What a weekend

First I have to say well done to all those racing at Oceanside this weekend, in particular Charisa and Marit for getting their Kona slots :-) , Jen Harrison for getting Clearwater spot and Rachel and Courtney for having amazing races. Also well done to Maggs for an amazing race in NOLA - Maggs, that bike time rocks!!!

This was probably one of the rare weekends where I was quite grateful for the time difference between London and the US, which meant that I could get all my workouts out of the way before the races even started.

On Saturday plan called for 4 hours hilly bike ride (thanks Jen ;)) and luckily I knew a group of guys who were going out for a hilly ride in Surrey. I have never met most of these guys but through friends etc have been saying that I would join them and after bailing out few times, they kind of stop believing me. So when I turned up on Saturday morning (in the horrible rain, may I add) they were like "You actually exist". :-)))
It was a TOUGH ride - there was a hill after hill after hill. I swear I haven't seen a decent flat section in those 4 hours. And as soon as we hit the hills - a familiar site -they all take off in their macho attempts to get to the top first and I am left there dragging my sorry (and nowadays fat) a$$ up the hills. After a while I kind of got used to it and even though I am not on good terms with hills, I kept saying to myself that they would make me stronger. The first and only time we hit a flat section (5-ish miles) I did my pull at the front and I am glad to say that one of the guys fell of the back :))))))) I would like to take the credit for pushing the pace, still he was having trouble with his helmet strap and fell off whilst fiddling with it. Still I will take the credit! It must have been my pace.

I loved every minute of that ride (apart from the rain) and will definitely be joining them again soon. One of the guys even brought the cakes made by his wife and they were delicious. Yum!!

On Saturday I went for a run in glorious weather. When we have nice sunny weather here in London, it is the best place to be. I ran along Thames and there were so many runners, walkers, rowers (love the sight of rowers :))) and people just chilling in the sunshine. It was a perfect day. And then I had my first ever ice-bath. Jen's put it in my training plan and I was reading it thinking "yeah, right". But I thought to myself "stop being a wimp and at least try". Ouch, ouch, ouch!!! It was freezing but once you are in there you kind of get used to it and it is not too bad. I am not a wimp after all! At least not a big one.

Easter week is here so for us here it means Friday and Monday off, woo hoo.