Biking & Beers with my Buds!

That pretty much sums up the long fourth of July holiday!  Tons of fun but definitely tiring!

Friday, I had lucked out and worked from home so I actually got in about half my workout with my sister.  We ran 6.3 miles together before she took my car home and I picked up the pace to finish out my 12 miles.  It was a bit of a sizzler but I did not mind as I knew the pool awaited!

Saturday was another early day (after a later night over a friends with a few cold ones) and I made the trek over to the west side of town.  I had a 70/3 brick on tap and opted to drive a bit for some company.  It was a nice change with the exception of a whole lot of rude car drivers that just cannot deal with cyclists on the parkway when they see a paved path on the side of the road.  I had got out there a bit early to tack on a few extra miles before heading out with the main group.  The group had got split up a bit and it ended up being just my teammate, CV and I for much of the ride.  I really enjoyed catching up with her and seeing that she is getting back from her hamstring issues.  Those 71 miles went by pretty easy....amazing what a difference a lack of many hills makes as I am used to much hillier east side rides!  As I returned to the car, I switched out the shoes and headed out for the run.  I picked up the pace a bit more because I was in a hurry to get done and not so much that I was trying.  Then it was off to the bike shop and two parties with more brews and some cornhole!

Come Sunday, the Saturday parties made prying myself out of bed difficult but I finally got up just after 7 and managed to get the house picked up and some laundry going.  Is that what normal people do I suppose???  By 10:30 it was time to get rolling on the bicycle for my focus bike which I usually try to do on the trainer per coach but I wanted to ride over to my sister's so we would only have one car there later so I made the exception.  I was trying to settle into the specified heart rate zones but my legs just felt a bit drained and I knew Monday's big workout was looming so to be honest, I was just not hitting where I should have been.  One would have thought in that heat and it that wind, it would not have been so hard to get the HR up there but I decided I would just roll with what was comfy.  Made it to my sister's place 22 miles later and relaxed poolside and enjoyed the part-tay!

Another late night and another early morning alarm on Monday and I was off to meet up with the Gorris/Slov Gang.  This group included some BAFF teamies and my coach with 6 of us in total.  We shoved off just after 7 am for 79 mile bike with some hills early and towards the end leaving out of Brecksville and heading out to Grafton.  Oh I was worried when we started...lots of strong guys and the air was already so thick that I could feel the tightness in my lungs and was regretting that I had not brought an inhaler as a precaution.  However all went well and I really enjoyed checking out some new scenery and was fortunate to have a nice strong group of riders to take turns pulling.  I was feeling pretty good still as we hit the hills towards the end but then it was time for the run.  Did I mention it was hot???? With a quick shoe change we were all off on our 3 mile run.  The plan was 2 miles hard, one mile easy.  Mile one was ALL uphill and I was trying to keep up with KS and complaining out loud about the hill and the heat 7:09.  Kept on maintaining a nice effort at the 1.5 turnaround and was trying to hang on and finally hit mile 2 at 6:59....those hurt!  Walked for a short bit and started my trot back down to the start.  I think ES's neighbors must have thought we were all nuts, running so hard in that heat as I saw them watching!  It was nice to have so many fast runners in the group to push me to work hard on the run because trust me, I did not even really want to run at all really and joked I would just stay back drinking some iced fluids and time them all!  The rest of the day included another trip to Bike Authority and the pool and some more cold brews!

What a totally fabulous weekend!  Great mix of fun in the sun with family and friends and lots of good quality training.  Today I sit here so sad that the long fun weekend is over but I think my saddle area is in bad need of  a little break!  Oh and what even made the weekend even better was the start of the Tour (yes, I had to up my cable package Saturday to get Versus) that I caught a couple minutes of the last few nights before I fell asleep!  BEST TV OF THE YEAR!  Wooot!