Slooooooooooooooow

I have a stomach bug today, so I'm sitting at home as I type this. It always kinds of sucks to follow up an amazing weekend with a day on the couch. And we really did have a fantastic weekend. It started with my having Friday off as a vacation day, and going for an early morning ride with the team. We have some great teammates and it was nice to get a ride in with them. I didn't bring my run shoes because I didn't think I was ready for a brick that morning, but sitting in the cold while everyone else ran made me wish I'd been a bit more adventurous. It wound up being around 11 miles on the bike, and we had a great time. Plus, I finally saw upper Mystic lake where I'll be doing some swim training this summer.

Saturday, we hit the pool at exactly the wrong time; between all the families there for swim class, and the folks taking advantage of the holiday weekend it was simply too busy to get in the workout we had planned at the level we wanted. So we finished 1000 yards and cut out. Another sub-30 minute 1k swim is definitely very encouraging, especially with Patriot coming up so soon. We'll really start cranking up the swim volume this week and pick it up again once Season Opener is done.

Sunday was only the second really nice day we've had all year. It was low-60's and sunny, and Rach and I took full advantage. It was our second Easter Sunday as a married couple and we had plans for a nice meal highlighted by brown sugar hams and all the fixins'. But we had to earn that meal with a good hard ride.

For our first long outdoor ride of the season, I was pretty happy with how well we managed, considering it was pretty windy and a lot more distance than what I did Friday. The only thing I didn't like is that it was SLOOOOOOOOOOOW. I guess it isn't unexpected for the first ride to feel that slow; and I'm sure the wind didn't help. I "burnt my matches" pulling Rach through the winds along the river before we turned north towards the Minuteman trail. With the Minuteman being a long false flat (uphill) on the way out, at one point I had to downshift to a low gear and just cruise to rest the legs. I worked hard for most of the ride out though, and we took it somewhat easier on the way back. It's such a beautiful place to ride and there were tons of families out and we even saw 4 couples on tandem bikes!

Easter dinner was great and we really went to town. The best part though is with all the exercise and only the one big meal all week, I am now down almost 10 pounds over the past 2 weeks!