Saturday, September 8, 2007

another epic training day

Today was my longest brick workout before Kona (and I don't want to work this hard again until the race itself!). The plan was to do 130bike followed by 13mile run. I've always thought that if I could pull off a brick workout at that distance I would really be ready for an Ironman.

I woke up with a tickle in the chest and not feeling quite right and the weather was going to be in the low 90s with high humidity. So I decided to do what I could and not beat myself up if I didn't quite do the full 130/13.

The plan was to ride to the Philly art museum and back (80 miles), refill my water bottles and then do the Western Loop of the Dog Daze Century (50 miles). It turned out to be 132+ miles since I had to get to the Western Loop from my house. I averaged 17.4mph which I was pretty happy with given my average heart rate was only 114 and it was supposed to be a long easy solo ride.

When I got home from the bike, I almost convinced myself to call it a day, but then I grabbed 2 water bottles and decided to run just a few miles. I started feeling pretty good a couple of miles into the run and thought I would go 45mins then turn around. I got to 30 minutes and started coming unglued, so convinced myself that I had enough water to go 40minutes, then turn around. Of course I ran out of water before I got home. I really had to push myself the second half of the run to finish, but when all was said and done, I completed 10miles!

These long bricks don't build much confidence, since I feel like crap after 10 miles on the run and I have no idea how I will be able to finish Kona in similar conditions.

I'm hoping that if I pour lots of cold water on myself and keep my core body temperature down, things will be better.

So I trained for 9 hours today! In 90+ degree temperature with high humidity. That is a new record for a long training day for me - and I never want to repeat it (except on Race Day in Kona)!

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