Sticking To The Plan

The Plan:

Saturday: 62 mile bike ride
Sunday: Reston 2 Mile Swim

That was the plan. But before the ride even started on Saturday, I was having second thoughts. Seemed like most people were doing the 48 or 42 miler. Among those going 62, I was definitely the slowest. No peeps to ride with. Warnings about tough hills. I would be riding solo, suffering solo, everything solo for 4 to 5 hours.

So I came up with The Backup Plan. I grabbed a cue sheet for the 62 AND the 48 and headed out, undecided as to which one to do. Mile 18 would be the decision point: either continue on with the 62 or turn off and follow the 48 the rest of the way. As I pedaled along, my internal dialogue went something like this:

"Just do the 62; it's what you planned on doing."
"But this is a hilly course. Even IronEs (of IM Switzerland fame) said the Snickersville Turnpike's hills were pretty serious. Translated for someone of your limited hill-climbing prowess: it'll be brutal."
"Just go for it--why are you even questioning this?! Coach Melissa said you need hill work more than anything. Listen to her."
"But your last long ride wasn't very hilly at all, so you're not ready for this. Plus, everyone will be finished long before you."
"So what? How bad do you want to make the damn bike cutoff this year at Musselman? Just HTFU, you lame loser!"

And so it went until around mile 15, when I came up with The New Plan: At mile 18 I would continue on the 62 mile course for 6 miles, then turn around and ride back 6 miles to the 18 mile turnoff and follow the 48 on in. This way I would get an extra 12 miles in, bringing my total mileage to 60, without having to tackle the dreaded Snickersville Turnpike nightmare.

I was pretty satisfied with The New Plan. Told the sagger not to worry about me, I would be doing this out and back thing, etc., etc. But when I got to the 6 mile turnaround point, I pulled over and assessed the situation. My legs weren't tired, the hills hadn't been bad thus far, so how hard could the rest of it really be? Did I really want to turn around, backtrack for 6 miles, and finish the ride knowing I just wasn't tough enough for the original 62? Of course not. So I decided to stick to the original plan.

I was so glad I did. The hills were tiring, yes, but they were really more of an annoyance--and a good workout---than anything. And of course, it can always be worse (Savageman, Wildeness Ride, and other rides I don't dare attempt: OMGWTF, Mountains of Misery, for example.). Turns out, my real problem was my lack of confidence. Sticking to The Plan and succeeding was a nice confidence booster.

Same story for the Reston 2 mile swim. The Plan was to wear my wetsuit and swim the full 2 miles, trying as hard as I could to make the 90 minute cutoff, or at least swim as far as I could until they pulled me out of the water.

However, I began to question the wetsuit part of my plan when several women in line for the bathroom started talking about how "everyone" was going without a wetsuit, the water was just too warm --dangerously warm, etc., etc.

After much internal debate, I again decided to stick to my original plan. I barely made the cutoff, but finished nonetheless. Without the wetsuit I would've been much slower. Sticking to the plan worked....and finishing that swim was a huge confidence booster.

So the lesson is: when your real problem is a lack of confidence, stick to the plan.

Tomorrow's plan: hiking!!

Kinetic Half AquaBike

Goal: Make the bike cutoff
Result: Made the bike cutoff

1.2 mile Swim: 53:08
T1 5:27
56 mile Bike: 03:58:52 *PR*

The swim was nice and smooth-- a huge improvement over last year's choppy, windy mess!

This year's bike course was quite an improvement over last year's heavy-traffic-blowing-by nightmare. I wanted to finish in 4 hours and made it with about a minute to spare. Let's just say I was thrilled to see the timing mat still in place as I rolled into transition. Oh happy, happy sight. (Last year they were rolling up the timing mat as I approached, thus giving me a DNF for the aquabike).
Previous 56 mile PR: 4:17 at Musselman.

The forecast called for rain, of course, making it the 4th race this year (as in, every race I've done this year) where it either rained during the race or on the way to or from the race.Fortunately, it barely drizzled during the bike portion of Kinetic, which actually kept the temp nice.

Looking ahead to Musselmania!!

Flying Pig!

The Flying Pig Marathon had it all:   an interesting (yet hilly) course, great volunteers, a cute name, fun theme, good swag, and nice bling at the "Finish Swine."  Of course, you can't do The Pig in regular old running attire....so I decided to jazz up my race day ensemble with a pink hula skirt, hot pink shirt, and pink body glitter.

My strategy was to start strong and finish slow and steady. I know, I know--you're supposed to start slow and finish fast, but I worried that I would slow down toward the end regardless of how slow I went in the beginning.

It was the hilliest marathon I've done yet somehow I managed to PR (that was a shocker). The worst hill was about 3 miles long and everyone was dreading it. But I think all those annoying hills in my neighborhood really paid off because it wasn't that bad. Coach Melissa told me before the race to just keep my cadence up on the hills, so I focused on that going uphill and tried to make up time on the downhills.

Melissa also had me bump up my nutrition during the race so I would be taking in more calories. I had to force myself to eat toward the end, but I think that made a big difference.

Now about the PR:  my previous PR of 5:27:55 was last year at Shamrock. The 'Rock was flat, the Pig was hilly, so I figured I would be lucky to come in under 5:30. But somehow I managed to push it on the hills and take very few walk breaks. Finish time:  5:22:07.

I've now set a new PR 5 marathons in a row-- I should probably quit while I'm ahead!