My Weekend of "Rest"

I know a century wasn't on the schedule. But with 40 degree weather and sunny skies, how could I resist? Especially knowing that race season is under 2 weeks away!

So it was an eventful weekend. Saturday was one of the best, most intense runs I've done in ages. 67 minutes with the second half at 1/2 marathon pace. My monitor was dead though, and even if I wanted to stick to 1/2 marathon pace, I don't have a clue what mine would be. So for the last 50 (that's sorta like half, right?) minutes of the run, I was going all out at my fastest sustainable pace. And it felt really fast! But even feeling that fast (probably doing a 7:15-7:30 pace), I wasn't getting tired. This means that my training is clearly working and the slow long runs are paying off. Hooray!

The century was intense. There were only 4 of us, which meant no hiding in the paceline. There were only four of us, 2 of whom were A men, which meant long stretches of riding at 22-24 mph hanging on. And we were in my neck of the woods, which meant hills. Lots of hills.

Yet amazingly, it didn't hurt. In fact, it felt pretty great. When I was hitting tough spots, I had Charlie to chat with, and Will had speakers in his back pocket blasting Lady Gaga and on one particular hill, "I believe in a thing called love" by The Darkness. It was a huge help! It was a lot of fun, and a great way to spend the day. I feel like I should write more about it but honestly, there's not a whole lot to say. We rocked a 4 person century, I think I probably hurt less than at least one of the guys, thanks to all of the endurance stuff I've been doing, and I am feeling a lot better about taking on the B women in the next few weeks.

Speaking of which, I sent coach my race schedule. He responded, "I want to make it realistic for you, as I know you don't know how to go at even 85%!" He's right, of course. I could start out with the best of intentions, but if I'm making the effort to go to a race, I damn well want to do awesome, not just ok.

So the plan is to turn down the volume a teensy bit and up the intensity. Which I'm stoked about. Honestly, race weekends don't take a lot out of me though. Usually I don't take long to recover from hour long races, which helps with training.

This week is all about refocusing. I was definitely lacking in motivation lately, but between a week off, a great run, and an amazing century with some awesome people, I'm feeling a lot more motivated to get seriously moving. Bring on the week!!