Jul 23, 2007

Beautiful Weather

I've just finished a pretty intense training weekend. I started with an 85 km bike ride Saturday morning with a short open-water swim before and a short run afterwards, then a 24 km run Sunday morning. Maybe I was thinking too much about my friends in Ironman Lake Placid yesterday! The weather was beautiful all weekend long so a long ride was easy to undertake. I was particularly keen to get a long ride in to see if I could duplicate the conditions I experienced in my Half Ironman. I didn't experience the same pain in my glutes I had during the race. Maybe taking more salt helped, maybe our short group pauses were enough to allow my glutes to recover.

All this training didn't happen out of context... Friday night I was out late with my friend David taking in a Blues harmonica band north of the city. Saturday night I had a late night of dinner and drinks with Sheryl and some of her friends. I still got up at 6:00 AM on Saturday and 7:00 AM on Sunday. :-)

Last Thursday I went out for a ride with the Project Freeride cyclists, as I often try to do. The evening's workout was pure hill-climbing repeats. Hard, but fun. Especially when heavy rain began half way through our workout! I got home soaked to the skin but smiling.

The weather for yesterday's European Grand Prix at Germany's Nurburgring track was lousy, but made for great TV. The race started in the rain and was stopped after four laps when six cars spun off at one corner alone when the rain became torrential. Very dramatic, even the safety car was nearly hit. The race restarted under drier conditions, but the weather continued to be a big factor in the results. Lewis Hamilton was amongst the drivers that spun out, but he managed to keep his engine running and get hoisted back onto the track. Although he was a lap down after that he managed to climb back to ninth at the finish and may have scored a few points if he hadn't made a couple of ill-advised tire choices as the track alternately dried out and then got wetter again. Ferrari seemed in position to dominate the day, with Kimi Raikkonen qualifying first and Felipe Massa third. The slippery track conditions resulted in their positions flipping, with Fernando Alonso's McLaren remaining between them. Unfortunately Kimi's engine shut down halfway through the race due to electrical problems. Alonso also found more wet speed than Filipe in the final segment and passed him in a daring move. A great race!

Listening to: SimplyStu Triathlon Podcast #62 by SimplyStu.

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