Riding in Circles..

I woke up at 5:30 a.m. this morning to go ride in circles. There is an island here--called Fiesta Island, kind of a fake island, anyway, it's about 5 miles around. So, I met up with the same crazy people I met up with last week (last week we rode up and down Coronado for 94 miles). Today we rode around and around. As boring as it is, you can ride this way without being interrupted and kind of figure out how Ironman will go. Also, less traffic and we park right near a porto potty...very important!

.....I did 102 miles in 5 hours and 57 minutes. I am being specific here with my time because I wanted to do a quick calculation of how long it would take me to do 112 miles at that rate, Dave figured it out and it would take me 6 hrs and 24 minutes....exactly what i'm aiming for during my race!

Anyway, the ride was cold to start with, as in, I had 3 underlayers on and a windbreaker. It was about 53 degrees which is cold for San Diego..... Eventually, I warmed up. Ride went without a hitch--nutrition really great again, i'm VERY happy about that! My new position is terrific. I got my bike re-fit yesterday and turns out my aero-bars were angled down (they're supposed to be straight out or up a little), so I think that is what was causing my back problems. Of course today, my shoulders ached a little from the new position, took 2 tylenol and the issue went away. While the cold disappeared, the wind picked up. Some parts of the "island" I went 23-25 mph, other parts I went 13 mph! Really funny....

After the bike, I hopped off and went for a run. Just 2.0 miles---and that was done in 16:55 (16 minutes).....which I was REALLY happy with--that since that averages to be just over an 8:00/minute mile. The most important part, my knees didn't hurt!

OH! Forgot my training from yesterday: 30 minute run, 75 minute bike ride, 45 minute swim....not exactly what I was *scheduled* to do....but it's what I could fit in between work and my bike fit--and two dogs having tails between their legs to be let out!

After talking w/my coach, i'm not doing my long runs on Sundays anymore---my knees need some time to recover. As it is, i'm not sure how long i'll be running before the race--I may have already done my last long run at 17.66 miles. We'll see how the knees feel this Tuesday. I would like to get in at least an hour run.

Tomorrow is a long swim, short run, short ride.......

Thanks for reading!