A Nice Long Week
It was, of course, a good week.
All weeks are good, when we choose them.
It was a long week.
Time is never going back, and yesterday, my youngest monkey turned the clocks into double digits. 
Both are turning into lovely women. I may or may not be prepared for it.
I’ve heard drinking helps.
I think, the alternative will help too,
ultra endurance exercise.
For Me
and for THEM.
I always prefer the later.
It was a marathon type of week. With Elle Belle’s birthday.
Ken’s here, and that is awesome! He pulled in around 11 pm on Friday night.
We celebrated our anniversary at the end of June. Amazing, we’re still together. Our relationship outlived the longest bets by about 10 years. He had mentioned to me that he had picked me up something for our anniversary, my first thoughts are always:
1) Jewelry
2) Bike
so I asked; does it fit into a felt box or a bike box?
He said, “It will fit in a bike box.”
I got really excited.
I was and have been secretly hoping for a power tap.
He told me all the women in Dallas have to have one.
It’s lovely, it looks like bling. It’s not bling, it’s real.
He thinks it will look good with my red cowboy boots, he’s right. It will look really good with my red cowboy boots.
It’s no power tap. That might be the anniversary present I buy myself. You all know how that works right?
Thank you, honey, you’re the best.
I do have something else that will look really hot with my new watch:
http://www.lookcycle.com/en/us/route/cadres/695-ipack-frame.html
Now wouldn’t that look totally hot with my new watch?!
Ken’s arrival made my 5 am wake up call for Master’s really challenging.
I actually turned off my alarm clock and crawled onto the couch and at 6 am decided it was one of those things:
Better late than never.
So I grabbed a bar, a java and shook one down, and off I went.
Managed a 2100 yards this time. Master’s is getting ready for a 5k in Sarasota, FL. I’ve always wanted to do one, will one day so they have been swimming all these crazy workouts. They’re on the “white board” as Coach Tom used to refer to them. Started off with some 300’s so I joined them for parts:
300 swim
300 pull
300 kick; mostly free last 100 free/breast by 25’s.
300 by 50’s 25 EZ/25 HARD
300 drill set.
300 back/breast set
300 lolly gag, a little bit of this a little bit of that.
Today, I should have run, by the time I woke up, it’s already frying, yesterday I noticed a bruise by my tendons where I broke my baby toe earlier in the week. More on that later, and Elle the queen of hiking/jogging is all about going to the trail with her brand new Garmin GPS. That we are still not sure if it is going to work for Geocaching.
Friday: Happy Hour has returned.
However, it’s now located in New Mexico, or wherever your rubber side is down. Friday is my day, it’s always my favorite day. So, at 9:30 I took the Klein and headed for the Canyon. I’ve never ridden through the Canyon before. This is the new Friday routine. I will see how far I can get every Friday. Yesterday, I almost made it to the Crest Road turn off. Almost. It’s really not that easy to ride through the Canyon. I kept wanting to get out of the saddle.
Out of Saddle = not building power.
So did I?
Hell no.
It was very tiring, and I am so not used to that kind of riding. My long rides thus far this season:
1) racing King of the Mountain, almost 2 times.
2) Riding the Crest Road.
So the 2.5 hour road ride was different. The rear has some training to do. I averaged 15 mph. Not bad, not good, I’m not even sure how to gauge it here, really. Not yet.
I am still scared when the wind hits my front wheel at about 11 o’clock. So scared, I am still screaming and locking up when it does. On my descent, it happened twice. I let out this weird noise never before heard coming out of my mouth. I did pretty good, I only slowed to 19 mph, so I am getting better, definitely better. Not at all where I want to be. It does only seem to be on the road bike.
Thursday, is going to be my official day off. It’s going to be a good one too. I will be using it for my clean the house day, active recovery. This week, I ran around getting stuff for my little girls birthday. You know, the important stuff.
Wednesday I had my first brick since well, near forever.
I went to the foothills to do a longer run, it was AWESOMELY FABULOUS. I had my 5 fingers on. I love the meditative trance I go into when I run. Just cruising along, minding my own business, connected to everything in the Universe,
then…
a thought…
and BAM! I caught my toe on a rock.
I know better than to ever take my mind off NOTHING when I’m running:
Broken toe. This picture doesn’t look too bad, I took the picture, right after it happened. It became beautifully purple and swollen, and yesterday I noticed it’s purple in the tendon area between the pinkie and ring toes. It kinda hurts. That’s what I get when I think about something on my runs when I’m in my 5 fingers. I know better than to allow a less than pure thought to enter my head.
After my run, I went to Master’s. I got in over a 2000. I was a little late because work can sometimes get in the way. I was busy writing letters to my wonderful sponsors and Teammates. That was so long ago, I can’t really remember what I swam:
500 swim
500 pull
500 kick and some intervals and some other stuff. I was glad my toe didn’t hurt in my flippers!
Tuesday was my first day off freedom. I dropped Elle Belle off at school. Was totally amped for a nice 2+ hour mountain bike ride. I waited until 10 for the bike shop to open because what better way to start the year off with an awesome, long bike ride on my Scott.
I got to the trail, was hungry, didn’t have any sunscreen, my skin felt like it was sizzling off, I was feeling incredibly guilty about work, and then, more guilty about work, and more hungry, and I went for about 50 minutes before I hit
the GRIND.
Monday was the greatest day ever.
I took my soon to be double digit to La Cueva with the tail wagger and the nub wagger.
With the oldest in school, it was our farewell to summer.
We put in about 6 miles. We went up, up, up, and made it to La Luz. Then, we ran down.
That is so fun!
I did feel bad for the nub wagger. After resting in her crate for an hour or two she couldn’t walk on her right rear leg for 2 days. She’s a jack though, so did it stop her? Hell, no. She just hopped around like nothing was the matter. Me, I felt guilty.