I DID IT!!!! How many smiley faces can I put here??? I'm pretty much over the moon today with my workout. Was starting to wonder if I was ever gonna get there...today was the day - I finally did 100 miles on the bike. Yes, I know, I'm doing Ironman in 16 weeks, and until today I hadn't done more than 78 miles on the bike - totally crazy. But today I did it.
First can I just say, it's a beautiful 80 degrees out and I am sitting in the warmest room in the house with a fleece and wool socks on, and I'm still cold...just got out of the ice bath, which I really didn't want to do today, but I know my body will thank me tomorrow. (and Chris won't yell at me...okay "yell" ... since of course he doesn't REALLY yell). I'm sure it doesn't help that I'm eating a Jamocha Shake (Arby's) ...YUMMMM... but I'm not giving it up. I feel like the alpha lion sitting in front of the fresh kill - god help anyone who gets in the way of my food right now. LOL. Instant calories now...good calories in about an hour. (sorry Ilana).
So, back to the point of this blog. :) Good lord, I'm looking at the title and even in my training blog I still sound like a project manager. HA! But, truth is that this is a HUGE milestone for me. And it was a GREAT RIDE!!! I'm super stoked about it. Chris rode over to my neighbourhood from his house - about 15 miles away...I did loops around Shiloh before he got here so we'd start together at about the same mileage. Then he showed me a great little 15 mile loop, and then we headed out into the country. My main goal today was to a) get the time in the saddle and b) get my nutrition right. I also did dope up on ibuprofen so that my damn neck would not get in the way again this weekend. Halfway point and I was feeling great. We kept going. It's amazing how far and wide you go when you are covering 100 miles. We headed out from Cherokee County back to Roswell, and down to the River. Passed Katie June on the way, training for her first half in 4 weeks. My nutrition and fluid intake seemed to be about right. Neck was giving me a little bit of grief by about the 4 hour mark, but nothing too bad really. We stopped briefly at Jason's at mile 87 (thanks for the nuun!) and then hopped onto the Greenway for 6 miles at a recovery-like pace - man it was crowded. I was feeling very good, and then the last little bit started to feel a little shaky. Big hill climb out of the greenway with only about 7 miles to go. Got to the top of that hill, and knew I'd dropped the ball on nutrition just at the very end. I had one more goodie in my pocket, of course could not get the damn thing open (didn't help that my hands were a little shaky)!! Had to pull off to the side, managed to open it, and ate that pack of Gu Chomps in about 15 seconds flat. Yes the whole thing. (shut up). Guess I should've taken the gel that Jason offered... Anyway, caught up to Chris, and seriously within about 1 minute I was feeling good again. Chris went his way and I went mine. And yay Chris, the route was PERFECT, I rolled up to my door with 100.7 on the garmin!!! :) :) :) :) :) And yes, I did give a big whoop out loud on the road when I passed the ACTUAL 100 mile mark!! And to top it off, I ran 3.2 miles, at a respectable 8:27 pace. Couldn't be happier with myself right now!
What's even better, is I really do feel great! This is definitely the best I've felt after ANY long workout, never mind my longest ever. This was not only my longest workout in distance ever, but also my longest in time - including all my 70.3 races. Calories on the ride: 2 gels, 2 clif blocks, 1 gu chomps, ~16 oz gatorade, 1 banana, 1 wheat cheese crackers, 1 rice krispie square, and 5 bottles of water (4 with nuun). Totaling about 1400 calories. A little more water intake needed...pee was a little too yellow after the ride. :)
The rest of this week was pretty great too. Yesterday's long run - very happy. Five full loops for 14.2 miles in 2 hours, with the last 30 minutes at 7:57 pace. Nutrition was good here too - skipped the gatorade altogether, and ran with nuun water only and 2 gels. No GI issues, worked very well. Made it to all 3 swim workouts, which is the first time in a while, and it felt really good! Got a good mix of long distance swimming (Wed) and painful but very important speed sets (Fri). I already forget what we did Monday ;)
Wednesday's hill repeats on the run went very well too. I have suddenly found that I am able to effectively recover while still running. I used to have to walk for the recovery to get my heart rate down, but this week I ran up the hill for the 3 minute interval, and then was able to run down for recovery (vs just walking or stopping altogether) and actually get the proper drop in heart rate. This is huge for me. I've noticed all around that my run efficiency is getting better. Guess it was about time I tackled my hill avoidance head on; thanks to the new neighbourhood I've not had a choice about it. Six weeks of running these hills regularly - it's amazing the improvement.
So, total of 15:50 this week. I'm feeling pretty good. Today was a great day, and I feel like maybe it's not so crazy that I can actually do this after all. I'm still a long way from running a marathon after a ride like that, but I've got 16 weeks to get there. The way I feel today after this workout, I'll get there.
Huge thanks to Chris for riding with me today. (and to Suzanne for letting him ride all day on Mother's Day). I know I slowed you down a bit, but I really appreciate you being out there with me.
Happy Mother's Day to all the great Moms I know, but most especially to my Mum. I'm very grateful for you and everything you have done for me, and all that you continue to do. Miss you a lot, and love you very much. I'm sorry your gift is late - it's all this damn training! ;) - hope you like it when you get it.
Happy Training everyone!
Kat
Awesome!!!
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