53.6 to 70.3

Hey all.  Hope your long weekend is going well!  Ours has been great- we met up with Dad and Lois yesterday for a nice canal walk and subs for dinner ( a perfect day for that!) and are hosting a nice BBQ today with my side of the fam.  Tomorrow?  Is chores, some grocery shops, and a nice long run.  Well, relatively.

So now that I'm 2 weeks post ultra (I know guys, I never post - I need that speak to blog feature and I swear you would get more Rae ambles...though I'm not sure its a good thing!)...whats up?  Well, I'm happy to say that I only hobbled like an 80 year old for about a day.  I started in slow, and did a few swims and bikes in the week after the ducks.  Runs affect the body so much more than any tri could, but I felt surprisingly good 5 days post Ultra that I did a short run.  And from there, I've transitioned pretty well into a half ironman training sorta plan.  Yep- time for Musselman!  I missed out on this annual 70.3 for um, obvious reasons last year, and am itching to get back into it.  If you've been reading for any length of time you know how much I adore this race, and I'm amped to give it a go this year....plus, I've a bone to pick with this course.
The race weekend = awesome.  My PR on the course?  Nowhere near where I want it to be.  Clearly, even though I have the endurance, either a separated shoulder, broken foot (yep, raced on both) or ridiculously 95 degree days have stymied me on this course.  Well.  I can do my level best to prevent A and B and....hope that WNY isn't that cruel this year!  I've learned my lesson about posting ridiculous goals online, so let's just say that my 6:29 70.3 PR (Yes, my 140.6 PR is less than double that at 12:50, which means I messed up somehow!!) is TOAST this year.  How'my gonna do it?  Listen carefully.

My coach....

I'm sorta winging it.  Yep, you heard me right.  I have a 18 week 70.3 DIY plan that I've followed for 4 years that clearly isn't doing me any favors, so I'm switching it up.  SOMEHOW, I have this stupid awesome run base (wink wink) so we are mixing bike tempo (my weakness) with hill work and half n half bricks.  I.e. 90 minute bike, 90 minute run.  No workouts longer than 3 hours (plus a T run)....because my family is more important than that.  It's a crazy fun busy summer ahead, and if sparky and I need to date at 4am (treadmill and trainer), Ill do it.  Well, except for this morning.  Yeah, more on that.  So....2-3 bikes a week, 2 runs (one a brick) and 2-3 swims maximizing descending intervals (200s and 300s).  Thing is, I can do this stuff all day long.  Time to ramp up DA POWA.  And see what happens on July 13!

Speaking of power, let me tell you about our charged morning....starting at 4am with some drunk dude throwing stuff at our garage and threatening us.  Where did I move to?  Yowtch!  911 is so much fun to chat with pre-dawn, while holding a 10 month old.  (Please bring back my boring life).  And the coffee.  And remind me not to start those 4am workouts for a few days ;-P

Whew.  All excitement aside, I hope everyone has a great long weekend...and take a moment tomorrow to thank a soldier for serving our beautiful country.