Week 5 Wrap-Up

After Steelhead, I figured I’d start with a massage on Monday instead of a workout—a fine idea, but good God Jennifer can be rough. Turns out my piriformis (no clue if I spelled that right at all) is really tight, particularly my left one, so she spent a fair amount of time working on it—none of which was pleasant for me, but turns out I felt great on Tuesday…still took it easy on my swim workout, but was fine by the time I got around to my interval bike workout Tuesday afternoon. Wednesday, though, my left calf started hurting in the middle of my run—to the point where I bagged it early and opted for ice and Advil instead. I couldn’t really tell if it was my Achilles (which acted up about the same time last year) or a muscle issue—either way, it freaked me out more than a little as I knew I had a big weekend with both peak workouts coming up. After I could still feel the soreness during my Thursday morning swim, I completely bagged my Thursday run—again opting for rest, ice, and Advil. My leg felt better Friday during an easy swim, so I was feeling a little bit better about things heading into the weekend.

Theresa came over to hang out Friday night and brought a very cool gift—a gym bag filled with a bunch of little treats—one for each day until IM. It’s been fun opening them each day—some are funny, some more sentimental, but all have given me a little something to look forward to at the end of the day. Bright and early Saturday morning, I headed to Verona to complete my peak bike workout—three loops of the IM course. The weather was beautiful, but I was still a bit skeptical as this was also the first time I’d ridden the course completely on my own—no other Kraft folks were able to join me, so after text messaging some folks to let them know when I took off, I headed out. I was expecting the course to be crowded, but, surprisingly, I didn’t really come across other riders until I hit Cross Plains on the first loop. I ended up riding with a guy named Charles until Mt. Horeb on loop two—turns out I know his neighbor, who used to be the plant manager at one of the pizza plants where I spent a lot of time. Random how small the world can be sometimes…but it was fun riding with him and talking with him. After Charles peeled off to get water at Mt. Horeb, I headed on my way to Cross Plains, where I stopped for water and a quick bio break before heading out again. I made it to Mt. Horeb on loop three before taking another quick water break—I pulled out my phone to find I had a voice mail from Cara, who was calling to wish me a happy 3rd anniversary of WW (August 12, 2003 was my first meeting). Pretty wild to get that voice mail on my third loop of the IM course—and it definitely made for some interesting pondering as I made my way to Cross Plains and then back to Verona. I was flying high as I cruised into Verona for the last time—I almost accosted a guy in the parking lot of Fireman’s Park to have him give me a high five, but I figured that was a bit much…but still, I was psyched for having made it 120+ miles over hills. I grabbed some celebratory Noodles & Company grub and found a Culver’s for some custard, then headed to Mundelein to crash at Sue and Michele’s—we had figured that Michele and I would do our 20-miler together on Sunday and that it just made sense to cut out a little driving time on my end.

Sunday morning found me tired but feeling OK from the ride on Saturday—not exactly in ship-shape for a 20-mile run, but doing OK. After grabbing some breakfast and coffee, Michele and I headed to the Old School parking lot to try a slightly different approach for our long run than what we used in our marathon training. As I knew I’d need to refill my fuel belt at some point, we opted to use the car as the midpoint and head north for 5 miles to Independence Grove, then back to car for a quick break, then south for 5 miles and back to round out the 20 miles. It worked well—except I still ran out of water at about mile 18.5 or so—made it a little rough coming into the car for the last time, but we got it done. The good news, too, is that my left calf stopped hurting at about mile 14—not sure why, but I’m glad it did. Sue made super yummy recovery shakes for us when we got back to their house, then I grabbed a quick cup of Starbucks with Theresa before heading back to my house—both great ways to polish off my peak weekend.

Here’s the weekly roll-up…

Swim: 2:30:00 / 6400 meters
Bike: 10:00:56 / 174.43 miles
Run: 3:57:21 / 24.92 miles
Total: 16:28:17 / 203.35 miles