I’ve called Block Island a Primal Playground before for good reason!  It’s a little piece of paradise offering endless active opportunities!  This post is inspired by the man himself, and a few posts he’s put up that highlight the benefits of training like a primate.

In a 24 hour time span, and with a fairly fresh body, I operated on the high of the island and decided to move then and rest later!  Here’s what went down:

Like many who land at Old Harbor, I headed straight for Ballard’s.  However, I was motivated by the “shories”(Aussie term for late-breaking waves) over frozen drinks.  After meeting with my mates, we messed around with flips, spins, flops, and tumbling into the big dropoff at the beach.  It was a blast waiting for a big one, sprinting and flying over it, and landing safely (as long as the timing was right) into deep water.  In general, you can tell an activity is pretty cool when you get other kids (literally 5-8 year olds) to get in on your game.  It happens quite often!

After our hands and feet were well wrinkled, we headed out to few establishments for somesensible over-indulging.

The evening was a blast but took a little out of me.  When you’re accustomed to burning clean fuel, I believe it makes you feel all the more worse when you stray.  It’s cool though, because the slightly hung state was about to be remedied…

After a coconut water and some BI tap water, I set off on my mountain bike for the Northern tip of the island.  The ride itself was pretty cleansing since it was so hot out.  However, the most effective detoxification came at Sachem Pond.  I wanted to go for a dip but instead talked myself into swimming all the way across.  With the Save the Bay swim on July’s calendar, I decided it was the right thing to do.  Personally I’ve found whenever one measures a distance in the water by eye, they always over estimate it.  Ask anyone who has done an Olympic or Half Iron Tri – when you see 1 mile marked out by buoys it looks more like 3!  Knowing this backfired on me because this swim was actually pretty far and took me about 40-45 minutes round trip in a windy pond.  I wanted to take a little break and explore the other end of the pond on foot, but the mean white birds flexed their muscles and made it pretty clear they did not want me hanging on their turf.  I literally ducked in the water as one swooped down on me in full attack mode!  The message, as well as shrieking war cries, were heard loud and clear; so I quickly made my way back to the starting point.  The return trip was much easier since I was able to work with the wind and set a clear line back.  Plus there’s nothing like angry birds to get your sympathetic nervous system cranking!

Upon return I rode out nice and easy to break the fast with a nice lunch at the Oar.  The rest of the retreat included more mountain bike commuting, walking, sun, and sensible indulgences!  Can’t wait to go back in a few weeks!