Monday, September 22, 2008

158 miles of cycling and 31.5 miles of running...

In three days.....by the end of my run yesterday, my skin was tanned and I was so ready to eat something that didn't contain Carbo Pro, a shot blok, gatorade, anything not fruit punch flavored and to remove my somewhat-permanent heart rate monitor from my skin. I came home, drank my favorite recovery drink (Luna Bar Women's recovery smoothie in strawberry (comes in chocolate too), with milk) and I almost cried getting into the bath tub...it felt really really really nice....to just SIT. I even didn't mind that the bath tub water wouldn't get hot for some reason, it was luke warm, but I didn't care, I was so eager to get out of my triathlon outfit and get CLEAN!

The weekend went like this:
Friday: Morning: run for 30 minutes (3 miles), evening run: 90 minutes: first 30 minutes easy, next medium, last hard...the last three miles I ran under an 8:00 minute pace, I was stoked!
Saturday: 5.5 hour ride (96 miles) and then a 30 minute transition run (3.5 miles)
Sunday: 3.5 hour ride with intervals (20'x4 hard efforts)--(62 miles) and then a two hour run, the first 1'45' run at level 2, last fifteen, level 1 (14 miles).

The *craziest* part about all this mileage, is you would think by the time I got to my run I would have nothing left, and I didn't think so. In fact, when I hopped off my bike after the 62 miles yesterday, tears welled, I just wanted to go home. Why do I feel sorry for myself?? It's so dumb, like today, super happy, feeling great...yesterday, I was a mess. Ironman Training Emotions! Very silly!

I had to picture an imaginary Amanda cheering me on "good job mer, keep going." Amazing what you have to resort to to keep yourself motivated. The sick thing was, I felt miserable the first half hour but I got more energy as time went on. It's amazing to me, really, how tired I can feel, but somehow I can still put out the efforts that I need to. I couldn't even whine about a bad training day, it was great, just mentally I was run down!! You think your mental state of being is attached to your training, not always....I can have a great training day and still want to be done with training!

Anyway, my run yesterday was really great. Most of my miles were below a 8:20 pace and that was level 2 after all this training. So, I *think* there may be hope that a good run is in my future for the SOMA half ironman and maybe even Ironman. If I can maintain a good pace with being grumpy and near tears and really tired legs, imagine what I can do on well rested legs and a good mental attitude.


I've always known that my coach was "right on," and knows me and knows how to push me just right, and these last few days were just a reassurance that i'm actually SEEING the progress i'm making more than ever..especially in my running.....being able to put out better speed towards the end of a run, something i've rarely been able to do before.

Today is a day off! YAYY!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

You Are an animal!!!! GRRRRRR!!!

Shan said...

Mer, you are a total ROCKSTAR!!! What a difficult weekend - crazy!! I don't ever remember running 2hr on a Friday and then again on a Sunday (especially after 2 long days of biking) during my IM training. But that's why you are going to totally kick ass at IMAZ! I really wish we could train for an IM together... :( Maybe in the future we can plan to do the same one!!

My back is 100% again! I was able to swim hard last night without tweaking it, and tonight I'm going to do a brick workout...Time to get back into things!! YAY.

Sending much love your way!! :)

Post-doc, PhD said...

whew . . .that's probably more cycling than i've done this month! (ok, i'll stop mentioning that i'm in my off-season :-)

you're impressive. more hard core about your IM training than i ever was. you're going to kick ass at IMAZ! remember that rest and recovery are EQUALLY as important as though long hard days. and fro-yo with your friends. did amanda put that in your plan???

can't wait to see you rock it! maybe come hang with me and shannon on a recovery weekend . . . . :-)

Anonymous said...

YEAHHHH MER! So glad the Training is going so well and you are doing so great! GLAD you are fired up and love your coach, that is so important! Keep up the good job!
Jen H. :)

Mary said...

Mer, just found you :) I had a blast on our few laps this weekend (the ones without anyone to talk to...not so much fun)! So glad we finally met! We're almost there. You really are a rockstar!