Taper & Koo

Well it seems blogger is back to normal. Everytime I went to update over the last couple of days, some sort of maintenance was being performed. Ok.. first things first, here are my workouts for the past few days:
Wed: Run 10.5k (trails), swim 5k (4X400, 8X200, 16X100, cooldown)
Thurs: Taper begins. 2 hours of hard work on the trainer.
Fri: Run 7.5k (trails), swim ~3k. (not sure .. as I'm heading to the pool after this post.. but the plan is to do 3k)

Notice I did say taper. I'm doing a 9 day taper for my race next Sunday, backing off on the mileage and getting lots of rest. Race? Did someone say race? Yea I'm excited. I'll tell you about my race plan next week.

You say :' Why is the word 'Koo' in your title?' An excellent question. Koo was our nickname for our dog Kuma. The word Kuma is Japanese for bear. Here's a pic of Koo and you can see why the name fits:

Actually, his registered name was Yuki-Kuma, which translates to snow bear. You can see why he just got 'Koo' most of the time.

Koo was the type of dog, that very few people actually knew errr.. knew well. Sally and I loved Koo for a multitude of reasons but one of the main ones was his spirit. During Koo's life he had multiple health issues, but his spirit always shone and he pulled through. Everything was always a big 'event' for Koo. Didn't matter if it was getting brushed or going for walk, these were HUGE events in Koo's life and he really didn't care what was going on.. just as long as he was hanging with you.
I could ramble on lots and lots about Koo.. but I do try to keep this blog on topic - most of the time. :) So what does this have to do with triathlon? Well the connections is a bit tenuous, but 'bear' with me.
A year ago, we unexpectedly had to put Koo down. Man that sucked. It still amazes how much Sally and I talk about him and of course miss him. He really did have a profound effect on us.

Many triathletes name their bikes.. well you guessed it, the name of my new ride is The Spirit of Koo. (it's '06 Cervelo Dual for those that don't know)

Eep.. must be off, going to be late for my swim...