Tough Weekend

I feel nothing but wasted this morning after a tough weekend in the saddle and pounding the pavement. Couple that with a 12 hour session with Dell-On-Call last night trying to fix my lap top, you can put a fork in me cause I'm done.
Saturday morning's BBL ride was moved back from 9 am to noon to give the day a chance to warm up. It didn't happen. The temps were in the 20's and there was no sun to be found. The ride is supposed to be a fairly tame pace until we hit the attack zones, but that was not going to be today. It seemed everyone was looking to end the ride as quickly as possible by pushing the pace. With Cat 1's and 2's setting the pace, everyone suffers and tries to hang on. The pace put me in no position to play during the attack zones. I kept finding myself pushed of the back of the main pack riding in no man's land between the contenders and the pretenders. Such is life. By the end of the ride, I was just ready to end it and call it a day. My legs gave in to the harsh temps and failed me way before the ride was over. I was happy that the ride was shortened to 50 miles instead of the normal 60. No pride in this one. I just sucked it up.
Sunday I hit the Mercedes Marathon course for a little test to see where my fitness level was at. I could still feel the effects of yesterday's ride so I knew that I'd have a little * by whatever time I posted. The goal was to run the half course at race goal speed and see how I held up. Race goal is a 7:05 pace. All my training runs at this pace have felt pretty easy but I have run that pace longer than 7 miles. Fatigue stared hitting me at mile 3 and I knew I was in for a tough run. Having to push hard on the slight inclined downtown streets of Birmingham let me know I was going to struggle later on the hillier spots. And I did. I felt my tired quads the entire way. I managed to put in a strong effort though with a 7:13 pace. Not where I wanted to be, but I have to think that with fresh legs I could have been a lot closer. Time to rest and recover now, my least favorite part of training, but right now it's the most important.
Tailwinds....