So, we have a little less than 12 weeks to go until Ironman Arizona, and it feels like it will be non-stop from here on out! In addition to our regular training, we have three century (100-mile) bike rides, one Iron-distance aqua-bike (swim 2.4 miles and bike 112 miles), and one half-Ironman distance race. I also have a metric marathon on my schedule, but it will be in a tough week amidst everything else, so I’m going to just see how it goes. It would be a good training run at that point, though.
This past weekend, we sort of took it easy with a 41-mile ride and a 10-mile run (Annapolis 10-miler). It was nice having some time this weekend to do a few things around the house and spend time with our dogs. I feel accomplished and yet not completely drained.
At the run, our community paid tribute to a local high school coach, mother, fast runner, and triathlete, who was hit and killed by a van while riding her bike. It still has me reeling when I think about it. You can be safe, ride safe roads, wear bright clothes, use lights on your bike, and be cautious. But there is still no guarantee that you won’t one day be hit by a car or just have some sort of accident on your bike. Many prayers for Trish’s family and friends and the many people she was a mentor to. What a loss!
The bike accident makes me think we might have made some wise choices this year that I didn’t realize at the time. For one thing, we have ridden a lot indoors during the week. I’d rather get outside on my bike. But work schedules being what they are – we’ve chosen to ride indoors so that we’re certain to get the riding in (no weather or bad timing to use as an excuse). This means we haven’t been out on the roads as much during evening rush-hour. Also, we are doing several organized long rides (centuries & metric centuries) on the weekends, so we are riding when there are large numbers of cyclists out – hopefully making it more obvious to drivers that – hey – bicyclists are on the road. Anyway, I hope these have been good choices.
One last thought before I close out this post: the run is the thing. I expect to be writing much more about that in the coming weeks. The run is the thing I need to work on most and the thing I’m most worried about. I think I want to start working in more running miles where I can. I’m not sure how I will do it. But at least as fall approaches, the temps will be dropping and running in the afternoon won’t be so bad. I don’t want to kill my knees with tons of pounding, but I want the run to be easy enough that I can enjoy it. I’m interested in having a good time, not getting a good time. (But maybe the former will enable the latter.) I didn’t know Trish, but she was, by all accounts, a master runner. The Annapolis Running Shop has been distributing these stickers that say, “Run Like Trish”. All I can say is, it would be an honor to try.