Hill Country, Hamstrings, and Heels

Last week I had a good week after the race. On the Monday morning after the run, my legs were too tight to run so I went for a walk along the seawall and then took a dip in the pool. Tuesday I went for a swim at Big Stacy and then Wednesday ran 7 miles on the town lake trail and my legs felt just fine, which is great. Thursday and Friday were swim intensive days before my ride in Johnson City on Saturday. The weather was supposed to be perfect although a bit chilly in the morning. The zipper to my cycling jacket is broken and I’m pretty wimpy in cold weather so, KB and I came up with the idea to use a pair of old socks for arm warmers. I found some woolies I hadn’t worn in awhile and cut then straight across the toe. They worked like a dream.
I felt great at the start of the Johnson City Pedal Power ride. Part of it is just being outside on such a beautiful day, but I felt strong heading out and the terrain was gorgeous. The ride was through rolling hills and we crossed countless cattle guards and saw plenty of animals (cows, sheep, goats, birds, spiders, your typical) along with much less wildflowers than I expected but breath-taking views. My giddiness left me ahead of my group at the start of the ride and as I was riding one of those stretches where I was just going. It is this fabulous feeling of whee and my head is saying faster, faster just because it is so much fun. Well the party in my head distracted me from the turnoff arrow I was supposed to see to turn left for the route I was doing and two miles down the road I saw a turnoff that made no note of the 60 mile route, hmmm. I talked to the volunteers there and they said there was a turn off back from where I came and that maybe the sign blew over (I was not the only one to miss the turn off) there was only on thing to do hop back on my bike and back track. I headed back keeping my eyes peeled for signs and the rest of my group. This time I saw the sign and got back on track. I didn’t see the rest of my group so I figured they must have seen the turn off. I knew they probably thought I was still ahead of them, when I was in fact a few miles behind them now, hmm. They are a good bunch of riders and catching them was not going to be easy. They do know how to enjoy rest stops though so that was all I could think of as my saving grace, and again “press on” came into play. Fifty miles into the ride I finally caught them, when I had just about given up on the thought of catching them. At this point I was saddle-sore and wanted to finish so I charged on to the end. Saturday was a great day of riding with perfect weather, views, friends, and yes food at the end. (67 miles including miles added on)

Sunday was a ten mile run around town lake. I felt pretty good on the run other than a side stitch that would not go away and the heat. I can tell my legs are tired but not to the breaking point, so later in the day Johan and I went to Deep Eddy for some R and R poolside while I watched other people workout and I read my magazine. Sunday night I decided to give my legs a different sort of exercise and I hit the dance floor in three possibly four inch heels (I'm impressed I pulled this off without hurting myself) to dance the night away. Another great week of training down and just a little over three months to go until IM Switzerland, which we just got an email on saying the route changed a bit and it sounds like we have to run over an island in the middle of our swim and the bike route has changed some. I'll need to look this over a bit more to fully grasp what the course change means exactly.