Results are in!

Well today was the day I went back to the podiatrist.  The results were acceptable, but not great. He poked at my foot a bit. Tendonitis isn't something that really goes away, apparently, it just gets under control.

So apparently the current treatment is working and I should stay with that course.  I'm not really down with that.  There were a few other things to add.  He mixed up a special prescription that has to get shipped to me in a couple of days.  It's a topical anti-inflammatory, so once that gets here I can stop taking the aleve.  But I still have to wear the brace.

I got scanned for orthotics, but they will take a few weeks to get here. Orthotics is the long term solution. Once they get here in 2-4 weeks I won't have to wear the brace anymore.  I'm totally sick of Das Stupid Brace and ready to wear normal shoes again.  it sucks.

He also said I could "resume normal daily activities, but don't do anything stupid", so obviously he has no idea how stupid my normal daily activities are. That means I can run and bike again, so it's back up to Ironman training I go.  Really I have to ease my way back into it, and stop any workout where I feel the foot flare up again.  I started tonight, running 4 miles in 34 minutes, which is slow and easy. I barely broke a sweat.  Of course I wanted to go 8 miles in under an hour, but that would have been stupid. Let's hope short slow and easy is not stupid.

So it's back on the train I go while I wait for the scrip and the orthotics to come in.  Best case scenario was that I got to toss the brace and everything was fine. Worse case scenario was no more running or biking for 2 more weeks or longer. I landed somewhere in the middle, and I can deal with that. I still have 8 weeks until the big race. Plenty of time.

What do you think about using a brace?  There is the side that says the tendon needs to heal and the brace and rest helps that. The other side says that using a brace alienates the muscles that are supposed to be supporting that tendon anyway and you should let it heal naturally.  The doc says to always wear supportive shoes, but the barefoot running crowd says that's the worst thing you can do for your feet. My tendency is to lean towards the more natural approach. Fix the inflammation with drugs because it won't heal up any other way, but stay barefoot as much as possible to let the muscles support the tendon. No brace, no shoes.  Of course my way of thinking is what landed me with tendonitis in the first place, so I don't trust myself anymore. Which side do you believe?

It's not a bird, and it's not superman

My vacation was great! A nice 3 day weekend was just what I needed. Friday morning I took it easy and got in a quick bike ride, then we met up with Lee and headed to the coast with the kids. Just me and Bigun (and 5 other dad/daughter pairs from our Indian Princess tribe) for a whole weekend at the beach.  Surf City NC is about 2.5 hours away from Raleigh and it's a very quaint little beach town on Topsail Island. We got there about 5 pm just in time to get unpacked and catch a few hours on the beach before dinner.

Made it!

Saturday will turn out to be one of the most epic days in history. EPIC! After breakfast, we got a long session in on the beach, where we got in the water. Bigun learned to ride a bogeyboard, and I was bodysurfing. There were some serious waves out there, like 3 foot swells.  She would basically get out about knee deep, put the board down, jump on it and let the wave crash over her head. She'd go forward about 5 feet before hitting the sand, and love every second of it.  Once I actually got her out deep enough to catch the wave as it was breaking and ride on top of it, and that was met with the following conversation:

Daddy that was awesome!  Wow!
Do you want to come out here and do it again? That won't be the last big wave you know.
No way!

That child cracks me up. We came in for lunch, then headed out for a special treat.

Hanging at the house after a fun day at the ocean

Nervous before the big ride!

It's a plane! And Bigun is on it!

you can barely see the plane

Bigun got in her first flight!  She has been begging me for months to take her somewhere by plane because she wants to try flying.  Kelley is incredibly scared to fly, so I had to get the kid in the air before ever telling her anything about this.  I sent her this last pic.

She absolutely loved being up in the air.  One of the other dads is a retired military pilot who decided to fly down to the coast in his 4 seat single prop plane. He offered to take all of the kids up if they wanted to go.  Bigun got to sit up front and even took the controls for a while! She actually got to fly the plane.  They stayed up about 30 minutes, only got about 500 ft in the air, and it was fantastic.  She was totally beside herself when she got down.

our little pilot in training!

After the flight, we took the girls to a marina where the water was calm to teach them how to standup paddleboard.  It was fun!  Bigun stayed on her knees to keep her balance low, and she is a seriously strong paddler.

I got to get her into some more watersports.  Really strong with the paddle.

After that it was back to the beach.  Time for me to really try to embarrass the girls, so I threw on the blue shimmer speedo with tiger stripes.  It really got the job done, they loved it!  Last year when we did this trip I wore the pink flowered square leg suit down to the beach, so I was trying to top it this year. I actually did the workout again too, but this time Michael and I talked one of the other dads into going too.  So the three of us ran 1.8 miles down the beach to a pier, then hopped into the ocean and swam back.  It took about an hour and a half. The swim was with the tide but was still one of the tougher swims I've had recently.  Pretty sore the next day!

Sunday we got in a few more hours on the beach, and finally I got the camera down there.

Stupid fuzzy lens. She has been on a real "save the sea turtles" campaign the last several days, even making signs and standing in the backyard screaming "save the sea turtles" at cars that drive by. So to find a real actual sea turtle nest was a real treat!

After getting home I snapped this one to try and show off the nice toasty sunburn I got

I don't think the lighting was right.  I got burned up pretty good, even though I kept putting on more sunscreen.  I started with 30 spf, then went to 50 and even some 100+ spf stuff, and still got burned.  Bigun?  Perfectly tanned.

As for the rest of the week, yea, not much there.  I stayed in the brace and took the aleve like clockwork. I walked 2.5 miles on Tuesday because I just couldn't take it anymore.  And Wednesday 8/28 is when I go back to the podiatrist to see if I can start running again.

So the week was crap but the 3 day weekend was totes amazeballs. Playing in the ocean, bogeyboarding, flying a plane, SUP'ing, and lots of eating and drinking.  We had such a wonderful time.

Positively Vacationing

I do enjoy this new job still now that I'm about 3 months into it. But I have to admit the best part of it is not working at all.  3 weeks of paid vacation and 10 holidays?  yes thank you. Today I'm using one of those vacation days to make a 3 day weekend and it is glorious!  I'm on the downhill slide for this brace/foot injury.  8 days down, 6 to go. Today I did some yoga, drank coffee, I'm about to hit the bike for an hour or so, and pack up so I can take Bigun to the beach for the weekend with our Indian Princess tribe. It's going to be relaxing and fantastic.  Expect facebook pictures from my phone and a fun beachy blog post early next week.  In the meantime, enjoy these pics, also taken this week.

Bigun was watching TV the other evening, when she put Spike the Bearded Dragon on top of her head so he could enjoy the show too. The creativity from that one......

Tom and I are fraternity brothers, and if you had told me 20 years ago when we were hanging out around the ASU school of music that eventually we would be taking our daughters for a night of dancing I wouldn't believe you. Brotherhood really is permanent.

A recent harvest from the garden, all hot peppers. And there are still twice as many hot peppers as that still on the bushes! Time to make some hot sauce. Leave recipe suggestions in the comments, I'm running out of ideas on how to use these puppies

Wordless Wenesday

Bigun with a toy horse before the haircut

With friends at the dance

At the dance = notice the bangs?  Kelley cut their hair this week.

The training, the yard, the dance and the dragon

Das Brace!

Well that is the main story for the week. Got it on Wednesday along with the news that there was to be no running or biking for 2 weeks.  I had already ridden Wednesday morning, so I swam Thursday and took the weekend "off". 

2 swims, 2 bikes, 4.5 hours total. Now that's how you do a recovery week.  This is going to be a recovery week too.  The plan was to only work out once a day, but I still wanted to get in a long bike ride around 3 hours on Saturday and a long run 14 miles on sunday.  It is what it is.

The foot is feeling much better already. The brace is working, the Aleve is working, the rest is working.  The mental side of this is the hardest part now.  I love the rhythm of Ironman training. I embrace how difficult it is. So this interruption is challenging me to stay busy in other ways.

And that's what I did this weekend.  With no long ride, I was able to squeeze in some yardwork while the kids were away.  Actually I chopped down a dead tree in the front yard using an axe since Morgan still has my chainsaw. It ended up being a good workout. The tree fell in the road so I had to cut it up into pieces small enough to fit into the yard waste trash cans so it took all afternoon and left me quite sore.  Then Sunday I got to trim the hedges and got up on the roof to blow the leaves off (there was actually wisteria growing up there - that's how bad it got). And sunday the sun and heat normal for this time of year came back roaring.  ugh.  I'm glad I got that stuff done before football season.

Saturday I took Evil Genius out to lunch since I had an Indian Princess thing with Ella on Sunday.  She chose going to bojangles, and we had to get some pics taken too. She loves the fancy princess stuff.

totes adorbs

Ready for Chicken

The big highlight of the weekend was Sunday night.  Bigun and I had a daddy/daughter dance with the Indian Princess tribe.  Rainbow Thunder in the house! This thing is only for the third year tribes and it is like the third grade prom.  First, we had to go find a big fancy dress for Bigun.

The queen getting her glam on

silly monkeys!

Daddy Daughter Date Night
Sunday was the big day. We found a great dress and the girl got all dolled up.  I threw on the suit and we went out for a night on the town.

it has an empire waist and beadwork.  and that's all I learned about girl dresses.

Sweeter than honey

We started out at Tom's house for a mock-tail pre-party. They put out quite a spread too!

Most of the girls in the tribe.  We had 2 that couldn't make it.

Love this pic.  Something about the lighting.  She's getting so big!

Then we went downtown to the main event.  They sat us down for a big fancy dinner with salad, main course, and dessert.  It was all delish, and Bigun ate almost nothing except the dessert.

They even gave the girls corsages.  Then after dinner we went down the Red Carpet (formalized) into the ballroom for the big dance.  And I actually danced.  Since IP is a YMCA program, of course the DJ played YMCA.  He also did "My Girl", and Call Me Maybe, and a bunch of other familiar and girlie tunes. I got to teach Bigun how to pop-n-lock.  it was awesome.  As awkward as you might think it is watching me try to do that - that's how cute it is watching my 8 year old trying it for the first time.  incredible.

It's a 3rd grade mosh pit! Seriously, the DJ called it a mosh pit.

totally wiped out after all of that dancing.

She even jumped into a twist contest with Tom & his daughter!

We made it home about 8:30 and I thought she was going to fall asleep holding my arm on the drive home.  I asked her if she had a good time and thought that I made her feel special that night, and she said yes.  Then I got her to promise me that she would never accept anything less than that from a boyfriend or anyone else as she got older.  I doubt she'll remember the promise, but ladies expect a man to treat them the way their daddy treated them even if it's only a subconscious expectation. I tried to raise that bar on Sunday.  Dads take note, if they don't learn how to feel loved now, or what it feels like when someone does something special for them now, then they will never what to do when a boyfriend brings them flowers, or when it's time to get out of an abusive relationship.  These are the lessons that we teach our kids.

Meet Spike
Bigun went crazy Saturday wanting a bearded dragon. This is insane. We looked at Petco, and they were $60.  We told her that if she could save up her own money to get one, then she could.  When she counted, she had $14, so I thought we'd be safe for a while.  Then she started dumping change out of her piggy bank.  Kelley separated out the quarters, and she added them up.

$46. in stinking quarters.  Do you know what 14 + 46 is?  Bigun added it up.  It equals trouble. Nothing but trouble. Who keeps that many quarters in a piggy bank? This is insane.

She named him Spike

This thing is actually incredibly cool. He is calm and loves human interaction. so he'll just grab onto my shirt and sit there for half an hour without moving.  It's really cool. A friend of mine said that Bearded Dragons are the Bunnies of the lizard world.  They are really calm, eat crickets and worms, and Bigun absolutely loves it.  EG also got another beta fish while we were there. She's quite happy about it.

So there you have it.  Minimal recovery training, the brace, the yard, the dance, the dragon.

You're in the Jungle baby!

All of this time on the bike has led to a lot of reading.  Recently I finished off The Jungle Effect by Daphne Miller, a very interesting book about preventing and fighting diseases through diet.  I know that's not exactly a revolutionary concept, but the book takes a pretty unique approach.

Dr Miller is an MD who takes a different approach sometimes.  I have to take the same approach, so I really respect the way she does this with her patients. Instead of just treating the symptoms of a disease, she looks at the family history and the nutrition to find the real source of the problem.  If you fix the source the symptoms will take care of themselves.

She has looked all over the globe for "cold spots", places that are the exact opposite of hot spots for a disease.  Longevity?  where do people live the longest.  What country has the lowest rates of diabetes? Heart disease? Cancer?  By looking for traditional indigenous diets of these cultures, we can find the source of the solution.  Go to the jungle, and you can find the root.  Or go to the island, or the fish market, etc.

My family heritage is being irish, and the health history includes cancer and heart disease.  I love learning about healthy eating plans from all over the world and why they work for those people.  My background is so generic I can adapt to anything. This book isn't a vegetarian or vegan manifesto.  The chapters build on each other and the principles of that cultures diet.  The second half of the book includes recipes from each of the area cold spots.  Try to incorporate some of these recipes can really help prevent the targeted cold spot disease.

The focus is largely on foods that are local, fresh, and in season. There is a consistent push for whole foods, and away from fast food and highly processed foods. There's a big key focal point on cooking the way your grandmother would cook. It's looking at the whole picture of the weekly meal plan, balancing veg and meats and dairy in appropriate proportions. and adding spices and flavors to make it all kick!

The kicker is that not everyone will respond well to every cultural diet just because they need to protect against a specific disease. The gene pool is so blended now that what you think might work for you, might not actually work very well at all.  I like being able to try new things, so with this book you can try anything and learn the benefits.  Each of the chapters build on each other with the facts about that disease fighting cold spot.

It really is a quality read. Give it a spin if you're looking for a good diet book or have concerns about one of the diseases.

Das Brace!

A couple of things I left out from the report about the Bikefest century ride

• Horse and buggy - I saw 4 carriages on the ride!  WTH? I didn't know there was Amish country up in north central NC.  One of the buggy's pulled off to the roadside when I rode by, and a little girl maybe 10 years old jumped off and ran out into the middle of the road. First I looked at her parents, because I know what I would have done (grabbed the kid).  But she stuck out her hand out to give me a high five with a laugh from the parents, I did it and it totally made my day!  Very cool kid.
• I still haven't pulled the data off of the new Garmin 310xt.  Stupid Windows 7 won't recognize the device!  grrrrr.  Good thing I'm not a technology professional or anything.  oh wait.  I'll have it figured out soon enough, but this part is supposed to be easy. Supposedly there is also a software update for the 310xt that fixes the widely documented swimming zigzagging problem with the gps unit.  Got to get that working too.

I mentioned in the ride report that my foot was acting up again after running 3 days last week.  Since it's still being problematic I made an appointment with a podiatrist, and got the news today.

Tendonitis

It is currently a problem with inflammation. There is a tendon just below the ankle that is all blowd up. The inflammation is causing tendon problems that is causing all of the rest of the pain.  Treat the source, break the inflammation and the tendon will heal. 

The doc gave me a brace to wear for 2 weeks.  I can take it off to sleep, shower, and swim.  No running or biking for 2 weeks.  I can bike some, lightly, short distances, and while still wearing the brace.  And 2 aleve every 12 hours (that's prescription strength) for the entire time.

This is bad news.  Ironman is 11 weeks away.  Only swimming and deep water running for 2 weeks is scary stuff. Not for my ability to finish the ironman, but to complete the rest of the build and peak phases of training without any further injury.  and still be able to run marathons next year without constant foot pain.  The entire thing makes me want to stress eat large quantities of comfort foods.

This is good news. It could have been a broken metatarsal bone.  It could have been a stress fracture.  It could have meant 12 weeks in an air cast or 6 weeks in a hard cast. It could have meant no ironman at all.

I can do two weeks.  I'm not going to lose that much fitness.  I will swim a lot and discover how to do deep water running. I will wear the brace all the time.  I will take the aleve every day.  My buddy Brian also turned me on to a product he's used from Hammer nutrition called Tissue Rejuvenator, which is a glucosamine with MSM and some natural anti-inflammatory agents like turmeric - Costco used to carry a Glucosamine+MSM that I loved but ran out of right before all of these problems started creeping up (conincidence? not).  The inflammation will break and the tendon will heal. and I will be able to run for the rest of the year without foot pain.  Plus, I'll get to eat all the curry I can get for the turmeric.

I will also focus on what I can control.  My swim form.  Time with the kids. Dial in the nutrition and get down to race weight (hint: I'm only 3 lbs away now). Plan, smile, and have some fun.  Don't stress.  Well, that's easier said than done since my primary stress reliever is running.

I took 9 days off, ran for 3 days, and now have to take another 14 days off. When I go back to the podiatrist we're going to talk about orthotics, and if this current treatment hasn't worked then we'll look into something else. My hope is that he'll say everything feels clear and I don't need orthotics.  I'll take it easy when I do start running again, but will get back on the bike asap.  2 weeks is pretty short.

Finally a throwback.  Kelley found my old fraternity shirts that I haven't worn since college, and I graduated in 1998.  15 years is a long time, and they fit me again.  What's the difference between muscle and bodyfat?  When I graduated college I was 40 lbs lighter than I am today, and I'm still pretty fit today.  This old shirt still looks good.

Phi Mu Alpha is a professional music fraternity.  I'm still very close to a large number of my brothers.

Almost Wordless Wednesday

Bigun and I got photobombed by some kid going after our pizza at the roller skating rink on Sunday. Ha!

You know, that time I went long

An Ironman build phase is no joke. 3 weeks on, 1 week of recovery. This was the third week on.

Monday Wednesday and Thursday were "normal", with some hill work and bike strength work thrown in. Tuesday was a double brick day, with morning and evening bike/run workouts each with a purpose.  These were sufficiently hard to qualify as a tough week of normal training.  Friday was a glorious rest day.  Saturday was the Bikefest century ride.  normally a century ride would be a goal, not a normal long workout. But after that, sunday became an unplanned rest day, the first in this cycle.

Totals for the week are 4 miles of swimming, 190 miles on the bike, and 14 (YES 14) miles of actual running.  11 hours of biking took up the majority of 15.5 hours total on the week.

I was actually running!  I did four run workouts in 3 days and totally tore up my foot again.  Totally forgot about the "easing back into it" thing. So I bailed on Sunday's long run.  This week is a recovery week, so I'm only supposed to put in about 9.5 hours total including run time, and I'm going to skip the running again this week.  Maybe this time I'll be smarter about it. Maybe not.  I really miss running.

BikeFest Century ride - 101 miles in 5:51:30
I have enjoyed the Bikefest for a couple of years now, this was my third time out there.  The first time I shredded my rear derailleur doing the 62 mile option, and while training for IMFL 2011 I did the full century.  This beast runs in August in the deep south with 5000 ft of climbing and does not play games. I remembered it being tough but fun and manageable, what I got was a full anal probe from the sun.

I got there in a reasonable time Saturday morning, went to the packet pickup and found a port-a-let. Thought I was going to be ok after that, so I made my way back to the car to prep the bike and myself with plenty of sunscreen and gear.  By the time I made my way back to the starting line I had already missed it.  The good thing about these rides is that it's not like a triathlon or a race where everything is timed, you just start when you can. So I wasn't the last person to start, and I got to talk with some other people as I made my way back up to the pack of riders. The first few miles were really slow but it was a cool morning and I enjoyed it.

I was using the Garmin 310xt this time without the HR monitor yet. I did get the auto-lap set to lap every mile so I could see the lap time.  3 minutes is the goal, that's 20 mph.  The first 5 miles or so went by in about 21 mintues, so that was slower than goal pace for the most part.  I can happily report that the majority of the miles were between 2:45 and 3:15, right on target.  Some with screaming descents were under 2:30, and the miles with huge climbs were more like 5:15.  But the majority were on pace.

25 miles in I hit the first rest stop, and that was the first time I got to take a picture.

still smiling 25 miles in

oh, if only the rest of the ride had gone that smoothly. The rest stops came at 25, 43, 63, 83, and 92 miles.  After the first one, the 100 mile route split off from the 62 mile route and it is only the 100 mile route that has any real climbing.  so, let's climb some hills!

By 35 miles I was feeling about like this.  Those hills don't play games!  Where is that 43 mile rest stop?

There it is.  Smiling again after leaving the rest stop.  I knew that 25 - 43 mile stretch had the most hills, so I felt ok going into the rest of the ride.  I hit that mark at 2:23, so I knew double that would be 86 miles under 5 hours.  That became the new target.  Hold that speed and get to 86 under 5 hours.  Then around 50 miles this happened:

Apparently I turned into a wax statue and started to melt.  I got shiny from sweating so much.  The heat really came out.  I don't fare well in the intense heat, and do even worse when the climbs kick in.  This is evidenced by the picture I took of this incredible hill just before I had to climb it.

Well sonofabitch. All I could get was a pic of my aerobars. That's how mean that hill was.  And the heat was turned on full force.  The humidity was well over 90%. It felt like I was riding through soup. it was totally disgusting.

The mile 63 rest stop.  I was so glad to see those guys!  Get into the shade for a bit, and reload the sunscreen, and just get away from the hills for a few minutes.  These rest stops were loaded with fruit and cookies and sandwiches, some vegan fare, and plenty of water and Gatorade.  Seriously one of the best stocked rides I've ever done.  Not just bananas either; they had peaches, melon, pineapple, cantaloupe, you name it.  incredible stuff.

I was totally checked out by mile 70.  The heat index was up to 96*, you can see how many clouds there were and how much shade was on the road.  I found the one square foot of shade and pulled over to catch a quick pic and check the map to be sure I was still on the course.  Totally done with this heat and sun.  Where was the mile 83 rest stop?

There it is.  You can see how sweaty I am there.  totally dehydrated, heat exhaustion kicking in, I felt like burned crap.  The best part about that rest stop is that the next one was only 9 miles away. Every century ride should come with a mile 92 rest stop.

The best thing about this entire ride?  The ice cold Coke at the mile 92 rest stop. I stopped drinking the stuff in college, and it's the best thing I ever did. But every year I grab one at this aide station. Something about the sugar in there and the refreshing carbonation just does the body right.  now, I know there's only 8 miles left and it's time to get her done!  A century ride in 96* heat with 5000' of climbs?  no problem.  Let's wrap it up.

Mother nature had other plans.  At mile 95 I started hearing something tap me on the helmet repeatedly. By mile 96 it was turning into quite a downpour.  I saw some big redneck truck coming straight at me at one point and braced for the impact - I got a nice wall of water right in the face.  It was the most refreshing part of the day! A cool rain was falling, and it felt great.  By mile 97 it was done.  And after the storm front came through the temperature dropped about 15*, which was fantastic. All of a sudden I had energy again!  Maybe it was just a sugar rush from the coke, but I was ready to shred some pavement all of a sudden.  I came back into town, bypassed the ride HQ, and got back to the car.  snapped these to finish things off:

Glad to be done!

At the mile 63 aide station, I let the garmin run for about 4.5 minutes while I was praying for death so officially I'm calling this century ride 101 miles in 5:51:30.  For the record, I did hit the 86 mile mark at 5:06, so I missed my target pace split, but only by a few minutes.  And with that much heat in that part of the ride, I'll take it.

This is still a fantastic local century and really something great to challenge yourself with if you're up for such a ride.  And what's the best way to end the day of a century ride?

The bands of honor from the RoadID, gloves, garmin, and ride bracelet

FroYo with the fam. Got Kelley and the kids out for a nice dinner (I had shrimp & grits) followed by a nice frozen yogurt with all the toppings I could find.

Sunday Crosstraining
I said earlier that it was an unplanned rest day, but that's not entirely true.  I did want to go get an hour on the bike before church, but I was too dehydrated from the ride.  I overslept, woke up with a migraine and lots of new pains & sore spots, and a great desire to sit on the couch.  Didn't make it to the gym or church. But when 2 pm came around we had plans to take the kids out roller skating.

This is a really bad idea

Amazingly, my foot did not hurt at all during the bike ride. I knew I was going to skip the planned 14 mile long run, and all of my runs this week to let the foot heal.  But roller skating is some good cross training.

I love how everything at the roller skating rink is completely covered in carpet. All of the walls, tables, and places to sit are carpeted.  everything is soft and comfortable. I gave it one fall.  After I fell for the first time I would give it a big "screw this" and give up.

Funny thing was, I didn't fall.  it took me a few laps around the rink to get the feel of it again - hey I haven't been on skates since 1988. I'm allowed to be rusty.  But once I got my balance back it was a blast. I went flying around that rink, ended up showing off some dance moves to make the kids laugh a few times (at me or with me, their call), and we all had a lot of fun.

Kelley and the kids got out on the rink too

I taught Bigun how to go really fast, and she was scared and loving it at the same time.  Evil Genius stayed on the wall the whole time, except for a few laps where Kelley and I were each holding her hand and she thought we were flying. Don't have to worry about that one turning into a daredevil.

The kids taking laps

We got a pizza there too, and Bigun snugged up to me in the snack bar. That is the sweetest child!

So that was a solid week of training and a fantastic weekend. Bikefest is in the books. I'm really glad this week is a recovery week, I only have to work out once a day for around 9 hours total. it's going to be weird but I need the time to repair. Cool stuff coming soon!