This past weekend we had some cabin time! Usually cabin time means driving past Duluth and up to Two Harbors, a good 3-4 hour haul, and since summer is construction season it sometimes means longer car drives. Blah. When you only have a weekend i hate spending a full day ( 4 + 4 hours) in the car.
So, we rode our bikes!
We didnt ride THAT far, but we did ride parallel to 35 and stopped at our good friend Scott and Jill's lake house in Pine City. What a perfect distance on a perfect day. It was roads getting out of the city and then pretty much trails ( paved) all the way. We had a HOT sticky day just as I like it saturday and with a 7am departure from south of st paul where we all live, we made it in 4 hours. Awesome ride, awesome pace. I had marching orders to not bury myself. Since i am not doing anymore LONG races ( ie 70.3's) my training is less on duration and more on intensity. I did not have orders tho to NOT BURY my riding partners. hehehe. Whenever i got to the front Rich and Scott had to tell me to back off. That is too funny. I think i just wanted to get the sprint points into the little towns. But heck, there were all these yield and slow signs that we had to stop for and those men can ramp it up to 20-21-22mph in 2 pedal strokes wheras i am dropped and coming along at 15-16-17-etc...you get the idea. WAIT..!!!!
I kinda was hammering on the front bc:
1) I felt good
2) I didnt want them coasting down my back on any incline
3) why not? And seriously who am i kidding, those guys are faster than i am so i was having fun in my lala land at the front.
When we arrived 78 miles later, around 11am, we were greeted with this view:
I hustled inside the cabin to get my stuff and make a nice recovery drink of mocha ultragen, while the others cuddled up to some hot java. *Wait? How did she get her stuff up there?
Scott was nice enough to take our overnight bags at the FarmDog TT last week so we had all our stuff waiting for us when we arrived. Including my bag of wet sweaty shoes and heart rate monitor. Gross. I got that out to dry pronto!
As you can see it was hot out, we lounged, Jill made us a nice lunch and we just hung out. Rode around on teh pontoon boat, swam ( no just paddled, got wet, didnt SWIM) and before you knew it we had 4pm on the clock. Whoa, where did the day go? Well it's 5pm someplace so we broke open a few Tommy knockers ( the beer we had at the end of the Triple Bypass, Yup that is Scott, from the Triple) and relived that day. Jill was patient as we sat there trying to come up with what 2011 would bring in the realm of Epicness.
Meanwhile Tessa, the lovely elderly Lab, had had enough of the bee's and went inside. Plus it was hot out, so inside was nice.
As far as plans for 2011, ideas tossed around are:
Death Ride ( but logistically a nightmare from MN)
Triple Bypass again ( perhaps, but not likely)
Horribly Hilly 100 ( location location location = good)
OR doing something the guys come up with on their own, like when they kept going last year and rode 240 miles to Finland MN in one day. Um, count me OUT.
Of course I am all for the one day, get it done, someone else plans and does the sag and makes me rest stop sandwiches ( the food on teh triple was so good, or maybe i was just starving.)
So who knows. And I plan to sign up for IM MOO, so that is my epicness for 2011. Yup. I think i did decide. OF course i have to volunteer in the med tent for 4 hours sunday so that may change my mind. But if they need a PT in the med tent, well...I think it may be too late for you if i am diagnosing some weakness or imbalance on race day. "Yup, you need to work on that left glute and try this IM thing again in 8 weeks."
The rest of the cabin weekend was more hanging out, a great dinner, and eyelids heavy at 9pm. I think i made it to 10.
6am dawned. ( seriously, do those guys sleep?) and i huffed and puffed refusing to get out of bed till 7:30 am when they left to go ride. I had a 10 mile run on the docket and knew i had to get going. A storm had blown thru and heck it was 58 and COLD out with a STIFF WEST WIND. I was quite glad to be running and not biking in that and set out on a course Scott had suggested. I stuffed a Roctane ( Pinneapple) in my bra and my directions. OFf I went on a fartlek run. The Fartlek went well, aided by farm dogs that were pretty happy to bark and run after me as i envisioned a season ending leg wound from their sharp teeth. Yuk. At one point i even stopped to walk bc I just was afraid what they could do.
The Roctane was awesome. Hmm...may have to change my allegiance, since Powerbar didnt want me on their team, maybe its time to go GU!
Got in ( legs intact) when the boys did and went for a swim, since i knew that i would only get colder, as the wind was picking up and the temps were not climbing out of the 60's as rain set in. Brr...but the water felt ok and my fartlek swim just became a short swim dock to swim dock effort for about 20 minutes. Good enough.
Scott brought us home that night, how nice is that, our own personal taxi:) What a nice weekend!
I promised a few Ruby pics, she has been neglected on the blog bc its race season but here goes:
)
She helped me pick veggies at my parents. She is able to paw under the fence to get the cherry tomatoes and then helps herself. The Raspberries are a bit scarier with all the bee's.
What a doll.
Have a great week everyone I hope your summer bounty is as full as mine has been this past week and weekend.
The brick went well, windy, hard, honey was a trooper and stayed by my side as we loaded the bike in and out of the car for my 1st T run. It was cold. I had forgotten that "quads feel like ice picks" feeling. Toes cold and the reminder that my patients/residents with neuropathy have this every day. So i sucked it up! The 2nd bike was shorter, but harder, and off we went. The wind was there, but it really was just There and we both decided we were going to ride thru it and not let it bother us. Victory! After the 2nd run we headed back to the cabin as my sister had brought up a growler...of COLD PRESS!! ha! IT was delish. hot or cold, cold press is wonderful.
Our new bear "Elizabeth." Ok that isnt really her name but it's funny and is a dumb story so i wont tell you all. ( Eliz is my sister) 
And as we left to head home, somebody was very sad to see us go:( 
