My Elite 8

To go along with the theme of the NCAA basketball tourney, I came to think of my training over the past 8 days as stellar...or elite.

Last Saturday I went out to run about 16 miles (while knowing that I'm a few miles shy of where I should be) and ended up only pulling off 13.1 miles.  I don't know, there were a ton of emotions going on with this particular day and I just couldn't settle into the groove.  It was a beautiful day, I'll give it that.  I ran along the San Diego harbor, caught some amazing views of sailboats in the harbor with San Diego downtown and the Coronado bridge in the background.  I ran through the Cancer Survivors Park over by the airport and took a moment to snap a few pics and bring myself back to ground zero.  I was feeling sorry for myself, wondering why I couldn't just bang out a solid 16 miles with little to no walking.  And then I came upon the park, and it grounded me.  How can I not be inspired by those that have fought an immense uphill battle against cancer, and who am I to whine about this run not being as awesome as I'd hoped, when here I am in beautiful, sunny San Diego, in good health, with so many blessings that I can't even count.  Shame on me!

I won't lie, after the run on our drive back home, I did tear up a little when talking with Bryce about my frustrations as a runner at this point.  About a year ago I was about 1 and a half minutes per mile faster and I just can't stand this setback. Over winter, I got sick with whooping cough and in the past six months I've gained about 10 pounds as a result of that downtime. I can't figure out if I should cut myself some slack and go easy to build back up, or do I just need to step it up and push it hard, beyond comfortable.  Am I capable of that?  I resolved that in just a week I'll be back to doing weekly track workouts, and that, my friends, is when I'll learn to push myself again (with someone standing on the sidelines, holding a stopwatch, and holding me accountable.)  I'll get there.

With only three weeks until my half Ironman, I took Monday off work to get a solid training day in...not to mention, I needed to pull my bike down, dust it off, pump up the tires, and make sure everything was working correctly...seeing as I hadn't been on the thing for more than 15 months!  Ha!  And I have a flippin' half Ironman coming up?  Geez.

In the past 15 months I've definitely put a lot of concentration on running, so I had to wonder if that might translate and pay off on the bike.  I first went to Masters Swim and put in a solid hour of swimming (about 2600 yards).  I threw back two lattes at home and then went out for a planned 30 mile bike ride, and 20 miles in, I felt so solid that I decided to add another 10!  Sweet!  I was feeling so good that I decided to move to the big ring and really see if I could push it.  Shift, click!  And boom, it moved to the small ring.  What???  I was on the big ring to begin with and I didn't even know it! Even sweeter.  The five mile run following the bike was not anything amazing.  It was a bunch of slow jogging with many walk breaks.  But you know what?  I'll take it!  Almost four and a half hours of my own little mini-tri and I felt good.  I'm back.  Not fast, but back.

I spent the rest of the week in chilly, rainy Seattle.  One evening was spent in the hotel gym on the elliptical trainer, but the next day I braved the cold and ran along the water.  It was awesome, I felt a good pace and was very happy.

Today, on the first day of Spring, it was windy and there was a forecast for rain.  So, as a true-blue fair-weather San Diego girl, I did an indoor brick.  Two hour stationary bike followed by an hour run on the treadmill.  Felt awesome.  Could have kept going.  But I had my Cats to watch (who by the way just made it into the Sweet Sixteen by the hair of their chinny-chin-chins!)

So eight days ago, I was feeling blue and sorry for myself...not sure if I was going to suffer in a serious way on the Cal 70.3 course.  And now, here I sit, with glass of wine next to MacBook Pro, feeling as though I learned a ton about myself and got my confidence back.  That was my elite 8.