I had to be at work at 3am due to overnight software deployment activities at work. Unfortunately, our servers conspired against me all evening never allowing for more than an hour or so of sleep before having to get up. Not exactly what I was hoping for respective of any extracurricular activities that may have been planned. I didn't get back home until around 1pm. Couldn't decide whether to bite the bullet and swim or take a nap. I didn't really feel too terribly sleepy at the time so off to the pool I went. After leaving the house, I had not printed my swim workouts for the week so I figured to just swim continuously for whatever felt comfortable. I did 3000 yards a week or two ago so that was the quasi plan. While swimming, I kept going over the math in my head for an Ironman swim or 2.4 miles. One mile is 1750 yards so 3500 yards would be two miles. I would probably have to get to around 4400 or so to get to the 2.4. I decided 3500 would be a good goal. My body was dehydrated and I wasn't really prepared for this. I forgot to take shark salt or down any Skratch before I left the house. My calves and feet started cramping at around 2500 yards and I really thought 3000 was about the best I could do. I had some strange breathing problems again here and there but not bad enough to stop. Must be spring with all the pollen plus my throat was really dried out after an hour in the water as strange as that sounds. When I got to 3000, I decided to keep on moving. The cramps in my feet started to get debilitating in the next few hundred so I quit at 3600 yards. Slow but not too bad for being up almost 30 straight hours and not hydrating appropriately.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/476782067
On the way home from work, I called Jeff and asked if he was doing the DA ride. He said yes and he wasn't planning on going all out so I could ride with him. After swimming, I drank a bottle of Skratch and loaded another on my bike for ride. It is usually a very fast ride lasting around 80 minutes or so. I met Jeff at the parking lot. They send three groups off. We were going with the fast group but there is no expectation that anyone will wait if you get dropped. I didn't know the route but Jeff said he would pull back if I got dropped. These guys are really fast so I didn't hold much hope of hanging with them. It was a fairly relaxing ride for the first few miles until we got to some longer stretches of open road. No problem hanging on for the first 7-8 miles into Irving then the pace quickened and I was dropped along with a few others. I really didn't have much trouble staying with the chase group. I had no idea what the route was, so that was a good thing. Coming back north with the wind in Las Colinas, we made contact with the lead group. Jeff looped back to get me and I missed him somewhere along the way. Due to the traffic lights, I lost him until we got to Valley Ranch. The fastest guys got away a little bit in Valley Ranch and a few of them clipped tires. There were bikes and bodies all over the road. Jeff caught up with me there. There were two guys that looked pretty messed up and everyone else looked ok. We hung around for a few minutes and then took off. Ambulances were on the way and there wasn't much we could do. I rode with Jeff until he cut off to go home. I found a good group to ride with on the way back. Coming back north with the wind it was easy hitting 28-30mph for brief periods of time. I was proud of myself for not getting completely dropped and losing all contact. No way I'm fast enough to stay with this group but I wasn't terribly far off either. Progress comes in small increments.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/476895358
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