Train-Cation

You have probably heard of the "Stay-Cation." The idea that you stay at home during your vacation, but do great things around home:

Well, because we had an amazing Thanksgiving in Cozumel, 

 and 

Ahhhh...that was SO great!

AND, we have INCREDIBLE summer Plans!

A road trip and a race here:

and....a little bike race here:

and...George's second Ironman here:

and....We are hopping across the pond for 10 days to see George's sister, brother-in-law, and our nieces here:

and....our usual week at the beach at Pawley's Island:

In other words, we didn't travel over spring break. Sorry, It's mid-April, and I am getting REALLY excited about our summer!!!

Back to the topic at hand--Spring Break!

We decided that instead of a lame-sounding "stay-cation," we would have a....

TRAIN-CATION!

Here's the plan--train as much as you want anywhere you want to go that you don't normally get to go!

Saturday: 44 mile ride at Silk Sheets with George and Dani! They both push me, which is going to make me stronger on my bike!

Sunday: 50 Mile Ride with Andree and Steve! Steve had 281.2 stickers made, and he gave one to Dani, Jason, and me! Here is is on my car:

Monday: Master's swim at Dynamo! That deserves another whole post! I have been going to Dynamo, and I love it!

Tuesday: I did strength work, then I rode 50 miles with Laura and Scott, then I went straight to Dynamo for masters again! I was tired at the end of this day!

Wednesday: A good follow up to an exhausting day is to go to the gaps! George, Laura, and I loaded up our bikes and rode a 62 mile loop that included Unicoi, Jacks, and Neil's gaps. It was a huge climbing day for us! I am not allowed to stand and limb in the boot, so I am becoming a very efficient climber going up mountains sitting down all the time! I'll tell you, there were a few pitches where I really wanted to stand up!

Then it gets interesting. On the drive home, we hit a bump. We looked back and the bikes looked lower. Yikes. We were on a road with a guardrail and no shoulder, so we had to drive on some. We kept driving until we could pull over. Hit another bump while we were stopping and the bikes gently (THANK GOODNESS!)hit the ground as we stopped. The straps of the bike rack broke! We are SO SO SO lucky that's all that happened!

Here's George with the broken rack:

Then, the real trick was that we had to fit three bike in my little car with three people, and all of our stuff!

So, we got everything in, and then, we had to drive the rest of the way home!  La di da di da....boom......

A blowout on the CAR tire!?! What? Now, to change the tire, we hand to unload and reload all of those bikes and wheels!

What a day!  We dropped Laura off, who was by that point HOURS late for a big meeting at work.

Then George and I had dinner....maybe it was a lot of dinner:

Thursday: After that kind of day, I took Thursday as a rest day!

Friday: Back to the Gaps! We rode the regular three gap and did Neils, Wolfpen, and Woody. It was a great ride!

Saturday: We did the Tony Serrano Century. It is one of my favorites! It is for a great cause, it is an awesome course, and they really do have the best rest stops ever!

Sunday: We went up to Mary Alice Park and swam in open water in our wetsuits for the first time this year! It actually went well!

As you can see, a train-cation can be AWESOME! We had a wonderful week, and now I am incredibly excited for summer!