California Dreamin'

This may end up being a perfect day.  I woke up early, as usual, had some breakfast and went to Home Depot to get some pieces of wood for a step for our jacuzzi (didn't work in the end).  Drove out to Newbury Park to pick up my bib for tomorrow's 5K and then headed to Westlake to meet up with Larry from the tri club for a tempo workout.  It was a group workout, but just the two of us showed.  It was a little cool, and a little humid, but it quickly warmed up and the humidity did lead to a lot of sweating.  I warmed up for about 10 minutes before Larry arrived, then we did a warm up ride out to the starting point for our 4x5mile tempo intervals.  The ride is along a long country road, not too many cars, and we even get to pass by Tom Selleck's house!  Larry and I are probably fairly even on the bike, although I had my aero helmet on and he didn't.  The first interval started nicely, I really tried not to go out too hard and let the effort come to me.  It did, and we were against a headwind with some rollers along the way.  I maintained a solid cadence and pushed fairly hard, leaving something in the tank for the next three intervals.  Took a short break to get our breath back and did the 5 mile return.  Most of this was with a tailwind, but I still managed to push my effort quite solidly.  The third interval was the one I'd been waiting for.  I got up to speed and then held a hard effort that got me nauseated about a mile from the end, but I really worked to hold on to the effort at the end.  Stopped briefly to talk with a couple of 70-80 year old guys who were out riding and were impressed with our bikes.  We were impressed with their engines!  I hope that I'm riding when I'm 80!  The last interval was quite solid, probably not quite as hard as the third one, but definitely pushing into the red zone a bit.  Cool down ride back and we were done with what turned out to be about an hour and 45 minutes of cycling.  Drove back to my daughter's house, they're out of town, so I mowed their lawn (hand mower!).  I managed to break a sprinkler head.  Cleaned up around their yard.  All in all, about an hour's worth of yard work, the mowing was intense.  Got home and spent time in the pool with my wife and daughter.  These days when I'm in the pool I'll swim, do drills (one armed swimming, sculling, kicking), swam some with a band around my ankles.  Hopped into our new jacuzzi and then showered and am writing this blog.  Frozen yogurt is up next, then we're going to see a friend's young daughter in the musical Annie, she has the lead!  My plantar fasciitis is improving by the day, hope all will be ok with the 5K tomorrow.