Do It All Over Again

I have a friend training for Ironman Lake Placid, which is seven weeks before Ironman Wisconsin, so he's in a very different place in his schedule. I recently asked him how it was going and something in his response really stuck with me: "Every morning I wake up and can't believe I gotta do it all over again." I knew just what he meant when I woke up this morning.

After my longest training day this year, I had to get up and run 10 miles, and then do bike intervals on the trainer. I slept like a rock, that heavy, deep sleep you only get after a really long ride. That's the one thing I always loved about biking. But it made me want to continue sleeping like a rock rather than getting up to run. I had some oatmeal, a coffee and some water and headed out. It was already 82 degrees and the temperature was rising to a record high. I was reduced to a pool of sweat just minutes in and was literally drenched by the time I reached Prospect Park. I paid close attention to my pacing today since this has been a challenge for me. The first five miles were supposed to be aerobic range and the second five at Ironman race pace. My aerobic pace is slower so I tried to be as conservative as possible. The long hill leading up the park helped. After mile five I picked up the pace and ended up quite a bit faster than my IMRP. I swore I wouldn't do that on this run, but I was amazed that my legs could even do it after yesterday's training. There was a long uphill around miles seven and eight that made me suffer and a short uphill at the end that I felt I may need to crawl. I was truly exhuasted, but truly happy.

A friend in the sport has a saying on her training log: "Someday my body will not be able to do this. Today is not that day." I think about this a lot. There were times in the past my body couldn't do this and I know there will be times in the future. So even though I was tired and my legs felt heavy, I knew I could do this and that fills me with a level of satisfaction that is unexplainable. It makes me thankful.

I decided to put some time between the run and the bike to hydrate, rest and eat. I had a bagel immediately when I finished and ate again while running errands in the neighborhood. As I passed a bar on my block I saw a couple friends inside and decided to say hello. It was the usual West Village crew only they were hanging out in Brooklyn, enjoying the summer-like day. I joined for one beer and a quick visit, a nice little surprise in the midst of a busy training day.

I eventually found the motivation to get on the bike. I had an anaerobic interval workout, which felt really hard given everything else I'd done this weekend. I had to really work for it and don't think I've ever sweated that much on the trainer. So with that I wrapped up my biggest training weekend yet. I worked really hard, but I also really enjoyed it. You can't beat that.

Running
Distance - 10 miles
Time - 1:29:10

Biking
Time - 50:00