Last Big Run Before the Madness

I really should say the madness has begun. Triple T is about a week away, but this week will make 5 straight 18+ hour training weeks, race week should be around 17, and then it's 9 weeks until IMLP.

FUCKING YIKES!!!

Between now and the end of July, there's a lot of racing and eventing that I'll be engaged in:

5/27 Start of Triple T
6/11-ish My coach, Rich, drops by on motorcycle, leaving bike at my house and flying home
6/16 Horribly Hilly Hundreds 200K ride (on LGL, of course!)
6/18-ish Rich flies back in to get back on motorcycle and ride to IMCDA (I am not going)
6/29-6/30 IMLP Race Rehearsal weekend for me and Cindy
7/4 Fabulous 4th of July Ride 100 miles. Maybe my bitch, Cindy, can do it, too
7/5 Rich flies back in for IMWI camp.
7/6-7/8 Attend and speak at Rich's IMWI camp (if you are interested in attending, let me know or just head to http://ironcamp.com/midwest.html)
7/18-7/23 IMLP travel and race, Rich and I traveling together (and him yelling at my sorry ass while I race)
8/11 Dairyland Dare 300K ride. Last year, I was sort of laughing at people doing it who had done IMLP. This time, other riders get to laugh AT ME (and Cindy)
8/26 Bike Psychos 200K ride. Did this one last year. AWESOME ride!
9/7 Rich flies back into town and we head to IMWI to ride moto/officiate
9/15 I do IMWI course with other crazies the week after the official race (because I was officiating, see???)
9/16 End of madness, unless someone ropes me into something stupid

That's a whole lot of Rich and Cindy. Good thing they are 2 of my most favorite people in the world, even though I don't usually get to see them this much!

I should be a travel agent. I've been coordinating sleeping arrangements for a small hoard for Triple T, and working with Rich to figure out where he's going to be (he's doing IM camps all over the country, mostly traveling by motorcycle), figuring out what sort of training I should be doing and trying to rope Cindy into as much of it as possible. This is going to be one helluva summer, and I'm tired just thinking about it! But I'm also very excited, this is what I love doing.

Speaking of tired, I ran 13.5 hilly, asphalt miles as a double out-and-back from my house, so it included the notorious Clarendon Hills Road to Cass Avenue 1-mile hill twice. I averaged 9:09/mile the entire way, my stomach felt like crap and I didn't get enough sleep last night. So I figure that was a pretty solid last long run before Triple T. All the hills I ran last week in Colorado Springs have definitely paid off. I feel like I can almost glide up hills now, and I prefer going UP to coming DOWN, because my quads don't get beat up going UP. I didn't even start going OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD until I was about 11 miles into the run climbing the 1-mile hill for the second time.

And there will be no such thing as a taper for Triple T. Must train through. I mean how do you effectively taper for something like that anyway? Might as well just keep right on going.

Thankfully, I don't have to run or bike tomorrow--just swim freaking 3,800 yards! But I swam that much yesterday, so it's really not that big of a deal--it just gets a little, um, boring, swimming that much in a pool. But it's intervals, so it's not really that bad. And I'm going to wear my wetsuit so that I am used to it before the race.

The madness has officially begun! Embrace the madness! I just hope the time doesn't fly TOO quickly--it's beautiful right now, and it's not even officially summer!