A taste of summer

It is late Saturday afternoon as I am typing this and it is somewhere in the neighborhood of 83 degrees outside with bright sun. And it's April. You might be wondering why if it is so nice outside I am wasting time typing on the computer. Well, I spent at least 9 hours outside today. I don't mind sweating but don't so much like it when I am dripping while just sitting still reading a book. And I think my winterized skin has seen enough sun for one day. At least the redness would indicate as such.

I decided to spend the weekend up on Squam Lake in Holderness at my parents' house. The training terrain is great and the weather was supposed to be fantastic. The dock is in the water - and some years there would still be ice on the lake - the boat is in the water and it's nice to ride and run on some different roads. I started my ride early this morning, on the road a little after 5:30 by the light of the gorgeous pink/orange skies of sunrise. Admittedly I was not really that excited to go out and ride. This tends to happen when I don't quite get enough sleep. I'm certainly not sleep-deprived, but even a tad under 8 hours tends to leave me feeling less-than-perky. And as usual, it always seems to take forever for just the first half of the ride to pass, but once I hit the 3-hour mark, it's like, only 3 more to go? No problem.

It was a chilly start, in the low 40's, so I was stuck with arm and leg warmers, gloves and a skull cap under the helmet. When I ride here I usually start out with a 30-ish mile loop around the lake and then stop off at the house for a quick bathroom break and water refill before continuing on north for a nice out-and-back. The loop around the lake has some great hills on it and just constantly moves up and down with pretty much zero flats. There are a couple of options as to which roads to ride, and normally I ride the longest possible route, but lately I've been taking the shorter route - not because I was being lazy, but because although shorter, it is way harder. It's not quite the beast, but I think it's good training for it. And it seems like it's getting easier, so that is certainly a good sign.

After the quick bathroom break and water refill... and discarding of my bike gloves because I tore a giant hole in them when I took them off.... it was time for the rest of the ride. Sorry to say that the most interesting wildlife spotting today was a wild turkey, although I did see some miniature horses, but it doesn't really count when they are fenced in someone's yard. It stayed pretty cool for quite a while, but eventually it was like a switch was thrown and I was suddenly very warm. I got to utilize my jersey pockets by stuffing all of those long sleeves in them. I would like to thank the genius who came up with that. Finished up with some hard riding, and wound up averaging 1mph faster than the last time I did nearly the same route, so I guess that's a good thing.

Not over yet though, time to run! I always dread that run, because after six hours on your bike it usually sounds a lot more appealing to just stop, shower, eat and nap (not necessarily in that order) Nope, gotta run. Otherwise I'd have to start doing bike races. For some reason though I like tris, even though I have quite inferior running and swimming abilities, but anyway... Aside from incredible thirst, the run actually went pretty well. It was nice and warm by then, probably approaching 80 anyway, and it's always nice when you feel surprisingly good.

Then I got to stop. I love starting early because by 12:45, I was done with 7 hours of training. Nice. The water is a little too cold for my favorite thing to do after a workout like that, which would be standing in the nice, cold water. It's the kind of cold that is just painful, not helpful. But I did get to lie in the sun eventually and get a little red. Good prep for St. Croix though, right? So, very happy with today's workouts.

On another note, Thursday was my last Bikram yoga class in my intro special. I was really into it up until that last class, then I was just annoyed. There were a whole lot of new people in the class, and they looked to be high school kids. I started last week and suddenly I'm the veteran. I have no problem with the instructor taking extra time to explain the postures. What I do have a problem with is the instructor obviously cutting the postures short, cutting the overall class short, turning down the heat and eventually even opening a window. I actually started to feel cold and clammy late in the class. I like that it's hot in there. It's one of the reasons I'd started doing it in the first place. I want some consistency. I realize that it might be hard for some their first time doing it, but you just do what you can and try to get used to it. Don't alter the class. So now I actually am not sure I want to go back. We shall see.