I stayed out late last night. That's right. I didn't get home until 11pm. Sometimes I really wonder about the person I've become. Is this who I thought I'd be when I was back in high school where I'd stay up past 1 and wake up at the very last minute to get to school and then sleep 11-12 hours straight on the weekends? Is this who I thought I'd be when I was in college and waking up before 10am was an extreme challenge and the night life didn't start until after 10 pm?
I never would have dreamed that I'd be asleep at 10 almost every night and up before 7. Saturday and Sunday too.
I'm not complaining, I love it! As I sit here at 7:30 in the morning after a leisurely hour of drinking coffee and goofing around on the internets I am perfectly content.
It was fun to stay out with my friends though. I hadn't joined in on post-climbing revelry in quite some time. Partly due to trying to stick to the budget, partly because I have a hard time not eating too much pizza and screwing up my nutrition/diet, and partly because I just get tired and am ready for bed at 9:30. And also because I'm not really drinking these days and it's hard to sit there with a pitcher of absolutely delicious beer in front of you and abstain.
But it was worth it.
And so was waking up early even though I wanted to keep sleeping. Because I am soooooooooooo slow getting started in the mornings, I can waste hours with my coffee and computer and slowly getting my act together for the day's workout. And I had a very important workout to get in before 3pm.
30 mile bike followed with 8 mile run. The last long workout before the taper. A chance to test out the nutrition plan and to see how everything is going.
I'd spent some time on Friday mapping out 30 miles that wouldn't be super flat. It is a challenge to find decent hills that aren't crazy with traffic. It's hard for me to get over to the hillside where the good hills are, and I always feel a bit nervous while riding on the roads up there anyways. So I ended up with the ol' standby of the road to Kincaid and the last bit of Dimond that winds around past the Jodphur parking lot. There was more flat than I wanted but it wasn't too bad. When I got home it turned out to be 31 miles. Oh well.
I also mapped out 8 miles of running that would get me a few hills. There aren't a whole lot of hills from my house and I wanted to be able to put my bike in the garage. So I ran around in circles and went up and down the same hills a few times, but it wasn't so bad. Up the hill from the coastal trail to Forest Park twice, up west high hill twice and up from the lagoon to the Parkstrip once. It ended up being a bit over 8.5.
The time I was hoping to make for the bike was 2 hours. Avg of 15 mph. I nailed it almost spot on, finishing the 31 miles in 2:03. Spent 4 minutes transitioning (bathroom break and putting bike in the garage, so I feel ok about that time, a little long but not too bad.) The time I was hoping for my run was 1:30. Crushed it with 1:23. And that was even with the extra half mile. I was feeling good enough that I was able to push the last half mile pretty strong and even "sprinted" the last quarter mile. Total time 3:30 which was exactly what I was hoping for.
So yeah, I feel pretty damn good about myself right now.
And it was windy. Gusts at 22 mph. It slowed me down from 22 mph to 14 mph on one particularly flat stretch. (I think maybe the wind was at my back for that 22....)
Oh yeah, I installed my new bike computer so I have data again! Which tells me that my slowest speed was 6.8 mph while going up some hills...and max was 35 mph while going down. The wind seemed to always be pushing against me when I was going down hill.
My stomach did alright. I followed the plan I'd mapped out for nutrition. A couple twinges of the stomach but it settled down and didn't really bother me. Mostly it would be if I drank a bit too much water at once.
My neck gets super sore after about 20 miles of riding :( Not sure what I can do about that.
My legs finally settled in to feeling like legs on the run and not like stiff rods that I was trying to bend and move as if they weren't actually part of my body. Only took 35 minutes.
I have no concept of my speed when I start out. It feels like I am running slower than slow. The whole time I felt that surely I was running 11 minute miles or even slower. I was hoping I was close to the pace I wanted but it feels so slow.
And my feet! There is only one thing that I am looking forward to from the heat on race day. My toes not going horribly numb from the cold. It does not feel good to run on frozen feet. At one point it felt like there was something in my shoe, so I stopped and took it off. Nope. Nothing. Just those weird sensations you get as your feet slowly start defrosting.
So pleased with how this workout went. When I finished and was walking it out a bit before heading in for my shower my legs felt so much better than they ever did after one of my long runs for my marathon last year. I'm starting to feel that maybe I'm making a bit of progress. And I slept ok instead of tossing and turning from being so freaking sore. My legs are definitely groaning this morning as I tackle the stairs, but it's not unbearable.
So now I just have to take those distances, almost double them, and swim for 40 minutes first.
Piece of cake.
Maps for this brick workout....bike map and run map
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