My teammates and I met at Clear Lake to mark our 3/4 of the way to Ironman. A former Ironteamer, Jeff Shaw, opened up his family's vacation home on the lake to be our home base. It was a perfect spot to host a big group for meals and a perfect place to hold a swim, bike, and run workout. As you may have read previously, I've been on the mend from a bike accident over Memorial Day weekend. My plan was to take a few days off from training to give the muscles in my neck and upper back a chance to heal and relax. I was coming into the biggest training weekend yet, and I knew I wouldn't be able to do everything without hurting myself even further.
So on Saturday morning when my team stepped into Clear Lake for a 2 mile swim at 6:30 AM, I sat on the beach and watched. Swimming for an hour and a half would only strain my neck and make it uncomfortable to do the next part of the workout, a 100 mile bike ride. At 9:30 AM, we all hopped on our bikes and set out on the course. I was wearing my new helmet that I'd bought the night before. Unfortunately, it wasn't until I went to put it on that I realized that the store clerk had left the security sensor attached. I looked like such a dork!
Initially my neck and upper back were really tight. I hadn't been on my bike since I crashed it so this was somewhat expected. Eventually, my back eased up enough that I didn't notice it much. I was too busy trying to keep up with Tony, Les, Sedonia, and Dave. At mile 95, I thought I was almost done, but when you start thinking that way, it just drags on. It was the longest 5 miles ever! I only had 100 miles in me that day, not one more mile. The idea of Ironman kind of scared me. Race day is 112 miles. If I had to do another 12 miles I think I would have cried. Good thing my race isn't until August. Once I returned to the Shaw's house I made a bee-line to the cooler as I was searching for the one thing that I had been craving for the last hour, an ice cold Coca-Cola! It was heavenly. Once everyone from the team returned, Coach Dave fired up the grills for our Ironteam BBQ. Our entertainment for the night was this fantastic Honoree video produced by Honoree, Matt Rhodes.
It was so awesome to be able to laugh with my teammates after such a hard day. We then took some time to go around the group and share personal connections to the cause. There were lots of really sad stories and a few uplifting ones. It was both overwhelming and inspiring to hear others talk about why joining the fight against cancer was so important to them. Everyone was in tears. We needed that though, we needed to connect with something bigger then ourselves. We're here to train for an Ironman, but in doing that, we're trying to bring awareness to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. After all of the laughter and tears, we headed back to our hotel to hit the sack. The training weekend was not over yet.
Sunday morning, we got to sleep in an extra 30 minutes. Alarm went off at 5:50 am. Our coach had mapped out our 16 mile run for us, a simple 8 mile out and back. Until this point, the furthest distance I'd run, was 13 miles. But this is what training is all about, one step at a time. Kristie and I did our run 9 minutes/walk 1 minute and it worked out really well for us. Talking helped pass the time. At mile 13, my body was letting me know that it was done running, but I kept putting one foot in front of the other. On mile 15, I felt a little strain in my right foot and prayed that a major cramp didn't come on. It held off and I was able to make it back to the Shaw's house in one piece. Another training weekend down!
Condition: Amazed at my ability to heal and push on
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