So its been typical Spring weather here in the Mid-Atlantic; one day its gorgeous sunny, mid 70s, not a cloud in the sky, the next its 65 degrees, overcast and threatening to rain. This past Thursday night and Friday was overwhelmingly rainy. Severe thunderstorms on Thursday and rain all day on Friday. I managed to eek out an indoor bike ride split into two pieces of 1/2 hr each and a 1 hr swim [a solid 1,000 yds straight with some sprints interspersed]. No outdoor training for me. We had friends over for fish tacos [my new favorite thing to eat/cook]
While we were in Shenandoah, we rode on Skyline Drive from about the Thornton Gap entrance [mile marker 30, from 211] south to just before the Hawksbill Gap Parking are [mile 46]. There was road construction which just made sections a little rough but not unbearable. We went out 1:45 and me, thinking that it would be even going out and coming back, decided that it was time to turn around. Well, it took us 1/2 hr less to get back then out since the majority of the section of road we’d ridden was uphill…so duh, downhill on the way back, much faster. I felt much stronger doing the hills than I had the first time we went out a few years ago and while we didn’t do the distance I’d hoped for, we had our butts on the bike for 3 hrs [trying to work up to 8 for the B2B ride]. A quick change, a call to the Luray Pizza Hut, and 1 hr later we’re setting up camp in Big Meadow, starting a nice fire, having a few Coronas and deep dish pepperoni pizza. This is the life.
The initial motivation for the trip was to do some open water swim practice in Lake Arrowhead in preparation for the frigid water in the SF Bay for the Escape from Alcatraz race in a few weeks. My first time in a full wet suit and initially the sleeves gave me trouble since it felt all bunched up around my armpits. Once in the water, and recovered from the shock of having my face in the cold water, I was perfectly comfortable. (I just realized that we’ve been home for about 2 hrs and I’m still lake water skuzzy. Maybe a shower is on the agenda.) Depending on the measured distance, I either did about 2,100 yds or about 50 min of swimming. Either way, it was worthwhile and certainly worth the drive out to swim.
