Memorial Training - Can celebrating a long holiday weekend get in the way of your training?

Memorial Training at the Tip of Massachusetts

How can celebrating over a long holiday weekend get in the way of your training?  Trust me, I am not complaining but there are a lot of distractions that can get in the way of a good, hard effort and caloric burn to stay on target of your personal training goals.  This could set you back two weeks.  Play your cards right and you could hold just long enough.

Packing - Need I say any more how exhausting this can be especially on a weekly basis.  If your a gear junky packing works against you because when you start playing with your gear things get a little slow... ALl hopes for a productive evening are lost when one hour later you are still there contemplating what gear works best with what activity.  Not like you did this last weekend.  Figure it out... you have done this a hundred thousand times!  I cannot imagine what this is going to be like when I have a family.  "I think we need a bigger boat!"

Long Drives - Gets in the way of training time and beat the crap out of you mentally. On the positive side this can be quality time or worse than that if you decide to start discussing politics, religion and finances! Whatever you do, don't talk about all the kayaking and biking your going to be doing.... by yourself on this long weekend.  Let that happen naturally.  No need to remind her that you will be leaving her side the moment her butt hits that beach chair.

Traffic on Cape Cod can leave a person wondering why they did not just stay home!

Lots of Food - The secret here is to just train harder than the extra calories your going to be pounding face with!  You earned the right to pig out and stuff it good. Find a happy medium between the extra 1000 calories by burning them away.  At least you will even things out by the end of it all.

Sun/Beach Lounging - A different kind of training, more relaxing and keeping it real simple and casual like. Breathing the ocean air, listening to the incoming surf, soaking in those golden rays and feeling the cool breeze rush past you.  This is good time to meditate and let the heart rate come down to earth.  Good quality time as well, so make sure the ratio is even lopsided in this direction with other activities. I am very lucky there were no hammocks hanging around..... I would have extremely not gotten any training done at all. Don't bring a hammock.  If you see one... do me a huge favor... cut it down.

Why does everyone have so many clothes on? 

Exploratory Group Outings - Ahhh.  The group activity.  Nothing beats getting the entire gang together and going big for a destination.  This is always a must do with any group.  Too many times everyone goes their separate ways, this is fine but highly recommend the group trip happens early on.  This sets a nice tone for the rest of the weekend. Remember to bring safety, someone who knows where they are going (nothing worse than following me somewhere new), extra water, sun protection.... don't forget to bring a towel.

Exploring the vast expanse of sand dunes at the National Seashore in Provincetown, MA

SO MUCH FUN!

Tasty Beverages  - Achieve equilibrium this holiday weekend by drinking to your hearts content, get the training in first then indulge to ones liking.  Prefer the method of one beer, one chaser of water.. That still gets kind of crazy but reduces the chance of complete and utter dehydration so you can wake up the next day and get it done. Hangovers. even slight ones are not good motivators and making that beach chair looking mighty friendly for the next 8 hours.

Saturday May 24, 2014 Road Cycling at North Truro to Wellfleet, MA
34 miles 110 minutes 580 ft elevation gain
Amazing ride on Cape Cod. Late Spring weather, much too chilly to warrant swimming this early in the season for most people, especially with an offshore breeze but still perfect weather for getting a good road ride. The ride was an immediate all time favorite.  My race buddy John showed me a fun route that takes you from Cape Cod Bay through Wellfleet to the Atlantic and back again.   Lots of short rolling sets of hills on sharp, winding roads make for an outstanding route.  If I had known he was going to get me that close to the open ocean I would have packed a suit and small hand towel and gone for it!  The break was good and surfers taking care of business.  A missed opportunity for sure.

After a nice long midday siesta on the beach chairs with the ladies, it was time to get to work.

On the way back we saw a fox that followed alongside the road in the direction we were riding for a very noticeable long distance.  Even when we circled back around to find out what it was up to, it continued on a path along the road.  Getting back we were able to soak in some last rays of good sun before setting and start indulging in some tasty beverages.  After all its a holiday!

What did the fox say?

Sunday May 25, 2014 Sea Kayaking on Cape Cod Bay, Tip of Massachusetts
11 miles 150 minutes, P&H Capella 16' Sea Kayak with Skeg
Goal was to paddle parallel to the shoreline through Provincetown and then head towards the lighthouse on Long Point Beach and the Tip of Massachusetts. This was my first time in the P&H Capella since purchasing it from a fellow paddler for $100! I also purchased a near mint condition Werner Corryvrecken which is definitely a near high performance sea kayak paddle I have used. Weighing approx 125 grams less than my current carbon whitewater paddle, its a welcomed piece of gear to go the distance without fatiguing. The Capella felt very comfortable, tracked well and stable. Not as responsive as a fiberglass in the same dimensions, a little sluggish was to be expected. Paddling it at about 4.4mph in near perfect conditions is about top sustained speed which is not out of the ordinary for average polymer sea kayak.

P&H Capella 16'1.  (Photo taken by Phillip Werner of SectionHiker)

I started out with John, Justin and his two sons, but they were very eager to take the direction of travel the seagull flies and I continued along shore to check out all the real estate and lots of cool beach houses.   Approaching Provinetown there was an old broken down dock with hundreds of Cormorants, Seagulls and Sandpipers hanging around.  I stirred up the Cormorants and they all went flying off while the Pipers and Gulls just hung around not phased by my presence.

Fearless leader towing newest youth paddler, 1/2 mile offshore in calm waters of Cape Cod Bay.  

Making it in town, lots of people in town this weekend and some were delighted to snap a few photos of me off the main pier.  Lots of whale watches leave from Ptown and today was no different.  Huge boats, packed like sardines heading out and more people taking photos of me.  I waved to satisfy a few of those happy people looking to get a reaction out of me.  I have heard so much about the photographs of the old Portuguese ladies on the pier.  They were even more beautiful in person, quite breathtaking to be able to see them so close. Probably my favorite part of this paddle was just stopping to take a long look. Just imagine the stories they had to tell!

Priceless! Visit this link for more information.

Moving right along and to the lighthouse.  Boat traffic got heavy passing the breakwater but I was only 1.5 miles or so from the beachhead.  Made it there dodging boats and got some good wave action in their wake which is always fun since it was such a calm day on water.  Made it to Long Point Beach, found a nice rocky pile to pull the kayak up too.  Went inland to check out the lighthouse and there was grassy field all covered in poison ivy. Watch where you step, dangerous territory so did not spend too much time tip toeing around every bend.  Very dodgy!  I did not bring a lunch but a pop tart sufficed.  Adequate energy food for not being prepared. Met a lone fella from Texas living in Boston making frequent trips to Provincetown to get away from the city life.  Can't blame him this place is pretty incredible. Its about a 45 minute walk to get here from town but why do that when you can hire a boat to drop you off.  Before I knew it there were like 20-30 people on the beach.  Time to go.

Approaching Long Point Beach

Decided to paddle to the Tip of Massachusetts which is nothing more than a beach, a growing beach as sediments get deposited here annually, it just keeps growing and growing.  Taking the coastal route would be too much of the same so I paddled towards Wellfleet and out into more open water about 3 miles or so offshore.  Paddled out to the rather large channel marker. Once again, boat traffic.  Everyone is navigating the closest route to that marker.  Had to dodge a few boats but no problems.  Continued heading out and out, saw a huge jellyfish with long tendrils stretched out along the surface.  Suspect it was a Lions Mane and it was a magnificent sight.  Continued paddling across and decided that I should make the 90 degree shift and paddle for shore.  I was still about 40 minutes offshore when I made that decision and it seemed like it took forever to see any sort of change in the view.  Finally could start to make some things out, and new I was dead on target for the cottages at Pilgrim Heights.  Thanks to the wind socks flapping in the light breeze.

Arriving back to all the good wives lounging around and enjoying themselves.  John, Justin and the kids not back yet, some worrying and discussing where they could be.. but in the end all worked out.  They just had a nice long ice cream break and took their time coming back.  Mission Accomplished!


Monday May 26, 2014 Sport Biking at Provincetown, MA and National Seashore
27 miles 100 minutes 480 ft elevation gain
Everyone went home for the weekend but I could not get enough of the Cape!  Astrid took a 3 hour nap after spending some time walking around downtown Ptown and saying our goodbyes.  I took a one hour nap in a hard blowing westerly wind with waves crashing ashore it was a perfect soothing moment, time for me to meditate and relax.  Then I woke up!  Packed some gear and jumped on the mountain bike for a solo mission, strength workout where I would increase the gearing and push the cadence in intervals. I did that for pretty much the entire ride.  Its a crushing workout, really getting the heart rate up there.  9-11 miles was spent on the bike path along the National Seashore.  What an incredible setting.  Biking in between and up and over countless sets of sand dunes, then just inland cruising through coastal Beech forest.  I really enjoyed this ride and look forward to the day I can take my kids here....and Astrid because she was sleeping and missed out... not on the strength interval ride though :-)

We cannot thank John, Crystal and the Popko Family enough for so generously opening up their home away from home to us all!

Highlights captured from the amazing weekend

Work hard, train hard, play harder!
Mark