Train-cation

One of the reasons I wanted to take this vacation in the first place, was to have something to look forward to - something to motivate my training - during the doldrums of winter. It worked! Knowing that we were going to be heading to a warm destination to relax AND train (oxymoron?) helped tremendously with the mental outlook.

So while Sunday was about vacation, Monday was about training.

We started the day off with a trip to TriSports - WAIT - we started the day off with a good breakfast:


I shop at TriSports.com a lot for all the hard to find items that I can't get here at the LBS or LRS (local running store) like CarboPro, Sable Water Optics goggles, and new flavors of GU Chomps and they have great customer service! While at TS, we met Gail Leveque who took the time to show us a map of all the great rides and running trails Tucson has to offer. The best thing we walked out of that store with was the cycling map of Tucson - we used that sucker several times a day for the rest of our trip. Gail was SO HELPFUL! We also purchased a pull buoy (left mine at home) and a TON of nutrition and a couple of souvenir water bottles.

After TriSports, it was time for masters with the U of A team in the AMAZING OUTDOOR U of A pool!! I saw that Monday was their "free and pull day" and thought that would be a better choice than Tuesday - "IM and kick day". Me? IM? I can do 25 fly now but I'm pretty much toast after that.


So RDJr. stayed at the inn and studied chemistry while I swam in an OUTDOOR POOL IN MARCH!!! Practice was only an hour but it was a good hour with no screwing around at the wall. You get the set and you GO! The swim coach told me that they choose lanes based on a 1500 time trial ... um, so yeah ... I think I'll get in the 1:35 lane because this is vacation and I don't want to work too hard. HA! HA! They made me LEAD THE LANE! The new girl gets to lead the lane!! Mistake. They also corrected me on my send off, "um, you're supposed to leave every :10". (This was later, when I was no longer leading the lane - lesson to you!) Back home, we usually leave every :05, but I'm flexible. But this was SCY, and leaving every :10 with five people in the lane meant that the leader would be touching the last person's toes. So I left on :07. HA!

After the swim, I snapped some photos and took my time getting dressed on deck... the pool is HUGE and I noticed that at the far left of the pool, the lane lines had been taken out and there was a group of people swimming around large open-water buoys. WHAT? I should have been doing that!!! No sooner did I put away the camera and start to walk out that I realized Linsey Corbin and Hilary Biscay are standing on deck with me! WE SWAM IN THE SAME POOL! Maybe now, since we shared the same body of water, I will be faster. :)


Have to say, that was a trip. I would have asked them for a photo but they walked into the locker room and that would have been psycho to follow them AND THEN ask for a photo.

I walked back to the B&B and RDJr. had lunch waiting for me. LOVE HIM! We quickly ate slices of pizza and then got ready for a ride. I have to say, I was pretty tired after the swim workout and not being all that acclimated to the heat just yet (it was about 85 that day). I really thought RDJr. wanted to ride so I sucked it up - turns out he thought I was the one that really wanted to ride and he was taking one for me! Ah ... lessons in communication.

At any rate, we chose to do Gates Pass and left around 2 pm from the B&B using the bike lanes and the map Gail had given us that morning. Now, I had an idea that Gates Pass had some climbing to it, because I had read about Jen H.'s experiences on her blog, but I really didn't know what to expect. Yep. Lots of climbing. In fact, the whole way out there is up hill. Add to the fact that it was hot and I was tired, and I got a couple of concerned looks from RDJr. Like, "Really? This is hard for you? Because I'm hardly working at all."

Oh RDJr. - you are a superstar on the bike and you don't even know it. Really. :)


So we stopped a lot - he'll say it was to take pictures because he's sweetheart, I'll say it was to catch my breath because I was hurting. Being as we had never taken this route before, we had no idea what we were riding towards - just that Gates Pass is famous and we should do the ride. I finally said, "there better be a downhill soon!" and just then we saw it - the steepest, fastest descent I had seen in years!!! and the most beautiful valley just below. Take my breath away!!

I thought for a minute that maybe we shouldn't go down it ... because eventually we would have to come back up the sucker ... but that's sissy talk! Screaming down the mountain we went, both acknowledging that we would likely need to replace our brake pads when we got back to KC.


The valley was beautiful! and very much worth it. Coming back up the hill WAS HARD! What is wrong with me? I should be able to do a climb like that without having a heart attack!! Oh well, done and done and the experience was amazing and so was RDJr. who was sooo patient with me and said the nicest, most motivating things to get me up that mountain. The ride back to town was ALL DOWN HILL and we hardly pedaled at all. Ahhhh...

We got back to Peppertrees, ate another slice of pizza (recovery food) and showered. We decided to venture outside of the downtown area to try an Italian restaurant Jill recommends, Vivace. But by the time we found it (it was a bit of a drive) we decided it was not our scene - lots of blue-hairs (as RDJr. put it) and the prices - while reasonable - were not what we wanted to pay that night.

I was hungry and had seen an Old Chicago down the street and suggested we go there - SO GLAD WE DID NOT - but RDJr. suggested we check out Cup Cafe at Hotel Congress. It was fabulous! A-Dog forgot the camera so no photos, but the place is truly unique. It's an old hotel (very minimal - think of the boarding house in the movie, True Grit) with a restaurant, bar and nightclub. The menu at Cup Cafe reminded me a little of R Bar (in KC) and they had fabulous cocktails (I had an El Camino which has Blackberry tequila - YUM!). We also saw a fight while we ate dinner - dinner and a show! The club had some punk/hardcore band playing and some dude got into it with another dude then the girlfriend starts shouting at everyone. It was pretty funny.

Monday was an exhausting day! Wiped out, I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.