Good Training Weekend

The past weekend could be viewed as a failure by some, or as a great accomplishment. I'm taking the later view. On Friday, we met up with some friends for some carbo-loading and I missed the trail running seminar (where I later found out my buddy won a free pair of trail running shoes - good for him!). I then checked in with a local triathlon buddy Chad that is also competing in Ironman Louisville and he is racking up some major miles on me, with 3 50+mile rides a week, and average6-7,000 meters in the pool! Interestingly enough - he wasn't really running any???

I was going to wake up around 5:00 and tackle Lookout Mountain, then Raccoon Mountain, and then knock-out a half-marathon. However, the alarm didn't go off and I soon found myself struggling to make it in-time to the half-marathon. I knew I was in-trouble, when no one was passing me up the mountain. Either 1) I'm late (high probability), or 2) I'm climbing the wrong mountain (low probability).

Raccoon Mountain turned into one heck of a climb and I ended up being 20 minutes late to the start. The hardest part of the climb (aside from there being no switchbacks) was the fact that I was carrying 7 lbs of food, running shoes, and my lock) much to the chagrin of my back. I locked up my bike when I got there, pinned my number on, threw down some fig newtons and off I was. Interestingly enough, there was another unlucky chap who was just starting. I passed him about a mile into the run, after a couple of miles in I started thinking about what my friend Chad (sub-12 hour Ironman - first time) had told me about not running too much and building your cycling legs.

So I ran back a couple of miles, hoped on my bike, and off I was to tackle the mountains on my bike. The run actually felt great. The trail was very nice, not too technical, and had some good scenery. It was good training. The second leg of the bike was another story. My legs were screaming like a little girl watching a scary movie, my knees were aching, my back felt like it was going to break in half any second. My small little 7 lb pack, felt like a solid 20 lbs at this point. I repeatedly called my wife, to tell her I wasn't going to complete the 1/2 marathon, but I was secretly hoping she was on her way. Fortunately for my training, she was still at the house. So I powered on and the finish was great. According to mapmytri.com, I had about 3,000 ft of climbing and about 50+miles. On Monday, I did some great cross-training (read: wake boarding) with my friend Bill, who is one of the best guy's I know.

On a separate note, the times for 3 State, 3 Mountain were finally posted. I'm really happy I did this race, considering most people didn't even start or quit due to the conditions. I'm being serious as there were only about 1,300 finishers out of 2,500 who registered - and that is counting the people who cut the century short and rode the bus back, or just did the metric!!!

I love this disclosure: "Note: These results are not exact. They are the best we could figure out. This is not a race so exact accuracy is not a high priority."