First off, I am normally not this crazy, but I blame all this on Kurt. Scheduled this weekend was the Mission Viejo LCM swim meet. Also scheduled was our 13 mile run on Saturday. I wanted to do both, but at the same time, I really needed a day of no exercising and down time. After discussing with Kurt, we decided that we would just go balls out on Saturday and then leave Sunday for whatever we wanted to do independently. This meant the following:
7am - 13 mile run
11am - 7 events BACK TO BACK. Hardly any rest. We would do the following events in this order: 200 fly, 100 free, 100 back, 200 IM and 50 breast. Then we would follow it with the 4X100 Medley relay (me fly) and the finish with the 4X200 free.
13 MILE RUN
After last weekend's disasterous 17 mile run, I knew I had to make some serious changes. I made sure I drank lots of water the entire week, emphasizing even more on Friday night and Saturday before the run. I also had a decent meal (pasta with a light marinara sauce and some chicken). I went to bed early too. I woke up, had 2 glasses of water, a powerbar and a nutrigrain bar. I also purchased 4 new water bottles for my belt, and these were 10 ounces, instead of my standard 6. And to just go back to normal, I planned on taking GU instead of the cliff shot blocks or jelly beans.
When I arrived at the bluff at 6:45am, I saw the overcast in the sky, which brought a sense of relief. Last week the sun was out in full effect, draining whatever energy I had in my dehydrated body. Today's run I knew would be different. I was ready for the 13 mile deamon.
When we all took off, the stiffness in my legs once again sent signals to my brain asking me why I was doing this. This happens EVERY time I start running. The pain in my lower body just doesn't feel right. Its a mental barrier I need to get over. I know after mile 2 it will be fine, but that is 20+ minutes away, so unless I am up for the challenge, its a long and painful 20 minutes. JC and I took off for our run, watching the faster groups distance themselves from us. I looked at my watch and already saw I was struggling for the 11/mile pacing. "Oh great.. here we go again", I thought. I guess those days of 10:30/mile are all but in my past. After mile 2, my body began warming up and my running felt stronger. I was still just over 11/mile pacing, but whatever. I still had 11 more miles to run, so I didn't want to play any mind games with how slow I was. After reading on the internet about rehydrating every 20 minutes, I decided that with each 10 ounce water bottle (of gatorade) I had, that I would have 1/2 of it (5 oz) completed every 20 minutes. That means I would go through 3 out of the 4, plus 1/2 of the last one. It also meant that whenever needed I could fill up the empties with water.
Around mile 4 JC and I started picking up the pace. We were now going 10:30/mile. The overcast was blocking the sun from zapping our energy and I was loving every minute of it. We kept up the pace for the next 6 miles, and then some. I would randomly check my watch and saw instead of 10:30s, we were ranging anywhere from 9:50s to 10:20s. We reached 6 1/2 miles at 1:10:27. Finally, my old speed I had. If only I would have had this last week. But since last week was well... last week and its this week now, I'm glad I have it now! Around mile 10, JC needed a break and told me to keep on going. I kept the same pace, but didn't see a need to pick it up, although mentally I wanted to. I had to force myself to slow down to 10:20s and try and get as close to 10:30s. That is my pace and I need to keep that. There was no point in picking up the final 2 miles of running. As I saw the finish, I was happy that my energy level was high. I could totally keep up this pace for another 4 miles, and part of me wanted to. "I need more days like this", I thought to myself. As I crossed the 13 mile mark, I stopped my watch at 2:17.27. That meant I was out in 1:10, back in 1:07.
Now off to the pool.
I won't get into too much detail with the meet. My events were tough.
The 200 fly was the worst of them all. Since I haven't been swimming, why I entered a 200 fly, I have no clue. But I had to match Kurt being tough. He was doing it, so I had to do it. I took the first 100 out as easy as I could, but with fly, that is tough to do. Coming in to the first 100, the piano dropped. No way was I going to make it all the way back down and back. In order to not embarrass myself, I went into survival fly mode the third 50. Two swimmers past me and as I came to the wall, my teammates were cheering me on. "Oh fine, I'll go hard again", I said to myself. With only a 50 remaining, I knew I could get out of surivival mode and bring it home. The time was really slow, but hey, no worries.
The 100 free I still felt the 200 fly. I literally took a breath every stroke for the entire two laps. The time was a good workout time when I am in shape.
The 100 back I had no legs. I chose to use only arms the first lap, and legs the 2nd lap. I made it.
The 200 IM has always been a fun race. Although I knew my energy was almost all gone, I wanted to do something decent. I pretty much hadn't eaten since breakfast, but still went for it. It was fun and I had a good time with it. No need to mention times, since that's not what this meet is about.
50 breast felt good and I thought the time was good, but after seeing what Kurt and Ken went, I realized I was slow :-(
4 X 100 medley relay - I did the 100 fly. Take me home now. I am tired. I am hungry. I did the 100 fly.
I'm doing no exercise tomorrow aside from cleaning. Myself and Ally are going down to Irvine Spectrum to meet my mother for PF Changs for lunch and to see Bourne Ultimatum. I'm excited for yummy food and a good movie.
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