She is not dead, only nearly dead...

If the mile repeats could not kill me, I may just get through this...

24 more days of staying swine flu free. 24 more days of Ironman focused workouts. 24 more days of falling asleep as soon as I sit down on my sofa. 24 more days sitting in the sauna a work 30 minutes each day to get used to the heat. 24 more days of being on good terms with Zone 4, Zone 5a, and Zone 5b. 24 more days of saddle sores. 24 more days until I can have a margarita!

I have been busy. Between the internet being on the fritz at my house, getting my workouts done, work, and mom stuff I have had no time to get a post in for a while. The weather has cooled down here in H-town but it still gets up into the high 70's during the day. My fear is that it is still getting up into the high 80's in Cozumel. That is why I am sitting in the sauna every day so that I can keep my body used to being acclimated to the heat. I have also done my bike interval workouts in "The Hot Box" or my garage. Warm temps, bad ventilation, and Zone 4 and Zone 5a make for some good sweaty workouts. I have had to do some long 3 hour workouts in "The Hot Box" because there have been bad rain/thunder storms and even a tornado watch.

Greyhound has been a fantastic training partner these past few months. He has made sure that I get my miles in on the bike and then spanked me on the run. Here we are at various stages of last weekend's 100 mile bike ride followed by a 45 minute run. You can see how much fun we are having. It was chilly when we set out, but it warmed up nicely for us.

Greyhound is telling me that he is keeping his eyes on me so I don't pull any funny stuff.

I flipped this photo so I am not sure why it ended up back on its side.

Heading back out on the bike after refilling bottles for more training goodness.

When he was off in Austin for Longhorn 70.3 I played hooky and took Bud to the zoo. The next day, I did my long ride in "The Hot Box" I started at 5 am. One hour in, I had to take a bathroom break and it was still dark out. Another hour later I had to get more water and when I opened the door to the porch, it was light outside. After the final hour I hopped off to run and the sun was up and shining and things had warmed up. I was proud of myself for doing a long trainer ride like that on my own. Since then, long workouts on the trainer have been easier.

Here are some fun pictures from the zoo and the fun Zoo Boo celebration they were having for the kids:

Fun on the Herman Park train.

We got to pet a gator...

and a cool snake!

The kids got to learn the "Thriller" Dance...

and the sea lions gave a great show.

My workouts are getting shorter, but they are still hard and the intensity is still high. I know that I can finish this off. I feel good going into this race and I feel good about the effort that I am capable of on race day.

24 more days...

Later Gators,

Liz

P.S. Thank you to everyone who has donated to my TNT fund and for all the messages of support. I still have a way to go and I hope to hit my goal by Christmas.