Grateful and Relieved

Well, it's been two weeks since I've last made an actual blog post, and a crazy two weeks it has been.
First, I had the director's symposium I wrote about previously - it was an amazing, exhausting adventure that wrecked havoc on my training, since I was so busy the first week, and than it took till about this Wednesday to actually recover from the experience. But now I'm back, and very grateful. I have a race (Bonelli Olympic) a week from Sunday - I'm going to show up and see what happens, but after the insanity of the past two weeks, I'm releasing myself from any expectations about that one.
I've had the best time in training the past few days - Starting with the Ocean Speed Circuit on Wednesday, which was flat as a pancake and lovely, so I did four laps. Such fun. Then, that afternoon, I went to Palos Verdes to ride for a couple hours. I decided, "what the hey?!" and hammered as hard as I could for the first 10 miles - in my absolute hardest gear for 80% of it, and aero for 60%, which is a huge improvement. A ride that normally I pace at around 13mph I did in 15, and felt great.
Then of course, I got a flat tire. The week before, I had flatted repeatedly, so now carry a bunch of extra tubes with me.
Replacing air pump cartridges is necessary as well, apparently. Whoops.
A lovely man named Mickey pulled over, who (of course) had once owned a bike shop in San Pedro. I told him I was fine, to which he responded "meh" and took my tire, replaced the tube in approximately 15 seconds, and took my (empty) cartridge. When that didn't work, he gave me a ride back to town. Whoever said that chivalry is dead obviously has not met my friend Mickey, who now is a crane operator and motorcycle collector (he has over 300 - WOW. AHH.) He was truly one of those random angels that just comes, rescues you, and dissapears. He put my bike in my car, wouldn't leave until he was sure that everything was all together, and then left. Very special person, indeed.
Today, I did the Friday morning 6:00am ocean swim with the "big boys" coached by Gerry Rodrigues. He is a very well respected swim coach and is a lovely person. I was the slowest person there, but suprisingly, not by a lot. There was a group of speed demons, but also a few of us who were strong but slow. The workout consisted of an 8 minute run (I HATE running in my wetsuit, so it's great to practice that) followed by an 8 minute warm-up swim. Then, we went out around the booeys three times, the first time we had to run up the beach, around the life guard tower to the next life guard tower and back, and the remaining times just around the lifeguard tower. By the third time doing this, I was pretty tired - but somehow, when a good coach asks "ready to go out again?" My brain doesn't function normally, and so I just say "yeah!" and run harder than the previous times.
I am now completely exhausted. In the best possible way - the workouts that make me exhausted and want to cry are usually the most satisfying ones by far.
I love my life.