Start of Last Big Week of Training before IMLP

More pics from today's brick are here.

Last week went really, really well, and I haven't been posting weekly workout totals in awhile (yeah I know you miss them they are SO exciting), but the last 4 weeks have gone 20, 20, 20 and 22 (thereabouts). This week I hope to get in 22 or so.

This week my run and strength tapers have officially begun. Except for the 2 weeks I was sick during and after Triple T, I have been putting in some really good run mileage this season. Sometimes it's because I have just decided I'd run a little more than I needed to because I was feeling fine, and some of it may be because I'm a bit faster than a year ago. Whatever. I am sure that dropping another 3-4 lbs. has been helpful in making the running suck just a little less.

My swimming is what it is. I should really get some 1 on 1 coaching, but I don't have time, and the work required to bump up my swim time just isn't something I'm into right now.

Biking is GAME FUCKING ON! I have to admit, I guess, that my FTP has gone up for the first time in 2 years. Maybe 5-10 watts, depending on what day it is. Either that or I am just used to riding really hard now. I'm going with B!

Yesterday called for a 3400 yard swim, and if I felt like it, weights. I had gotten to bed early on Sunday night, and since I only trained a little over 2 hours on Sunday, I woke up yesterday feeling pretty damn good, so I rode Clipless Fuck to the pool, swam 3400 meters feeling strong the entire time, rode home, and then later in the day I rode to and from my most excellent massage (thanks as always, Mike!) and a little extra there because I had time, and then I rode to and from a haircut. I managed to get my entire strength session done, and when all was said and done for yesterday, I'd trained 3:20! Nice way to kick off the week!

Oh and something stung or bit me under my left eye yesterday, and I had to resort to Benadryl since this was my second insect incident of the summer. The swelling didn't go down until last night, and maybe it was the Benadryl/beer combo that made me sleep like a baby last night, 10 hours worth!

I am trying to pile on a lot of biking this week, so an hour and change yesterday was a good way to start. Today called for a 1:30/:40 brick workout, but I figured I had time to do almost 2 hours of biking. I decided I wanted to ride LGL today, perhaps motivated by watching the TDF and wanted to wear my Catlike helmet that I absolutely love. In fact, now I'd like their aerohelmet, too, because they are pretty cool looking.

Weather right before I left was beautiful--sunny, mid-70's, a little humidity, and just a little wind. Perfect! I headed out on LGL and right away just wanted to crank it up, and so I did. I love riding Bitchie with the race wheels, but I love riding LGL, too. I love all my bikes!

I rode east first for about 5 miles and then back towards home, and thought I'd check out my former TT loop to see how repairs were going on the one major road. About 3 weeks ago, I rode a little over there, but the main road needed one more layer of asphalt, as the sewers were still sticking out of the road. But when I got there today, fuckin' A, it was DONE, and smooth as a baby's bottom, PLUS they widened it a bit so I had sort of this whole lane to myself, and I just hammered away! The loop that includes that road is 3 miles around, and I don't know how many loops I did, but I was kicking out some serious watts and having an absolute blast!

I suppose it helped that I had chugged a can of Coke right before I left, that I'd had 10 hours of sleep last night, that I'd ridden almost 225 miles last week, that I thought I was getting stronger on the bike, that the TDF is on, that it's a beautiful day...there was really no reason for me to have a bad ride today except to begin exorcising the usual demons that try and creep in this close to an Ironman. And I'd had weird and bad dreams last night, also part of the IM leadup, and for the few minutes that I rode deliberately easily, it seemed that I scrolled through every bad thing that's happened to me in the last 3.5 years--pretty good depression from a combination of life crap (2005--right when I first began writing this blog), death of my Mom, death of my Dad, 2 failed romances, and yet, as is typical at this time, I was asking myself, "WHY????"

Why, why, why, why, why do I do this when it fucking hurts, when I know how tired I am going to be later in the day--too tired to accomplish anything major, yet already thinking about the next day's workouts and how much fun it will be to be outdoors doing them, when I have let things like my house cleanliness and garden tidiness go to hell for the last 8 weeks and will keep that up for another 10 or so, when I've put something on the calendar for August that I am alternately positive I can do yet respectfully afraid of, when I've signed up for a 50-mile trail run that I keep getting these looks like you don't know what the fuck you are getting into there when I talk about it, when I want so desparately to connect with more and more people, yet crave the alone time while I'm out there purposely hurting myself?

It is amazing to me how much I can think about during 3 minutes of riding easy! And when the 3 minutes is over, I stop asking myself why and get back to riding hard, telling myself it's only 10 minutes of pain--I can do anything for 10 minutes, right? And since I am riding in circles and seeing some of the same people every lap wondering why would someone ride their bike in circles, but it makes perfect sense to me because when I'm in the circle, it's my fucking circle of pain, and I've chosen to be there in it and fully experience the pain of my muscles and pain of my emotions, and really it's all about feeling--feeling everything--even though it can appear to be running away from stuff.

And I want to keep going--to stay in that circle--but real life calls, and I still have to run, so I finish up, riding for 1:50. The Ergomo says I rode at 94% of FTP, which is either true or my FTP has gone up. But I know I was riding hard, hard, hard, and it felt good.

I quickly put on running shorts, shoes and visor and headed out to run. I'd already decided that since some rainy-looking clouds were rolling in that I'd also run in circles around the "big block" and besides it has rolling hills and I will hate it and it will suck. And when I first started running, I could tell for sure that I had ridden hard, much as if I'd been in a sprint race, only it was a longer than normal sprint (I put in 35 miles on the ride), and so I expected the running to suck. But it only sucked from the effort of the bike--not the normal "brick suck." Nutrition-wise, I felt great, and since it wasn't particularly hot outside, I didn't have that to deal with (or else I am better heat acclimated now).

Running though, demands you feel it everywhere unlike being on a bike. Plus, running is not my thing--biking is! I ran the first loop holding back, and was fine. On the second loop, I dropped 30 seconds, repeated that on the third loop, and on the fourth I dropped another 15 seconds, so negative splitsville, which was great.

I ran pretty well considering how hard I rode, and I'm happy for it, but hey, it was just another workout that I enjoyed the hell out of even though it hurt like a motherfucker (note to self: why do you make yourself hurt like this???). I could have done an actual sprint race today and done pretty well, I think, and that is good. But I will just chalk this up to another great day of training, 4 days in a row of riding, and I'm still cresting that peak, that should culminate this weekend with my last 100-mile ride and brick run before IMLP.

There is nothing more I can do at this point except, I think, to really dig on the simultaneous pain and joy I get from doing this shit. And laugh at myself. I am sure that while I am out riding and running there are many people looking at me and thinking, "what the hell is that woman doing anyway?" but it's funny that I get a lot of smiles, too, and I always try and smile back. Because I am enjoying myself!