Today's Workout Goes up to ELEVEN

Oh, boys and girls, did I ever have fun today! Here's the bike workout:

WU: 15' warmup, 3 x SpinUps. Then 3 x 2' (1') Zone 3 MS: FT repeats: 3 x 10' (6') @ FT, then 4 x 90" (3') @ best effort. CD: 5' Easy

This to be followed by a :30 brick run, with instructions to "put my head into the first 3-4 miles of Ironman."

OK, I was psyched for this one. Why? Because I felt so good yesterday after putting in a solid training week last week, and "all" I did yesterday was swim 2,950 yards (and pretty well, I might add) and lift for :50. No running! And today when I woke up, once again, I felt great. Sure I had wanted to sleep a little more (only 8.5 hours last night), but once I got moving around and had some coffee, I figured today was going to be a good day to workout.

I washed and relubed my bike yesterday, so my Bitch was all ready to rock and roll. The temps were high 60's, so very pleasant for a hard ride and run. I got out the door at about 12:15.

The usual warmup section of the workout is well, just boring, admin stuff. I was really looking forward to the FT work today because Sunday's ride was well, not really too exciting. Such is the nature of an Ironman ride--thankfully, on a race day it "feels" more exciting because you know what is going to happen next (a marathon), and you have all these other competitors around you and volunteers helping you--it's much more festive than heading out on your own to ride 112 miles in the aerobars with your head down. FYI, while I was riding on Sunday I kept thinking, "this is what the IMFL course is like." And the thought did not make me happy. I am still undecided about doing that race, even though I'm registered. I really am not thrilled by flat courses, except for a HIM or less. Too boring. I guess I'd rather suffer with hills and wind. I'm sure I'll get my wish on the wind in Brazil, though.

Since coach gave me so much rest between the FT intervals, I took this as an "excuse" for me to work harder that my current FT of 177. What the hell, it's only 10 minutes. Today was one of those rare and joyous days where I felt 150% ON, and figured my power could go up over FT. I certainly made good use of my ELEVEN cog. It was so happy to be used, and I just love the sound of the index shift into that cog. KER-CHUNK. It is the sound of big effort. I hit watts of 185, 187 and 181 (normalized power) for each of the 3 FT intervals. A solid effort, especially since there was wind, there was terrain, there was humidity, there were obstacles (glass on the road and the usual detritus). ELEVEN. I hated shifting out of that cog when I needed to climb a bit.

Those FT intervals were so much fun, but I was REALLY looking forward to the last 4 "best effort" intervals. I like to call them "balls out." Let it all hang out, just ride hard and see what you can do. Wheeeeeee!!!!! ELEVEN. I know that I was smiling for each of the 90" efforts. My Bitch was being ridden hard and enjoying every second. I hit watts of 236, 237, 206 and 215 for each of the 4 intervals. On the 3rd one I do recall cutting myself slack for about 5" (STUPID), but on that last one, I think the wind just picked up a little more. Whatever. TONS O' FUN!

I even looked forward to running. I was curious what that would feel like after all the fun I had just had on the bike. 5' after I pulled into my driveway and I had my running shoes and hat on, a small bottle of Gatorade in one hand and the radio in the other, and I was off and running. I get to run uphill for about 1/4 mile right out my door, not too steep, but enough to make you know you are working and would rather be on flats. My legs felt a little gangly, and I always play "guess my pace" so that when I get to Mile 1 I can see how accurate my "feel" for pace is. I was also laughing inside remembering that I had just done a brick workout (um...SUPER SIZE THAT BRICK) on Sunday, and here it's 2 days later and I'm at it again (FYI I get to do back-to-back bricks this weekend, those are a lot of fun as well). My legs really didn't feel any worse for the wear.

Mile 1: 8:40. That's fine. I should have held back a little more, but hey, I didn't ride very long, I should be able to go that fast. I decided to run up to this small intersection, knowing that I always negative split these short runs, so I'd give myself some extra time on the way out. 6:46, and I figured same pace as for first mile (I certainly wasn't running any slower). Turn around, same distance in 6:30, and last mile in 8:29. Giddy up! Not too shabby, and I wasn't running hard, really. In terms of my run zones, I would call this "upper steady."

It was so nice today to feel the total joy and fun of my workouts once again. It's been a few weeks, and I did think about my mom during today's workout, but it made me grin from ear to ear as I was about to start another FT interval. That's what it's about. Knowing you can push yourself hard again and again, enjoy it, and use that as a platform to show others how good you can feel doing this crazy shit.

ELEVEN, BABY!!!