Triple Threat at Fort Yargo

Wow...had a jam packed, tiring, but great day yesterday. Left the house at 7:00 a.m. to meet Lori and Pilar up at Fort Yargo for a full day of exercise and girly fun. A fender bender (I was a witness, not involved) threw me off schedule for about twenty minutes, so I arrived at 9:15 instead of the planned 9:00. One side note...what makes people think that, though the speed limit says fifty-five, they have every right to putz along at forty miles per hour? GRRRRRRR!

Lori and Pilar...hamming it up pre-swim

It was the first time I met Pilar, but the truck with two bikes in the back near the beach let me know I'd found the right girl. Lori was running behind too, but we made it down to the water at about 9:30. It being a holiday weekend the small swimming area was jam packed with kids...but we manuevered around them the best we could. The small swim area was okay when you were in the middle of your out and back, but the two ends were so shallow you could easily do a crab scuttle with your fingertips instead of a swim. I was pleased to see that my combo crawl/breaststroke manuever works fine and is pretty speedy. Haven't been in the water much lately, so was pleased to see I hadn't lost too much ground. The water was actually quite nice once you got yourself immersed.

Mallie & Lori...buddies until I threw her in (kidding!!!)

When we couldn't hack the kids anymore we headed in. A woman floating on a chaise offered us much praise for actually swimming and exercising in the water. Little did she know that the real effort was about to begin!

Pilar hasn't done much MTB riding and had crashed on her one and only ride at Ft. Yargo, so we couldn't convince her to join us. She has her first triathlon in a week so decided to ride her road bike and do a little pavement running. Lori and I hopped in our cars for the quick trip down to Entrance B so we could enter the MTB trails in a familiar spot. This was my second attempt at Ft. Yargo, the first being the disastrous pre-diagnosis ride on my wedding anniversary. That first ride found me barely able to slog around the course in the lowest gears of my granny ring. Happy, happy day...I rode most of the trail in my middle gears of the middle ring and only had to resort to granny on the couple climby sections. Huge improvement, though I still have decided shortness of breath issues from time to time. The rain the previous weekend meant we got a bit filthy, but good soldiers that we are we rode straight through the mud puddles (so we didn't widen the trail or make ruts). They hadn't completed one new portion of train when I'd done my pre-ride, so I got to check out a really fun little downhill section that pleased me much more than my pre-ride option which was a second section of granny ring wide open powerline climbing!

Filthy and sweaty, but feeling good, Lori and I put more water in our camelback bladders, she chowed down on some trail mix and I chewed on a half peanut butter waffle (whole grain waffle instead of bread for something different). She grabbed her walking poles and we tromped off on a ninety minute hike. The biking trails are pretty up and down, but certain sections you don't notice as much on the bike, as some seem small in comparison to others. Let me tell you, when hiking, you realize how much up and down this course has. On the bike parts of it give you a false sense of flat. The trek really worked the hams and calves (I started feeling it after the two our drive home, and I currently smell like a Wint-o-Green lifesaver so you know I've got on the Icy Hot), as well as the lungs as you swung arms big time to get up some of the climbs. 45 minutes out, then back and it was 3:00 p.m.

Hot!!! Can you say hot! With the cars running we set the air conditioning to cool them down before we climbed in for our respective rides home. Then the fun of the parking lot change. There was no way we were driving home in the muddy, sweaty, buggy clothing we'd been in all day. Baby Wipes weren't enough. Luckily our swim towels were still damp, so they got the bulk of the mud off, then the wipes did detail work. If you haven't mastered the art of removing damp tight tri-shorts under a towel without losing said towel and flashing other folks in the lot, well you just haven't lived life. It's also fun trying to remove your filthy, damp top and get into a clean bra without flashing some hooter for all in view. But we managed, with careful manuevers between opened front and rear doors. And we called it a day.

I arrived home a bit sore, quite tired (I swear I have driving induced narcolepsy)and really happy with the amount of exercise. I can't wait to meet up with these girls again. Pilar plans to come down to the Maconga to test out the Pig soon and since Lori's joining Courtney and I for the adventure race I'm sure I'll be seeing a lot of her.