50 Days!

Ironman is 50 days away.  Today, during my long run, I kept thinking about how I have only 7 weeks to get these legs ready for a marathon.  My longest run so far has been 14 miles.  My coach says we will start ramping up the miles. 

Last weekend I had an amazing opportunity to compete in the full aquabike at Redman in Oklahoma City.  I got to swim 2.4 miles and bike 112 miles.  It was like a catered training day! 

The swim was two loops.  I can't say that I particularly enjoyed either of them, but I got through it. The  best part was finishing and getting out of that lake!   I wore the wetsuit that I'll be wearing in Arizona, so I'm very familiar with all the places it will leave "wetsuit hickeys."  Arizona will be much colder and more crowded, but I'm hoping to swim it in approximately the same time of 1 hour and 25 minutes.  We'll see how that works out. 

The bike course was also two loops.  The first loop was great.  There was a lot of people and very little wind.  Just before finishing my first loop I was able to get to my special needs bag.  It had all of my nutrition for the second loop and other special goodies.  A very nice volunteer helped me with my bag.  She even ran and grabbed toilet paper and hand sanitizer when she noticed me applying more butt butter.  All modesty goes out the window on race day.  I'm sure those poor kids who were dragged out to that race by their parents saw all kinds of interesting things at the "special needs bag" station.  After my quick pit stop, I finished the loop and headed out for another 56 miles of fun. 

The second loop was lonelier and windier.  I found myself making up songs to pass the time. After a while I realized that I was ready to get off that bike.  I had to stay in a low heart rate zone and treat it like it was the Ironman.  I had to pretend that I still had a marathon and save my legs even though I really wanted to go faster.  After 6 hours and 51 minutes (21 minutes slower than I was hoping for), I finally finished the 112 mile bike ride.  My friends were there to cheer me on as I heading to transition. 

At this point my race was officially over, but I still needed to run for 30 minutes.  This was to see if my pacing and nutrition on the bike worked.  I felt like a million bucks, and my legs couldn't wait to get on that run course.  As I was running I couldn't believe how good I actually felt.  I would have run longer, but I knew my friends were waiting.  I was also pretty sunburned and figured I should wrap it up. I still had a long drive back to Texas waiting for me.  Aquabike racers were told we could grab our running shoes and run through the finish line so our name could be announced and we could get our picture taken.  I loved running down the finishers shoot and crossing that finish line.  I pretended like I was finishing up my Ironman.  The whole day made me more excited for the real thing! 

On a different note, one of the little girls I taught last year completed her first triathlon this morning.  I got to go and cheer her on.  I don't think I could have been more excited or proud of her if she were my own child.  She's been training for months, and she rocked it!  Seeing all those kids out there today...in the rain...melted my heart.  They looked so proud with their medals and snow cones after the race.  The little girl I went to watch had a fall on her bike and STILL had a great bike split.  She has a nice little scrape on her knee, but she can brag that it's a triathlon injury. 

"The one thing all famous authors, world class athletes, business tycoons, singers, actors, and celebrated achievers in any field have in common is that they all began their journeys when they were none of these things. Yet still, they began their journeys." ~ Mike Dooley