Back in the loop

 If I had readers, they may have noticed that I was incommunicado for a few days. Trip to the surgeon, a short convalescence in the hotel, and I'm back on my feet.

I discovere today that there is a free public beach within an easy 20 minute bike ride of my home. It's muddy, it's loud (given that it's all of a quarter mile from a commercial runway), and it's one of the most beautiful things I've seen in a while. This takes away any excuse I've had for not pushing harder on tri training. I only swam out perhaps fifty yards, but I really just wanted to see what the deal was there. It appears very underutilized (to be fair, I was there on a tuesday afternoon). I can easily see myself going for a leisurely ride to get there, swimming, going for a bike ride that takes me X distance to get home, and going on a run from there to return home. In short; I could run a triathlon on myself, of just about any distance, for the cost of a short bike ride beforehand. I've ordered a tow float that doubles as a backpack (or a backpack that doubles as a tow float); I can swim out with confidence, and perhaps carry my bike keys and my cell phone with me. I also came across a product called the "ruckraft", which claims to turn "any rucksack, or any size" into a load towable by a swimmer; they even have photos on their site of two people towing brompton foldable bicycles. I'm not sure that to think.

Oh, and my discovery today reintroduced me to a neighborhood that I had previously seen only once, some two years ago; a neighborhood with a restaurant that served me perhaps the best rice and beans I have ever had. And I've had a LOT of rice and beans.