Run-swim-bike-run

This weekend I had a special guest - my dad came to visit! Here's a horrible photo I took on my phone.

We were fascinated with supposed record breaking heat and obsessively checked the temperature all weekend. 

Record breaking heat is fantastic for running, as we all know. I saw it was going to be well into the 90s by 9am, so waking up at 4am was my only hope for long run survival on Saturday morning. Except that it was already hot when I left the house at 4:30, indicating that I was in trouble.

I was supposed to do 6 miles on my own before meeting Lily, but the heat was making me slow as hell so I only did about 5. We did 11 together, bringing me to 16.25. I can totally do twice that in two weeks at my 50K. 

Despite the heat, it was a pretty good run, a million times better than my horrific run last weekend. We had a plan of where to refill our water bottles, but they were empty long before that point and were dying of thirst. I found $2 in my shoe and it was like we won the lottery. The cashier at Royal Farms took pity on us and lent us the $.11 so we could buy the biggest bottle of water they had, which is one of the reasons I'm alive to type this very blog post.

You would think with all that, I would be dying for an ice bath, but I was still dreading it the whole way home. I even turned off the AC in my car to try to convince myself it would feel good.

I think my last ice bath was sometime around October, and this one was just as miserable as I remembered.

My dad and I went to the Maryland Historical Society museum Saturday afternoon. Although I'm a horribly lowbrow individual, once in a while I do participate in intellectual activities, usually at the request of others. I have a tendency to get really fascinated by history museums and try to read every single plaque and have to be dragged out of there. Then I'll usually go through a period, often lasting several hours, where I swear I'm going to start doing things like discussing the gross national product of China at parties and visiting the nonfiction section of the library. At some point, I'll remember that I have seen every Twilight movie on opening night, and accept that those things are never going to happen. I do find history interesting and really wish I was the type of person who could get lost in a history textbook, but unless historically accurate facts are included in some sort of love story, I'm probably not learning them. Therefore, it was enlightening to visit this museum and see the Civil War from a different perspective than Scarlett O'Hara's. 

Apparently there were other battles that Ashley wasn't even in.

I saw a poster that said something about "British Lions", and thought they were talking about the Lannisters, but then I remembered that the Lannisters are fictional characters, and I was at a museum, and something didn't add up. 

I think I need some sort of support group for people who get way too attached to fictional characters. Ideally, it would meet directly after chocolate addicts anonymous.

Sunday morning the tri club was hosting another swim/bike/run. I was meeting my dad for bagels before he left, so I wasn't sure if I'd have time for the run unless I did it earlier. Additionally, running at 6am meant the temperature would "only" be in the high 80s. I did five slow miles in my neighborhood before heading to the state park. 

I think this is the first time I've even been hot while swimming. Imagine swimming in bathwater, and that's what it was like. I only swam for 500 yards, it took me 15 minutes, and felt really hard. This is my second swim since the half ironman, so, major fail.

On the bike, the dream team was back together - Jackie, Lily, and me. We biked 14 miles in about an hour. I haven't been keeping up with biking, either, but I couldn't exactly bring it with me on my flights, so I'm saying it wasn't my fault. 

I ended up having time to join them for a two mile run, so I officially did a run-swim-bike-run. I mainly wanted to run so we could actually catch up. The problem with swimming and biking is that it's so hard to chat. Maybe running is superior after all.

Are you lowbrow, or intellectual, or somewhere in between?

Do you get attached to fictional characters? In my mind, Katniss Everdeen is a real person, and someday I will meet her.