Adjusting...

Last week was tough trying to get back into the groove of work and crappy weather. I know I'm not going to get much sympathy though. Palm Springs was a great week of training and weather but the lack of sleep and transition back was harder then I had anticipated. I think I averaged 8 to 9 hours of sleep per night and during the week most of workouts were only so. Finally by Thursday I started feeling like I was getting caught up. The weekend training went well. I did a 4 hr ride Saturday with 3x45 min race watt intervals all on Sauvie's Island. I was hoping to maintain 250 watts for these intervals, but 240 seemed to be were I settled in. Even at 240watts though I should squeak out a pretty good bike split PR in AZ depending on conditions. Off the bike I had a 20 min transition run that felt much better then expected. My HR is usually a little high going into these but it stayed in zone 1 today even at a 7:30 pace. Sunday was an 18 mile run at Forest Park in the rain. We took it easy on the way out and picked it up on the way back. Spent the rest of the day cleaning the house, making lists for the race trip, and gluing up tubulars. What a pain in the ass that is! It's been a year since I've had to worry about it. Now I have a new tire for my new wheel (Blackwell 100 with a wireless PT hub) and 2 spares (one to carry on the bike and one for special needs). While I had the glue out I decided to throw an extra coat on my front race wheel as well. What a messy frustrating process. I'm sure it's one of those things that gets easier the more you do it though.

This week will be a decent amount of training still, but will also be a lot of packing and rest. It's amazing how many little things you have to do to prep for an Ironman. I do miss the simplicity of just running. Traveling for a marathon meant you needed your shoes and some shorts and a couple different shirts in case the weather changed a little. Now with Ironman we have a 20 ft trailer that will be full of bikes and gear heading down to the race. Jen and I are also shipping a large box of stuff and we have two huge suitcases. It is so much easier to drive to these events! Oh well, I guess AZ is probably easier then an international race.

Less then 2 weeks until we leave for AZ, less then 3 weeks until race day...