Everything's Coming Together

This past week was another big training week for me, with both my longest bike ride ever and my biggest week in terms of overall hours. More impressive than the hours put in is how great each individual workout was. I feel like all of the hard work I've been doing is finally starting to show and I couldn't be happier about it, especially with my next race just around the corner. Here's how the week played out:

Monday: 2800 yd swim

Strength

~19 mile easy bike in the rain with the Gung Ho beginner ride

Tuesday: 2000 yd swim

60 min yoga

7 miles track (15 min w/u, 10 x 400, 15 min w/d)

Wednesday: 3 mile recovery run

15 min abs

Thursday: much appreciated rest day

Friday: 3200 yd swim

Strength

5 mile run with negative splits (9:35, 8:57, 8:44, 8:43, 8:34)

Saturday: 42 miles bike @ 15.8 avg

Sunday: 6.61 mile run with negative splits (9:54, 9:12, 9:07, 8:51, 8:43, 8:31, w/d)

Both Monday and Friday's swims were really strong and huge confidence boosters. I've talked about it before but I have a pretty strained relationship with swimming and am often scared of really pushing myself because I know no matter how hard I train I will never see the speeds I did when I was competing. This week I was able to put these thoughts aside and really make some progress in the pool. I'm also starting to chase some of my former training times, all in good spirit. I know I won't get back to where I was but it's fun to see how close I can get.

My long ride this week was my longest ride ever and was very enjoyable. After last weekend's super hilly ride I chose something a little flatter but with some climbs mixed in. My legs were not feeling any of the hills but felt great on the flats. I was hoping to do this ride a bit faster but my main goal was to keep the pace steady and that's what I did so I'm calling this a success. I also came up on what looked to be a pretty bad biking accident. I couldn't see how bad it was but the guy was rushed off in an ambulance. Really hoping to hear some good news.

This week's runs were the best workouts of the week. While the goal of Tuesday's track workout was more about consistency than speed I was happy to see how easy it felt to hold a sub 9:00 pace the whole time (including warm up & warm down). The real magic happened on Friday and Sunday's runs though. I wasn't expecting much out of either run since most of my runs this summer have been less than stellar. Instead I surprised myself by starting off slow and descending down to 8:30 with relative ease. Strong yet relaxed.

This week certainly left me with a lot of confidence in the work I've been putting in heading into my next race. I'm fairly clueless about what I'll be able to do given the course and the insane humidity in Virginia but I know that I did the work. Could I have done more? Yes, such as longer runs, but I was being cautious with my hip and regardless I did what I could with what I was given. Now it's time to relax and enjoy a lighter week because Saturday is race day!

Big Day On the Bike

Yesterday was a big day for me. I had a two hour ride on the schedule and was very nervous about it. It was going to be my longest ride, done by myself, and done on a completely unfamiliar to me course. I didn't want to be so nervous about it but I was. To try to minimize my nerves some I decided to follow the route for a 30 mile ride that took place back in June. I figured the organizers of this ride probably chose roads that weren't very busy, plus I knew it was a popular ride meaning people had to like the route.

It was raining when I woke up so I decided to postpone the ride to around 12:30 which was not my smartest move. I normally have no trouble riding in the heat that wasn't the case today. It probably didn't help that I didn't drink anything before I left for the ride. Stupid, yes. Something I'm working on, also yes. I know it sounds silly but I really do forget to drink sometimes.

Despite a few things going wrong, I really enjoyed this ride. The ride went something like this: first ten miles I was smiling ear to ear, second 10 miles I was getting annoyed with my directions, last 10 miles I was ready to be done but still loving being out there. Even though I had the directions clipped to my bike, they were very confusing and I had to keep stopping to figure out where to go. Plus I ran out of water with about 6 miles left.

Looking back I feel silly for being so nervous. I enjoyed [almost] every minute of this ride, which for someone who hated riding last year, this is a big deal. It's kind of weird, when I'm riding with others or near cars I'm fairly anxious and nervous but when I'm out there all alone I'm completely at peace and happy. For most of the ride I had the road to myself and felt so good out there. The nice thing about being so new to riding is that I feel like I'm making so much progress with every ride.

33.31 miles - 2:03:14 - 16.2 mph

When I was so nervous about this ride to try to calm myself down I would say that I could do this ride easy and not worry about pace. Ironically I rode my longest ride to date at one of my fastest training paces to date. Funny how things work out. Next week I have another two hour long ride on the schedule and I'm planning on doing the same route. Despite my issues with the directions I really liked this route. It was the perfect mix of hills and nice flats.

My plan next week is to eat a bigger breakfast before heading out, start hydrating the night before, and bring a mix of gatorade and water with me. I also want to see if there is any place along the route to stop to fill up my bottles.