Upcoming holidays and long, hard workouts!

I guess we’ll see if anyone really does read my blog now that I have deleted my FB account.  Guess you’ll all have to resort to actually commenting here on the actual blog instead.  Eh?!

I feel like I have no idea which way is up this week.  I went through all of my photos, but got confused which pictures went with which workout day.  But, then I thought – eh, none of you would know the difference, anyway – well, except maybe Matt, but then again who knows if even he remembers which outfit he wore on which morning.  I can say this because as we get closer to our Century ride in mid-January, the number of workouts we push out have multiplied.

After a stellar 64 mile ride, last weekend, I sent Matt an email asking if the workout calendar was correct – were we really going to get back on our bikes the following morning for a recovery ride?!  Mind you all, I was pretty snarky in my email FULLY assuming the answer was “No, let’s ride on Tuesday, instead.”  Nope – I got a “Harden the F*** up” email back – so, um yes, we rode on Monday morning for ~15 miles.  They were pretty easy miles, so I guess I can stop complaining.  Although, I did have to explain to Matt (several times) on the ride that my ass was still injured from the mileage the morning prior.  He did very little to console me.

Tuesday morning I was excited to get out for a 6 mile run through the Foothills.  And, I had every reason to be excited.  As I glanced at my watch at the end of the run it read: 6.06 miles; 53:06 – that’s an 8:46 overall pace and a Personal Best for me on that run.  I was on cloud 9, again.  My runs really seemed to be coming together.

Tuesday night I did something I’ve never done before.  I went to my gym for a Masters Swim.  I definitely need this class as part of my regular work outs.  It kicked my BUTT!  I have never used the kick-board so much.  My legs were in terrible pain when I was done.

Wednesday morning, once again, we were back on the bike for a solid 20 miles.  I felt good and strong when we left Matt’s doorstep, but about 2 miles into the ride, my quads could not meet Matt’s pace.  They were completely wasted from the swim the night before.  I was so embarrassed and apologetic.  Matt even made some crappy comment about the 20 miles being a solid 2 mph slower than his best.  (sad face) – I guess I deserved it.

With forecast for rain on Friday, Matt sent me an end of day email on Wednesday asking if we could move our Friday easy ride to Thursday, instead.  Never wanting to let him down, I agreed.  We only went out for 12 miles or so.  The pace was nice and easy, even if the temps were ridiculously cold for Arizona.

Oh, and I also had the pleasure of a nice run around Tempe Town Lake with Brent on Thursday evening.  I miss our regular runs, but we both had pretty tough semesters.  It was great to get back out with him – even if only for 3-4 miles.

Seriously, Brent and I found this on our running path around the lake.  Perfect, no?

After a nice day of rest on Friday (due to the horrendous amounts of rain dumped on the Phoenix metro area), I woke up Saturday morning hoping that the rains had stopped and that the trails might be ok to run.  However, as I listened to the news, I realized the rains had only just stopped when I woke and would likely continue in another couple of hours.  I took that as a sign that I should get my butt outside for a 10 mile road run as soon as possible.  I did my old run through some of the tougher hills in my neighborhood and came out with a surprising 1:31:51 over all time.  Another first for me!  I was floored that even with the steep hills I could maintain a 9:10 pace.  I just hope this lasts.

One of my colleague's at worked brewed me my own beer: Mer's Finish Line Ale.  A hazelnut brown, of course!!  Yay, Dennis M!  Thank you again.  It's sooooo yummy!

As an aside (and for picture insertion reasons), Loretta had a great holiday party on Saturday night – complete with Sean/Lyla Shenanigans.  After all, what would my blog be if not laden with pictures of one or both of them!

We were having so much fun!

No idea why Sean isn't smiling!

Which of course leads me to this morning’s ride with Matt.  We had planned a 79 mile ride out Pecos Road, followed by the same route out passed Maricopa and back that we had done the prior Sunday.  I was scared to death.  Not to mention, those horrible rains I had mentioned lingered through midnight last night – so we knew the roads would be damp, if not completely saturated.

After heading out at 5:30am, I realized that Matt was gunning for a personal best.  Sadly, I wasn’t having it.  I knew I had 79 miles in front of me and I was painfully nervous about it.  Matt’s comment, “well, I didn’t run 10 miles yesterday, so I feel fine.”  …sigh.  My only comment was “I KNEW you’d bring it up.”  Poor guy – he really does a bang up job of dealing with my crappy attitude for the first 10 miles of these rides.  I spend so much of our first several miles nervous about letting him down that I let it consume me.  I know I should get over it and just enjoy the ride, but having never done this before, I think a lot about WHY he’s even allowing me to slow him down.  Matt assures me that its not the case, but I can see/feel his marked improvement on the bike and I just don’t see that much improvement in my skills.  (shrug)

As we made our way off of Pecos Road and back to the Maricopa Highway, my legs started to feel ok.  But, suddenly I was drowning in water and mud from drafting off Matt’s rear wheel.  I was covered in tar and asphalt.  And, of course, I was wearing white (smile).  Nothing pleased me more than to switch with Matt and take on the front as he cackled his way through the muck my wheel was spitting at him.  After a while, we both got over it, but what a disgusting mess we were in only a few short miles.

Just before we hit the town of Maricopa, I ran over a nail and blew my front tire.  It seemed like forever as Matt’s swapped out one tube for another.  I was soaked and beginning to shiver uncontrollably.  And, there was poor Matt – tired, achy fingers, attempting to put the tube back on my rim.  He has GOT to be tired of riding with my klutzy ass.

After the tire fix, we headed into the town of Maricopa and quickly realized that the fog had taken over and we could not see more than a few feet in front of us.   We pulled into the Circle K and decided to wait it out – it was simply too dangerous for us to continue down the road.  But, after about 20 mins in the gas station, we realized it wasn’t getting any better.  Fortunately, Loretta’s house was around the corner and she was nice enough to brew us a pot of coffee and allow us to warm up at her place as we waited for the fog to burn off.

Loretta and I posed in front of her xmas tree, this morning.

30 or so minutes later, we were back on the road.  At that point, however, we had lost too much time and abandoned the 79 mile ride for a 50 mile ride.  We pulled some nice numbers on our ride back to Matt’s – which I am sure we both credit to the coffee at Loretta’s.   I guess we’ll have to make up for it this coming week at some point.  (…and this is the point at which I wonder whether we are riding again, tomorrow.  Matt?)

Last few days of work before the holidays!  I am really looking forward to some rest!