Where's the Pop??

The two weeks after St. George I felt totally fine. My legs finally stopped hurting, and I was able to train fairly well. Biking felt great and Elfin Forrest felt easy. Two weeks ago, I went on a ride with my friend Katie who is training for Vineman, and I nearly died. My legs felt like lead and I was suffering big time. This was the first time that I had ever been on a ride with her, and my efforts of impressing her failed.. miserably. I thought that I was just tired that day, but my legs continually felt like shit in the following work outs. Not the one to be patient, I quickly called Felipe complaining and worried that I somehow lost everything I had before and that I was going to blow chunks at Boise.

Phyllis (Felipe's new nickname) assured me that I will be ready... but I can't say that I am not nervous. I have been trying to be more positive and believe in my training plan and ability to do whatever, but these puppies - aka my legs - are not feeling hott! Over the past two weeks, I have had some amazing opportunities to ride with crazy fast people:

"The Wednesday Ride" - when Phyllis asked me, well put on my schedule, this ride I was thrilled. Everyone always talks about how fast this ride is and how it has helped them gain speed etc, etc. I rolled up to Phyllis' house early the first Wednesday that I joined knowing that I would be dropped, but I was still hoping that I could hang for a little bit. Turns out, I made it the whole warm up (that's not an accomplishment.. their warm up is a true warm up) and ~4 minutes into the interval. The interval they do is 40minutes. So.. I got dropped big time! Oops. Sean and Gary told me that I waited to long to stick on the person in front of me wheel and that I wasn't close enough. I was scared of being in aero and that close to someone, so I quickly fell off the pace line and watch the rest of the Orange train whizz on by. Thank god I wasn't wearing my Breakaway shirt because that would have been a- social suicide and b- mortifying. The ride usually takes around 2.5 hours so when my watch said 1 hour and 15 minutes (like two minutes after I was dropped), I turned around and went back to Phyllis'.

The next day, I joined Lipe, Chris, and Alex to a training day at Borrego Springs. Again, I knew I would be dropped, but at least this time the road is out and back so I couldn't get lost. When we got started, I managed to hang on for 21 minutes of this ride. Felipe said that I stayed on for the hardest part (I think he was exaggerating) because we had head winds going out. I was so parched so I reached down for some agua and lost the draft! Next time, I don't care how loser-ish I look, I'm bringing an aero water bottle so I don't lose the draft by reaching for the bottle! I was able to push myself and feel like I was hauling ass on the first stretch, but when we turned around, the winds were a bitch!! I was barely moving and I of course couldn't see any of the guys, so I was taking my time getting back. This ride made me realize that I have some mental block that if I think I'm sucking, I automatically lower my effort. This is something that I have to work on because it happens during work outs, and worse it happened during Soma.

When I was finally almost back to the car, I see an orange jersey coming back. Oh shit.. it was Alex. Then I see Lipe. Sooo embarrassing. Alex wanted to make sure that I was ok since they didn't see me for a while!! Ahh!! At that point I wanted to die because I was so embarrassed and I felt bad for being a burden. To top it all off, I got a flat tire! Luckily Alex changed it in .5 seconds and we were off. I was able to save some face by hanging on Alex's wheel and actually picking up speed for the last 1.5 miles. While the guys when on their T run, I was the bike watcher girl and made sure no one stole the bikes! I also decided I should be quesedilla girl and got us all some post workout fuel... I was thinking that maybe they will invite again if they forget how far behind I was and just remember the food! Those two days in a row were killer and my legs were definitely not happy with me! Even though I didn't do great on these rides, I made it back to the next Wednesday ride.

This time on the Wednesday ride I wanted to redeem myself a little bit. Sean told me that I should take the warm up reaalllyy easy and I did - small chain ring the whole time. When we got started, I got dropped fairly close to the same spot as the last week which really pissed me off. I was about to turn around, but I saw that Jay had to dodge something in the road which resulted in him getting dropped, too. Josh told Jay that he would stick with him, so I turbo pedaled up the road to catch up with them. Josh led the way, and thankfully waited for me before any turn so I didn't get lost. This ride is when I really started to freak about my legs because I have ZERO power. Once again, I felt bad for Josh and Jay waiting for me, but they are so nice and didn't complain once. THANK YOU! When I made it back to Felipe's, I knew I had a 30 minutes T run to do. I REALLY didn't want to do it, but I just trotted through his hood and around La Jolla. When I got back, he said that his legs were dead, too and that taper is coming up. I probably responded with "whatever, Phyllis" because even when his legs are dead his still is fast as hell!

So as of now, my legs haven't had that extra "pop" that I can usually resort to when on a hard bike or run. It seems when I dig down deep, I find nothing but sluggishness. On a brighter note, I had a 90 minutes massage with Sarah Zimmerman and my legs felt instantly better. 30 minutes was Thai massage and 60 was regular deep tissue. Right away, my legs felt lighter and I was able to swim 5,000 SCY today feeling totally fine. I hope I can get one last massage in before Boise! I think I'm just being a diva about my legs, I am sure that with taper they will feel a lot better by Saturday..afternoon!

Thursday is when we leave for Boise 70.3. Exciting! I have never been to Idaho, in fact, I could not even show you where Idaho is on a map, but I am eager to go and race with some fun teammates....

CONGRATULATIONS to everyone who ran at the Rock n Roll Marathon and Half Marathon this weekend! It was hott out there and you all did great!