The Last Big Workout

A gorgeous day at Aquatic Park . . .

Here's a shot of Derek & Pete landing ashore after a lovely, smooth 40 minute swim, and a group of my teammates - most of them going to Lake Placid with me. Aquatic Park is often choppy, windy and murky, so I'm glad we said our goodbyes to open water swimming for the season on a sunny day. This is our last "big" workout in the taper phase - 40 minutes of swimming followed directly by a 10 mi. run. Piece of cake, especially with such amazing weather. I swam about 1 mi. or so, trying to keep up with Pete, and managed to stay on him. I'm hoping for a 1hr. 20 min. swim, which is about Pete's pace, so I feel good.

We do a quick "deck-change" (tourists gawking as always) and take off on the 10 miler - my legs are feeling great, even up the hills, until I twist my ankle on the Coastal Trail just past the Golden Gate Bridge. I hobble for a few minutes, then press on. I've sprained my ankle so many times playing various sports, that it doesn't even swell up anymore. I take it easy on the rest of the run, though, and finish sometime in between Derek and Pete, then take a nice siesta in the sun on the grass watching my teammates take an "ice bath" in the bay. I opt out as it would require changing my bottoms which definitely requires too much effort. After a super-delicious Safeway Veggin' Out #7, we head home to shower off the green murk that the bay coats us with, ice, relax, and pack up the bag and the bikes to ship off to LP. It was a solid day of training . . . I feel good except for the anke, and am very much looking forward to the real taper in which the workouts don't last more than 2 hours. ONLY 2 WEEKS to go. . .