Another week passes, another week closer to Kona. This week was an interesting one with a climb up Longs in the middle of the week. Boy was I sore from Longs. The word of the week was "eccentric loading" (A load imposed on a structural member at some point other than the centroid of the section) (AKA walking downhill, and not being able to walk the next day because of it). It was eccentric this and eccentric that. All four of us (well, maybe Mighty Mouse excluded) were pretty humbled by all the eccentric loading we experienced. A few days of reduced training and it was time to hit it pretty hard this weekend. Saturday Troy came up to Boulder with me. He went hiking with Annie all the way up Sanitas while I got on my swimbikerun, or really swimrunbike as it was that day. Chuckie rode his motorcycle for support...something about eccentric loading issues for him. It sure is nice to have someone there at every turn, handing out bottles and trying to keep us on the right path (like herding cats).

Michelle (PIC) has been quite the little problem child recently (PF in her heel, sprained foot due to racing Tyler in the jumpy castle). Well, for some reason she can't clip her foot into her pedal. 5 miles later...it's still not in. Luckily Chuckie was there. He was great help, he said "That sucks". HaHa!! We stopped and I crammed my foot into her shoe (I'm a 9.5, she's a 7) and finally got the shoe clipped in. So the rest of the ride she wasn't allowed to unclip that foot. She had to walk around the quickie mart in her sock. Problem Child PIC. At last we finished up and I met back up with Troy and Annie for some Boulder Thai food and a soak in Boulder Creek.

soaking in the creek

annie stranded

boo and I, happy

Sunday PIC and I carpooled to Boulder together which I always love. We hopped into the Masters at the carpenter pool. This pool is a blast, it's like 3 feet deep and 50 meters long (apparently 6 inches shy). PIC of course was leading the fastest lane, with Chuckie in her lane too. Angela was one lane up from me, and looking really smooth. I love having 10 people in my lane, it was so much fun...until the breast/fly/breast 150's. I kinda struggled through those.

After swimming we got into our ride for the day. I had Chuckie with me. Apparently his eccentric loading issues were resolved because while I was doing some all out efforts, getting close to puking up my lung, Chuckie was starting friendly conversations with the people I was passing, completely unfazed by my effort and urging me to push harder. Love it.

Finally, we got to the workout I've been dreading all week. I saw this on my schedule on Tuesday and I was worried then. I've really been trying not to think about it, but, alas, here we are, Sunday afternoon and it's time to get it done. I've got to transition off the bike and run fast. The fast is fast, but due to it being the end of a hard week, the residual eccentric loading issues and just finishing up a rather hard ride, it makes running fast seem REALLY fast.

Michelle knew I was nervous and she was there on the sidelines (PF = no running yet). I got going into it and went out way too fast. Way too fast. I tried to settle in and finally just mentally got to a place where I was holding on more than I was settling in. I counted down every lap. Then with 4 to go I counted down every 200, then with 500 to go I counted down every 100. I like to count backwards, it keeps my mind busy. Michelle cheered for me along the way which was really nice too.

Having Chuckie coach the workout was cool. Once I ran by and he asked what my heart rate was. I told him (182) and he said "You can run this HR for 2.5 hours". I laughed about that for an entire lap, because I was feeling like I could run that heart rate for about 14 more minutes. He is the king of positive reinforcement, lots of "nice foot strike" or "great pace". It was REALLY cool.

When it was all said and done, I was one pooped puppy. We rode our bikes the 7 miles back from the track and I lagged, despite the fact that I drank an entire Izzy soda after the workout. I was the last one to finish and got dropped twice on the cool down. My legs hurt, my arms hurt, my butt hurt, my abs hurt, I think my eyelashes were even a bit sore, but my heart was happy.

This coming week is more of a recovery week with a some reduced volume and then we pick things back up for an extended block of time. This week I am calling the calm before the storm. I plan to use this time to make up some extra meals, get all my laundry caught up, bikes cleaned, tires checked and replaced. It's time to restock the training pantry, and prepare for the weeks ahead. That way the following weeks will go as smoothly as possible. I find that if your ducks are all in a row, then the training comes pretty easily. It's when you have to take care of life along the way that training gets effected.

Onwards!