Since week 18 was St. George 70.3 race week, I’m going to skip over that one and try to catch up the past few weeks.  Training is slowly picking up momentum since St. George, I did a half marathon on the 19th which added a low volume week that I would have preferred to not be low volume (this is why I have a coach….), but there’s still plenty of time for those weeks before October!

Week 19 –  5/7-5/13

Monday – Recovery day, aka hike for 7 hours in the Zion Narrows, which was exhausting but totally worth it.  I still need to write a post about our amazing trip (and I want to go back!).

Tuesday – Travel day/Visit Hoover Dam

Wednesday – Back. To. The. Grind.  Even though our trip was anything but relaxing, I was ready to get back to training since the week before the race was pretty low volume.  I started the day with a 2850y swim, and that evening did a tough 80 min trainer ride.

Thursday – Tempo run- 1 mi warmup, 3×1 mi @7:30 w/2 min recovery, followed by 2mi @ HIM pace (8:15-20), 1 mi cooldown. I have mixed feelings about this run.  I nailed it on the treadmill several weeks before but running it outside, especially by my house where it’s hilly, is a totally different ballgame.  Plus my legs were still a bit dead from the race combined with two days of hardcore hiking afterwards.  In short, I totally failed on this run… my splits were: 7:26 (we’ve got this, but oh boy, this is hard), 7:54 (that hill was f’ing awful), 8:20 (F it, I’m going to puke and this is horrible)…9:11 & 10:13 (I’m just trying to hold on and not puke, why is this soooo hard, why am I going so sloooow).  After that run I vowed to either do it on the treadmill or choose a different spot, because those hills killed me while trying to hit my tempo paces.  Moving on.

Friday – 2625y swim in the am, aka ‘recovery day’

Saturday – 7 mi run with 5 @ sub 8 pace… I ran that same stupid route I did on Thursday (whyyyy) and it once again killed me.  I guess I thought I could still hit sub 8’s on it vs. 7:30.  There was one sub 8 mile and the others were at a just try to go sub 8:30 (I’m not sure why I picked that number, I think it’s because it was all I could will my legs to do).  Blah.  At least hot yoga that afternoon went a bit better.

Sunday – 2 hr ride outside followed by a 20 min brick run where I managed to lose my credit card from my back pocket.  I had put it in there while dropping off my bike/switching into running shoes thinking I was being smart so that once I finished my run (which was right outside of a grocery store), I could immediately go into the store and buy water and delicious chocolate milk.  Which is what I did, however while I was waiting to check out I realized I couldn’t find the card anywhere in my pocket.  Then I backtracked in the store, then the parking lot, then I drove my route…and no luck.  No chocolate milk.  No credit card.  I cancelled the card when I got home and sure enough an hour later the store called saying someone found it in the parking lot.  I guess I didn’t look good enough. Oh well, lesson learned, I won’t put my credit card in there again while running!

Total Training Hours: 8:28

Week 20 –  5/14-5/20 aka ‘Race Week – Bridge the Gap Half Marathon’

Monday – 2925y swim in the am, followed by hot yoga after work.

Tuesday – Speedwork, warmup 2×200, 4×400, 800, cooldown, 1 hr easy spin

Wednesday – 1650y swim in the am, followed by an easy 1 hr spin after work

Thursday – Easy tempo run, 1 mile warmup, 2 @ RP, 1 mile cooldown

Friday – Recovery day – JMR and I headed to Quincy after work, and we hit horrible traffic so we didn’t arrive until close to 8p.  And we still hadn’t eaten yet.  Finally we got dinner around 9p (ok way too late for me in general, but the night before a race?! Ugh.  Not ideal).  I crawled into bed at 10:15 and tossed and turned until my alarm went off at 5:45a.

Saturday – Race day!  I was up at 5:45, went and got coffee, ate my banana and attempted to keep hydrating (I’ve really been failing at that lately) and we left the house by 7a (race started at 8a).  Once we arrived I hit the porta potties, did a .75 mile warmup, hit the porta potties again, and then lined up.  I won’t get into the race details here and will probably write-up a quick report, but in short, it was not even close to a PR or my time at Go!, I snuck in just under 1:50 by not much, and don’t think I’ll run this race again… it just…’didn’t speak to me’.  The course is hilly and lonely (a tiny bit boring also) and mentally I struggle with those types of courses (well more so the ‘lonely’… running down an alley by yourself in a race is just…weird).  I even wore headphones (!) but that couldn’t seem to light a fire under me either, honestly by mile 7 I thought ‘I realllly don’t want to be doing this right now’.  I’m sure an attitude adjustment was in order, but there are a lot of other races I want to do in the future, so I think I’ll avoid putting this one on my list again.

After the race I headed to the lake for my cousin’s bachelorette party.  The group had arrived Friday night and had already started the party, so I was joining up a little late, but better late than never!  I was a little tired from the race/drive, but was able to rally and stayed up until 10p, lol.

Sunday – Recovery day/head back home.

Total Training Hours: 6:25

Week 21 –  5/21-5/27

Monday – Back to the grind again, 3200y swim in the am followed by yoga after work.

Tuesday – Speedwork in the am: 1mi warmup, 4×800, 1 mi cooldown, followed by an easy 1hr trainer ride after work.

Wednesday – 3300y swim in the am, followed by a tough 80 min ride after work

Thursday – Tempo run- 1 mi warmup, 3×1 mi @7:30 w/2 min recovery, followed by 2mi @ HIM pace (8:15-20), 1 mi cooldown.  The run I massively failed at the last time I tried it outside.  This time I thought I was being smart and did the 1 mile repeats at a park near my house.  It isn’t flat, but it’s a lot less hilly than the previous route.  Well the first two miles went ok, but by the third I felt weird and halfway through I realized I was getting a migraine and could feel the nausea and pounding head quickly come on.  I finished that mile much slower than the first two and then just headed home for a mile cooldown and skipped the 2@HIM pace as it was a struggle just to get the cooldown finished.

Friday – Recovery day/yoga

Saturday – 8 mile run with 6@ marathon pace, which I was thrilled about, I can do that pace!  It was much-needed as I have struggled with my past tempo/long runs, so I felt very happy actually hitting the planned paces.  After the run I headed to the pool for a 4000y swim (no it isn’t just you, my swims are getting stupid longer…I better have some amazing arms by October, lol).  I also squeezed in 25 minutes of some core/strength that evening.

Sunday – 2 hour ride followed by a 20 min run.  The ride was supposed to have 3×5 min intervals + 1 hr at race pace, however I rode with a friend I hadn’t seen in almost 9 months (we have talked/texted but haven’t hung out in a long time), and even though I had planned to go on my separate way to get in my workout, we ended up riding together and catching up, which I was more than ok with.  I’ll just have to buckle down next weekend during my ride and get back to business 🙂

Total Training Hours: 13:00

Phew! Ok that was a really long post, back to work, Happy Thursday!