Beautiful Rain

So, after complaining about the heat and how miserable it's been I received a wonderful reprieve on Saturday in the form of rain. A lot of rain. The plan was to ride 50 and run 10, and to do them both at race pace. The overcast morning didn't give me too much hope as I had seen the same thing the prior week. The sun eventually had burned off any cloud cover that we'd had. We'll this week the clouds stuck around. I started to get rained on a little around mile 16. It was intermittent and really wasn't an issue. I was alone and could stay in my aerobars while I kept my planned pace. At mile 21, the clouds started looking a bit ominous so I decided to turn around and see if I couldn't avoid the storm. Nope. It hit quickly and hard. The streets quickly flooded and as I made it through a small downtown area, the water came in too fast to be drained so I found myself riding through 4-5 inches of water. My feet were in the water at the bottom of each peddle stroke. Cars slowly rolled by with their mouths open in disbelief that someone could be so stupid to be riding in this mess. I was just glad that they saw me which was my biggest concern. Despite the heavy rains I came in just under my planned pace goal. Legs still felt good and the rain had slowed to a more gentle shower. That was a good thing because it was time to run.
I'm not sure if it was the cooler temps or the slower paced bike, but I had legs unlike I'd had in a while. I cruised along the streets running through puddle after puddle. Looking for swollen streams and runoff from driveways. The cool waters felt great on my feet which were pretty comfortable in my water squeegeeing K-Onas. They absolutely rocked.
I ended the 10 mile run almost as strong as when I started. It was the best run I've had in a while.
It's recovery week time. I'm sleeping in a little later and resting up. Life is good.

Blam! It's Hot!

I've exhibited basically all of the characteristics of the absentee blogger this summer. Really I should only characterize myself as a blog reader rather than a blogger. My posts are basically crap compared to the well thought out works I read on a daily basis. So thanks to all of you for keeping up your end of the bargain while I soak in your words and your funny stories.

This is my last week of before a recovery week, which will kick off my final big push before race day (Sept 26th). I've stayed consistent in my training which I'm very proud of, but I'm still left wanting a big on the run. You need to note that I'm in Birmingham, AL where the heat index is 93 at midnight. So even though I'm starting my longer bricks at 5:30 in the morning, I'm working through some incredible temperatures that is draining every single ounce of liquid possible from my body. I've been on top of my hydration, and I've yet to experience cramping. My biggest issue has been fighting battle between being constantly thirsty and consuming more liquid than my stomach can process. I thought that it might be easily solved by cutting back on the gatorade and adding more water. Not so much. I'm still finding myself having a belly full of water on the run. While I don't feel sick, it feels like if I just threw up I'd feel a lot better. So what's a guy to do? HTFU? Underhydrate (NO!) Maybe a little fluid moderation combined with a little HTFU. Everyone could use a little HTFU anyway right?

So back to the run. I would say that with consistent focused training and on the right day, I can run well enough to qualify for Boston. Whether or not I could pull it off or not, I wanted to give you an indication of where I am at my best. Except for now. I seem to have wandered over into the "hey, I just completed my first 5K category." It really feels that slow. I went out for a hard 6 mile run the other day and to my horror discovered that I had only barely averaged a sub 8 minute mile. What the hell? While I wasn't killing it, I felt like I was pushing myself. Maybe it wasn't my day. Maybe I'm feeling the effects of tired legs. Or maybe I'm just that slow.

So this next week (rest week), I will rest. I will swim long and slow and rest. But! Come week 1 of the big push, speed will be the name of the game. I've worked to hard to finish this race satisfied with just finishing. I want to wake up in the med tent with a bust chin from hitting the asphalt at the finish line. I want to know that I worked as hard as I could and ran my race (as smartly and) as hard as I could.

No regrets.