Things are looking up! I had my second iron injection Monday. It went fine, minus the needle in my hand hitting on a nerve so they had to redo the IV. Otherwise I got my iron juice! As with the first time the rest of that day I was totally wiped out, but since then I've been feeling so much better. I've actually been able to start a full training schedule, not too hard, but at least not doing a workout then having to take 1-3 days off.
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| One of the awesome trails I got to train on in Michigan |
Tuesday we got up at 2:45 AM to get me to the airport. That time should just not exist, sooooo early! But I had smooth flights and made it to Grand Rapids, Michigan to spend a week with my athlete Katie. We've got plans for workouts, relaxation, beach, and I'm doing a training marathon.
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| Katie and J waiting for me after my workout. J would look down the trail for me, he knew I was still out there and was worried about me :) |
So the week has gone amazing (with a few mental challenges that I'll explain in a bit)! I've gotten workouts in, not necessarily fast, but solid and most importantly done! Actually, having just gone through my weekly log it has been my strongest week since the middle of February!!!!!!!
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| Benny the bunny as king of his domain. He gets really upset if you're not petting him. |
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| Start of the race. |
I managed some solid sessions, but ended off with a bang! I did a marathon about 2 hours from Katie's house. So we got up this morning at 4:00 AM and headed out. My only expectation for the race was to finish, but I was hoping to be under 4:30. I started off feeling decently comfortable. There were a few out/back sections of the course so I was able to count and I was in 12 place for the women (it wasn't a big race). The course was beautiful, going around a big lake in a huge park on the bike paths. I hit the half in about 2:10 or 2:11, somewhere in there. But I was feeling good so I started picking it up. I ended up passing about 10 people and 6 women in the last 6K! My last 5K was by far my fastest (by over a minute and a half) and I negative split the race by about 4 minutes! It felt so amazing to feel like my old self again, still not in shape, but at least able to push at the end. I'm tired now, but nothing is sore or hurting (minus some chaffing). I ended up second in my age group, 6th woman overall, and 30th overall! How fun! Then I went in the lake, which felt awesome, and we headed home.
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| That awesomely awkward look when you're trying to drink and not spill all over yourself. |
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| Jumping in the lake after the race felt incredible! The water was warm and felt soft and comfortable. |
Funny story.... We stopped at Applebee's. (that's not the funny part) The waiter was very personable and I was being obnoxiously friendly and goofy, you know, the whole, I'm low on glycogen and am acting slightly weird? Yeah, that. But he was having fun chatting with us. I had to ask a bunch of questions about gluten stuff, so he knew I was gluten free, but he was very helpful. When our meal came we had finished the sweet potato fries and I joked with him that they must've left some of the fries off the plate. I then dug straight into the veggies on my plate. He was a little phased and Katie says, "don't mind her, she just did a marathon, she's hungry." He freaked out "You just did a marathon!?!?! But you walked in here on your own, no one carried you!" Then we told him I got 6th (although never mentioned I did it RWing). He was so impressed. Anyway, he comes back and says, we think that's so cool that you got sixth we want to give you a free brownie bite for desert!!!! Katie said my face just fell as I said "but I can't eat it! It has gluten!" He barely even paused and said, "Well, maybe your friend can have it." We laughed and laughed. He then asked if I could eat ice cream (why yes, yes I can). So he said he'd see what he can do. Lo and behold, after our meal (which was awesome, tons of veggies and some salmon) he brought me ice cream and Katie a brownie bite :)
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| That look when someone gives you a desert you can't eat, but would love to. |
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| That look you get when someone can't eat the desert they were given and so you get to eat said desert :) |
Okay. And now back to what I was saying about some of the mental frustration/overcoming from the week. One of the workouts I did was a 15K kickdown. I got it done, and it was technically a kickdown, but it was not fast. I "used" to do my 15K workouts faster than that. And of course that's what I was thinking for a while during the workout. But I kept reminding myself that I'm coming back from a lot, even if I didn't know it at the time. My body has been depleted for a long time, and I'm already asking a lot of it. So instead I put a big smile on my face and focused on how happy I was to be out there doing what I love and getting back to where I know I can be!
We'll see how the next few weeks go. I'm feeling very positive! I've got a solid schedule with some speed and lots of distance. I have two Centurion specific workouts that should give me that last bit of confidence for our 100 miler. This will be the year I get my Centurion number! Then the focus shifts to 100% 50K.
On another note, thank you to all the people who have been buying their gear through my athletebiz store! It all really helps and adds up! If you have to buy shoes, clothes, race nutrition, watches, anything like that, please consider buying through my storefront. I get a portion of each sale, and it really helps! The link to my store is here:
https://www.athletebiz.us/athletes/erin-taylor-talcott/store
Also, I've been trying some of my awesome Gatorade stuff and used their Prime Energy Chews during my 25K Thursday and the marathon today. I like the texture and the taste. It's a bit difficult for me to get into while I'm RWing, but otherwise they're quite nice. Maybe you'd like to give them a try?
http://www.gatorade.com/sports-fuel
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| roasted cauliflower |
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| zucchini pizza |
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| sweet potato chili |
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sweet potato nachos
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In case you couldn't tell, Katie and I spent a lot of time talking about, preparing and eating food....
So here's to one solid week of training down and hopefully many more to come!
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