Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Red Tide is back

Locals tell us that this red tide outbreak is the worst they've seen in years. If you aren't familiar with Red Tide, it is an algae bloom (algae here have a red tint, in high numbers the water becomes red) that typically occurs in warm waters and is quite common in the Gulf of Mexico. It scares off fish, and any fish that didn't leave, eventually die as there is a lack of Oxygen in the water. Red Tide also can cause respiratory problems (coughing, sore throat, etc...), and is especially bad for asthmatics and anyone exercising near the beach. It seems like it's been a month since we've been able to get into the Gulf for a swim, and it looks like it may be only the week of the race when we get into our wetsuit or speedsuit (Water temp is still 83-86).

Yesterday was a huge rain day, so we ran indoors on the treadmills for an hour rather than risk tropical rainstorms on the bike (we've learned from earlier mistakes). My shins are holding up well with all the treadmill running, so I'm hopeful for an awesome run in the race.

As always Tammy is doing great and never seems to have a bad day training (except our first day riding here, when she was keeled over her bike at the 60 km mark - dehydrated and majorly BONKED).

Our friend Carl is traveling down to stay with us on Friday. He's racing the weekend after Ironman in Clearwater at the Half-Iron World Championship race. The warm weather should be a great change as we have heard that Winter weather is starting in the Okanagan.

Oh and a couple of you have pointed out a blunder in my last blog posting. I am a bit surprised that spell checker allowed it, but I had meant to say "2 people rode disc's (wheels)".

As Norman Stadler once said, "Bed by 9:00, I win!"

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hey Chad & Tam:

I don't even know what discs are so I didn't even know you blundered. How is Tammy's asthma? Big wind storms in Victoria - our gate blew snapped off our balcony - up to 70km wind so training would suck up here ;-)