Monday, April 28, 2008

Vegas Baby!



Early Friday morning, Adam and I headed out to Vegas. No, we haven't added late night partying, and gambling to our training regimine. This originally was supposed to be a trip for a little R n R,and some warm weather, and just hang out without the computers and phones on (much). A "no work" trip which rarely happens for us. But with Adam's achilles, and our extended winter we decided to bring our bikes and train!!! It was worth it.

How funny, a training trip in Las Vegas!!! Not what you'd immediately think of as a triathlon training mecca......however it turned out to be awesome!! We did get some well needed RnR, but also some incredible training. We were the tri geeks walking through the casino with our tri bikes and gear in the mornings headed out to ride, while people we passed were stumbling barefoot holding their high heels in 1 hand carrying a 1/2 empty drink in the other hand!!! We were triathletes by day, and I enjoyed the soaking in the pool in the afternoon and Adam played Blackjack. And of course there is always great food in Vegas, and plenty of people watching, oh my!

Friday we headed out to ride on the this year's 1/2 Max Nationals course by Lake Mead. We had done USAT club nationals out there 2 years ago and quickly remembered how hard that race was. The riding is awesome. Pretty tough a lot of long climbing, and for me its always a good workout just trying to stay behind Adam. Anyone planning on doing this race better find some hills to practice. I LOVE the Mtns and LOVE the desert so I was loving life.

Saturday we did another long bike with some tough intervals, and a run off the bike. I had dead legs by the end of 2 days of 3 + hr rides, but know I got some good work in. Next up was a swim, and we found an awesome pool in Henderson. This pool had long course meters outdoors! but a swim meet was going on so we swam our laps indoors. But what a neet facility. The place was huge. Why can places like this have such cool pool facilities and we live in Chicagoland and do our masters in health club pools. I was feeling pretty tired by the end of all this, and headed to the casino pool to "soak" my legs. Yea, not really cold enough for a true ice/ bath, but very relaxing. I was the white tri-girl from the north in a bikini with biker tan lines looking a little out of place. Have you ever seen the people at these places. Wow, lots of bling and people with a whole lot going on. That night we went to see Cirqu de Soleil/ "O". Talk about athletes. OMG! This was an amazing show. These people show true athletiscim in a way different from swimming biking and running. I sat there with saucer eyes and my jaw dropped for 2 hrs! I highly recommend seeing this if you ever get a chance.

Sunday we drove out to Red Rock. Now I was on cloud 9! This is one of those places where the rocks in the Mtns are bright red and cool formations. I did a long run on the edge of Red Rock National Park, I decided on an out/back where the way back was mostly uphill and facing this awesome view. Then we did a "recovery" ride around the scenic loop through the Park. At this point my legs are pretty toasted, and the first part of this ride has a lot of climbing. A few times I wondered if I could actually get the pedals to turn over but, then came the peak with an awesome overlook, and the views were amazing and made the hard work worth it.

We got home yesterday to...38 degrees? Are you kidding? I still had shorts and t-shirt on. It was freezing. This is exactly why we decided to haul our bikes with us and get some training in.

Train Safe.

1 comment:

carmen said...

Bravo Lindsay! To stick to good training...and not hit the bars...and I bet you were the only one at the pool with proper and truly carved (non-surgical) abs, torso, biceps...;-)) ...etc.