NFL, HFL and a ride from hell

For my faithful readers....the answer to the previous question is a screaming NOPE! But I'll get to the explanation in a bit...

Unfortunately this last week I ended up having to take a few days off from training due to an obnoxious head cold. I missed two swims, a bike and two runs. It was driving me nutz to know I missed so many sessions this week but at the same time I think my cold would have lasted much longer had I not rested.

Friday night Mark and I went to the pre-season Vikings game to be there amidst the Favre hype. Mark has season seats up in section 217 (not the greatest placement for me but I'll skip the details) so I'll get to be at each game to see if this #4 investment was really worth it.

Here he is warming up. Exciting huh? :-P He only played the first few sets and did ok I guess. It was a lot of fun just to be there. We left during the 4th quarter since it was pretty uninteresting by that point and watched the wave go around for about the 6th or 7th time.

Next morning we had to get up early to get in a 1:45 run / 0:45 bike / 0:30 run. It was a cooler morning than what we've been having so I thought it was perfect for training. Just steady efforts, nothing special.

We were up early due to Home for Life having their annual Blessing of the Animals and Open House. I NEVER miss an open house event as it gives me a chance to spend more time with all my favorite cats and dogs (and tortoises?), especially my little girl Olive. Unfortunately due to my poor planning we got there about 30 minutes late. The Blessing ceremony was done very nice and they had great food catered in for the event. The only thing I dislike about this ceremony is seeing the pictures of all the animals from the sanctuary that have passed in the last year. Part of the ceremony is dedicated to remembering all those they have lost. I was very heartbroken to see Chako the dog and Speedy the cat up on the board. Here are pics of them:

It instantly brought me to tears and I had to walk away. HFL is such a wonderful place but it's so hard to see who has been lost since I was last there.

Here are a few pics from our visit:

Me and a pile of kitties. Olive is the white one on my right

Here's a close up of her gorgeous face

More of my Olive

Mark got one of the cats to give High 5s

Mark also got quite attached to Lacey from the other cattery :)

Here I am with a cat pile in the other cattery with another of my favorites on my shoulder. The lighter colored cat is Celeste. She is blind as she has neither of her eyes. She LOVES to cuddle and honestly with how well she gets around, you almost won't believe she can't see.

And the resident tortoise, Goliath

Mark having a staring contest, nose-to-nose

One of the other jumpers hanging out on my shoulders.

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Saturday night we had a nice dinner over at Mark's mom's house. Mikaela, Mark's niece, has somehow learned my name as "Kris-miss". Which we all found to be absolutely hilarious. No idea where she got that from. We were thinking maybe it's just how she decided to distinguish between auntie Christine and Kris. In any case I think it's super cute, especially since I'm known as Kris-miss around my family quite often.

Sunday we slept in! Ahh.....what's better than getting to turn off the alarm and just wake up whenever? Not much! For breakfast I actually got to make waffles. The idea was originally pancakes but the pan just wasn't cooperating so I whipped out the waffle iron. Then while Mark mowed his lawn, I got on a tangent pulling weeds in his yard. The weather was so great to just be out in the yard doing chores. I felt like such a normal person as opposed to my current Ironman trained drained self.

But then onto the ride from hell. Mark and I chose to make another attemped at the Rolling to Rockford route that had failed us earlier this spring. (See my posting from June 8, 2009).

It was gorgeous weather for riding. A bit windy but nothing horrible. I was on my completely re-adjusted bike and could tell I took some pressure of my hands and off the front end of my girly parts and was sitting more on my rear. I made it somewhere around 30 miles before the issues began. I started getting that cold shiver from the ache in my backside as I felt my butt bones were about ready to protrude through my skin into my damn seat (sorry, should have warned you....this posting is PG-13).

So as I kept riding, all the moving around just made my shoulder hurt, my back ache and my knee twinge with pain. Again I started to panic and I mean a literal panic attack again. "Damn it! Really? Again? I can't suffer through this for 112? My body just won't do it". We kept stopping to let myself calm down and hit 'pause' on the pain button. The secondary effect to all this was that since I couldn't breathe well from panicking, I couldn't take in much nutrition. Which in turn made my stomach sour and hungry and therefore emptied any energy that may have remained in my muscles.

4 hours, 30 minutes, 60 miles and many tears later.....we finished up the ride and went for a quick 30 minute transition run.

I was devastated. In my mind, I am concluding that either a miracle happens or I will DNF at Ironman. Not due to lack of training but due to pain and uncomfortableness (that can't be a real word...?). I had troubles pulling myself together for the better part of the evening. I was just crushed at the reality that the ride that day was not enough to complete the bike portion of the Ironman ride. There is no way I could have continued that on a more challenging course for another 52 miles at a faster pace.

Mark was very sweet and took me out for dinner to TGI Fridays were to fed my sorrows with boneless wings, half a Jack burger, two glasses of Sprite (since they didn't have my vice Mt Dew) and part of a Chips Ahoy dessert sundae.

I don't know yet what the solution is going to be. I am working on a few different things and praying for something to work. I can only chalk it up to the many, many more hours I've spent in the saddle this year over others. I mean, I just did a half Ironman a few weeks ago. That was 56 miles and I wasn't in this bad of shape! The more the weeks go on, the fewer and fewer miles I can get through. It's so incredibly tough for me to know I'm in my 3rd year of racing tris and it's like I've disgressed to being worse off than many people that are brand new to the sport. I know and love at least one of them that I KNOW right now could go complete IM way better than me. What the hell is my body's problem. I train and train and train and go no where with biking but in reverse. I honestly think if I could transfer my IM race number to someone else I would. Maybe people like me just aren't meant to do IM and this is some way of the universe telling me so.

So yes, mentally and emotionally I'm in a very bad place with my body and my training right now. (Despite managing to lose 4 pounds so far over the summer which is a "yay!" point)

I'll conclude with saying....cross your fingers for me for a miracle and I'm off to enjoy my off day with 6 of my favorite 4-legged companions, chicken dinner and a geocaching walk.

PS - I am raising money for Home for Life through the Janus Charity Challenge. Please check out my page and help out if you can! www.januscharitychallenge.kintera.org/wi09/kmielke