Lauren and I headed down to Perdido Key Friday after work. I snuck out an hour early to beat the traffic out of town. We were able to make it down to LuLu's, a restraunt in Gulf Shores owned by Jimmy Buffett's sister, Lucy. It's an open air seafood restaurant that always always always has a good band playing. Friday it would be a Cajun band from Lousinana that was on stage. They were incredible. After pigging out on shrimp about the size of my thumb, we made our way over to the condo.
Saturday morning, I brought the bike out for a little ride. The plan was to do a 30 mile ride at a quick pace. The flat roads and lack of traffic made it easy to scoot on down the road. I stayed in the aero position for the majority of the ride and keep my speed around 23-24 mph. It felt pretty good to keep that kind of pace. Believe me, it's not normal for me. At mile 15, I decided to turn around and head back. What hit me next was unexpected. A heavy wind had been at my back the whole time helping me keep that speed around 23-24, and I was about to ride right back into it. As soon as I faced it, it almost took my breath away. It felt like I was going backwards, and all of the sudden my legs felt very tired. My speed quickly dropped to 17-18 and I was struggling to keep it there. Oh, it was painful. I worked very hard for that 15 mile trip back home.
Today I had a long run scheduled. 11 miles. I'd never done 11 before so I was a little nervous. I took two Gu packets with me and a 16 oz Gatorade. To simulate the 1/2 marathon in a couple of weeks I had designated certain times to drink and certain times to hit the Gu. With my Ipod in tow, I took off. No problems until about mile 7 when I began to feel that familiar rub in my new Asics. I knew I'd be sporting two new blisters by the end of the run, but I kept going. 3 miles to go and my knees starting aching and telling me that they weren't enjoying this. 2 miles to go, I kicked it in. My feet were killing me and my knees were talking jibberish at this point. They could only manage a few slurred cuss words. 1 mile to go and end in sight. I knew I was going to hurting for a while, but I stuck it out. I was happy to be done, but humbled at how my body broke down. I felt great cardio-wise. My heart rate was fine, breathing was normal, but damn my body hurt! Overall time was 1 hour 26 minutes 32 seconds. Just about the pace I want for the 1/2.
Overall, a great weekend. Great food and family time always tops the list. It's a little bonus when you get some training in as well.
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6 comments:
Matt, too funny about the wind. :) How were the shrimp cooked, just peel and eat? Any rub on them?
The wind can definitely be your friend . . . or not.
Congratulations for toughing out the bike ride back and the run. It sounds like you are ready for your half.
Man, wind is worse than a hill to me because at least the hill ends. Tough run!
I had the same situation with the wind on Sunday during my ride. Great training weekend!
nice pace on the run my man - keep it up!
I am not sure where Blood Rock is, but we started at the BMX track and headed the other direction from the lake. When you get to the very top of the mountain, you start coming down the logging road, that is where we hit our top speed. Then the trail drops back into to woods over some rocks about 3 feet high, that is where I wiped out. I jumped those rocks going pretty fast and couldn't make the turn at the bottom. Anyway, next time we are down there you will ahve to borrow a back and come with us.
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