After feeling completely drained throughout all of last week I happily took four FULL days off of running over the weekend. I got in one solid gym session and my first pool session in over six months, but logged exactly 0 kms...and it felt great!
The reason this also worked out so well is that Tamsin and I headed out of town for a little weekend getaway. This was a combination of a late B.Day gift (since she didn't feel like celebrating much a month ago), and a personal reward to both of us for having made it through the roughest part of her post surgery staph infection. After having an IV attached to her for six straight weeks, we were all but too happy to have it finally gone for good. (one nurse said she's seen IV's in people for up to a full year after some staph infections so there was good reason to celebrate)
With a smoking good deal on a Westin Hotel via Priceline.com we were off on an 'out of our element weekend'. No running, no camping, no smelling terrible at any point, just luxury, food, wine, and even some...dare I admit to it...shopping!! (yes I guess I can be very domesticated when I have to be!)
As we closed in on the weekend I could not help but notice that there was an incredible weather system prevailing for days on end, which basically consisted of April-May like weather and temps. We saw nothing but sunshine and had temps up in the high teens. There were cherry blossoms blooming and we got away with t-shirts all weekend long! With this forecast though, it opened up one other option for FUN during the weekend...a MAJOR MANDATORY LIFE EXPERIENCE that I truly feel EVERYONE should be forced into doing at least once...you'll probably go again if you get one under your belt...
SKYDIVING!!
I had gone 4X previously but all were of the 'static line' variety in which you step off a wing, free fall for four seconds, and then get a pretty sweet parachute ride back down to safety just minutes later. This would be my first TANDEM dive and we were to jump from 13,000 feet...meaning a free fall of one full minute and a descent speed of up to 180 MILES and hour!!!
My 'tandem buddy' had been jumping for just slightly longer than I've been on this planet, so I felt pretty safe heading into the whole thing.
All I will say about the whole experience is this, DO IT, YOU'LL NEVER REGRET IT, PERIOD! It's not everyday you can buy yourself a life long memory and story!
(we also got to catch up with some friends from the ultra running world, here you have the winners of:-Headlands 100m
-JFK 50m
-UTMB 165k
-Mountain Masochist 50m &
-HURT 100m, that'd be me:)
All in all a wonderful weekend away and I hit my stride nicely upon returning the running again last night.
GR