Shelly and I are settling into training for the Austin 70.3. We just finished Week 5 of training (how embarrassing that I can't tell you how many weeks are left). We just follow the plan. I expected to feel some sort of fanfare every time we train, since we're training for a huge distance that we've never trained for before. But it's not like that. It's just plugging away at one day of training after another: get out there, put in the miles. Practice the nutrition.
We moved our schedule all around so that our long ride/run are in the middle of the week, and we have a swim/bike/run brick every Saturday. That has worked well for us for the past 2 weeks -- although after riding long on Wednesday and running long on Thursday, by Friday I'm totally pooped and cranky.
The last couple of Saturdays, we've had awesome, fantastic, fabulous bricks out at Boerne Lake. Two weeks ago, we went out and rode the Gator Bait route with the group and Robert and Patrick, and afterwards decided to do the Gator Bait race (how could we not?). The race is next weekend. The running part of the bricks the last two weeks has been especially motivating for me. We've run the last two weekends (4 miles last week, 3 miles yesterday) at a strong, fast pace, which leaves me hopeful for the Gator Bait race. I'd love to have a good run in a race at least once this summer.
We've picked up the pace on the bike after a good showing at Small Texan. The thought is if we can race at 16+ mph in Boerne, why can't we ride our normal rides faster? So we're aiming for 15+ mph on each training ride, and we've met that goal each time. On Wednesday, we rode out to Castroville for our long ride. What a weird, awesome ride. Shelly and I have never, ever ridden on flat roads like that before. I mean, pancake flat for 33 miles. We kept our heart rates low and finished with a 15.5 mph average pace. Not bad! I'm looking forward to doing it again this week. I feel myself getting stronger on the bike. Today, on the group ride from Trisition Area, there were places on the route that I used to need to drop into the small ring for, and today I was fine in the big ring. Woo hoo! On our way.
With the new schedule that Shelly and I are following, Sunday nights are my favorite. Our rest day is Monday, so I get to eat something delicious and maybe drink a beer on Sunday night. That is, unless I fall asleep first.
