Now THAT was a Big Training Weekend

The big training began on Friday. We were able to leave at noon for the 4th of July holiday weekend and I headed straight for the pool. It was a little busy and I needed to share a lane for a little while, although it soon cleared out. My goal distance for the day was 2.5 miles. A hair longer than race distance but easier for me to calculate lap-wise. As I forgot my watch, I would be swimming blind as far as my time was concerned. Fortunately I was able to settle into a comfortable rhythm and I just maintained it. As my distance was wrapping up, I decided I felt good enough to swim another half mile. I didn't really need to be anywhere else, so why not? I ended up swimming 5,000 meters, or a 5K, or 3.1 miles, whichever distance you prefer! Time? About 2.5 hours as best I can guess. Slow, but it felt good.

Saturday brought me the longest bike ride I have done in a very long time. Probably since the late '80s or early '90s. I had an 85 mile ride planned and I was determined to do every mile. The only problem was I couldn't decide on the "where" part. Part of me was thinking about heading back to the Valley. Part of me was thinking Emerald Necklace ride. But a third part of me was thinking rural county roads. They would be the most similar to the roads I will be riding on race day. So that's the route I went.

Parking at Buckeye Woods park, I began by riding around the Chippewa Lake area, including both the paved trails. Then it was time to hit the road! I wanted to work my way west of town and had a basic idea of how I wanted to do it. Starting on the Twin Sizzler course I headed west, continuing onto new territory when the course makes it's turn north. That was a mistake. The series of roads I was riding eventually turned into a rough gravel road. Very hard to ride on! So turn around I did, picked up the course again, and tried a different approach. This time I was successful! I managed to find a paved, long, straight road with nothing but farms on it. And hills. I was in Amish country. I even passed a buggy! The ride was very tiring and left me sore, but I was glad to have completed it. For all the data, including a map, visit the link here.

I took Sunday July 4th off as a rest day and resumed my high mileage weekend yesterday with a long trail run around CVNP. It was going to be a hot and humid one and I got about a 2 hour late start. I parked at the Boston Store and would return there to refuel. Multiple loops were the order of the day. I didn't want to get too far from base camp. The first loop took me out on the Brandywine Falls trail. I could feel the heat increasing while out on this first section. For my second loop I was thinking Buckeye Trail possibly all the way up to the horse stables in Brecksville. I trashed that idea when I realized I couldn't carry enough water to make it all the way there. I was able to see both Blue Hen Falls and Buttermilk Falls but turned my run around at Jaite, coming back via the Towpath. My final loop was up Pine Lane. By this time I was very tired and the heat was really getting to me. I was able to complete the trail section in one piece and again returned via the Towpath. All told, 22 miles for the day. Full data can be found here.

So, a huge training weekend, week 10 out from race day, and I'm feeling not bad today. July is the BIG Ironman training month and I'm going to try to hit it hard. I took quite a few photos from yesterday's run and will post them soon. Speedwork at the track tonight is going to be miserable with 92 degrees and high humidity forecast. Thankfully, I can stay in the AC until then.