When I signed up for this race I had hoped to be able to run a fast race. But with my focus this year being Ironman in August that changed to more of a - lets see what I can do on tired legs kinda day. After yesterdays 3 hour ride, and a pretty solid week leading up to it I really wasn't sure what my legs were going to let me do today.
Got to the race and the weather was pretty solid. Nice and sunny - but with a nasty wind (more on that laster). Started the race with Kathy, felt pretty good at the start so enjoyed the downhill and got off to a pretty quick start. Hit Hogs Hollow 3km into the race, it's a pretty nasty hill - but I took my time and managed to run up the whole hill. I'm pretty sure that is a first for me as I tend to walk up some of the nastier hills I encounter in races. I forgot how hilly the first half of the race is. Yes there is a lot of downhill - but there is also quite a bit of uphill as well. At 10k I was at about 56 minutes which was on pace for a sub 2 hour half… but the downhills in the first half combined with all the training this past week - well lets just say at about 13k the wheels came off. I ended up walking quite a bit - in the last 8k but I forced myself to run as well. My legs were just toasted. The of course we turn to go West along Front/Lakeshore towards the finish line and that is where a NASTY headwind decided to rear its very ugly head. I struggled, I really did and I felt like how am I ever going to do Ironman if Im this tired after a 3 hour ride. I know that I have to trust the training, and that today was just another training day in the grand scheme of things. But despite that I would have liked a bit of a faster result today.
That said - if I can run a 2:10 half marathon after a 90k bike at the Tremblant 70.3 at the end of June I will be in a very good place. That alone would shave about 20 minutes off my time from last year.
I think what's hard to remember at this point is that there is still about 3.5 months before Ironman. There is lots of time to get lots of training in and I am completely committed to doing it. I have a great support team around me and a great group of training buddies as well. The ride to conquer cancer at the beginning of June will be a great boost for my bike training with over 200km of riding over 2 days.
I also really have to start figured out my nutrition plan for the longer training sessions to make sure I'm maximizing my training. That said - I stopped at Chipotle on my way home and MAN did that ever hit the spot :) I think thats my favourite part of running/riding long - making up for the calorie deficit after its all over!!!!
I'm so exhausted - this weekend was a pretty long one - so I'm going to get to bed early so I can be ready for whatever coach has to throw at me this week!
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