Last week of freedom recap

Mike went back to school on Monday, but I was lucky enough to get one more full week off. Knowing full well he'd be the one laughing come June when he's out a week before me, I was determined to enjoy every last second of my summer freedom. It would have been better to share it with Mike, but nonetheless, enjoy it I did! From solo runs, bikes, and swims to runs, bikes, swims, lunches, coffee, and hanging out in great company, I feel fulfilled (and exhausted!) sitting here Sunday evening.

Our "local" (by local, I mean a 30 min commute) pool was closed this week for cleaning, so I took advantage of my free time to make the hour drive to the Owego Free Academy pool. Their community swim hours are noon to 6pm six days a week and completely FREE to residents of Owego. While I have huge issues with "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" I was all kinds of pleased that this was the OFA policy regarding checking residency status of their swimmers. Hey, when you're from the boonies and need to get your swim time in, you do what you've got to do.

While in NY state, I also took advantage of their beautifully kept roads, polite drivers, and nice wide shoulders to get in a good bike ride. The new bike and I are doing much better, and I think after Mike does a saddle tweak for me tonight, we'll be even better. I'll spare details, but whoa! Things left as they are could, I fear, cause permanent damage:/

The best part of the week was definitely the company. After loving my Friday morning 20 miler last week, I planned my 22 for this Thursday. Thanks to blogging and facebook (what did the world do before social networking?!) I ended up with great company for the whole run. Catching up with Janine and Doug made the first 13 fly by, and Chris pulled me through the next 8.5. Mike and I have been on an unintentional long run hiatus with the Binghamton crew this summer, and I didn't realize how much I had missed the company. It was wonderful:)

Friday was Julie day in Ithaca. We biked, lunched, window shopped, swam, and yapped and it was fantastic. And I decided to take the day off from running. It's weird what happens to me once in a while after a long run. 9 times out of 10, I get up the next day and run, but every once in a while, just the sight of my running shoes the day after a long run makes my stomach drop. Friday was that day.

Saturday Mike biked the Chris Thater Memorial races in the Cat 5/citizens race with our friend Jon. While they were out there doing work (Jon 2nd in his age group and Mike 7th, both finishing in the peloton), I bought discount socks, chatted with some running friends, played course photographer/videographer, and consumed an entire bag of caramel apple popcorn. And again Saturday, did not run. Whoa. I don't take a lot of days off and I rarely take two days off in a row even after a marathon! And I felt no guilt at all. Matt Fitzergerald may win me over yet.

Now, we live on the east coast, so no week recap would be complete without a little shout out to Irene. We woke up Sunday morning to howling winds and heavy rain, drank our coffee, ate our breakfast, completely disregarded the weather, and headed out to run the Chris Thater 5K. After an hour drive to the race became 90 minutes, being rerouted several times because of downed power lines and trees, and some quality cross training by removing several smaller downed trees blocking the road, we got the text, 5 min from bib pickup, that the race was cancelled by the state who felt it was unsafe. Obviously the state is not led by runners. 50 states governed by runners, now wouldn't that make the world a better place?...*flashbacks of Sarah Palin on Newsweek in her running clothes...I take it back*

So...if we can't race a 5K in high winds and heavy rains, what to do?...We can try out our new wetsuits!

Thanks to the Williams being so wonderful to let us use their house and lake access, Mike and I suited up and, to the amusement of numerous Highland Lake residents, made our way around the lake. Holy buoyancy! I refuse, given my fast approaching triathlon endeavors to say aloud "it's impossible to drown in this thing"...but, well, you get it. It was like swimming with a kiddie donut floatie taped to my butt. Phenomenal! The breast stroke "breaks" I'm accustomed to taking were actually not breaks at all today though. It felt harder to breast stroke than freestyle, and when I did breast stroke I didn't feel like I went anywhere. Triathletes out there, any wisdom on this - am I just nuts?

And this afternoon, in the light breeze and gentle drizzle, I got in a 7 miler:) It's waffles and bacon for dinner, VMA's, a load of laundry, and summer is OVER. No complaints though - it was definitely a great one.