This week, I missed 4 full days of training due to that terrible cold. I had a fever and figured I needed rest rather than workouts. Luckily, I was healthy in time for a long brick on Saturday. The long workouts are the ones I really do not want to miss. I decided not to go to the TG outing since I wasn’t sure how I’d fare after being sick and figured I’d need the extra hour of sleep. I got a hard time (and rightly so) from some of the girls. I’m so lazy not to join them and my excuse wasn’t really a very good one!
I slept in an hour later than usual (until 6am), then jumped on my indoor trainer for an hour and a half before an 18 mile run! That is the furthest I have ever run. I did it at a faster average pace than the 16 miler 2 weeks ago. My neighborhood running buddy got me started for the first 3 miles…but of course I couldn’t convince her to add 15. She is the woman who was there the day I ran 5 miles with out stopping for the first time ever a few years ago while we trained for our first 10K together. I’m really glad she’s been so supportive of me through this craziness I signed up for. It was nice having her company, but the run was very lonely, hot and boring after she left. I’m pretty sure I was using self talk…out loud after mile 15 when everything started to hurt.
Afterward I decided to try something new… an ice bath.
The ice bath was more torture than the run itself. All my books, magazines and even team mates say it helps promote a speedy recovery. Since my right calf and ankle were burning mile 15+, then my left hip started hurting after the run I decided to try it. One of the guys training for IMFL told me he gets a cup of soup, a winter hat, a sweatshirt and sits in a tub full of ice. Anything to quicken recovery, right? Augh! I didn’t even use enough ice, so it turned out to be a cold water bath, but that was still very uncomfortable.
My 2nd ever half ironman is in two weeks. I’m looking forward to it, but I really don’t feel nervous about it…yet.
I am nervous about the 90 mile bike ride scheduled for next week. I’m really not in love with doing long rides like I thought I would be. Anything over 50 miles and I feel like I’m going to crash, bonk or get lost. It is so stressful trying to pack everything I need onto my bike, figure out how many layers I need, put air in my tires, deal with traffic, figure out navigating, deal with snakes, squirrels and dogs running around the road. I just haven’t felt the same since my knee skinning crashes during my 60 and 70 mile rides a few weeks ago. I keep clipping out of both pedals before every turn since I’m ridiculously paranoid that I might forget. I thought I got over all that newbie fear ages ago. Its slowing me down mentally big time. The 80 miler last week was a confidence builder and I’m no longer worried about the distance, but still… I’m thinking next year… I’m just going to train for a marathon and forget about Stella for a while. That would be soo much easier than all this!
I’ve got to work on my attitude…I don’t SOUND like a future ironman when I whine about having to ride my bike, do I? Maybe this week I’ll try doing some low stress WC loops alone and work on handling skills. I need to get very confident eating on the bike, switching water bottles from the back of the bike to the one on the down tube etc. Hopefully TG will get a map/cue sheet out to us early in the week like they did for the 80. If it is last minute, I’ll fret about where we are riding all week long.