July

It's Thursday. It's July 2nd. It's Summer. The problem is-something happened to my State. Maine really is a beautiful place. We have the ocean. We have mountains. You can enjoy a sandy beach or a rocky shoreline. Oh, I am not even in the mood to talk about all the beauty Maine has to offer. Why? Cause it's UGLY here. I am ugly. It's been raining since...I don't know, May? Close to it. June was a total wash. Now it's July and I spent the day soaked and freezing under tents at my kid's track meet. Blek. No beach. No strawberry picking. Minimal outside play time in the sprinkler or on bikes. And nasty nasty depressing bike rides.
So I am going to Try to stop being a grouch about it and talk about my training. Note I said Try. I am really starting to feel my mood and all that slip into a coma. I have 3 boys....we need to be outside having some fun. oh yeah, my 9 y.o. has a 101+ fever. Just adds to the joy of a rainy summer.
Ok-off that.
Training is going well! It really is coming together. I can feel my fitness now. I can tackle long workouts and basically feel fine after. I love that.
I can't remember when I did what. I'll just throw things out there.
Yesterday was a long ride. I started at 5 a.m. loaded up with tons-o-fuel. I am never going to be low on calories again!! Learned that lesson. First up-hills. I found a nice big juicy hill off the main drag and started climbing. I did this 8 times. 3 minutes up, 3 minutes down. It was great!! Yeah-it hurt at the end but I felt stronger than in the past. From there I found a relatively flat road (live in the Oxford Hills..not many flat roads for more than a mile at a time...) and started pushing. I was to ride in z3 for 20 minutes. I found my zone and was steady and strong through that. Meanwhile, it was raining. No, I am serious. It was raining for real. I was sticking my fingers into my glasses to defog them and brushing my biking gloves off the front to clear the water. Lovely. 61 degrees and drizzle.
I had coerced my sometimes training partner Mike to join me for the final 3 hrs of the ride. He's doing LP too and now works for my husband. We met at the office and headed off. Coat on? coat off? (rain had stopped...at the moment) I can't believe it's July and I'm STILL deciding what to wear on teh bike!! I should be in a bike shirt and shorts and that's IT! (sorry- I am Trying not to talk about it.)
So Mike and I headed off but about 5 min into it my phone rang. The babysitter hadn't shown up at my house and Mark had to go to work!! Not good. Long story short..he called her and she was there within 20 min. Phew. We headed up over Streaked Mtn. I have been climbing this mtn at least 2x/week for the past few weeks. It's about 4 miles up give or take. It's pretty tough but comparable to parts of Lake Placid. So I climb. And climb. We got to the top and I think we rode into a cloud. The visibility became 0. Nada. Thick wet mist. We were about to descend the other side-4 or so miles down- without eyes essentially. I was scared. Mike is a daredevil (he skydives.. need I say more? ) I braked the whole way down-glasses were off adn my eyes were filled with water and grit and I was just grateful I knew my way. He was gone. About a mile ahead of me. That's fine. I knew he'd wait. I found myself getting so angry that I was out there in that mess again. It's been like that for 97% of my rides. Truly. I am not kidding. I think I've been had the need for sunscreen only 2 or 3 times this summer. Pathetic. So we finally got off the mtn and it was much better thank god. The skies stayed cloudy and occasionally it was misty but we could see most of the way back. I rode well. I was in upper z2 or lower z3 for much of the ride, especially over the hilly roads. I felt fairly strong and steady here so that is comforting. I should be there for LP.
I've had some good swims. Especially today. I did 300s....9 total. I found a strong groove and held on. I enjoyed this workout. Monday is 10x400s. Watch out. Do wish I had a partner for this one though.
Running has felt good...very good...but I can't think of any interesting workouts. I'm feeling lighter and my endurance is fine.
I'm in the home stretch. 24 days.
I have a long run, a medium-long brick on Sunday and next week one more big juicy swimbikerun day.
I can taste it. I'm so close I can taste that finish line.
24 days.