Tuesday is upon us and I wanted to get this post up quicker, but Monday and all it’s work-filled glory got in my way. Lame.

This weekend was a big training weekend for me and even though I’m still sore and ouchie from it, I know it was worth it for the lessons I learned. I’ll get to those in a minute.

On Saturday I got up for my regularly scheduled ten mile run. Unfortunately, my knee isn’t cooperating and hasn’t been acting right since the Gasparilla 8K so I cut the run short. I spoke with a physical therapist friend who said he thinks it’s a pull because it’s more toward the back of the knee on the outside than the actual side of the knee. Thus, it doesn’t appear to be an IT band issue, which is good. I got in five miles this AM with a little tightness toward the end so I’ll be icing and heating. (I was told ice after the run, heat later on to loosen it up.)

Now, the big lessons for the weekend came on Sunday. A few friends and I decided to do a bike/swim brick at the beach and in my typical bike paranoia fashion, I called my new friend Tori to let her know I was nervous about riding on the road. I asked if we could ride on the trail instead.

Tori helped calm me down and let me know that this road, while not having much of a shoulder, was commonly used by cyclists and the cars travelling were typically friendly and cautious. She also said we could ride the trail if I felt too nervous.

Fortunately, when Tori arrived I had pep-talked myself into riding on the road. The fact that there were a ton of other cyclists about helped me feel better. Plus this is the exact course I’ll complete at my first tri of the season.

As we got riding at about 12 PM, I calmed down and tried to enjoy the ride. I had to draft behind Tori because I haven’t ridden in a while and felt pretty tired by mile ten. She let me suck off her wheel and talked me into completing the 19 miles that I needed to get in. Thank the lord for new tri friends!

The only sketchy part was when a car in front of us went to make a left turn and it’s left turn signal was out. I didn’t have any shoulder and didn’t want to fall so I just followed Tori’s lead and rode cautiously through some gravel. Whew!

The first lesson here is that every time I overcome my fears, I feel great! I’m happy I rode with Tori and even happier she let me suck off of her wheel. Heh.

What’s the second lesson you ask? Well, remember how we started riding at noon? Yeah, well someone didn’t put sunblock on her neck and shoulders. And even with a sleeveless jersey on – I got burnt to high heaven. What am I new? You’d think after living in Florida for pretty much my entire life I’d know that the first time out in that type of heat means I have to lather on the sunscreen. FAIL.

The swim portion of our day included squeezing my booty into that damn wetsuit. I’m not lying when I say that seriously dislike the wetsuit. I know it makes me faster and I know it’s safer. But I just don’t like it. Period. I feel like a sausage. The third lesson was to apply body glide to my neck because I got a nasty chafe from the wetsuit. Ugh.

For the swim portion we had about eight people join us and got in about a half mile. I definitely lost some swim fitness but feel confident I’ll get it back quickly.

Overall, I’m very happy with how Sunday’s workouts went. I have a long way to go to be at the level I want to be for the bike, but for now I’ll just focus on building a stronger base and getting more confident while riding.

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post since tonight I’ve talked some friends into doing THIS with me…