The end of Week 12. This weekend was to be my first 100-miler on the bike.

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.

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.