The Long Run

Call me crazy but I am going to miss these mornings. The mornings where I wait a bit to start my long run, until the sun comes up and the cars have all gotten to work. The mornings where out the window of my home office the blanket of white covers the earth, and there is quiet stillness all around.

I will strangely miss the cold long runs, the crisp air, the frozen eyelashes, the trickery of footing. These runs present challenges that make me stronger. And it isn't just the run itself, it is the subsequent ice bath. Because it wasn't cold enough on the fifteen miles I am about to run. The fifteen minutes submerged in literal ice water itself presents challenge. Can I do it?

And all of it come down to 2 final events. The long hot shower and the big bowl of Chicken Noodle Soup. Those 2 things are heaven in themselves.

I believe we have solved the problems during my races of vomiting during the runs. Thanks to the Computrainer and the Garmis 305 we are able to track, graph and take a good look at my heart rate and my effort levels. Closer than ever we are, to figuring the mystery out.

Before my 4 hour ride yesterday I tempted fate by eating a big breakfast not too long before I got onto the bike. I wanted to see how I felt. After a few weeks of steady efforts at a higher cadence, 200-250 wattages and heart rate hanging steady in zones 2 and 3, I feel as if I have "evened out." And it might turn out that I can eat just about anything during a race.

I am looking forward to the Gulf Coast 1/2 Ironman and the Eagleman 70.3 races to test all of this out. Those races will be data gathering races. I won't be doing long tapers for either, and I know it is a long way to travel to gather data. But I need to see how my body reacts to heat, wind, efforts on these courses, as that is all going to direct my training for Ironman Florida. So at both of those starting lines I will be wired for data. And I will have good days because I am too used to having terrible disastrous days. And once you have the terrible day.... it becomes easier to allow the day to become terrible.

And that segways into the mental training I have been working so hard on. the 70.3 distance is the perfect testing ground for the Ironman, because you get a mental and physical taste of distance. And when it comes to Ironman we know it is so much more mental than anything else.

I will remain on the even keel, not getting to happy, not getting too sad. Letting go of doubts and just being in the actual moment, being present.

But I digress, time to go now. I have a date with 15 miles and an Ice Bath.

:-) mary Eggers