Something new for Friday, and the first day of summer

SWIM 2000y 2x 300-200-100
RUN 11m in 1:52

I didn't realize until the day was done that it was the first day of spring! Not that it would have made any difference.

LC is near peak for LP, but had a busy weekend that precluded her long training. She did her long bike while I swam, then we met up for a run. I'm admittedly jealous of her mileages-- 70+16 -- but I have my days and she has hers :)

The swim was surprisingly good. The plan called for shorter interals at increasing paces. I went for steady paces and timed them as 5:59, 4:01, 1:56, 6:07, 4:00, 1:53. I could feel my form slipping in the second 300, but at the same time was pleased with the 100 times. This little exercise shows where my swim weakness is right now: keeping good for over distances. Given that a half iron has a ~2200y swim, I'd better work on that.

The run was suprisingly hot. I took a cool shower and had about 45 mins between the swim and run, but we started around 10:15 and by then the day had warmed up. I had my  new arm coolers and the Camelbak, with a goal of 10-15 miles and a weekend of long training, I knew I had to stay good today. But I didn't realize at first just how bad it was going to feel!

By mile 3 I met up with LC and already I was dragging. By miles 3-6 I wanted to quit. But I had promised her I'd run with her, so I didn't. She was already thinking about shortening her run, and I had already started talking about mental challenges in IM training. More to remind myself by saying it outloud, than anything else. She already knew this, but I kept saying it anyway, again more for my benefit!

Things got better around mile 8-9, not cooler or easier, but better because we knew we'd hit the halfway point and were on the homestretch. I felt miserable, but kept reminding myself that if I felt bad for 8 miles of running, how did she feel after 70 miles of biking and 8 miles of running! The mental ping-pong ensued: but she's trained for this, I'm not! I'm jealous of her training! This is her year, not mine for IM! I can't do this, her pace isn't my pace! EXCUSES, WHINING, and WAH-WAH!

Just run!

And we did, she broke off at mile 11 to head home and I went back to work. But I stopped running very shortly after we split and walked it in. I had nothing left, but she kept going. I walked into work looking like a soggy mess and took a few minutes to cool down and recover.  I'm so happy for her, she's going to have a great race!