Hot, Hot Mary with a little sideways wind..... please

Yesterday was a much needed recovery day. I convinced a few friends to check out the Haunted Corn Maize at Sauvie's Island. I completely botched that up by not checking the hours of operation. They had closed by the time we got there :( Instead of getting arrested on the island for trespassing(I have enough arrests) we opted to get our drink on. Our options as Mark would point out were
*N. Po Dive
*N. Po Mcmennamins
*N. Po Dive with pool tables
*N. Po High-End Dive (what?)
*N. Po Dive
*N. Po Mcmennamins
N. Po Dive w/pool tables was the consensus- how it not be? If we can't get scared by a haunted corn maize, drunk college kids, society rejects mixed in w/ Boyz N The Hood was going to have to do. We went to the Twilight Room. As I always say - everything happens for a reason. I got to experience the BEST damn bloody mary! I think the bartender put in 2 tbsps of horseradish in each drink! Each sip made me cringe with hot delight. The spicy/devilious endorphins whispered sweet nothings in my ear - Drink another. So I did! A plate full of greasy food was next on the agenda, yet to my surprise it was not greasy. Again - BEST turkey sandwich and cajun onion rings EVER. The turkey sandwich was grilled on wheat bread coated with Dijon mustard and filled with spicy pepperjack cheese, pepperoncini's, tomatoes and turkey. Mile high turkey! I ended up sharing 1/2 my sandwich with Baier who shared 1/2 of his amazing cajun onion rings. The onion rings were hand battered in a tempura base, they were so light and crispy. My tummy was in a spicy, gluttony heaven. At one point I felt a little guilty. I did not need to drink or eat such poor nutritional food choice. But that was quickly diminished when I reminded myself "I'm on my off season!" When in Rome....OR N. PO :)

Tuesday - AM run
Much to my surprise I had no issues getting up at 5:30 to get my Pilates on. Post Pilates I headed out into "storm of the century" for another run to break in my Newtons. The weather was something fierce. 45 degrees and massive side ways rain. I don't know how I didn't end up getting blown over. I experienced an incredible high 20 minutes in. I opted to run listening to music - this is rare. Etta James "At Last" came on. Now, all that know me know I'm not a girly girl. I don't care for sappy love songs. BUT "At Last" is MY song. I turned to run up a good mile incline. The rain was pouring hard and I was running straight into a wall of the wind. I felt like Casper the ghost was trying to push me backwards. And I hear
"At laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaast
My love has come along
My lonely days are over
And life is like a song"
yadayadayada. My "love" for running. The avg person does not go out and "run" in this type of weather. It's the passionate, the devoted, the love stoned that are willing to face mother nature when she is being a Queen B(*%!(. I finished another Newton break-in run 4.5 miles later /8:30 avg - I was frozen to the bone.

My high quickly came down when I choose to ride Feltalia into work. Apparently I wasn't thinking much. Biking in sideways rain is much more difficult than running. I wish I had put my power meter on because I was pushing some serious watts.

The ride home was better. Windy, yet dry :), it started to rain as I rolled up to the door step.

Evening swim - Objective - strength building

10 min defrost in the sauna

All effort done at 80-90%

1 x 500 warm up - 8:05

1 x 300 paddles

2 x 25 - kickboard

1 x 150 buoy

repeat 3 x

--by the third set my lats and triceps ached

1 x 500 interval - 100 hard/ 50 easy/100 hard/50 easy/ 100 hard/ 50 easy/50 hard

Cool down

1 x 200 - easy

Total yardage - 2700

10 min cool down in the sauna