Three weeks out

While I had hoped to keep up with this on a weekly basis, that clearly has not happened. I'll be back logging some of my bigger training accomplishments during taper week (like my first 50+ mile bike ride - whoop whoop!) and some of the mind games I have played with myself over the past several weeks.

Today, I'm less than three weeks out from the big day. The hay? It's in the barn. Peak week was last week and I made it. I did a dumb, dumb thing and tried to push my rest day out 4 days to accommodate Easter Sunday, but that was a huge, miserable mistake that resulted in me falling asleep in the shower. No foolin'. I wound up taking an extra rest day to make up for the punishment I had already put my body through in an effort to avoid resting. Go figure...

Peak week also brought my first flat (and my second) in the span of a mile. Nice. I'm not sure what I ran over, but I was pedaling and pushing and grinding and switching gears and I was still. . . slowing. . . down. . . "Hey Heather?" I hollered over my shoulder. "Is something wrong with my back tire?" I had a problem with my back brakes rubbing a few weeks back and we were able to stop, make a quick adjustment, and get back on the road. "Shit. You got a flat..." Heather has been cycling for 10 years, so she knew what to do. Thank God. After we got the tube switched out, we hopped back on and had to stop less than a minute later. I don't know what we did wrong, but we tried again and this one seemed to do the trick.

Peak week also brought the realization that I am NOT ready for a full anytime soon. Peak week ended with 145 miles and 11.5 hours of training. From what I understand, a full demands nearly that much every week and a lot more as you build. If that causes me to fall asleep standing up? I'm not so sure I'll ever be ready to repeat that on a weekly basis.

It's 80 degrees here in Houston today, so I went out for a nice little jog. I was shooting for 10 and realized around 4ish that I was NOT prepared to handle 10 in this heat with no support and only one water fountain along the way. I hoofed it home and ended with 5 and some change. Another hour of hay in the barn.

That's it for my random ramblings for the day. I'm sure I'll be spewing all of my thoughts on paper the closer we get to race day. 19 days and counting!