I did my last twenty miler in Newport on Saturday morning. Sunday was supposed to be an off day / swim technique day. In the end Sunday fell apart as a swim day as the girl and I were both super busy getting ready for our upcoming Christmas trip and dealing with her fabulous dog who was a bit under the weather. So we never made it to the pool on Sunday. Which really was all for the best as the rest was good for me.
Monday morning I was back at the pool at the Y for a great workout. I won't bore you with the details but there were a bunch of intervals of varying lenghts and types and a great workout. I went early on a Monday morning as I had loads to do that day and the pool was packed. The best part though was it was packed with some pretty serious swimmers. Lots of fast people and a great big pile of pool toys at the end of every lane. I felt like an actual real swimmer for a change too which was great.
Once the workout was done I rushed home to pack up loads and loads of stuff to get ready for my trip southward. Between packing clothes for the Disney marathon weekend, training while I'm away for several weeks, and the fact I was bringing my bike with me as well there was LOADS of tri-related stuff to pack. So much so I took a picture when it was all laid out on the floor. That pic should go here... but its in a memory card thats currently 1500 miles away from here sitting on my desk at home... hmmm.... just imagine a giant pile of stuff as I like to overpack!
With all that done and accomplished I stuffed everything in the car but the bike and took a brief nap.
Tuesday morning at 3:30am the alarm went off and I was up and in the car and moving by 4AM. I had decided I was going to try and make it to Charlotte. Which I did... in 14 hours of driving! UGH! I rolled into Charlotte at around 6pm and upacked the car and rolled my bike into my hotel room and then headed to the hotel gym to go run five miles. The run didn't feel great, but not awful, and not bad considering it was the recovery run after the 20 miler. Plus I'd just driven for 14 hours so I was beat! After the run I passed out and went to bed.
Wednesday morning I got up and did 45 minutes on the bike trainer in my hotel room and then I was off for a lovely treat! A quick visit to http://www.swimmersguide.com/ revealed a fantastic facility in Charlotte for me to swim at. The Meckleberg Aquatic Center or something er other. Its giant city run pool with something like 25 lanes. Three dollars bought me a day pass and I was in! What a gorgeous facility! I had a lane to myself despite the fact the place was PACKED with lots of tiny little kids three times as fast as I was. I had a great swim with some fun new intervals that the girl had planned for me. My favorite of which were the 4 x 75 Easy, Rest for ten seconds, 25 Sprint, rest for 15 seconds and repeat. Fun stuff! I also had a nice long 500 in there too. Which felt ok... I'm slowly getting the hang of this no wetsuit thing. And the workouts the girl has been writing for me have been brilliant. I feel so much more focused and productive in the water lately which is great. I definitely feel like I'm making progress again and thats fantastic.
Thursday the girl and I got a nice easy five mile run in through her home town. I wish I had taken a picture. The tree covered streets of souther Georgia with spanish moss hanging from their branches were gorgeous. It was a beautifull run. Sadly though my legs didn't feel all that great again. Later that day we went to a fun gathering of a lot of the girl's triathlete friends in the Albany, GA area and I had a great time listenting to all the tales of the recent Ironman Lousiville.
Friday was Christmas eve and a fun day with the girl's family. I have to say they really know how to cook in the south. I ate really well down there... On Christmas Eve I ate what I think was my favorite thing of the trip though which was fresh wild duck that the girl's brother had recently brought back from a hunt done on the grill and wrapped in bacon. AMAZING!!! So different than all the fatty duck stuff I've had in restaurants. Great stuff!
Saturday was Christmas and we had a great time with the family again and then drove down to Jacksonville, Florida to meet up with some more of the girl's friends.
Sunday morning we all woke up and got ready for our long run. We'd timed it so that we could run with some of the girl's friends. Or at least she could, and I could run at the same place, but not in their group. I was voted off that island under the pretense of being too fast. But I know they just wanted to gossip. ; ) Anyway... I was really looking forward to a long run in the florida weather... too bad the florida weather was sadly absent! It was 32 degrees or so, with steady high winds putting the feels like temp at 26, and there was also a snow/freezing rain mix falling at the same time. So not so great weather! It wasn't fun but I slugged my way through a 12 miler at 9's. It was here I decided my legs need to recover more and that I need to stop running until the Disney Challenge. With only two weeks to go till race weekend I see no reason to keep running. I've decided I'll have a better race if I let my legs heal up a bit. So instead I'll swim and bike for the same duration as all my runs during the taper and let my legs recover while staying fit at the same time. Heres a shot of the beach in Jacksonville during my run.
Monday was an off day for me and a travel day as well. I sadly had to say goodbye to the girl as she headed north while I headed south to Boca Raton for work where I am writing this from.
Tuesday (today) was a busy day at work but we managed to finish up by 3pm. I was practically giddy at this as I knew I could get on my bike and get in a ride outside. My plan was to replace my five mile run with a one hour bike. So thats exactly what I did. In gorgeous 60 degree temps and sunny weather I headed out for a ride on my tri bike. The hotel is right near A1A which is the main road that runs up and down the beach here. As a plus it also has a dedicated bike lane! Bonus! So I headed north, got aero and started cranking away. This was the first time I've ridden Cannon on the roads since I've mucked about with the aero bar position a little bit. I was really happy as for the first time my position felt fairly comfortable and dialed in and didnt feel like I was going to fall off the bars. So that was great. Also great were how many other serious cyclists there were out today. Its a popular riding spot apparently. Funny though was that almost all of them had very nice race wheels on their bikes. I was suprised... seemed like every road bike that went by had deep dished race wheels on it.
Anyway... I was only able to ride for an hour and I just squeeked twenty miles in during that time. I had a nice ride and I was so happy to be out in the sun. There were only two bad parts of the ride at all... one being the stupid kid on the skateboard who cut me off and almost made me dump my bike (stupid kids!) and the other being this slight delay as the drawbridge was up!
The rest of the ride was uneventfull but fabulous. It felt so good to ride outdoors again! I also had a nice long stretch afterwards and a super hot shower that felt great. I have one of those giant hotel showers here thats so big you can stretch in it which is fantastic.
So thats the quickie update of all the craziness that has been the last week....
Next up...
For now I'm replacing my tapered runs with cycling to let my running muscles heal a bit. I'm also still trying to figure out where to swim here in a Boca that fits my schedule. Theres something like 8 pools here on property at the hotel and NONE of them are lap pools. Theres one rectangular one but its not very long. Annoying! So I'm not sure when I will be able to swim. There is a Y in town with a lap pool but I need to figure out when I can get in there. I'm too tired to do the 5:30 swim tomorrow am right now so I'm hoping I'll finish work early enough to get a swim in tomorrow night after a ride and or trainer ride.
Ok... hopefully my next posts will be far more interesting and less quickie catch ups!
No comments:
Post a Comment