First hill climbed - second fast approaching

This past Tuesday and Wednesday, I took the bar exam in Oklahoma City.  See:

(no rules were broken in the taking of this picture)

Here's a quick video I made on the run the day before the bar exam:

Needless to say, my workouts suffered from the studying.  In the grand scheme of things, I really needed to put my best effort into the bar exam.  Passing it allows me to take a job that I really want.  Failing it means Paula and I have to scramble.  I can afford to DNF IM Louisville.  I don't want to, but given the choice, a DNF is preferrable.  As a result, I missed a buch of workouts.  I was able to swim here and there.  I even participated in the Norman Conquest in Clevland County, OK.  I also ran some, but with the heat and my studying schedule, I need more miles under my shoes.

I'll find out my bar exam result in September.  Fingers are crossed.

In other, but sad news, I had to retire my favorite water bottle:

This was my first water bottle I purchased when I started riding in 2004.  I used it on nearly all my rides and many races.  Well, during the Norman Conquest, I was coming down a hill going about 35-40mph.  The road was a tad bumpy and the bottle ejected itself.  I immediately stopped pedaling, and waited to see where it fell on the road.  Weird thing was, it hadn't hit the road.  It was balanced between my chainstay and my left pedal.  At this point, I was going around 25-30mph with a line of dudes on my back wheel.  Gracefully, I pulled out of the line, trying to keep the bottle where it was, when all of a sudden it fell into my rear wheel's spoke and locked the wheel up.  The water exploded and I was able to come to a complete stop.  Luckily, no spokes were broken.  Unfortunately, there was a small hole in the base of the bottle.  Bummer.  That bottle has been with me since the beginning of my multi-spot journey.   Next time I'm in New Mexico, I'll have to pick one up.


So, back to the training without my favorite bottle.  I'll survive.  I'm pretty sure I have accumulated 15-20 other bottles in the interim.

As for the training, I went on a 5 hr ride with a quick brick run yesterday.  Here's an unlucky fellow I met on the way back:

(Bummer.  Looks like he just had a meal.)

Today, we're in Dallas and I squeezed in a two hour run.  So hot.  I'm going to try and squeeze a swim in tomorrow and maybe another spin on the bike or a run.  Can you tell that I'm struggling to get in as much training as I can?  IM LOUISVILLE IS LESS THAN A MONTH AWAY!!!!!