Saying good-bye to rest week

I really enjoyed this rest week. It was the first time I didn't go entirely sloth. I worked towards some of my long term goals in other areas of life. I played with my grrls a little extra. I enjoyed listening to Grumpy play his guitar and sing at Open Mic night. I laughed with family.

All week long, I fretted about my run test on Saturday. I was supposed to go to the track and do it there. I prefer the treadmill to the track. At the track, you run around in circles and don't get any where. You look forward to getting some where but, it's right back where you started. Although on the treadmill you don't go any where either, there is never a time you think "When am I going to get there?"

I have never done a run test outside of a race. I worried whether I could push through the pain with out the added energy from others racing. But, this year is about going longer distances. To do that, I'm going to have to make friends with pain.

So, early Saturday morning, I dragged Grumpy down to the local high school track to watch. 

Looks peaceful - doesn't it?

I did my warm up to get the blood flowing and the legs moving. Grumpy kept asking "Are you done?" Finally, it was time for running as hard and steady as I could for 20 minutes. I started off sub 9 so, I backed it off a bit. I finished the first lap in about 2:45. That meant it was going to be about 10 laps total.

I finished the 2nd lap in about the same time. I was going faster than I had planned and a LOT faster than my last 5k. I still had 15 minutes to go. I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to keep this pace up for another 8 laps! I knew if I didn't, coach would toss out the test and make me do it again. I drew strength from that. I was going finish this test correctly or puke trying.

I drew this up in response to my friend Molly's bike test storyboard. This was my internal dialog for laps 3 through 7.

Do Mirinda or Leanda have these thoughts?

Once I hit lap 8, I began to think I could do it. Coming down the final stretch, I put it all out there.

This hurt... bad. But, I learned I can do this. I know this pain and I own it. I won't have to wonder if I can do it. I've already done that.

Tomorrow starts the next build phase and an early peak. I don't know whether to have a drink or cry.

Week 11 Update

Still going strong. Final week in this build phase is in the books. Not much else worth noting - swam, biked, and ran my butt off.

Swim: 3.2 miles
Bike: 50.75 miles
Run: 17.4 miles

Looking forward to this upcoming rest week.

Picture of the week:

NorCal Spring

2013 South Bay Duathlon Race Report

Wow! Time is flying by. Some how I managed to miss a couple of weeks of blogs. Just going to dive right into the race report.

Last Sunday, the South Bay Duathlon race was held. This is a nicely organized race held in Morgan Hill (approximately 25 minutes south of San Jose). Morgan Hill is a smaller community separated from San Jose by the "Green Belt". To the east and west are hills that are beautifully green this time of year. The weather forecast for the day was mid-60's and blue sky.

There were two distances offered. I chose to do the 2 mile run/10 mile bike/2 mile run. Due to the longer distance running first, I decided to be at the site and set up before the first race went off. I'm very glad I did. I got there about 7:15am and snagged a good rack space with my tri club. Now, I had to hang around for a couple of hours. Luckily, there were some friends waiting too.

All of a sudden, it was time to warm up! Doing the 5ks at the end of last year, I really learned the importance of warming up. Getting the legs moving, the heart pumping, and the blood flowing. 10 minutes of kicking out the cob webs and a few minutes building. It was time to get to the start line.

The under 40 women went off first. Once they were off, the 40+ women stepped up. Another tri club was out in force and those women are FAST! So, I lined up right behind them. When the gun went off, I watched my age group run off (*sigh* some day I'll be with them).

Run #1 was pretty much the same as last year's race - trying not to go out too fast while every one else passed me. But then, something different happened. I started to pass people. Not a lot, but some.

Coming from the first run

My goal was to not go out too fast and use this first run as a continued warm up. I also wanted to run strong.

Run #1: 20:49

Now into T1. I ran to the speed bump that marked my rack and found the bike no problem. Slipped my shoes on and grabbed my helmet. Off I went.

T1: 1:07

I had a little trouble clipping in but, I finally got on my way. I had wattage I was supposed to keep but, stupid battery in the cpu unit had died while sitting on the rack. So, I was riding this blind. No idea what the watts were. No idea how fast I was going. I tried to dial in a certain level of pain and stayed with it. It was crowded at the beginning so, I was passing quite a few people. People rode 3 abreast at times.  It started to thin out as we reached the hill. Funny, it seemed steeper than last year. The first part of the hill isn't too bad and I was able to pass a few people. The final 15 yards of the hill gets steeper so, a couple of those people passed me. But, I barreled passed them on the way down the hill.

First loop done, let's go again.

The second loop went faster. There were fewer people on the course by now. I was able to keep that special kind of pain all the way through. Coming down the final stretch, the road was very washboard and I was shaking violently on the bike. Luckily, the road smoothed out about the point I wanted to take my feet out. For the first time EVER, I managed to get my right foot completely out AND loosen my left foot so I could just slip it out when I got off the bike.

Bike: 34:22

Running into transition, I was so distracted by running in socks I lost track of where I was running. When I realized I'd gone too far, I was 2 racks beyond. Rack the bike, take off the helmet, slip on my shoes, grab my water bottle, and snatch my visor as I ran out.

T2: 1:01

 I didn't realize I was smiling at this point. My legs felt great. The plan was to go as fast as I could. The first mile was solid. I began passing people.

Let's go!

 At about 1.5 miles, I started to struggle. My stomach hurt. I backed off a little to let it stop hurting. A few steps later, I pressed on. A quarter mile later, I figured that I only needed to run another 5 minutes... I can do this for 5 more minutes. I turned the corner and could see mile marker 2. I could do this until I got there. Finally, I was back to transition where we had to run through to get to the finish line. Push!

Run #2: 21:41

Overall: 1:19:00 (5:53 PR)

HUGE progress! I'm trying to not get ahead of myself and take each race as it comes....