Monday Musings: The Best Birthday Ever

I'm sitting here writing this in an eerily quiet house.  24 hours ago it was filled with the chatter and laughter of 3 fabulous women that I am lucky to have in my life.  This weekend was exactly what all of us needed.  Some time together and some time away.   The shenanigans started on Thursday night and went through the entire weekend.  I honestly don't remember the last time I went to bed at 4:00 am only to get up 3 hours later so we could hit the road.  I don't know how I made the two hour drive to Clearwater without falling asleep at the wheel but I did.  I'm 99.9% sure it was the company.

En Route to Clearwater after 3 hours of sleep.  

While I'm sad that G wasn't here for my birthday, it was really special to share it with my girlfriends.  They all have young kids so getting together is challenging.  Weekends away are even more so but, when a girlfriend is going to be solo for her birthday, well, that's not going to happen on their watch.  And thanks to G, we all got treated to some awesome down time at the Sheraton Sand Key Resort in Clearwater.

Charlie's Angels ain't got nothin on us!  Afternoon beach walk....

I honestly didn't think I'd do much in the way of workouts this weekend but, the girls wanted to get out and enjoy the weather so I managed 2 runs in 2 days, which I normally wouldn't do but they were both short and one was nice and easy.   Two of the girls I trained with all the time during my Ironman days and one of them I currently train with from time to time in the summer.   We are all at different levels of ability now but we still love to get out and move and the fact that we got to do it together was awesome.

The girls flew in on Thursday night and we stayed up until 4:00 am drinking and talking.  The only reason we actually went to bed is because we wanted to get to the beach before noon, ha ha.  That didn't end up happening as we were all moving a little slowly the next morning.  40+ year olds need more than 3 hours sleep to function properly.  But we made it to Clearwater around 12:30 and went straight to the hotel.  We couldn't check in yet but they let us go to the pool.  We had all put our bathing suits on before we left the house so we were pretty much ready to get our lounge on.   I haven't spent a day lounging by a pool in a very long time.  It was divine.  Add to that, the conversation, the laughter and the cocktails and it was a perfect way to spend my birthday.  We had big plans for the evening but, the previous nights shenanigans killed us all.  We like to think we can still party with the best of them but alas, we can't at least not two nights in a row, ha ha.  I was sitting at dinner and I could feel the wind leaving my sails.  It had also gotten very cold and we were all underprepared for that.  So we were back in the room by 10:30 pm and I think we were all in bed asleep by 11:30, ha ha.  But not after I had my "cake".

Ice Cream Sandwich for the WIN!!!

Saturday morning we all wanted to get out and do something so 3 of us went for a run and one of us went for a walk.  Sue and I didn't want to run on the beach so we opted to run together.  She was my training buddy when we did Ironman together and we had matching everything.  So it stood to reason that we'd match today.

Team Awesome out for a run in Clearwater

We spent a large part of Saturday lounging by the pool.  The girls really wanted to go to Target so we said we'd do that on our way home.  Apparently we treat shopping like any other endurance sport ha ha.  We were in Target for over 2 hours.  We went in when it was light, came out and it was dark.  The drive home was good until we got closer to Clermont and the street lights disappeared.  Nothing like driving on a pitch black two lane highway.  I missed one turn but the GPS corrected itself and we were back in business.  We got back to Clermont and made it to 12:30 am before we all pulled the pin.  G got home about 30 minutes later so I saw him for about a minute before I fell back asleep.  I slept for about 7 hours.  G was up when I got up so we got to hang out together for a bit before the girls got up.  The plan was to go down to Waterfront Park and The Energy Lab so we could go for a little run and have a coffee.  It was a cooler day and the wind was brutal.  But that didn't dampen our spirits.

Then it was another trip to Target to pick up things that they opted not to get the day before, ha ha. We hit up Panera for a late lunch then it was back to the house so the girls could pack up.  Then we all hung out on the couch with G and chatted.   There was so much snacking and drinking this weekend, I think I put on all the weight I lost after I got here, ha ha.  But, it was worth every sip and every bite.  I had SO much fun.  It was exactly what my heart and soul needed.

To top it all off, I got a text from one of my athletes telling me she nailed her race at the Chilly Half this weekend.   That was a great way to cap off an already amazing weekend.

I knew that this weekend would be all about the hang time, not the training time so I tried to make sure I got most of my volume earlier in the week.  We had a lot of humidity earlier in the week so I got totally killed with most of my workouts.  I was also due for a recovery week so the timing was pretty much perfect.  This is how my week rolled out:

Monday:  2286m swim

Tuesday:  2544m swim, 90km bike at pretty much tempo effort in the wind and humidity, then a 5km run off the bike at noon in 32 degree temps.  Yup, I died.  My Garmin said it was going to take me 48 hours to recover from those workouts.

Wednesday:  31.9km ride.  10 minutes into this ride my Garmin recovery advisor beeped to tell me that my recovery was only "Fair".  Ha.  No kidding.  I could feel it in my legs.  I had hoped to ride 50km but realized that was ambitious so I cut it short.

Thursday: 10.77km run.  I was up super late on Wednesday so I skipped my swim (again!).  I at least managed to get another run in with Shannon.

Friday:  OFF

Saturday:  7.5km run with 3km at tempo pace.  This felt pretty freaking awesome other than the wind.

Sunday:  Easy 6.5km run with the girls.

I didn't manage a single strength training session which is disappointing but this week I'll get back on track.  On Tuesday I'm planning to ride with the same group I rode with last week, this time I'm going to take my tri bike out so we'll see how that goes.  And I need to get back to swimming.  I also need to get some more open water swims in as we have a race coming up in a couple of weeks and I know that water can get really choppy so I need to practice.

Swim:  4830m

Bike:  122km

Run:  24.77km

Total time:  8h 33 minutes

How was your week of training?  What was one of your most memorable birthday celebrations?  I think this one will go down as one of the best ever.

This quote perfectly sums up my weekend:

"Best friends are people you don't need to talk to every single day.   You don't need to talk to each other for weeks but when you do, it's like you've never stopped talking...."

Have an awesome Monday!  

Coach PK