Challenge Roth Training: Week 8

18 weeks to go.

Week 8 totals:
Swim: 1. 1000m, 54min
Bike: 2. 3hr 28min, Saturday Ride: 40mi, 740elev.
Run: 3. 15mi, 2hr 44min
Strength: 0. 0min
Total time: 7hr 6min

Challenges:
Oh man. Sunday's run was just a cluster from start to finish. My mistakes included not properly refueling or rehydrating after Saturday's heinous, windy 43-mile bike/run brick in favor of lying on the couch, choosing to turn off my 7am alarm and sleep for an additional hour and a half, then finally getting all ready for the run (breakfast, gear, etc.) and subsequently choosing to go back to sleep for another hour (or three...), which meant that I didn't actually start the run until almost 2pm on a cloudless, 80+ degree day.

The workout was supposed to go as follows.

1 mile warmup
5 x 1 mile @ 8:45-9:00 pace, w/ 4min recovery @ 10:30ish pace
1 mile cool down

The warmup mile was fraught with malaise and foreboding. Powered through my first mile interval with determination. 8:49. Cool. Just barely maintained the target pace on my 4 minutes of recovery, but seemed to be doing alright. Interval 2 was tougher. I was getting really hot. Legs felt like lead. 8:48. Ok. Hanging in there. Interval 3 the wheels came off. I made it about .6 miles in and had to take a walk break. Finished the last quarter mile and I was just...done. 9:34. Didn't even try to maintain the recovery pace. Just walked as my watch beeped and beeped every 30 seconds (for the remainder of the entire workout, actually) indicating I wasn't maintaining my target pace. Interval 4. Ran oh-so-slowly for exactly .5 miles and then threw in the towel and walked the rest of the mile. I was so hot. So thirsty. Took a gel in the hopes it would help. It didn't. 13:44. Tried to muster some motivation for the last interval. At .25 miles, I began a slow jog with a water fountain that I knew was up ahead as my goal. Stopped there and refilled my bottle, drank it all in one go, and then refilled it again. Finished out the mile. 12:05. Jogged the recovery interval and walked the 1 mile cool down. All told, 9 miles in 1 hour and 48 minutes and it. was. terrible.

Accomplishments: 
Both Mike and LO said they noticed improvement in my swim stroke at Friday's group techniques session. Not sure if that's paying off in speed yet, but it's nice to know things are heading in the right direction.

Surprises:
Did not get a flat while riding the notoriously glass-filled shoulder of the Beeline Highway. Mike was not so lucky.

Bonus:
JK knocked out his longest bike ride yet (nearly 25 miles!) while I ran on Sunday, so some relaxation was in order. We ended up going to a British pub where we had Black & Tans (and about three glasses of water for me. Still dehydrated from that stupid run.) and corned beef & cabbage. There was live music and a really festive atmosphere in honor of St. Patrick's Day, so that made it extra-fun. We attempted to hit up the 7pm showing of The Grand Budapest Hotel, but it was sold out (!) so we waited for the 7:50 showing (which also sold out, but we were there almost an hour early, so we got in). Just loved the movie. And then we got delicious, chemical-filled Shamrock Shakes. All in all a really great day (horrible run notwithstanding).