down but not out

Triathlon training got slightly off track this past weekend.  On Thursday afternoon, my throat started hurting and by Friday morning I'd completely lost my voice.  After one flight with a student who could fortunately handle my communicating with him via pen & notepad, I spent the rest of the afternoon at the Centra Care and walked away with some antibiotics.  I haven't slept well since Thursday night, my sinuses are killing me, and my Sunday customer (with whom I'd flown on the previous Wednesday as well) cancelled because he was sick.  AH HA!  THAT'S where I caught it from!

So, I haven't felt like doing much is what I'm saying!  After opening up my nasal passages with some spicy crawfish on Sunday, I decided that on Monday I'd go to DeLeon Springs State Park where they have a big ol' swimmin' hole in the fresh spring and do some swimming.  I'd drag Scot along and bring the bikes with the intention of hopping on and getting some mileage after the swim.  I also wanted to try out my new triathlon outfit!

I did purchase road tires for my bike but didn't manage to get them on before we drove up to the spring.  I paid for that mistake later!

DeLeon Springs has a big natural pool that's about 60 yards across.  It ranges from 3-30' feet deep in the middle where the spring bubbles up.  The water is 72 degrees year round!  It felt wonderful!

And dayum, 500 meters is a long-ass way to swim!

I did 6 laps back and forth across the pool for a total of about 360 yards/meters/same damn thing.  I was whupped!  I took a break between each trip back to the entry steps, and was breathing pretty hard by the time I finished.  I gulped down my Nuun and parked it on the edge of the pool for a while.  Good god, swimming is hard!  A lot harder in real water than in my pool at the house!  I did like swimming in the spring, though.  The water felt amazing and I wasn't grossed out too badly when my toe hit the sandy, algae-y bottom.  I could see easily in the crystal-clear waters.  I'll definitely need more work with this part, I think we're going to try Blue Spring, which is closer to our house, next.  

The biking thing?  Turns out, there was no where to ride a bike here!  We had to pack back up and drive to the Lake Beresford trail to ride, which meant my "transition time" was almost 30 minutes.  Yeah, gotta work on that.  I did 7 miles on the bike before I felt too exhausted to do anything more.  I had full intent to go to Abbey Run Club that night but after being sick for so many days my body told me I'd done enough.  Scot went to run later, I stayed home and watched a rerun of Say Yes To The Dress with a pile of snotty tissues.  

It's pouring down rain right now (typical Florida, yeah?) so I'm kind of glad I can't get out and do anything.  I'm planning to run tomorrow morning because I have a 10K race on Sunday- the Remarkable River Race up in Port Orange.  It's actually at the same place the triathlon is going to be so I'll be able to go check it out!