This past Saturday I turned 36.
And I chose to celebrate by waking up at 6:30am to train. Now, most people would call me insane, heck I probably would, too. Afterall no one forced me to train for an Ironman.
To start the morning off, I tackled our first Open Water (Ocean) Swim. It was roughly 3/4 of a mile. I am guesstimating that distance, as each loop from lifeguard stand the next was about 300 meters and I managed to squeeze in 4 loops. It was amazing. The water, thankfully, was in the low sixties, which was awesome. It is usually in the 50s this time of year, so I was expecting my feet to freeze right off my body, but nope, mother nature was on our side and it was lovely.
My amazing training buddies were also celebrating with me. Tracy and Ashley (god bless 'em) attempted to make a "36" with me in honor of my 36th birthday. As you can see from the photo below, it did not go well. :-)
After the swim, we headed out for a 7.5 mile run around Marina Del Rey. it was gorgeous and HOT. Since I had been traveling and was sick, followed by bachelorette party, I have not been committed to my running. I missed about 3 weeks and instead of trying to squeeze in a run when i could, I enjoyed the fact that I had not ran. This was definitely not the smartest move, so this run was especially tough. Granted, I finally reach 7.5 miles, but it took me 1:40min to do so, which equals about 13:30 pace, which is terrible. I think you all can walk faster than that. :-) So, Yes, I am happy I hit the mileage, but now i know that i definitely have to continue to push myself. Oh... I did forget to mention that every mile we had to do drills. YAY DRILLS. (Kidding) At every other mile we had to do "leg stances" (basically stand like Captain Morgan) for 30sec on each leg followed by writing out "Open Water Is Awesome" with each leg, which I also did with my ankles since they are so weak. at the alternate mile we had to do 30sec plank, rest, 30sec plank. it was brutal... (but look at that form!) .. and did i mention the view?
After that monstrosity of a morning, a few of us walked over to C&O Trattoria for some lunch. C&O is so awesome and yummy. They have the most amazing garlic knots and I seriously thinkg that each of us had at least 10!! Soooooooo good!
After training and lunch, the birthday celebration continued. Of course, I am not going to lie, the morning workout was draining. I had to take a quick power nap before the night's festivities, which included an in-home wine tasting. Talk about awesome. 12 friends, 8-10 bottles wine, cheese, chocolate, strawberries and more = heaven! it was fantastic. The wine was seriously so amazing. it was all european wine, so there were no sulfates or sugar, which made getting up yesterday a little easier. :-) After Wine Tasting another 10 friends popped by for game night. it was hysterical we played "Celebrity" and everyone had a great time.
So that leads me sunday. Lordy. 27ish miles all hills with a 1.5 mile run after, not exactly the what I had in mind. Although, I was pretty proud of myself. I think i actually killed those hills. We did the Amalfi
Loop once and integrate in the "1-2-3s of Mandy". What is that you say?? Well, it is up Manderville Canyon... where we would bike up 1 Mile, then bike back down, then up 2 miles, then bike back down, then up 3 miles and bike back down. it was not crazy steep, but it was a solid incline up the canyon. Overall it is a 5 mile climb and I hear the last 2 miles are crazy steep. I am sure the coaches will surprise us with that soon! Then of course we headed back and finished up with a Brentwood Country Club Loop. I was tired.
Anywhoooooooooo... that was my weekend. It was a lot of fun with friends and training. We conquered our second build week. I got an awesome massage yesterday and I am also happy to report that my birthday wish for people to donate to LLS was a huge success. We raised close to $750 donated over the weekend. I am super excited as I am now raised about 55% of my goal.
Wahoooooooooooooooooo!!
So, today is St. Patrick's Day. It started off with a 4.4 earthquake wake up call. WOW... and of course my house is so old, it felt like a 6.6 earthquake, so I was up! I am enjoying work today.
It is gorgeous out and then it is off meet some friends to celebrate my heritage.
Man, I love this holiday! CHEERS!
"There are only two kinds of people in the world, The Irish and those who wish they were."
No comments:
Post a Comment