Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Active Weekend

If your looking for a hotel directly on the beach, Best Western's Beach Resort in Monterey is literally yards from the beach, the surf was pretty wild and the winds on Saturday were fierce. We arrived around 3 pm got settled than had a nice dinner at Hula's, a hawaiian grill not too far from the aquarium. Speaking of the aquarium, no trip to Monterey is complete without a visit and we renewed our membership. It was a circus on Sunday but we went back on Monday before we headed back home and it was alot more enjoyable, that giant red octopus is the coolest!

The hotel pool was pretty dinky and I while I managed to get in about 20 minutes of swimming before the kiddies arrived the bulk of my workout took place on the bike and the run.

Right next to the hotel is a path that wind's it's way towards the warf and then onto 17 mile drive. As a motorist you have pay to drive along this scenic route with it's point vistas and swanky homes. As a cyclists the rangers let you roll through and I set out on my longest bike ride ever. I got as far a Pebble Beach before deciding to turn around. The weather was amazing, blue sky for miles and only mild headwinds to deal with . The road starts to narrow quite abit after Pepple Beach which was the reason I turned around and in doing so I turned too tightly and dumped. Surprisingly no one got out of their Mercedes to help! I was fine and got myself up dusted myself off and headed back to the hotel. The bike and I getting are better acquainted, the downhill shifting is better than the uphill? My butt was getting uncomfortable due to my forgetting to pack my bike shorts and I only had my thin running shorts on.
Total ride times: 2.5 hrs with a couple shorts stops total distance 23 miles.

Hanging out on the balcony T noticed a guy on a ski jet, he thought he was search and rescue dude looking for someone, turns out he was support for what appeared to be somebody on a training swim. The water was so choppy and a I stood transfixed on the balcony watching this amazing athlete jam through wave after wave. I can only guess that there was the bike racked somewhere, my vision was occluded from that point but I imagined from the way the swimmer was running out of the water that it was a brick workout. Watching that swimmer in the ocean sure makes swimming in the lake look easy, boring in fact. I'll just be glad when it's behind me. That night I had a nightmare about my swim, my confidence is on the fence again people. Yes, the swimming has improved. No, I will not drown out there but still I'm worried. Worried about being last, worried about people looking at me with pity, people not looking at me out of embarrassment. Uhg! I make myself so crazy! WTF!!!!!

Sunday the winds died down and I got in a long run. This was only the 2nd time I'd ever run on the beach. I have no idea how far I got but I ran slow and steady for 75 minutes. You run alot slower on the sand and I noticed some weird pains in my feet occasionaly, nothing too disturbing but worth mentioning. Saturday morning before we hit the road I did an interval workout, so this slow jog on the beach was a perfect follow-up run. I will be entering taper mode in the next week or so .

This saturday is the triclub practice tri........should be interesting. I wish I could say I'm psyched but I've been slow to warm-up especially since I know Haewon the triclub coordinator will be hawkeyeing me. No doubt I'm over analyzing things. (ha that's a freaking understatement!!!!!!)
So well see.

Signed,
The trepidatious tri-wanabe