day2

It’s amazing what even a night of tossing and turning will do for a body. No rest for the weary….

Day2 began with a 10k run on Ali’i at sunrise. It was nice to be running before the thermostat got cranked up! I managed to run–albeit Chariots of Fire slo mo style–almost all of it. Very pleased, since I’ve only successfully reintroduced pain-free road running in the past few weeks; 5 miles one time was my longest in recent months. I’m not sure how much I’ll be able to run this week, but thankful for whatever this old body will permit me to do…one day at a time. My main goal for this year’s camp is to return home no less damaged than when I arrived, if possible. I’ve tried working thru my hip issues this past year with a variety of therapies; who knows? extreme exercise may do the trick?!! So far so good…

After a full post-run breakfast, Anja and Alicia needed to make a trip in the van to the bike shop before the ride, so I found myself with 90 unscheduled minutes, a rare occurrence at EpicWoman camp! So I spent a half-hour in my RecoveryPump boots, then went out for a cruise on my bike collecting kilometers and building up to a bonus point for the day.

Close to noon, we biked down to Kealakekua bay aka Captain Cook monument. Can you say HOT?! My head felt like it was cooking under my helmet at times. It was my first time back on the upper highway since my bike crash at last year’s camp, but Tara thoughtfully stayed with me through the PTSD section and we arrived safely down at the bay where the rest of our crew/campers were patiently waiting.

Next up was the swim across the bay…a rather epic experience following a run and steady climb on the bike! The swim to the monument looks deceptively straightforward, but getting into and out of the water is not easy. Waves come crashing in onto the lava rocks–no sandy beach from which to stroll in and out. And then about halfway to the monument, the dreaded twinges began in my legs. I tried to relax them, swimming only with my upper body, with minimal success. I started to panic, thoughts of drowning–no one else in sight–when I looked below me and counted 7 fins….sharks??! Suddenly, I found myself surrounded by a large pod of dolphins, too many to count but probably several dozen, no exaggeration! They swam close to me (a few just a body-length or so away) and a several stuck their noses out of the water to check out what was going on above the surface. (They likely thought I was a seriously injured very spastic fish!) At that moment, Michele also swam by me and gladly transferred the inflated emergency swim buoy from her waist to mine (she was swimming in a full wetsuit so even in the event of cramp, wouldn’t sink like me); it had been annoying her as she tugged it along so it was serendipitous. I originally thought I could use it like a pullbuoy between my legs, but quickly found that caused my adductors to cramp, so settled for the reassuring tugging as I headed back to shore. I was within a stone’s throw (okay, maybe a Major League Baseball pitch) from the monument at that point, so figured a few loops around the dolphin pod would make up the distance; I needed to get back to the shore before my leg cramps became worse. When the pod headed back out to sea, I turned back to where I started the swim. By the time I tried climbing out onto the rocks where I’d entered, my feet and toes looked like twisted claws from cramp, so probably the right call. Good times! I really think the dolphins sensed my fear and panic and came to investigate; we’ve never seen dolphins that late in the day there. It was pretty magical.
So after rinsing as much sand out of our various body cavities/crevices as possible (for zero beach, we all sure ended up covered with sand!?), we regrouped and had a quick bite of lunch. I opted for pretzels and pickles, orange slices and bit of banana…the things that looked tasty to me. (Think my body was craving salt and potassium??!)

Next up was the TT up Napoopoo, a twisty 7k with just enough grade to get your attention. And work, if approaching it with a race mentality. It was as tortuous as I’d recalled, today being the fifth experience of that particular TT…..Coming back post-TT down to Ali’i drive on the new bypass was intense (I’m a timid descender on a good day; worrying about hand cramping, even worse!) It was rather delightful once the grade flattened out a bit; even after 5 camps here in Kona, there are great roads yet to be ridden! I made up the last few kilometers to get the bike bonus point for the day (pulling a ‘Maya’; last year, she rode loops in driveway to make up the final bit for a bonus point) and gratefully racked my bike in the garage–phew!

Today was massage nite (three 30minute massages are scheduled during camp to help flush out muscles and get a few trouble spots worked on–needless to say, just scratching the surface of what needed attention, but helpful nonetheless!) and I was grateful to get mine in before a very yummy dinner (yay! Having a massage while trying to digest a food baby isn’t very comfortable…). And then I realized that if I sat on the floor with my legs under the coffee table, my plate was chin-level…saving me from having to raise forkfuls of food to my mouth! (By the end of camp, I’m often too exhausted to even eat dinner, so this was an important discovery! ;)

Tomorrow is another big day (even though I’d hardly call today an easy one)….one day at a time….

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