Fun in the Sun!

OK. This post is late by a few days... It's been busy.

Friday night Maija still had her swim workout to do. So Genine and I swam for a little over an hour of her workout with her. We were both really tired, initially we were thinking we’d go out for wings after the swim but we decided we had better get some sleep instead.

Saturday, we meet up with Maija and Todd at the Y parking lot at 10AM to do a 2.5 hour bike ride. Finally!!! Outside on the bike! You know, where you actually have to steer and use your brakes! I’ve almost forgotten how to do those things.
Last year if someone would have asked me to do a 2.5 hour bike ride, I would have been concerned that I’d be dropped. I never put in enough time on the bike last year to feel confident enough to do that. Not the case this year, I’m looking forward to spending my weekends working on improving my hill climbing and trying to pace myself better for a 27-30 mile bike. Nutrition is also part of the equation of course.
Todd has been running with me all winter and has to listen to me as I point out birds I see or even just hear. Today’s ride was no exception, I was amazed to see bluebirds are already back in the area. We had just had a snow storm on Monday! Seeing them made me think about this article regarding bird migration and climate change. (I know... I can't help it...)
Anyhow, it was a great ride and it was one that we should have had a huge lunch right after it but we had to get home. Kryste and Ian were going to arrive soon. Ian is an outdoors kid. So we spent a bunch of time at the park at the end of our block before going home to eat. At which point I made up for lost calories by eating a ton of pizza.

Sunday, I met Todd at his house at 6:30 which felt like 5:30 because of Daylight Savings. I don’t think either of us knew what to expect out of our legs following that long ride on Saturday. He’s got the Garmin GPS watch, so he started to announce distances at 2.5 miles out. I think that’s right about when I’d decided it’s not too early to see if a GU would change the way I was feeling. We decide that 4 miles out 8 miles round trip sounds like a reasonable number, we both had other workouts scheduled later in the day. Oddly enough even though we were both feeling the bike workout from the day before we started talking about the NYC Marathon. Endorphins are great aren’t they?
That afternoon we met Tiffany (our yoga and IntenSati instructor) at Lifetime Fitness. She got us in with a guest pass for the day. So I finally got to check out “Disney World for Athletes”. Disney World is a good description because it is very family oriented and the level of service matches as well. We decided to walk through the entire facility before deciding what to do first. It’s an impressive place but for some reason I wasn’t feeling totally inspired. It probably has something to do with the fact that other than swimming, I haven’t ever taken a spin class, kickboxing or any of that type of stuff. Their cardio area is enormous but I have a treadmill at home and I can’t remember the last time I’ve had to run on it. I’d rather be outside.
Anyhow, we decide to do our swim workout. Sadly there isn’t a 50m pool, it’s a 5 lane 25m pool 4 feet deep and kept very cold. The lanes are more narrow than what I thought to be standard. I wouldn’t feel comfortable sharing a lane with someone doing flip turns unless I made a conscious effort to be no where near them as they are coming off the wall. There were 2 lap clocks (analog style) but they were not turned on. We had a good swim but I didn’t get the pool experience I was hoping for.
After getting a shower, we ate some lunch in their Café, that was a good experience and then headed up to do strength training. Their selection of weight machines is incredible and I’m envious. They definitely had many things that I wish I had access to. Cable Row, assisted dip/pull-up, and a great selection of shoulder machines just to name a few. What is cool is that they have multiple machines that work the same thing but are slightly different. So let’s say you can’t adjust one machine to really fit your size. You just move over to the next machine, which might be a different brand and there was a good chance it would fit better.
I was kind of hoping to be totally amazed with the place but that didn’t happen. Maybe the fact that I was riding outdoors the day before played a part. The majority of my training is done outside. I go indoors to use a pool and to lift weights. If the pool was incredible it would have been a more difficult decision. Or if it weren’t 25 minutes away. Or if it had a shuttle service from the gym to the train station before and after work, so I could park in their lot for the day….
I'm thinking Genine should join and I won't. More on this later I guess.

Monday: 90 minutes on the bike trainer 5AM-6:30. Legs are tired. I kept reminding myself that because they are tired, other muscles are getting involved. It’s worth doing even if it’s feeling weak.
Masters Swim moved to Wednesday night. The engine light on the Golf turned on Saturday, so I made a trip to Auto Zone to get the codes read after work. 3 codes, Glow Plug, Glow Plug… Transmission… UGH! It is driving fine so I’m hoping it’s a sensor or cabling issue. I dive in on the internet to research possible steps I can take myself before having to go to a garage and giving them all my money.
I stay up waiting to bid on an unused/new 2008 Quintana Roo Superfull wetsuit for Genine that is on ebay. The 2009 retails for $550 but the 2008’s are on clearance online for $380. There aren’t many places that have Genine’s size in stock though. The ebay auction bidding is starting at $199. There is one bid in on it already. So someone else is interested… I go with my standard bidding method. Bid in the last 10 seconds entering the highest price I’m willing to pay. I win the item and with shipping I’m paying $226. Wahoo!

Tuesday morning, I was going to meet Todd at the pool in the morning but 4:30 AM is still feeling like 3:30... It was supposed to be my day off anyhow. Sorry Todd.