Weekend at the Lake

Well summer has officially hit Birmingham, AL. While we have flirted with mild temps all spring, the humidity and heat have settled in and it's starting to get nasty. We've really been blessed so far this year with a lot of rain so it looks like their won't be any draught issues this year, but that only means that our humidity levels will stay a bit higher.
This past weekend, I spent some time with my parents up at beautiful lake Guntersville. We "roughed it" in their new camper that looks more like a condo on wheels. Any camper with two lazy boys and a flat screen TV is ok in my book. After a good meal on Friday night and a good nights rest, I was up and at 'em early Saturday morning before the heat became too oppressive. I found a nice rolling country road for my scheduled long run. I was looking forward to running through some empty farm land. It's odd how starting out keeping speed seemed to be impossible. I felt sluggish and weak. At a 9:43 pace I felt like I was trying way to hard. But something always clicks around 1.5 miles and I start to cruise. Ten miles later and I'm having to tell myself to slow down. Around 12 miles I ran back past the campgrounds and dropped my shirt off to cool down. Dad picked up his circa 1987 all steel framed walmart special and rode along beside me. I was still trying to keep my pace between 8:30-9:00 but Dad kept leaving me on the bike. Can't have that now can we? I picked up the pace and averaged around 7:30 for the next two miles. With a 1/2 mile to go, Dad challenged me to pick it up. I dropped the hammer to a 5:40 pace and cruised back in to the camp ground. It's nice to know that I still had good leg strength in the end. Now, if I can only manage that in an actual race.
After a big breakfast and some recovery, we headed out on the boat for a little fishing. I caught a few, but my Dad did all the damage. He's like a fishing voodoo man. It's crazy weird.
Sunday, my schedule called for a 4 hour ride. I typically like to do these ride with buddies, but I was on my own today. The plan was to keep it slow and easy, which was appreciated as I could feel some soreness in the legs from yesterday's run. The only downside of the day was finding out at the end of the ride that I need to start wearing sunscreen. My arms were baked! They still hurt. Due harsh sun last weekend wearing my tri jersey and the sun from this weekend wearing a roadie jersey I have some really odd looking tan lines.
This morning, I scored my longest swim to date at 2.2 miles. I felt like I could have finished those last few hundred yards, but I figured I would save it and not kill myself. I'd had a good weekend of workouts and was satisfied with that.
It's race week finally. There's a small local sprint tri that I will be training through this week. It'll be interesting to see how I do without tapering and with tired legs. Should be fun.
Tailwinds.