End of Week Wrap Up

   I am realizing (over and over again) that when an opportunity to get a workout in appears, take it. If you put it off then the weather, work, Oskar, or life in general will intervene and ruin it. Case in point: My Thursday early morning run meet up with Tony got canceled because he had some work things come up. Instead of waking up and running anyways, I opted to sleep in. That decision would later haunt me because I was forced to wait around the house all day for the A/C repairman to come fix our air conditioning at the house. That wasn't a pleasant day for sure.
  Friday morning I woke up early for my long bike ride with Mark. From his house we do the Dam Loop which is about a 35 mile ride up and down some long sustained hills. It is one of my favorite long rides to do and when I ride with Mark I am thoroughly entertained with his stories and I often get some good training tips from him as well. For instance I am learning that opting to do hill repeats on the same hills I use for running (Mesa, Ladera Norte and Mt. Bonnell) are not necessarily the best choices for cycling. It is more beneficial to use a hill that I can stay in the saddle and sustain a longer climb. The strength progression I get when I tackle Mesa is fantastic but I can only do it once, maybe twice and that is it. If I find a longer and less steep hill then I can repeat it 5 or 6 times.
   The trip down to the Mansfield Dam was fun and I hit 42.6 mph and felt like I was flying. Right after that Mark was describing the rest of the route and he told me of a, "Pretty good downhill" that was coming up. He said he would feather his brakes but that I was more than welcome to fly down it if I wanted to. I had no idea he was referring to the downhill section of 2222. That drop is virtually straight down.

I ended up feathering my brakes as well but still managed to get up to 51.1 mph. That is probably as fast as I ever need to go.
  On Saturday I woke up early for my long run with Rogue. I partnered up with Scooby for the 10 mile trek. It was great running with Jim, G, Scott and Oscar (guy Oscar, not dog Oskar). They are a fun group. We ended up picking up another runner in our group named Jess (no relation) who had just finished competing in Ironman Couer D'Alene a few weeks prior. She was running just ahead of Scooby and I the whole time as we were discussing triathlons and nutrition for about 45 minutes. Oddly enough she is an Ironman athlete who is also a nutrition major at UT. Go figure. After the run, Rogue had set up a Cold Tub to soak in. It is a giant tub which is big enough to sit 5 or 6 people, but instead of hot water, champagne, cheesy romantic music and Tom Delay (Houstonians might pick up on the reference) it was cold water, sweat soaked athletes and recovery drinks. Rogue has done it right with the Cold Tub. That thing is so refreshing they could charge admission.
  Now I am heading down to Galveston for a little R&R. I will get in some open water swimming if I can avoid the tar balls. No cycling though. Galveston will be pretty stormy off and on for the next few days. I found out that the power at the beach house that Oskar, Emily and Lucy are staying in was out for a while last night. Emily informed me that Oskar loves chasing the flashlight almost as much as he did the laser pointer. That must have been a fun evening at the beach house, bumping into furniture, in the dark, with a crazed dog scrambling around to wherever you pointed the flashlight. Luckily the power came back on.