July Training Redux...

i've been a bit slack with getting interesting notes posted (busy at
work? driving to TN a lot? the suppressive heat of the south??) and now
that I have a race review to write, i feel i need to catch up on the
rest of the month first!

july started with a paddling trip down the tennessee river with dan,
jim, carol, ted, kevin & emily. we started early saturday morning,
launching from the greenway in chattanooga (dan hooked me up with one
of his teammate's kayaks). we started by paddling on chickamauga creek,
a lazy but scenic creek that was way low, giving us lots of obstacles
to paddle under and around. this emptied into the tn river right below
the dam. after a few hours of paddling we stopped in downtown
chattanooga for a well-deserved lunch, and a rest for me. since i'm not
used to paddling, my right wrist & elbow had already started to become
irritated. during our picnic we had our first rain shower, cooling us
off but luckily not lasting long. we paddled more and more... and some
more. repetitive, yes, but also relaxing and fun (especially since i
hardly ever get to do this sort of thing). as the afternoon rolled in,
so did the storms. we had another great downpour that found us all
huddled together on the side of the river under some branches that kept
us relatively sheltered.

after a bit more paddling, we came across a generous family partying at
their river house (it was the fourth of july weekend), offering us some
cold beer. quite nice after a long hot day! shortly afterwards we
pulled up to a restaurant for some dinner. and beer. back to the boats,
although this time i tried out kevin's canoe, hoping it would provide
some relief to my arm (which was killing me by now). it helped a bit,
but it was probably too little too late. luckily it wasn't too much
further to the cabin we stayed in that night. some of jim's friends
that we saw at the boat put in that morning also joined us here. day
#1: approx 26 miles.

sunday morning, after a deeelicious blueberry banana pancake breakfast,
we did a short hike around pot point (we stayed at the pot house ;-),
then hit the boats again, for approx 14 or so miles until our final
destination (another cabin). dan and i actually headed back to the city
to watch some of the tour de france and catch some fireworks downtown
(although we ended up missing most of them).

monday (and then in a few past/upcoming weekends), we hit some of the
trails in the mtns around chatt for a nice run. in all, dan said we've
run about 2/3 of the stumpjump 50k course. i love it all, but really
can't imagine stringing it all (and then some!) together for one
torturous run. (un)fortunately, this year's race is the same weekend as
SMAR2.. aw shucks! the trails are unlike anything near atlanta...
tight, technical, steep... gorgeous views that make it worth it. oh,
well maybe except for the one day i got stung by a bee on top of my
head. that shit hurts up there. dan poured a bottle of cold stream
water over my head, helping a bit. but still. stings have happened to
me so few times that i'm still a wimp.

ok, there you go. july in a nutshell!