This past week I was at the beach with my family. We’ve
done trips to the Outer Banks a few times. It seems weird for me to drive north
to go to the beach but it’s closer for everyone else. Once again we stayed in
Pine Island which is this nice narrow strip where it’s the sound, the road, one
row of houses and the ocean. That means the beach is pretty empty which is
awesome. It’s also closer to the north end so past the busy roads.
The trip started after 8 hours of driving when we finally
reached the northern bridge and came to complete stop. At that point I decided
it made more sense for me to get my ride in instead of sitting in horrible
traffic for an hour plus and then riding. So I rode north towards the house. This
included several dicey miles of passing the stopped/slow moving cars, several
of which were over the white line. In one case this caused me to swerve off the
road straight into a patch of sand at which point my bike came to complete and
sudden stop and I almost fell into the car. Once I got past Duck, things
cleared up and then it was just some good old fast, hot riding.
All my riding that week was fast. It was very few stop
lights and FLAT. It reminded me of racing in New Orleans with zero elevation
gain and wind. Not nearly as windy though. I love climbing but there’s
something to be said about switching it up and being able to go faster for once
and not because I’m going downhill. My other rides were in the mornings and
there were plenty of cyclists and triathletes out. I do pretty much all of my
riding by myself and a lot of times in places where I don’t see many, if any,
cyclists. This was a great change of pace and certainly helps with motivation
during max efforts.
Along with flat riding, I got in flat running. More running
than I’ve done in months! I’ve still got a long ways to go but I’m happy to
finally be building mileage. I really wish I could have run on the beach but my
body wasn’t ready for that yet other than messing around.
The awesome thing about being at the beach is I finally
got the chance to do some open water swimming! I’ve said it’s something I
clearly need to work on so it was one week of only OWS. The water was cold so
it also gave me an opportunity to swim in my wetsuit. The only time I do OWS is
on race day so to have a week of practice was great. It allowed me to focus on
things that normally don’t cross my mind because the adrenaline of race day
takes over. I’m very comfortable in the water. Pools, lakes, oceans, whatever. I
don’t get nervous or panicky. But it did help build some extra confidence in
the open water which is something I’ve needed recently.
Besides OWS, we got in plenty of other swimming and boggy
boarding. We also had “the seven plagues” which started as cold water with thousands of tiny gross clear/orange slimy things, followed by biting
flies, followed by dead jellyfish… ok so maybe only three things. In the end
the water finally got warmer, very clear, free of weird creatures and one the
very last day (naturally) some better waves for boggy boarding. On my last OWS
I got the shit scared out of me by suddenly being surrounded by hundreds of
fish a few times and even swam over two stingrays.
So while this might not have seemed like a true vacation
to everyone given lots of training, it was perfect for me. It was training
completely on my terms. I mean, Katie still wrote my schedule and I executed it
according to that schedule but I wasn’t trying to cram it in. I didn’t have to
wake up at 4:15 to get straight to the pool. I didn’t have to rush a shower to
make it to work and then eat breakfast at my desk. It was waking up
to the sun rising, putting in some solid training, eating whatever the hell I
wanted, maybe training some more and then certainly eating more. I didn’t give
two shits about what I was eating. I knew I’d gain weight but it didn’t stop
me. My Dads one request on this trip was that everyday someone picked up Duck
Doughnuts which are amazing cake doughnuts made fresh to order ie pick your
icing and toppings. I ate 2-3 doughnuts. Every. Day. And dessert. Every. Day. Sometimes
twice a day. I ate a bunch of grains and a bunch of dairy. I didn’t care, not
even when I felt sluggish from the food, my stomach hurt or I felt like I might
throw up in the ocean.
That week I found a certain calmness that’s hard to
describe. I love the water. It’s just so soothing. Certainly it’s easy to find
calmness when you fall asleep under a tent on the beach listening to nothing but the
ocean. But I felt it all week. There was zero stress. There were no thoughts
about work or things I needed to do at the house or errands I needed to run. My
biggest concern was which flavor doughnut I’d eat next and should I wake up
early enough to watch the sun rise. I slept better than I had in a long time.
As soon as I got home I went back to the restless nights and getting up to pee
two times before I fall asleep because that’s what my brain thinks it needs to
sleep. I was sad to leave the beach but
I was happy for the week I had there. It was good for my body, brain and soul.
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