First up: sunburn status..... my legs have tanned and started peeling yesterday. The "tan" is a very awkward blotchy pattern that really looks like I have a skin disease or really awkward birthmarks or something. My arms started peeling on Friday. One band on my right arm turned into really tight leather which has peeled away to freshly red skin. My back is a whole other issue.... its still VERY red around my strap-lines. It finally quit hurting, but apparently even with 2 visits sunscreen slather people, I severely sunburned my back. Awesome.
So, yeah, less than 5 weeks to IMTX. I'm still not really sure how I feel about this. I know that I can do the 2.4 mi swim and 112 mile bike. Well, I've never ridden that far on my bike, but I'm pretty sure I can do it. Its wrapping my head around the fact that I will be running a marathon AFTER doing both of those. I suppose this is one of those "trust your training" things, where nothing about Ironman is logical, so you just have to trust that once you get off the bike, the run will just happen and everything will be fine.
What else is funny that while I'm still throwing down big hours every week (which normal people consider insane), I don't think that my training time is super insane. Friday I only had to swim - that's it! I had the afternoon for errands and then Will and I went to a pub by our new house. Its funny, I really don't know what to do with any free time that I have, since I've had so very little of it for so long. Last week was still a pretty heavy week (18 hours - including a 70.3 race). But in reality, last week felt almost easy. Yes, 18 hours of exercise, including a race, felt easy. Monday and Tues were recovery days. And I only had one day with 2 workouts. EASY. (Yes, I'm insane... I really don't know what to say about this).
This weekend was supposed to be a big bike challenge. I swam 3,000 yards Friday morning then I had to bike ~70 miles. My marching orders were "long steady ride, keep it all zone 2". Well, with all the hills around here, the zone 2 limit is pretty challenging, so I decided to be pedestrian and do the Denver trail triangle - which is about as flat as any ride could be. It also meant that I had to do zero route planning, which is nice. (I'm getting very tired of planning out rides and then executing them by myself). So, 70 miles and 4.5 hours later I was done and had plenty of energy left. Sunday was supposed to be a 100 mile ride, as a test for IMTX. I met a friend up in Boulder and we were going to do the Carter Lake loop. About 30 min into the ride on Foothills Parkway, the winds were sooooo crazy, that we looked at eachother and knew that Carter Lake wouldn't happen. I knew that there was no way I could ride 100 miles in those conditions. Since I'm so close to race day, I really didn't want to risk a wreck just for the sake of putting miles in, even though I very much wanted to ride the 100 miles. We ended up turning around and riding around north Boulder for a bit to get to 1.75 hours and a whopping 26 miles. Then I got to spend 3 hours on the trainer. No where near my 100 miles or 6.5 hours on the bike for the day, but what can you do.
Then today as I was fixing my food for the day, I actual had a debate on whether or not I "deserved" my chocolate milk today (for the calories). I mean, I didn't get in my 100 mile ride. (I still exercised almost 9.5 hours this weekend, which is still significant). But not getting in that long ride made me feel like I was slacking yesterday. (yes, 3 hours on the trainer = slacking. really questioning my sanity here).
I guess this all just means that physically, and probably mentally, I'm close to being ready for IMTX. When 9.5 hours of exercise over the weekend and 18 hours for the week seems EASY, that should mean I'm ready for 140 miles in under 17 hours, right? At least that's what I'm hoping for.
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