Week 12: Sat/Sun Recap

Wow...many thanks to the kindness of friends. Life really does come full-circle in the most humorous of ways. On Saturday, I temporarily moved into a house that I used to live in five years ago, except now it's completely empty save for my two boxes of clothes, bathroom stuff, our bikes and our trusty air mattress! Even my cat is giving me the "haven’t I been here before and why are we back?” looks. I swear when all of this is finished, we will all need therapy, especially the cat! We finally vacated Shawn’s apartment that he had sub-leased a month ago. Fortunately, our friend Cathy (and my former roommate) just bought a new house and her old one (that we used to live in) doesn’t close until November 20th. So, while it’s empty, cavernous and lacking a fridge and TV, it is a roof over our heads as we continue to hope and pray that our abode finishes in the next two weeks. Plus, it’s very close to downtown making it easy and more convenient. (If you can call squatting in an empty house ‘convenient.’)

In between moving, I did manage to pack in my last weekend of heavy training before the November 11th Half-Ironman in Florida.

Saturday
Most of the Gazelles head towards Mt. Bonnell for 14-16 miles, while our little posse of White Rock Marathoners headed towards Shoal Creek for 20 miles. Everyone had a great run and I’ll give credit to cool temperatures for this one. It simply was a gorgeous cool morning for a run. Gilbert set out some water for just the 5 of us (bless his heart) along the course so we were never too far away from hydration. As per usual, the conversation ran the gamut of everything from natural childbirth to bathroom habits…three hours is a long time!

My last three miles rocked with a 7:49, 7:43 and 7:25 respectively. Serious negative splits. Overall, our pace was a solid 8:39 for the entire 20+ mile run. Now, if only the marathon wasn’t still 6 weeks away!

We finished the run and headed to our usual Mi Madres where we were joined by Hava, Richard, Stephanie and Shawn for some breakfast taco delights. I was in for more delights when I had a pseudo-celebrity sighting at the restaurant: Olympic Gold Medalist Swimmer Aaron Peirsol…yummy… He looked slightly odd until we realized that he had an ice pack on his shoulder making him look rather hunched-back. Of course, I had no idea what to say to him…”Um, how are your medals dangling these days?” or "Do you always wear your spandex that low?" So I just admired through the window. Stephanie captured some of these moments on camera! It was hard to find the perfect picture of him to post on the site, but www.aaronpeirsolonline.com will provide hours of useless eye-candy. (I'm having photo issues so I'll post some later!!)

Sunday
After a 20 mile Run, moving and watching the Buckeyes beat up on Minnesota, I pretty much collapsed at about 9:30pm on Saturday night. The time change was a mental break too knowing that I could get an extra hour of sleep with no alarm clocks to disturb me. I awoke to the brightest sun I’d seen in a long time and headed to Barton Springs around 8:00am for a wonderful 1.4 mile swim. There were moments where I actually felt like a swimmer!! I don’t have my watch with me, but my 5 lap splits were great for me: all were between 9:33-9:50 per lap. While taking off my wetsuit afterward, I struck up idle chatter with a guy who was also leaving the pool in a wetsuit. Of course, the first question is always, “What are you training for?” He told me he was a week away from IM Florida and I told him I’m two weeks away from IM70.3! We discussed the merits of a full Ironman vs. a Half-Ironman. I told him that I mentally wasn’t ready to tackle a full IM. He jokingly said, “Sure you are. It all sucks after 5 hours anyways.” I wish I would’ve thought for one sec to ask his name so that I could follow his progress this weekend during the race. It definitely wasn’t his first Rodeo.

After a nutritious breakfast at Austin Java complete with oatmeal, eggs, fruit and half of a granola/blueberry pancake, we loaded up our bikes and headed to South Austin where we ended up doing a 40-Mile Ride. It was pretty windy and I didn’t overexert myself too much. By the end of it, I was definitely tired, but with the proper nutrition could’ve definitely continued. My legs were also a little sore from the 20 miler the day before…go figure.

It’s amazing how much we packed into two short days. I’m definitely getting excited for the race. I’m taking my bike in the week for a final tune up and overview. I’ll get a course description out in a few days.

In the meantime, I must focus on rest and cheering on my partners who are running the NY marathon and IM Florida this weekend!!