Almost fully recovered...

No, not from an awesome long run, hard ride, or big brick, but from a weekend of drinking and partying my butt off- neither of which I do much of anymore- with two of my best college buddies. And I learned quite quickly that staying out late and doing shots do not lead to quality Ironman training. It was a blast though!

Jeffrey made us t-shirts:


Kai came out barhopping too:


One funny, one serious (minus Jeffrey):




Me n the boyz:


Aside from drinking, we also went to a very nice dinner at Commander's Palace, went out for crawfish and oysters, walked around the French Quarter, and I even got a few workouts in. I had two cabana boys to write down my times and fetch me cold beverages during my swim workout- not bad at all!

When I awoke on Beverly's couch at 6:55 Saturday morning and realized I had an open water swim clinic at the lake at 7:00 was when things started to go... a bit downhill. I don't know exactly how much sleep I had gotten but it wasn't much. I also don't know if I was already hungover or still drunk from the night before. I quickly rallied the troops (thanks for being such good sports about that, btw), ran home, switched out my fancy dress for a wetsuit, and was off to the lake. In retrospect, probably not one of the better ideas I've had in my life. But it was going to be my first time swimming the race course and I didn't want to miss it. Everything went fine until about 2/3 of the way through the swim. I'd actually been enjoying myself- fighting the chop was keeping me entertained, and trying to follow a course I didn't know, with no buoys, kept me focused. Then, I don't know if it was the chop that finally got to me or if I swallowed one mouthful of lakewater too many, but all of a sudden I decided, "I need to get out of this water NOW". I was feeling ILL. I had no idea how much longer I had to swim but I could see a kayak and a few swimmers out in front of me so I knew I was going generally the right way. I had to stop and breaststroke/doggypaddle for a minute a few times to keep the nausea under control. Not fun. I finally made it out and staggered around for a while until I felt stable enough to get in the truck and drive home. I felt pretty gross for a while afterwards, but I never did get sick. Though I probably would have felt a lot better if I had, I bet.

Unfortunately, the hardcore-ness ended there. The weekend's long brick got severely shortened and the long run didn't end up happening. So now I get to do a 90-mile ride this weekend instead, a week before my half-Ironman, and I just did my long run yesterday. I was feeling pretty guilty about screwing up my training, so I am definitely back on the wagon this week. For the first time, I did a ride and run BEFORE work! This is unheard of for not-at-ALL-a-morning-person me.

The final tally:
Good friends visited: 2
Workouts accomplished: 3
Workouts blown: 2
Bars patronized: at least 6
Drinks had: don't even ask
Fancy dinners: 1
Oysters eaten: 2 dozen
Crawfish eaten: 5 pounds
Hours slept: not nearly enough
A great weekend had by all: CHECK!