Sunday, June 3, 2012

Are We There Yet???

One of my favorite quotes from my good friend Deanne's blog that sums up this weekend is: "Put on your big girl panties and shut the f*** up!" Because that was pretty much what I've had to do for the last 48 hours.

For Saturday, we both had a 5-hour bike ride scheduled, and my plan called for a 45 min. run afterwards. Problem is, the weather forecast said torrential rain for the next 5 days. Deanne and I decided to take a chance and head out at first light Sat. morning and try and beat the rain. It didn't work out so well. It was already very windy and sometimes hard to control our bikes, and after about an hour and a 1/2, we started feeling the first drops. We kept going further and further away thinking we'd be ok before the hard rain hit.

At one point before the rain started we stopped at the Ipswich Y and I tried to multi-task by eating my energy bar and using the bathroom at the same time. Unfortunately I got one bite before I dropped the thing on the bathroom floor and had to throw it away. I guess that was my punishment for being disgusting.

It wasn't long after that that the downpours started. We were riding in such heavy rain and wind it was hard to see the road. We were drenched and freezing, and the puddles in the road hid all of the potholes and made the ride even more treacherous. And to add insult to injury, to get back home, we had to cross the Beverly Bridge, which is fairly steep going up and down, and no fun at all on windy days. Because of the wind, rain and slick roads, we stopped before the start of the bridge and debated whether we should just take off our shoes and walk our bikes barefoot over the bridge rather than risk the ride. The thought of that was so depressing, that we decided to chance it. It was the most terrifying biking experience I've ever had. By the time we got to the top, the winds were threatening to blow us into traffic, we were both white-knuckled holding our handlebars, and we unclipped one foot to catch ourselves if we went down. I kept my brakes on and yelled "OHMYGOD!OHMYGOD!" the whole way down the hill.

But! We made it. And, because we are so badass, we both went to our respective houses, dried off, and got on our trainers for the remaining hour and a 1/2. I quickly put on my running clothes and opened the door to rain coming down in sheets. It was awful. I was completely soaked within 10 seconds and my shoes filled up with so much water that it felt like I had 5 lb. weights on each foot. I could barely see anything and that 45-minute run felt like two hours. But I did it.

I passed out in my daughter's bed at 8pm that night completely exhausted and woke up before my alarm at 3:30am (I had it set for 4am). I needed to do a 45-minute bike ride and then meet Deanne for a 2-hour run at 5:15, and THEN get picked up by my friend Cindy to go swim at 7:45.  I got up and tried to eat a 1/2 bagel with peanut butter right away, but my stomach unfortunately wasn't awake yet. After about 35 minutes on the bike my stomach started churning. I got off the bike, ran upstairs, and promptly threw up my bagel w/ peanut butter. End of bike ride! I had about 15 minutes to get myself together and go meet Deanne. As soon as I started running I could tell that it wasn't going to go well. My stomach was still off and I was SO tired. I told Deanne she was going to have to drag me through this run, and thankfully, she did!

We had a couple of walk breaks, but overall, I feel like we did pretty well considering I wanted to quit the entire time. And I was totally ready to bail on the swim, but we never see Cindy and I had been  looking forward to catching up. I figured if I really felt that bad I could just float on my back while they swam.  Though once we got there and got in the water (at which point it started raining..AGAIN...) I felt pretty good and we managed a decent swim across the pond which was a little over 1.2 miles.

I am so relieved that I made it through this weekend because it was definitely the most physically and mentally draining training weekend I've had so far. I know I wouldn't have done it had it not been for Deanne being with me on that run. I really don't think I could train for an Ironman on my own. Even when we just run together in complete silence, there's something about having a partner there suffering with you that makes it slightly easier to stick it out. And thankfully we never seem to have our worst days at the same time, so one of us can always pull the other along.




3 comments:

  1. While there may be bitching, moaning, whining, complaining, crying and puking in an Ironman there is NO quitting. We were total bad-ass this weekend despite how we felt and I hope after this kind of training race day feels easy!!! So glad to have you along for this journey!!!

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  2. Wow, I don't know how you two do it. I am ashamed of myself for not keeping up with my very easy exercise program

    Mom

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  3. For some reason this made me teary, thinking about you guys battling the shitty weather together. I feel like you are in this crazy ridiculous tunnel where no one else around you really gets it - so thank god for Deanne! You guys are both awesome, and inspiring!

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