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| A toast to life well lived. 45 years and counting. |
The weekend was so relaxing. Equal parts resting, eating, and exploring my favorite trail... the Tahoe Rim Trail. My parents love to hike so I mapped out a 10 mile route for them, out and back on the Marlette Trail, while I started with them and circumnavigated 18 miles to end up back at the starting location. There is something peaceful and magical about spending hours alone running on a beautiful trail and I savored every second of it. The hubs is recovering beautifully from his Achilles' procedure last fall, but is not yet allowed to explore the trails. The uneven surface puts a lot of strain on the tendon and we are not ready to push the envelope just yet. So he enjoyed a little elevation training on the bike path from South Lake to Emerald Bay.
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| Selfie on the way to Snow Valley Peak |
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| Marlette Lake in the foreground, Lake Tahoe in the background. |
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| Happy Anniversary, mom and dad!! |
After Tahoe it was back to work and time to get back into training mode again. Not that my training ever stopped but with the GC and Tahoe I had a bit of a mental break. Contrary to popular belief I was not burned out after Texas, but I think my body took more of a hit than I even realized. It took me 7 weeks to feel normal again. I had been missing goals on nearly every workout. I just felt sluggish and not like myself. Not even in a way I could really describe. Then one day (July 3rd to be exact) I woke up, did my workout and felt completely awesome. Normal. Myself. I messaged the boss and told her that it was like someone flipped a light switch. I have no idea why, but my body was back in the game.
Best I can think of:
1) it didn't get hot in Arizona until June and it took me that long to adapt to the heat. Normally this adaptation would be done slowly in April/ May as the temps gradually increased. This year it stayed nice and cool and then *BAM* it was hot and humid all at once.
2) it took me longer to recovery from Texas because of the heat illness and dehydration experienced during the race.
3) I restarted my multivitamin supplement and was probably getting some minerals that my body was lacking.
Either way, I am so thankful that my body has caught up with what my mind would like it to do. I've had a ton of fun training with my Team HPB teammates this summer. Several weeks ago we bribed my friends' kid to SAG for us on our long ride to Sunflower. It was a learning experience... teaching a 16 year old what it means to "leapfrog" and then when my ride was over, hopping in the truck beside the 16 year old driver while the boys finished up. Now I know how my parents must have felt when they turned over the keys to me as a teenager!
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| Long ride to Sunflower. #fastcats |
Over 4th of July weekend we all headed down to Tucson, aka The Dirty T, for a long weekend of training. Another teammate rents a house every summer to train in Tucson so we booked rooms at a nearby resort with access to our very own lap pool! No one goes to a resort for the lap pool... everyone else could be found at the swim up bar and lazy river.
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| Mt. Lemmon... ready, GO! |
We arrived on Friday evening and met the gang for drinks and dinner. On Saturday morning we got an early start and headed out from Le Buzz to climb Mt. Lemmon. Summerhaven hosts an annual 4th of July parade and fireworks celebration so it made for very light traffic on the descent. We each had our marching orders and agreed to meet up at the top before turning around.
I held my watts as planned on the climb and though I started out in the back, I picked off teammates at mile 5, mile 9, and then caught Kona Dawn at Windy Point and stayed with her through the top of the climb. We rendezvoused at the visitor's center at the top, drinking cokes and watching traffic filter into town for the parade before turning around and heading back down the mountain. I've really been working on my descending skills and having a nice, steady wind (as opposed to the gusty winds and cross winds that can sometimes occur) and minimal traffic helped me have my best descent yet on Mt. Lemmon! It was a PR for the climb, a PR for the descent and my first time under 4 hours total for the ride. Very happy girl!
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| Dawn and I goofing off, attempting to be "serious". |
We nailed a quick transition run and then had lunch at Le Buzz before heading back to the resort for a few recovery laps in the pool and an early dinner.
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| Recovery swim!! |
Sunday proved to be a very long day. We met at the boss's house in the morning to start our ride. Instructions were to ride the Shoot-out loop with Madera Canyon climb, and then on the way back, add on the McCain Loop and a trip up and over Gates Pass. 118 miles total with over 7000 feet of climbing. My legs were still tired from Mt. Lemmon on Saturday and I struggled to keep up with the group from the start. Rube's lovely wife was our SAG driver and kept eyes on all of us so I didn't worry too much about falling off the back.
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| Sunday Smashfest! |
The climb through Madera is about 13 miles of false-flats and one steep pitch upwards at the end. There were moments when I was certain I was going to repeat the camp episode and fall off my bike. It was SO steep. We stopped to refuel in the parking lot at the top but kept it brief because it was actually chilly up there, and starting to rain. We warmed up again when we hit the flat roads back to Tucson. After about 70 miles my legs started to come around and I felt a little bit better. As long as my hubby wasn't pulling on the front I could keep up with the group.
All day long I fretted about the Gates Pass climb. It is a short but steep and if you're already tired it kicks your ass. I climbed it back to back at camp and the first time was no big deal. The second time I was seeing stars at the top and my heart was going to jump out of my chest. We stopped for our last refuel with 10 miles to go, just before starting the climb.
Since I was the "slow one" I headed out just ahead of the group. Dawn agreed to come with me. I stayed behind her and just focused on keeping a quick cadence. Turns out, that climb was nothing compared to Madera! I was freaking out for nothing, as usual. We crested the top and I pumped my arms like a Tour de France stage winner before we rolled into a fast descent on the other side.
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| 118 done... and done!! |
Our ride was over, and the women's soccer team was just starting the finals in the World Cup. We had our sights set on a little bar across from the resort. With lightening across the sky and rain pouring down we decided that our recovery swim was cancelled. We showered quickly and fell into a booth with some cold beers and tacos. The team nominated me to tell Coach that the pools were closed for lightening. She responded quickly with, "don't worry, it won't last too long". Suddenly our visions of having our feet up for the rest of the night faded.
We did enjoy watching the women destroy the World Cup finals, and our beers numbed our aching legs. Slowly we began to wrap our heads around getting in the pool. (Turns out, coach was right... storms never last long in the desert.) We had the pool to ourselves and enjoyed as many laughs as laps before finally hitting the pillow for some well deserved sleep.
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| Getting ready for our sunset swim. |
Monday morning we had one last task... the forever swim set. The forever set is a team favorite. It involves creating massive fatigue in the upper body while racing each other, band only, 25 yards at a time for about 10 minutes, and then sprinting 200's for time. Over and over and over and over. By the end your arms are literally falling off and you can't clear your fingers on the recovery. My body was so tired from the previous two days that my 200's were about 10 seconds slower than normal. It was almost comical.
We started as the sun was rising and finished with just enough time to shower, load the car and drive back to the Valley to be at the shop by 10 am. I love long weekends like this. Having never played sports growing up, I totally love the team atmosphere and cherish any opportunity to train with friends. We have as much fun smashing each other as we do laughing and chatting afterwards. And it's great to have strong, talented teammates who challenge me to work hard and chase my goals.
And last but not least... #selfiewithmoo is half over!! It started with a photo I took... a selfie with my cat, Moo. It was not January 1, but it was early in the year- maybe mid to late January. The next day I took another one. And then it became a thing. My 2015 thing. Since I don't do resolutions, I try to pick one thing per year to focus on... still a self improvement type of activity. Two years ago I took up flossing. The habit stuck and I still floss daily. (I can't believe I didn't floss daily before!!!) Last year I taught myself how to do flip turns in the pool. I decided if I was going to hire a coach who happens to be a phenomenal swimmer- I needed to start doing flip turns. Now, I can't believe I refused to learn for so long!! 2015... well it's the year of #selfiewithmoo. (He can be found on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. He's becoming quite famous. At least in my mind.).
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| Kissing my little Moo. |
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| My gorgeous baby with his green eyes, freckles, and little pink nose!! |
I'm not entirely sure what I'll do after the year is over. Do I continue? Wouldn't it be amazing to have a chronicle of his entire life? I started when he was about 8 months of age... what will he look like when he is 8? Or 18? The thing I love most about this project is every night when I come home from work I call out, "Moo! It's time for your selfie!" And Moo comes running and jumps into my lap. All he knows is that he's getting attention, and he loves it. All my boys are friendly and LOVE people, but #selfiewithmoo has created an even stronger human-animal bond. If I am sitting down, he is in my lap, purring, giving me kisses.
Anyway, that's all I have to catch up from the last few weeks. We're in a good place with training, and life, and we look forward to the next challenge that heads our way.
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