2 Weeks Until San Diego!

So, my workout buddy fell ill most of this week which just meant I had to work hard on my own – with no one reminding me that I have to keep up or risk humiliation. 

Monday morning I rode my usual 18-19 mile route  through the foothills and enjoyed watching the sun rise over the side of South Mountain.  It wasn’t my best time, but I am clearly maintaining a nice pace on this route, now. 

And then on Tuesday, I faced the trail alone.  My legs were feeling heavy, but I pushed out a nice pace for 5 miles and never looked back.  The temps are getting much warmer which means carrying water with me on these tough trails.  While I don’t always need it, its super important in Phoenix to err on the side of caution.  One never knows when you might go down and be stranded on the side of the mountain until someone comes by – so as the temps rise, I carry water.

Matt still unwell, I went for a nice easy 2000 meter swim on Wednesday morning.  As triathlon season comes to a close in Arizona, fewer and fewer people are seen in the pool.  I think I may have been the ONLY person in a lane for a good 20 minutes until a few trickled in.  Its good and bad – having to share a lane forces a triathlete to focus on their lines and having people in close proximity, but man is it nice to just glide for 45 minutes with no fear of bumping shoulders, arms, hands or even heads.

By Thursday morning I was really hopeful to have Matt join me for my Tempo run – given the fact that he’d really made me work the week prior and managed to keep me at an 8:40 pace for 5 miles.  But, again, Thursday, I went out alone.  Sadly, it really does take someone berating me and running backwards in front of me to keep me at an 8:30-8:40 pace – but I finished my 6 miles at an 8:51, instead.  I am not displeased, since I know this will still gain me a sub-2 hour ½ marathon, but it would be so nice to have my times closer to the 8:30 marker than the 9:00 marker.  I need an 8:30 pace to qualify for Boston.  Not that its my goal – but I am so close, I just want to see if I can do it.  Naturally I cannot believe I just admitted this in my blog.

I saw Matt at work briefly on Thursday and he seemed really down.  I know how upsetting it can be to lose nearly an entire week of potential training due to illness – he was in a rough spot.  He asked if we could shorten our ride on Friday and simply head out Pecos and back.  Company vs No Company – naturally I was happy to do whatever might get him back on the course.   We took it pretty easy on the course as I listened to Matt detail his excitement over watching every stage of the AMGEN Tour of California while he was home sick the whole week.  Matt rides a Jamis bike and he absolutely loves everything about the technology of his bike.  Team Jamis was doing well for the first couple of stages, from what I recall of our conversation – that was about the point that I tuned out and hoped he’d forgive me for not understanding a word of what he was saying.

While on the bike, I could feel a little discomfort in the tendons along the back of my right knee.  I stretched and stretched it (while waiting for Matt to catch up), but the pain remained for the entirety of the ride and well into the rest of the day.  In fact, it really had me worried when I went to bed on Friday night, so I did an extra long stretching session and hoped for the best.

I got a new jersey!

Saturday morning I awakened and didn’t feel much of anything from the tendons, but to be cautious, I didn’t swim or ride on Saturday morning.  My body was asking for a day of rest. 

However, I feel like I should tell everyone who reads my blog, that while I rested, Anne did her 11 mile run and I agreed to meet her at one of our local favorite breakfast joints.  At mile 6.2 she texted me, so I knew I had approximately another 55 minutes before I would see her at the end of her run.  Boy did she impress me.  For the first time in history, Anne beat me to the breakfast spot – she was simply far faster than I anticipated.  6 months ago it would have taken Anne 2:15 to finish those 11 miles.  But, Saturday, Anne finished in 2:04 – I am so proud of her.  She remains on track for under a 2:30 ½ marathon in two weeks.  I can hardly wait to see her finish.

Additionally on Saturday, I was able to enjoy an afternoon with a couple of friends at the AZ Canned Beer Fest.  It was a sea of craft beers and an awesome little 6 ounce can to receive pours.  With our entry fee came 20 pours – I am hopeful that not many took advantage of all 20.  I think that Craig and I managed about ½ that before bailing for the afternoon. 

L-R: Mer, Dennis M, and Craig

Naturally, the mixture of beer and working out is not the best.  I hydrated like crazy the rest of the day and went to bed early in hopes that it wouldn’t do much damage to my Sunday big workout.

Feeling marginally better (Matt that is), Matt picked me up at 4:40am and we were on the Desert Classic Trail by 5am.  You might remember from prior posts about the Desert Classic Trail – if I can get a ride to the start, I can run the trail all the way home – 11 miles exactly. 

Matt hung with me for the first 2.5 miles telling me more stories about Team Jamis and how they were back out in lead positions in the Tour of California in the final stages.  There was more talk about some Yellow Flag that I didn’t understand and something about hills versus time trials – but again, I have no clue what he was talking about.  Not wanting to seem like the lame, newb-of-a-cyclist that I clearly am, I enthusiastically added things like “YEAH!” and “”Wow!”  There may even have been some kind of, “That’s amazing!” in there.  Maybe it was the fact that I didn’t add much to the conversation that made Matt lead and abandon running with me – maybe I was too damn slow.  Whatever it was – I sincerely hope some American guy with a German last name wins the whole thing and that there’s some dude from Team Jamis on the podium.  (cheesy grin)

The Desert Classic sun rise is like no other.  This blog has seen many shots.  Not wanting to lose Matt, I decided not to stop and take a picture, this time.  In hindsight, I should have.  We both really enjoyed running toward the sun rising over the mountain with huge purples and pinks as we approached.  I saw Matt routinely for another 4 miles, but by mile 7 I had stopped seeing him altogether.  It made me sad, thinking about how desperately faster I wanted to be.  I was hot and running out of steam by mile 8, but I managed to get to the end of the trail where Matt was waiting in the shade. 

A told Matt I wanted to walk the last 1.75 miles home – of course I didn’t.  He pulled ahead and we met at my front door a little bit later.  Matt cut 10 minutes off his last Desert Classic run.  Another impressive trail run.  This was by far my worst time by 3 minutes, but I am ok with it.  The temps are rising and my tummy remembered all the beer from the afternoon prior somewhere around mile 7 or 8.  But I managed to eek it out and finish all 11 miles.  I know it will translate to faster times on the road and in the ½ marathon.  Now, I just have to convince my heart to believe the same.