Countdown to B2B: 13 weeks

I have been pretty proud of myself lately with balancing travel & training. I knew when I signed up for B2B that it would be challenging to squeeze it all in and it has been going pretty well. I got in a solid amount of miles on the bike before I left Wednesday and the rest of the week was a big running week, compared to the last several months. I still feel strong and healthy, which is also a good sign as I ramp up training after next weekend’s race!

Monday – 22.1 mile ride, ~1:21, (16.3 mph): This was a great example of me listening to my body (finally). My legs were still super sore from Sunday’s running adventures so I set out on a relatively flat course (as flat as it gets around here) with the goal of not pushing myself at all. I took it super easy the whole time and tried to keep the cadence up and just spin my legs. It definitely helped with the soreness and was a good ride.

Tuesday – 30.5 mile ride, ~1:50 (16.6 mph): Jenni and I originally planned to ride after work since she was getting home late from California, but she texted and said she would rather do it in the morning. Win! I would much rather get it done when it is cooler! I scratched the brick that I originally planned since my legs were still somewhat sore and treated this as my “long” ride for the week. We picked a hilly route and pushed pretty hard, but didn’t kill ourselves. We both ran out of water and I was chaffing pretty bad, so the last 5 miles or so were pretty miserable.

Wednesday – Speedwork: 6 miles w/3 x mile repeats @ 6:55 min/mile + 17.5 mile ride, ~1:05, (16.1 mph): Met Char at the track SUPER early (5:20 a.m.) for speedwork. It was great to run with her again since she has been on vacation for almost 2 weeks. We were both a little nervous about the repeats, but we dominated them this morning: 6:52, 6:52 & 6:49! The workout called for 1 min RI between repeats but we decided to go for the “heat & humidity” RI and did a 400 between each. 

Right after the run, I met Jenni to ride. We were both a bit tired and sluggish, so we didn’t ride super hard, but still got in a solid hour + ride to finish off the day!

Thursday – OFF/Wake Boarding: I had originally planned to swim, but it ended up being a nice break for my body to just take the day to relax and have a little fun on the lake!

Friday – 8 mile run w/6 miles @ 7:45 min/mile: It is hilly at the lake. REALLY hilly. And I was a little intimidated when I started the run, wondering how I would hold the tempo pace for 6 miles. I decided to give myself a little slack and aim for 7:55, but then as I went on, I felt stronger and stronger, so I treated it as a progression run and tried to drop 5 seconds every 2 miles of the tempo. In the end I was really proud of this run. I know being able to keep these paces on a tough course will make me a stronger runner.

Saturday – 1 mile OWS: Three cheers for kayak support! My parents both hopped in the kayaks and mom wore the Garmin so I would know how far I had been. Saturday is probably not the best day at the lake to do an OWS because there were tons of boats and jet skis, even at 9 a.m. I was plenty safe with my awesome kayak support, but I quickly learned about how difficult it is to swim in a really rough, choppy lake! Again, good practice for races where this is an issue!

Sunday – Double Day: 12 mile run @ 8:22  min/mile + 2.5 mile run @ 9:04 min/mile: Longest run since January! I kind of tricked myself into going 12 instead of 11 because I had to add a loop on to the run to get the distance I needed. This was tough, but I felt strong at the end, which is very encouraging as I ramp up mileage. Did I mention that the route is up and down the whole way? Crazy!

After a day out in the sun and relaxing, I definitely DID NOT want to head out for a 2nd run in the 100* heat. I made a commitment to myself that I would do a double run day every week until Hood-to-Coast, so I told myself I could go as easy as I wanted and just had to do one “Imperial Point” loop (my favorite 2.5 mile loop at the lake). It was hot, but it turned out to be a nice little shake-out run after that morning’s tough 12-miler and, as always, I was SO glad I did it!

• Swim = 1600 m.
• Bike = 70.1 miles (all by Wednesday!)
• Run =  28.5 miles (big week lately!)
• Time = 8 hrs. 45 min.