Training for Wildflower

Wildflower is coming up in 2 weeks! Training this week has been tough... Many challenges. I have a lot to say about it, so I thought I'd share stories here. The week started off even before Saturday's training with a long week of rehearsal for a play at my church. Friday was opening night. My setup included leaning over many percussion instruments, and lifting my right leg to kick the box I'm sitting on (an instrument called a cajon) throughout the 3hr performance:

After leaving church at 10:30pm, I got up at 6am the next morning (Saturday) to do a 43mi bike / 6mi run (links go to Garmin Connect). Lots of hills. I thought I rode slow, but actually I rode just as fast as my Wildflower race time from 2006! My run was great - 4 seconds per mile faster than the last time I ran the route that includes a crazy hilly trail thru Peters Canyon (East Ridge Trail, if you know it).

Forgot to put my visor on - oops!

Sunday I had a great run, 11.2mi at an 8:38 pace. Needless to say, I wore my SLS3 socks for the show that night:

By the time I went to work on Monday, I was already tired. My swim that afternoon was actually awesome, despite the mentally draining day I (and many others) had. I managed to pull off negative splits (3x300 at 6:46, 6:43, and 6:38). If you're a swimmer, you know that's slow, but hey it wasn't bad for me!

Tuesday morning, I got up early and rode my bike to work. This was my outfit, a tribute to the sad events of Monday in Boston:

I rode home then ran, and felt surprisingly good. I saved a lot of energy on the bike so that I could feel good on the run, and it paid off!

By Wednesday, I was exhausted. I could've fallen asleep in my own afternoon Music Therapy session. And the activities were highly energetic! But I swam my 50m intervals anyway, and was blessed with the strength to finish the last two under 60sec.

Now we come to Thursday. The most challenging day so far. I was so tired at the beginning of the day that all I wanted to do was stay in bed until lunch time. But I went to work. Then I came home and took a short nap.

I was tired, but my desire to be an Ironman overcame my desire to sleep. My intention was to go run at the Foothill High School track, which I knew had construction in the area. Well, this time the construction had progressed to the point of there being NO track:

No running for me here tonight!

So then it was on to Beckman High School track. Usually they have games going on, like Football or Lacrosse. Hopping over (well, running around) some high schoolers' bags in lanes 1-2 is inevitable, but you can still run on the track. However, perhaps I should have checked online to see if this was happening:

Kinda hard to run on the track during a track meet. The University coach said they'd probably yell at me for running in lane 9 around the edge, even though only lanes 1-2 were being used for the 2mi race. Boo. So then I started driving, saw the trail just down the street on the way home, and figured I'd just run there. I was so lost at this moment, without a plan, but in a second I gained clarity: the trail has dirt! Just like Foothill, my original plan! So I went to 24hr Fitness

(probably looked like a crazy person running in to use the bathroom then running out again, but oh well!) and ran from there. I was tempted to cut the run short, as I was already running about an hour later than planned, and all I wanted to do was come home and relax, but I pushed through that and ran my whole workout. There are people in much tougher situations than me today, and I just need to remember that. Take this video from the OC Rescue Mission. Marisa is a runner with Up & Running Again. She is an awesome young lady, who one day hopes to complete an triathlon!

Today (Friday) is a rest day, then I'll be back at it with a long hilly bike/run (at Peters Canyon) on Saturday and a long hilly run (again at Peters - the East Ridge Trail is my new "favorite" run location!) on Sunday. 

Despite the challenges, I'm so thankful to be able to push myself like this. I want to remember that throughout this whole journey - just be thankful!