Note to Self...

Every 8 weeks, the American Red Cross bloodmobile comes to where I work to solicit blood donations.  Every 8 weeks, I donate blood.  I've been doing this now for the past few years and really take pride in doing so.  Okay, maybe I also like the free cookies afterward, but that's beside the point.

This past Wednesday was no exception.  I happily let the ARC vampires, as I lovingly refer to the workers, take my blood.  That evening, I had an hour-long run scheduled with pick-ups: five 1-minute accelerations in pace, each followed by a 1-minute recovery jog.  This sounded easy enough.  As I began the run, I felt pretty lousy...very tired and not at all interested in the run.  I ran the prescribed 10 minutes before starting my pick-ups.  I completed all 5 pick-ups, barely.  I had no gas left in the tank, no umph to my stride, no pep in my step.  Wes would later tell me that pick-ups can really take it out of you.  I quipped back, "so does blood loss".  I knew right away what the deal was.  My body needed more time to recover than (oops) 5 hours.  I'd run after giving blood plenty of other times, but the warm temperature, pick-ups, and of course, the blood donation all worked together to make me one tired, low-energy lady.  I cut my run short after 40 minutes, went home, and had a recovery drink.  Note to self: no more blood donations during Ironman training.

Last weekend, Wes and I rode just under 65 miles on the bike, my longest ride to date!  Our friend, Kenneth, joined us for part of those miles.  It started out as a cloudy, somewhat windy day but ended up being sunny, warm, and delightful.  Tomorrow we are taking an Amtrak train to Greensboro (about an hour's drive from where we live) and riding our bikes back home.  We'll have two friends joining us (Kenneth and Mariana) and will end up riding around 80 miles on the day, which will be my NEW longest distance on the bike.  Looking forward to blogging about that tomorrow.

And lest I forget to mention it, this week marks the 11th week of my 30-week training plan.  This is significant, as the 30-week plan is made up of 3 10-week phases: the base phase, the build phase, and the peak phase.  Week 11 begins the build phase (hence the pick-up workouts on the bike and run).  My swim distance has also increased from 1500 yards to 2500 yards.  The 2500 yard swim workouts take me exactly an hour (a straight 2500 will take a little less time).  I seriously need to improve my swim and bike times.  On our long bike rides we are still averaging 13-14 mph (because I ride more slowly than Wes).  For Louisville, I really need to be able to sustain 16-17 mph for the entire 112 miles.  Now that the base phase is over, I'm looking forward to working on my speed as well as my endurance.  The next 19 weeks promise to be difficult and grueling.  BRING. IT. ON.