Sunday, April 17, 2011

Huge workout in in the books (and the legs!)

This is more of a workout report than a race report!

Laura, Mark, and I had a huge workout planned. Laura's husband John agreed to get in his canoe so that we would have open water swim support. I just had to take a picture of this insane car. My bike is in pieces in the back :-) Luckily, John has some wrenching skills, so he had it ready for me to ride post swim!




Starting at the beginning! I left my house at 7:30 am, and helped Laura and John pack up. Then, we all hopped in the car and picked up Mark. We drove up to Mary Alice Lake and hopped in the chilly water.

I can't wait to get my new wetsuit from TYR! Unfortunately, I was still sporting my old one that is huge, and holds a TON of water, I know it just slows me down! We swam with the current and wind, and then turned around and swam against it. I inhaled a few miserable gallons of water. However, it was over in 1.5 hours!

Then, we met one of Laura's friends, who took us on a ton of roads we didn't know, which was great! We rode for 5 hours ride time. At about 4:50, I had a little meltdown, and refused to ride a hard lap around Columns drive. I was D-O-N-E. Did I mention the INSANE wind in Georgia yesterday? It was tough! So the ride time was 5, but we were out there for more like 5.5 (stoplights and one gas station stop where I had a snickers :-) )

The weird thing about triathlon is that, well, then you have to run. I had to have a little self talk to get those running shoes on at Laura's house. It was seriously a mental drain to put them on when you are so tired. I made a deal with myself that if I ran 2 out of the three hours I was allowed to quit. You see, for the most part these deals are just to get yourself going. You are not going to quit, but you make these strange mental agreements to get yourself going.

We had a mini aid station set up, and we hit it twice. I saw some pretzels and I turned into cookie monster turned pretzel monster.
cookie monster

Seriously, I was shoving in pretzels, but was a little shaky, so only about 1 out of three was making it down the hatch! It was a little embarrassing! I do have nutrition plans, and they work, but at this point of a workout, you just take in whatever you can get down.

Look what I just found! I have a feeling that New Balance only makes them for kids. Maybe Avia will make them for me!

By the way, I made it all 3 hours, but it started to hurt in the way that Ironmans hurt. There is this really really deep ache throughout your legs that I have only felt when doing half ironmans or above.

So, I still have some workouts to do, but that was the biggie. That was the one on the calendar that I have been nervous about for a long time.

At this point, I am not as fit as I would like to be going into Ironman St. George. But you know what? I am healthy and have no injuries. I would trade that for any fitness level. Anyone who has dealt with running injuries can understand, I am sure. I am healthy, and I have the workout on the legs!

Late last night, George and I got some takeout from Surin Thai food for me! Basil rolls (which I devoured before we even got home), and Broccoli Tofu with rice. I ate every bite of it too!

This morning, I spent a long time in my Recovery Pump. I love this thing.


One more long weekend of training next weekend, and then a very short taper and a race!

3 comments:

  1. Awesome job with that workout!! And, I totally laughed about the cookie monster! :)

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  2. On St Geo... lessons learned...
    The water is COLD
    Wear full wetsuit
    Wear ear plugs (helps stay warm)
    Get booties (they will probably be legal)
    The first section of bike (20 mi) before loop has 800 feet of climbing.... take it slowly (you will want to push it...don't)
    Each Veyo loop has 2000 feet of climbing.... slow again. (I walked the "wall" outside Veyo)
    When you get to the run, it's tough... but after everything else in the day, you know you will finish.
    Good luck

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