A Long Day

Moana was pumped to head off to Girl Scout Camp first thing this morning! That made two of us. :) I'm sure she is having a blast and I feel happy/grateful that she gets this opportunity.

It made for three happy campers, really, if you count Maia, who got to go straight to the beach where she found a friendly Boxer to run around and romp in the sand with. Then she took a nap in the car while Mark and I practiced getting beat up by the ocean.

Experienced open water swimmers can take one look at the texture of that water and have an idea of what it felt like to swim in that. It's been ~6 weeks since I've been in the ocean so I didn't feel as accustomed to the chop as I have before, but I was fine. We got ~2 miles done and I managed to avoid getting tagged by a man-o-war (which is just pure luck). It's always a bummer when we see them washed up on the beach before we get in. Mark said one wrapped itself around his chest but what doesn't kill you... right? (#HeIsStronger)

I came home to this quiet house and it was so weird. Wasted some time checking Facebook and Twitter and then answered some emails and texted some athletes getting some race updates... Newsflash: Everyone crushed it today! Team BSC had 6 podiums today(!) + a 50 mile run finish and a Wildflower long course finish. Woot! Anyway, finally headed out on my bike ~10:30 no rush, which just felt odd. Like I have all day!? I ended up riding until ~2:00, no big efforts just steady moderate riding and felt pretty good.

My plan was also to run today but I didn't do it right off the bike, primarily because I was trying to be a good dog mom... so I came home, ate, played with Maia, answered emails, talked to a few athletes on the phone, took Maia for a walk, ate again, then headed out for my run. Goal was 7 miles out/back negative split, which would have been a no brainer on a flat course but since pretty much all my runs from home go straight downhill to start, it was a bigger challenge than it seemed. I felt good though and had a feeling I'd have a solid run, which I did. Ran 33min flat on the away out and 30:39 coming home, which is about as fast as I've run those 3.5 miles uphill.

I felt like a machine on this run- just strong never struggling- and a few thoughts were cycling through my brain:

~I'm approaching the kind of fitness I had in 2012 and I really like it.
~Running Tantalus every week makes running the hills around my house seem not so bad.
~I'm genuinely enjoying training recently.
~I like being my own coach.
~I think I want to do another Ironman.

So. We'll test that Ironman thinking tomorrow. Have a long ride on tap ~95 miles. I'm prepping by drinking some IPA at the moment. New brewery opened up down the road and they make an excellent Swear Jar IPA.