Week 9, almost halfway there!

Week 9's numbers were pretty impressive (just under 19hrs including ~2hrs of strength)! Well, I didn't make ALL of my running, but still managed 25miles (in 3 days, no brick). Friday's long run started out fantastic, but after I dropped off the dogs and headed out for my second loop the IT band started hurting pretty bad. I made it just over 10miles, but was hoping for 15. I should have made my ART appt for Wed, vs Friday to help loosen it up for the long run....

This is probably the best week I've felt in several weeks. The HR is finally completely back to normal, and I finally felt like myself on the bike. I was really starting to worry that mini-me & I had lost our mojo. After yesterday's ride though, I'm happy again!

With our IMAZ friends in taper mode, & Shane out of town, it was up to momo & me to keep Daniel in line and get his butt out there training (yes he has a reputation for NOT showing up!). So, Melisa & I left my house about 6:45 am and headed south to meet Daniel at his work. The ride down is nice, Typically we are heading North (slight up) to start and return coming down.. but this day would be a bit more challenging going south about 30miles before coming back UP home.

We met Daniel about 7:30 or so & he lead us down to his neighborhood (South Mountain) for a couple hours mixture of hills, and nice flat aero riding. My first question was "Daniel, did you train yesterday?" "Nope," he replied. Agh.. that would explain why our legs on on FIRE while drafting....

Daniel only had 3hrs that day, so Momo & I headed back up to our turf to finish off our ride. We totally expected to slow down but when we hit 4hrs I realized we were at exactly 72miles!!! Whoot.. We had picked up some speed since we left Daniel at 3hrs.

Convinced Melisa had shared some of her superpowers, I secretly wondered if we could push it on this last :45mins and keep the avg at 18mph. It would be tough, because typically on this route we avg around 17 and we were facing 16-20mph wind gusts. But, our HR's had been low the entire day so we pushed it some more.

Once we got to the normal turn off to go back to my house, I gave Melisa my key so she could cut home and do her transition run. She was only supposed to do 4:30mins so she was over anyway.

I took the last 15-20mins and pushed as hard as I could fighting the wind. I stayed aero, and just DID.IT. I am really bad about just messing around the last few mins of a ride so this felt really really good. In fact, I think I actually felt better the last hr of the ride than the first 3. I was sort of on a high from finally feeling good on the bike.

The wind was really tough so I had to work to keep my speed up. My HR was at the top of zone 2 to my threshold for the last few miles. But, when I got home it was 90 miles!!!! 5:01 17.95mph. AVG HR 140 (including that last burst with it between 160-164!) The best part was how great I felt... So yes, Momo & I ROCK!!!

Aghhh, maybe my body is finally coming around! And today, today it gets to rest and recover, then tomorrow a massage ;-) Life is good.... Hopefully in the next few weeks I can have a running post like this!