Rocky Raccoon 100 training week 5 + Rip Roarin' Ride ride report.
This week started with a 2:50am wakeup call. I really wanted to do Monday morning masters, but when the schedule came out, Monday's practice started at 5am. Which means getting up at 3am in order to ride my bike there. But since my body is incapable of sleeping until my alarm goes off, I got up at 2:50. Which I'm fairly surely most of the world considers a "still up" time rather than an "already up" time. Then I swam for 90 minutes, which is roughly 40 minutes longer than I've swum in a couple months. Ouch. Fairly sure I'm ready for that 1.2 mile swim now, at least!
Things went well this week. I made a last-minute decision to do the Rip Roarin' Ride 50 miler on Saturday, hoping it would give me a little more confidence about the IMNC 70.3 ride, and I think it did. Cecilia joined me (Karen was out of town), and then Matt decided to join, as well! We just enjoyed a little ride through Liberty Hill, with a few photo ops and a whole lot of hills. I'd forgotten about the hills. Still there. But they were doable, and I'm fairly sure there aren't nearly so many hills on the race course. Finished up with a little 3 mile run off the bike, courtesy of slightly longer mid-week runs and a slightly longer Sunday run.
Oof, that Sunday run. We were promised cooler, drier weather, and that didn't really turn out to be the case. I went to bed early and didn't set an alarm, letting my body dictate when it wanted to get up, and somehow I ended up walking out the door to run at 5am. I think I've ruined myself for ever having a "normal" schedule again. The run was tough. At mile 3, I didn't feel great, and was near my house, and considered just going back home and going back to bed. But then I decided to treat it as a race day simulation, because things are going to get hard, and I'm going to want to quit. But I know that if I just keep going forward, things will get better eventually. And they did. I felt better by mile 5, and while it wasn't a fast run, it was a solid 14 miler.
So that's week 5! 5/21 done. Week 6 is my last build week of this block, and also features the relinquishment of my bike to Tri Bike Transport on Thursday. No long ride this coming weekend, which is intimidating when you have a triathlon coming up, but also a relief because the decision is taken out of my hands. Then next week is race week! AKA girls' weekend, which is really the part I'm focused on.
8+9+3+14=34
Things went well this week. I made a last-minute decision to do the Rip Roarin' Ride 50 miler on Saturday, hoping it would give me a little more confidence about the IMNC 70.3 ride, and I think it did. Cecilia joined me (Karen was out of town), and then Matt decided to join, as well! We just enjoyed a little ride through Liberty Hill, with a few photo ops and a whole lot of hills. I'd forgotten about the hills. Still there. But they were doable, and I'm fairly sure there aren't nearly so many hills on the race course. Finished up with a little 3 mile run off the bike, courtesy of slightly longer mid-week runs and a slightly longer Sunday run.
Oof, that Sunday run. We were promised cooler, drier weather, and that didn't really turn out to be the case. I went to bed early and didn't set an alarm, letting my body dictate when it wanted to get up, and somehow I ended up walking out the door to run at 5am. I think I've ruined myself for ever having a "normal" schedule again. The run was tough. At mile 3, I didn't feel great, and was near my house, and considered just going back home and going back to bed. But then I decided to treat it as a race day simulation, because things are going to get hard, and I'm going to want to quit. But I know that if I just keep going forward, things will get better eventually. And they did. I felt better by mile 5, and while it wasn't a fast run, it was a solid 14 miler.
So that's week 5! 5/21 done. Week 6 is my last build week of this block, and also features the relinquishment of my bike to Tri Bike Transport on Thursday. No long ride this coming weekend, which is intimidating when you have a triathlon coming up, but also a relief because the decision is taken out of my hands. Then next week is race week! AKA girls' weekend, which is really the part I'm focused on.
8+9+3+14=34