Training Camp

It is a recovery week. Finally. I don’t really feel like posting today. I just kinda want to forget the weekend. But I’m writing ….

So like it or not, I will briefly discuss the “IMFL training camp” and my first century ride.

Ride

Saturday was my first ever century ride (100 miles). I did it! The weather was great (despite concerns that Tropical Storm Danny would bring rain and strong winds). We were pretty lucky on that front.

I won’t go into all of the gory details about the day. There was riding. And riding. And riding. Unfortunately almost my entire ride was solo. There were errors on the cue sheet. There were mean motorists screaming at me for no apparent reason as I safely and carefully rode in the shoulder. There wasn’t quite enough nutrition.

Mid way through the ride I seriously thought about stopping. I just wanted to quit. Quit the century ride. Quit training for Ironman. I cried for a little while. Eventually I just snapped out of it. I’d have to say that was my lowest point of my journey so far. Let’s hope that is as bad as it gets.

By the end, I was fried and I was not a cheerful girl. I’m chalking it up to having my cranky pants on that day and vowing not to do that again. I really tried to be positive but I just wasn’t having a great day.

I feel bad for being a sourpuss after the ride. I just felt really crappy (tired, sore, frustrated) and I didn’t feel like being sociable.

The ride took me a long time. While I have honestly come to grips with my slowness on the bike, the fact that it took me as long as it did has me questioning my ability to make the cutoff times as IMFL. [There are time limits for each part of the Ironman. Everyone needs to finish the swim and bike within 10:30 hours of the start of the race to be allowed to begin the run.]

I didn’t realize until today that there were stops on Saturday's ride that I didn’t account for. Like the 10 minutes I spent on the phone with our ride director trying to get directions. So maybe there’s hope. Sigh.

It will be fine. I’ve decided that even if they take my chip away because I don’t get back from the bike in time, I WILL finish the race. I know if I can get out on the run course I will run those 262 miles. If I have to do it without a timing chip, I will. Even if I do so unofficially, I will get it done. So there! I’m back to my old spunky self. :)

As a recovery treat from my pissy ride, we headed over the beach to feel the sand on our toes. We spent just a little bit of time on the beach and got our feet in the ocean. I am so glad for that. Then, while I was drying off laying on my beach towel, a bee decided to visit me in my brightly-colored swimsuit. After successfully swatting him away twice, I thought I was in the clear.

Nope.

Damn that bee sting hurt! Got me right on the bottom of my hand, right above my wrist. Grrrrr. At least he didn’t get me before the ride. That would have sucked. And the good news is that the bee sting was the worst physical symptom to report that day. Did I mention that I RODE 100 MILES?!?

Run

The next morning was an 8-mile run and ocean swim. The run was good. I realized once I started that I was sorer than I had realized. But I had a nice run that reminded me that I do have some athletic ability.

Swim

The waves breaking were pretty hard because of the storm. Somehow after swimming for just a little while, I managed to get completely pummeled by the ocean.

Hours later salt water was still coming out of my nose. I’m not kidding. Fortunately I was able to stay calm. That’s something.

I didn’t get anymore swimming in after that. Guess I’ll just have to wait until Bermuda to practice my ocean swimming.

Hindsight

In the midst of my sleeplessness last night, I realized what a truly challenging couple of weeks it has been. Since August 15^th I have done one Olympic-distance race on a hot and hilly course; I have completed 18 workouts, including speed work, a 90 mile ride, a 100 mile ride, a 16 mile run, and 8 mile run and I had a little ocean adventure. No wonder I’m exhausted.

This recovery week will be savored. There are still two big training weeks and an half Ironman remaining and I will be ready for them. Now it is time to back off the training a bit and catch up on the sleep I didn’t get this weekend.