Oh the humanity! The pool situation here is less than desirable, so since the Kiwana's pool was disgustingly hot, we went to an outdoor 25m pool that only has lap swims from 5:30-7:30 in the morning. Today is a 7 hour ride followed by a 30min run with the swim...damn!
The swim was awesome. A heated pool @ 6:15 in the dark desert morning is kick ass! It was like swimming through fog with the steam rising off the lanes. The sun was rising in the distance, pretty cool. Got the 4000yards in and done by 7:30.
The bike was equally cool. The route I planned took us to Fountain Hills, up 9 mile hill (3% max) and into Cave Creek/Carefree and back through Scottsdale to Chandler (home). The first bit to Fountain Hills was part of IMAZ bike course. That "hill" with a head wind wasn't fun. Even without it, doing three loops of that very gradual hill for an IM, would be hard. After that we spun through Fountain Hills. Pretty cool little place. Think Santa Barbara in the desert. There was one section that included a 18% downhill for about a quarter mile. 50mph+ We should have turned around and climbed it, but we didn't. It was going to be a 130 mile day, no need to hurt just yet.
After Fountain Hills, we headed out to 9 mile hill. Bill had done this in a IMAZ training camp last year. There were some nice rollers getting there. This lead us the backside of Scottsdale. Rode by a ranch with the title of "El Rancho Costa Plenty." You think I'm kidding, nope I'm not! Once into Carefree (Sincuidados) and Cave Creek we were hungry and stopped for lunch at Bad Donkey. Super nice people and great meatball sandwhich.
My Gmap mileage was off a bit, so we decided to cut the route short and head straight down Scottsdale Rd. to Pinnacle Peak and then pick up the route after that. Good idea since we ended with 130, the short way. We found our wall on Pima, Bell, Frank Lloyd Wright and Shea Blvd back to the south side of Fountain Hills, where we turned off of Beeline getting out to FH. The last climb was to FH, nice climb, fast cars and minimal shoulder. Once back into town, we took Alma School road home. Stop light sprint fest.
We arrived just about dusk and quickly put the running shoes on for a 30 minute run. Felt good for about 5 minutes then all hell broke loose. I felt like shit, couldn't get a good breath, kept tasting the meatball sub, etc...i cut it short by a few minutes. Bill, on the other hand, had a great run. Good to see his nutrition is working now.
Dinner was marinated chicken, jasmine rice, broccoli, bread, milk, beer, water, fruit and more water.
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