It's Monday Again

But first we had a wild long weekend. If by wild, you know I mean boring. It wasn't all glamor.

Friday I met up with a couple of other great Spinners guys for a bike ride. It was going along pretty good until it all went horribly wrong. I got about 10 miles into the route when my legs just didn't have any more climbing left in them. They weren't even big hills either. There was only one huge climb on that route and we weren't there yet. Still, I knew I was done. So I put up a big fail for the friday morning ride, and called Morgan to come pick me up, we were only a few miles from his house.

Then I got Jenny (the bike) into his car, and when I pulled her out the whole back tire assembly fell off. Something was wrong. So I went straight to the bike shop and they found a busted spoke, the back wheel was warped, and it wouldn't spin more than a half a rotation without rubbing the brakes. So Jenny is crippled right now and has to spend some time in the repair shop. She should be ready sometime this week. I am quite relieved it wasn't just my legs. I guess we'll chalk that ride up as a mechanical fail instead of a personal fail.

The rest of friday we didn't do much. I really enjoyed not having to work, we played with the girls, and just had good family time. THAT's worth it's weight in gold these days. We did take the kids to a local peach orchard and ice cream parlor. We had some ice cream there, got some fresh peaches, blueberries and blackberries from their orchard. it was fun, and the kids had a great time fondling the produce. Then friday night we dropped them off with my folks and kelley and I had a nice dinner out.

Saturday morning we took the girls downtown to see if there was any 4th of July festivities going on. They had a farmer's market open on main st, and Bigun had to have some flowers. Then we went through Falls Park and let the girls play in some fountains they have. Water shoots up fro the sidewalks, and there is a waterfall and it's always got tons of kids playing in there. The girls had a blast. We grabbed some lunch at a local legendary restaraunt called the Hot Dog King, and played more in the park. It was hot outside and we all got our share of sunburn, but nothing too bad. We got out of there before the heat got really oppressive.

Saturday night we let the girls throw pop-its in the garage. Not really fireworks, you just throw them and they make a noise. They had a ball! It wasn't really dangerous, and that's all they have been talking about since then. Crazy.

I do have a funny Evil Genius story. We were having lunch out one day, I think friday. EG was being so sweet, just nuzzling her head into my shoulder, saying how much she loved her daddy, just showing how she was totally made of sugar. Then I think she might have slipped or was just trying to be funny or something, but she totally punched me square in the throat. WTH? That's why we call her an Evil Genius. She's sweet enough to make you let your guard down, then you get punched in the throat.

Sunday I managed to escape for a while to the gym, where I got 5 miles in on the treadmill. It was awesome, I started at a 6.7 speed and never had to take it down. Finished the 5 miles in 44:50, breaking a 9 minute pace. This I really like. Going through my marathon training typical tempo runs were in the 6.1 to 6.3 speeds, and I would ony creep up to 6.7 speeds during intervals. Early intervals at that, but still. To be able to hold that pace for 5 miles is farther than I've ever attempted. it. was. awesome.

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Today is monday. It's time to refocus. There are big changes in the air for the Flynn's. I don't think the magnitude of these changes are all known yet, but I can tell you what I know is going to happen.

Today starts the 24 week training plan for the B2B half Ironman in november. I still have some pool ambiguity, but I can use the folk's backyard pool until I figure something else out. With Jenny in the shop, I'm on the stationary bike at the gym for the time being. And with the heat bearing down in the hot summertime, I foresee many treadmill miles until the fall. The plan starts out with a base building period anyway, so it's ramping up into higher milage weeks.

I'm glad to be back into a structured training plan, and I'm able to focus this time on only running tri's. I am still going to get in a 5k and 10k standalone races sometime in the late summer/fall. And the Ache Around the Lake race is an 8k this year. But none of those are "A" races that require specific training. Those are all tri's.

We've got a new one to add to the schedule. The Tugaloo Triathlon is now on the schedule as a relay team. Coach Stu is going to do the swim leg, I'm taking the bike, and Goddard is taking the run leg for this oly distance tri. Stu and Goddard both work for the same company I do out of the atlanta office. And the tri is in Lake Hartwell, which is on the SC/GA state line. So it's a convenient location for all of us. And since Stu and Goddard have never been involved in a triathlon before it should be a fun experience for all of us. Goddard actually got inspired enough to sign up for another tri from the same production company in October, a sprint with a pool swim that he will run by himself. I'm being a bad influence. It's been a long time since Stu actually swam 1500 meters, and Goddard only runs now, nothing longer than a half marathon. But he's talking about doing a full mary in the spring. So he's in for some fun!

So I've got the Greenville Sprint tri coming august 16th, this Tugaloo tri september 12th, October has the Leaf Tour bike ride and the Ache race, all leading up to the B2B in november. Time to refocus. the anticipation is incredible, it might be the best part.

Big changes are coming almost daily here, and I'll let you know more as I know more about what's going on. I know I need to get some garden pics up, it's growing great this year. But that's not all......