Long Time No See

Well, I am alive and well. I know it has been a long time since I posted last, but I have been recharging the batteries and getting ready to gear up for the remainder of the season. I used the week and a half following Steelhead to recover and get in a few solid days of cycling before I left the country for 8 days. The day before our vacation, I did an uphill time trial here in Lexington which was put on by the local tri team here (Bluegrass Tri Club). It was a lot of fun (or at least as much fun as you can have during hard efforts) and a solid last workout before vacation. I drove to Corbin after that bike ride, packed my bags, and was ready to roll Thursday morning. We left Corbin around 5 am and made it to Knoxville for our flight with plenty of extra time. We flew to Charlotte, and then to Punta Cana, Dominican Rupublic. We arrived sometime in the late afternoon and we used the rest of the day to check out our resort and find a nice place to eat. We only had to narrow it down to 1 place of the 14 restaurants that were on our resorts property, ha. We went to bed early since we only got 3 - 4 hours of sleep the night before and were ready to hit the beach.

Here's a pic from our first day on the beach.
Just a shot of the water from our seats. Nice a clear.

We mostly hung out the rest of the day and went out to eat at a different place (which I regret) that evening. Here is a pic from dinner.

Unfortunately, I got something from the food and was sick for the next 2 days. I never threw up but you can use your imagination what I was dealing with. I lost roughly 3 - 4 pounds in 24 hours. All I did was drink water/Powerade, rest, and make frequent visits to the potty.

But, that was the worst part. I still managed to hang out on the beach those days because I didn't feel terrible, just not normal/good. The rest of the food was pretty amazing. We had room service from 7 am - 11pm so we usually ordered a fruit tray after our afternoon run. Fresh papaya and mangos are amazing. The breakfast was always good with omelettes but their version of oatmeal was a little strange (or at least for my taste).

Once I was recovered, I tried to take my rental bike out for a spin, but the chain was broken. Oh well, guess I was going to have to stick to running for the remainder of the vacation.

Adam and I found some pretty baller hats. We did not purchase them because it would have been a safety hazard for us both due to the ladies, ha.

Since we had all of the entertainment we would ever want right on our resort property, we stayed put most nights. This night I tried my luck with some roulette. I lost money really fast that night. I may have lasted 3 minutes. The next night I went back and played for almost 45 minutes and managed to lose zero dollars, but I did not make any as well.

We got to swim with dolphins, sharks, and manta rays while we were there which was pretty cool. Here the sharks are only inches below my feet.

We had a great time and here was a family pic from the last night.

We got back late on a Friday and I was ready to get back to the serious training. Only problem was the fact that I hadn't swam/biked in over a week. My first few rides were a little rough, but I didn't feel as terrible as I thought I would in the water. It is now Saturday morning and I'm about to head out for another bike ride.

Tri for Sight is on the 5th of September, the 10k for 10k in London, KY is the 11th of September (along with UK's first home football game and the first weekend of NFL football, holler) and then I have the Augusta 70.3 race on the 26th of September. With my vacation, I'm mentally and physically rested and ready to hit it hard leading up to Clearwater 70.3.

Until next time...

T-Bird