Mega Weekend

This weekend was my biggest mega training weekend I will have for CDA (I think...). Saturday we biked 101 miles of hills and Sunday I ran 17.5 miles and then swam (not very far).

Next weekend will be my longest training run with a not-as-long bike ride and the weekend after that will be a not-as-long run with hopefully another century bike ride. So hopefully these next two weekends will be a breeze after smushing everything together this weekend.

Saturday started early...very early...as in 4 something. We left Houston at 5am to make a 6:30am rollout time in Chappell Hill. A good 25-30 cyclists showed up for the ride -about half triathletes who are doing CDA and the other half road cyclists who just like torture. I was so happy to see that many people show up - the group definitely made the ride a lot more fun. The route was also awesome - I'd have pictures if I could have ever thought clearly enough to use the camera I had in my back pocket. The hills just got bigger and bigger though. We were mostly on two lane country backroads with very little traffic. Things were great for me through our first stop, right around mile 50, at Henry's Grocery store in Burton. I think we met Henry...if the store was established circa 1920, we definitely met Henry! The next 10 miles got a bit rough, but Shellie and I had met up again with Jon, Luke, and Alberto and they stopped to wait for us a few times, so it was nice to have more company out there (by this time the group had spread out with most being behind us because we cut off 12 miles of the 113 mile course early on). After about mile 60 I was beginning to think that I was done, just as the hills were getting worse and worse. Lovely, I thought. I have not done a century ride in 2 months and this one is absolutely killing me. Perfect place to be 5 weeks out from my hilly ironman.

As we came into Independence, where the hills were the biggest, a stupid BEE flew into my helmet and got stuck. I was livid, and the bee was as well. It stung me and then kept going at it, but I think they really only give the worst sting the first time around. I kept trying to get it out, but I was going up a huge hill so I could not stop, and I could not take my helmet off either because then I'm sure I'd fall and hit my head or get hit by a car or something else, or that I'd still lose the battle with the bee, for which I needed a helmet to win. I crossed the main intersection in Independence knowing the General Store would be soon on my right, but not soon enough, and I had to keep going uphill. By this time there were tears in my eyes and I was about to blow a gasket. I finally pulled into the parking lot and Jon was right there. I threw my helmet on the ground and burst into tears. How dare a bee fly into my helmet and get stuck in there while I'm riding up a hill that is absolutely kicking my butt? Talk about adding insult to injury, or maybe injury to insult in this case. My ego was already hurting enough, not to mention my entire out-of-hill-shape body. Anyway, after a little tlc from Jon I was much better although I still had a lovely throbbing head reminding me of my friend the bee. At this stop, several more people caught up (who had ridden 80 miles to my ~70 at this point) so it was good to have company for a short while again. Shellie had contemplated turning for home once we left, but I told her I wanted to quit too but knew I'd hate myself for doing it after. I told her that we should keep going and if we wanted to quit at any point later on, we could just stop and call Jon or Augie to come get us. I knew I would regret not getting in 100 miles as it is such a fundamental distance in Ironman training. I had no other reason to quit, I was not in danger, the weather was good, the route and company were good. I was just tired and hurt all over, and was feeling sorry for myself, but realistically, none of those were good enough reasons to throw in the towel. Was I secretly hoping for the sky to fall out like it apparently did all around us all day long? Yes. Was I secretly hoping I'd have some sort of deadly, yet not deadly reaction to the bee stings? Yes. But of course, neither of those things happened either, so we charged ahead. We had ~14 miles to the next stop, and then we'd have 19 miles to get home from there. Luke stayed with Shellie and me most of the way to the next stop which was very helpful. The last stop was at Washington on the Brazos state park. I love actually being able to use some of the resources our tax dollars pay for - nice air conditioned bathrooms and cold water that we did not have to pay for. It is the little things that will make you happy on a day like this.

The last 19 miles were probably the longest of the day- I told Shellie we could take another mini-rest stop at mile 94, the last turn for home. I knew the last 7 miles too well and knew they were pretty hilly. We stopped at that corner and Shellie proceeded to sit on a pile of hot asphalt rocks. It was pretty funny, but then I sat down right next to her. We then became the welcoming committee for the next 20 or so riders who came through. Everyone asked if we were ok and looked concerned...why? because we were sitting in a pile of hot rocks? Who knows. One guy even came an joined us on the rocks. After taking a few minutes to gather whatever mental fortitude we had left, we hopped back on and headed for home. I was pleasantly surprised that the road was not as bad as I had remembered. I was fearing we'd be riding right into a lovely headwind, but maybe for the first time this year, the wind was not that bad. The road surface was also pretty nice and the last 7 miles actually weren't that bad at all. The cruelest part of coming back into Chappell Hill is that you have a pretty nasty hill right at the edge of town. You are sooo close but still have to keep climbing before you can see the end.

All in all, it was a good ride. I was scared to death beforehand, not knowing how I would handle the hills, knowing I needed to be ok on the hills because CDA is going to be hilly. Admittedly, I have not ridden enough hills yet this year. Day 1 of the MS150 was supposed to be decently hilly for the second half, but it got cancelled, my previous attempt at Chappell Hill ended with only 50 miles after weather got the best of us, and the Gulf Coast course was flat as a pancake. BUT, I survived, and didn't do all that bad. Despite all my whining above, I am happy with how it went. Actual riding time was a little over 6 hours. I will take it. I also kept telling myself that the first time for anything is the hardest, as in if I were to go ride that course again in a week or two, I am now stronger for riding it the first time, and that round 2 wouldn't be nearly as challenging.

Jon also continued his freak of physical nature-ness and rode 90 strong miles. I guess that was his 4th ride after knee surgery. I told him after that I was glad he was there and that I appreciated him coming out and he said "what else was I going to do?" Well, I could think of plenty of things...most involving sleep and food!

Sunday Shellie and I headed out for a run of undetermined length. The original route was 17.5 miles, but that was planned before we rode on Saturday. Neither of us knew what to expect come Sunday morning but were pleasantly surprised in the end to make it the entire 17.5 miles. I was worried at mile 1.5 that I was going to be done at mile 2 because I felt so bad, but as almost every long run does, it got better as the miles went on. We walked a fair bit after mile 12 or so, but still averaged a pace I'd be happy to run at CDA, so all in all, a very good run. I decided somewhere in the Heights that I was heading straight to Shipley's for a donut after the run. I haven't had one in months, and decided this was the perfect day for one. I think the thought of Shipley's is the only thing that got me back to my car! I got home and had my Shipley's kolache, plain glazed donut, and chocolate glazed donut while "enjoying" my ice bath. It was awesome (the food, not the ice).

I passed out cold for a few hours and then woke up and went to swim with Jon. Heading out the door onto the pool deck was one of the few times during this training round that I have felt like we are really digging deep and getting to the bottom of this whole Ironman thing. Every ounce of me wanted to stay in bed and eat the rest of the day, but I knew I needed to swim. I needed it as much for the recovery as for the training. My swim was ugly and not very far (just 1600), but was definitely a good thing to do. I felt better afterward and was proud of myself for getting out there. The lifeguard probably looked at me and figured I had just woken up for the day after drinking all night - I looked pretty bad and was moving pretty slow. If only people knew what we choose to do to ourselves on a regular basis!

Next weekend - Austin, here I come!!!!!!!!