Atlantis and Last Chance TARC Workout, W/E 4-21 (And not Shirking!!!)

Monday, 4-15 - 2+ Miles (Road) - Short out/back run from the hotel.  It's wicked hot here, and the oppressive air is causing my body to reject any shot at distance while I'm here.  Good workout, I'm drenched after 2 miles and get to cool down in the ocean, but I'm also trying not to be stupid about overdoing it in a climate I'm not used to.

          I'd like to offer this sidenote, as a runner, road racer and fan, and future Boston Marathoner:  I was waiting for my daughter to finish a ride at the waterpark in Atlantis, when I overheard a woman say something about a bomb, and a finish line...of course I knew exactly which finish line it was.  There's only one finish line of consequence on this day, and I was hoping she was misinformed.  Sadly, no.  I'd already heard from my friend Jeff and knew he was done with the race, so my hope was that it was something minor, which it wasn't.  Bad stuff.  I was totally floored, sad, angry, you name it, and started to feel guilty for being in such a beautiful place while such bad things had happened in New England...and what do you do?  I kept up, with limited internet/text/news during the day, and tried to wrap my head around it, which I didn't do very well.  I'll put pen to paper again about this at some point, but for now I'll say this:  I've never been more motivated to qualify for Boston.  It will happen.

Tuesday, 4-16 - 3.5 Miles (Road) - Zig-Zaggy resort loops at Atlantis...Hot!  The paths here are great, and easy to hit dead ends, but a fun run nonetheless.  I get to cool off in the ocean every morning, which is awesome...Crystal clear tropical water, and in spite of the "Jet ski boys" trying to rent me a personal watercraft at $70 for a half hour, it's pretty sweet...



Wednesday, 4-17 - 3+ Miles (Road/Path) - Run with distractions...I scoped out Atlantis before we left and found out that there's basically no surf here, but with a small chance of surf if a Northeast swell passes between Abaco and Eleuthera Islands, there can be rare, world-class surf here.  Guess what?  I wake up to the sound of crashing waves, and go out to the balcony of our room to see corduroy swell lines stacked to the horizon...I get my shoes on and hit the paths, and I'm immediately tempted to drop everything and find a surfboard, somewhere...but I got my run finished and spent the rest of the day frying myself to a level 8?



Thursday, 4-18 - 4-ish Miles (Road/Paths) - Last Atlantis day, surf eye candy and return to New England...and the wind went light offshore, the swell built, and now I'm looking at my dream wave:  small-medium, perfect, peeling and warm water waves with nobody out, some off the jetties at the resort and some in the middle of this gorgeous cove...

Small, but clean and bigger waves on this reef came through...

Reefbreak off the jetty...

  So I also call BS of Strava with the elevation of the bridges I ran previously, and decided to give it another go, but with pictures:

...Looking at the inbound, from the outbound...

So there you go.  My first tropical running vacation thing...not shirking (Seth!), by any means, and really needing my New England weather to train in, because that stuff is brutal!  Props to those who run regularly in that heat, I'm spent...and looking to escape to the woods tomorrow for some trail time...

Friday, 4-19 - 0 - Getting the house back in order...

Saturday, 4-20 - 8 Miles (Trail, some Road) - Rainy run in the Woody Hill Preserve with Gazelle, FiveK and Muddy.  We ALMOST had Mike B. talked into joining us (at least I think we did), but he would have been completely miserable out there.  I, on the other hand,  thought it was awesome...pulled up at 7 in the pouring rain, and after a short run up the road we ducked into Woody Hill.  Great spot that I haven't really explored, and it was good to have a guide, as most of the trails aren't marked.  Got totally soaked, muddy and bloodied up on some briars too!  Good times out there this morning...

This is what a good trail run should look like...

Sunday, 4-21 - 0 Miles - Lots of house-type stuff to be done today, including (dammit) routine maintenance on the John Deere, and cleaning out the garage.  As I was dumb enough to sign up for a triathlon, and have no real training to speak of (well, aside from the running), I figured it was high time to get the bike out of the depths, clean it up and do some maintenance on that as well...and it looks pretty good!  Got rid of the beach cruiser handlebars, and some of the extra crap that was on it.  Only the front brake is messed up, has a broken brackety clip tension thingy that'll need fixin'...either way, here's a shot of the bike:

Took it for a short cruise in the neighborhood, and it feels pretty damn smooth...