I arrived Wednesday right after work and pretty much did nothing that day since it was passed noon when I arrived. There were actual tornado warnings for the area that afternoon/evening as well! Great, I got to experience an earthquake the day before and now tornado warnings! Thankfully nothing materialized but it was a stormy evening. I did make a batch of chili for the family which appeared to have been a huge hit since it was all gone by the next night! And that was a huge batch!!!! Thursday morning I rode my bike for 2hrs with David. It was an easy ride for him but I had my work cut out for me to keep up with him! Lol! He also realized that my seat was too high for me! Ahhhh....thanks! Too bad he didn't see this before as I rode the whole season like this! Ha! Later that afternoon I swam in the bay with Marianne and it was pretty choppy so it was a slower swim than normal for me. However, I always do enjoy fighting the waves. Makes swimming more interesting! Following the swim I then did the club time trial. I was really hoping for another bike PB but it just did not happen. I think the back to back race weekends caught up to me as it was one of my slower bike time trials for the year and the run was absolutely disastrous! Yup...my body decided it was tired!
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| riding along the Muskoka 70.3 course |
Friday I got up before the crack of dawn because Marianne and I were going to ride the Muskoka 70.3 course in Huntsville. One of Marianne's friends joined us for her first ever 94km ride. We were on our bikes by 7:30am and set out on the course. It for sure is a beautiful bike ride but also a difficult one. I did this race three years ago and I was quickly reminded how hilly and challenging this course is! I was trying to take mental notes as to when to go into my small front ring for the steeper climbs. It was a great day for riding and kudos to Debbie for surviving it. Even though we took it easy, the climbing forced you to work hard. We did reward our efforts with a yummy ice cream treat on our way home! It was one of the best ice creams I have ever had!!!! Yuummmyyyyy!!!
Saturday I decided to go on the club ride in the morning. I was banking on some of the Nachos showing up so I could go a bit easier. Nope! Hard core guys were out for this ride and I was the only girl! If I would have known I may have opted to sleep in and go for a moderate ride later in the day. But I went and did my best to hang on. I wanted to just tuck in somewhere and draft and I was doing a good job of that until I had to pull. The first couple of times I pulled were ok but I was for sure redlining it to keep the pace up. By my fourth pull I was struggling on the uphills and was expending a lot of energy. I should have been smart and dropped back right away and draft. But I tried to take on my share of the work. Soon enough I was struggling to keep with the pack and kept falling off the back. A couple of times someone would wait back for me and bring me back to the group but doing this enough times was taking its toll on me. I was time trialing this whole ride. The last bit we caught back on with the group but I was already going 42km/hr just staying with the three guys as we were waiting to get back on the train. Once the train came barrelling across my speed hit 45km/hr and I discovered this to be my top end. Last year my top end speed for drafting was 35kph, at that point I would drop off. Now its 45kph! Yay! But the lactic acid was just building up and I thought I was going to hurl going this hard and this fast! I finally got dropped and decided that was it for me! I was going to go do the rest of the route and climb the last hill and I was heading that way. But my legs were fried! I then decided to turn around and go home. Still rode 50km in total and most of it was an all out effort. Oh...and I saw a bear and 2 cubs during this ride too!!! I was pretty excited about that but also freaked me out a bit as they crossed the road not to far ahead of me! Lol!
That was it for Saturday for me! My legs were done! I was contemplating riding later that day but I decided against it as Sunday was a big day for me. Woke up once again before the crack of dawn on Sunday to now run 30km with Marianne. I needed to get some long runs in to prep for Chicago and this was one of them. I am happy to say that this run felt great! I felt like I could have easily ran another 5km. I held a good pace until 27km and then fell off a bit from Marianne; but it went very well! I am super happy with my run! We did it in exactly 3hrs. One of my best 30km training runs ever! Yay! This has given me a boost for Chicago. I am planning another 30km run after the Muskoka 70.3 and I should be set! Following the run I went for an easy 30km bike ride to just spin out the legs.
Later than afternoon we then went up to the cottage! The cottage is such a novelty for me because I did not grow up with one! So it is a lot of fun for me to go there! I even attempted a silly stunt against my better judgement. There is a ramp off the dock built to ride a bike off of it and jump into the water. Well, I gathered up enough courage to do this and was successful on my first attempt. But I had to get more speed and pedal harder to make this stunt more successful so I tried it again. Only thing is that we are riding this kids bike so you have to stand and pedal and I fully admit to having poor bike handling skills. So my second attempt failed as I was heading off the dock before the ramp and into some huge rocks. I managed not to go head first into the rocks but not before I managed to bruise my whole left leg! Haha! After that I was not allowed to try it anymore! I think I scared them more than I scared myself! Lol! I was then taken on a boat ride where I got to try water skiing for my first time. Ok...so it is a lot harder than I expected! I never did manage to get up but I was persistent and kept trying until I was absolutely freezing and shivering in the water. Then I called it quits. Hopefully I can try that again as I think I was getting the hang of it...sort of!
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| the bike ramp we jumped off from! |
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| my attempt at water skiing |
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| enjoying a boat ride |
Up next: Guelph Lake 2 sprint triathlon.
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