Memorial Day Weekend

Memorial Day weekend has come and gone, and for once the weather was great. Last year I remember returning from Florida on that weekend, from a week of record-setting rainfall for Florida - even more than they get in hurricanes - and coming home to sort of average weather and some cloudy days. That was before it was fairly chilly and rained all but four days in the entire month of June. And I'm sure I was wearing a sweatshirt on the 4th of July, after having spent some time foolishly riding my bike not only in the rain, but the lightning. Hey, I was in the middle of nowhere and it was either keep riding or what, stand in the woods near the tall trees? It seemed like either option was equally risky, so I picked the one that got the workout done quicker.

It seems that this year we are getting payback for the terrible summer that never was in 2009. And it's great. We had a couple of days last week that were pretty much what you'd refer to as "stifling." On Wednesday I hit the pool for a tough workout first thing in the morning after not sleeping much due to intense heat and humidity. Then I came home and almost immediately headed out for a run in order to get it done before it got hot out. Well, last Wednesday, there was no such thing as before it got hot. Yeah, it was maybe 84 degrees at 8:15 in the morning instead of the mid 90's it got up to later, but still HOT. Have you ever had to actually slow down your pace during a tempo run because your heart rate was just too high? Well, that day I certainly did. My heart rate was off the charts and I was plodding along at a ridiculously slow pace, hoping nobody would see me shuffling along and especially hoping nobody realized that at the time I was supposed to be running "fast" according to my heart rate. The last 15 minutes or so my shoes were making horrible squishy noises every time they hit the pavement because they were soaked through with sweat.

Upon my arrival home I engaged in the particularly lady-like behavior of sticking my head right under the kitchen sink faucet and alternating between drinking mass quantities of water and letting the wonderful coolness run over my face. Later that afternoon I went out on a bike ride. While I'm not big on running in heat, or at least my heart rate has issues with it, I do enjoy riding when it is really hot out. Probably because I appreciate it so much given the fact that I spend a considerable amount of time throughout the year pedaling around with 10 pounds of extra layers on with numb fingers and toes and hoping my water bottles don't freeze. There's just something about being on a bike when the wind can blow as hard as it wants to and you know you won't feel cold, ever. The downside of course is that you wind up drinking 80-degree or so water, but it seems a small price to pay.

So when I went out that afternoon I enjoyed it, and especially liked riding my bike past the bank thermometer that said it was 94 degrees out. Not to be outdone, the bank thermometer around the corner from that one said it was 98. Those two are always at odds with each other, and the second one is always warmer than the first. I'm trying to figure out if the temperature really is that different within that tenth of a mile span. Bottom line though, it was HOT out.

We got a bit of a reprieve the next couple of days, but it's amazing when it can be 20 degrees colder than the day before and it's still nice and warm out. The weekend was spent at the lake with my parents and my sister, brother-in-law, niece and nephew, with my brother making a brief appearance. Oh, and my sister's golden retriever, Marley (just want it to be clear that they named him for Bob Marley BEFORE the book and the movie - Marley is 9 years old) who is a lot of fun to have around, especially when he wants to come swimming with you. My nephew seems to like me mostly because I am good at putting together train tracks and Legos... and possibly also because on at least two occasions over the weekend I was the distributor of Oreos. My niece likes me because I know how to make s'mores indoors.

Saturday morning I was up at 4:45 to be on my bike at 5 for my long ride. See, this is where I sometimes question my sanity. I was sound asleep when my alarm went off. I could've slept several more hours I'm sure, but for some reason I am obsessed with getting my long rides done early. My reasoning? I think mostly so that I am done early enough to... nap? Wouldn't it be easier to just stay asleep longer in the morning and not need that nap? So far I haven't been able to convince myself of that, but I do know that on the rare occasion I do choose to start later I usually spent the last two hours of my workout thinking to myself, "I could've been done already!" Oh, and riding at sunrise with no cars around isn't such a bad deal, either. It has also given me the opportunity to have some early morning run-ins with deer and moose, and on two occasions, black bears. This weekend though, just one lonely turtle.

And hey, it's nice to be done with 6+ hours of workouts before noon. It gives me the opportunity to spend the rest of the day feeling a bit more like a normal person, reading a magazine and falling asleep in the sun. It was short-lived though, as I had to head back to Manchester for a friend's wedding. One of my best friends from high school who I hadn't seen in a while, so I saw a few other high school friends which was nice. There's something so comforting about seeing friends you've literally known since you were in first or second grade. And of course it was nice to see my friend so happy and getting married, and so great how short the ceremony was. I'm not big on weddings (if I ever have one of my own, I'm going to try to keep the guest list down to, um, 10 or less I think - Wheelers, you were smart!) and when I was talking to my friend later on she said that they told the justice of the peace (who also doubled as the DJ - see how smart?) that they wanted the ceremony to start at 6:45 and be over by 6:47. No wedding party, no ceremonial cake-cutting, just here's the rings, let's have a little party.

It was also my first appearance in a dress in a few years. My mother asked me before what I was going to wear. I told her I was going to be wearing my purple dress. "Oh, you mean, your dress?" Yes, mom, that one dress I own. It seems to have worked well for a while, so why mess with it now? It will only be an issue if I get invited to a winter wedding. No, you aren't going to see pictures. Even my niece, who is only 7, knows that I am not interested in wearing dresses and it's not like it's something I walk around talking about. She was disappointed to learn that I would not be getting dressed for the wedding at the lake house before I left. She really wanted to see that.

So I was home pretty late that night and as a result yesterday I took a very different approach to my training day. I woke up probably around 7:30, wishing it was later because I surely could've used it... and then I didn't do much of anything. Not for a long, long time. I had 4 hours of workouts to do and I didn't set foot out the door until 1:00 in the afternoon. Of course, once I was out there I was mad at myself for not having done it earlier, but what could I do about it now? But yeah, I'm much more interested in morning workouts and then being able to relax during the afternoon. I made it through, of course. Later that night I suppose in honor of Memorial Day we watched my father's slides - now transferred to DVD - of when he was in Vietnam and later when he was in Antarctica. Some very interesting stuff, for sure.

Then today, which involved sleeping in and not worrying about the prospect of hours and hours of workouts to get done. Back to lying in the sun and reading and enjoying the warm weather. Except that today was a bit marred by some haze, not due to humidity or the incredible amount of pollen surging through the air and making everything yellow (if I were allergic I probably wouldn't have been able to breathe for the past several days) but due to forest fires in Canada and the smoke that has blown in. You can even smell it.

So now it's time for more training and a pseudo taper for Mooseman this weekend, where I will be doing the olympic instead of the half. I'd feel weirder about that except with all of the nervousness about the new half bike course I'm glad I won't be doing it. I wouldn't so much mind riding up the hill, I've ridden up that hill before, it's just coming down the other side because I know that when it comes to bike handling, triathletes are not exactly the best. In all fairness, sometimes it's not so much their bike handling, but their refusal to remember "ride right, pass left." Is it really so hard to stay off to the side? Apparently, yes.