Thrill of the Chase

Winds have been quite light the last few days, which leads to some quite amazing ocean swimming conditions! I swam straight into that sun as it was coming up. Aloha Friday, indeed.

Water was warmer than the pool. How is that possible? Seriously. Anyway, it was also as clear as it ever is on that side, and glassy smooth on the surface. Mark and I swam ~55min this morning, all quite easy. He wasn't motivated to swim hard today because he is swimming the Maui Channel on Sunday morning (~9 miles) so he spent a bunch of time 'treasure hunting'. He has a good eye and manages to find all kinds of stuff. Mostly sunglasses and goggles/masks, but sometimes GoPros end up on the ocean floor and he's always looking for those, especially on a clear day like today. No GoPros today but we did find 2x sunglasses and a pair of surf shorts. Somebody must have a good story about losing those shorts.

Afterward my plan was to take advantage of the flat roads Kailua has to offer (there are no flat roads in my town) and run some steady pace miles. Of course I forgot to pack my garmin (argh!) but I made the best of it and figured I'd run/repeat a loop I know to be right ~3 miles and just time the whole thing and could figure out pace (close enough) and call it good. I guess that went ok. I ran the first loop at what felt like MAF- it was quite easy. Then my plan was to try to run a loop ~40"/mile faster, which I figured would be in the range of +10 heart beats... Just steady tempo. I ended up running that loop 3min faster than the first time, so it was a full min/mile faster, which is ok I guess but the effort was too hard I think for what I was going for today (def more than +10 beats!). I knew it while I was running too... This is harder than you're supposed to be going Michelle... but damn I just had a hard time making myself back off. Pacing is a pretty critical skill when running a marathon and I just feel like I kinda screwed it up today.

Maia had a successful Cat Hunt today. She's encountered this gray stray before and he holds his ground and doesn't run away. He defends himself quite well with some solid hissing and sharp claws. Maia is obsessed though. I think her dream scenario is that she wants the cat to run, and she wants the freedom to chase it. For her I think it's the thrill of the chase she's after. Then again maybe that's what we're all after?