CDA Recon = Good, This Week = Bad

You’d think I would have written about our CDA recon trip sooner, but this week just..sucked.

 

The weekend was wonderful, but then on Monday, there was a last-minute decision to put my family’s cat, Shadow, to sleep :(  It was a long time coming, she had been really sick for almost 2 years and no one expected her to hang on that long.  It was just an unfortunate circumstance and kind of “rushed” and stressful, but I know it was the right choice.  Needless to say though, that kind of ruined that day (and the rest of the week, being depressed about it).

 

Tuesday was just long, with workouts in the morning because of a wedding to go to in the evening, which just meant a long day.

 

Wednesday was depressing again (thinking about Shadow too much) and then got hit with a migraine in the afternoon.  I’m “lucky” in that they really only last a couple hours, and I managed to get home, sleep a bit, and wake up feeling better in time to still get outside on the bike.  My hill repeats weren’t the best and I only did 5 instead of 7 because by then I was really running out of daylight, but at least I still did some.  But, it did really mess up my plans (changed my route, etc etc etc) and then of course I didn’t get home and to bed until late.

 

Thursday was an early, early morning with a swim and run before work, because Mac and I had hair appointments in Silverdale at 4 hahaha.  I know, super high priority!  Hey, it’s the little things that make a big difference.  It was great to catch up with Heather, and fun that we both did it together, and REALLY NICE to finally fix my hair!  It was turning brown.  Gross.  Now it’s back to dark black with some tints and….blue on the bottom ;) very subtle, can only see it a bit in the right light, but I really, really needed a change before  I went crazy (and also I hate brown).  So, I feel infinitely better.  Of course now it’ll fade fast with all the silly swimming and chlorine, but..whatever.  Anyway, after everything was said and done, it was a good day but not home until after 10pm…and when you leave home at 430am, that’s just a long time.

 

Swam this morning, getting ready to head out and do a loop around Lake Washington after work, per coach’s instructions.  I am just…tired.  Not even training-tired (although I have to say, I was SUPER SORE yesterday, oh my gosh what is wrong with me), but just tired-tired.  Too many 4 and 5am alarms in a row, after late nights.

 

And through all this, Allen was gone all week.  So it was a lot of me rushing around and trying to do things and not lose my head thinking about Shadow (I was unsuccessful on this, I’ll admit).

 

ANYWAY!  Coeur d’Alene!

 

Because it really was great, I promise :)

 

I am so, so glad that we went over and saw/did the course.  Such a huge help!  The bike course is…nice.  I guess it’s super different than the old course, which is what Mac knew, but oh well, I kind of liked it.  The “big hill” is…well it’s a big hill, I guess, but nothing to be scared of!  It’s just a nice seated climb for 2+ miles, but you just spin spin spin it out.  I guess if you never ride hills it’s a big deal, but honestly it’s much less steep than the hills right around here (although it is longer), so that was good.  Not to say I wasn’t super slow, especially the second time we did it.  I want to be 10-12mph up that thing, and I was more in the 8-10mph range.  So, nothing to laugh at, but I definitely don’t need to freak out too bad about it now.  The rest of the hills are more rolling up and down, and again—just spin spin spin.  Aboslutely nothing anywhere that I would even consider getting out of the saddle for.

 

The downhills though…geez.  I guess they have to be a little steep, because you go flying down them!  I spun out once or twice and hung on for dear life.  I definitely could have gone faster but I was freaked out quite enough, thank you very much.  I tried to stay aero as much as I could but for the big one, now way.  I am just way too much of a baby.  I think I only maxed out at around 37mph.  Which is scary, considering that’s about what I crashed at last year.  Don’t think about that, Rosanne!  Anyway, the bike was amazing.  Handling was great, absorption of everything on the road was fantastic, super solid and grounded…definitely the right choice, and I am so, so glad that I got it :)   It’s exactly what I was hoping it would be, even the fit is what I wanted!  I’m more on top of the bike and can have a better pedal stroke, and my shoulders feel more stable.  Super happy with it.

 

What else?  Oh, wind.   So maybe THAT is the biggest thing.  We did the second loop on Hwy 95 later in the day (probably around the time I’ll be on it) and the wind had picked up…yikes.  It wasn’t having the wind slow me down that the was the problem—the problem was just getting blown around!!  I’m already scared going downhill, now add heavy wind and side gusts?  No thanks.  On the other hand, I’m “glad” it was like that, because it forced me to get some really good practice and goodness knows I need to experience it as much as possible in order to get more comfortable in it.  The wind here just doesn’t feel the same—it’s usually just a stiff headwind or tailwind, not as much tossing you around in a wide open space.  So that’ll be fun to deal with (mentally).

 

Run course is the same as part of the bike course.  Ironically, I’m more worried about the run now than before.  We did one loop of it on Sunday, and I was beat.  Mac was pulling me along at an 8:50 pace and I would have fallen behind more if she had let me ;)  Just sad.  Also, the hill on the course is dumb.  That’s one thing I had always heard people say, and I’m actually pretty darn good at running hills if I do say so myself, so I wasn’t too worried about it.  Boy was I wrong.  It a LONG hill, and it’s pretty decently steep for running, and it has a weird off-camber corner, and did I mention it’s long?  To make it even worse, it comes at halfway on the loop—meaning you run all the way up this hill, all the way down the other side….then turn around and have to go up and down it again.  And two loops means you come back and do it all over again after that!  I dunno man, we’ll see.

 

I do believe on race day I’ll be able to run better.  I want to be closer to an 8:20 average pace on the run if I can, but we’ll see.  I’ll be more inspired on race day, that’s for sure, and the race environment will help…we’ll see :)

 

Mac made me get in the lake to “ice my legs” and I will grudgingly admit it helped prevent soreness…but holy cow that’s cold, and you better believe I complained and moaned and made a big deal about how freezing it was.  I  honestly don’t know how people do that on a regular basis!