Last Rites before Goofy

Today, while "working," I'll be packing for Orlando and getting the usual miscellaneous stuff done that I do before leaving town. Us women have a tendency to want to leave the house in good order so that when we come back, there isn't a lot of crap staring us in the face.

I had a talk with my coach, Rich, yesterday. He has no doubts about my ability to run both days at Goofy; he thinks the hardest thing will be dealing with my feet. I assured him that once I finish the 1/2 marathon, it's back to the hotel I go for some serious R&R time to give myself the best shot at running decently on Sunday. I am wearing a different pair of running shoes each day, so that each day my feet get "cushy" treatment. I get 2 days off from training to recover next week (although my guess is that Tuesday morning or afternoon I'm going to want to go for a recovery swim), and then we talk and get me back on my game for Ralph's 1/2 Ironman and Ironman Brazil.

Rich said, matter-of-factly, that my running is "way ahead of where it needs to be to be successful in a 1/2 Ironman." DUH!!! That was part of the point of why I signed up for Goofy Challenge in the first place, or was it just stupidity? I told Rich I didn't really remember why I signed up for this, except that it was out far enough from Ironman Brazil that I should be able to recover just fine and then I'd have one helluva running base going into Ironman training. Note: what I am doing right now is NOT Ironman training--it's base training to me, although unless you've been doing Ironman-level training for several years, please don't try this at home!

I expect that in February we will kick up my bike training a little in terms of volume. My "long" rides are currently 2 hours, and while I know I could go out the door and ride well for 4 hours, it will be good for me to probably take that up to 3 hours, just so that as soon as I can begin riding outside in late March/early April, I can start hitting 4 and 5-hour rides right away, which I will need to do to be ready for Brazil.

My run training is just fine--in fact, I wouldn't be surprised if we drop it back slightly in volume during the week, but keep my long run at 1:30-1:45 until April, and then kick it up to 2:00 once or twice a week (yes, last year there were 4 weeks in which I did (2) 2-hour long runs--it's not for the novice, for sure, but it really does help build "bullet-proof" legs).

My swim training has been going fine, and once I get past the heavy weight/high reps phase of my strength training (February 27 is the date!!!), I'm sure my swim speed will come back. Even though I have barely been swimming (for me, that is--anything less than 9,000 yards a week is really just playing when you are talking Ironman training), I know my endurance base is still there with a little work. Yesterday I didn't do the swim workout I was supposed to--I felt like swimming long and continuously. So I just jumped in, swam 1500 yards straight, then did a little kicking and then 900 yards of pulling straight. Nice, easy, mindless swimming. But I am looking forward to seeing how fast I can swim once the weights decrease. I've been hitting everything pretty hard, so January (after Goofy, of course) should be a relief!

It's really comforting to know enough to anticipate what lies ahead for me in the next few months. So far, I'm very pleased with how my running and biking have been progressing. If I can just add in the swimming, I should be in great shape for the racing season.

I've decided to not take my laptop with me to Orlando, which means no email, no Internet, no blogging until I'm back. I don't need the distractions when I've got a big job to do, and if I'm not running, I'll be laying in bed with my feet up!

So everyone have a great weekend, and we'll catch up on the other side of 39.3 miles of running!