Post Race Meltdown

Typically, I will have a pre-race meltdown...yesterday afternoon, however, I had a post race meltdown.

I was starting to feel the effects of the half marathon and began doubting my ability to complete Barb's Race at the end of July. How am I going to swim 1.2 miles, bike 56 miles and THEN do a half marathon? I must have been temporarily insane when I registered for the race. The tears started flowing and all poor Hot Stuff could do was try and tell me it was going to be OK. How could it possibly be OK?

What made things worse was when James mentioned an upcoming Olympic distance race and my first thought was "I can't do an Olympic distance. It's too long".  Hello?  It's almost half the distance of Barb's Race. You better be able to do an Olympic distance! Ugh!!! What am I going to do?  

Running Buddy Pick-Me-Up

Sometimes all it takes is talking to a friend to put things into perspective. I had emailed Michael Turner (I'll just call him Mr. Turner) this

Wrong Michael Turner

morning to confirm he wanted to do the relay on June 1 with James and Hot Stuff.  He said yes, and filled me in on his analysis of his race.  

He has a lot more running insight than I do, so it was really helpful reading his take on things. At the end of his analysis, he noted that he was now up to 30 miles a week.  Wha???

I replied that probably needed to up my mileage because I had only been running 5 miles on Tuesdays and then 10-13 miles on Sundays. What picked up my spirits was his response...

Mr. Turner: "Wait, you only run two times a week?"

Me: "Yeah, and then whatever we do on Saturdays with the group.  I'm going to start ramping it up a bit more...do a couple of brick workouts during the week."

Mr. Turner: "That makes your time all that more impressive yesterday.  I know that you still get a lot of cardio training with the cycling and swimming, but still to run that on basically three runs a week is fantastic."

Wow! I felt so much better after that exchange...but now, seriously, I need to start getting some more miles in and I have a plan for that:

• Tuesday Night Fleet Feet run: Run to Fleet Feet from my house and then back home after the run.  This should add 3 miles to the run.
• Wednesday: Run before swim practice for an hour. (6-7 miles)
• Off Fridays: Brick workout (need to get some longer rides back on the schedule). (5-8 miles)
• Sunday Long Run: Start to increase the mileage.

Don't Forget About the Hills

Yes, hills continue to terrify me whether I'm on the bike or running. This morning, I got up at 3:15am and got on my bike trainer.  I had put off trying out my latest Spinervals DVD "Hill Climber" until after Avenue of the Vines. Well, this morning was "after", so I did the workout.  Honestly, the workout seemed much easier than any hill I have tried to climb on the bike, but the fact that I was drenched in sweat tells me that it may have been harder than I thought.  

Hopefully I can get Hot Stuff to take me back to Angels Camp one of these days... I really, really, REALLY need to climb that damn hill without stopping.  Once I get that monkey off my back, I will feel so much better. Plus, it is a great place to go for a swim. I think I'll buy Hot Stuff a David Hasselhoff buoy ;-)