jones-ing already

We got back from out cruise on Saturday morning and I'm already missing it and ready to do another one. What a different experience from Greece. The appeal of an all inclusive vacation is very difficult to beat. We never have to worry what to eat, when to eat, what to do, or where to go. The only additional expenses was the pleasure of the casino. Other than that, the shows, the entertainment, food... no worries.
If you haven't had the opportunity to enjoy a cruise, I would highly recommend it.
I can't wait for our next one!
pictures here.

Day 5- St Maarten

Another late night, but not quite an early morning. Both desiree and I decided to sleep in as we would be reaching port at St Maarten at 8. We got things together and me up with mom and mike for sit-down breakfast and then to town to explore the island. We took a water taxi and bought round trip tickets back and forth. This way we could have unlimited trips.
This island was mug cleaner and what Desiree expected- nice like Park Ave. Again, the girls wanted jewelry so mike and I came up with a plan. We both took a shop guide and reconned with shops had free jewelry and marked it down in the guide to be more efficient.
We headed back together for lunch on the ship and decided to do sit-down to-order lunch instead of the buffet lunch. Much more enjoyable and less hustle and bustle. After lunch, mom and mike stayed and Desiree and I headed back to land to enjoy the beach. The water cool and nice, relaxing and refreshing. I taught Desiree how to breathe for swimming. She got the rhythm down very quickly. We walked around the shops again, revisited one of the liquor shops and bought a few bottles and had them delivered to the ship. Afterwards we ventured to the older part of town and shops. Here we saw school kids, older shop, and Desiree found a wedding boutique. She wanted to find a silly hat. I quickly glanced in and was like "umm...not so much. Remember that episode of Bethany Ever After where their daughter gets baptized..?" Desiree responded with excitement "I can't believe you quoted the show." We headed back to the ship to relax before meeting mom and mike for dinner and then casino for the rest of the evening.
Next two days at sea before returning to Port Canviral on Saturday AM.

Day 4- St Thomas

Another late night and early morning to the gym for Desiree and I. I added some weight training again. We got cleaned up and met up with mom and mike for sit down breakfast again before heading off the ship for the famous St Thomas.

We all took a taxi together at $4/person to the main downtown shopping area. We set off on a scavenger hunt to collect all the free jewelry. Desirees impression of this island would be something like Park Ave in Winter Park, however not so much. It was dirty and crowded and not what was expected. However the people were still very nice as opposed to Greece.

Mom and mike wanted to head back to he ship while Desiree and I ventured walking along the shore. The goal was to get to a marina and take a boat to another island to go swimming. We started walking along the waterside. We saw a sign that said 30 mins to Crown Bay. Did hat mean waking or driving? Big difference. Well we just kept walking and taxis would honk as they slowly coasted by to tempt us to give in on walking. Fortunately we saw signs '15 mins to Crown bay.' We passed areas that didn't seem like to best to walk thru with schools in session enclosed with barbed wire fencing. Another 5-10 mins and we had reached our destination with a marina bar Tickles at he water front. The boat we needed to take to get to the other island to swim left just a couple mins prior to our arrival. However we were hungry, tired and hot and decided to grab a bite to eat relax, and take a taxi back to the ship. Yummy turkey burgers.

We flagged a taxi down and he only charged us $10 for the both of us when we were expecting around $8/person. Lucky!

Back to the ship for a nap and get clean up before meet up with mom and mike for dinner. A little bingo after dinner for the big show- Dancing in the Street with the live band playing live popular and old school music.

Casino and sleep before our day tomorrow in St Maarten.

Day 3- at sea: sit down breakfast, sun, lunch, poker, siesta, dinner, show, casino

Waking up and Desiree and I were loyal again the our buddy gym. Afterwards were found a sit down to-order breakfast. Much better than buffet style. 
Because we would be at sea all day, relaxing is the name of the game. All four of us went to the Serenity deck to lay out in the sun. I pulled my lounge chair into the shade and took a nap. Lite lunch and a little casino time while Desiree and mom went to a jewelry seminar for St Thomas and St Maarten- "an hour that they will never get back"- says Desiree. 
More nap time before dinner and then to the encore theatre for the big show. Tonight was a female impressionist (insert name) who did voices of Cher, Celine Dior, and many other singer.  She was amazing. Sounded just like the original artists. Acoustics in the theatre are amazing and all the music is live by the house band of (insert name). They are truly 1st class. 
Casino with craps and poker as usual then off to bed. 

Day 2- Nassau, dress up dinner, poker, comedy and show

Desiree and I both woke up early to get a good workout in. We both watched the sunrise from our respective cardio and I did weights abs finished with a medium tempo ride on the stationary bike. We wanted to get our workout in early because we would be porting at Nassau at 8:30 and wanted to has breakfast together before getting off the ship.

We met mom and mike for breakfast and off we were to explore what the Bahamas have to offer. Tons of jewelry/diamond shops. About a few hours left left, mom and mike decided to head back while Desiree and I went to go play at a beach.

The water was clear and beautiful. Cool and calm. Perfect for playing and swimming. We stayed for about an hour before heading back to the ship.

Chow time for lunch, more poker, rest. We fortunately got our dinner time switched to our preferred time of 6pm. Dinner much better tonight. We caught the tail end of a comedy show and headed directly over to the main stage to watch a musical show. Awesome dancing and performance. Over for a night cap before heading to bed.

What a day. Much more to come.

Day 1- at sea

Our boat is amazing. 1800 cabins and over 1200 crew members. Food when you want, whatever you want, however much you want. We explored the boat because we were at sea heading to Nassau. While we were waiting for our dinner time, mike and I headed to he craps table and he as well as the table tenders/dealers taugh me how to play. I play and lots about $20 and theN headed to the poker tables. This was different then what I was used to as there is no dealer, a computer deals out for you. Not sure how I liked it. I ended winning about $150 and then dinner time. The selection was nice however desirees fish was over cooked and my flat iron steak. Not the cut of beef that I expected. After dinner, back out to craps an won $50 and poker till about midnight and lots about $75. My total current winnings are $75. Not too bad.
Desiree was at the craps tables and won about $200!
Day 2- goal: gym in the AM before breakfast.
Port in nassau from 8:30-13:30.

All aboard!

We set sail today to commence our week long journey to the Eastern Carribean. This will be my first cruise so I'm excited to explore, have fun, and just relax. We got to port Canaveral around 10:30 and were shortly boarding the giant moving city on the water. Carnival cruise line is ours and we are on their newest ship- the Dream.
Destination stops:
-Nassua
-St Thomas
-St marteen

I'll also use the this time to relaxed off the bike. It has been almost 4 weeks since the accident and my training has been pretty intense once I was able to saddle up again. When we return home, I will have about 2 weeks before my first race of the year on June 11th in Ocala.

Stay tuned for adventures on the water.

now actually on the road to recovery

This past week to get back into the swing of things. I didn't have anymore pain, aches or soreness when I woke up on Tuesday. That's pretty crazy. I attribute this to doing nothing on the weekend and just taking it easy. It's crazy how the body can recovery after trauma like that. I road an easy hour on Monday, to/from work on Tuesday and trained with Josh. I took Wednesday off the bike and did a solid tempo 1.5 hours on Thursday before work. Friday I took off the bike again in preparation for a solid weekend of training.

Yesterday (Saturday)- 3.5 hours. I switched bikes to my TT bike and met up with Leah to do the Bay Lake route. This was for me to test the legs and see how consistent tempo would feel in the TT position. Fortunately no stress to the shoulders, low back and the legs felt good. It seem to take a little longer for my legs to warm up, but once I got the bugs spun out, it was on. I had 2-3x 7-8 mile intervals where I felt consistent and pulling 23-24mph in a zone 2/3. Just holding steady at around 210-220watts. Things felt real good then.

Today I tested myself on the Windermere ride and would be pleasured with the presence of Omar, Sean and Jenn and a few other pro triathletes. ORC (Orlando racing club) has a huge showing and a good number of the usual suspects were out. Once we hit Hartwood Marsh, it was on. The rotation was pretty much Omar, a couple other pro triathletes, and myself. I led up taco hill and had a handfull of guys come around me once we hit the top but they ended loosing contact with the pro guys so I chased and pulled the group back to connect with them. I had to turn off onto Hancock as the majority of the ride continued on to groveland. I found myself being joined by pretty much all of ORC. As we hit the series of climbs on Hancock, I got dropped as the ORC boys started attacking. Thank goodness for the red light at 50 allowing me to reconnect with the group and let me recover. I was back with them and made my way through the guys up Target hill and headed back to Desiree's house chasing, closing gaps and pulling to Winter Garden.

What a ride and what a week back to training. It's been only a week and a half from being hit my a car and my legs are feeling great. I'm able to hold pretty high tempo but now my areas of opportunity are to work on quick explosions and spin ups to be able to cover and repond to attacks. That's what's on the docket for the upcoming week.

on the road to recovery...not quite

So I am now a few days out from the accident and am feeling about 85% recovered. Still road rash, but not really much pain anymore, just soreness.

Let's recap-
When I woke up on Friday, day after accident, after a night of tossing and turning finding a confortable position. I was really feeling the neck stiffness, soreness and pain. My left VMO was really hurting whenever I actively flexed my left knee. Upper and lower back and abs were very sore. I took the day off from work and was moving really slow around the house. I spent most of the day on the couch doing mostly nothing. Desiree got in from work and we stayed the night in relaxing and doing nothing. I had a really bad muscle spasm in the back right side of the neck. Desiree got the spasm to release but it was still very tight.

Saturday, We had cake testing with our potential baker- Party Flavors. I was still moving slow, but wanted to test out how I was able to do walking around and being out. The pain was improving but still there and was turning more to soreness and tightness. We did some shopping and errands. However, rest breaks required and I was only able to last about 3 hours before needing to really take a break. Another low key evening.

Sunday, I was feeling better. Not really anymore pain. Still alot of tightness and soreness but moving around better. My VMO was still feeling very tight and continued to hurt when I flexed my knee. But walking looking more natural. I decided that I would get back on the bike. Only a short 30min easy ride on the trainer. First couple minutes the VMO tightness was appearant, but became negligable as I continued to pedal on. I forgot what a difference my trainer was to the rollers that I have employed for a training tool. My average HR was 124bpm, avg cadance 103revs, power 109wts, and speed 19.15mph. My vitals would have been a lot different had I been on the rollers. But it felt good to get my legs moving again and it actually helped.

Today, I feel good, not back to 100 %, but more than enough to work. After work, I have a scheduled easy hour on the bike outside to get back into the groove of things.

Thanks again to all for the love, concerns, and support. Special thanks to Desiree!