I Want to Be an Ironman….Am I nuts?

there would be days like this, or was is Mama that said that?  🙂  Wow, yesterday was not a great day at all.  After a pretty successful long day on Saturday- lots of things went wrong yesterday.  A 2 hour bike to one hour run brick turned into…… hmmmm about a 3 hour outing on the bikes and amended runs by some of us- surely not a brick.  Notice I said outing?  About 25 minutes in, Pam flatted a tire.  Then it seemed as if that tire was not seated correctly on the rim as she was jumping all over like a mexican jumping bean.  So, she decided to shorten her route and if she ran into any more trouble, we would be along.  About an hour later, Rob flatted.  Paul offered to go back and help him as he had “plenty of energy left” in him.  So Mike and I headed back for La Crosse.  As I was just coming back into town I see Pam’s vehicle, she slowed and hollered out to me Rob had flatted.  I thought, oh oh – something is not going well.  Mike and I got back to the Y, Pam and Rob followed not too long after with the information that Rob had run over some glass and trashed his tire to the point that he would just continue to flat.  We all changed into running gear and waited for Paul.  We sent Pam out on her run as she had time sensitive commitments and about a half hour later Paul rolls in – just after the first round of rain.  Can you even believe it – he had flatted on his way back in!  By this time Pam is pissy, Rob is pissy, and Paul is pissed.  I forgot to mention that Rob and I were having a bit of communication issues on the ride as well.  This continued on the run – oops, I guess I should not expect my husband to read my mind.  Again – sorry Rob.  It is again comforting to know that we do have a supportive team that will all stop to fix a tire, go back to help someone with a flat, drive back out to pick up said flatted bike and rider, etc………..

Rob officially recorded the workout on his Garmin Connect calendar as the “ride from hell.”  I do try to find the silver lining in things so, at least we did not get hit with the golf ball sized hail that pummeled our house at about 4 pm yesterday.  Now, if someone else can find the silver lining in this week’s forecast – I would appreciate it 🙂

that is my story and I am sticking to it!  The cause for the scale debacle of course.  I am choosing to use the scale data as purely trivial information, especially after this past week.  Things are starting to “click” for me workout wise.  This week brought great runs, strong swims and the virgin voyage outside on the bike.

The three runs this week (one more to do today) felt super.  Tuesday called for a 3o minute run, so I went with my daughter (quite the speedster).  I let her set the pace and it did feel fast, but certainly manageable….. averaged an 8:18 pace.  So, with an hour to run on Wednesday I decided to just run what felt strong, without feeling stressed.  An hour later I felt great and had averaged an 8:38 pace.  Friday called for a 45 minute run and I decided to challenge myself route wise.  IM Wisconsin is not a flat course by any means, so I included a viaduct, rolling hills along the base of the bluff, and Ebner coulee (a one mile steady incline going up).  Again, my average was well below a nine minute pace (8:35) with my last mile being the fastest.

Saturday was a big day in terms of minutes working out.  Paul and I headed to the YMCA north to do the swim as we had decided to venture the outdoors on our bikes.  The workout called for 1.5 hours of swimming to include 2 x 30 minute swims.  We decided to count how far we got in 30 minutes, take a short break and then try to repeat the distance or better it.  I managed to get a mile in with each 30 minute set, all the while feeling very efficient and not in extensive cardiovascular stress.

Onto the virgin voyage.  I had emailed Maggie for a route that would get us 2.75 hours.  She must have been in her glory as she quickly responded with a route. I had Paul print it out before we left his house yesterday morning.  He took a quick look and commented “oh my, we have some climbs.”  I have not biked out north much in the last couple of years, so my inexperience caused there to be a lack of recognition of these climbs.  It did feel fabulous to be outdoors on the bike, and I think Paul is learning my method of “talking” to the hills in a welcoming manner.  See, I figure if you hit it with a welcoming, positive attitude, it will be less painful.  We managed just fine – even screaming at charging dogs (apparently I am much more scary than Paul), and Paul feeling as if his legs were                    _ _ _ _ ed (insert 4 letter word here) at the end of the last climb.  Oh, and Mike…. we totally feel your z4-z5 pain 🙂

Now…. back to my philosophy of the scale data being totally insignificant.  After this kick butt week of successful training (and about 15 hours I might add)  I have managed to GAIN a pound.  So…… I think the scale can  _ _ _ _ _ ; insert any word you feel is appropriate!

…. is what our team has decided is our theme, motto/logo, whatever you want to call it.  You see, our group is very heterogeneous in our make-up and although there are many things we decidedly are (like supportive, funny, have excellent palates), there are so many things that we are not.

Yesterday morning brought us a swim in which Pam and I focused on smooth strokes and moving water in sets of 400’s.  Paul, Mike, Alex (my daughter) and I then did our one hour run with intervals of 6 minutes.  We were all very strong.  Rob and Pam did their run after work and ran equally as strong – then a team dinner complete with Maggie and Kent.  We had kick butt pasta with meatballs and sausage along with our favorite dessert, Ben and Jerry’s.  This morning we completed a two hour bike with 12 minute intervals followed by 5 minute intervals at an even higher effort.  Right off the bike to a one hour “social” run.  We certainly were social (add that to the things we are).  It is so wonderful to be outside running without a thousand layers on- could it be that spring has finally sprung?  Running along the bike path along pammel creek we greeted all the walkers and bikers, this sunshine does wonders for one’s disposition.

On to the Blue Moon for our traditional post workout recovery.  The bar keep there, Jesse (we just learned his name today) took great care of us as he always does.  Once our bellies were full we could converse intelligently again.  This is when we decided “that ain’t us!”  Mike was saying that he gets irritated when people less than his age are referred to as ‘elderly’ – that ain’t him!  Paul was mentioning how nice it is to see old people out and about exercising – that ain’t him.  And Pam and I are down right pissed that when we look up our weight on a BMI index, we are overweight – that ain’t us!  Not sure what Rob ain’t quite yet, but I am sure we will figure it out by September.  Hey team… any suggestions?? We laughed heartily this morning which again reinforces another theme common in all of our posts on this blog.  We are so blessed to have each other as not only training partners, but as friends!  There are not a lot of groups out there that have genuine interest in the successes of anyone other than themselves, that ain’t us!  Each member truly cares for everyone and supports each other to reach their goals and potential.  So….. we will keep being what we are, and continue to add to what we ain’t!