The Last 14 Days

Hi. It's Laura. 

Did you even realize it was 14 days since my last blog? I did. I always feel a little guilty when I cannot "record" what has happened during my training. 

Where have I been? Swimming and biking and running of course. As if it was that easy. 

It all started last Monday. I sat down to write this blog to talk about the brick workout I did on Saturday. I was easily distracted with planning for the upcoming long weekend. The Husband and I were planning our getaway for the Memorial Day Weekend. We were going to spend four glorious days in Vermont, swimming and biking and running and playing golf (he was only going to participate in the golf part).  

In order to bike and swim and run in VT, I need to take my bike and all of the rest of my equipment with me. Seems simple enough. Since the last time we used the bike rack (a Thule that hooks on to the top and bottom of the rear hatch) was last year and a car ago, I figured I should find out what the settings are for the new car. Maybe I would even get the rack on the car before Friday so I was not rushed trying to get out of the City 

I perused through the Thule website for our particular make and model to find the dial options. On this model every car is a different number on the rack itself for a good fit.

I found ours and went to the numbered exceptions in the last column, fit tips:

 

101: clips go in the front end of the hatch

102: covers the bottom clips. (So far so good)

121: can't use the rear wiper. (Knew that so no biggie)

128: Lower arm of carrier should be positioned on upper tier of bumper. Ok. last one

151: If this vehicle has a spoiler installed, it is a "NO FIT" 

I wonder if we have one of those. A flurry of texts messages went back and forth between the husband and I and we determine that we have one. Now what?

We agree the old one was not exactly making either one of us comfortable (we had a few slips last year where we almost lost the bike). Get a hitch! That’s the way to go.

 

The rest of my Monday morning is spent calling around to find a hitch bike rack only to discover I need a hitch first. I will say I was clueless. I called the dealership. Outrageous price! I called AutoZone. The exact opposite because I can install it myself.(me? Install a hitch? Preposterous)  I finally came across U-Haul. Who knew they installed hitches? Of course, when I book the appointment, they do not have the part and it needs to be ordered but we can have installed on Wednesday. YAHOO! We are leaving Friday. Perfect.

 

All the while, I am still swimming and biking and running.

 

Wednesday! My appointment is in Jersey City. I know nothing about Jersey City except for it is across the river and I may have relatives there. I find the U-Haul and my appointment, scheduled for 1:00, starts promptly at 1:30.

 

For some reason the people who work there hate me and relegate me to an office chair in the corner of the store because as I was told "installing a hitch doesn't take five minutes". I felt like I was back living with my parents being punished for something and I wasn't sure what I did. An hour and half later, I'm on my way home. But not before the store manager credited me back $50 for the delay. (Ms Long Island should like that one ;))

 

Thursday! The forecast for the weekend is not looking good in VT. I would like you to know that Killington was open for skiing through the Memorial Day Weekend. The Husband and I thought it would be a hoot to do a run then go play golf. Sadly we never got the chance. For as bad as the forecast was for NYC it was worse for Killington. They were calling for 42 degrees, 20 MPH winds and soaking rain for both Saturday and Sunday. Being it still Thursday we needed to make a decision and the decision was not to go.

 

On Friday, I needed to make a plan for the weekend ahead. If the weather was going to be as miserable as they said, how am I going to get a 2 1/2 hour bike ride and a 15 minute run in? I spent the day obsessing over it. If it is not raining in the morning, I can go. I could wait until later in the day but that is not fair to The Husband and makes it hard to do anything else. I could go to the gym but it is just not the same as riding outside. And sitting on an indoor bike trainer for 2 1/2 hours is just not a lot of fun. 

By the end of the day I conceded that, worst case, I would head to the gym but not do 2.5 hours on the stationary. I would only do one hour and hop on the treadmill afterwards. 

Saturday morning the weather was as bad as predicted. I have a hard time seeing rain outside our window unless it is absolutely torrential. The Husband did me the favor of texting me his outlook from his walk with The Dog. "Go to the gym." I still wasn't convinced but I dressed for the gym. By the time I was ready to leave they were back (The Dog and The Husband). I may have whined a little "are you sure". "Even the stupid cyclists are not out, go to the gym" he said.  Also he gave me three other good reasons, one of which “it’s dangerous”. I went to the gym to ride and to run.  

I could not argue with the crowd because there was none. It was me and four other people. Happy Memorial Day weekend.

 

FYI, we did look at the Killington web cam for the golf course and the rain was sideways. We found out later they actually closed the course because they got snow. We kept on eye on the weather all weekend up there. Since Saturday was cold, rainy & wet and Sunday was dry but literally freezing, we knew we made the right choice. After all, most people spend Memorial Day weekend in bathing suits, not parkas.

 

This week started off odd. First, I was not supposed to be here. I was supposed to be cycling on beautiful rolling hills of Vermont, transported to another place to get a break from the city sights.

Instead I took to the West Side and there I was personally introduced to CitiBike, NYC's new bike sharing program.
 

Oh my. I love the idea of getting people out to exercise but NYC is not bike friendly and people who use Citi bike are not required to wear helmets. Enough said! Monday, being the actually holiday, was also apparently "ride your bike day"

 

I started in the park albeit a little later than usual, PACKED. Dangerously packed. If it were just gangs of cyclists, that is one thing but it was tourists and rental bikes. Yikes. I head out of the park and over to the West Side. Worse. Cursing, I head to Riverside Drive. Not bad. There are a few cyclists but true cyclists. The kind that can pass me like I am standing still and I’m ok with that. Of course the pool always needs to be mentioned. Lovely on Monday morning. Mostly empty but not completely and everyone who was there meant business.

 

Secondly, it is always strange when The Husband is home. I always feel a little guilty leaving him behind for so many hours. Regardless of the holiday, the work needs to get done, so I continued on with my normal Monday training.  

To make up for our lack of golf rounds on our non-trip, we booked tee times and doggie Day Care for Tuesday. I headed out first thing in the morning for a 7 miler while The Husband and The Dog took to the park for their daily constitutional.

We all returned home and discovered there was an 80% chance of rain and thunderstorms for our outing. And yes, you guessed it, we cancelled. I went to the gym for my strength training instead. Starting to feel more like a regular week than a holiday.

 

Oh, don't even ask about Wednesday it was just a blur. I know there was a bike ride in there somewhere

This morning, Thursday, I went out for my run and ran into The Dog and The Husband on my way to the park. He said to me “WOW. It looks like Saturday in there”. He tends to exaggerate and took it with a grain of salt.

 

I finished my first half mile and I said “WOW”. I looked up at the road and all I could see were bikes. It was like a flash mob of bikes. I encountered bikes all 6.2 miles of my run. I have never seen the park like it was this morning and I cannot even speculate as to why.

 

My issue this morning though was the heat. I don't like heat. At 6:00am it was 73 degrees so the run feels like 93. It makes me slow and I have a sneaker issue. My toes are falling asleep which makes my foot hurt and it takes longer when it’s hot. WHAAAAA! I even have custom orthotics in my running shoes. The store that made them will tweak them for me but I have to run in them until they hurt to figure out the problem. Hopefully before the brick on Saturday, we can get this figured out.

 The trend seems to be, if the park is packed the gym/pool is empty. Some days buck the trend. 8 people in my lane for my swim this morning and only two of them didn't belong there. Normally the pool is busy, but today, again, it was as if today was "Go Swim at the JCC Day". By the time I was down to my last 400 meters, it was a little quieter. We were down to four people in my lane but back up to 7 by the time I got out. Don't people know you are supposed to get into bathing suit shape before bathing suit season, not during?

For as empty as the city was this weekend, apparently, everyone is back and in full summer swing. Harrumph!

I too am back on track after the last two weeks of being absolutely consumed by outside activities.

Play hard!

Laura