My niece and I walked Cooper over 5 miles this morning. She complains, but she walks with me the whole way. Of course she is 12, so complaining is like breathing to her. Walked Cooper another 4.7 miles this evening, for a total of 10.3 miles for the day. Also this evening I went swimming again. We only swam for 50 minutes, but there was more actual swimming than last time. I worked on breathing, and arms for the crawl. Last time I only did 3 laps of crawl, and today I did 6 laps of crawl with better form, so I am doubling my distance each week, and I am doing it more efficiently. I can live with that. I almost canceled out on swimming tonight, but I made myself go and I am glad I did. Once I got going I did pretty well. I got some tips from another swimmer on how to visualize to have better form for breathing. Unfortunately there is no Y where I live (I swim at the college pool during community hours), so finding a swim instructor isn't all that easy, but I figure there must be a college student who knows something about swimming who would like to make a few bucks. I just don't know how to make a connection. I have to think about it a bit more.

I heard about a riding stable that is reasonable today. I think that is a project for the Spring though. I have enough to do right now... and not enough time to do everything I want to do (or the money either, but that is a different issue).

I started doing planks yesterday. They are harder than they look! The first time I could only hold it for 30 seconds. Today I managed 40 seconds. I want to improve a few seconds every few days. I could really feel it in my core. It kind of made my hip ache a little, so I figure I need to take it slow, so I don't damage myself. It took me 2 weeks to recover when I hurt myself in July, and I don't want to have to deal with that again. Injury prevention is very important to me, which is why I am starting so slowly in my triathlon training. There is absolutely nothing wrong with starting slow.