Vacation...All I Ever Wanted!

Shawn and I had a tough 1:45 bike ride yesterday in gusty conditions. I must say, it's the best I've felt on a bike in a LLLLOOOOONNNNGGG time. My bike is lighter, I'm lighter, it's all good for now. Even the wind didn't bother me as much as it usually does. My seat is just about there. I definitely could've kept going, but that's ok. I was glad to be done nonetheless!

We spent the day doing house exploration stuff and capped the night off with the 25th Anniversary Tour of the Original Go Go's! What a blast it was. They all looked and sounded great, much to my surprise. The band looked better than most of the people in the audience who were still wishing it was 1981! Actually, who am I to judge? In the last year, I've seen Duran Duran, Bruce Hornsby, Carole King, Collective Soul, Better than Ezra and others who have seen their better days! I'm definitely not the hippest cat in the litter...

We got home late (well, 11pm is late for me) and hit the sack about 11:30pm. The 5:00am alarm clock came quickly this morning and I was a bit trepidatious about this morning's Gazelle workout--5x 1k at the Meridan Loop. It's a 1k loop of climbs, descents and turns....the antithesis of being on the track. We did 5 of them with 90 sec rest in between. This is the workout where I always tend to blow up because I don't manage my pace well. I go out too fast on the first one and and by the 4th, I'm seeing double. I decided to play it smart this morning and have Jay pace me through the repeats. This man is a machine of consistency. It's too late in the training season to pick up a lot of speed, so my goal right now is to maintain good consistent form until Boston. Jay is the perfect guy to help with that! I let Amy, Tonya, Marcy and the usual gaggle do their own thing today. My legs were still a tad sore from the bike ride so I knew my limits. We did our 3 mile warmup run to Meridan and the fun began...Splits: 4:56, 4:55, 4:50, 4:47, 4:45. I took these directly from Jay's blog entry this morning so they may differ by a sec or two. We worked very well together and each of us took turns pushing the other. That's what teammates are for during workouts like these.

We finished by doing 5 sprints up the hill and 3x backwards. The 3 mile run back to Runtex was pleasant as I ran into my friend Katy who I hadn't seen in months. She looked great and was out for her morning run as well. We ran the last two miles together and then I stretched with Jay as we disussed the workout. I'm very proud of the fact that we completed all 5 repeats and we got faster each time. I didn't blow up like usual and I ended the workout feeling strong. Gilbert did point out the fact that I'm having hip/back issues. How does he know this stuff?? He can just tell by our form he says. Time for a massage.

Nutrition:
5:15am Peanut Butter Balance Bar, bottle of water
9:00am Tuna on whole wheat tortilla and 1/2 cup kashi with yogurt, bottle of water and coffee
2:00pm Firebowl! Chicken stirfy with veggies, brown rice on the side, 1 spring roll, diet coke, fortune cookie and one small lemon bar