So, Friday the plan was to go in early to work, come home and work from home (while simultaneously doing stuff to get ready to go to the beach), and then head down. But by the time Beth made it home, I was nowhere near ready to go. I still had to do two more sets of minutes, and then throw my backpack in the car, and get the bike rack, my bike, and the bike my brother had given me on the car. So Beth took off without me, and I worked a 9 hour day....
The further plan had been to make it down to the beach in time to do something on Friday - most likely, with the heat, a good, quick swim. I finally made it down to Milton around 7:30 or so, and met up with everyone at Po'Boys. It was steaming hot outside, it was steaming hot in the restaurant, and I found out when I talked to Beth, the Usuals, and Matt and Jen that it was a toasty 88 degrees when they had left for dinner. We made it back to the house around 9 or so, and it had cooled off to 84 inside, A/C chugging away. Mucked around, went to bed not too late, and got a solid amount of sleep.
Saturday we putzed around for most of the morning, and had Dogfish Head tour tickets at 12:30. We made it over there, enjoyed ourselves with samples, bought some stuff, and then went to the Broadkill Boat House for a great lunch (I had the calamari boathouse tacos) with Matt and Jen, the Usuals, and Kori and Larry.
We were on the beach by 4:30, I think. Going into the water was weird. It was obvious that the water wasn't really much cooler than the ambient air temperature - it just felt like walking into jello that was pretty much the same as the air. Clearly, the water was 85+. BUT, you weren't sweating your balls off - so who cared? We floated around for awhile in the water, until someone said, "How's the tri training going? Swim down to that buoy. It was one of the buoys that served as an anchor-place for a boat that would come in there, and was about 50 yards away or so. So... I did. Made it back and didn't feel much the worse for wear. I splashed around for a couple minutes longer, and then thought - oh, screw it - might as well get that workout in.
I took off for the far jetty. Now I should say that one of the things about swimming in the bay down there is that I find I have to stop every so often to make sure I'm now about to hit a buoy, the boat, the gaggle of other swimmers, the rocks of the jetty, etc. - and that I'm not drifting out to sea. I try not to touch - just sorta tread water for like two seconds until I can get my bearings. So when I say "I made it all the way down" - the caveat is - I stopped a couple of times to look around. But I made it the 100 yards or so, turned around and backstroked for awhile.
I made it past the boat - maybe 50 yards? - and my arms hurt and I felt like I had a decent breath. So I turned back around and crawled the rest of the way. I turned around immediately, and crawled the 100 yards back down the beach. Again flipped to a back stroke and went past the boat and finished with a crawl. 400 yards by my reckoning, 100 of that back stroke.
We got out and went about the rest of the day. Tony grilled up some good chicken and corn, we watched Iron Man 2. And I had every intention of getting up at 7:30 to try a 30-30-30 (30 minutes of swimming, 30 of biking, and 30 of running.)
But at a little after 7:00 it was already 82 degrees, and by 7:30 it was 83 degrees, and the prospect of doing running 8:30-9:00 as the mercury climbed did not excite me. And indeed, another fairly hot day. We spent it on the beach - and the water was colder - but by a little after 1, there was some strong thunderstorm activity in the area. So.... that was an end to swimming. We ate lunch and wiled away the afternoon watching as two lines of thundershowers blow through. Everyone slowly packed up and left. I was last to leave, and entertained thoughts of pulling my bike off and going for a last minute bike ride as the temperature had dropped to a more sane mid-80s around 3:30 after the storms blew through. But that didn't happen. So, I packed up and went home, never having tried my tri shorts or calf sleeve out, but with a good swim under my belt.
I should mention now that I figured something out in that 400+ yards of swimming. This was getting easy. And I felt like I had a real good power stroke if I made sure I was bringing my arms through and brushing my thighs as I followed through. Maybe it did something for my form, maybe it did something to focus my mind on some repetitive motion. But I really started thinking - I can swim all day like this.
Monday promised to be another scorcher. And I woke up feeling like crap - achey all over, all out of sorts, just not good. There was no way I could even face going in to my 80+ degree cube, so I called in to work from home. Did my work, made dinner, and at 8:00 figured a brick was in order. I grabbed my new tri shorts, put 'em on, pulled the calf sleeve over my left calf and headed off.
Beth had already spurred me to action by telling me that, in her bike ride (executed while she recovers from some muscle strain in her glute), she had managed 12 miles in 35 minutes. I was jealous as hell. "And," she added, "I kept it right in the 130 beats per minute zone." Now, all of my experience had suggested that the 12 miles/20km was going to take me an hour. At the beach - on flat ground, going at it pretty aggressively - it was taking me half an hour to go the 6 miles from Alabama to the park. How was she besting me? "Well," she said, "I'm probably not going any where near as high a gear as you are."
I will admit that I'm most comfortable in 2.5 or 2.6. And - to me - most of the 3 gears feel a lot less taxing than 2.6. So... I'm used to going pretty high. But this was just not ... acceptable. I started to feel bad. If she can get on a bike and DOUBLE MY SPEED, meeting my max speed (22-23mph) - I was kinda screwed.
So I scampered to the gym, tri shorts strapped on, jumped on a bike, and knocked off 20km (a bit over 12 miles) in around 27 minutes. Now, I'm not kidding myself. I feel like there are calibration problems. The exercise bike is also inside, no stop signs, no wind resistance, no inclines.... But that felt pretty good.
I went from there to the treadmill (still too hot outside!), and started week 6 run 1 in the C25K program: warmup (cut short because I was ready to GO!), 5 minute run, 3 minute walk, 8 minute run, 3 minute walk, 5 minute run, cool down. I gotta say: easy peasy. I was only going at 5mph. My calf was feeling tight, but the sleeve really felt like it was keeping things in line. Again - no headphones, just trying to run low and loose. And the tri shorts - good god! I felt superhuman. Maybe it was the sleeve - but it was like wearing armor at +5 CON or something! All in all, a good strong night.
So, Tuesday.... My plan initially was to get home early and swim before going to the Board Meeting for Mobtown. I made it in early, got through a Steering Committee meeting where I asked for a 5010 extension and got it, and left around 4:30. At the gym at 5:00 though, all the lanes were taken. I came home, made dinner, and took off around 6:00. The Board Meeting went longer than anyone anticipated - I got out of there at 8:30, and was in a semi-panic. I double-checked pool times, and Merrit closes the pool at 10, so I was good. I raced down to the gym, pulled on the Magic Tri Shorts, stretched a little, and then headed out to the pool.
I just jumped in and started swimming. And man what a good swim. I crawled two lengths and felt good, barely winded, crawled 3, 4, 5, 6! Six lengths before I was feeling a little out of breath - half my customary twelve! I turned on my back and backstroked 7 & 8 until my shoulders started to bark. Flipped and did two more (9 & 10) before I had to stop. I stood there sucking major wind, and prolly pulled a dozen breaths or so. And that was all I needed. Caught my breath in those few seconds and thought - well, let's go for it. Dove back in (my dolphin kicks were getting a little ragged and shallow at this point), and snapped off the last two lengths.
I FELT GREAT!
As I drove home, I knew there would have to be a way I could do a 30-30-30 on Wednesday....
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