T-I-R-E-D !!!

Well, it's my fault that I felt tired today. Two super late nights socializing ... I was asking for it ... breaking all good triathlete rules.

First stop last night - Hurley's with the Montreal Coolrunners:

(left to right) Mercury, Truxx the birthday boy, Silly Sally (me!), TurtleBoy (in front), Ralf and Kneejerk

Then off to meet my dance friends from out of town in the cheesy Hotel de la Montagne lounge. Ugh. No good music there and they wouldn't let us put on our music compilations. Then we tried Thursday's Disco. Ugh. No good music there either. Then off to Le Blanc, but it was salsa & merengue night, or perhaps another group of dancers were faster than us and got there earlier to ask to put on their own compilation.

We ducked across the street and the manager at Bueno Notte was nice enough to let us put on our own music and stay for drinks and dancing. Yay! Fun time to be had by us all ... then ...

Late night snack at Boustan on Crescent St., a Montreal institution and must-visit for tourists! :

Me and the owner (but I've forgotten his name!) - He made me the "Boustan Special" - Yum Yum!!

Jacques and Steve, dance teacher extraordinaire

Can (pronounced John) and Cathy, my patient dance partner when I'm leading

West Coast Swing is my favourite dance. The woman (follow) is danced down a slot by the man (lead) who "gets out of her way". There are mainly six and eight count figures with lots and lots of variations and extended patterns. The dance is marked by a special sense of elasticity, with lots of fantastic-feeling compression and extension. Overall a very incredible dance with tons of room for expression and improvisation, very sensual and rhythmical - entirely groovy and cool. I LOVE THIS DANCE!! Thank you Can and Steve for visiting Montreal and dancing with me!

Check out the professionals in a fun "swing jam":
http://barberassociatesinc.com/swango/swingjam.htm

There was some really interesting music playing ... Can and I started dancing. A girl came up to me and told me she wanted to learn since a ex-boyfriend of hers once showed her. A Gazette reporter, Steve Faguy, who is doing an article on "post-midnight hanging out" came up to us and asked us a couple of questions ... Hey, maybe I'll make this Saturday's paper ... and get yet another 15 min. of fame ... LOL!!

And now for today's training:

Swim - I felt tired throughout doing my most absolute favourite thing (just kidding) - drills for 50 min. I tried this new drill of holding my arms at my side face down and kicking, turning only to breathe. I almost drowned and didn't get past half a length. I think I'd better try that for another day when I'm feeling less tired.

Bike - 3 hours, or about 74km with JoeBoxter, my running mate. I can run farther and faster than he can, but boy can he whup my a$$ on a bike. My heart rate was just way too high ... blame it on the fatigue or the heat, or the fact that I just suck on a bike. And my legs felt more tired than usual. Good thing JB was patient with me because he could have easily taken off on me and left me behind like a wet sock. Instead, he took me to all sorts of cool places.

Here's what JB posted on Coolrunning Montreal:

Sally picked me up at work, from there I took her for a few laps of the F1 circuit, then across the very thin strip of land that the Champlain, and Victoria bridges cross to get to the south shore. We took this for about 15k to the "Recreo-parc" in ville de la Cote St. Catherine near Delson and Candiac. From there, we went back to the "Ice bridge" that goes alongside the champlain bridge into Nun's Island. From there, we went back into verdun, then back to my house in Ville Emard. All in all for me was about 53km. Bonnie then continued on to her house for another ~14k (plus the 7K to my office) for a total of about 75k for her. Way to go.