On Sunday, we got a small amount of practice in before they effectively closed the beach down (consecutive 30 minute delays from thunder). So our plan was to go Monday evening for a swim.
Best laid plans… Unfortunately, Mother Nature didn’t want to cooperate with us. THis time round, we didn’t even have a chance to get into the water. While the swim was off, we put the time to good use (beach membership and grocery shopping), and planned to do the swim Tuesday.
There are four elements — earth, wind, water and fire. Earlier today, we got to see all four together. And it was purely by chance.
We had decided yesterday to do an AM swim at Centennial Beach. Terri picked me up and we headed over to the beach so we’d be there at 9. When we arrived in the parking lot, we saw a huge assortment of police equipment. As we sat and waited for the thunder to pass, we figured out what it was.
It was the Torch Run, and as things worked out, we were in the right place at the right time to get a great video of the procession when it left.
Having captured an incredible scene, we were finally able to go into the water. I had an opportunity to try out my new wet suit. For those of you who have never put one on, it’s quite the experience. Think about how people make sausages. But in this scenario, you’re the hooves and snouts going into it. I will say that Suit Juice not only is amazing, but IMO is essential if you’re going to be wearing a wet suit.
Once in the water, we were only able to get about 200 yards in before the tthunder/lightning alarm (10 mi radius) went off. We originally thought it was just 30 minutes period before it went to all clear. We soon learned that each thunder crack added 30 minutes on instead of resetting. Having heard 6 thunderclaps in about 5 minutes, we left instead of waiting for 3+ hours to be able to get back in.
We will give it another go tomorrow. And even though we only got 200 yrds in, I’ve got ZERO complaints. The first part was well worth all the mess in the rain afterwards.
Yesterday, we headed over to Oswego for a bike/run brick session. We did about 9 miles on the bike through the Fox Valley Trail. As always, Oswego Cyclery lent us the tandem for the day. I am so grateful for Art continuing to let us use it!
Montgomery still needs to fix their part of the path. It’s got so many bumps in it that I joking said to Terri ‘stop saying bump – just say no bump when there isn’t one.’ As soon as I can figure out exactly who to report that to, I will be sending an e-mail. Everything I’ve found so far points to Aurora instead of Montgomery.
After the last bike/run brick, I could barely run. On this one, I was able to do small stretches before the jello in my legs took over and I had to walk. As we were headed back into the park, a couple of guys called ‘where’s the double bike?’, so we’re evidently getting noticed in Oswego when we ride. 🙂 We only did 2 miles of the ‘run’ because today was a planned swim. More on that in the next post…
There have been a lot of people who have helped me since I started this journey. I wouldn’t be where I am without their help and support. Some have even helped me through sponsorships — but I always knew about that going in.
However, yesterday, I was blind sided by the generosity of two sponsors. I won’t drop names right now, BUT I will say that when the Tri kit happens in 2016, you WILL see their logos on it as my way of showing gratitude for their support. If either of them would like to publicly raise their hand, I’m happy to approve the comments.
So at the end of yesterday, I had a pair of running shoes and a wet suit. Both of which I need as I continue to push forward. THANK YOU so much to both of these generous sponsors!
Last weekend, I had the opportunity to attend the Dare2Tri ParaTriathlon Camp. It was an AMAZING experience and an AMAZING weekend. You can read my blog about it on The Imperfect Journey site. Photos from the weekend are available here.
I hope to have an opportunity to attend again in 2016!
During the run training, there’s been an on-going joke about tethering because I take off so fast and burn out. On Memorial Day, when we went for a brief (3mi) run, the tether made its appearance.
Because I still have a decent amount of vision during the day, I haven’t run tethered before. It’s always been easier and more comfortable for me to run next to or between the guides.
It helped with the training, and is something we’ll probably continue to use during it. But for races, I still plan to run untethered.
With the nice Memorial Day weekend weather, we took advantage of it and put in a brick session (swim/run). While still a struggle, it went better than the first one (bike/run) — I could actually run this time.
We started out at Centennial Beach for the swim. Beginning first with drills and then doing laps. As always, Terri helped to support me and teach me through the drills. 🙂 We ended up doing about 400 yards between the drills and laps.
After the swim, we went for a run on the same course that we’ll be running in August. I was only able to make it about 2 miles total with walking, but it was an improvement from the ‘no run’ during the first brick session.
Having found a new way to get into the forest preserve,we set out for a run. At about 2.5 miles, Terri asked me I wanted to turn around. I said no, that I wanted to keep pushing, so we turned around at 3 miles. I really should have kept it at 5 total, as that last mile was painful. I had absolutely nothing left in the tank and had to walk almost all of it.
Lesson learned – we’ll see if I remember it…
After the 4 mile run today, we headed over to Aldi to work on nutrition. While it’s nowhere bad as it used to be (i.e. a package of hooves and snouts… I mean hot dogs as a meal), I still want and need the help. Going in, I had a specific budget, and hoped we’d hit a few things now and have a plan for the future.
That plan fell apart simply because Aldi had some amazing prices on produce. With 45 lbs of produce (carrots, potatoes, peppers, tomatoes, cavalcades, apples and bananas) cost less than $20, there wasn’t any good excuse to buy any crap. Especially when fore 1/5 of the cost of junk, you could get something 5x as good for you. 🙂
By the end, we had a cart full of good food, and Terri had given me several good ideas for quick, easy things to make. I will try some of those out this week!
As we were about to leave, the second dog of the day (Dinga) approached us. Unlike the one on the path, Dinga knew EXACTLY what she wanted — some good scratching and petting. 🙂 She was with a couple that was trying to put their groceries in their car, and she just wanted to come play.
Earlier today, we went for a ‘brief’ run. I say brief, because most of our recent runs have been 5+ miles. However, since Terri was going to take me shopping and help with nutrition afterwards, this was a shorter one.
Several interesting notes / thoughts from the run:
1) If you’re a biker, and you don’t have the common courtesy to call out ‘passing on the left’ as you come up behind runners, you definitely deserve to be cited by the Karma Police.
2) Forgetting to empty your pockets before you run makes for a more interesting run. I forgot that I had my Pebble in my pocket until we had already left the car. So I had to do the run with an extra 4-5lb weight in my pocket.
3) Finish lines may seem closer than they actually are. 🙂 We still had about 1/3 of a mile to go when we got back to the normal finish line, so we went further in the other direction.
4) Hats may confuse dogs. While running, we encountered a dog that couldn’t make up his mind. He wanted to come up to us and his tail was wagging (universal sign for ‘hi, I’m friendly, pet me’), but he was growling when he came up to us. We went on from there.
4m – 50:50 (12:43 pace)