Everything's Looking UP!

AT THE GROUP RIDE TURNAROUND I SPOTTED MY NAME WRITTEN IN THE CORAL ROCKS. HOW FUNNY!!!

Friday:

All I had to do was swim. Worked on my technique the entire time. Trying to get this drilled in my head and hold it the entire practice. We had some long interval sets and at the end was a 100 for time. I finally went under 1:10!!! WAHOOO!!! Later in the day went to BIKE WORKS and hung out for a while. Talked about who their going to hook me up with. HAHA! GREAT BUNCH!

Saturday:

Group ride, which is one of my favorite day's. On the way out to the airport, I stayed in my little chain ring and spun fast in the same gear. After the airport the pace starts picking up as usual. In the front pack everyone took their fare share of pulls. On the second to last hill I jumped in the front for my second pull. At this point I was feeling really strong, so I kept a steady fast pace. Going up the last hill is where you have to really pay attention for the tall tale signs of the speedy group trying to make the last sprint pass. Sure enough I heard a few gears click and the wheels whistling behind me. The second I heard this I switched to my biggest gear, stood up and started pumping as fast as I could. Finally, held um off until the resting point! In a nut shell the same thing happened again at the scenic point turnaround. This was where I saw my name written in the rocks. I'LL TAKE IT AS A GOOD OMEN! On the way back into town we rode fairly easy and steady. More socializing and catching up with friends.

After the group ride Jimmy Day and I rode down Ali'i, up Kam. III to Wailua RD, then to Teshimas. This was a good ride to spin easy up some tough hills. When we reached Teshimas we turned around and headed down Old Mamalahoa HWY. This is where things got a little interesting! This was my first time riding down this road. It's a great descent with a lot of turns. Before you reach many of these turns a sign will say "25mph", of course I'm on a bike so I ignore this and go fast.

Just so happens one of my worst fears came true! In the middle of one of these turns I hit a sharp rock in the road, which instantly blows my rear tire. My first reaction was to jump out of the aerobars and hold my line as good as possible. This meant trying not to lean to much where the rim would spark up the road and not too little where I end up in the bushes. My butt cheeks and teeth were clinched tight and was like "AAAAHHHHHHHH" rounding this curve!!! I was literally inches away from running off the road and into the bushes with lots of lava rocks. This would not have been a pretty site by any means, especially at 30+mph. I feel sorry for Jimmy who was behind me, probably having a heart attack! Pulled over, fixed the flat and finished up my 2 extra hours of riding.

I got some very inspiring and uplifting comments while riding the club ride! THANK YOU club riders and I appreciate it!

Sunday:

Watched the Team Mango Triathlon and supported my local favorites. Took some photos and talked with Lucy from New Zealand here for Ironman. Would have rather been racing than spectating, but It's for the better. Some dude from Switzerland won it. He looked pretty fast and strong, but I think I could have taken him. HAHA!!! Congrats to Bree for another strong finish! Harry the "Hammer" Yoshida looked like his usual power house self along with Kris Kiser.

After the Team Mango Tri. it was time for work and then a run.

Time for the long run! I liked Walua road so much I decided to run it. It's a small out and back loop with small, gentle hills on the way out. It's 6.6 miles total. On the schedule was 2 hours and 20 minutes with hills. The first out and back was in :51 minutes. The second was in :48. All the while it was raining and I got drenched from head to toe. This was good because my shoes and socks usually get wet during a race. I hate running with wet shoes and socks. After the second loop I didn't feel like doing it a third time, so this lead me to Lako Street and all the surrounding massive hills in the area. I ended up spending the next :40 plus minutes working the hills. It was the equivalent of doing the Palani hill 10+ times. The crazy thing is I felt great the entire time. Just tried to pretend I was climbing up Palani and Otec. Another GOOD DAY!