Ahhh Florida

So currently in Louisville there is a major ice storm. 100,000 homes in metro Louisville are without power and heat, the ice is causing trees to fall (two of which have hit the house... thankfully no major damage), all schools and most businesses are closed forcing Louisvillians to be confined to the darkness of their home. In all seriousness, please be safe and use your best judgement when traveling.

For example, if you are the only swimmer at Mary T. at a time of day that you'd usually have to circle swim, you may not have used your best judgement (I won't mention any names ;-) ).

Sean sent me this picture of his street before the weather got really bad.
I think it looks pretty, but then again I'm not suffering through it. After I received his e-mail, I thought it would be nice of me to take a picture of my street... just to compare.
Well, this is just the culdesac, but you get the idea. I hope the palm trees bring some sort of warmth to your homes.

On to training: Yesterday my back was really tender and tight. I guess I fell harder than I gave myself credit for. So I bummed around most of the morning waiting for my Advil to kick in, then finally decided to go for a swim.

I've been practicing flip turns so I can keep up with the rest of the group on the repeats (that's right, this 'swimmer' has no earthly idea how to do a flip turn!). My so-called flip turns really suck and it's quite funny to watch; I'll have someone video it next time for some comic relief. If anyone out there has any helpful advice for please send it my way!

The main set was 8x300. The first time through I used flip turns and thought for sure I was slowing myself down. The next time through I just pushed off the wall and was 10 whole seconds slower!! Wow, so these things really work! I forced myself to look like a fool and do the stupid flip turn for the remainder of the main set. Oh and did I mention I also had to use the tempo trainer?! Way too much to concentrate on!!

I decided not to spin after my swim because my back was obviously pissed at me. The rest of the evening consisted of me running a few errands and staying curled up in a ball.

This morning my back was still really stiff so I opted against a morning run. I decided to spin on the trainer for a pretty easy hour and a half (yes, I am aware it's 80* here and about 20* at home) and surprisingly felt great. I put it in a tough gear, I stood, I rode with high cadence and nothing seemed to phase it! Sweeeet!

So from there I decided against my better judgement and went for a run. I did 8 miles with some long pickups and couldn't feel a thing! Vwaala! All it took was a little exercise to kick the stupid back injury. I had a great run despite the crazy wind, and thanks to my big bro Sean who hooked me up with some awesome training playlists. Even though I didn't have Coach by my side to yell my splits, I had Eminem carry me through the intervals and Daft Punk get me home on my recovery.

Now I'm getting ready to go for a walk with my stand-in-mom, and then a loooong stretch (and lots of food!). I'm so thankful this bike wreck didn't turn into something more serious. Stay safe, stay warm, and stay in touch! Peace out.