Training Week 18: 3/26/07 - 4/1/07

I went to Master's swim 2 nights this week, to try to get my swimming lungs back. After 2 weeks out of the pool due to the cold, I was sucking wind. But it is what it is.

This weekend is the Ragnar Relay Del Sol. I've picked up an extra running leg (on the course, not on my body ;)) so I will be running 19 miles total in the 36 or so hours of the race. The race is Friday and Saturday, and we are running from Wickenburg to Scottsdale. That's 189 miles of running! Holly (the bestest team captain ever! Yeah, that shout out's for you girl!) got us some really cool purple hoodies that have the Tri Girls logo on the front with "Ragnar Del Sol Relay 2007" and then the names of our team members on the back. The thing is so comfy. I could seriously live in it during the cooler months.

Zac and I will be staying with a friend of mine in Tempe Saturday night, then on Sunday I'll be hitting Lake Pleasant for a 2.4 mile practice swim for IMAZ. I'm going to try to seed myself in the group where I would for IMAZ. Coach Colleen recommended right on the buoy line and a little towards the back for me.

I just got the proofs for my team shirts! These are the shirts my family members will be wearing on IMAZ race day! This will make it easier for me to find them in the crowd, and it will be a little gift for being out there all freaking day.

Training Week 17: 3/19/07 - 3/25/07

I did a quick run early in the week, even though I was coughing and hacking away. Friday morning I got up at 4:30AM and did a Spinervals workout on the trainer, and almost fell asleep on it. Saturday I am doing a 3 hr run, and on Sunday I'm doing a 68 mile ride and probably the TTG swim workout. I haven't been swimming due to this cold.

The IMAZ Athlete Guide was put out this week, which started making me nervous. I still have a ton of stuff to do! I started making my lists for what to pack in all of my transition and special needs bags, and have started buying stuff for the race (Cliff Bloks, etc). This week I went to Sports Authority and bought some Underarmor running shorts. They are compression shorts like bike shorts, but without the padding. So I am going to try them out on my 3 hr run to see how they work. If they work well, I'll use them in the race. If not, I'll just use regular running shorts.

Next weekend is the Ragnar relay, and my last long workout weekend. I'll be running about 13 miles over the entire race, so it shouldn't be too bad. Sunday I am doing a 2.4 mile open water swim at Lake Pleasant. That will be my first time back in the wetsuit for this year. I'm going to wear my swimsuit under my wetsuit to see how it does.

Just a few short weeks until race day. I can't believe it's almost here!

Training Week 16: 3/12/07 - 3/18/07

Ended up sick with a cold this week, so no training.

Training Week 15: 3/5/07 - 3/11/07

Training Schedule:
Tues, 3/6: Bike - Spinervals 21.0 of Aero Base Builder on trainer
Wed, 3/7: Run - 40 min run on Tucson Tri course at UA before masters, Swim - 1 hr Master's swim workout
Sat, 3/8: Bike - 100 mile ride

Holy crap...3 weeks?! Yep, it's been a crazy 3 weeks. Buying a house, putting ours on the market, etc. So I've been training sporadically during that time. But I've been sticking to the long workouts.

Here's the Cliff Notes version of what's happened training wise:
For the Tri Girls YMCA swim relay I swam 4300 yds non-stop in 1 hr 26 minutes. I was pretty jazzed about that. It was in a 25 yd long pool, so that drove me a little crazy. But I got it done. Boy were my arms tired after that. Good thing all I need my arms for are for the swim and holding myself up on the bike.

Last weekend was the Tri Girl training weekend on the IMAZ course. I was hoping to do a 100 mile ride, but the winds nixed that idea. I felt great after the first loop of 41 miles and was like "Yeah! 2 more loops no problem!" But then the winds picked up and blew us all over the road. By mile 60 I was hating life and wanted off the bike and to get out of the wind. I also rolled through a cereal storm. There's a landfill by the course and a box of cereal blew into the road. A car hit it which ripped the bag of cereal from the box (a full bag I might add) and the following truck ripped open the bag. Sticky, crunchy kid's cereal flew across the road and all over me and the bike. I think it was Honey Smacks or something similar. Thank goodness the drivetrain didn't freeze up due to being jammed with cereal. On Sunday I ran one loop of the IMAZ course with Shari. I noticed it's pretty much a combination of parts of the Tempe Oly and SOMA 1/2 IM run courses. So all of it was pretty familar. I've convinced my brain that the run course (which is 3 loops of just over 8 miles each) is really 2 loops and a parade lap. The parade lap I will be giving high fives to the crowd and hugging the volunteers the entire way.

Today I did my first century ride! 100.5 miles on the bike. I went an extra 1/2 mile just to be sure. I covered it in 6 hrs 5 minutes of riding time, and 7 hrs 10 min clock time (with stops and chatting with Johnny, who rode with me). I rode from Tucson to Casa Grande and back. It sounds weird to say I rode from one entire town to another. Winds weren't that bad. Just a few gusts and headwinds on the way back. Thankfully Johnny from work joined me on the ride so that I wasn't alone. We made lots of stops along the way and it broke up the ride well. He did 80 miles, so I dropped him off in Marana and continued on while he leap-frogged me in the car. For the last 20 miles I cranked at 19.5 mph! The legs just wanted to spin, so I let them and kept an eye on my HR and didn't let it get too high. Average HR of 118 for this ride was perfect. I don't feel trashed at all. Not sure about running a marathon after this kind of ride, but I only need to do that once. ;) So this was a good ride, especially after last weekend's demoralizing ride in the wind on the IMAZ course. Funny how I feel much better after this 100 miles than I did after the 82 miles last weekend in the wind. My nutrition plan is pretty much dialed in. I tried pretzels on this ride around mile 82 and they tasted SO GOOD! It was nice to have something crunchy and salty. It seems to be helping to take small bites of solid food throughout the ride. So pretzels will be in the special needs bag.