Epic confessions

Saturday: Bike 73 miles, run 4 miles

Sunday: Yoga

I decided to suck it up and do "Epic Iron Day" on the trainer. Yep. Four hours and 35 minutes staring at a wall in my basement with only an audiobook player for company. It wasn't as bad as I was expecting. I was actually kind of enjoying the new book I started, which was a Smmpmmm Pmmmmmm nommmsmm.

Oh, you didn't catch that? A novel from the Stemmmmmppy Pmmmmm series.

Sigh.

Stepmmmmny Plmmnnann.

Oh, fine. The Stephanie Plum series. It was a Stephanie Plum novel, and I liked it. OKAY?? HAPPY?

Sigh.

Choices, choices

Friday: Yoga, run 4 miles

It hasn't snowed too much so far, but I just looked at the forecast and it's calling for more snow tomorrow and a high of 45 degrees. So now I have to decide. Do "Epic Iron Day" inside on the trainer? Do "Epic Iron Day" outside in several layers of winter clothes? Move "Epic Iron Day" to Sunday? Move "Epic Iron Day" to Monday?

I still haven't decided, but I should mention that #2 is not actually an option. There is no way I'm getting on a bicycle with the words "winter weather advisory" ringing in my ears.

Endorphins

Thursday: Bike 16 miles, run 3 miles

Running has felt really, really good lately. It still takes me a little longer than usual to warm up, because of my stupid feet, but once I get going, it's smooth sailing. (And when running feels good, everything is good. You know it's true! Hellooooo, endorphins!)

It's supposed to snow tonight, but the forecast for Saturday is 59 degrees and sunny. I'm really hoping I can get my bike off the trainer. It probably depends on the size of the snowstorm we get, but I just don't think I can stare at my wall for four hours and 35 minutes. (Instead of "Saturday Triple," this Saturday's workouts are being called an "Epic Iron Day." Gulp.)

Thoughts on long walks

Tuesday: Rest

Wednesday: Bike 16 miles, run 5½ miles

I'm actually not feeling too bad today—yeah, okay, sore, but not ridiculously so. The first few steps after sitting at my desk for a long time are kind of comical, but after sufficient warm-up, I can walk like a human being. (And run 5½ miles!)

I am a little worried about my feet, though. They're not that much worse off than they were before the latest death march, but the left one especially never fully healed from plantar fasciitis, and I think these long walks are brutal on it. I was planning to do two more death marches before my race, but now I'm worried that that might be too much for them to heal up from.

One thing I decided (yesterday, in my fog of pain) is that six hours is long enough. Not just for my sanity but for my body, too. After all, I'm only planning to be out on the run course for 6½ hours! Next time I'll keep the walk to six hours again but try to increase the distance covered by jogging a bit, maybe two minutes out of every ten or something like that.

Oh, and I made another decision, too. I'm going to make the next long walk a bit less of an "adventure" and instead do loops centered around my house. Billings people will appreciate this: My 20-mile walk was from my house, up Zimmerman Trail (harrowing), and ALL the way along the Rims to just overlooking Main Street. And back. Scenic, yes. Safe, relaxing, and dotted with bathrooms, not so much.

Death March IV

Monday: Walk 20 miles

Here's me five minutes after getting home from my 20-mile walk: These walks just get easier and easier. I feel great! That gave me so much confidence for the race! I'm a stinking genius!

Here's me thirty minutes after getting home from my 20-mile walk (trying to stand back up again): Hey, what happened to my legs? My back and hips are killing me, and I can't stand up straight! My feet feel like they're exploding! Curse all this gravity! What have I done to myself? I'm such an idiot!

Staggering off to bed now. We'll see if a single rest day tomorrow will be enough to let me resume training or what.

Saturday Single

Saturday: Bike 56 miles

No "Saturday Triple" today, and that was a good thing. I felt headachy, tired, and generally out of it, and had a fairly rotten ride as a result. (I told my husband my "symptoms," and he said he felt the exact same way yesterday. So maybe it's some weird little virus, or maybe it's just that I'm training for an Ironman, which I've heard can also make one tired.)

I noticed that next Saturday is a 4+ hour ride, and I really think that will be the time to get off the trainer. Hoping for cooperative weather from April 9 through June 26. C'mon, Montana!!

Also, I finished the first draft of my fantasy race report. I couldn't decide what to write about how it felt to cross the finish line, and I eventually decided there's no need to write that. The important thing is to cross it, and once I get there in real life, I'll feel whatever I feel. No need for motivation on that front.

The power of pretending

Friday: Yoga, swim 3,100 yards

My aunt recently emailed me this little story in a book she was reading, about how a woman calmed her pre-marathon nerves:

…I started thinking of something I'd do only if I had already successfully run the marathon, and what I decided was to write a letter to my grandmother in New York, as if the marathon had already come and gone and I had happily completed it. I wrote her a couple of pages, excitedly telling her how easy it had been and even making fun of myself for having worried so much the week before the race. I kept this letter with me all week, because, of course, I didn't really write it with the intention of mailing it. I wrote it for myself, and I read it to myself from time to time throughout the week whenever I felt nervous or overwhelmed. And come race day, I ran 8.5-minute miles the whole way—no wall, no cramps, no problem whatsoever, just like I'd written to my grandmother."

I thought this was a cute idea and filed it away, but then it hit me while I was swimming today that if I wrote a pretend version of a race report—a lovely, perfect, but realistic race report where I do everything right and the ending is triumphant—well, that would be seriously helpful. It would be not only a tool to inspire me, but also one to force me to think through what a perfect race would actually look like. And not only that, it but it might help my brain memorize what a perfect race looks like so that I can consciously or subconsciously act it out.

So I'm going to take a stab at writing that. You can find it over on its own page (to the right, under "Home" and "Boring page of stats"). I'm going to update and add details as I think of them. It's mostly for me, of course, but you can read it if you promise not to mock me.