The Decision

I've decided.

"Man, um, this is really hard.  Next fall  over the next two months I'll be taking my talents to Bay Village and Vermilion."

Not Cedar Point.

I'm a turd

I'm sorry, Sandusky.  I really am.  You were great...you ARE great.  But you're just not right for me right now.

I'm okay with this.  Really, I am.  I'm sure on September 9th I'll be a little bummed out, but hopefully I'll get to head out to see my teammate Stu announce and cheer on my buddies and everyone racing.  And I'll be there next year, no doubt.  But after a nice serious email conversation with Coach Emily, I realized what I already kind of knew:  we have 8 weeks left, and to build me up somehow to half ironman RUNNING shape would be tough.  I'm basically at the swimming and almost the biking now, but the running would be tough.  Really tough.  I'd have to ramp up fast, and then, well, there goes the achilles again, right?

So I decided that it wasn't worth the $300.  I could still do the race and get through it, but not the way I'd want to.  So I'll save it.  A good teammate once said to me that no miles are ever wasted, so I'm trying to remember that.  The fitness I built last spring is still kind of here, and I'm starting to see it.

So, two local triathlons it is.  Because I can so still have my kids at those finish lines, too.

Next weekend I'll race the Huntington Sprint Triathlon, which is, literally, in my backyard.  No, seriously.  There are advantages to living a block away from Lake Erie.  I'm so so so excited for this race, and mostly because I've been helping to train a group of newbies who are all super busy mommies to do their first (or for some, their first in a long time!) triathlon.  I'm pretty freaking excited to race hard, too, as I feel like a caged animal over here.  But mostly?  To see them all have fun and cross that finish line.  Because that's going to be awesome.

Today I had two really, really great confidence-boosting workouts.  The first was my longest run since late-April AND my first speedwork since then, too.  I was a little nervous, but I was ready to go and see how things went.

They went well.  REALLY well.  I felt pretty amazing the whole time and ended up with 5.3 miles in 45 minutes for an average pace of 8:25/mile!  That's pretty good for me.  I did 4X1 minute pickups and held about a 7:30 pace for those just to test the ankle a bit, and it was all good.

So that's in the books.  Hopefully that means I can have somewhat of a respectable run next weekend in the sprint.  We'll see!

Then, and I know this is nothing to you swimmers out there, but I finally was able to actually get in a 3000 yard workout.  I know, don't laugh too hard.  I used to crank out 4000+ yards too pretty often, but girlfriend can barely get to the pool these days, okay?  But the more important thing is that I actually felt REALLY strong the whole time.  I feel like I'm finally clicking in the water again, and that's good.  Maybe I should actually learn from this and realize 1) that taking 6 months off swimming kind of HURTS YOUR SWIMMING ABILITY and 2) swimming 3 times a week makes a big difference for me.  I'll have to keep both of those in mind for this winter...don't let me forget!

So I really don't know what I'll be able to do next weekend.  My protocol is kind of what it usually is for the sprints, which is to hopefully come out midpack in the swim (or slightly better), hammer the CRAP out of the bike, and hold on for dear life on the run.  That last one will be interesting, but I'll have my fast blue shoes on so I'm sure that will make up for any lack of speed. Right?  RIGHT?

Come on, work with me people.

Happy training!