Friends Make Things Better

There has been some working out going on here, Dirtbag friends. But for reasons known only to me (hint- summer break makes me lazy) I haven't been updating my blog on a regular basis. I know this upsets my regular reader, so I'm trying to play catch up now. This weekend was also the Dirtbag Swimtacular Weekend of Swimmingness, which means there is a double race report in our near future.
Last week I ran to the gym for a swim and ran home. The total run distance is just over three miles. But I'm positive I messed up my right hamstring/calf area during the Honu 70.3 because running freaking hurts. And not in a good way. In a Ok, I Need To Stop And Walk way. I don't know what my problem is when it comes to running. I'll improve for a while, feel good, feel confident, and then something will get injured. And I think I'm being careful. You couldn't rest your leg more than I've been doing on a regular basis the last two weeks. So there has been lots of stretching and massaging and talking nicely to the muscles. It feels like a bad strain and contracting hurts. Hope it gets better soon. I bet that my foam roller would help, but it got packed in storage and that might as well be packed like this for as easy as it would be to find the roller.

Exaggeration for comedic effect...but only just

While running hurts almost too much to run, riding hurts, but not enough to not. At least, as long as I don't go far. So I met up with the Grey for an easy ride last week, just 30 miles down Pineapple and back. When you're away from riding for any amount of time getting back to it hurts. Climbing is never fun. We stopped once or twice so I could stretch it out and I stretched more when I got home. It wasn't as bad the next day as it was after the runs, where I was limping around the whole day, but it wasn't great. Feels better as I sit here, so maybe a little activity is what the muscles needed. Yeah, let's go with that.
I had a big fun swim last week too. A friend from 100 years ago, now called Smashlete by her local tri club and so here as well, that I swam with on my club team when I was just a little Dirtbag, and then swam against in high school when I was an Ego Dirtbag (more so than now), visited the island. It was awesome to see her. We've been keeping up on Facebook, yay interwebs, but hadn't actually seen each other for ten years at least. So it was great to get back together. Super Awesome Wife and I met with Smashlete and her husband a bunch of times while they were here. She recently got into the tri scene as well, doing local sprint tris in the Northern New York state area. She's also kept up on her swimming and every few weeks I'd get an email from her. "We can go for an open water swim while I'm there, right?" Yes, yes we can. Few weeks later, "You're still going to take me somewhere for a nice open water swim?" Yes. As bad luck would have it, she landed the day after the Flat Island swim and left two days before the start of the North Shore Swim Series and the Aloha Salads Summer Sprint. So instead we went to Waimea and I took her around the bay, swimmer-style. It isn't the prettiest swim on the island, I know. But it is one of the easier ones to get to, to keep track of, and to control. We could have swum down the coast somewhere, but we left Super Awesome Wife, her husband, and a friend on the beach. Still, you can't complain about swimming in Waimea. It was good fun, and not a bad workout. I hope I get to see her again before another ten years has gone by.

Dirtbag and Smashlete (I forgot to tell her we were being tough)