What a weekend!!

Wow...what a training weekend this was.  Where I'd love to be able to say that it's been so hot for so long that I'm actually getting used to the heat, I can't.  I've had just about enough of this heat!  But the training must go on...heat or no heat!  So Saturday my training consisted of a 100 mile bike ride then a 40 minute run.  I prepared all of my bottles on Thursday night as I was meeting friends out for drinks Friday night.  (I actually prefer to say I was carb loading in preparation for my long workout the next day...hahaha).  Man, mixing up all those bottles is a job in itself!  For a short time I think I knew how mothers feel making baby bottles...LOL  Water, IM Perform, recovery...you name it, I was bringing it.  Can't forget the gels either!

So Saturday morning out I go...heading to Barrington High School to meet Maxine where we will tackle 100 miles over various routes.  I can only carry 2 hours worth of fluids on my bike so the high school was our home base to refuel.  Beats trying to find gas stations & potentially running out.  I was on a mission to nail my nutrition and knew this would be my best shot.  Plus, I had 3 routes in the area so getting bored would not be an issue.  Now, I've ridden 100 miles or so before, but those were always on "organized rides" where we're stopping every 20 miles or so, getting off the bike, eating, chatting, etc...then heading out again.  Saturday we were only stopping at the 2 hour mark to refuel and heading back out.  What a difference...Maxine is a stronger rider than me so the first 70 miles or so I pushed it a bit to try to stay close.  Thank you Maxine for coming out to ride with me...it was awesome!

We both ran, but separately as she actually finished her ride a bit before me.  40 min run after riding 100 miles, I was very happy with my pace.  It was hot but I actually think it was only in the mid-high 80's?  Funny how that suddenly seems "cool".  Anyways - Saturday workout over and I think it was almost 8pm by the time I was done putting everything away, washing bottles, doing laundry, etc.  Time for bed because I have my longest run ever on Sunday!!  The picture below is all of our empty bottles after our ride and run, minus the aero bottles and all of the empty gel packets.

Sunday morning and I find myself taking the dog for a long walk before my run.  Lucky Erin...I used it as a warm up and resisted the urge to run with her a bit.  I was not about to run one more minute than I actually had to!  Headed out on my run from Lifetime shortly before 8am.  It was humid.  Cloudy, but humid.  I had to run 2:40...prior to this my longest run had been the week before, at 2:20.  I knew how that run had gone and my goal was to have an average pace faster than last weeks run.  But not knowing how I'd do, I decided to take it "easy" the 1st 2 hours and leave the last 40 minutes to push it if I could.

What I realized on this long run was it was very boring.  Sometime after about 90 minutes I started the countdown..."how much longer"?  Sort of the kids version of "are we there yet?"...LOL 

I was running by myself but actually I preferred this so was able to control my heart rate and run "my" run.  The pace for 1st 2 hours or so were all within about 15 seconds of each other...slower than I typically run but again...humid and I wasn't sure how I'd feel.  2 hours gone and as I started out the last 40 minutes it started to rain.  Oh, I was happy for the rain...would cool me off I thought.  Little did I know it would last all of 5 minutes and be gone :(  My pacing the 1st 2 hours worked as I was able to pick up the pace for this last part and ended up averaging 14 seconds per mile faster than last week.  Sweet!!!  I even did some stretching in the pool after...wasn't at home so couldn't do the ice bath but I think the pool helped!  Thanks Donna & Jen for the suggestion :)

So had a few firsts this weekend.  Bike/run went well on Saturday.  Would've like to average a bit faster on the bike Sat but considering we climbed a lot of hills and I pushed it the first 4.5 hours or so, I'm OK with it.  No problems on my long run Sunday...except thinking I have no desire ever to run a marathon.  Maybe it's just the training runs that are boring.  That's what I've been told...Jamie I'm trusting you this is the case :)  Today my legs do feel like I worked the crap out of them this weekend, but you know what?  I did!  Now back to my foam roller....