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Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Argentina, Again

Jan 18 - Flew out to Argentina, after squeezing in a run and a college interview.

Jan 19 - walked around a lot in the Tigre River Delta, carrying a very heavy souvenir.  It's a gaucho-style wine rack, which is heavy even without the full wine bottles.

Monday, Jan 20:
Body had to run today, after taking the previous day off.  I very nearly napped instead, though.  3.7 in 31:40, 8:29 AVE.  Kilometer splits> 5:34, 21, 17, 16, 14, 4:56.  1 degree treadmill.

Jan 21 - had dinner out both nights.  They eat dinner super-late in AR (8 is super-early), and the gym closes at 10pm.

Thursday, Jan 23:
Biked 35 min, although it felt much longer, because the room was so warm.  It was a non-recumbent bike.  Did 2x20 burpees afterwards.  Burpees are starting to feel second-nature to me, which is a good sign, for the Spartan races.

Jan 24 - dinner out

Saturday, Jan 25:
Gym didn't open until 9am, so I did 50 min of body weight strength on a towel in my hotel room, instead.

Then... to the ranch - Estancia Calendaria.  It was a perfect day.  After a 2-hr bus ride, we spent 11:45am->4:15pm touring a castle, riding horses, having a BBQ lunch, watching folk dancing, shopping for souvenirs, stopping by a chapel, watching a horse show, and trying yerba mate.  It was perfectly timed, and it gave us a nice sampling of Argentinian and gaucho culture.


 
 
 
 
 
Sunday, Jan 26:

Got in a run in the morning: 6.2 in 53:40, 8:39 ave.  K Splits> 5:44, 37, 27, 22, 23, 18, 15, 11, 4:51.  Breathed through my nose for the first 5K, to build up adaptations.  Felt good.  Walked around a lot, afterwards.  Visited El Zanjon, which was a dilapidated mansion some company bought, thinking they'd renovate it and turn it into a restaurant, when they realized that there was access to old tunnels underneath.  This is just the basement next to the tunnel, not the tunnel itself, although they look similar.
 
 
Also walked around the San Telmo antiques market:
 
 
 
And at night, I attended a tango show + dinner + class:
 
 
Monday, Jan 27:
4.3 mi in 36:37, 8:25 ave.
 
Wednesday, Jan 29:
40 min on the exercise bike.  Wish I had more time, but the gym was closing.
 
Thursday, Jan 30:
5 mi in 42:02, 8:27 ave.  Felt like I was finally adapting to the heat.  My knees got temporarily bangy at the 4K mark, same as the last run.  Felt pretty good overall, though!  Indulged in an all-natural mini-cheesecake, to celebrate my last full day there, and a good two weeks of work.
 
Jan 31 - flew back that night, arrived Feb 1.
 
Saturday, Feb 1:
I had a 7hr layover in Atlanta, so I visited my sister, and we made the most of the time, shopping, watching 2 episodes of Modern Family, and getting in 5.0 mi in 36:26, 7:17 ave, on an intervals workout.  1 mi warmup in 8:18, 5x[1/2 mi @ 9mph (3:20), 1/2 mi @ 7.5mph (1:53)], 0.25 cooldown in 1:39, at 2 degrees of incline!  It was a superb workout.