Taper Week

So it's taper/recovery week. I feel pretty good about finishing up my first build block. Although I had some issues with my last two long rides, so I'm not super happy about that. Two weeks ago I was thwarted by the weather, and then a polo tournament and didn't end up getting the whole allotted time in. Then came this weekend. After my great long run Saturday, I was excited for my Easter morning long ride. I had planned two laps around canandaigua lake. I was hoping I could get it all in in the 5:30 that I was scheduled to ride. I started off around 8am, and the weather was nice, things were a bit damp, but it was at least fairly warm. I made my way from my parent's house down to east lake road, so I could hit the climb over bare hill, and up out of vine valley, before heading down to naples, and back up the west side of the lake. I made it to just before the climb up bare hill and it started to rain. It wasn't too bad though. I was warm, and determined to press on no matter what! I felt great on those first two climbs, and felt like I tore down to naples pretty quickly. I pressed up the big climb out of naples (I'm going to be seeing this route a lot considering the profile of the placid course) and was still feeling really good. I made my way up west lake road, and over a couple smaller climbs there, and made it back to my parents' house to refill on nutrition and head out again. I hit the ~54 mile halfway point at 2:50ish. A little behind schedule. In light of this, I thought it would be a good idea to take the route to naples skirting the climbs, but still about the same distance, to free up some extra minutes. I made it a few miles from my parent's house, and head a terrible noise. Thwop, thwop thwop thwop. Hmmmmm, oh look my tire's flat. Crap. I get it changed out with the replacement tube in, and find that the stem is too short, I can get the pump over it, but it wont seal, so I can't inflate it enough. Crap. I hitched a ride back to my parent's house feeling pretty defeated. What's the silver lining you ask? It stopped raining. Three hours of chilly wetness, and it decides to give up when I have to call it quits. Damn mother nature, she's a jerk. I got home and texted Mary, to ask her if I should add some time to my t-run to compensate. She's awesome, easter morning, and she still got back to me! She said no, just do what I was scheduled for, so Amanda accompanied me on a 30 minute run.

In other news, we officially booked Dinosaur BBQ for our wedding food! I'm pretty pumped about it! Amanda called last night, and the lady was super nice. So we officially can feed our guests! Since she finished up with classes, she's been doing a lot of wedding planning work too. With the food taken care of, we finally have all the big stuff covered. All that's left are the smaller detail stuff. She's found tons of really cool little favor and decoration stuff to make just to put the finishing touches on. She's amazing, she keeps finding bike themed stuff for me that fits into the whole vintagy barn/picnic aesthetic that she has going so far.

With not a whole lot left to cover, I'm starting to think about coming up with an itinerary for the honeymoon. We're doing 2 days in Toronto, 3 days in Amsterdam, and 5 days in Paris. Amanda really wanted to go to Amsterdam, she mostly just wants to visit the Van Gogh museum there; so I have to come up with some other things to do there. Then on to Paris! I've been wanting to get back there for the past like 8 years! I'm really excited about it. I just finished reading a book called The Sweet Life in Paris by David Lebovitz. He's a pastry chef that's been living there for the past 6 years. It was a really funny look into Parisian culture through the eyes of someone trying to fit into it. I definitely recommend it. Plus there's some pretty cool recipes at the end up each chapter, and a list of all his favorite chocolate, and pastry shops n the back. We will definitely be visiting some of these in our time there!

89 days to IMLP!
95 days to the wedding!