It's safe to say that G and I are totally settled in our wee little rental. It doesn't have all the comforts of home (there's no usable bath tub) and it's a little bit small, but we're close to the lake and it's about a 5 minute drive to the NTC so we're in a great spot. I can get on my bike and ride without having to deal with too much traffic and we're about a 10 minute bike ride from Waterfront Park and the trail system.
When I'm traveling and staying in new places, there's always going to be a bit of comparison that happens. Especially somewhere that is somewhat similar to home. I have a few random observations from being here for a couple of weeks.
1. People here are SO NICE. You could be standing in line in the grocery store and the person behind you in line will strike up a conversation with you. People always say good morning or smile and wave. I can count on one hand the number of times that someone HASN'T smiled or said hello. In Toronto it would be the opposite. Maybe it's southern hospitality, maybe it's the fact that Clermont isn't a big city, I don't know. But whatever the case, the folks here are absolutely lovely.
2. Food here is EXPENSIVE. Most of the time the prices are the same as at home. Sometimes more depending on the item. Since our dollar is so crappy, I'm mentally adding 35% to pretty much everything we're buying, which always makes me think twice about what we really need. I'm proud to say that we haven't thrown out any unused food! We're actually doing some of our grocery shopping at Target & Walmart because the grocery stores here are so expensive. We just discovered the local Farmers market so we'll be getting our produce and seafood from there moving forward. I was amazed at the prices there. Funnily enough, it's cheaper than Farmers Markets back home.
3. There are a LOT of people that have permanently moved here from other climates. In fact most of the people I've met are transplants vs. born and raised in Florida. I ran into a guy from Timmins at the local bike shop -he's been here for over 20 years. On the weekend I rode with someone from New England and someone else from Colorado. One of the ladies I met last year is from North Carolina. All of them love it here, but they've also said that summers here can be pretty gross. Given that it's been an average of 27 degrees for the last week, with a little bit of humidity and it's only February, I can only imagine what the summer is like.
I'm sure there will be a few more things I notice over the next few weeks. Suffice to say we love it here and are already planning on coming back again next year, probably for 2 months again.
I had planned on taking things easy this week, and I did in terms of effort level. My volume went up a fair bit, probably a bit more than I would have liked but, the weather was great and G had Friday off so we opted to go out and play. This is how my week rolled out.
Monday: OFF. My legs were pretty stiff from the half. Not as sore as I thought they'd be but definitely "heavy" feeling.
Tuesday: 2800m swim + 45km easy ride. My first swim with S.L.A.P (swim like a pro). I was nervous but once I got there, Coach Sarah made me feel totally welcome. It was also my second time swimming long course. OMG it was amazing. I love that pool anyway but being able to swim 50m was fantastic. It makes such a difference in being able to get into a rhythm. And when we finished, the sun was coming up. What a perfect way to start the day.
Wednesday: 6.7km run + 50 minute strength work. This was supposed to be an 8km easy run but my legs still weren't feeling awesome. Went back into the gym and did some light weight work. Looking forward to getting back into heavier lifting this week.
Thursday: 2350m swim with S.L.A.P. I had a ride planned but opted to give my legs the day off. They were slightly sore from my gym workout and I knew G wanted to do a longish ride on Friday.
Friday: 100km ride on the Van Fleet Trail. This was hard. The effort was easy but because this trail is completely flat, you don't get a break. We rode it from top to bottom and back. But we did our 100km and I got the Strava Gran Fondo badge for February. :)
Saturday: 60km moderately hilly ride with the Cycling Hub group. I was the only gal on this ride but it didn't matter. The pace was very comfortable and the people were great. G and I will probably go back and ride with them again this Saturday.
Sunday: 12.6km run and an 800m open water swim. My legs felt pretty crappy so I took some of my run to the trails in the Hiawatha Reserve. I think the two days of back to back riding tuckered my legs out a bit.
Swimming: 5950m
Cycling: 206km
Running: 19.5km
Total time: 12h 31 minutes
The plan moving forward is to shift my training focus to the bike and scale things back in terms of volume with my running. I probably won't run more than 12-16km for my long runs and I don't suspect that my run mileage will be more than 20-25km per week for now. Once I'm back from Florida and more than likely back on the trainer, I'll bring my running volume back up a bit more. But for now, the bike is going to be queen. My goal over the next two months is to average between 200-300km per week of riding which shouldn't be difficult to do at all.
How was your week of training?
"Monday is the perfect day to correct last weeks mistakes.."
Make it a good one!
Coach PK
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