I am tired.
Period. After you read this blog,
you TOO will be tired, I am sure.
After the crazy Vegas weekend with the girls, I took Monday
off entirely. I considered riding my
bike for 10 miles or so, but when push came to shove, I was exhausted from the
weekend of intense workouts. But, by
Monday evening, I had received an email from Matt asking about a Tuesday
morning ride.
And, like clockwork, we met and did some easy spinning for
20 miles, Tuesday morning. It was good
to be back on the road with Matt. He
teaches me a lot about recovery rides and how to make the most of them.
By Wednesday morning I was feeling well enough to run and
tackled an impressive 6+ mile run with a 9:05 pace. I am really getting much faster and am
feeling pretty confident that the sub-2-hour ½ marathon is within reach. I am really hopeful that we have good
conditions for PF Chang’s ½ marathon (here in Phoenix) in another 6 weeks.
Thursday morning, Matt and I tackled some tough, hilly miles
– doing a couple of hill-repeats on 24th Street (my nemesis) and
then following it with the Desert Foothills long stretch and Chandler Blvd’s
bitch of a climb. Matt annihilated me on
every hill. He even teased me at one
point on Desert Foothills by saying, “feel free to pull ahead if you’re feeling
strong.” Naturally, I prefer to hang
near Matt so I can see his intentions and he doesn’t sneak past me when I am
least expecting it. But, I lost each and
every hill climb (sad face). I hope to
have my day again, soon. (See Matt’s
shaking head as he reads my blog.)
Friday morning was the first time I was able to use my
Garmin 910XT in the pool and I was really excited. What a weird feeling it was, too. It felt like it dragged for the first several
hundred meters, but its accuracy is astounding.
What did I learn? I am freakin’
slow and need a Master’s Class. I am
resolved to find one locally that won’t cost me an arm and a leg. Because I don’t have a “Matt” to help me with
my swimming – I am going to have to actually find a class. Granted, I hadn’t been in the pool in 11
days, but I had some seriously disappointing times in the water. There are only a few months between now and
the Leadman 125 – and while I can easily swim 1.5 miles, I can’t do so in any
sort of impressive time. Anyone have any
suggestions, locally? (Meaning,
Ahwatukee or Tempe.)
Saturday morning I actually slept in! And, although I didn’t start my trail run
until 7am, it was 50 degrees and chilly.
As I pulled into the parking lot at the trailhead, it was filled with
cars. Ack! I hate a lot of traffic on the trail – It
always screws with my times. But, off I
went.
I saw no one for 3 miles.
And, just as my watch beeped its 3rd mile and I was about to
turn around to head back, I could see 3 mountain bikers and 2 trail runners
less than a 1/10th of a mile behind me. “No Way!” I thought. The passages were super narrow and incredibly
steep right at the turn around spot – I knew I needed to make it passed several
spots before the 5 of them approached.
And, I did. It took the Mountain
Bikers nearly 8/10ths of a mile to catch up to me. Heh! I
was working hard. But, as they
approached, I noticed that at least one of them lacked finesse and was likely
going to struggle through some seriously tough/steep terrain. So, I resolved to keep them in my sights and
not let them get too far ahead.
A group of 4 Mountain Bikers coming at me about a mile out
from the finish line, made me pull off for a few seconds, but then I got right
back to it. I could practically smell
the guys who’d been suffering on their bikes in front of me. And, about ½ mile from the trailhead, I
caught up to them as they rested and lamented turning around to endure the same
route back to their cars. We all laughed
as the weakest of the 3 said, “Jesus Christ” as he realized I’d been on their
tail for over a mile to the end. I am
sure he was demoralized, but we all simply laughed as I moved past them to
complete the run.
As luck would have it, I beat my best time by over 2 minutes
on the trail yesterday morning. I was
grateful for the challenge of the Mountain Bikers for once.
Knowing I had a long ride ahead of me on Sunday morning, I
headed over to Anne’s for dinner on Saturday night and had a fantastic time
running around the house with Sean. He’s
destined to be an awesome runner, as he is constantly saying, “Let’s Run.” I take him up on it each and every time. Sadly, he went head first into the
refrigerator at one point and then I thought his parents were never going to
trust me with him again, but Sean got over his tears as soon as he realized I
was still willing to continue our circular pattern around the house. I hope it didn’t leave a mark (wink). After the running shenanigans ceased, Lyla,
Anne and I went to dinner.
My alarm went off before I knew it this morning, and I was up and adam for a 5am ride with Matt. Matt had planned a 65 mile ride for us and I
admitted, when he pulled out of his garage, that I was a tad nervous. 53 miles the week prior had beaten the crap
out of me—and now we had even further. Matt
shrugged it off and led us out into the darkness.
The first 15 miles or so were pretty uneventful, but then we
passed our usual turn-around in Maricopa and it felt like unchartered, scary
territory for the next 22 miles.
Navigating in the dark, through construction zones, around debris in the
shoulder and through narrow passages with cars randomly stopped had me (and
Matt) on our toes for miles and miles. There
were even about 8 miles of a gradual uphill before the turn around and we were
both struggling to keep our avs over 18.
We did it, but it wasn’t pretty.
By the time we reached the half-way mark, we were exhausted
and I confessed that I couldn’t believe it was only ½ way. We hopped off our bikes briefly so we could
take some Gu and (of course) so Matt could pee in the bushes. (Shaking head…I guess he hydrates better than
I.)
Getting ourselves mentally prepared for the second half, we
hopped back on our bikes and headed out. It was then that I realized the stop had done
NOTHING good for my chill. I was a
popsicle and shaking terribly for a mile.
My hands were numb and I began asking Matt about frost-bite. He tried to convince me that it wasn’t cold
enough for me to lose my fingers and comforted me a bit by explaining that the
sun would warm us both soon enough. It
must have taken 3-4 miles for it to dawn on me that I could blow warm air into
my fingers/hands and that things would start to thaw. But the change from frozen to warmer made my
hands and fingers ache terribly. I was
seriously worried. Matt let me stay
behind for several bike lengths as I came in and out of my pain-cave. Finally, all was well and I had movement and
feeling back in my hands – without pain.
And of course we still had 25+ miles left to the ride, so I knew I had
to immediately work on changing my attitude.
We hit Maricopa soon after and I felt great. We were both keeping an AVS above 20 mph and
feeling pretty good about it. I was
floored as I’d been riding for 45 miles at that point and still felt like I had
the remaining 18-20 in me.
Matt wisely suggested we share a mile and a ½ loads from
that point forward so neither of us would blow up at the end. It was like a miracle for me – I felt
stronger than ever each and every time I took to the front. Matt struggled a little at one point, right
around mile 55 and let me know his quads were miserable. But, he took a gel and was back to his usual
self in the last 5 miles of the ride.
This was quite the feather in my cap because I didn’t feel bad at
all. The only issue I had on the ride
was my frozen fingers, but I didn’t feel like I couldn’t continue to push at
any point. (Well, except when Matt asked
if I’d be interested in racing to the end of a long stretch right around mile
62. I am pretty sure I said something
nasty and probably flipped him off, but that’s why he rides with me. He loves my stink-eye!)
64 miles later – we had an AVS of 18.2 mph. I was on cloud nine! What an amazing effort for both of us!! The century is still 5 weeks away and I am
feeling less nervous about my ability to crunch out the miles, now. Super proud – SUPER!!!
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