Successful & Fun Training Weekend this 4th of July

This 4th of July weekend was awesome! Complete with racing, lots of training, friends and family it was a very fun and productive long weekend.

Thursday night:

Thursday night Steve and I decided to take the night off before our hard training weekend and go out to eat at the Beach club and have a tasty beer. They had the Southern Tier Unearthly on tap. Yum! I'm glad that we took the night off because it helped us relax and recover a little before Friday morning's race and ride.

Friday:

post race with my friend Jillian

Friday morning we got up around 5:45 and got ready to race the Bay Days 5 Miler in Bay Village. We were out the door to make the trip over to the west side by 6:40 and got over there around 7:40 with plenty of time to pick up our packets, meet my friend Jillian and get our warm up in. It was perfect weather and lots of of friends were there running so it was great to see everyone. The race went smooth and as usual my first mile was my fastest mile. I ended up with a 35:45 (7:09 pace) so not a PR and with such a competitive field I was only 5th/37 in my age group so that was a little disappointing but it was still fun as it was a nice, flat course that finished on the Bay High track. Who doesn't love track finishes?! Steve had a great race at 30:51 (6:10 pace) and ended up placing 2nd in his age group so at least one of us got to bring home some new hardware.

Steve and Mark D. bringing home the hardware!

After the race we met up with some of the Cleveland Tri Club folks for a 20 mile group ride on the west side. It was fun seeing new things on our ride, chatting with friends and making some new friends. After the ride a group of us headed over to Fatheads Brewery for food and some Headhunter IPAs, which topped off an already awesome day. Afterwards Steve and I headed home for some rest and relaxation and I was not feeling well that evening so I ended up going to bed early and missing the fireworks.

Saturday:

I was glad to wake up feeling better and after a big breakfast and some coffee Steve and I headed out to ride. We started at 8 and were meeting our friend John at the Civic Center in Mentor to ride with us. After picking John up we headed towards Mentor Headlands. Not too much later Steve had a mechanical issue with his bike as one of his spokes came off and he had to wait for a ride from John's wife to head back home and change out his wheels. John and I continued on to headlands, turning around and heading back up to 283 and then Hopkins to 84 to Little Mountain where we met back up with Steve. We rode into Painesville, took the trail up to a loop that came out back to the trail and then headed back over towards headlands for another loop. Sections of the bike were hot and windy and the 4 hours went by pretty quick. I got in 72 miles, which was about an 18mph average.

After the ride we made lunch and relaxed for a little bit before heading to my Dad's house for a cookout. It was nice to see family and relax for a few hours before heading back home.

Sunday:

Steve and I got up around 7, had breakfast and headed out around 8 for a 2 hour run. It was a hot run and the back half of the route we did went through Kirtland Hills up some tough climbs including Baldwin Rd. Ouch! All went well except I started having some chaffing issues on my inner thigh around mile 8 or 9 so the last miles were not quite as fun. We finished up around 10 with 13 miles. Right after the run I downed a chocolate milk and headed out by the pool to relax and cooldown before lunch.

After a big lunch we got the kids ready to go to the beach at Fairport Harbor and met up with our friends Bill and Tony for an open water swim. We got in 1500 meters in 29 minutes and change and called it a day. After that we relaxed with the kids for a little bit and then headed home to get cleaned up and run some errands, make dinner, etc. Needless to say we were tired last night and probably in bed by 9.

Today is a recovery day and then we'll ease back into the training ramping up for another big build weekend. Yay!