Lunch walk - a little warm out

A race week! Time to soak my wetsuit and start laying out all the things. I'm heading to Chatty Friday so I can ride ~50 miles of the bike course Saturday morning, then do the race Sunday. Will stay Sunday night before heading home Monday morning. I'm pretty excited about the split long bike ride. I've also been looking at past race checklists and ordering things like extra body glide, Co2 canisters, Nuun - and I need to order another package of Infinit. I'm using my stash from 2019 but it will be super close if I have enough for Des Moines. Probably best to just get a fresh supply.

And, music fest guy LOL. While his texts last week were all "I super enjoyed hanging out with you!" and lots of other conversation, he has yet to even broach the subject of hanging out again. Which doesn't fare well for the next month or so (Chattanooga, Charlotte, Des Moines - I will be busy!). I'm not going to push anything, especially in this busy/critical time for my mental health, but I'm also not particularly interested in a texting buddy if it's only going to be that. You feel me?

(also, I did not pop back up to 130 on the scale this morning - clocked in at 127 hmmm).

Could have been better, could have been worse. Not sure why I thought one lone pack of Honey Stinger chews would get me through this?? Stomach growled at 45 minutes in so I was in a bit of a pickle, nutrition-wise. Dumb. Totally my fault.

Did a 2:2 interval until around mile 8.5, then walked most of the rest of the way in. I definitely could have ran more and in turn, made myself feel awful, ill, probably bonked, etc. But I wanted to play it a safe today.

Not feeling my best this morning, super run down from yesterday but couldn't sleep past 7:30 a.m. Hungry but a little nauseous. Trying to pull it together for a 3-hour run/walk. Also I'm down to 128 on the scale this morning, which is officially 20 pounds lighter than I was last summer/early fall. I bet I'll be back up to 130/131 tomorrow if I can hydrate properly today, but wow I haven't seen 120s on the scale since around 2013. 

5,049 feet of climbing.
Cartersville 100-course. I actually started with the middle-pace tri club group this morning (first time ever) and was surprised I was able to stick with a couple of girls until the church turn-off. As I was stopped re-filling my water (this church is so sweet and it's members put out a water table on the weekends for cyclists!), my pal from last weekend Tara rolled up! I took off with her and another gal but they were too fast for me, so I was solo from mile 17 on.

It was just gorgeous heading up north - skipped a couple of the gas stations since I was topped off with water - bit of a risk since I'd never ridden ~40 miles of this course and had no idea what the gas station situation would be. Turning back south, at some point up a huge hill, I felt the dog mace in my back pocket pop out. It rolled down an embankment and there was no way I could have gone back for it without having to walk back up the hill. Between then and the end of the ride, I got chased by 3 dogs :( - two of them were old and fat, but there was one husky that was right up on my wheel. Luckily it didn't cause me any trouble. I did stop at the SunCo and got a water that I tried to put in my back pocket but I had no room with my arm warmers, nutrition, phone, etc. so chugged half of it and put the other half in my aero bottle.

After the 100-route turn off, things got really hard. There was a good, solid 2 miles of wild hills around mile 70 that made me never want to do this course again. Ever. EVER. I had to stop at the top and catch my breath for almost 5 minutes - scared the crap out of me how hard that was. Then there were more hills. And more hills. And more hills. They just didn't stop. Like look at the elevation map below. There are no flat sections whatsoever! And apparently I was butt-dialing BOTH of my parents because they both called me multiple times so I finally stopped to call them, thinking someone died. They were just scared to death that something had happened to me since my phone kept calling them and it was just background noise (I was like, are you sure you didn't hear me cussing? LOL). So odd.

I found myself rationing water because there weren't any gas stations, so I got a little behind on hydration. Finally around mile 88 I stopped at an absolutely disgusting gas station and bought a huge Dasani. I was so tired here and got a little weepy.

Finished out the ride after fighting a few bouts of dizziness and nausea. I was so tired. So hot. So cranky. Got to my car and had to just sit in the shade for awhile. This was really tough. I hope the Ironman course is a bit more forgiving.

OMG awful. I'm proud that I got up from sitting in the parking lot and did this, but holy shit. I'm not sure how I'm going to finish the Ironman if I feel anything like I did today.

Took a nap mid-afternoon, then got this in. Felt much better than Wednesday!

Nice and quiet Friday night swim. Only one more super long swim in a few weeks.

Ellie Mae walk

103-mile route on tap for tomorrow morning, starting with the tri club. Weather looks good! I've never ridden the century route up in Cartersville, but I will be carrying dog mace that's for sure.

Strategizing in my head and thinking about limiting my in-person interactions/exposures in the ~10 days before the Ironman. Going to float to my team that I not come in to the office during that time frame and see how it goes over. The event I attended last night was mostly outdoors so I felt good about that, but the President of our chapter was not in attendance because ... she has Covid. So that got my wheels turning that I want to reduce as much risk as I can. 

And a nice surprise today, the state of Georgia is refunding taxpayers because they had a revenue surplus. It feels like more of an attempt to buy votes, but I will take an extra $250 automatically deposited in my bank account, lol!

Des Moines course on Rouvy. Late. Finished up just after 10 pm.

Almost cried this morning because my boss brought in a huge box of gluten free pastries for our 9 a.m. staff meeting - for everyone, but specifically because she knows I'm training for an Ironman and I don't love morning commutes. It totally made my day. On days like today, I never want to leave this team.

I have an after-work event tonight for the industry organization I volunteer with. It's from 5:30-7 p.m. but I'm going to try and dip out early so I can get my bike ride in before 10 p.m. 

Did I mention here that I was asked to take on a much larger role for the Board I serve on? Can't remember. But I was asked to serve as Vice President next year and President in 2024. It's going to be a ton of work, but I love the organization so much and it will elevate my visibility at work exponentially. I was so honored when I was asked!

Run/walk, heavy on the walk. Just dead tired today.

Late swim. Didn't get in the pool until 6:30 p.m. Tired and hungry!

Twas awake from 1:30-4 a.m. this morning, yawn. The entire time I was hungry and thinking about food. I totally should have just gotten up and eaten a sandwich or something, but thought it would keep me awake longer. 

Picked up tickets this morning to yet another Chvrches concert - they announced new tour dates and are coming to Atlanta in July. I'm also seeing them in Charlotte the weekend before the Ironman. This makes my live-music-loving heart so happy!

And, I'm trying to go with the flow with music fest guy. It's interesting that he has yet to make any plans with me. I was the one who initiated the pizza and wine plans after waiting for him to go down that path all last week, and he never did. He said he would love to see me but never set anything up. So I did, which OK, in the year of our lord 2022 that's acceptable. But I feel like it's his turn to make an effort, no?

Rouvy

In the office today and once again, the traffic this morning put me in the worst mood. I'm turning into one of those Atlanta traffic complainers. The first few years I lived here, I was like "I knew this coming here, I signed up for this," but these days it's exponentially more annoying. Specifically right now because they are doing a massive, multi-year highway construction project right where our offices are. It backs up morning traffic 6-7 miles in my direction. Today, my traffic app took me off the highway after just a few miles, then I sat in side-road standstill traffic for 15 minutes. Took me just under an HOUR for my 10-mile journey. Ridonk.