Saturday July 31

Two weeks until the Give-It-A-Tri


7:00 am rode to work to check on the Caribana crew. Then
Bike 80 minutes, a bunch of it on hills. Basically from Polson Street up Broadview to Danforth, across the Yonge, north and uphill on Yonge, over to Moore Park, down the ravine to the Brickworks Farmers' Market. Then Bayview to Gerrard, to Parliament for some shopping then to St Johns Bakery and then home.

Two-A-Day!
Was cold this morning but by 12:30 it had warmed up so it was a good opportunity to try out the wetsuit at Cherry Beach. Water’s really cold when you first get in but after a few minutes it’s not so bad. The first 5-10 minutes splashing around in the wetsuit was awkward and it’s a strange feeling to have something that feels like a rubber band around your chest restricting your breathing. Went back to the shore and stood up, relaxed for a while and then swam out to a buoy 100 meters from shore and back. I’ll get used to it but even if it does provide extra buoyancy it feels like it slows me down a lot. If the water’s warmer for the Tri, might consider swimming without it.
Then since I had to bike back home anyway, decided to take up Unlikely Hero’s advice.
Quickly got out of the wetsuit, put it in pack. Put on bike shoes without socks. Pack on back and biked home quickly. Was doing 30 kph for the first few minutes until I started to hit some red lights, but kept above 25 for the rest of the short ride. Got home, hung up the wetsuit, put on shoes, went out and ran a little less than 2.5 km in 15 minutes.
Without any pressure or people around, it’s fun. We’ll see how it turns out two weeks from today.

Bonus tip: a stretchy tri belt can also be used as a strap for holding an ice pack on your knee and lower leg.