Leaving Ocean Park

Sunrise in Ocean Park, Maine.

We left Ocean Park yesterday for home in Massachusetts. 

This year it was especially hard to leave for a few reasons. Because I was diagnosed with a stress fracture only a week after getting to Ocean Park, I wasn't able to do my usual running and biking there. I have routes I like to do each summer. The hardest part of the timing of this injury was that: I was in my favorite place in the world to train, and I was unable to train. 

Granted, I was burned out and didn't want to do a lot of training anyway....

But somehow when you are TOLD you cannot do anything and a boot is slapped on your foot, it makes it all the harder. The old adage you don't know what you've got until it's gone... is oh so true. It's easy to lament how much you don't want to train until someone says, OKAY, no training for you, sister! (I know you all know what I'm saying here...)

SO, anyway, it was especially hard to leave yesterday, knowing I didn't get out to Lyman,Waterboro, Cornish and Limerick to ride, and knowing I had missed the inaugural OOB REV Half, and knowing I hadn't completed my favorite running routes through Ocean Park,  Ferry Beach, and Old Orchard--and most of all knowing I can't come back in a few months to do these routes when my foot is healed. I have to wait all the way until next summer. God damn!  

It's also hard to leave OP because we leave Alina and her kids. Alina and I (and I know you know this already if have read this blog for awhile) have been tight since grade 4 when we both had the very strict and mean Mrs. Small.  We have stuck together all these years, and are incredibly lucky in that we get to spend almost the entire summer together each year, courtesy of my incredible parents, who own (and are willing to share) this fantastic beach house in OP that can accommodate us all. Alina's three kids are the same ages and sex as my three kids (Jordan/Maria (11), Noah/Ethan (8) and Dara/Lara (7). By late August our families function like a well-oiled unit.  It's hard for all of us to separate at the end of the summer. My kids spent the better part of a half hour literally weeping pitifully after we loaded up the van and hit the road. I admit, I cried a little, too. I do every year.

More than anything I will miss Alina salting wine glasses as we make dinner, and pouring us each a a glass of pre-made margarita.  Sigh. That is the best. 

A few photos of OP life. Yup, I have it good! I know it!

Noah and Ethan--trash picking in order to collect cans so they can buy candy at the corner store. They made over $25 a piece this summer. Do you know how many freaking cans that is? (And how much candy? We finally had to require they save the money and not blow it all on Blow-Pops and Laffy Taffy.)

Ethan and Noah fighting nature by building a dam.

Ethan blocking a large leak with his body when sand reinforcements have failed to keep nature at bay.

 Dara and Lara warming up after swimming.

Jordan and Maria, pausing in their sandcastle creating to allow me to take a picture.
*You can just barely see the Pier in Old Orchard extending into the ocean far down the beach. The OOB REV 1/2 starts just before the Pier. I'm not kidding when I say that race was in my back yard!

Jordan eating a cookie while standing next to her completed Mayan sand temple.

The best time of day on the beach--around 5:30 p.m.

Alina and me, final day on the beach.

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I admit that even though my last week in Ocean Park was awesome, as always, I went a bit stir crazy because I have been only able to swim! Alina and I did get a few nice wetsuit swims in the ocean this week, but as most of you bike/run addicts know, that ain't enough when you are used to working out like we usually do. To say I'm jones-ing to sweat is an understatement.

Today marks two weeks since I last bike/ran. When I was told I had a fracture, I decided that the next two weeks would be totally off. I needed the break, and I had to take it anyway because of the foot, so those two weeks would be my yearly off weeks, that I usually take in the late fall. I've been sleeping a lot, babying the foot, and otherwise being extremely lazy. It's safe to say I've successfully lost some fitness and gained some poundage while indulging in the usual OP fare: frosted cinnamon rolls from the local bakery in the mornings, margaritas at dinner, and ice cream from the OP Soda Fountain at night.

But today it all ends! Today I become.... SUPER MARY! 

Nothing like 2 weeks hiatus from working out to make a person want to go crazy working out.

Unfortunately, the craziness will not include running for now. That is a killer, but I've set some NON running goals that I know will hep me get through the next 8 weeks (Dear GOD hopefully not more than that) until I am able to run again. 

I'm going to swim like the baddest bad ass swimmer ever. I'm going to see if I can hit 20K in one week a few times.

I'm going to do yoga a few times a week, and take two boot camp type classes (minus the sprinting they involve) per week. 

I'm going to get on my bike a few times a week and do some short, hard workouts. 

Kurt also wants me to do some aqua running. 

I assign this all the time to my athletes, and it sucksssssssss. We'll see how much I actually do. Yucko on that. 

I have three swim meets on my schedule. The final meet will be the Short Course Meter Masters Championship at Boston University in early December. I do this meet every year, but it's usually pretty laid back for me because I generally don't do much training in November leading up to the meet. BUT THIS YEAR, I plan to really go for it at that meet.

I am a sucker for things like rankings, and I have discovered that just like in triathlon, USMS ranks swimmers in each masters age group by event and time. So I have goals based on rank! Very fun.

The only semi-decent ranking I got last year in SCM was the 200 meter back. I'm ranked 21 in the country for that (2011). (I think this speaks to how few people do that event as opposed to my 200 meter back prowess, but I'll take it.) My goal is to make it to the top 15 in the 200m back this year, and top 20 in the 50m and 100m back. I'd also like to make the top 30 in the 400m and the top 20 in the 100m fly.
For times that means roughly I'd need to do a:
200m back in 2:50
100m back in 1:20
50m back in :36
400m free in 5:50
100m fly in 1:27

That's all I have for goals right now. But I'm psyched!
Today marks me very last day of lazy-ville. Tomorrow I start my swim goddess training.