Two lakes, friends and the Fringe

Saturday morning: 4:15 wake-up so I could make the hour trip to Caesar Creek Lake to swim and ride with the gang from Cincy Express. I got there early, which is better than late. Four laps in the water...just short of two miles. There were so many bodies in the water! I'd never been up there to swim OW with these guys, so I took it all in and thoroughly enjoyed it. And...shhhh....but we girls dominated the boys :)

Then came the ride. The old Buckeye course. 56 miles. The first half we were apparently averaging 20.9mph. That's fast for me. Especially for now. There was a moment when my mind went numb and turned negative and I didn't really know if I was gonna hang on. It totally sucked. And then, like nothing ever occurred, i found my legs again. And soon, we slowed a bit. Only one flat the whole ride with a group of close to 15. We were finished with the whole thing well before noon. Some took off for runs or more miles on the bike. I went home...

...to clean up and go down to th eFringe Festival with my buddy, Rob. We participated in this show called "Call Me". Someone had to put a LOT of thought into that one. And then we watched a hilarious one man put on called "Sex, Dreams and Self Control!" about a guy coming into his own as a gay man. Truly amazing. Really.

This morning, I got up early to meet Judi out at East Fork Lake to do another OWS. Ths time, easy and just 30 mins. I saw Tom on the expressway on my way out there. And we met in the parking lot. He had an hour swim, so we chatted a bit and he went ahead while i waited for Judi. The swim went well. We've both gotten so much faster since last summer. Makes it wayyy more fun. And on to more fun...a 90 min run.

I spent the first 25 mins on the roads to waste some time, but I was hungry for the trails. The sun was already getting hot and I was carrying my water bottle full of G2 with me. I didn't want to go on the highly (mountain bike) trafficked trails, so I picked this one I'd never ventured before. Suddenly, my legs came to life. A few minutes, I came across some soft spots. And I noticed some horse shit in the trail, but nothing i couldn't get past. I just continues along, eyes darting down, up, around, watching for branches, roots, rocks, and making sure not to miss the occassional butterfly.

Then, about 10 minutes in, came the slop. This section of the trail is tree covered. The sun has a hard time breaking through to dry up the rain of recent days. And much as I tried, I could not avoid getting ankle deep in mud. And then a big field, with waist high grass...and hidden wetness! After prancing around this for a few more minutes, it seemed no end in sight, so I turned around and headed for the dryer mountain bike trails.

They were dry and manicured and easy to run on. I remembered them from all the runs over the winter with the guys from CE. The, the snow and ice were packed to the ground. And we froze for the first half hour or so. Despite mud caked shoes and legs, I returned to the beach smiling. And just seconds before Judi pulled in on her bike.

My first full week back to scheduled training. And I managed to make enough time for rest and fun as well. Never before have I been so happy to do laundry....because it's full of dirty sweaty-stained training gear again :)