Saturday Swim

Well, I have to admit that I did not realise that Sibelius' great 5th symphony clocked in at an hour. I was figuring at 45 minutes that it would end. That's when I was mentally prepared for the swim to end. But no, it dragged on all the way to one hour, and since I was not going to be denied the ending I swam for 60 minutes straight with the pull buoy. And only enough when I went back and added up the movements from the CD it should have been 45-48 minutes (I just added in my head and rounded). I have no idea why the CD played "slower" on my MP3 player, But I know for a fact that I turned it on at 10:10 and turned it off at 11:10. A mystery.
Any way, the swim was great, and my goggles never leaked once.
Sibelius is a titan of European music not just in Finland. He lived till 92 but never published any music after the age of 50. His house is a national museum in Finland, although I never got to it. I saw a great violist play his violin concerto last month at the DSO.
Came home and had lunch and now out for a 2 hour bike ride. Hopeful that the knee holds up.

Well, the bike ride absolutely sucked!
I actually felt my knee about 400 yards into the ride, which wasn't a good sign, and about 3 miles in I felt very tired and completely out of it. Now I have felt like this on a number of long rides, usually after 50 miles, or sometimes at the end of rides where I have run out of food, but this was from the beginning. I could have bailed at 7.5 miles where I turn around for my hour ride, but refused to wimp out. I know my body can handle this so I had to wait until my brain realised that as well.
It was a long wait!
I didn't feel OK until I was almost home.

But during the ride I did remember one fact -- that when I weighed myself after swimming I was at 57.5% hydration -- and normal for me is 60% -- and every percentage point is critical to peak performance. I think I was dehydrated from swimming and no matter how much water I drank on the bike it was not enough.

So I finished the 2 hours at a leisurely pace and called it a day.