It’s crazy to think that just 3 months ago, I assumed my goal of 1,000 miles was out of reach. Especially after hurting myself skiing, I basically lost an entire month this year of any training. Then of course I met my crazy Tri group and it was off to the races. But it wasn’t until I was getting close to 600 miles this year that I realized that I was suddenly well in striking distance. The first run of the month took me over that 600 mile mark and I might hit closer to 1100 miles than 1,000!
This past weekend was another really solid weekend of training for me. We flipped things around for the weekend and I went with Pete’s group for the morning ride on Saturday. Since the Gators were playing at noon, I decided I didn’t have time to go with them the full 60+ miles they planned. And that’s fine really. Pete is a very strong rider and I didn’t think I’d keep up with them if I went all the way. We only had 6 on the way out and I felt pretty good. I haven’t done any pulling on any previous rides but with such a small group I knew I couldn’t get away with that.
I’m definitely the slowest rider but I’m happy that I was able to pull around 19 mph into a headwind on the first half. Right before the park where we were going to split apart into separate groups, a couple of the guys took off. I gave chase and while I couldn’t catch them, I did get moving at around 25 mph which for me is awesome. I assumed that I would be heading back alone but another woman wanted to turn around too. We absolutely flew on the way back. We had that rare tailwind and it was pretty amazing. The final 22 miles of the ride (47 total) we averaged 20.74 mph. I could NOT have done that alone. I’ve never done a ride like that with one other person. We even had a mile where we averaged 24.4 mph. If we hadn’t had to stop a few times for street crossings we would have probably been almost 1 mph faster. All in all, a great ride and now that I have an indoor trainer I should get even better.
Sunday was run day and my plan was to go 17 miles this week. Since the group meets at 6am my plan was to start around 5:15 and do 4 miles. The problem with that was I woke up at 5:10 and its a 45 minute drive. I’m not sure how I made it but I did and with time to spare. I felt miserable though. No food or coffee pre-run. I was also angry with myself because I really wanted 17 miles and there wasn’t enough time to do it afterwards since we had a swim planned and I didn’t want to finish running at 10am.
Before we started though I was told I had an assignment. We had a runner who had never done 13 miles before (our default route) and it was my ‘job’ to make sure he finished. Have I mentioned our group rocks? We make sure everyone finishes! This was great for me though. I would catch up to the faster runners (noone was really flying yesterday until the end) and then head back to Martin and make sure he was doing ok. That added about 1.5 miles onto my run and then ran the last 1/2 mile to make 15 miles. Not 17 but it was ok. 15 is plenty for the moment.
The run itself was great overall. I finished with a 10:26 pace which was solid in and of itself with the weather still being warm but considering how sick I felt driving over (I almost went home) I had a strong day regardless. The last 4 miles especially I just crushed. Mile 13 was my fastest mile and the first half of that was running up the huge causeway to Pier 60. I had a burst of energy that I never lost for 4 miles and cruised up that around a 9:00 min pace and then coming back down I took off.
The entire group ran back to escort Martin in for his 13 mile triumph which was awesome. He’s got some huge races coming up and this was a big psychological hurdle for him I think.
We finished off with a swim and that is where I still need a ton of work. My form is…lacking. I’m not horribly slow (I am just slow) but hopefully I’ll get some help there! And of course, we finished off with our traditional meal!
