The reason this post is entitled Ironman training activities is because the last few training sessions have been double sessions. On Friday I ran and swam and on Sunday I biked and ran, back to back both times. I love this kind of stuff; I have never been more tired in my life than I am when I am doing these back to back training bouts. Depending on what activity I am doing, I also feel slightly sore in a different way each time. Maybe I am a glutton for soreness. I love feeling my tired muscles and knowing that I ran, biked, and swam them ragged and they are now healing and making me stronger. It makes you feel pretty powerful.
So Friday was going to be a very interesting morning for me. Thursday night I packed my small pack bag with my work clothes and swim suit. I tried to stuff in as little as possible because I knew that I would be running with it for the first time and didn’t want to over do it. The pack probably weighed about 5 lbs with all my junk. I laid out my running clothes for the next morning and went to sleep early. The next day everything went wrong. I slept through the alarm, the dog was finicky on the walk, I couldn’t find my goggles, I lost a sock, and finally got out the door at 6:20, when I was planning on leaving at 6 am. So my plan was to run the 1.5 miles to the metro and then ride to the pool and swim. The run was interesting because it was very early and cloudy outside. This gave everything a creepy deadish hue to it. I tried to ignore this as I ran down one big hill, bunch a slew of apartment complexes, and back up another HUGE hill. I carried my water bottle in my right hand (which is something new for me) and realized almost immediately that I hate carrying my water in my hand. When you hold a bottle of fluid in your hand as you run, you feel the sloshing about of the water and even if you don’t need to go to the bathroom and you already went, you feel the slightest urge to pee your pants. It was ridiculously disconcerting. So the run was not very pleasant.
By the time I reached the metro I was sweaty and cold and wet; I forgot to mention it was raining Friday morning. So, on the metro I sat sweating and feeling cranky. I probably looked like such a weirdo sitting and grumbling to myself in exercise clothes at 6:40 am. The metro ride was short and sweet and I was able to hop off and run right over to the indoor pool. Once in the pool, I had 35 minutes exactly to swim. The last time I swam, which was only like a week ago, it took me 45 minutes to do 800 meters. That is with stopping and getting water, breathing etc. This time I was able to do 800 meters in 30 minutes. I was quite pleased with myself. This is a good sign and hopefully this weekend I can swim for an hour and do a mile. I really need to start swimming longer and get used to expending that much energy. I like swimming because you have to focus really hard on everything. I thought at first it would be boring, but it’s not. You have to look, breathe, stroke, stay in a straight line, stroke, focus, and breathe. I kind of love it. I hope that I get stronger and can swim longer and better without having to take a swimming course. It’s so quiet once you are under the water. The only thing I hear is my knee crack every once in a while. The only thing I am not crazy about is that you are swimming in still water. Growing up, I always swam in the ocean where there is a current, this is kind of half the fun of swimming. I love the push and pull of the ocean. It makes me feel better. But for now the pool will have to do. So long story short, the swim was great, forgetting a towel was not.
Sunday was day 63, and I had pink eye. It was still in the beginning stages of swelling and hurting and being generally awful. Why would some do immense amount of physical exercise when they have pink eye? Well I'm nuts and I like to feel good when I feel bad. Sunday it was rainy and awful and I felt like complete crap. I had just bought a new bike on Friday and was anxious to try it out. My new bike is a beauty and I have taken to calling her Sally. A brief detour about Sally the bike. Sally is a Trek 1.2 WSD 47. She is a cycling machine. She is blue and white and weighs maybe 16-21 lbs. I am not quite sure, but I know I can pick her up easily without throwing out my back like I did with my Schwinn mountain bike. I loved that bike, but it was stolen. Boo. This bike makes me feel like I am a kid again, zooming along fast as the wind. As soon as I tried it out Friday, I knew it was the one. So I bought it, brought it home, and got pink eye. Saturday it was too much rain and my eye was too swollen to do anything besides watch movies lopsided on my couch and eat oreos and beef jerky. But Sunday was the golden day, even though it was still raining.
Round 1: Around 10:30 am, I left my house all suited up in my exercise/bike gear. My helmet is bulky and wobbly, but it is all I have until I can buy a new one. I am pretty sure the pedals are for toe clips, but for now sneakers will have to do. I took off in a big burst of energy and headed down to the creek path. It was a dreary mildly-cold blah kind of day, but I was in a good mood. My good eye, the left one, had to work over time, as the right one only had partial vision. However, the swelling did block out some of the drizzly rain that was coming down. I was quite grateful for that. I quickly covered ground that it takes me forever to cover on foot. This is both exciting and massively frustrating. I wish I could be a Kara Goucher or a Ryan Hall, hell or even Scott Jurek, but I’m not. I’m just me, pokey. But the bike makes me feel fast as hell. I love zipping past people jogging and walking babies in strollers. I feel like I am both chasing the wind and running from the world. It is just wonderful. As I very quickly approached the 9 mile turn around point for my massively long runs, I realized that I was so focused on going fast I didn’t really take in all the beauty around me. Though it was quite grey and wet outside, the woods that I ride/run through were so beautiful. The plethora of tall trees created a beautiful canopy above blocking out much of the rain and gave the feeling of riding through a redwood forest (only much smaller). My normal route takes me through at least 4 different towns. Every once in a while I venture off the trail path and head into the local neighborhoods. While I recognize this could often be dangerous, as one might stumble upon an entirely unpleasant neighborhood, I often find these beautiful little hideaways. There are so many amazing houses in one of these towns, Silver Spring, with beautiful stone fronts. On this day, I ventured off on a random turn and found myself in what looked to be part of West Islip, NY. I was really freaked out about this and seriously thought for a little bit that I may have just become an un-willing participant of either some kind of beaming device (yes, that was a Star Trek reference) or a Twilight Zone episode (remember that cheesy mildly scary show from way back in the day?). After about 15 minutes of riding around these houses that looked like one I used to live near, I very quickly pedaled back to the trail and headed home. At that point being done with the adventurous side of me for the day, I calmly “strolled” back along the trail toward my house. Somewhere about 3 miles away I got it into my head that I should also run today. At this point I was finishing up an 18 mile bike ride, but I wasn’t sore or grouchy. I felt really energized and full of life, despite my swollen eye. Upon returning to the house, I cleaned off my bike, which was covered in the dirt and grit of the road/muddy path, ate some granola and fruit, and pulled on my trail running sneakers. I decided that for 18 miles on the bike, I should do 6 miles on foot. After the brief hiatus, I headed back out for round two.
Round 2: At the start of the run, I was insanely sore. My legs felt like people were standing on either side of me, bludgeoning my tender muscles. I actually felt kind of like Simon Pegg in ‘Run Fat Boy Run’ where the Indian man is hitting him as he is running, trying to make him go faster… only with a bat and not a tennis racket. Anyway, that thought made me smile. After about 15 minutes my legs felt better and I was able to plod along begrudgingly. My normal route takes me down a massive hill and then onto a relatively flat trail that winds through the nearby park. I have always felt that the trick with running is to keep your self going for at least 10 minutes at a time. It takes about 10 minutes for your body to warm up and commit to the idea of running. After about 10 minute my body had agreed to run, though it is still was not going to like it.
Everything usually feels off until I hit mile 4. Once I have run 4 miles, I can essentially run 20. After 4 miles, my body settles into its natural groove and my brain starts to go into that neutral mental state. I also sometimes zone out while I run and forget that I am running. I keep moving forward at a decent pace, I just am unaware of everything around me. I stop feeling the pounding pains of the pavement and the soreness in my legs. I just hear the wind rustling the leaves and feel the hint of sun on my red cheeks. I feel the water from puddles splash up and sprinkle my legs with bits of grit. But I don’t really notice any of this. Once you are going, you are just going and experiencing everything passively. A passive education of sorts. And that is what makes me love running. That is what makes me heart soar. Those moments where everything is neutral; it is like the absence and culmination of feeling at the same time. Like a wave crashing on a rock. Anyway after a little while I drifted into that half-awake state and the rest of the run became a blur. Like with every run over 4 miles, it was over as quickly as it began and I found myself standing on ice packs in the shower before I came back into full consciousness.
All in all the day turned out perfect despite the rain and my gimpy swollen eye, and I was quite the happy camper.
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