Ushering in a New Day

Ahh..can you hear that? I sure can, its the sounds of birds chirping and grass growing. The moon is still up in the sky but the temperature is mild and welcoming. Its comfortable outside in sandals, shorts, and a hoody...very comfortable. I love this type of weather! I have heard that tomorrow is going to be not so nice which bums me out a little since all week it has been so nice but on the day when I am going to be on my bike for 6 plus hours its going to rain cats and dogs. But such is life, its been absolutely magnificent all week and I have been able to enjoy the evenings outside with my friends. Mornings are still my time to work hard but with the work load lessening and the longer daylight hours I am very much enjoying the double sessions I have getting in, even if they are just short recovery based workouts...their all beneficial in their own way!

On tap for today is Masters Swimming, then work, followed by a 45 min spin this evening to keep the legs moving. Then its time to relax and rest up for tomorrows long ride. The long ride is going to be a bit different than the past 2 weeks because their is no tempo power efforts included. This is kind of a nice break. The whole ride is going to be endurance based (my zone 2) this ride will probably be similar to the effort that I will be expending at Lake Placid. Obviously the course will be different, weather will be different, I will be different..there are certainly many variable but overall it will be enjoyable to set out at a nice pace and keep it the whole way. Since Cusetri is on a recovery week he does not have the long bike this weekend. As such I will not be able to ride with my usual buddy. This has left me in a bit of a quandary. I am toying with the possibility of trying to gather various people and meet them along the way but that is tough logistically and tough since it relies on people to be where they say they are going to be. Therefore, it looks like I am going to be going on my own little Vision Quest. (Ever seen the movie? Its a good one...if your a crazy weight sucking wrestler, i.e. Brendan Hamm). I am going to set out on my own journey of spiritual enlightenment..who knows where I will end up. I have not really thought about where I am going to ride to, but thats typical. The most likley case is that I am going to get up early and start heading out of the apartment complex, when I get to the main road I will then make the decision...stuff like this is best left to destiny. I mean I've got 6 hours, I can pretty much get lost, change a flat (or two), recharge my iPhone with the Sun, have lunch at a diner, and still make it home before noon.

One thing I am kind of bummed about is not being able to be at the Mendon Ponds Duathlon. On a personal level I really wanted to race this event. It was my first multi-sport event that I ever did. Being my first event I had a less than stellar performance and I was really looking forward to tearing the course a new one. But as fate would have it my legs aren't ready. I am trying very hard to rehab my Achilles area, its getting there, but not ready for running yet. It's been almost a month since I have really been able to run and its starting to get at me a little bit. I am going to be smart and not attempt to run until its ready because there is so much ahead of me. I mean this is my first real season in the sport, I don't want to go and hurt myself and set up chronic injuries over the next 25 years, that would stink! So I will rest it. Luckily the biking and swimming do not really effect the area. Thus the biking volume has increased and so has the swimming, not a bad thing at all! The run will still be there, I have a long way to go in terms of the running but I have also come a long way since last September. I won't lose what I gained this winter and in that respect I am confident I am going to jump of the bike and hammer the marathon. But lets not get ahead of ourselves here, LP is in July, Keuka Lake is in a about 2 weeks (June 6th). Hopefully if I can get back to full strength within the next week to week and a half I will be able to race this guy and see what I've got. I haven't been able to incorporate speed work into my training yet but that shouldn't matter to much. The rest of June can be devoted to that!

Well I'm in the Office now. It's about 9am and I have already had the pleasure of getting about an hour and a half of training in at the pool this morning. With a little more free time in my schedule these days its an absolute pleasure to be able to get to my Master's swim class. The atmosphere at the practices is so great, everyone's happy, everyone's friendly, everyone is there to swim! Swimming with people around you just makes all the difference in the world. I get to see fellow teammates, I get to see Coach Laurie, I get to see Bruce (a.k.a) Michael Phelps. It's really a good time. So with that behind me I am certainly in good mood, plus the weather out is absolutely phenomenal.