Bayshore Park

Jeff and I took the kayaks out on Sunday for a beautiful paddle.  It was a perfect day on the water.  No wind, calm as can be.  We put in at Bayshore park and paddled north past Dykesville. 

The bay is very shallow where we paddled so we saw quite a bit of wild life either sitting on rocks or docks.  On our way back we came across a pile of rocks not too far off shore.  It was about 4:30 in the afternoon and the sun was just right that all you saw of the birds on the rocks were their silhouettes.  This is possibly one of my pictures from any of our kayaking experiences.  Nature at its finest.

Here are a couple more of the same birds:

Weekend Warrior #1

I always laugh a bit when I go back to work on Monday morning after a long hard weekend of training and everyone is like "What did you do this weekend?" and I reply, "Not much".  Kind of funny.  So this weekend was a BIG training weekend.  Close to an Ironman in about 48 hours.  I get to sleep two nights in there and eat a couple meals in there, so it should be easier right.....sure didn't seem that way though. 

Friday - swim:

Friday night after work I went and swam with my coach Mike and his wife at a small lake in the Waupaca chain of lakes.  2.4 miles.  This was good practice in my wet suit.  I only get to swim in it once in a while so any open water I can get is great.  This was a nice little lake.  About 265 yards across so there are back 8 times is 2.4 miles.  I felt good and tried to work it like I would in a race.  Got home a little late after this but it was well worth it.

Saturday - Brick

Saturday I got up early and headed out on my bike ride.  I had mapped out a route to Kewaunee along Hwy. 42.  This is a nice road, a little busy but pretty riding along Lake Michigan.  I had some watt goals I was supposed to meet for this ride, so going into this I knew it was going to be my hardest long ride I had ever done.  And that definitely proved to be true.  1,700 feet of elevation gain, which for my Colorado friends is nothing, but for Wisconsin that's quite a bit.  I got to Kewaunee and stopped for a quick break for a snack and a few pics of the lake.  It was very pretty today. 

The pictures don't really do the lake justice.  Sorry.  After my short stop I headed home.  It was dang hilly.  Whew!!  But I made it.  93 miles.  Then picked up Asher and we did our brick.  We were both hot and it was tough but we did it.  And then each drank about a gallon of water when we got home.  3 miles....done.

Sunday - Long Run

Sunday was my long run.  I was going to meet Mark at 6, well at 5am it was lightening and thundering so we postponed the run until 7:30 after the storm passed.  I wasn't real excited about getting struck by lightening, not my idea of a good time.  Well holy humidity after the storm.  This run was tough, for everyone involved.  Mark and I met, did 3 miles, then picked up Erik for some more.  We got Asher 6 miles in and I was struggling already.  We ran back to Voyager and met up with Julie Petersen.  It was nice to see her.  Dropped off Erik and got a big drink.  Asher was steaming already at this point.

The dog days of summer, as my friend once told her Golden Retriever.  So Mark, Asher, Julie and I continued on.  Gotta get the run in.  We ran some more, dropped Julie off, drank a ton more and then headed back.  I was out of gas, totally.  And very warm, as were Asher and Mark.  It was a tough run but we got it done.  16 miles....done. 

After the run Jeff and I went kayaking on the Suamico River.  It was hot even doing that, especially when you stopped but it was a very nice paddle.  It had been a while since we were out on our kayaks so it was nice to get back out there again.  We paddled this river as our second ever outing last year and this year we could tell how much stronger and more experienced we were.  It was cool to see the huge difference. 

 

Recap: 2.4 miles of swimming, 93 miles of biking and 19 miles of running.  Not quite an Ironman but decent training volume.  Oh and a nice paddle of about 2 hours.  Overall it was a very tiring weekend but a lot of fun.  Wouldn't trade this life for anything!  Have a great week everyone!

Memorial Day

I know I am really late with this post.  I have been busy lately.  Still got a house for sale....anyone interested??  Anyway, had a really nice Memorial Day weekend.  Did some kayaking, running, biking, swimming and even went to the outdoor theatre in Freedom. 

First off, on Saturday ran with the guys (I was the only girl, not too scary though) in the morning.  Went and checked out Scray Cheese after the run.  Pretty cool place.  Then went kayaking in the afternoon.  Put in on the Suamico River and paddled out in the Bay to Longtail (a popular sand bar that is usually packed on the weekends, and it was hopping).  Once you get to the end of the island you can see the Tower Drive bridge.  Pretty cool.  On the way back we parked the kayaks and put our feet in the water.  It was very warm.  It felt really good. 

Tower Drive bridge

Tower Drive bridge

East Shore of the Bay of Green Bay

Green Bay West Shores State Wildlife Area

On Sunday Erik and I biked.  Then Asher played outside a bit in his pool to keep cool.  It was hot!!  We then went to Appleton to Fava Tea (our favorite place for loose leaf tea) to the mall and on to the Field of Scenes in Freedom for an outdoor movie.  We saw Shrek Forever After and Ironman 2.  Both were very good.  Because it's outdoors, the movies don't start until dusk, which is late...for me at least.  The first movie didn't start until 8:45 and we didn't get home until 1:00 am.  Which is way past my bedtime.  Asher's too I think.  He was getting very whinny and cranky towards the end of the second movie.  He just wanted to jump in my lap and go to sleep but I was sitting in a lawn chair so he curled up by my feet and continued to be cranky until we went him home.  Just like a kid.  This place totally has it figured out though.  They do a great job.  They have tons of food and lots of stuff for the kids to do while you are waiting for the movies to start.  They even have wagon rides.  It's a first come, first serve deal and only 300 cars get in each night so you have to get there early.  We got there at 6:15 and there was already quite a few people there when we got there.  They even have all the little details worked out, like ropes to tie down your hatches so you turn off your inside lights and don't block the view of anyone behind you, window cleaner to clean your windows if you sit in your car to watch the movies, the rows of cars are big mounds so you can park at an angle and not be obstructed by the car in front of you and battery chargers in case your battery dies while you have the radio on listening to the movie.  They just do a great job and it's fun.  I just wish it wasn't so late. 

Asher at his first outdoor movie

Asher people watching

The screen and all the cars parked ready for the show to start

On Monday, Memorial Day, I slept in...kind of....late night the night before at the movie.  I went for a bike ride and then a short run with Asher (who was still cranky from the late night before).  Since Asher was still cranky we left him home to sleep and went down to High Cliff State Park and kayaked on Lake Winnebago and then I swam and tried my new wetsuit.  The half ironman is in just a couple weeks so I wanted to try it out.  It worked great and the water was nice.  Warmer than I expected. 

High Cliff State Park/Lake Winnebago

High Cliff State Park/Lake Winnebago

High Cliff State Park/Lake Winnebago

It was a very fun weekend.  We were super busy but all good things.  I was tired when I went back to work on Tuesday. 

First Kayak of 2010

Saturday we finally got the boats out for our first kayak trip of 2010.  The place we bought our kayaks from had demo day so we went down there to try some higher scale kayaks, see if there was anything we liked better.  Overall consensus, we like what we have and are sticking with that.  So we then put ours in the water at Fox Point and paddled towards the De Pere damn and back on the Fox River.  It was nice pddle and very nice being back out on the water. 

The De Pere bridge and Damn

The Damn was flowing strong.

The Pelican's are back!!

Pelican's by the Damn

Pelicans

 (ignore the orange drainage pipe from the dredging of the river)