8 Days!

8 days! Single digits!

I'm really surprised how well I'm feeling. This far out from the St. Jude half marathon I was really worn out and second guessing everything. But so far, so good! Thursday was my last long ride, and so now I'm in full taper mode.

Last Thursday I rode 25 miles out on the roads with a friend, then finished my race rehearsal ride by myself on a local trail (for a total of 48 miles). This was followed up with a 6 mile run. It was really windy and tough!  I'm lucky I don't have spring allergies because there was so much pollen that my bike and my skin were yellow by the time I was done.

Speaking of the wind- around mile 40 I heard trees above me cracking so I sprinted out of the way and this branch landed right behind me. I had enough of the wind and headed for home after this.

Tuesday was my last long run of just 7 miles which felt better than my 9 from the week before.
Then later I took my bike in for what I hope to be the last adjustment. My wrists were still achy and would tingle when I went into the drops, and my saddle has not been comfortable and I couldn't ignore it anymore with all of these long rides. He adjusted my handle bars a bit and swapped my saddle out for a women's saddle and ta-da! Instant relief. I had no problems at all Thursday during my ride, and I felt more stable and felt comfortable letting go of my handle bars. This is all very good.

Tuesday night, Anna and I went out to the lake for a short swim. I finally tried on my wetsuit, and it fit and I felt good in the water. I haven't done an open water swim since last year, and I still enjoy it.
I wasn't sure if I'd have to readjust to open water, so that's a relief, too. Not quite sure what to expect with the ocean swim, but I'm looking forward to it.

I still get nervous about the race, but mostly I'm excited. I had been worried about my projected finish time because it seems ambitious for my first HIM. I worried about what type of winds we'll have on the bike, and what if it slowed me down too much and my bike split was longer than expected. I've only told a few people my goal time, and I'm sticking to that to keep the pressure off, but I finally realized that my projected paces are based on perfect conditions. If I have a head wind for the first 28 miles, and then the winds shift and I have a head wind for the last 28 miles, too- then my bike split will be longer than planned- oh well. I need to focus on my heart rate rather than speed and stay in the right zone and save my energy for the run which is where I'm strongest.

Here are my worst to best case bike scenarios:

• Headwind in both directions
• Crosswind the entire course
• Tailwind for first 28 with headwind for last 28
• Headwind for first 28 with tailwind for last 28
• No wind
• Tailwind in both directions (come on, wind! shift for me!)

And who knows, rain might be in the equation. Any of those situations will result in vastly different speeds. The wind wouldn't be as much of a factor if I had been comfortable with my aero bars, but I wasn't yet. And that's okay. I won't be the only one without them. The more I've ridden with the group, the more I realized I'm not the only one who is nervous on the bike or riding in aero. For some reason I had it in my head that I'd be the only one and that I didn't belong doing this distance. But that's not true. Maybe it seems more intimidating because we'll be racing with the professionals and other hardcore amateur athletes- which is different than the local short triathlons I've raced.

But it's pretty darn cool that we race with the professionals on the same course. Not many sports can say that. I won't see them after the swim start- they'll be finishing when I'm still on my bike- but they'll be there, and that's exciting.

Summary of Countdown Days 28-18

Well... I'm crazy. Last week I signed up for the Memphis in May Sprint AND Olympic triathlons. The Sprint is on Saturday and the Olympic is on Sunday. And they are only 3 weeks after my 70.3!

The timing might not be ideal... I'm not sure. I'll be in good shape from just finishing the the Half Ironman, but the week after I'm guessing I'm going too be sore to do much, and then the next two weeks we'll be busy packing, having my last day of work, saying goodbyes, having family visit, and celebrating Nathan's graduation (woohoo!).

I have to do these races though- my plan for the last few years was to do both for the Amateur Challenge. I did the Sprint as my first triathlon in 2013, and I did the Olympic in 2014, so it's only logical that I'd do both in 2015! But that was my plan before I knew I'd be doing a half Ironman just 3 weeks earlier! So I had been on the fence about these races, but I'd regret it if I didn't do them. It'll be for fun, with no expectations.
And since we move back to Michigan the following Wednesday, this is kind of my little celebration of our time in Tennessee. One last hurrah!

And I'm even more crazy because I am seriously considering racing Ironman 70.3 Steelhead in Michigan this August.

Could one ever really be enough?
:)

Okay, but priorities... let's focus on Texas first.

Last week's training was awesome. I felt so strong!

I nailed my bike ride on Monday and during my brick run I was supposed to run at my easy pace and when I looked at my watch I was going 2 minutes/mile faster than that. I was really excited that the faster pace felt easy to me.
Later on I swam and I swear that was the best swim I have had since I started training. I don't know what it was, but the water felt amazing. I felt so streamlined and I was going faster than I've been able to recently. Finally! My swim progress had stalled for a long time, so this was exciting.

Tuesday was my last long Long Run. The way my long runs work is that I have 8-12 sets of my easy pace for 9 minutes with a 1 minute walk break. Then I have varying sets either at my marathon or threshold pace. Tuesday I had 3 sets of 8 minutes at my marathon pace with 5 minutes at my easy pace in between. Sometimes it's 2 or 3 sets of 7 minutes at threshold, or this week it was 3 sets of 9 minutes at marathon pace. Every week is a little bit different, but the set up is the same- all the speed work is done at the end when my legs are tired.
This whole year I have struggled with the speed work at the end of my long runs. I've had to cut it short by a minute or two, slow the pace down, or eliminate one of the sets.
Tuesday? I did all 3! And at times I was going faster than my marathon pace.

I ended up running a total of 13.2 miles and I felt like I could have kept running. I won't be running this distance again until the race, which is making me even more excited for the race because I already miss it just knowing it'll be awhile since I do that again.

Wednesday was just a swim day so my legs got a break. And it was a repeat of Monday- I felt strong in the water and was faster than what's usual for me.

Last Thursday I got to ride out on the roads finally. Tonia took me around some quiet back roads for a bit. There were 20 mph winds with 30 mph gusts!

I was so nervous going into this ride. I was excited and relieved to finally be getting good experience, but the winds and potential thunderstorms were making me so nervous. I kept telling myself it was good practice for the race because the race is historically windy. But still, I would have preferred to have time to get comfortable before the wind tried to knock me over.

But, I'm happy to report I actually had fun! There were hills and debris and dogs and wind and some cars, and even a few wrong turns, but I had a lot of fun. That's promising! We rode for 1:45, so I finished my ride on the trainer when I got home... for a total of 3 hours and 55 minutes- 20 minutes more than I was scheduled for. (I even considered sticking it out for 5 more minutes for an even 4 hours but my butt wanted off!). And then I ran for 30 minutes. And then I ate a lot of food!

We survived the wind!

I just felt really good the whole week- it was amazing. After months of feeling horrible with my training, things have turned completely around.

This week hasn't been as great as last week, but it's still been good, so I'm trying to not let it get to me. I had to work on Monday and I was really worn out and skipped my swim, but really- that's all I've missed so far, so that's not bad.

Yesterday's (Tuesday) run was tough- and it was only 9 miles. It felt harder than my 13 from last week- probably due to the humidity... and the wind. I felt like I was being pushed backwards a few times. The wind here has been crazy lately.

Last night I met up with the Speedy Turtles group for a 12 mile ride. It was fun meeting new people, and I'm slowly getting more comfortable riding on the roads. I realized I really like climbing, so if I could just get comfortable descending, I might actually be okay at this bike riding thing. I just hate going so fast down those hills!

Today at some point is my final race rehearsal swim. Then tomorrow is my last long rehearsal bike and run. I'm a little anxious about tomorrow, but I know I'll feel better once it's over. Maybe one day I won't get so nervous about riding on the roads.

My bike needs to be adjusted again- it's so close to being right, but not quite there yet. It would have been best to get it adjusted before tomorrow's ride, but the timing didn't work out. I'm hoping to get it taken care of on Monday, though, so I'll still have plenty of time before the race to ride it and make sure it's comfortable.

And just like that the race is only 18 days away.

Seriously? I'm tapering already?