Zombie Apocalypse Part 1

Friday, Oct. 24th, 9am:
The car was packed for my next adventure- 12 hours of mountain biking at End Tombed on Saturday followed by 12 hours of running at End Trails on Sunday. My goal- to ride 100+ miles on Saturday and run 50+ miles on Sunday to get into the Undead Hall of Fame.  The training was done, the taper was done, I felt like a caged animal ready to eat something alive. Since there was no fresh meat in the house, I settled for one last breakfast prepared by the awesome Big E before I hit the road.

Saturday, Oct. 25th, 6:30am
I arrived in the parking lot and immediately found crazy LCR teammate Zilla, who I'd somehow talked into joining me for the biking part of this adventure. We set up our feedzone in the dark. Or at least I set up a feedzone. I think Zilla set up some sort of beer drinking, hang out all day zone. He tried to convince me he'd found an empty beer can in his pocket. Ya, right......

Zilla braving the 40 degree temps in his warmest clothing....

8am: 

The race started with a 1/2 mile run to the bikes. Z got the hole shot. I just tried not to fall on my face. Thankfully I made it onto the bike with no faceplants.

Photo credit: Wes Peck

The course was 10 miles long so I needed to do 10 laps to qualify for hall of fame status. Of course, this was just the goal I'd told people about. Secretly, I really wanted to win both the bike and the run too. However, they were two separate races so I had no idea if someone would show up just to ride and bust out as many laps as possible. My tactic for dealing with this- go to the front as soon as I was comfortable so I'd know where the other girls were. Ya, ya. I know, that was perhaps also a really good way to blow up, but what the hell. I wanted to go for it.

Photo credit: Wes Peck

Photo credit: Wes Peck

By lap five I was finally comfortable riding the bridge over the river (Ok, fine I was never really COMFORTABLE on that bridge) and I thought I was in the lead. Zilla was busy entertaining the crowd with his Halloween costume so I was hoping I might be able to catch him.

Photo credit: Wes Peck (and yes, he rode three laps with his face covered)

Around 4pm:

I came to our feedzone with 90 miles done. Zilla was ready to head out, prepared to to get his single day record in miles. We headed out together, with me talking his ear off after riding alone for the last few laps. The first eight miles flew by, probably because I never shut up. We went over the bridge again and for the 10th time I celebrated not falling in the water. I hooted and hollered and chatted over my shoulder and the next thing I knew I rode smack dab into a tree.

Yes, that's right. On lap 10, after ducking under the same low-lying tree NINE times, I somehow managed to ride into it, despite the fact that it was completely covered in caution tape. Apparently dying my hair red for my Pippi costume didn't make me any less blonde.....

5:59pm
Thankfully, we were able to finish that lap and one more, just in case the other girls pushed passed 100.  We had a bit of fun at the end of lap 11, showing off our team colors for the camera and, of course, racing each other to the finish. (No, I did not let him by when he tried yelling, "On your right," at the last tight turn.)

Photo credit: Wes Peck

Thankfully, there were no crashes on lap 11 because when I took my helmet off, I discovered it had definitely done it's job protecting me from that tree.

10pm:
After 10 hours on the bike, dinner, awards, an ice bath and a hot shower, I was ready to relax and prepare for Sunday's run. Just in case, I decided to throw a little ice pack under the hat....

Stay tuned for Sunday's run adventure. Four girls had made it through 100 on the bike so the race for the hall of fame was on!

Stinky Shoes and Bruised Egos

I am alive. As usual, no blogging means a lot of living. Someday I will learn to balance both, to share the stories in the small moments between living. For now, I think I spend most of those moments asleep sitting up. Hell, in the last few weeks I think I've actually slept while I was running. As long as I can avoid sleeping while driving I figure it's all good.

So, what have I been doing the last two months? Hmmm. Where to start? The first two weeks after the race involved a bit of rehab. Turns out my hip didn't particularly like hitting the ground at 15 mph so for two weeks there was a lot of this:

When the doc gave me permission to run and ride, I decided to take a little trip and spend some time training to see if the body was ready to fit in one more long race this year. What better place to do this than in my favorite place on earth where I could also spend some quality time with some really, really good people?

After five days, my mind was clear, my spirit was refreshed and my body was tired. Perfect scenario for signing up for my next race. A race had been waiting, lingering in the back of my mind, one which involves 12 hours of mountain biking followed by 12 hours of rest followed by 12 hours of running.

So I signed up, which means most of the rest of the two months since my last post involved training.  Of course there was working and sleeping and eating, but mostly, there was a lot of training. (Although at some point I believe I set some sort of PR in food consumption, but I still trained more hours than I ate. I think.)

My tactic for this race has been this: 

Learn to run on tired legs.

Because, let's face it. There's no way in hell my legs are gonna be fresh after 12 hours of mountain biking. So I trained on tired legs nearly every time I ran, which, in case you're wondering, is an incredible blow to your ego if you were first a runner. It's also quite painful. But then, this race will be painful so I better get used to it. This race could also shatter my ego so I better get used to that too.

I've done a lot of thinking about that over the last two months. How does a person get used to a bruised ego? Of course, I can never be sure if it's the best tactic, but one that has worked for me so far has been to just learn to leave my ego at home. I started a ritual in my mind a few weeks ago, about the same time I relegated my run and bike shoes to the basement because they were too stinky to keep upstairs. When I went downstairs to put them on, I left my ego there, with the other stinky shoes. I figure I'd rather carry stinky-ass shoes around on my feet for five hours than a big-ass ego around on my shoulders that long. It's a good trade off. (At least for me. I'm not sure how this is for anyone who has to be near me when I'm wearing these stinky shoes.)

It's worked so far. I've learned to quit worrying so much about each workout and focus instead on where it's getting me. So I have a bad day. So what. Good athletes (and good people too)  know that it's not always about who you are today. It's about who you're becoming.  Sometimes those crappy training days get you better prepared for race day than any of the great days.

Today, Sebastian Kienle won the Ironman World Championship. When he was interviewed at the end, he talked about a bad training day he had and said, " Never, ever judge your life by one bad day. Judge it by the best day."

Yes. Yes. Yes.