Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Weekend Adventures

The weather here is finally warming up to Florida standards and is allowing for some amazing training! Friday started off with an excellent long ride. Even though the legs were trashed we somehow managed to ride around 4 hours and see some beautiful horse farms and strawberry fields.

Saturday was pretty chill. Early I was on babysitting duty at the Gollnick's; Zach and I cooked chocolate chip pancakes for everyone then rocked out some Guitar Hero. Around 10ish I gathered the kidos and we headed to the Y for a swim. The boys showed me how to do a flip turn and critiqued my stroke through underwater analysis (which entailed them lying on the bottom of the pool and waving as I passed over top) :-) At one point during the 100 repeats Josh asked why I keep running into the lane line. I wanted to tell him it's because I don't know how to swim but I couldn't get enough air to say anything!

Sunday was funday! We headed over to Alafia State Park for a trail half marathon. Heather and I got there over an hour early but somehow managed to make it to the start line with seconds to spare!! We had a good long warmup which led to us getting lost on the trails and cutting through bushes trying to follow the announcers voice to the start!! I was covered in burs and had cuts all over my legs, but we made it! The trail race was super fun, but soooo much more difficult than I had expected. There were sharp descents and even steeper inclines, twists, turns, roots, limbs... I never got bored! 2 hours later I finished and was a bloody, muddy mess. Ann was there to greet me (yay! she did the 5K) and we got me cleaned up and hung out for a bit. Heather accepted her First Place award, introduced us to a really cool guy who is traveling around the country racing to raise money for St. Jude, then we headed home (after making a pit stop at Smoothie King, mmmm, my quads needed the boost!). Once back in town I spun out the legs and got caught up on Greys, then went to the pool for a recovery swim. By nightfall, I was pooped!


Monday started before dawn. Heather and I headed out on our bikes around 5:50a to meet a group in Sarasota for their 6:45a Starbucks ride. We were cutting through some back trails, went over a bridge, I lost my balance and steered straight off the edge! It was about a three foot drop and I couldn't see a thing! Luckily I landed on my side and felt OK, nothing too damaged except my ego. I caught back up to Heather to realize I had lost my water bottles, this day is not starting out great. We made it to Starbucks in time, but once we got there I realized my back was really tight. I hung out in the coffee shop while the rest of the group hammered down Longboat Key. I rode easy back home and decided to take the rest of the day off. My back is still pretty tight/tender, but nothing some stretching and Advil can't cure.

On to today: getting ready to head to the pool then riding solo. If my back starts to bother me I'm beelining it home, so I didn't want to mess up anyone elses ride.

Lessons Learned: never eat trail mix with raisins the night before a long run, and never ride your bike over bridges in the dark. Until next time, keep on keepin on!

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