a 4 sport weekend

I started out the weekend the best possible way - for me - I went skiing at Alpental with my brother Kelly. There is soo much snow it blows me away. I have skied at Alpental for a long time and know all the details of the mountain but shoots are filled in, runs are less steep, the entrance to International is a breeze. But even with all the snow I felt completely at home on the mountain. I took a bunch of photos and video just to capture everything so I could take it home with me. Especially the little things like the sound of the chair lift and the amount of snow covering a band of cliffs on a run. Kelly was nice enough to take a video of me skiing :)

We skied half the day and really the only reason I left was so I had something left in my legs to run later in the day. I hope some day I feel the same way about swimming, biking and running but at the same time maybe I never will. There is just something about skiing and everything related that is so special to me.

Okay enough about how much I love skiing lol. In the evening after a bit of rest and refueling Kyle had to take his bike into Speedy Reedy so I talked him into running a 7 mile loop around greenlake - well a 6 mile lop with an added mile. It worked out really well he went easy and I went moderate to keep up with him. I love it when I get a chance to train with him - our athletic interests is what brought us together in the first place. In all we ran the 7 miles in 56 min and I felt really strong even though I had skied earlier and my legs were a bit tired to start. My calves were a bit tight so I wore compression calves to bed which seemed to help a lot because they were not as sore in the morning.

This morning while Kyle played with bikes some more I went for a swim - I was just happy it was only 2500 yds and not another crazy 2700 to 3000 one. Otherwise the swim just felt okay nothing really special just got it done.

Next up was a bike ride - again it was just Kyle and I. I did not really want to do 2:30 bike ride by my self so I sort of had to tag along with Kyle and his work out. He compromised and assured me he would go easy on me and not completely run me into the ground or leave me. We decided to ride out to Snoqualmie falls but to cut miles just ride out on Hwy 202 and skip going over the plateau and going through Carnation. He wanted to try and get 60 on his new bike and I knew that was not going to happen for me so depending on how he felt he could always add on miles at the end.
First off super bad timing going through Marymoor Park - traffic was horrible because Corteo Cirque du Soleil is in town and we were going through the park as people were coming for the midday show. It took forever and was kind of sketchy with all the cars. Once on 202 I just hung on to Kyle's wheel figuring it was safer for us to be together. It was relatively flat with only a few little rollers. It gave me a great opportunity to spend some time down in my aero bars and just spun - which my legs appreciated. We did not really have to climb until we got to the bottom of Snoqualmie falls. The climb was great - my legs were warmed up and just cruised up - even passed a guy :) I pushed my self a little harder than I expected but my legs felt so good. We stopped at the top and looked at the falls and all that.

Both Kyle and I were hungry so we decided to ride up to Snoqualmie ridge to get lunch and some coffee. I took this second climb nice and easy just spun the entire way. We stopped first at Starbucks then I was craving french fries so we went to a burger joint up there - took almost an hour lunch. Then headed back down. We planned on just going back the way we came but some bug got into me and I decided I wanted to go up the stair step hill instead. No clue why but I did and of course Kyle was game. He cruised up it crazy fast and I just took my time and did not push it to much. The rest of the ride home was uneventful -except that of course it had to start raining the last 5 miles.
I knew I was way over my scheduled time but I figured that in the end it would be good training for Hawaii.. I also knew I would get a reprimand from Coach at some point (and already did) but I was was enjoying being on my bike. I spend lots of time running and never feel like I get enough time on my bike especially since every time I ride I feel stronger. Yes I know I have a half marathon next weekend but in reality Hawaii 70.3 is important to and I will be good the rest of the week - I promise. Lots of healthy food, rest and mental training this week to get ready to race. In the end it was 55ish miles in 3:33 ride time and great confidence builder for me. I started strong and ended strong - and did not feel like I over did it.
I took an ice bath as soon as I got home, then a hot shower, put on my compression calves on again, and took a little nap. Had a good dinner, put my feet up for a little while and now off to bed to get some recovery sleep and dream of skiing ;)