"The Weekend" Recap

I survived my biggest weekend of training so far!! It would have been a perfect weekend, leaving me with overflowing confidence, if I wasn't cheated out of my ride.

Saturday 90 mi ride:
On Friday I watched the weather forecast every time it was on. Although they were calling for spotty rain/storms on Saturday, I thought if I started right at 5:30 I could squeeze it in. Well, when I woke up on Saturday at 4:30am it was raining.  After fuming for a while and trying to get a little more sleep, I made my way to the basement. I emailed my coach and deep inside I was hoping for an email back that said to cut this ride short and use it as a recovery week. Instead I got an email that ended, "I'm sure you'll make the most of the trainer." Ugh.

At 45 miles I took a short break to refill my bottles and grab a banana. When I got upstairs, the sky had cleared up and the street was starting to dry. I was so frustrated and so done with the trainer. The thought of a few more hours on that thing was killing me. But on the other hand, I really didn't feel like packing all my stuff up and driving a half hour to where I ride. After complaining and seriously contemplating quitting for the day, I quickly packed up and headed out. While it wasn't raining, it was a wet messy ride and it felt GREAT!! I really wish I would have waited out the rain longer and done the whole ride outside. I did the full 90 miles but I felt, and still do, really cheated. I don't feel like I got the full experience.

Sunday 1.5 mi OWS Race:
The whole purpose of this race was to practice wearing my wetsuit as I've never worn one and I won't have the chance to wear it again before race day. The water temperature was 79 degrees and while wetsuits were allowed, if you opted to wear one you were not eligible for awards. They warned anyone wearing a wetsuit about the possibility of overheating and recommended we stay hydrated while waiting for our waves. My goal for this race was to just go for a little swim. I had no intentions of pushing it and just wanted to focus on form and not panicking.

It was a little crowded at the start but surprisingly, it didn't faze me at all. I didn't have any moments of panic and just did my thing. I took some hits, gave some back and dealt with each person as I came up on them. I focused on my form and kept the effort aerobic. Everything was going great but I could feel myself warming up; my legs were so hot! I don't think peeing right before the start helped as that warm liquid was trapped from the get go. I had no choice, though. I had to pee so badly. Before I knew it, I was following the buoys back to the finish. I was passing people from the earlier waves and just knew I had a decent swim. As I came up the boat launch a volunteer grabbed my hand and all I could say was "please get this off me." They quickly unzipped me but it didn't help much; I was burning up. Andy quickly came over and honestly, I was having trouble seeing him. I was shaking really bad and thought for sure I was about to pass out. We quickly got me off my feet and out of the sun with some water and bananas. I've never had that feeling before so I'm really hoping it was due to wearing the wetsuit in warm water. I don't need this happening on race day. I finished the swim in 44:03 (43 min and some change according to my watch...I didn't cross the timing mat right away because I was trying to get out of my wetsuit).

I could not be any happier with how this swim went. It was exactly what I needed it to be and all my hard work is paying off. If I did the calculation right, and I can hold this pace (~1:36/100yds) for the IM swim, it puts me well under 1:20, which is where I had hoped to be.

Sunday 16 mi run:
I bolted home after the race and met a friend who is crazy enough to run 16 miles with me in the middle of the day during a gross heat wave (real feel temp was 96). The humidity was horrible and I agree with the weatherman who described it as "suffocating." We had no set pace in mind, as this wasn't the type of weather to really push your limits, and decided to just do what we could. For the most part, I felt ok but I did hit a couple rough patches.  We averaged a 9:36, which considering the race earlier in the morning and the weather, I was pretty happy.

So, with the exception of the bike ride, the weekend went great. While I don't feel like I got the true experience of the 90 miles, I'm proud of myself for not giving up. Like one of my FB friends said, "Adapt and overcome. Way to deal." It was good mental training, which I'm going to need on race day.