Monday, October 13, 2008

10/13/2008

Yipeeeeeee! Last long workout done! This weekend was the Eastern Shore 100, and everyone did fantastic! Some of us got a little Bay swim in on Friday, there was some current and water was very salty, kind a good indication of the Florida swim. It was a flat and windy ride, the first time I've ever actually ridden the whole 100 miles on the Shore, although I've been at the ride the last 2 times as well. Sharon made a lovey and hearty meal for everyone; chicken pot pie, salad, some weird orange/onion thing, and pound cake with fruit and whipped cream for dessert. Yumminess.

Then, the ride. The IMFL peeps, as well as 2 of the IMAZ people (and of course MarcoDiablo and MyKaren the sherpa of the year) went on the ride on a beautiful autumn day on the shore. Karen turned around at about mile 17 since she has her last 1/2 IM of the year this coming weekend. It was a bit windy heading north, sometimes very windy, but everyone hunkered down and got it done. After our picnic snacks at around mile 53 (this was evidently the first time the riders actually stopped where I had envisioned...course it helped that I took some photos this time so everyone would know exactly where I thought the stop should be) we headed back to a nice tail wind. The group of 6 tried to get a nice pace line going, but it fell apart after some of the peeps got a little fire in their legs when it was time to lead....at one time the leader was going around 25 miles an hour and was about a quarter mile ahead of the group. There may be a teeny learning curve on how to ride a pace line, but everyone made it just fine. I think we averaged about 15 1/2 on the way out and 18+ on the way back. We may have had a tail wind, but we were cranking along.

After the long ride, we ran a bit on the trails in Kiptopeke, a nice run through spider webs. Whenever we stopped the mosquitos were so bad it really made us keep running. The run really was not any fun, we kept saying that we wanted crowds and water/food stops to keep us going. Afterwards, MyKaren took great care of us, with nachos and beer after our showers, and then a bountiful meal of meatloaf, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, carrots and salad. We ate like we had not seen food in days. We all had grand ideas of a camp fire and drinking heavily, but we all passed out around 9 pm.

Today, several of us did the dreaded 3-mile swim. We all went to 50 meter pool haven, and swam our little hearts out. Long swim. Very long. But, I felt OK and I think my last mile was my fastest of the day. Hopefully it will all translate into goodness come November 1.

I think we are ALL ready.

3 comments:

TriGirl 40 said...

You all are READY! Awesome job on finishing up a challenging training session. The work is done - now just get ready to enjoy an incredible race day!

Unknown said...

I know it will translate into goodness on race day. Congrats on all of your dedicated training.

Unknown said...

You are so ready! I have watched you work so hard and diligently this year. You are strong and confident. Enjoy every minute of the day @ IMFL. It will be a pleasure to cheer you on as you have done for so many of us in the past!