A great IM Training day

When my friend Leanne told me about this workout I thought she was insane. Why would someone put their body through that kind of hell just to train. Going through hell on race day to get to the finish line is one thing. But to train for 9ish hours in one day...!!???

I decided to try it and here's how it went:

Bike 27 miles, run 6 miles, bike 27 miles, run 6 miles, bike 16 miles, run 3 miles.

Originally the plan was to have 3 rounds of 25 to 27 miles on the bike followed by 6 mile runs but we ran out of daylight and had to shorten things up a bit. Since the last ride was shorter, I tried to do some really hard efforts a few times for a couple of minutes at a time. The last run segment went similarly. I ran hard for the last mile up a slight grade.

This was a fantastic workout. I got in a lot of time on the bike and run but never got bored. Part of that was the nature of the workout, part of it was having friends there to help. I'd highly recommend this type of workout 4 to 6 weeks before a big event like Ironman. It really built my confidence up and I feel like I'm ready to race.

Next weekend is mountain biking for fun... let's see how many bruises I come home with.

I'm soooooooooo hot. My metabolism is through the roof. That's what happens when you ride your bike for 98 miles, 7 hours in the wind and cold. This may be my last looooooong ride before Ironman Arizona. From here on out I'll start to shorten things up and do combined workouts, bike followed by run.

But before that happens... one more long run tomorrow.

The road to IMAZ has been interesting. I haven't trained as consistently as I have in the past. No written plans, only 2 other races this season. So it'll be interesting to see what happens. I've trained intuitively and haven't spent the last 6 months flirting with overtraining. But I don't feel like I've trained enough. November the 22nd will tell the story.

The little things

I had a great weekend. I am happier than I have been in as long as I can remember.

Today I rode my bike to work, in the sunshine with a skirt on and clompy Danskos. My bike has a new SRAM shifter for the front derailleur and new grips thanks to Tom. She was riding like a dream, zooming down Belmont with a snow covered Mt. Hood looking over my shoulder. It was one of those joyous moments when I felt like nothing else exists in the world except happiness.