El Scorcho

I have a tendency, in the final weeks of ironman training, to get the feeling that I can conquer the world. This leads me to sign up for races that are post IM, not taking into account that my poor body needs to rest. This time was no exception. I signed up for the DeGray Lake half ironman which was 3 weeks after my race, then on to a 50k run 3 weeks after that and in just three more weeks, another half ironman in Boulder. Coach Pete has given up trying to talk me out of such things and even keeps the "I told you so" to himself when the day of the race comes and it is less than great because my timing is so bad.

Pete and the girls went with me to Arkansas for the half ironman. This was the 1st half that Pete and I did back in 2007. It is such a beautiful venue, awesome people, great course, crystal clear lake. I love this race and want to support it so that it is able to come back each year, so I signed up. Had the course been monitored well, I probably would have been pulled off. It felt like a near death experience :) That is a slight exaggeration I guess. I had not done a single workout in the three weeks since my ironman, so I went to this race and decided to go all out and see how far I got. It actually went pretty well and I didn't hit the wall until mile 50 on the bike. But hit the wall I did! That made for an excruciating half marathon in blazing heat. By the end I collapsed into the water and was barely able to get back up. Luckily the body is pretty resilient and after some nourishment I was good as new. Now that it is over I look back and say "It was great! I had fun!" but in the moment it was pretty miserable. I will for sure do this race again. It is a very challenging bike course and I would like a go at it on fresh legs. Lucky for me there were very few fast women there that day so I still got to come home with my 1st place age group medal. I was 1st overall female out of the water, 2nd off the bike and 5th overall after my half marathon walk :) Good times.

On to the 50k run that was looming during this time. I should have been out on the weekends doing 20-25 mile runs in preparation for the midnight start of the El Scorcho 50k on the Trinity Trail in Fort Worth. But I just didn't want to. I was running, almost daily, but only 5 to 7 mile runs. By now it is 102 degrees everyday with heat indexes in the 110s with major heat advisories and my body is really starting to feel the stress of an ironman and a half. My legs are heavy and they burn. It takes at least 2 miles for me to get into a groove, then I feel pretty good, but it only lasts a couple of miles and then my legs are pooped. Coach Pete has always tried to talk to me about lactic acid build up. Is this what he was talking about :) I finally admit to him how I am feeling and he suggests a deep tissue massage. Oh my gosh. That hour (one full hour just on my legs) hurt more than anything I can remember. When I got up off of that table I was as sore as the first time I ran a marathon. But by the next morning my legs felt pretty good. By now we are only a week away from El Scorcho and my longest run was 14 miles and it wasn't great. Lucky for me they also offer a 25k distance, so I swallow my pride and switch to the shorter, more manageable distance. Race night comes and I am still not sure how it will feel, but I am up for the challenge. It went so much better than I had expected! My legs felt better than they have in 6 weeks. I was able to maintain a pace of 8:57 for the 25k (not fast, I know, but it was still 95 degrees at midnight!) and that earned me 11th place overall out of 166 women. Mostly I was excited about how it felt. First run in a long time that I actually enjoyed. That was a neat venue. I will for sure try to do this one again in the future.

So that leads us to the final race of the summer. Boulder 70.3 in 2 weeks. Can I do it? Sure. Will it be pretty? Not so sure. I will try to get out and do a good long brick this week to assess where I stand. Either way I am going and it will be fun because most of the family will be there. Pops, Mat and Danna will do the course as a relay! So fun! It is a gorgeous, fast bike, what's not to love? It has been a great race season, even if everything post ironman has been something less than stellar for me. This is a hobby, after all.