This has been an interesting week of workouts...

With Lobsterman looming in the near future, I know I kind of need to be kind of serious.

Sadly, I can't actually remember much of last week. (I once had a really good memory and now it's turned into mush.) I remember I got a great swim lesson and I know I went to Walden (set my wrong alarm for it...)

I did go on up to NH to watch Timberman and here is the start of my interesting workouts:

I decided after drinking on the beach for most of the day, there wasn't any way I was letting this day get away from me without a bike ride through the wonderful hills of Laconia. I set on out and found some interesting and pretty sites along the way. My slight tipsy-ness helped me be a little more bold and not hit my brakes on downhills. NH is so beautiful (and hilly) and I tried to take some pics of the nice scenes I got to bike by:

My chain only popped off once and I also realized I'm kind of terrible at finding bike routes. It's one thing when you just have to plan a couple miles to run out and then back but biking routes always are longer so I struggled a little bit. So by struggled I mean I ended up biking on Rt. 3 and it wasn't so pleasant but that's alright. I think I only angered about 8 to 10 dudes on Harleys :)

One of my favorite things to do is go to dive bars-especially in NH/VT/ME etc... So when there is a Saloon & Museum across the street how could I resist?

I also may have participated in a high kicking concert that didn't end so well for me...

Don't worry we got a workout in on the way home....

Anyways, tri sherpa made a comment about doing Timberman 2013 and I'm actually toying with the idea of doing it too. Everyone was still asleep when I got up so I decided to just drive on over and check out the swim start. I quickly realized I forgot to find out where the start actually was. I only had the Ironman static map on my phone to go with but I eventually found it. (The nice police officers also let me park right there.)

Here are some swim start pics:

Pretty crazy, eh? I really feel like the worst part of the beginning of a race is just looking at the swim start. The first buoy always just looks so far away. It's pretty great that you have the mountains in the distance this swim (although I doubt you will really be noticing them while you're swimming.)

I went on back to find see if everyone was up and I found two groggy individuals who needed a little more time waking up. I told them I was going running and they had an hour to put their happy faces on. I set off running the same way I went biking the day prior.

I also realized I forgot about these guys:

Nope, this is not in front of someone's house. It's just hanging out on the side of the road. Cool.

Somehow I forgot how hilly this route was (I guess biking just makes it go by faster) and ended up running up a hill for about 2 miles. I tried to take pics while I was running down them after but  pictures never do hills justice :(

Woof.

I also made it down to the Cape to hang out with the 'rents and got some good biking in. I went on the rail trail (which you might remember from when we did that with frame packs.) Definitely faster and less painful when you don't have a pack on. I only did about 30 mostly flat miles because my parents are still convinced I'm going to break myself every time I leave the house to do something athletic. I mean you break your leg one time...never can live it down. I also got lost one year running around the Cape and came back an hour later than expected, which caused my mom to drive around and looking for me and made us late to dinner. Oops. So yes, I try not to be out too long on my training runs when I'm hanging out with them. This trail definitely has some great views of the awesome landscape the Cape area has to offer in the summer.

Here is a nice little bog:

When I got back to Boston the next day I decided to go on a nice "10 mile extravaganza run". Tri Sherpa also recommended this powder called Scratch (I think) and I decided to fill my camelbak with it. I liked it! I'm definitely going to be putting in my water bottles during the bike. Of course I went out on this run when it was super hot/humid out so I accepted phone calls along the way, sent texts, made plans for that night, hung out by a lake etc.. which begs the question, did it count as a run?

Hmm seems like the verdict is still out :)

Here is the loop I did, which includes a nice stop over at Crystal Lake. I'm definitely going to do it for real (without the interruptions) soon if anyone wants to join:

Yes, that's somehow exactly 10 miles. It's red in the beginning because I forgot to turn on the "auto follow roads" options. O map my run :)

That concludes your very picture-happy training update so far. 19 days until Lobsterman!