Emotional Roller Coaster On and Off the Bike

For some reason, I've had an overall sense of agitation over the last couple of days. These hormonal imbalances are usually reserved for my PMS week, but I can't even use that excuse legitimately. It just feels like many things around me are in a general state of disarray. Oddly, none of it is overwhelmingly negative, just plain annoying. It's just random things like work people getting on my nerves for no reason, the house still being disheveled as we wait for some wood floors to be finished, bills to be paid, work clients being slightly ridiculous, my training schedule hitting over 17 hours for the first time and being just plain tired and impatient. I've selfishly been going through that "Nobody understands what I'm going through" woe is me attitude since about Wednesday. Let me state loud and clear ON the record that I realize that this pity party has no place in my otherwise wonderful life. Things are going smashingly well in Carrie's world and that's why I've been agitated with myself for being, well, agitated. I do think most of it is the training this week. This is the first week I've ever ramped it up past 17 hours in one week, especially with a race at the end of it.

Why would I do that, you ask? Well...until 6:30am this morning it was to get ready for the "Tri 101 Race" in Houston. It's basically a 2/3 Ironman and my first real taste of "going long" beyond the Half-Ironman Distance. Well, I logged on line before my ride this morning only to read that the Tri 101 has been cancelled!! Sadly, at first I was doing the Happy dance knowing that it was taking a lot of pressure off my shoulders. However, as I started riding today with T3 and Katy, I did get disappointed as I really was looking forward to it. Sadly or humorously, my mind immediately went to, "What can I do instead?!" It remains to be seen...

The last few days have been pretty hard-core for me:

Thursday: 2000m swim in Barton Springs

Friday AM: 14-Mile Run with LauraLee, Thon and Amy...It ended up being a great run. We started slow as always and just progressively picked it up. Overall pace was 8:53. Our mile was a 7:25 pace. Now THAT's a strong finish for a tough run.

Friday PM: Left work at 3pm and headed to South Mopac Loop for 1:30 on the bike. I didn't even have my Garmin with me. I just did 3 of the 8-mile South Mopac loops as steadily and easily as I could. My legs were pretty stiff and tight from the morning's ride. "Desire" (the name for the Bike) is riding like a dream even though I have some saddle arrangements to make. It just feels good having a bike built for me!

Saturday AM: As I alluded to earlier, Katy and I took off with the T3 group this morning to ride 65 miles. A lead pack was pretty immediately out of our distance so we settled in by ourselves. The course was a doozy. Start at Jack and Adams and hit Mopac, Southwest Parkway, WM Cannon, Escarpment, South Mopac Loop x 2, back to Southwest Park and then proceed with the typical Dam Loop (71-620-2222-360 and home) If you know the roads, you know that there are plenty of climbs and starts and stops along the way. As the city of Austin has exploded (sad face), so have the amount of cars on these busy roads. We were riding with as much caution as we could. Unfortunately, we came upon a bike accident on 71, but learned thankfully that everyone was ok--just beat up. Luckily, it was a bike crash that didn't involve a car. Once again, "Desire" was riding great and my nutrition felt solid. I'm experimenting with Perpetuum and it was going down well. We hit 52 miles and began our ascent near Steiner Ranch and I'll be damned if I didn't get a flat--on the REAR tire. POOP, POOP, POOP--NOT ON THE NEW BIKE! I guess it was bound to happen sometime, but I was hoping that it wouldn't be so soon. The changing of this tire set us back almost a full hour because it took forever to get the tire off (new tires are incredibly tight) and then almost forever to get it back on. Both Katy and I are no strangers to changing tires. We've both done it a bunch, but this wheel was impossible. Fortunately, several riders going by asked if we were ok. God Bless the one guy we did ask to help us. He stopped and was sweating buckets! It took him about 10 minutes to get it back on and even he said it was the hardest tire he'd worked with. In a weird way, I was relieved to hear that. I didn't want to be the dork that called my husband to come pick me up because I couldn't change a flat. To this moment, I thank Katy for getting me through it. I was ready to quit, cry, throw the tire away and go home, but she was the voice of encouragement at a time when I needed it most. We got back on our bikes after calling/texting our respective loved ones letting them know we were now an hour behind and set off to finish this beast of a course in the heat of the day.

The rest of the ride was fortunately anticlimatic and we were both ready to shut it down at the end. Our 65-mile ride turned into 71 miles for a 16.1 mph average. Actually, based on the hills and lights, I'm very pleased with that average, especially since my mind cratered after the flat. We finished back at Jack and Adams and were greeted by the great staff there who had sold both of us our brand new bikes the week before. Both Katy and I were exhausted, but proud of our accomplishment on our fabulous new machines.

I'm resting up now and am racing in the Skeese Greets Women's Sprint Triathlon tomorrow! Thank Goodness it's a short one!