Put a fork in me.

this weekend we were scheduled to do a 25 mile ride and 16 mile run.
sounds like fun, huh?
but wait a minute, I'm signed up the Charlottesbille Internation Triathlon on Sunday! this one has a reputation for it's killer hills on the bike and on the trail run! Uh oh!
Luckily (?) coach B shortens the saturday workout to only a 12/10 brick.
I make my way out to WC on saturday to get this accomplished. TG KO and I do two good laps around keeping it steady. then we meet up with TG Lynn for the run. We have diffeent distances to do - 8 for Kate, 10 for me, and 16 for Lynn. so we run the first 8 together talking and having a good time. It was warm out there, but thanks to Kate's cold water face squirts it kept us cool! (And we dodged Ann and Margo's attempts at taking us out while they were riding).
Of course afterwards my legs are like lead.
hmm...triathlon tomorrow?
IronGreg and I headed up to check out the race site, which is was quite familiar with. We drove the bike course to get an idea of what kinds of hills we had ahead of us. with Blake's Blue Ridge rides, I wasn't too intimidated. But I knew right away thatmy goal times would no longer happen thanks to the morning's long brick. I was most nervous about the trail run. I had only done one ever! and i heard this was a hard one! But i didn't want to get a preview of what I had ahead of me there. I might not show up in the morning! But luckily I received a call from trail runner extrodonaire, Twila. That woman can run on trails for days without stopping. And still be smiling and fresh. She's a butterfly!
so we had a good night's eats and sleeps at the Boar's Head. things are laid out. Wake up call has been ordered. time for bed.

Phone rings.
There is no snozze button on the phone.
Time to get up.
normal race morning. we eat. get dressed and pack the car. Being this is only a "workout" for both of us there were little nerves - oddly.
I set up in transition. get body marked. Timeing chip. All the normal pre-race needs.
nothing exciting. Although I did find out that no one but Kate and I did the saturday workout! What were we thinking?!
except - there were lots of TG's out there including Coach G making a guest appearance - even if only for the swim!

Swim:
The swim felt good. I didn't push it out of my comfort zone and just focused on my stroke and sighting. As I began to round the first lap I couldn't figure out which buoy I was swimming towards! I had to pause a few times and finally some guys from the wave behind me started passing me and I could follow their caps as I got back in line. I was feelign good, not tired or anything as I began to exit the water. hmmm, maybe I could have pushed it a little more? But then I began to run up the hill to transition and realized my legs felt like the mud I just ran through.
T1:
I actually had to sit down and put my socks and shows on b/c my legs were like lead.
Bike:
As soon as we leave transition it's a long uphill. My legs didn't want to work. This is where mentally I started losing my game face. People were passing me like I was standing still. I was recounting my swim in my head thinking I should have pushed it a little more and coming to terms with being last in my AG in the swim and probably at the end of the day, too. About 10 minutes into the bike a few people in my AG passed me on the bike. My legs couldn't spin to catch them, so I thought to myself - at least I wasn't the last out of the water like I was thinking. about 15 minutes into the bike I decided today was jsu tnot my day and I should just turn in my chip. I was done. My legs were fried from Saturday's workout. (I was cursing Coach Blake at this time. I mean how could this make me stronger?!). I passed the first turn of volunteers - they were so cheerful and supportive - how cold I ask them how do I turn in m chip? I had never done that before, what is the process to DNF? I'll ask the next set of volunteers. As I come up to them they, too, are so cheerful and supposrtive, I just can't ask them! Next thing I know I am half way through the bike. Why stop now? I'm half way there. just go with it. As I am comign back into the park a few more people pass me including one of my friends - who started 2 waves behind me! what! am i slacking that much! guess I better kick it up! We come back into the park and I eat up the downhill. Curl into aero and crank int ot hat hard gear. Wheeeeeeeeee. Hop off the bike and slip into my nice white sneakers and head off to the trails.
T2:
I quickly grab n go! I felt fast in T2. at lest I felt fast sometime during the day! haha
Run:
It ws nice surroundings, but I was so busy looking at the ground I couldn't really take it all in. I was really felling that long workout now! So I jsut kept reminding myself that this was jsut a workout and not a rae like most people out here. I kept telling my self to have the feet of a deer and float like a butterfly - twila's advice. The trail was narrow and peopel were passing me so much "on my left", that my right thigh is scratched up from tress/bushes/etc - but that only makes me look tough, right? I find that runnin guphill hurts my calves so I allow myself to walk up them. I get into my groove when IronGreg's friend passes me walking up a hill. Oh hell no! so I pick it up and bam - down I go. Total bummer! Luckily I caught myself and didn't relaly eat it. the guy behind me yells out "nice save". and I start laughing to myself about the ass shot he just got as I stick it up in the air in spandex trying to catch my fall. awesome. no wonder he was struggling back there! Next thing I know I am done with lap one and heading back in for another lap of trail goodness. now I am feeling good and now I am FINALLY the one passing lots of people! I uess all those people that took off too fast in the beginning are paying for it now. See - slow and steady wins the race (at lest that's i tell myself, but I have yet to come close to winning a race). The last mile has lots of up hills and I have come to terms with not hitting any of my goals. Out of the woods and kick it up for the finish line.
Mission Accomplished.
So I may not have hit any of my goal times, but I did get two rock solid workouts in - and finish them!
and what I am mostly proud of myself for is overcoming the mental block of wanting to quit and PUSHing through.
and I wasn;t the only person having a rough day. but it's all a part of training.
Timberman here I come!

Afterwards IronGreg and I had the brunch buffet and I was sur to eats lots of bacon - it's protein, right? and the blueberry cobbler...um I had to replenish my sugar?
Then we spent the day touring Monpelier - the home of James Madison - our country's 4th president and one of the founding fathers of the constitution.

Then for the evening festivities...refer to Margo's Shark Week extravaganza.

and now - poor IronGreg is sick :(
good thing I am having lots of chicks drinking wine and jewelry shopping at his house tonight so he is scared to come home!

PS - today I am taking a rest day. forget swimming! (sorry Coach JP!)