Twenty, twenty, twenty-four hours to go . . . I wanna be sedated

Well, it's actually about 36 hours to the HOT, but still.

Phew.

Tapers are so weird. I feel like I haven't done much. On the way back from PT I realized I didn't have my key, so I didn't strength train because I had no time - had to run meet Al and get my key. PT's say I should take 3 full rest days following the race, too. Ouch. That's gonna hurt. Anyway, this is probably the last post you will see from me until Sunday night or Monday morning. I leave in the AM for Jax and I don't know if I'll have internet access. But I will post a full report, especially considering that I am doing this race as part of the V-Team 26.2k.

I'm really lucky. The weather has cooled down thanks to some afternoon rain storms. It'll be in the high 80s instead of the mid-90s. Part of me wants it to hurry up and get here. Part of me wants it to go really slow. In any case, when I return, I won't be an Ironman, but I'll be an Olympian. Well, sort of.

Bloggers who want to meet up at the race, get at me via megganann@gmail.com - it goes to my phone. Everybody go fast, be safe, have fun. Love, peace, hairgrease!

WEEK 11/4, DAY 5: PT/Strength and Brick day

PT this morning was really good, and I talked to Karis (my therapist) about it . . . he says he sees a pattern - leg feels great on days when I rest between runs but hurts more when I run consecutively. I guess we can attribute the speed to my muscles getting stronger and my aerobic fitness increasing. He used the ultrasound machine on me today and did some myofascial/trigger point massage on the shin and lower leg. It hurt so bad when he massaged it that I almost jumped off the table. 6-minute warmup on bike followed by 15x2 of:

stationary lunges
hip extension on machine
side hip extension on machine
rotations on balance board (25x2 each leg)
lying hamstring stretch (3x30 sec)
lying quad stretch (3x30 sec)
calf stretch (3x30sec) - did these Wed too
calf/foot exercise on wobble board - 30 on each ankle

double-armed push with resistance band
double-armed pull with resistance band
single-armed pull with resistance band
single-armed push with resistance band
torso twist with resistance band (15x2, to left and right)
rolling push-up on knees with yoga ball

Then afterwards (at night) I did my short hill ride - think my back tire needs air, but that aside, I only got passed by one person on the trail, which made me feel good (I normally get passed by packs and packs of people and there was just one guy out last night). My average speed was really low, about 13mph. I did get up to 30 on one of the big hills, which made it totally worth it. Total elevation climbed according to the route tracker added up to 400 or more feet which in FL is a lot.

My brick wasn't as long as I had planned. I didn't have time to run the full 3.0 after my ride because it was getting dark, so I did 5 sets of hill repeats, a little over a mile, on one of the long slow climbers on the trail. I'm going to try to get in a 3-mile run tonight. Let me just say that running the day of PT is not the least painful idea. My calf and shin were throbbing and I had to pop some Advil and wrap my leg in ice.

WEEK 11/4, DAY 3: I TOOK THE SAFE ROUTE FOR ONCE and got screwed!!

This morning was my seoncd PT session. So far, so good. After a 7-minute bicycle warmup, I did each of these exercises, 2x15 each unless otherwise noted:

• stationary lunges
• hip extension on machine
• side hip extension on machine
• rotations on balance board (25x2 each leg)
• lying hamstring stretch (3x30 sec)
• lying quad stretch (3x30 sec)

Today when I went home I also did upper body, which I'll repeat on Friday.

• double-armed push with resistance band
• double-armed pull with resistance band
• single-armed pull with resistance band
• single-armed push with resistance band
• torso twist with resistance band (15x2, to left and right)
• rolling push-up on knees with yoga ball

After work I had a 15-20 mile ride followed by a 1-mile run planned, but the weather was looking really bad, particularly toward my ride destination. Forecast said isolated thunderstorms and heat index of 103, and when I walked outside the sky was charcoal grey with this wild wind blowing leaves and small branches all over the place. So I did what I never, ever do. I took the conservative route.

I played it safe.

I went for the gym and got on the stationary bike. I was really afraid I'd let msyelf slack indoors, so I set the level on 9 (usually I set it under 5). I chose the hill workout. And I forced myself to keep 80-120 RPM as long as I could (which ended up being most of the workout). I finished 16 miles in the hour I was on the bike, which is around race pace for me (16-18 mph, yeah I know I'm slow). Then I jumped on the treadmill immediately and banged out a 10:54 mile followed by a few minutes of walking cool down. The whole time I'm watching the weather outside. Looks forboding from in here.

I walk outside and the sky has lightened from charcoal to heather. There's a soft(slightly muggy, but gentle) breeze. IT NEVER RAINED.

I COULD HAVE DONE THIS ALL ON REAL HILLS.

@$%^&*!!!!

Now do you see why I always go for the less conservative route?_________________________________________________________

That being said, it was a great workout. I felt really strong. Now if I could do something to make my job more interesting, I'd be set.

WEEK 11/4, DAY 2: They tried to make me go to rehab, and I said . . .

Yeah, yeah, yeah. (Physical therapy-type rehab, that is.)

So, half an hour of that this morning . . . a warm-up on the bike, followed by hip flexor exercises (2 exercises, 15x2 each leg), lunges (15x2 each leg), foot rotations on this balance board thing (25x2 each leg), stretches on this calf stretcher (3x30sec each leg), and 2 other stretches for hamstrings and thighs (3x30 sec each leg).

And I am going to take the option to not do my swim tonight (that's what I say now, har har). No, seriously. I probably will rest because the next 6 days are hefty, and I realized I have PT next Monday, so it's not a TOTAL rest day.

Believe it or not, I'm not too grumpy that I didn't get all the way last night. I gave it a valiant effort, especially in that weather. And I didn't die. Which is always important. Besides, I keep thinking to myself, Jacksonville in a few weeks is NOT going to be cool. It is NOT going to be a walk in the park. And with a sprint time of around 2 hours, I can probably expect it to take me about 4 hours to finish, which puts me out in the 11am sun.

I think I'm gonna puke just thinking about it.