Lightening makes the hair stand up!

The Dane pondering the sunrise
Paddling away


Dodging the lightening, we ended the week of big training block. Looking towards this week on the schedule, I was just wanting to get through it without any major problems. That occurred, and I'm happy for it. Damn near got struck but lightening today on the bike ride, it was scary. We had to bale out into the Tarpon Springs marina to save ourselves, good idea! We got to stand there and watch a forming funnel cloud try and get angry and we avoided to full on downpour and electricity. Ended today's ride with a solid brick of 6 miles at sub-7:30 pace. We were supposed to do that run yesterday off the long run (5.5 hours) but I was already bonking (bad calorie management) and I had wicked cramps (you gals know what I mean). I have gotten all my runs in this week and need to do the same for the next two weeks for sure to feel moderately confident about my IM marathon. I stopped using my orthotics and that seems to be a good decision thus far. The only time my foot bothers me now is if I run fast - which isn't an issue now with training for IM! We got two good days of SUP also. Friday the water was glassy and we saw lots of fish - tarpon, snook and mangrove snapper. Pretty cool when you're "standing" out among them. Today, a bit more challenging because the water was not glassy but choppy but I like that challenge to try and keep paddling and stay up. We did much better today in the chop, it's a real workout! Fun, fun, fun though. Five more weeks to IM Canada......
Cheers.

"Rest" week

We had a nice, unusual rest week training-wise. That basically means, back off the long run, and Sunday ride is optional. We opted out. Actually, we opted to SUP as the sun rose today. Great decision as the storm clouds kept building off-shore. No riding in the rain today, thank God. Yesterday, the ride felt like storm chasers. We managed to ride in and out of every thunderstorm in Hernando and Citrus county. It was plain not fun. I hate riding in the rain, I get very unnerved that I, or someone else, will crash. Or, worse yet, a car will come skidding into the group. When we hit Brooksville, the lightening started. It was not fun but we had a 5 hour ride on the calender so that we did. Then we took our soggy selves onto a 40 minute brick which went quite well (other than Jaime getting bonked and lost). I'm feeling tired but in pretty good shape overall - likely, better than a year ago. The more I run, the better I feel. I've managed to slim down into race weight now and we still have 6 weeks to IMC so will need to be careful to not lose any more weight! Then Dane is in unreal shape. He won Masters category at the Morton Plant sprint tri last Sunday after riding 90 miles in the hills on Sat. Unreal, for sure. We will continue our IM build now, it gets longer and harder but will go by fast for sure. I hope we aren't dodging thunderstorms all summer though.
Way to go AC in today's stage! Only Tour stage I'll get to see live but it was worth it!
Cheers.

Well deserved beach time

We had a good week of training. I managed a tempo run and long run of 2 hours without too much complaining from the foot. The tempo run (long warm up/cool down with only 20 min at 7:15 pace) was hard as I haven't run "hard" since St Anthony's - had to get the brain to remember how that feels (been running real slow the past couple months to let this foot get better). The foot complained for a day afterwards but I was able two days later to jam out our 2 hour run. Nothing pretty but got it done none the less. We had a solid long ride in the hills on Sat with good group then Anders did the Morton Plant sprint tri on Sunday. There is no way I could have done a race, I was spent (ended up peddling squares by my lonesome for three hours instead). He did awesome, won Masters. The video is celebrating that. He had a broken seat rail also but brought home the W and was really happy. I had a really good brick run but felt like ass the entire time - I guess running sub-7:30 will do that. Anyhow, have to recover a bit and ramp up a bit more next weekend. On a lighter note, we had the best SUP session ever. Got to the Gulf before the wind kicked up too much and the water was super clear, you could see everything. Had an amazingly large school of rays swim right through us, very cool. As per the video, the wind kicked up and forced us out but we got back in about an hour later with somewhat of a choppy sea but rideable (our first ride in the choppy Gulf). It was a great time and good workout (like I need more workouts). Loving it here in sunny FL......when it's sunny!
Cheers.

tempo run tuesday

Have a new toy and will try and post videos

Oh, am I tired

A little motivation on my paddle!

Lovely three day weekend is ending, sadly. One would think I'd now be all rested and ready to tackle another week. Probably would if not for IM training in full effect. I am quite smashed today from the weekend of swimming, biking and running. It was so rainy during the week we did miss a few workouts but nothing disastrous. Working on getting my long run to be, well, long. Not there yet but hopefully will be able to jam it up to 2 hours this week. My foot/achilles seems to be tolerating the work and gradual increase in mileage. I have gone 180 degrees from the world of orthotics and am just going without and it seems to be a good thing. There is a big sprint tri next weekend that most are doing although I'm going to pass. I really need to get in my bike rides more than one hour hard tri effort. We did get to SUP on Friday morning. It was pretty windy and the surface chop in the intracoastal made it very challenging! My calves were sore from constantly gripping the board to stay upright. Fun, fun though. We spent the 4th riding, running and beaching with L&L, fun times! Loving Le Tour!
Cheers

Ohhhhh, so excited on war against cancer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mw_4McYl4Tk
Go through the effort and see the you tube.

http://www.nike.com/nikeos/p/livestrong/en_US/video_wall?guid=09bac6ee-3f75-1a3f-3658-97bff9537f4c_id16035#?guid=7f8f833d-0ca7-e6e6-5fbc-e50aa74c9394_id16035
If you can watch this, please take the time to. Amazing women. Lance get's through. I see a ton of cancer and I believe in the cause. Go Lance! (He's already won if people give to the cause).