Taper, taper

And so week 2 of "The Taper" officially begins.

Week 1 concluded with yesterday's 4 hour bike ride. Four hours, pfft. Nothing. (Wow, I never thought I'd say that!) Well, except for that stretch of Calaveras Road that seemed to go on MUCH longer than it *should* have. But then again we haven't ridden out there in quite a while. The hills were both easier and longer than I remembered. A strange combination, I know. And judging from my techie toys, I was taking it much easier than I should have been. Man, what a slacker I've become in taper!

I'm feeling both ready and petrified to get this first big event under way. A lot of packing to do between now and August 1. Good thing it's taper..only 7-1/2 hours of workouts this week. Plenty of packing and panicking time. :)

No further explanation needed

Ups and downs

Yesterday was the Livestrong Challenge ride. And as you can see the course definitely had it's ups and downs. And ups. And ups.

I was really hoping for a better ride. I had my ups and downs. And downs. And downs.

I think I let myself get wallowed in negativity early on. Every time I do one of these big group rides (there were something like 3000 riders out there) I realize how much I dislike them. I hate being trapped between or behind other riders. Probably because I have control issues.....oh, like you're surprised by that. I couldn't get comfortable enough to get into my aero bars, which put my aero drink bottle out of reach, which in turn left me dehydrated and under fueled, which I think spiraled me down further.

Highlights:

There was the guy who had his daughter trailing off the back of his bike on one of those one wheeled attachments. When I said "hey, that's the way to go", he was quick to let me know that his girl worked hard back there, she wasn't just out for a free ride. They had done some pretty long rides, with some pretty impressive hills. Awesome.

Seeing all the cancer survivors out there giving it their all.

The course marshall on the ancient Schwinn cruiser who looked so entertained.

Our "friend" who we'd ride with for a while, then drop, then have him catch back up at the next aid station. For a while we shared the duty of cutting through the wind. After the big hill at Metcalf Road, we didn't see him again. Hope he made it all the way.

The volunteers and support on the course was awesome. Unbelievably well supplied aid stations, with bike mechanics at most of them. The best.

Getting up Metcalf with only one stop. On compact double gearing. And passing people who were walking while they rooted for me. Nice.

1.3 million dollars raised for Lance's foundation. Let's hope it gets cancer research moving along a little faster.

Lowlights:

Probably too many to list.....

Just mentally down on this ride, as I've said. Not too many positive thoughts going through my head.

Stopping at all on Metcalf. I really wanted to push on, but gave up.

Not following my nutrition plans. I should know by now that things go much better if I'm fueled and hydrated. No? Really?

Getting passed by riders of all shapes and sizes. I hate being slow.

I'm working on getting over it. Letting it go. It's just a ride, not the end of the world. It doesn't make or break my IM training. There will be good rides and there will be bad rides. I think I'm just in a funk. Maybe some pie would help. Deliveries accepted. :)

Double marathon...and then some

No, I haven't *completely* lost my mind....I know, I know, it's debatable. I haven't signed up to do an ultra or anything like that.

A double marathon would be 52.4 miles. So far this year, in my training, I've swam more than 56 miles. More than 100k yards. Yeah, I've SWAM more than two marathons. Now that may not be much for some folks, but for me that's huge. I may not be the fastest, or the strongest, but I can get it done. I just have to do the work and get through it.... So let it be written, so let it be done. :)

This post brought to you by the letter "G"

"G" as in Gravity....about to topple this tree into the creek. I wonder how long this will take. Will I see it down one day?

G as in Girl trying to stomp on tadpoles. Now, don't go calling PETA (people for the ethical treatment of amphibians) just yet. She can't actually get them, she just likes to try.

"G" for go. Just go run. No timing anything, no paces, no goal.

"G" as in Garin. Running at Garin park (the 'baby' side) is how I wrapped up this round of recovery week. I had a hard time getting myself moving, but once I got out there, I really enjoyed it. Just chugging along the rolling hills with dog leading the way...mostly. Except when she was harassing the tadpoles that is.

"G" as in "Get" through it. Next week is a tough one. Roughly two hours a day, with 8 on Sunday, including the Livestrong 100-mile ride. Just gotta' take it one day at a time.

Catching up

When I last posted I had just done a 90 mile ride.

Since then I've upped the ante and did a 111+ mile ride. Yep, just shy of the entire distance. How was it you ask? Well, honestly it was tough. I wanted to cry at some point, around mile 80, when my tush was unhappy and I realized we had about 30 miles left to go. Then we hit the final pit stop of the day and I found another gear. I was just so glad to be close to the end that I felt okay. In retrospect I'm really glad to have that one under my belt. Mentally I *know* I can survive for 112 miles on my bike. Will it be fun? No. Will it be enjoyable? No. But I can make it.

After that it was off to La Jolla for our weekend get-away. We left early Saturday morning and pretty much just crashed at the hotel and did a walk around the beaches. On Sunday we hopped on the tourist train and hit Sea World. I have to say it's quite a bit different than I remembered. The shows are not as spectacular. But it was a beautiful, sunny day and we had fun. On Monday we were going to head out to the Wild Animal Park, but Jeff really wanted to tour the Midway air craft carrier. So we headed down to the harbor and spent several hours doing the tour. It was pretty interesting and that ship is huge! But not so huge that I can imagine 4500 sailors aboard. Talk about cramped. And on Monday evening we had dinner with the H2O audio folks and Natalie Coughlin. Fabulous food, great conversation, and even a swim "tip" or two. All in all a very nice long weekend.

Flew home on Tuesday morning before dawn even cracked, I think. Straight to work, but at least its....REST WEEK! Woo hoo! "Only" a bit over 8 hours of workouts for the week....compared to the 14+ from last week, I'll take it. :)