Today I worked out for seven (7, siete, sept, sette) hours. Since we're training for Ironman, that's not all that remarkable. What is remarkable (and scary) is that tomorrow morning, I have to get up, drive to San Jose, and DO IT AGAIN. Fortunately, the weather gods have smiled on us, and it was a gorgeous, sunny, brisk, cloud-free day in San Francisco. After weeks of rain, this couldn't have been a better time for the sun to decide to shine.
I am only sitting upright and still long enough to write this because I'm making meatloaf, and I didn't know it took an hour to cook (I am not one of those people who reads the entire recipe before beginning..). But I want meatloaf, dammit, and meatloaf I will have. We were admonished to finish our dinner no later than 6 pm tonight...but it ain't happening here at 2801. 6:45, maybe.
The sheer load of stuff required for seven hours was so amazing I took a picture of it. It's actually MORE gear than is required for a half Ironman (and almost for Ironman).
Just like a weekday, I got up at 5:45, and finished getting all my stuff together. I put together the majority of the gear last night (found cooler, got out wetsuit, mixed perpetuem, etc) so it didn't take too long. Even had time for coffee and a big bowl of cheerios.
George picked me up and we drove to Treasure Island. Got suited up in the wetsuit, body-glide applied and ready to roll. We trotted off to the marina, and sectioned ourselves off into groups of three of swimmers of like paces - me with Stu and Michelle. The water was cold, but better than the last time I was in (Louie Tri, on January 22). We swam out and did 45" of "fartlek" swimming (like the Indian Runs we did in elementary school...last person sprints ahead of the other two, then the new last person swims, etc). All fine and good.
Got out of the water, and was so cold I couldn't speak - mouth couldn't move to form the words. This is also pretty normal, so I didn't think much of it. I stripped out my wetsuit to the waist, and walked the 1/2 mile back to the car. On the way, my teeth started to chatter. Violently. Got back to the car, which was locked, so I borrowed a hat and a towel while I waited for G to get back. Still chattering violently, so Ted shoved me in his car and turned the heat on high. Still nothing. Brian told me to open the door so he could rub my legs (I actually thought he was kidding at first). After a while I started to get a little warm again, and wanted to get on my bike - so suited up (with all kinds of extra layers on top - some of my teammates were already down to tank tops and bike shorts - not me...I looked like an Amish triathlete) (not a dig on the Amish, I love the Amish.) After 20 minutes of spinning, I was finally warm - hooray. My first brush with hypothermia - not something I ever care to repeat. (Later teammates told me how awful I looked...but fortunately they were nice enough not to tell me this while I was still in the moment!).
Drama over, I hopped on my bike and spun with everyone for about 40 minutes....I basically ignored all of the workout and just tried to get my legs to turn over, and take in some calories and water, and focus on getting my body temp back to normal.
Quick change, and we were off to "run drills" - things like running strides, skips, grapevines, etc. All things to improve our muscles' memories, so when we're really tired during the marathon, our form won't fall to pieces (and of course so we'll look good). Did that for 45 minutes.....
Then, lunchtime! 11:15 in the morning, but hell, I've been up since 5:45. I usually don't eat solid food during long workouts, as it interferes with the Perpetuem (for me, anyway), but I thought today I'd try a turkey sandwich. Bad idea. Our lunchbreak was quick - 15 minutes, and then....
More running! Hill repeats. I was naive enough to think the "hill" was the hill we walk up to get to the marina. Ahh, no. We ran up that, and THEN, around the bend, was a momma-sized hill. 15% grade at least. Run, run, run (or in my case, shuffle, shuffle, shuffle), then walk/stride back down. Before coming back down, though, there was another steep incline). Did this for 45 minutes - stomach complaining the entire time. Ran back to transition.....
On the bike! 40 minutes on the road, riding around Treasure Island. TI has a special place in my heart because this is where I took Coach Phil's class and learned to take my (left) hand off the handlebars. Really, changed my life. It was pretty windy, but unremarkable. My legs are still leaden from Napa, so I was just about the last person on the bike, which is not ordinarily where I like to be....but that is not the point.
40 minutes up, we rode back to transition, where we threw our bikes back on the trainers, and (guess what) we spun for 40 minutes! This time I tried to pay attention - lots of single-leg spinning and hard gears to work on strength.
Biking over, we hopped off and went to do core training for 45 minutes. Hard, hard core. Squats, abs, lunges, etc...all of which would be hard (thank god I've started doing this regularly, though) in itself, but it was made even harder because it was the end of the day. The sun was still shining, we were all tired...laying down on the ground for abs felt like a great place to take a nap.
In case you got lost, that was swim-spin-run-lunch-run-ride-spin-strength. Right.
Meatloaf is cooked. Supposed to be in bed no later than 8:30. Go team.
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