Another long training weekend

We have another big training this weekend. Century ride on Saturday and 19 mile run on Sunday. The weekday stuff was pretty much the same. The only different was the swim, it was longer. Monday was 4000 yards and Friday was 4200 yards. Friday's mainset was 6 X 500 with 30 second rest. That's a lot of swimming, plus I had to time myself. I didn't normally wear a watch but since I had to time it, I started looking for my watch. I couldn't find it. It drove me crazy when I misplaced something. Finally I found it in the bathroom's drawer that I already looked twice before. I didn't understand why I didn't see it there the first two times.

This IM training started to get to me. I was tired not all the time but almost all the time. I went to bed at 8PM like a 7 year old in order to get up at 4:30AM and start working out at 5:30AM. Weekdays were relatively easy. I worked out for 1.5 to 2 hours. Piece of cake. Weekends were a different story. After I got home on Friday, I started getting the biking stuff ready, made sure I had everything packed. I mixed my bottles and put them in the fridge. I laid out my bike jersey, shorts, arm sleeves, calf compression and socks. I put shorts and shirt to change after the ride in another bag and packed post ride recovery food and drink. This Saturday I had to get up at 4AM because I was meeting with Karen, Lauren and Beth for 6:30AM start time. They are training for IM Louisville which is on the same day as IM Canada. I don't envy their race because it could be hot and humid, plus no offense, it's Louisville, not as pretty as Penticton, British Columbia. But I was jealous of one thing. Mike Reilley, the voice of Ironman, will be in Louisville. I wanted to hear him say "Monika Nelwan, you're an Ironman..." when I crossed the finish, but he probably butchered my name anyway, so did it really matter? I decided to join them because my usual training partners were going to start at 7:15AM. When the temp was going to climb to 96F, I opted to start as early as possible. The two groups were riding at Silk Sheets, so I was pretty sure I was going to see them.

I got to the park at 6AM. It was still dark and I saw a deer crossing the street a few miles from the park. I got my stuff ready and it started raining... really raining? It wasn't in the forecast, well just 30% chance. Anything less than 50% didn't count but this one did. It rained for 15-20 minutes and stopped. We all had to ride 100 miles. The plan was to ride the 31 mile loop 3 times. The second one, just to add some excitement, was going to ride the loop in reverse, and also since we were still short 7 miles, we needed to add a short stretch on the second loop. The goal for me was to ride steady and stop as little as possible, that was why we hid a cooler for our bottles by the park. That way we could stop really quick and got refilled after each loop.

I started riding slow, maybe a little too slow. After 10 miles, I picked up my pace a bit. I carefully planned my calories, so I wouldn't bonk like the last 80 mile ride at Silk Sheets. I had to finish 2 bottles each loop, plus eat an Apple Pie bonk breaker. If I couldn't finish two bottles, I had to add gels. I saw a deer again crossing a field. That made me nervous. I always remembered about Matt Lauer, the Today's show host, that got into a biking accident because he was trying to avoid a deer. I pretty much rode by myself the whole ride. I rode with Beth and Jim a little bit but that was it. I finished the first loop and saw Katie and Beth a few minutes later. Katie and her husband, Carlos, were kind enough to SAG for us. I didn't think I would need anything but it was nice to see people that I knew. It was for safety reason also.

Deer in Georgia need to be trained like this one

I rode the second loop backward. It was funny that the back to back hills on the second part of the course were now easier. Some stretches that looked flat were harder. I saw a Bambie on the side of the street. It got hit by a car. Sad. When I was riding the 7 mile stretch, I saw Sarah, Eric and Susan. They rode the upper loop twice. I saw Karen on the side of the street stretching. She said she was fine when I asked her if she was okay. I got back to the park at mile 69. It was perfect to ride the third loop to round up the century distance. The temperature was getting hotter. I chatted a bit with Ellen, who was sagging also, Katie and Carlos. I wish I could've stayed with them and forgot about the last loop. In mind, I broke out the last 31 miles by turns. From the park, the first goal was to ride to the Cedar Grove intersection, Rico store, Jim Starr, the Fire house, and the green roof top farm house. It helped mentally. With 15 miles left to go, I felt so excited. My legs were fine. I felt pretty good. Nothing was hurting. I started doing the countdown with 10 miles to go. I got back safely to the park. I was so thankful for a safe and not so painful ride. I felt great, maybe because it was the adrenaline too, that thought I could really ride 12 more miles to get to the race distance. I racked my bike and got a water bottle to take for the 20 minute transition run. I froze the bottle the night before and it was really nice to sip iced water during the run. I poured half of it on my head.

After I was done with the run, I stayed with Katie and Ellen while stretching, hydrating and eating. It was a little cloudy so it wasn't as hot as before. I found out that Karen had a problem with her back and leg. It sounded like a pinched nerve. Susan later came in and just wiped out. Her HR was high and she felt no power on her legs. Richard, who joined us on the second loop, couldn't control his HR. It was a rough day for these guys. I hung around a bit and drove home. I had to get ready for tomorrow's run.

I woke up around 5AM and got ready. I left the house an hour later. I drove to Riverside Park, my usual place to start the run. The GA 400 ride was also on the same day. I would have some companies as I was running on Riverside and Eves. The first 5 miles were pretty easy. Around mile 10, after running on the hills on Eves, suddenly I felt no power on my left leg. It was weird. No cramps or pain. The power just went out. I kept running but I knew I changed my gait since I was dragging my leg a little bit. I stopped and stretched my calf. I didn't know what was wrong. It was so weird. I tried to run again and still had the same problem. I went to an empty parking lot. I laid on my back and stretched my hips and glutes. My logic was the hips and glutes power the legs to run. If there was something that caused this, it would have been this area. It didn't feel extremely tight or painful. Nothing was alarming. I decided to run again. This time it felt much better. After a mile or so, it felt normal again. Whew.

The last 3 miles of the run were hard. I just wanted to be over so bad. The schedule said 3 hours or 19 miles. I couldn't finish 19 miles within 3 hours. I thought I may end up with a quarter mile short by the time I got to my car. Normally I would circle the parking lot a few times to make up the difference but I wasn't planning to do that today. I didn't care. I was over it. Miraculously my Garmin showed exactly 19.0 miles two feet away from my car. I couldn't be more than happier. So ready for the last recovery week next week!

What? Still 3 miles to go?