Ironman Training Week 27

4 weeks to go

Swim: 2 workouts, 2hr 26min, 5400m
Bike: 3 workouts, 12hr 00min, Saturday ride - 100 miles (elev. gain 7,415 ft.)
Run: 4 workouts, 4hr 38min, 24.31miles
Strength: 2 workouts, 30min
Total: 19hr 34min

Challenges:
The high temperatures dropped from 109 to 81 just in time for the next installment of our Saturday 100-mile bike rides, which was a fantastic turn of events to be sure. However, this rapid change in the weather also brought about some crazy-ass winds. So we battled 15mph winds with gusts up to 30mph for our entire ride on Saturday. And I got a flat tire. And the road was so bumpy going down into Bartlett that it shook loose both my rear water bottle cage and my right aerobar. Multi-tool to the rescue.

Accomplishments:
A delightful, short-lived tailwind resulted in a new top speed record on my bike: 46mph. Down a twisty, turn-y road. FUN!

Surprises:
KBell and I were hoping and praying that this would be our last weekend of horrendous, hilly 100-mile bike rides; four seemed to be plenty. We are both nearing the end of our ropes. This evening, our coach emailed out the last four weeks of our training plan... and we have one more installment of the horrendous, hilly 100-mile bike ride scheduled for this coming Saturday. And a 3-hour run on Sunday. Surprise. Lord, beer me strength.

Bonus:
I spent a fantastic couple of days up in Flagstaff with Cassie. Our time was filled with eating, reading, talking, napping, cooking, shopping, running, and TV-watching; in other words, it was perfect.

I almost didn't get to make the trip, though. On Saturday, as I was driving back to my house after the bike ride, I hit an unavoidable hunk of tire tread in the road at 70mph, which knocked loose the engine splash guard on my poor Fit. Not a great thing to happen at 4:30pm on Saturday of a holiday weekend when you have plans to drive a couple hours up a mountain that evening. I made it to the closest service center 30 minutes before they closed. Thanks to the service manager really going above and beyond, they squeezed my car into the shop and replaced the clip that had been knocked loose. And filled up my tires. And washed my car. My total cost for all of this? Zero dollars. What the what? Hooray for nice guys - weekend road trip saved!