The Mother of All Bricks

Training is going, and it is going very well!  Last weekend Steve, Pat and I embarked on a 3/4 distance brick.  This is what we ended up with:

Swimming at Millerton:  We did not have swim support, so we stuck together and met up at each buoy.  We swam to the left of the short island, then to the first buoy (it's that little white dot).  There are two more passed it that you can't really see.  We swam back and forth until we reached the time we wanted, practicing how to draft while swimming.  Lesson I learned:  It's tough!
Time- 1:07, we're hoping that means over 2 miles.

The Three Amigos: Pat, Me & Steve as Team X

 

Ready to Roll!
My friend Jennifer was so kind to drive us all to the lake so we could ride straight from there and have a flat course.  IMAZ is pretty flat, so we've been trying to mimic the terrain on our rides and get plenty of aero time in. 

After stopping at Pat's house at mile 20 and mile 70 as our aid station, we were almost done.  Just a short, easy eight miles to my house to start the run.  The ride was full of head winds, which made our pace a little slower (except for Steve...he's faster).
Time- 4:28
Distance- 78 miles
Average- 17.6 mph

Then came the run...the great unknown for me.  The whole ride I kept thinking, "You have a 16 mile run after this."  I had not run that far yet in training.  Pat and Steve have both been able to keep up with the run training, and now that I'm injury-free (Yay!), I have some catch-up to do!!!

We did three loops that were 5.5 miles each.  The first loop was super, and I felt great.  The second wasn't too bad, but the water breaks were heavenly.  The third loop Steve held back and ran with me, and I talked for most of it.  My whole body was tightening up, but I knew I didn't have that much farther to go.  The last mile I told Steve to go on without me, but he encouraged me and so we busted out a low eight-minute pace mile.  And then...we were done!  I was super excited to have had no calf pain, to have been able to do this load of training and still be able to walk and stand.  It was SUCCESS!
Time- 2:26
Distance- 16.4 miles
Average- 8:55/mile

But boy, were we TIRED!!!

Little bonus to the story:  Steve's truck had a flat tire as they were pulling away to leave.  Together, Pat and Steve changed the tire like it was nothing.  A 100-mile brick?  Sure.  Change a truck's tire?  Bring it on.

IMAZ, here we come!