and then you bounce back
After I wrote my post last week about how I was in a giant hole, I got a couple of mildly concerned notes. Nothing dramatic, just an, "are you sure you're ok?" kind of check-in. And I was okay, but I was also a little worried about how fragile my legs felt. Along the same lines, Sonja became weary of listening to me whine about how tired and trashed I was, and she went in and slightly adjusted my schedule so I could find something else to complain about.
Wednesday I had a mildly long ride which I rode pretty far into the range of "all easy." Thursday I was actually able to put a little bit of spring in my swimming step and by Friday everything was starting to really calm down. I'm sure I was in a similar hole during ironman training, but I appear to have erased it from my memory and was pretty startled and not at all amused when it came crashing back.
By Saturday I was starting to get a pretty serious case of the antsy-pants. I had my last (?) long (?) run before my 70.3 to do, and it ended being a huge confidence booster. 10 miles (pretend there is a picture of me here holding up all 10 fingers), and I didn't go wild woman on my heart rate, but instead ran controlled up the gentle incline of the trail and then let it loose the way back down. I felt a little creaky around the edges throughout the day, but a flop in the pool took care of some of it and compression plus couch time with the puppies took care of most of the rest.
My sneaky bitch of a calf started to act up early last week, right along the time I almost fell over the edge into overloading. Pulling back the training and getting the crap Graston'd out of it seems to have kicked it back in line. I also have been leaning on my Ravennas a bit more than usual, to the point where I might race in them next week.
Even after running SO FAR on Saturday, I woke up Sunday feeling fairly bouncy and actually happy to get back on the bike again. I managed to guilt Caroline into riding with me, and we combined our prescribed interval sessions into a ride that I finished feeling a little fatigued but strong. She also took me off of the "T and back" ride route that everyone in DC does a billion times a season and back into some quieter roads that we combined with a loop I knew to avoid River Road almost entirely. It's actually been a while since I've ridden with someone, and while she is definitely a stronger cyclist than me, I think we're close enough that chasing her down through my intervals was the perfect amount of tough. And thetwo four eight extra pounds that I'm still lugging around made it pretty easy for me to catch her anytime we hit even the slightest descent. We didn't take any pictures because we are blogging failures, but I wish I had taken one of the heart rate strap mark on her forehead after she did the entire ride with it stuffed in her helmet.
So my last "big" weekend before my 70.3 went surprisingly well. Ironman has forever ruined my perspective oneverything training, because running 10 easy miles and riding 50 plus some swimming doesn't sound like a big weekend at all anymore. I'm a little concerned that I over-reacted to the loading part of the cycle and am now hitting the recovery too early, but it was pretty fabulous to feel fresh for at least the first half of my ride yesterday so I suppose I should just shut up and go with it so I don't wake up tomorrow to see a five-hour ride on my schedule.
As far as my race is concerned, I'm trying not to think about it too much at all. For my spring 70.3, I made a complicated race plan full of times and heart rates and silly pictures, and I'm glad I did, but this time around I think I'm going to race on the no-plan plan.
I know how to feed myself to get through 5-7 hours of exercise, I've got a pretty good idea about what half-IM effort should feel like, and if I can run at 11:30 pace or faster off the bike, I should have the kind of day I'd like to see. Looking back, I think that both sprints I raced this season are a pretty good example of what happens when I don't obsess over the details of the day, and I'd like to replicate that feeling, at least mentally, going into this one. I've made a lot of decisions recently that I'm hoping will take the pressure off of race day this time around, and I think the only plan I really need is to get the fuck out of my own way. And to grab my puppies before crossing the finish line.
Oh, and my bike shoes have very rudely started hurting my feet, but my plan is to ignore it for the rest of the season because I don't want to plunk down any cash for new ones which I'm sure will work out just fine.
How was your weekend? What do you think of the no-plan plan?
Even after running SO FAR on Saturday, I woke up Sunday feeling fairly bouncy and actually happy to get back on the bike again. I managed to guilt Caroline into riding with me, and we combined our prescribed interval sessions into a ride that I finished feeling a little fatigued but strong. She also took me off of the "T and back" ride route that everyone in DC does a billion times a season and back into some quieter roads that we combined with a loop I knew to avoid River Road almost entirely. It's actually been a while since I've ridden with someone, and while she is definitely a stronger cyclist than me, I think we're close enough that chasing her down through my intervals was the perfect amount of tough. And the
So my last "big" weekend before my 70.3 went surprisingly well. Ironman has forever ruined my perspective on
