Beautiful day in London

Today I had a big training schedule and I was so happy to wake up to a glorious weather. My plan, amongst some other bits, called for a 7 hour ride. Whilst last year I was quite happy to do this on my own, this year I really like some company. So I found out that one of my friends had 5 hour ride on her plan and we decided to do it together. I did my extra couple of hours on my own.

And it worked out perfectly. For most of the ride our views were like this:

Notice that there is no single cloud in the sky :))))

Then, the obligatory coffee stop where I had the best skinny latte ever (sorry Starbucks)

The coffee shop was very popular with local riders so we enjoyed the view of some lovely bikes

And on my way back home I rode through Hyde Park - it was buzzing with people. And this is where we will be watching triathlon in the 2012 Olympics - and my place is less than couple of miles away, yay!!!

And as I rode couple of loops around Regent Park I caught a glimpse of this:

You've gotta love London.

Long weekend

This past long bank holiday weekend was one of the best in a very long time. I took  Friday off work, had a nice lie-in, did some training and early afternoon made my way to the airport to catch my flight to NYC... again. I was really looking forward to it as Shaun and I planned a nice fun-packed weekend.

First stop, West Point class 2009 graduation. It was lovely to see so many dreams of these young people coming true. Lovely weather and lovely day indeed. I loved seeing so many proud parents. 

The rest of the weekend included a long ride with Shaun down to George Washington bridge and back. Most of the day my view was like this

We also discovered a great triathlon shop on this route and ended up buying TriggerPoint stuff. I am looking forward to trying all that stuff. After the training was done, a trip to our favourite sushi place, followed by watching Star Trek at the cinema and grabbing some Jamba Juice on the way back home - life doesn't get better than that.

We've also spend some time BBQ-ing with friends.

Unfortunately, before I knew it, it was time to go back to London and back to work. :(((

Racing, chilling and getting back to work

So this is how I look like after St. Croix 70.3. The race was more than a week ago and I know I am crap at keeping this blog updated but I was chilling on the island enjoying my husband's company ;)))

So I am not going to talk much about the race as it's already history but I will say that it was the hardest and the slowest half-ironman race I've ever done. Pre-race, everyone was talking about the Beast but no one (apart from ELF) mentioned the rest of the bike course. Don't get me wrong, the Beast is hard, very hard but at least it is over and done with pretty quickly. But the rest of the bike course I found much harder. There were so many hills and change of speed, change of gears... You descend, then you start climbing again and think "is this ever gonna end".

I swallowed a lot of water on the swim and my speedsuit was cutting straight into my neck and it was painful. I was not happy with my swim but I am not going to dwell on it. I loved the bike course, as hard as it was, but the run in that heat was just brutal. Coming out of winter, it was really really hard to race in that heat. We haven't seen such hot days since last summer. No, who am I kidding, we never get such hot days.

But the race was done, I finished and that is the most important thing.

I spent last week at West Point chilling as I really needed some holiday. The days before the race I was working such long hours that I really needed just to relax and forget about it all. It was just so nice for Shaun and me to have a bit of a normal married life. We caught up with some friends, watched few films and did couple of rides together. I miss riding with him. But in just over two months he will be back in the UK and we both can't wait. I will miss all my trips over the pond but I also intend to keep going over there at least every 2-3 months. If for nothing else, then for racing and training.

But as of this morning it was back to work and reality. Hopefully it will not be that busy next few weeks - CDA is in six weeks. And I can't wait :)))