A Conversation With Self on The Big Weekend

Building up to a long distance race (Ironman, or in my case Leadman) there's always a threshold you cross where suddenly the distances start to feel a little overwhelming. Okay, a lot overwhelming. The hours necessary to train begin to mount up, and inevitably you ask yourself the following question:

Me: Self, why am I doing these ridiculously long training rides and runs?

Self: So you can do a ridiculously long race, of course!

Me: Why would I want to do that?

Self: Because it's.... fun?

Me: I'm not sure I believe that anymore

Self: Because it's....healthy?

Me: I'm pretty sure it's really not

Self: Because there's an outside chance you'll someday qualify to go to the World Championships of people who train for ridiculously long races?

Me: Of course! That makes sense...

Yeah, none of it really makes any sense. Up to a certain point, the training makes sense. I know that I personally need a certain amount of time out there on the open road to keep my body functioning well, to keep my mind and soul balanced, and frankly to keep The Big Crazy at bay. But beyond that, training gets to be a strain. I don't know if this is the last year in a while I'll be able to train long, and maybe that's as it should be. This year, I'm committed.

So, this weekend included a 4.75 mile swim. A 10 mile run. An 82 mile bike. I woke up this morning feeling better than most folks do after a weekend spent gardening. Nothing hurts. Nothing sore, nothing tight, nothing painful. I'm sure if I took off in a slow jog I'd realize how fatigued the major muscles in my legs are right now, but beyond that my body has adapted really well to the ridiculous.

What lies ahead? For the foreseeable future, more of the same. It's just a tad demoralizing to realize at the end of an 80 mile ride when you just want to Get Off the Bike Already that in your chosen race distance you would still have 60 miles to go. What was I thinking? Oh yeah, I wasn't.

Take the bike in for service, Robin. Get some rest. Eat lots of high quality foods this week. Be prepared to hit the road next weekend. Shampoo, Rinse, Repeat.

The Fifty-Fifty Run

Sometimes things are best when they're comprised of different components. When I was a kid and the ice cream truck would come around, my dad would always buy us a "Fifty-Fifty Bar", which is one of those orange and vanilla concoctions that they now call a Creamsicle. They don't taste as good now as they did back then, probably due to the fact that they used to be made of vanilla ice cream and something with actual orange in it. Now two of the first four ingredients are corn syrup (there's both the regular and the high fructose kind) and the rest of the ingredients have nothing to do with either vanilla or orange or ice cream. But I digress...

Yesterday I had a long run to do. Hubby wanted to run four or five miles, and my friend Kay wanted to run four or five miles. Put two and two together and I got a half of a long run with one, and a half with the other! After loop one, I just rang Kay on my cell phone and told her I was 10 minutes from her driveway, she met me there and I just kept rolling into the second half of my run. Not a bad way to go: the fifty-fifty run. If you're an athlete doing a long slow day, and you've got friends who don't want to go that long, it's a good way to still get to run together.

This morning I had a tough Crossfit workout to do, involving five rounds of an 800 meter hill run, plus 30 kettlebell swings and 30 pull-ups. Although I have recently graduated back up to using a green (narrower) band on the pull-ups, I had to go back to a thicker band for this workout given that it would be 150 total pull-ups. Still, I'm grateful that my arm is now working well enough to do the pull-ups and the kettlebell stuff, and miraculously my legs felt pretty darn fresh on those runs!

But, now I'm jonesing for a Creamsicle, the real kind of my memories. Maybe I'll have to make up some kind of Creamsicle smoothie with vanilla protein powder and call it good.

Best Article on Long Course Training Ever

If you are training for marathon, half-Iron, or Iron distance (or comparable distances in other sports), read THIS ARTICLE NOW!.

This is the best summary of what it takes for a real age-grouper athlete to really train well for a long-distance race without sacrificing their life, their relationships, and their health to their workout schedule. It's really good!

Kudos to Endurance Nation for putting such wisdom out there, and Trifuel for posting it.