training update

I realized after my Sunday post that I never gave a rundown of my weekend of training. Perhaps it's because I did a 20 mile run Friday morning, hurried home for an ice bath, packed my bags for Charlotte's graduation, threw on a pair of compression socks and other comfy clothes and headed to the airport for a flight to Raleigh-Durham via Orlando. Yeah. The things we do for Ironman training and family celebrations!

Our run was hot. And humid. The saving grace of it was Blythe, the Starbucks along the way that gave us water, and the fact that by some miracle although I was anything but fast on Friday morning, I felt good and strong. Better than I've felt on any long run in a long while. We averaged about 10 minute miles (okay...9:57 to be exact but I think I only made that happen on the last 2 miles of the run when I was on the trail and was so eager to finish that I willed my legs to move faster...wasn't sure I had it in me) over the course of 20 miles which is slower than we usually go. But in reality, I would be thrilled to hold something around that pace on June 21 in CDA! (Note: I also pulled a typical ETG and when I got home after our Thursday swim at the LWC and dinner at Jim Opre's, I decided to do some laundry and pack a little for my trip...translation: 4-5 hours of sleep. Really. When will I learn?)

Anyway, at 5:00 a.m. Blythe and I started off at Barton Springs with Liz, Jess, Jim, and David but as early as the Mopac bridge, we stopped to stretch & refill water and they were gone. No matter. Blythe and I are good company for one another. In fact, it's usually the two of us (plus Amy) on our long runs and one of us always seems to have just what the other one needs whether it's energy or Nuun or a smile or a good idea of how to approach a run. Besides, we laughed that we were the two who really knew the route for the day, so we were fine! (Still not exactly sure what route the others ended up running?!)

We headed out LAB to Exposition, took those hills and it 35th where we hung a right until we got to Jackson where we turned left to weave our way to Hancock. Quick water stop at the Children's School...thank you! Headed over to Burnet and turned north...all the way to Justin Lane (hoping to tack on extra miles so we wouldn't have to make them up back on the trail...didn't quite work but we were close!). Right on Justin to Lamar...quick turn south...and ready as ever for Starbucks on 45th and water...and a bathroom. I swear, one morning after CDA I'm going to go into that Starbucks and thank the nice folks who give use water each weekend when I'm NOT a sweaty mess. At this point, Blythe reminded me that the distance we had left to run was only as much as we'd already run...yippee!! We hit the road again, cutting over to Guadalupe, ran all the way south towards campus (buzzing with the excitement of the last day of classes), and at the Dobie Mall we cut over to Speedway. Right there and eventually hit Congress after winding around the Capitol. Blythe's knee was beginning to bug her so we made sure to stretch it out every once in a while (thank goodness for some well-timed red lights!). True to form, Blythe gutted it out. Seriously - she is one tough woman...maybe it's rubbing off on me!? One more Starbucks stop on Congress - everyone dressed for work and two sweaty girls trying not to touch anything or anyone...or leave a puddle on the floor! Straight on to the trail - yeah! We did a funky 1st Street/Congress Avenue bridge loop hoping to add a few extra steps to save us from doing parking lot loops in Barton Springs or something. Another water refill at 1st Street...get the picture? It was HOT and HUMID and we needed LOTS of water. Then the homestretch back to BS. We were only at mile 17 or so and knew we'd only hit 18 by the time we got back to our cars...how did that happen?

Blythe wisely chose to give her knee the TLC of Barton Springs but I had no excuse to stop so I headed back to the trail for 2 miles. I actually thought I'd turn around at the footbridge and call 19 miles close enough to 20 miles to count but once I got there a switch clicked in me and I decided to finish up all 20 miles. I was so close. I knew I was feeling better than I'd felt on our last two long runs so I really had no excuse. And for whatever reason, on that day, 20 miles needed to be the full 20 in my mind. So I ran to the Lamar Bridge...and back to BS...and then a little past my car just for good measure. Finished feeling strong - more mentally than physically but not too bad physically. Need to engrave that run in my memory for June 21 because I suspect that I'll have times of wanting and willing my legs to move in spite of their resistance. And I'll know that I can push through.

I think the run was tough for a lot of us who ran Thursday night or Friday morning. The conditions weren't great. We all noted consuming WAY more water than usual. And the distance, well, 20 miles is nothing to take lightly. I've been forgetting that lately. We've eased into our distance so gradually that I've found myself casually saying, "well, the day started with a 20 mile run" as it it were the same as a 5K! (Non-runner ETG is laughing right now!) Anyway, a special shout-out to all of us who are knee-deep in this training (or any training!) and are pushing ourselves to knew limits. I'm inspired by everyone around me...keep it up!

Quick trip to WF to grab a breakfast taco, coffee, two bags of ice...soak in an ice bath...hurriedly throw clothes in my bad (quick thought - please let something I'm bringing match)...and then off to the airport.

Saturday was my day off...yeah! So nice to be with family and not be worrying about how to work in a run or a bike ride or a something.

Sunday once I got back to Austin and took care of business at work I hit south MoPac for some loops. Chrissie had told me to listen to my body and only do it if I wanted to. Surprisingly, I wanted to! Did just over 40 miles and focused on something different each loop - cadence, pushing tougher gears, mixing it up. Good mental endurance and good to have some goals each loop. Ended up with a higher mph than I usually do, too, so that was exciting. Legs felt powerful today.

Phew...ready to start another week. No yoga so I got to sleep in a little. And then after work headed for the hills...well, the hills behind O'Henry. Can I say it again? I love Monday night run workouts!!! (I'm being serious.) Tonight was 1000m repeats behind O'Henry. The CDA folks had 7 repeats. Our goal was to do them at a 5K pace which pretty fast. I don't really know my 5K pace so I just tried to do them as quickly as I could. We weren't supposed to drop time so I dialed in after the third one and tried to hold the rest steady. And I did. Until I got to the last one. And I decided to shave off 4 seconds. That was fun. Felt good to have one last little something to add in at the end. Phew. But I was done. I had promised myself to give 100% to this workout since it's my only coached run workout this week. And I did. No regrets about this one.

I've been worried a little that I'm getting slower as this training goes on. But I think the reality is that I'm getting much, much stronger. And maybe that will slow me down but give me what I need for the long haul...and CDA is a very long haul. Truly, I'll trade a few seconds in time for feeling like I can keep going in a strong way! (Then finished the day with a looong chat with Amy on the O'Henry track while we were stretching...well, at least we were stretching at first...awesome way to end the day. Thanks, Amy!)