurance athlete: it's ok to take an extra day off. Thus, Monday was an additional rest day after a swim-only Sunday. The obsessive-compulsive runner in me didn't want to do it, but the rational thinking person won out, after very little sleep on Sunday night and a day of feeling tired and run-down. Will it affect my race? I hope not. Time will tell. It would have been a sub-par workout anyway, so I decided it's best to make sure my body has adequate rest for the hard workout on Tuesday morning.

So, first things first. Why "disaster magnet"?