Stupid Tan Lines and Other Musings

My body took a beating this weekend. Partially due to my stupidity but mostly due to Mother Nature. I had a 5 hour + 40 minute run off the bike on Saturday. We rode out in Bolton / Caledon which is REALLY hilly. There are very few flats on the ride that we do. To top it off, it was REALLY windy. And the wind didn't seem to be coming from one particular direction. It was almost like it was circular. No matter where we turned we had it in our face. There were a *few* (ok maybe 2) times on the entire ride where the wind seemed to be kind of at our back. Holy crap. My heart rate was well above where it should be. I think my average heart rate was about 152. I should be about 145. I started to fall apart half way through the ride and I didn't think I was going to make it back to the car. Miraculously, I started to feel better on the way back. My goal this week was to make sure I ate enough on the bike. I thought that I did, but, once again, I don't think I ate enough to take me through a marathon. I had to do a 40 minute run off the bike and 30 minutes in, I was STARVING. I also didn't put any sunscreen on so I managed to get some great tan lines on my legs - I should actually say burn marks because I got totally singed. I also managed to garner some spectacular red blotches on my arms - I wore a cap sleeve jersey and arm warmers but my arm warmers didn't meet my sleeves so I had some exposed skin. I now have to very attractive and seemingly random red patches on my arms. I'm not sure how I'm going to even these ones out.

I also took the plunge and bought myself a new wetsuit. Crap. All I can say is that I better be faster with this baby. It cost me $600! I'm hoping there's some kind of jet propulsion somewhere, because that would just make things a whole lot easier. It's a 2XU wet suit with "rollbar technology". Supposed to help me roll a little better in the water. We'll see about that in a few weeks time. The best part about this suit is that I seem to be able to get it off my calves with minimal effort, which is MAJOR. I don't want a repeat of my first ever transition at Muskoka (4+ minutes I think). I'll get to take it for a test spin in a couple of weeks since I'm racing the Muskoka long course. WOOOHOOOO!