Swim, Run, Bike

Today I did a workout for all three parts of a triathlon: swimming, running and biking. But first let me back up to yesterday. Warning: this post is a long one as I had a jam-packed weekend!

Berry Picking

Saturday morning, Sarah and I drove up to Columbia, MD to meet Jacquie for berry picking. We got a little lost on the way up there, but Sarah and I had fun chatting about everything under the sun. When we got there Jacquie had already picked herself quite a collection of black raspberries.

We picked raspberries and blueberries.

Plus we pulled beets from the ground. It was so fun!

The produce was super cheap and the scenery was gorgeous.

It was great to get away from the city. Not to mention great company of course.

By the time Sarah and I headed back to DC, it was late afternoon so we were getting hungry. We made a stop at Whole Foods for some salad bar goodness (note: the River Road/Bethesda Whole Foods is not up to par with the others in the area).

I got home around 4 pm. I was supposed to head to Annapolis for an open water swim, but by that time I had already spent a lot of the day in the car and didn’t feel like driving another few hours. Also, the air conditioning in our car is broken and it was somewhere around 90 degrees all day – making it pretty much the last place I wanted to spend the rest of my afternoon! Instead I took a much needed nap. I never nap, so that’s saying something about how tired I was. Saturday night we had dinner with Neil’s family for his brother’s birthday and called it a night by midnight.

Race Volunteering
Sunday morning I was up at 8:30 getting ready to volunteer at the DC Triathlon. I had never volunteered at a race, so I was very excited to help. I rode my bike down to the finish line area (a 3 mile ride). My job was to organize the ankle tags by number once the athletes had finished.

It was brutally hot out, so I was relieved that I was finished by 11:30. I was so inspired by all the athletes and I started getting excited about my race. If I decide to stick with the triathlons, I think I will do the DC course next year. Check out the beautiful view at the finish line.

Swim, Run, Bike
One of the most common pieces of triathlon advice is to do an open water swim before the race. This weekend was my last chance (the race is next Sunday), so after volunteering I took the metro up to Bethesda and then rode my bike to my parents house, a mile from the metro station. Neil was up there with my dad fixing the car AC (successfully…yay!) so we took the dog and drove to Sandy Point State Park outside of Annapolis, MD.

Unfortunately, when we got there they said that dogs were not allowed. So Neil stayed with Leela on the outside of the park while I drove in to get a quick swim.

I didn’t have a timer, but I wanted to do just a short swim because it was too hot out for the dog to be sitting out there a long time. I picked a landmark and swam from my spot on the beach to there and back. I looked at my phone before getting in the water and my swim was only 18 minutes. I also walked the beach with the GPS on my phone to figure out the distance. It was about .6km. My race distance is 1km. While the swim wasn’t as fast or as far as I had hoped, I’m glad I got practice swimming in choppy water and with large crowds of people in the way. It was also good practice for sighting (or swimming toward a destination without having lap lanes as a guide). I’ll be doing a longer post about open water swims later, so keep an eye out for that!

We drove home, put the dog in her crate and headed out for a run. Neil rarely runs with me, so I love it when he does. We set out to do 2 miles and did so in under 19 minutes. It was brutally hot, so while my pace is still slower than I want it to be, I’m not sure if I could run very fast in this weather even in my peak training condition. Side note: race distance is 5k/3.1 miles.

Then it was off to my parents house for father’s day. After a wonderful dinner, I rode my bike home. It was ~8.3 miles in 40 minutes, bringing my total for the day to 12.3 or so. The bike distance for my race is 17 miles.

Basically, today I did a spread-out half sprint triathlon!

Father’s Day
Even though this post is already incredibly long (kudos if you made it to the end), I can’t post on father’s day without saying anything about my dad. I’ve always been “daddy’s little girl” and in a lot of ways my dad is my hero. I have looked up to him my whole life and still do.

Dad – if you are reading this, I love you and happy father’s day!