Reporting in from Ider, AL!

This marks weekend number 3 away from home. Thank goodness my doggie seems to like staying at the mother in laws with all the other girl dogs!

This last week had been sort of a whirlwind. We had got back home late from Nashville Sunday night. I did the best I could to unpack right away, get the laundry going and all that other fun stuff right away.

Monday morning, at 4:45 am I dragged my butt out of bed only to find that I had never shut my car lights off the night before and now had a dead battery...ugghh so much for the swim!

The week went pretty much as normal-

Mon noon- 6 mile ez spin to loosen up my tight calves, 40 min weights/core
Tues- AM 1600 M Swim
- Noon, 6 M run with ET (8:30 pace)
-Eve, 31 Miles biked with touring club (I was so tired and cold by the end)
Wed - Noon 18 mile focus bike
Thurs - 1600 M Swim (just not feeling real motivated swimming to get in more distance)
- 7 M run with MB (8:30 pace)
Friday - off ...in the car forever!

Then Saturday started my fun in the south. My husband had been trying to get down here to take a weekend class in AL and stay at his family's place. That was fine by me as I figured we could have a low key week and then head to Knoxville 2 hours away for the upcoming Olympic race and it would work out perfectly! So with the husband and his family tied up all weekend, I had to come up with a way to entertain myself!

Saturday, I had mapped myself out a 68 mile ride which turned into 72. Really it would be most helpful if more of the roads down here actually had signs, but nonetheless I managed with no issues. The threat of storms loomed and it was cloudy all weekend, but all in all I only had a little mist for probably 15 minutes. The real threat in my world was all the dogs that chase me down growling on the road. I had lost count within the first 5 miles of how many had to come see me. Thankfully from prior trips I was beginning to learn where they lived and was getting good at really accelerating past their places!

Saturday's bike was just fabulous. Ider, is the the northeast corner of AL next to Georgia and TN in the Applachian Mountains. I left out early and rode down Sand Mountain and headed into the historic village of Mentone after a long climb up Look Out Mountain. The climb up was rather long but I backed off the pace some and felt rather comfortable the entire way and took the time to stop for a picture. I continued on through Mentone and after missing a turn and realizing I was in Georgia, I turned around and finally figured which of the unmarked roads I had meant to turn on which was Desoto Falls Parkway.

The Desoto Falls Parkway was just gorgeous with winding, tree covered roads and stunning scenery. Now over the last few years I have become such a fan of group rides that I can not even remember the last time I had rode this far myself. Yet, I was actually enjoying myself, especially on the descent down Look Out Mountain as I rode into Fort Payne. Past Fort Payne I started checking my map some and realized I had missed the turn I had intended but thankfully I was able to navigatge back without going out of the way too far and then it was back up Sand Mountain towards Ider.

A couple of notes on the ride. It was my first ride in the aerohelmet I had got for Christmas...and to the husband I did not care if you told me I looked like some alien! (I wanted at least one practice ride before using it to race which was a good thing as I made some adjustments after the ride.). I am not sure if it was the climbing or staying aero for longer (since I was not riding in a group on the hoods or drops) but my back and neck were definitely a bit sore.

After some food and rest, day II of operation Daisy entertain herself and I set out on a new 48.5 mile bike course which was to be followed up with a run. (In all fairness coach had given me a 60-70 m bike and the 40 M bike/ 4 mi brick). I knew before I got started that this course would not have the elevation changes, but I had something else to contend with...A Mighty Strong Wind! And of course with the way I planned the course it was all in the second half. I might have swore at the wind more than a couple of times on the ride, but I managed. Then it was back out on the streets to run 4.5 miles with miles 1&4 at race pace armed with a little horse prod in case of dogs (and of course 5 dogs came and seen me but they did not seem nearly as bothered as they were with me on the bike). I wrapped up the day with a ~600 M open water swim (auntie has gorgeous big lake to swim in). I had planned to swim longer but by the time I put on the wetsuit and got going, I decided I was tired and called it a day. Good enough for one weekend!

So the week ended with-
175.5 Biked
17.75 Ran
3800 Swam

Planning to get in some fun stuff early on this week and taper it off to be ready for Knoxville Oly REV3 tri on Sunday!