Me 'n Eminem

So my favorite "get amped" song for traning and races is Eminem's "Lose Yourself." I heard it in the car yesterday morning on the way to work --after a hard tempo run--and pretty much rocked the Rainier Valley in the old Rav4. It appears I'm getting kind of excited to race on Sunday. Yes, I do realize that 2 years ago I scoffed at short races and thought I'd NEVER do a sprint again...well, never say never, I guess. Did I admit yet that I studied last year's results to guesstimate where I can place in my age group? Yeah, guilty...

I had 2 really good lake swims this week, one at sunrise on Wednesday with my friend, Robin, and today at Seward Park alone. It was nice to do a solo swim on Sunday's race course...last workout before the race.

Yesterday was originally a brick, but I begged for a split due to schedule and got approval from Cheryl...I did a 6 mile tempo run early yesterday morning (which, surprise surprise hurt as tempo is listed under "Pain" in the triathlete dictionary) and got in a 31 mile moderate ride yesterday afternoon. I felt body tired and sleepy tired on both workouts, but felt great AFTER the tempo run (emphasis on after) and did enjoy the sunny late afternoon ride. Today again I felt like I was pulling telephone poles behind me in the lake, but that's OK...I think it means I'm doing it all correctly.

I had pretty good splits on yesterday's run (although I got another sideache in the middle, dammit) and have a solid goal to hold 8 minute miles on Sunday. I didn't run the BIG hill back home, but I did do one of the hills at the top of Seward Park on my last mile as I know I'll have that hill or some part of it on the course on Sunday.

By the time I got out on the bike, it was perfect outside...close to 80 degrees and sunny, my favorite conditions. I got to ride the north end of the lake to Bellevue where I got a pre-scheduled scoop home...fun to ride TO somewhere instead of the usual routes...and there was a chocolate milk recovery drink waiting for me, which was awesome as I finished at about 6:30 pm and the hunger meter was going up. I also scored an extensive bike cleaning last night (for which I'm very grateful) and my bike is shiny and twitching.

Tomorrow I will be doing sports massage at STP in Centralia all day...not exactly a taper day, but I think it will be super fun.

Yesterdays' stats:

6 mile (mostly tempo) run:
1 mile warm up: 8:47/ HR 133
Mile 2: 8:05/153
Mile 3: 7:59/159
Mile 4: 8:20/161
Mile 5: 8:13/164
Mile 6 (incl. hill): 8:25/164

31 mile ride:
2:00
Avg HR: 120
Max HR: 153
Avg speed 15.6 mph