Monday- Complete day off. The 3/4 brick left me feeling vulnerable to the germs and cooties that are going around this time of year. Besides, it was cold and raining. So I stayed home and went to bed early instead of going to swim.
Tuesday-
Run: 2 miles easy, 2 miles at tempo, 1 mile easy. Legs were a little stiff at the beginning, but warmed up nicely. By the end of the tempo miles I was under 7 minute/mile pace. Made me happy!
Bike: 15 min. warm-up; 3x 12 min. at 82% w/4 min. easy spin; 15 minute cool down.
Wednesday-
Skipped the bike. Not enough time, there was pressing home stuff to take of.
Swim: We have a new coach now, which is a little bittersweet. Rich helped me improve so much from 11 months ago, and I'm so close to getting to my goal race! But Lacey seems really nice and she gave us different intervals to do, which was a welcome change. Ended up with 2500m total! I used to be hard-pressed to get over 2000m in from the hour, now it's more normal.
Thursday-
Run: Track workout...my last one was 8 weeks ago! It was great to be back. I made sure I stretched really well and listened to my left leg the entire time. I'm not going to go through all of that injury stuff again! Even though I'm able to run again, the leg is still pretty tight and I still have to be careful. So far, so good!
1.25 mile warm-up; 16x400m w/ 100m walk; 1.25 mile cool down. Ended with 7.5 miles total, and feeling strong and confident. I've lost a lot of speed from the month of September, so I can only get so much back in the time I have. I'm trying to stay positive and keep at it.
*Bonus training- Riding my mountain bike to the kids' school and back home four times. Probably only a total of 7 miles, but it was great to save gas and get a little bonus work out in.
Friday- Complete day off.
Saturday-
Bike: 3 1/2 hours of slow, frustrating, mostly painful riding. This is one of the first times I haven't enjoyed a ride. Pat and I started around noon, later than usual because I helped take a couple of my kids to their soccer games. I didn't fuel properly, have a focused mindset about the ride, and didn't take the distance seriously. Big mistakes, and I won't be doing that again. It was tough to leave home to go knowing that it was frustrating some family members. I keep struggling with feeling completely selfish and wanting to get these last couple weeks of training strong. It's difficult.
Run: 4 miles, slow and they seemed to take forever. Pat kept reminding me that we have a 20 mile run tomorrow, so to take it easier today is ok. I just kept feeling like I was cheating myself, and couldn't shake the little black raincloud that hovered over my head the entire time.
Sunday-
Run: 20 miles at 8:51/mile pace. I know, it isn't that fast or impressive. I'm happy with the run overall, and thrilled to have discovered the magic brew of broth. I wanted to try it, knowing that it is available at aid stations at the Ironman.
We made four different loops around my house, using it as an aid station. After the first 4.5 miles I had a Gu with caffeine, a few tortilla chips and water. I was feeling tight and slow. The next stop was at 11 miles, when I had a cup of broth, a cup of Pepsi and another Gu, with no caffeine, and more water. At mile 14 we were near a park where we stopped for water and stretching. Back to my house at mile 16.5, where I had another cup of broth, Pepsi and water. I no longer felt tight and was ready to rock out the last 3.5 miles! We picked it up on our last little loop, picking up our average mile pace by almost a minute. As we were nearing mile 20, I totally thought I could keep going for another 6 miles. Bring it.
Not a perfect week, but I'll take it. Trying to take care of loose ends for the big weekend and making lists of things to do and things I want to get. My friend Sumer is letting me use her aero helmet (it's her tri bike I get to use, too!), the rear wheel on her bike is fixed and on its way; Jason got me knew goggles, cycle shorts, tri top and tubes with Slime. Next week I'll take the bike in to get the wheel on, maybe some new tires, and a final look over to make sure it all looks ready for race day.
This weekend we have our last big ride to do, then Sunday is the Two Cities Half Marathon. After that, it's taper time!
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