Thanks, all. Re wearing those socks in the ice bath: I was the kind of little kid who would cry when her feet and hands got too cold in the repellent Albany NY winters I grew up in. I KNEW I had to keep my toes from feeling the full wrath of the ice cubes if I was ever going to make that ice bath work.

AND....take heart, Jessica--someone else cleans that bathroom twice a month! Otherwise it wouldn't look nearly that clean, you may be sure. Lake Padden next year? I will want to hear how it goes next weekend.

Mimi, the HR monitor was meant to help me keep my pace slow enough so that I wouldn't run out of cardio capacity on the run too early. It did its job. I have a long way to go to build a real running base, so...I'm ready to work on.

I love triathlon. I love triathlon training. I really do. Sick sick sick.