Longest Day(light) of the Year

Today started out like 50% of my days normally do…with the alarm going off at 7:34am followed by a quick trip to the bathroom. 8:00am swim practice was the first job of the day. Since we are racing this weekend in the Pacific Ocean, I took my Orca Wetsuit to the pool to remember how it feels.
The pool water is 82 degrees right now because we are sharing the pool with the USA Synchronized Swimming team and they get cold really easy when it’s 80 degrees (the perfect temperature for swim training). So 82 degrees is already a bit warm for normal swimming workouts…imagine it with a neoprene wetsuit on! All I could manage was the warm up set (1000meters) before I had to get out of the pool and practice a quick wetsuit removal.
Fortunately, I like my wetsuit, it’s really comfortable, and I don’t need too much practice with it on. The rest of swim practice (wetsuit-less) was short and sweet…remember, it’s TAPER time…we did some sprints and some side-by-side swimming before warming down and heading for breakfast.
After chow time in the cafeteria and a bit of relaxing time in my room (aka: taking a short nap:) I headed out for a bike training session with Jaz, Jess, and Sarah. We brilliantly chose 12:00pm/noon for the start time of this ride…the exact same time Mother Nature decided to put some nasty storm clouds over COS and dump big drops of rain. My thought process was something like this: “I’m in my bike clothes, I’m on my bike, I’m outside…if I don’t do this ride now, I might never get it done”!
So…we headed out to our favorite street in COS…Wood…and did some efforts at race pace. I put my areobars on my bike before departure so that I could practice in that position and did a lot of 180 and sharp turns during the efforts. (Remember…Long Beach has over 10 x 180 degree turns…practicing them is a smart thing…especially when I CRASHED on the 1 x 180 degree turn in the Honolulu triathlon:)!
Since I was already wet…and my bike was now wet and muddy…I stopped by the USA Cycling bike shop to wash my bike before heading for lunch. After a bit of soap and some elbow grease…my Blue is all shiny/greased/and oiled…and ready to race! My cycling shoes are drying in my room (and I hope they dry fast because we bike early in the morning tomorrow…wet shoes are never fun at 8:00am).
Lunch was uneventful and it was followed my more uneventful activities like checking email, paying bills, solving crossword puzzles, etc. I finally got really bored and didn’t want to actually start packing for the trip this weekend (it’s not close enough to the departure time for me…I must procrastinate until late tomorrow night!). So I headed out of the OTC for a quick trip to the library…I found some interesting reading materials to travel with and maybe educate myself a bit. After the library I stopped at Blockbuster to use a free movie coupon…and of course I picked out 3 movies so I had to pay for the rest!
Now I’m looking forward to either reading a book or watching a movie…as soon as I get back to my room after dinner (tonight we have a Summer Solstice BBQ in the cafeteria…extra yummy)!