Saturday Ride & Run

Yep, you heard that right, I ran again today. It was a brick and I felt fine. IT wasn't a real brick because after I changed and got my shoes on, I stopped and talked to Charles for like 10 minutes, but it was good. I was suppose to ride about 2 hours but I put in closer to 2.5 hours. Oops. I just kept riding and when I got back to ATC, I put in about half an hour extra. The run was fine, though. My heart rate was a little higher than I expected, but I didn't have any problems otherwise. I was feeling something in my foot, but pretty much every time I run I feel "something" in my foot, but it isn't ever "pain". I'm actually pretty happy about my runs off the bike doing so well since I know they hurt so badly and I was able to keep my run off the bike legs pretty well. That's something I think I'm good at; I run off the bike well for me. My standalone 5K and 10K times are not much faster than my sprint tri 5k and Oly tri 10k times. Yes, they are slower, but not that much slower. Also, to put things into perspective, the girl I'm dating has been having some foot issues as well. She started doing some bricks because she couldn't run. Her first brick was a 12 mile bike and a 2 mile run. Afterwards, she told me "Those fucking hurt!". Yes, they do and I love them, too. I like pain. Makes me feel alive. After that, I came home and watched TV on the couch without taking a shower. After being an athlete for so long, I don't mind basking in my disgusting smelliness. Oh, and by watching TV on the couch, I meant that I had the TV on and took a 3 hour nap. Also, the ride this morning was quite cool and the starting temp was 53 degrees. I have a problem riding in the cold because I have to wear a beanie cap. Problem is that my chin straps on my helmet are so disgusting from the sweat and salt that I can't adjust them so the straps choke me. I decided this morning to leave the beanie off and be a little cooler. Wow, this is one completely disjointed paragraph.

Friday was a rest day. Nothing special.

Tomorrow I'm really looking forward to. I get to run for an hour and I think this will be a good test to see how my body deals with the impact again. I think my body is ready for it because on all the easy 30min runs I'm doing, everything feels fine. It won't be anything compared to the marathon of an IM, but it'll be something.

Monday is a rest day, but I'll be packing up most of my stuff that night. I'm doing laundry tonight to make sure I have everything clean before I leave. I'll get my nutrition stuff together as well which consists on InfinIT, Gatorade, Clif bars, Odwalla bars, Gus, eGels, and my electrolytes. I have a ton of stuff to take. I actually spent about $100 on supplies for the race next weekend. This sport is expensive. I won't use all of it at the race, but I definitely needed to stock up on a lot of stuff. The only thing that I couldn't find is some socks. I really, really like the Ultimax Running Mini Crew socks. The top is really, really thin and cool, but the bottom is soft and cushy. I have Thorlo's and they are good socks, but nothing compared to Ultimax. I went to 3 stores before I found a similar type of sock by Wigwam. I may take a trip up to REI to see if they have them. I'll run in the Wigwam's tomorrow and see how I feel. If they are still decent, I'll get another pair. Ok, Monday is packing up day.

Tuesday is a couple of last workouts before I leave. I'll try to get a decent night's sleep because I leave Wednesday morning at 7am. Also, my friend flaked out on me at the last minute. Well, it was yesterday. I'm not happy about it, but luckily things worked out and I found someone else at the next to last minute to ride with me and help out with the condo.

Ok, I'm almost done for now. I'm finally getting a little bit excited at times about my race. I've been pretty open about stuff and I've been pretty open about my recent bout with depression. I'm off meds and I don't think I need to go back on them, but I still think I have a little bit of lingering depression. I mention this because I'm not depressed, but I think it's preventing me from being really happy and excited about the race. And that really fucking sucks because I should be excited and bouncing off the walls because I'm doing an Ironman. This is something that I never thought I would be able to do but I keep pushing myself and now I'm 6 days away. And I should be more excited about it than I am.