IM Boulder - Training!

While I signed up for IM Boulder in August of last year (crazy?!), I only now feel that I am 'officially' training for that particular race.  I've only just realized the blessing of St. George 70.3.  While it wasn't my "A" race, it did keep me more or less on top of my training and I've found that I need some sort of mid-way goal, or I have this year, at least.  Last year, I think that I wrapped my mind around IM Coeur d'Alene and made that THE goal, but this year, there is so much going on with me life-wise that an intermediate or mid-way goal really helped.  Otherwise, the 'base training' probably wouldn't have ever happened!

However, base training has officially ended and I'm now building - and I miss the base training!  I know that I shouldn't compare myself to other people, and I try not to, but I'm really "comfortable" at around 10-12 hours of training a week.  Once I start to train over 12 hours, I really do feel it.  Also, my recovery from St. George didn't even last a full week!  I was back to a long tempo run and then a long brick (4 hour ride, 80 minute run) a week after the race.  Last Sunday, I thought to myself - "You're not in Kansas anymore".  Okay, it's lame to quote the Wizard of Oz, but I was officially out of my comfort zone with that workout.  I really did try to have a positive attitude, but I started the running with heavy legs and I ended the run with heavy legs.  It was about 10x harder than the St. George run was!

This week, plenty of ups and downs and new challenges.  I felt equally blessed and cursed on Saturday to ride part of the Tour de California Stage 7 course - up GMR (Glendora Mountain Road) which I'd done twice before, but then, for the first time, I kept climbing up to Mt. Baldy Village. The Tour finished at the Mt. Baldy ski lifts, but it was the COLDEST RIDE EVER - so the two other ladies and I riding together made a group decision - to not climb the extra 1,000 feet to the ski lifts.  Even though we didn't make it to the ski lifts, it was a  fantastic ride up to Mt. Baldy Village, and it was amazing to see so many cyclists and fans of cycling in Southern CA.  If I had been better prepared (had more clothes) and had more time, I definitely would have stuck around to see the pros go through, but it was a great ride no matter what.

 This is before we started climbing - and it looks like I have something weird growing out of my helmet, but not so!

Finally, on Sunday, I had my first double-run day EVER.  I actually thought that it was a mistake on my schedule until I read the information about said run.  Nope, not a mistake.  Honestly, the afternoon run felt better than the first run of the day, so I decided that double run days might be okay.  However, this is all new territory for me, which maybe is the point?  Yes, I managed an IM distance race last year and loved the experience, but now that I know that I can do the distance, pushing a bit more and going a bit harder is the challenge.

And, if that's not enough, taking in sights like these should be both the means and the end:

Huge shout out to CalTri and Harrison Shao for the Epic Ride on Saturday!