Yesterday was the last lonnnnggg ride before Ironman...woo-hoo and holy crap--I'm not sure which! Both! I'm excited, but/and it seems to be approaching quickly.
Yesterday was supposed to be 120 miles on the bike + a 2 mile run. I ended up with 106 miles on the bike...and I'm calling it close enough. Seujan and I planned out a route, parked at John & Judy's, and started out...but by mile 5 it was very apparent that we weren't exactly in synch. So we (did I say "we?" I mean Seujan) decided we should not ride together, and we each took off to spin our legs and our heads in various directions, up and down, to hell and back. Fortunately, by the end of the day, we both ended up at home and back on the same page after a little help from a coach intervention of sorts. It takes a village to manage a triathlete... and to manage 2 who happen to be in a relationship is no small task (we never really thought about this when we both said, "Let's do Ironman together, it'll be fun!" Fortunately, our coach took us on and didn't farm us out to somebody else). We've decided that after IMC we will no longer race the same events and it's agreed by all that this is a 100% healthy decision. In the meantime, the immediate goal is for both of us to have fun and do well with this one...I believe it can be done!!
Anyway, I rode over to the east side via Mercer Island and Newport Way, and all over the place...May Valley, East Lake Samm, over the Tour de Cure 20 mile route, and back. I was feeling pretty done with the whole idea around mile 80, but an overdue break re-charged me enough to finish feeling pretty good. Did the quick 2 mile run in the arboretum, was quite happy to have the long workouts wrapped up, and rushed home for a shower. We were fortuitously invited to a big luau party last night that included 9 zillion tons of really great food, so when we gave our usual post workout disclaimer of "We're about to eat an alarming amount of food..." nobody flinched and, honestly, we didn't even put a dent in the enormous inventory of chow.
So we're almost to taper...tomorrow is the last weekday double on the calendar. It seems that the training time period for an Ironman is just enough to log the training and build the base, but not too long to beat oneself up beyond repair--I'd read that, but now I think I get it. I've loved the training this summer, but it feels like the taper is arriving just in time before things just get too tired and more than just the edges (physical and mental) start to fray...it's an interesting balance to train right to that edge, recover, and build more without going over. I find the whole thing fascinating and I've certainly learned a LOT about myself and my physiology over the last few months...I guess we'll see if the plan worked 2 weeks from today...whoo-hoo and holy crap (did I say that already?)!
Summary of yesterday:
106 mile bike
6:57:52
Avg HR = 117
2 mile run
0:19:21
Avg HR = 140
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