Iron Inspired

Our friend, Julie, did the Kona Ironman (as in THE "World Championship") Triathlon on Saturday...we kept checking the web site all day to see her splits and how she was doing...and she did great (rumor at the pool this morning was that she won her age group in the swim). She e-mailed her race report back to the mainland and Seujan read it to me on the couch yesterday...by the end we were both pretty much in tears. What a bunch of cheeseballs, I know. But inspired cheesballs, nonetheless. Looking forward to having Julie back in our lane at the pool once she's descended from cloud 9 and back to training with the mere mortals.

I ended last week with some good work outs...interval run last Thursday was 4 x 1200 and I managed them on 5:39, 5:41, 5:27, and 5:41. I got in one 20 mile bike ride on the same day and decided that 20 miles is a very enjoyable distance...it's a little scary just how much I'm liking short rides and how much my cycling has decreased. I'm a little worried about the build-back period next spring, but I'm also really liking the running focus these days and hoping the "off-season" everyone talks about is really a good idea.

I broke the 2 hour barrier on my long run this weekend...and made a little progress on the nutrition-while-running project. The boring details:

Night before: Crappy bar food and plenty of Mac 'N Jack's on Friday evening at Happy Hour...good to know I can run after almost anything, but I'd like to see how much better I could do with a better night-before nutrition plan that involves a little less beer, a little more water, and some "real" food. I plan to try the more sensible and responsible plan this coming week.

Saturday a.m.: Coffee and a bagel 1:45 before running...started run at 10:15 a.m. and that was good timing for pre-run food. Ran at Lake Washington Blvd. from Madrona to Seward Park, around, and back. My heartrate monitor was all over the place and took almost an hour to settle in. I was cranky about that, but tried just to go on RPE and pace...once HR monitor got accurate, it was a bit higher than it should have been for the pace I was running (my guess: dehydration). I was holding about a 10 minute mile pace and didn't do a middle or a last mile fast mile...just kept the same pace and ran 2:03, probably about 12.25 miles. I stopped at 4 water fountains, but didn't hide or carry water...could've used more. At 1:25 in, I started on Clif Shot Blocks and had 3 in the last 38 minutes of the run. No problems with them, just thirsty. I was a bit sore the rest of the day and on Sunday, but not horribly so.

Next weekend's long run bumps up to 13 miles...but I'll get an extra hour of sleep to recover with the time change :)

Took a rest day on Sunday and started the week today with a good swim...will do spin class at lunch.