Miscellaneous Training Tidbits: Race schedule, Pool workouts and Mountain Lions

1. I had a bike session with my coach this week.  We discussed race schedule leading up to Louisville.  I will probably do the same races as last year (minus a couple):
• Bozeman Triathlon on 6/28 – probably the Sprint but, maybe the  Olympic.
• Spring Meadow (Helena) 7/12 – Olympic.  This was my favorite race last year.  Love the bike course!
•  Viking Man 70.3 (Heyburn, ID) 8/22.  I would like to find a Half distance somewhere in the Northwest or Colorado or the Dakotas (drivable distance) around the first weekend in September.  Haven’t found one yet.
• Louisville IM on 10/11!!!


2. Feeling much better in the pool now.  I have had some good swim workouts the past couple weeks and am feeling much more relaxed and confident when I am swimming.   I am no longer feeling stressed  about it (like I was when I posted  Swimming: What do I expect?)  – I don’t have to be ‘there’ yet, I have time to build endurance and continue to work on form/technique. 


3.  I have been loving this for breakfast lately.  It's a scrambled egg on an English muffin or piece of toast with avocado slices.  YUM!
   
And I have been loving this salad for lunch or dinner.  Baby spinach, nuts, beans (pinto on this one but, garbonzo beans are my favorite), quinoa, feta cheese and homemade dressing (greek yogurt, olive oil, garlic powder, salt/pepper, some other seasoning - whatever I am feeling like - cumin and chili powder in this one - also use dill weed quite often too).  I usually cook up a batch of quinoa, barley or brown rice on Sunday to use in salads and as sides to other meals during the week.  Grains in salads really make them more hearty and filling.




4.  I have been doing some hiking on the weekends.  The trails are a mess!  I have encountered dry areas, muddy bogs, slushy snow, hard-packed snow and mostly ice.  A side story here… Last week I was hiking Sypes trail in the Bridgers.  The trail was really icy so I was not able to look around like I usually do when hiking, all my attention was on the trail.  I had a really weird feeling that something was watching or following me (like a mountain lion).  I kept hearing things and just felt strange.  Every once in a while I would stop to look around but, never saw or heard anything when I was stopped.  At one point a flock of birds took off out of the trees and I thought “what’s out there, I know I didn’t spook them”.   Anyway, when I got back to the trailhead (after hiking for a few hours with this eerie feeling), I noticed a bright orange piece of paper on the trailhead sign:  “CAUTION, Lion in area may be feeding on carcasses 1/29” (I was up there on 1/30).  So, was I imagining that something was following/watching me or was there really something there????   It gave me chills.   I usually look at the trailhead signs before starting out on a trail – I just missed it this day because I was messing around with my watch trying to get it set up for the hike.
   


5. And lastly... Friday nights are usually “date nights” for Pat and me.  This week’s date was a swim workout at the pool and Pat wants to know how swimming took over dinner and beer!  

What do you do when you get a bad feeling about something?  Do you ignore it and pretend everything is OK? 

What do you do for date nights? I am pretty sure some type of workout is going to take over our standard dinner/beer night out - sorry Honey! :)