Where was I?

Well, where to begin....

The past 10 days or so have been slightly different. Following an extremely soggy (but fun) 6hr ride in the rain up to Nanaimo a week ago Saturday (August 7), I took my training to Washington, DC! Well, actually I was in National Harbor, Maryland… but DC sounds better. Oh, and it wasn’t really an Ironman training trip, as much as a work training trip – a big ol’ Tessitura conference. [Tessitura is the software I use at work].

I’ll admit, I was very worried leaving home and my training routine so close to the race. I was afraid by being away I might screw something up. Of course, this wasn’t the case. In fact, it may have actually been a good thing, as it allowed me to focus on something other than triathlon for a few days. Yes, actually, now that I’m back, I can say with confidence that it was a good break for me mentally. The conference was pretty full on, so I didn’t really get a lot of down time, but I was able to get most of my workouts in, and found that by being so busy with the conference my mind wasn’t completely consumed by thoughts of Ironman.

While in “the Nation’s Capital” I got up early each morning to get my workouts in before breakfast and the daily conference sessions. The first thing on order each day was a swim. I was very lucky that the hotel pool was 25m long and always had one lane roped off for length swimming. The pool was oddly choppy (the filtration system I think?), a little murky/dirty and had no lines on the bottom, so it was kind of like swimming in an over-chlorinated square lake.

The fitness centre was very nice, but extremely busy. I had a great run workout on the treadmill one day, but opted to skip my other treadmill workout later in the week to participate in the conference 5k fun run. The course for the 5k was 3 loops around the resort and conference centre, with one very long gradual uphill and one equally as long downhill on each loop. It started early in the morning, but I would guess the temperature was still 30+ degrees (or hotter) – and humid! There were probably about 60-70 conference goers (aka. Tessiturians) who participated in the race, and I’m very proud to report that I was the 4th female to cross the line – 7th overall. While the competition maybe wasn’t the stiffest, I was still pretty pleased with the outcome. I’ve never been near the front the pack before and it felt pretty good. It was also quite nice to race in the heat, and while it wasn’t my fastest 5k ever, it was definitely up there.

One other “training session” that wasn’t your typical swim, bike or run – but was definitely a highlight – was a walking tour of many of the monuments and memorials that dot the capital. The reason I’m opting to categorize this as training, is simply for the fact that we walked for about 2 hrs in approximately 37+ degree heat (again, plus extreme humidity).

I arrived back home in Beautiful BC on Friday morning (about 15 hours later than planned due to a massive thunderstorm in DC and an unplanned stay at the Not-So-Quality Inn in Toronto) and pretty much got right back into training with my last long ride on Saturday and last long run on Sunday.

Saturday’s ride was pretty good. Kirsten and I explored some different roads in and around Victoria and, I must say, after these last two long rides I’m starting to feel like I’ve got my ‘on the bike’ nutrition pretty dialed. The stomach upset has definitely been kept to a minimum (yay!). I did have one small crash (okay, I turtled) that resulted in many many bruises on my knees and one big ol’ raspberry on my right knee cap, but my bike was okay, and I actually didn’t bleed quite as profusely as I would have expected.

Sunday’s long run was decent as well. I opted to head out in the midday heat, and well, it was hot. Very hot. Kirsten was away, so Shane accompanied me on his bike and was a complete life saver, as he carried water bottles for me, and even went to the store to get some cold water half way through the run to dump on my head and neck. It was a slow go, and I felt a bit sick at the end of it, but overall, I kept a pretty consistent pace and was pleased to have made it through.

I can't believe there is just under two weeks to go… thank goodness the taper is finally here :)