its going to be a long 24 hrs

On May 13th during a brick run, I jammed my ankle at the start of the run.  It felt fine for the remainder of the 8 mile run.  I ran on it two more times that week and it felt fine.  I ran the Colfax Half Marathon and at mile 8, it started hurting.  I told the pain to go away and it did.  It started hurting more about a 1/2 mile from the finish line and I HTFU and finished.  And then it kept hurting.

My google diagnosis was perneal tendonitis.  I've iced it, taped it, taken 2x Aleve for ~5 days straight.  And it still hurts.

Yesterday I finally pulled the plug and made an appt with a doctor.  The visit was today.  He did some poking and proding.  He did this weird thing where he basically used a turning fork and put it against my sore area to see if that made it hurt worse.  It didn't.  He did say it was swollen.  And he also said he was worried it was a calcaneal stress fracture.  I needed an MRI immediately so we could rule out the fracture.  If its fractured, that means no Boise.  If its not broken, then I'm supposed to wear "well padded shoes" and see what happens.  Mkay.

I was supposed to immediately get an MRI at the imaging place downstairs from the doctor.  I waited there over an hour, after which they told me that I couldn't actually get scanned until 4 PM.  Lame.  I ended up getting an MRI close to the house, which was actually good luck.  It turns out that one of my friends used to work there (and got 2 MRIs for a stress fx there) so she knows the staff and some shortcuts.  Normally, you'd have to make a follow-up appt with the doctor to discuss your MRI.  My friend managed to arrange it so I can get the radiologist's report directly from the source.  So I have to wait until 2PM tomorrow to see what my fate holds.

I'm not sure what's better.  A broken foot and knowing I can't run on it.  (again....)  Or a not-broken foot and trying to run on it when it hurts.

 

Last windy ride before the big race

This past weekend was my last big back-to-back weekend before I start my taper for Boise. 

Saturday I went up to Boulder for a ride and (hopefully a run).  Will went up to Ft Collins with his cousin and I got to ride with my friend :)  We decided to go ride to Carter Lake as I needed a total of 3 hours of saddle time.  The scenery was obscured by forest fire smoke (from New Mexico!) but we were out the door by 9:30 hoping to avoid the winds.  The ride was pretty uneventful, which was good.  And it wasn't windy, which was also good.  I tried to run afterwards, but my stupid left ankle hurt after 10 steps.  So I hung out on the porch as my friend rode for another 30 minutes and the boys returned from Ft Fun.

Sunday I wanted to get in one more ride on the Harvest Moon course.  I had posted in a few spots on facebook that I was riding out there but no one replied, so I honestly thought I'd be riding solo.  I showed up at 7:55 and was plesantly suprised to see people!  As it turned out, the people either a) weren't riding as long as me or b) weren't the same speed as me.  So, I ended up riding by myself.  And to make things more interesting, I left my cell phone in my truck.  That meant no calls for help if it got windy!  This course is interesting because the first half isn't so bad but the back half has the larger hills.  So you get to climb when you're nice and tired - definitely a good training day.

I knew I was in trouble when I made the turn south that I'd gone 22 miles in 1:10.  That's 19 mph and over 1/3 of the miles for a 60 mile / 4 hr ride.  The last 3 hours were not going to be pretty.

As I turned south, the winds seemed to be a headwind, with a slight cross-wind.  At the turn west to Quincy, I was thinking I needed more quality headwind time, so I opted to go straight.  The plan was to pick up an additional 12 miles (6 out and back) before getting back on course and heading home.  After an additional 5 miles, I just couldn't take it anymore.  I'd gone 13 miles in ONE HOUR and was ready to turn around.  I turned around and enjoyed 5 miles of sweet tailwind, soft pedalling and maintaining at least 20 mph.

 I thought I'd have mostly cross-wind on my ~20 mile journey back to my truck.  I was wrong.  It turns out the wind was from the southwest, so that meant I essentially had the same conditions going south as I did heading west.  That meant another 20 miles with headwind..... and with the largest hills of the ride.  Awesome!  And no phone meant that I didn't have the option to call for help.  It was all up to me to return to my truck.  (It didn't help that I saw people from another club take a SAG ride back as I turned west onto Quincy...)

I ended up taking the approach that taking it easy (and staying upright) was the way to go for getting home.  I was working to hit 15 mph on the downhills and I was getting some interesting cross-wind blasts.  To make things more fun, this stretch of road has no shoulder.  I didn't panic and just kept pedalling.  At least the winds kept it interesting.  I was acutally doing ok until the last bridge (no shoulder) and a semi silently snuck up on me and passed me.  That scared the crapola out of me and I decided to not push my luck and ride add'l miles to get to my assigned 60 miles / 4 hrs.  I got to my truck, rode the add'l 2 miles inside the park for a bathroom stop, then 2 miles back to my truck.  3 hrs, 55 minutes.... 58 miles.  Close enough.

I don't know how windy it was... I checked some websites, which said sustained of 10 and gusts of 15 mph.  I normally don't get blown around in 15 mph winds, so I'm thinking we had higher gusts.  I was actually HAPPY to have to climb up the hills, as the hill provided a bit of a wind-break. 

Overall, it was a good test for Boise.  I was tired but not defeated.  And it gave me some good wind training.  :)  In the future, though, I'll be happy without any near-death dealings with a semi.

Dark Chocolate Coconut Macaroons

I love dessert, but since switching to paleo, I've had to get a bit creative.  I found this recipe a few months back and gave it a whirl.  It wasn't quite like a cookie.... it was more like a baclava that used coconut instead of phylo dough.  It was also massively crumbly, probably due to the large flake coconut.  I thought the dark chocoloate would be a nice touch.  Its tasty and it helps to hold the whole thing together. 

So I tweaked the recipe a bit and came up with this:

2.5 cups unsweetened coconut (I did 1.5 cups shreeded, 1 cup flaked)
3 egg whites (I started with 2 and it wasn't moist enough so I added the 3rd white)
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup honey (I used orange blossom)
a few drops almond extract
good sized handfull of chocolate chips

Mix ingredients from coconut through almond extract together and let it sit a few minutes so the coconut becomes slightly saturated.  Pre-heat oven to 350.  Form balls with some sort of scoop (I used an ice cream scoop, but you could use a tablespoon for smaller sized macaroons) and put on cookie sheet.  Bake for 12 minutes.  Cool in freezer for ~30 minutes.

Once cooled, take chocolate chips and partially melt in the microwave.  Remove from microwave and stir to melt all the chocolate.  Dip tops of macaroons in the chocolate then place the whole lot in the freezer to set the chocolate.

This made 9 two-inch diameter cookies.  I just eat one for dessert as they are pretty rich.

And of course, I don't have any pictures.  That would require planning ahead.

Colfax Half Marathon - Race Report

Back in October (at the RnR Marathon Expo) I got a coupon code for a $50 entry for this race.  This race is 3 weeks prior to Boise and I figured, hey, its relatively cheap and it would be a good test for Boise.  What I did not realize, however, is that the race start is 6 AM.  I realized this a week prior to the race and then spent the entire time leading up to the race whining.

Pre-Race
Saturday night, at 8:30 I started setting up my race nutrition.  I was going to test out the First Endurance "Hand Grenade" (I did not come up with this term) which is comprised of 400 cals of FE Liquid Shot and a half scoop of the Pre-Race.  The idea was that I wanted to use this during Boise but I wasn't sure my stomach could tolerate a hit of caffeine every mile for 13 miles.  Colfax was going to be a test of pacing and nutrition.  The only slight hitch in this plan is that the Pre-Race powder tastes nasty.  I didn't want to mix up a full 400 calories and then pitch it because of the Pre-Race taste, so I mixed up a half batch and took a swig for a taste test.

That meant I just got a boost of calories AND caffeine right before I needed to go to bed.  FAIL.  I got my bag packed and everything put together and headed upstairs at 9 PM to sleep lay in bed with my heart pounding.  Sleep was very fragmented and weird.  I wasn't nervous about this race at all, but I guess my 4 AM alarm and 4:30 AM departure time was in the forefront of my mind.  I kept waking up and checking on the time.  I also had a very funny/vivid dream about the run course in Boise.  In reality, the run is flat flat flat.  In my dream, it was a steep hill and it was marked by a long orange rope that was lying on the ground.  Apparently some women thought the hill was really steep, as they picked up the rope and used it to help them climb up the hill.  Funny!

The alarm finally went off.  I wrestled my calf-sleeves on, which is always hard when you're barely awake.  I normally don't wear them to run, but with my crazy leg bruising, I though I needed some compression.  I wandered downstairs to grab my nutrition from the fridge and put it in my bag.  I grabbed my phone off the charger and went to the office to check on some IMTX results from the previous night.

somehow my foot got EVEN more purple!

I heard a car pull up and realized my ride (Jose - we bribed him with beer) had arrived.  I grabbed a handfull of home-made dried ginger pineapple snacks and headed outside, only to realize my phone was missing.  Crap.  I went back inside and looked everywhere (even the fridge) and still, no phone.  Somehow between the charger and the office the gremlins ran off with it.  I couldn't waste any more time looking for it, so I left without it.

We went and picked up Kelly and drove to the race.  On the way there, I drank my (really awful tasting) mixture of 100 cals FE Liquid Shot + 1/2 scoop of Pre Race.  One of the facebook groups I'm on had some helpful hints about parking, which were spot-on perfect.  We parked 1 block south of City Park and was super close to the race start/finish.  By the time we got the race, the caffeine was on board and a pit-stop was needed.  I found one by the finish line that only had 3 people in line - way better than the mass of people near the start.  We then made our way to the start line.  I was wearing my Team SunRype kit and my bright orange Newtons, which made me hard to miss.  I found one of my SunRype teammates (Alex) who was doing the full marathon as a training run (he's doing the Leadville 100 this summer - amazing!).  I also ran into a high school friend (J'net) who was doing the relay.  And there were a bunch of my Altitude Multisport friends to hang out with.  Its so nice to have friends at races!

yep, there's no missing us in these kits!

Much time was spent debating my clothing choices.  It was ~45 degrees out.  Do I keep my long-sleeve shirt on?  Do I remove the shirt and put on my arm warmers?  Group consensus was that I'd be hot and I should just wear my tank top.  Alrighty!  I took the long sleeve shirt off and ran over to bag-check.  By the time I came back, they were lining people up into corrals and I lost my AMC people. :(  In fact, I couldn't even figure out how to get into the corral (it was barricaded) but there were a ton of other people with our corral letter standing just left of the fence.  So I stood there, hoping I'd hear some of my friends in the crowd and find them.

Race
The gun went off and we left and I was running by myself.  Lame.  Really it was ok, but still lame.  I've run the past 2 half marathons with my friend Stephanie and we have a great time, chatting away the miles until one of us randomly gets some energy and cruises onward leaving the other in their dust.

You start the run by going through City Park, which is pretty fun with the zoo noises.  I did notice that we were running slightly downhill and made a mental note that what is downhill at the start will be uphill at the finish.  Once we left City Park we hung a left onto Colfax heading east.  At 6 AM into the sun and slightly uphill.  I realized that (for good reason) I'd never been east on Colfax.  I also realized that running on Colfax was not nearly as cool or unique as the race propaganda made it out to be.  It was all concrete and storefronts, and well, just UGLY.  The first several miles were just blah.  I don't know if I was (intentionally) running on tired legs, if I was still asleep, or if it was the lack of scenery, but it took me a good 4 miles before I remembered to run.  (it seems my 30 minute rule can also extend to a 45 minute rule when I'm really tired).

Aid stations were every 2 miles.  At each mile beep on my Garmin, I'd take a swig of my hand grenade mixture.  At each aid station, I'd walk through, grab a cup of water, have a few sips and start running again.  That was the strategy and it worked pretty well.

Somewhere before the 2nd aid station I found my friend Kelly and we ran together for a bit.  This was actually good because a) I was really bored and needed a distraction and b) she needed a boost as this was the uphill section and I helped to push her up the hill.  Kelly was doing the run/walk thing and I was running, so we parted ways at a walk interval.  And from there, I just kept chugging along.

Also somewhere around there, both feet started hurting.  I jammed my left ankle the week prior and it was now whispering to me.  And my awesome faux-sprained ankle was starting to act like it was really sprained.  Awesome!  I just told mysef that I was an Ironman and I needed to suck it up.  And I did.  And the pain went away.  Magic!

There was one cool part to the long, dreary Colfax slog..... as you crossed from Denver to Aurora where they had 2 fire trucks, with ladders extended over the road and a HUGE Americal Flag hanging from it.  At ~6 miles, we made a turn north and headed into a neighborhood and did a weird zig-zag around, including a pass THROUGH a fire station.  By that point, my legs were saying GO and we went.  I kept seeing 9:XX/mile on my watch, which is pretty fast for me on a long run.  After running though the fire station, where a bunch of handsome fire fighters were in a line, giving you high fives, it was hard not to be pumped up and I saw 8:30/mile on my watch.  Whoa, better slow the heck down!

Somewhere after the fire station I found Steph.  Or rather, she found me.  I just heard "HEY, FRUIT SNACK!!" and there she was.  Like I said, I'm hard to miss.  We ran for a bit, discussing how our day was going.  Then she told me "don't be offended, but I'm taking this day seriously, so I'm not going to talk anymore" and then she put in her earbud and took off!  Funny!  She zoomed off but I eventually caught up to her and then I zoomed off.  All in friendly compettition.

By mile 10, I realized I could PR.  Easily PR.  And I was on a part of the course that I'd ran 3 weeks before during the Cherry Creek Sneak.  I knew it was all dowhill and all I had to do was cruise to a PR.  I don't even think my HR went into Zone 3 until the very last mile.  For once, it was a race with a well-planned downhill.

A "fun" part of being at this point in the race is passing people.  I like to negative split my runs, meaning the 2nd half is faster than the 1st half.  Usually I'll have all sorts of people pass me early on.  And then I pretend they have targets on their back and I slowly reel them in one by one as the race progresses.  Its entertaining and it gives me something to focus on.  I'm not fast, but I do a pretty darn good job pacing.

Finally we reached the park and I knew we had about a mile to go.  And I was within minutes of beating my PR.  I kicked up the speed a notch and just kept moving.  My ankles were talking to me again (damn it) but I just kept going.  I remembered the uphill to the finish and was mentally prepared for that.  Then I saw a blue arch and kicked it in..... only to realize it was a dirty trick and the arch was for the START, not the finish and I still had a bit more to go.  By that point, I didn't have any kick left and I just maintained my pace, finishing strong. 

Time: 2:18:52 - a PR by 1:50 :)

The cool part is that I really wasn't even pushing.  Overall, it was a perfect morning (cool, not windy) and the course was relatively flat.  Most of my friends PR'd.  Also: I was not beaten by the fastest marathon runner.  I think this is the first time I've beat the marathoner.  lol

Post-Race
This is where not having my cell phone was a very bad thing.  There were 10,000 people at this race.  And I didn't drive.  So I had to find my people without a cell phone. Awesome!  I found one guy, who said he was going to hang out at the meet-up area and wait for the others.  My gut was acting up by that point (caffeine?) and I ran to the port-o-can and then stood in line for at least 30 minutes in the bag-check line.  The bag-check line was really a crazy mess.  I guess they didn't set the bags in any sort of distinct order and it was taking a long time to find YOUR specific black bag amongst all of the OTHER black bags in the tent.  (note to self: no more black bags for bag check).  I had spotted my ride in bag check (yay!) and he disappeared on me while he went to change out of his race clothes.  I waited and waited and finally decided to look for him and the others in the beer tent.  That turned out to be a good move, as my group (including my ride) was there.

Michelob Ultra... really?  Because its that difficult to get good beer in a Denver race?

I handed out my SunRype snacks to the group and to random race participants.  I'm sure I came off slightly crazy, with my wrinkled Walgreens plastic bag full of snacks and my random sales pitch.

these people actually turnd down free snacks!  the horror!

I swear, this was not posed.  I'm just happy to give away fruit snacks!

We dinked around the beer garden for a while and then finally decided to head home.  I think it was maybe 10 AM.  I was home by 11:30 (maybe even earlier).  Then we had a 1 PM post-race celebration at Lone Tree Brewing Company with the AMC group.  I was starving and I think I ate half a pizza.  And two beers. And then I was worthless for the rest of the day.

If anyone knows what this is supposed to be, please let me know.  We couldn't figure it out.

Nutrition
Overall, I felt pretty solid about my nutrition.  I had good energy going in and felt good through the race.  My stomach started getting a bit twitchy towards the end of the race, as my effort increased.  I just took smaller sips and that seemed to fix the problem.  When I finished, I still had a bit under HALF of my drink mix.  I had good energy so I think/hope I got enough calories in.  Maybe my work on metabolic efficiency is kicking in and I don't need as many calories?  Also, I was smart this time and packed my recovery drink in my bag.

Moving Forward
My feet hurt, which sucks.  I'm hoping that a regimen of 2 aleve every 12 hours for a few days will fix things, along with RICE.  This is fixable.

Fitness-wise, I feel rock star awesome.  I PR'd but took it relatively easy.  How awesome is that?!?  This race definitely gave me a confidence boost for Boise.  I feel ready.

Shin splints redux and a wow! I didn't know my ankle turned that color purple!

So yeah, stupid stupid stupid shin splints.  They're back - but this time theiy're in my GOOD LEG.  Ugh.  Ironically enough, my "good" leg is also the one which had a 5th metatarsal fracture 2 weeks before my first half marathon in 2008.  (and yet, I keep on running.... definition of insanity here?  anyone? anyone?)

So yeah, back to the shin splints.  They happened to appear after a track workout involving 2 x 1 mile repeats and 2 x 800 m repeats.  Then I followed that up (knowing my leg was owie) with my 22 mile running weekend.  Dumb.  But I was well aware of what I was doing.  Somehow an educated dumb seems better than an ignorant dumb....  After my 10 mile race, I decided that I would take a week off of running and do the R.I.C.E thing with a ton of stretching and wearing compression as often as is socially acceptable.  Fortunately, I had intentionally planned the following week as a bike-heavy week so there were very few running workouts that had to be missed.

The following weekend, I made myself promise that if my leg wasn't feeling better by Monday that I would make the very hard phone call to my A.R.T doctor.  Sure enough, Monday it was still bad and I made the phone call.  And the walk of shame back into his office.

Good news: 3 treatments later and he says that my leg should be good to go!  I even ran 8 miles last Sunday and it felt great!

Bad news: OMG, my leg is still sore and bruised from the treatment.  For the record: when your doctor tells you that you should ice your leg for the rest of the day, that means you're in for a lot of pain.

Just the A.R.T. process hurts.  I don't know how I went in for ~10 treatments this winter for my left leg.  I swear, the treatment for right leg hurts worse than the left leg did!  He basically jams his thumb into the tissues of your shin and presses SUPER hard and as an added bonus he'll sometimes move the pressure around, all while he's moving your foot/ankle through a full range of motion.  The idea is to break up the adhesions and scar tissue that is causing the shin splits.  And trust me, those tissues went through the equivalent of a very ugly divorce in my 3 treatments. 

But the even better news?  He said that after 3 treatments, I only have to come in "as needed".  No more torture sessions!  I still haven't ran this week, mainly because it hurts when I walk.  I need to be better about icing and perhaps taking some Aleve would be a good call.

As an added entertainment bonus, I've just been watching a rainbow develop in my lower leg / ankle all week.  Behold:

Immediately after treatment on Thursday... just a little red... no biggie

a full 24 hrs after Thursday's treatment (my 2nd treatment).  Leg is a weird red/brown color

Tuesday morning, right before the 3rd treatment.  Notice how the brusing has migrated to my ankle and foot!

Thursday, 48 hrs after the 3rd and final treatment.  Somehow, the bruising is darker and has spread further up my foot.... Colorful!

Will just laughs, looks and me, and wonders why I'm paying someone to abuse me.  Good times!

What to do for 3 hours on the trainer?

So Saturday was supposed to be a super fun 60 mile ride in Boulder.  The idea was to get out of the house while my mother-in-law was in town and get some quality riding done in a pretty place.  What actually happened was that a cold front blew in the night before and the Boulder ride didn't happen.  I sent Will and Jan off to the science museum so I could spend 3 quality hours on the trainer.  Ugh.

I really should have ridden 4 hours, but IMO, trainer hours are harder than road hours and its generally ok if you cut them back by 3/4.  Two hours on the trainer is generally ok.  Three hours isn't fun but tolerable.  Four + hours is awful.  So, three hours it was!  Fortunately I had a bazillion episodes of The Secret Circle on DVR and a (now) empty house, so I was good to go.

Here's my workout:
30 min warm up
5 x 1 min speed ups, 1 min recovery
5 (?) 25 minute intervals:
     5 min moderately light gear but >90 rpm
     5 min next gear harder, 80-85 rpm
     5 min same gear, >90 rpm
     5 min, next harder gear, 80-85 rpm
     5 min recovery
5 x 1 min speed ups, 1 min recovery.  Really pushed these speed ups with my harder gear from the long intervals and 95 rpm.  These HURT
spin to recover to finish 3 hrs

I like changing things every few minutes when you have a bazillion minutes on the trainer.  It gives you something to focus on and helps keep you mentally sharp.  This is a hard workout to zone out on because you have cadence targets and changes every 5 minutes.

At two hours, I had definitely hit my trainer tolerance limit and I had to play some mental games to get that last hour done.  But when I was done, my legs felt like they'd done something.  And the next day on my ride, they definitely felt like they'd done something, as my hill climbing was sad and pathetic.

More weekend riding and a goal for Boise

I'm a little more than a month out from Boise and I *think* I finally came up with a goal.  I'm extremely hesitant to put down a time goal.  I have something in my head (beat my Galvestion 70.3 time from last year) but Boise is a different animal and I'm not sure its a good idea to compare this race to Galveston. 

Galveston: flat, hot, and windy.  fairly predictable.
Boise: hilly and windy.  Could be hot, could be fine, could be a torrential downpour.  who knows!

Basically, my time will be dependent upon what Mother Nature decides to throw at us.  I'm not sure a goal time is practical given the history of this course.  So, instead of hanging my happiness on a certain time (although, you can bet I will be estatic if I PR) I've decided to base my goal on how I feel coming off the bike.  See, in 2010, I believe I said something like "that was the hardest thing I've ever done in my life" after my 4+ hours on the bike in 28-35 mph head and crosswinds.  With hills that I was not used to riding.  What I was most proud of from that race was that I ran the whole run.  It wasn't fast running, but it generally resembled running.  But damn, that bike hurt.

That was 2 years ago.  In that time, I've done another half ironman, a full ironman, and moved to Colorado where in 2012, I ride hills pretty much any chance I get.  After the bike for IMTX, I felt awesome, and I distinctly remember telling Will that the bike (which was my furthest and longest ride ever) felt like just another training ride.  What I meant by that was that I felt great.  Legs felt great, mind felt great.  I owned that course rather than it owning me.  I'm holding onto that feeling every time I ride my bike this year.  I will OWN the Boise bike course.  (and yes, I probably just cursed myself.  I will get hail, wind, and torrential downpours and I will have to work extra hard to stay in my happy place).  In 2010 I was scared by the bike.  Even had nightmares about walking.  Now, I'm visualizing climbing those hills and owning them.  Cool, huh?

Really, I only have 4 hills.  The second one is "attention getting" as a friend would say.

I just need to focus on getting up 4 hills.  That's it.  I can do that.

Here's the hill repeat from my swim/bike brick on Saturday (ok, I only repeated the hill once, but it was QUALITY).

It doesn't look like that much, but it was 1327 ft of climbing in 26 miles. 
Thsi is the same amount of climbing as Boise, only in 1/2 the distance

I do this ride nearly every week.  That second hill that's at mile 15?  It seems like its a near exact replica as the Boise "attention getting" hill.  Normally, I do a loop and I only go down this hill, but Saturday I had a feeling I needed to ride back up it to see what it was like.  After seeing my ride data, I think I need to focus on getting up that hill.  Saturday, it was windy and this hill is very exposed.  I was in my easiest climbing gear and wasn't going very fast, but my effort wasn't crazy high (heart rate maxed out at 166).  And I felt good climbing.

I've been getting twitchy about not getting the course distance in.  Last month I was supposed to ride 60 at Palmer Lake and I left my legs at home and only went 45.  Two weeks ago I rode Boulder and got in 53 miles, but they were a relatively easy 53 miles.  I need to get in some HARD 60 mile days.  The goal is to train on some hard stuff so that those 4 hills in Boise are cake.

We have a local HIM called Harvest Moon (at Aurora Reservoir) and its a pretty hard course - wind and hills.  So that's where I rode yesterday:

Yes, I may as well have been riding in Kansas.....

Funny thing.... at mile 5 you turn north and into a headwind.  And I was FLYING at 18-22 mph INTO a headwind.  This road was FUN.  We needed to pick up extra mileage so on the way back to the truck, we did a 12 mile out and back on this road, starting at mile 41.  You know, because it was so fun the first time.  Turns out, it was fun because I was going downhill.  Coming back was interesting, even with a tailwind.  My legs were pretty well toast at the end.  I probably could have run if I needed to, but I really didn't want to.

Elevation gain: 1,779 in 60 miles.

Hmmmm.  I thought it was more elevation than that.  Still, the hills come on strong at the back end of the course, so it is a good way to train your legs when they're tired. 

I've got 4 more weeks before taper and 2 more long rides planned.  Saturday is the Boulder course.  Then Memorial Day weekend (Sunday) I'll probably do Harvest Moon again.  I think I'll train a bit more aggressively than I took yesterday's ride, just to push the effort a bit.  I want to put a hurt on myself so Boise will seem easy by comparison. :) 

April 2012 Totals

Hey, look what a month of solid training delivers!

April 2012
Bike: 19h 38m - 266.32 Mi (UP by almost 100 miles)
Run: 14h 18m 17s - 78.11 Mi  (UP by 45 miles and included a half marathon and a 10 mile race)
Swim: 9h 45m - 27,826.95 Yd  (UP by 15,000+ yards - 5 workouts)
Skiing: 3h 00m

I am completely happy with how my training in April went.  Bike strength is improving and my run speed and endurance is somehow magically coming back.  I really had no idea what to expect with this compressed training schedule for Boise.  I really thought I was going to just do the 70.3 and have a good time.  Now that I'm 5 weeks away, I'm thinking that I can actually BEAT my 70.3 PR, which was on a flat course at sea level in the middle of my IMTX training.  Lets just see how long I can hold on to improving and feeling good before June 9.

Goals for May

• bike bike bike - I want to do at least two 60 mile rides, race simulation.  Big back to back bike weekends are on the list too, even though everyone in my club thinks I'm insane.  (what? you don't do a long run every weekend? what does the back-to-back bike do for you?)  Based on last year and my performance running so far, I think my time is best invested on the bike.
• keep working on run speed.  Track workouts are KEY here.  So are tempo brick workouts.  And I need to figure out my interval plan for the Colfax Half Marathon on May 20.
• keep tweaking nutrition.  I'm almost there, but I keep having a few random issues.
• try to get in at least one OWS to prepare for Lucky Peak's 55 degree temperatures.
• keep from getting injured.  Be diligent with stretching and compression gear.