Don't play with dead snakes is Jim Barksdale's rule, so why is this entry in "ironman training". Well, that's because I encountered some dead snakes this weekend at Lake Berryessa, another weekend with the IronTeam. It's funny how tempting it is to actually play with dead snakes. If I hadn't heard JB's saying, I probably would've checked those snakes out.
I left for Lake Berryessa on Friday around 7pm. I got there at 10:30pm but should've gotten there at 8:45, 9pm, it was a bad night. The next morning we did roughly a 2 mile swim in the lake (we started at 7am). The swim was fun, 3 loops around a couple buoys and this one weird structure. After the swim, we went on an epic 92 mile bike ride that was over 7500 feet of climbing (Ironman Canada for example has a little over 3500 feet of climing over 112 miles). The bike ride was very beautiful with hawks flying about, vineyards, a couple dead snakes (deer, rabbit, etc), a dog chasing after me, several creeks we had to cross on foot, a tunnel, a downed motorcyclist that had to be helicoptered out of the area, lots of climbing, long descents, and a bit too many potholes.
When we got back, I ate my ice cream, we had a very nice dinner (hamburgers, potato salad, berries, pie), and there was even some entertainment our very own stand up comic on the team.
The next morning, we went out for a 2 hour run. I cut it a bit short, there was some waffle, bacon, and eggs that was calling for me back at the cabin. After that, headed home and didn't get lost this time. Awesome weekend.
Much to lucky to be part of lots of great teams over the years.