where did that 'wind' come from?

Nope. Not talking about a headwind or a tailwind, or even someone letting out some wind. Saturday night after dinner with friends, we came home and saw a bunch of our neighbors outside, who invited us over. This was at about 10pm, where we stayed and enjoyed a few way too many drinks. When they realized the cooler was empty, we noticed that it was 3:15am. Until I started being this active, this wouldn't be an issue because I'd be using the morning to sleep in recover. An early morning ride or run no longer allows that time, especially when you factor in time to get my stuff ready and drive 30 minutes away to where we meet!

Same hilly route as the week before, same group of boys that I normally rode with, but I felt like I was in a different body. I was sluggish, slow, powerless, yet my effort felt much greater. I was certainly feeling the effects of poor fueling the day prior, alcohol and lack of sleep. I had picked up a pack of Gu Chomps a few weeks ago, the first time I saw sold up here, this would also be my first time trying them. Whether psychological or not; so badly wanting to feel better, I finally recognized some of "me" coming back, got past the worst of the hills, flat stretch before a scenic hilly tour of the lake. We stopped for a few minutes to wait for another group to catch up at which time I took off my long sleeve layer from under my jersey; I was overheating a bit, which wasn't helping with the crappy feeling.

Not sure what contributed to my second wind or where it came from, but the ride back was awesome, and ironically, it turned out to be my fastest ride yet!

Back at the store, switched up my shoes, gloves off, took off for a 2k run. Got about 15 strides in, and realized I still had my helmet on... ugh. Turn around, helmet off, laughed with the others that noticed at the same time I did. Gotta remember that. LOL The run was better than the week before, but it's still a struggle for me... more on that in another post.

As I was at my car packing up the bike and putting things away, one of the clinic instructors come up and asked me how it was. I let him know that it was tough, I had to dig deep, but got it done. When I mentioned my concern about the run, he said I looked good starting the run (where I had crossed paths with him as he was coming back from a shorter ride...) and said that I'm kickin' ass on the bike! One of the other guys came up and said that he was thankful for traffic lights and stop signs so he could could catch up. Tee hee. Hopefully my bike can help me make up some time that I will inevitably lose while on the run... but realistically, time is irrelevant to me. If I finish 'later that same day' I'll be happy.

After an extremely frustrating day, I hit the pool for a 2k swim tonight to burn off some negative energy, I'm now ready for bed to wake up for a 'fresh tomorrow'. Good night.