The countdown begins!

Less than four weeks now. IM brain has taken over and training plans and race day visualizations have occupied about 70% of my thoughts. This is unfortunate for all those around me, (except for members of the team who understand! ;-), and for the new school nurse who started her orientation with me today. The first thing I did was apologize for smelling like a fish after this mornings lake swim...with no time to shower before we met...and for my future spaciness and possible lack of focus. I assured her that I will do my best to stay in the moment at school and keep her and my students a priority while I am there. I was so relieved after working with her today. She is awesome! She totally understood, and since she is actually a SCHOOL NURSE that knows her stuff, she is going to fit right in very quickly and easily. I just pray she stays longer than a few months!! At least she didn't seem overly offended with my moldy lake smell! ;-)
This week is my peak week of training. If I get through this I should be good to go! This past weekend I focused on my run. Saturday's run was a one hour brick after a 4 hour ride, (Indoors due to the thick fog!! :-(), and that run felt soooooo good! It is amazing what a difference cooler weather can make when you have been used to running in 80 to 90 degrees! Sunday morning's run was a bit tougher, mostly because my hips and pelvis were already sore to start out. I had run 5 on my own, then Susan met me for the last 15...which ended up being 16 due to a miscalculation. Now, of course we could have walked that extra mile back to our cars, but after nearly 10 years of running with Susan, I knew this would not happen. We are always rounding up, adding time, adding distance. It's what we do, we are never satisfied with less. We are so compatible that way. She runs faster than I do, but she is so patient with me. She makes me push just a tad harder without putting me over the edge. The miles and time fly by with her. She is such a gift to me!
After that run, I could hardly walk. It's something I've gotten used to dealing with on Sundays, but it's been a bit worse that last two weeks. It really flared up during training camp,(and that experience is worthy of it's own blog post...but in a word...it was AWESOME!!) My plan called for a swim in the afternoon. The LAST thing I wanted to do was go to the gym and swim. I know that I feel so much better when I do...I just didn't want to!! (Insert whiny voice here!! ;-)) I just happened to read an e-mail from my teammate Matt, and what he said gave me the push I needed. So to the gym I went. And it felt unbelievably awesome! It was one of those moments in training when everything feels so right and you could go forever. I have no idea why, after 21 miles of running it felt like that, but it did. Another gift! :-)
That feeling carried over into yesterday when 90 minutes easy on the bike felt like heaven! Today is a very different day. I've learned to accept that Tuesdays are my challenge. I call it, "Tired Tuesday". It is definitely a pattern that has developed over the past several weeks, and I've learned to try and anticipate it and plan for it. Today, however, I had the opportunity to swim this morning in Lake Monona with Sasha, and Rock Star Randy was going to accompany us on Sasha's paddle board. It was an absolutely perfect morning! The lake was calm, the water temp was perfect, and I just LOVE swimming in front of the Terrace. Unfortunately the great feeling I had in the water on Sunday did NOT carry over to today. But it's ok! It will be there when I need it to be. And despite this, I completely enjoyed being out there.
The rest of the weeks training will include a long swim on Friday, and....GULP....riding the full 112 mile IM course on Saturday. Right after the ride is done, my sister and I will be hopping the train to Chicago for something COMPLETELY different! We are going to the Incubus concert on Sunday night!!! I will get to run two hours Sunday morning by the Lakefront in Chicago...another new experience for me! I do anticipate, however, that my next "Tired Tuesday" will be starting next Monday!!! ;-)
Almost there...:-)
Enjoy this day! :-D