Sluggish!!!

My recovery is still ongoing- combined with fun and a little training.  Italian Fest weekend has come and gone.  I can't really say I contributed much to the LaFondatores Team besides eat and drink, but they keep letting me on the team and I keep showing up.  I think I paid my dues back in the 1990s when child-labor was smiled upon and my mom made me help prepare the festival food for "service hours."

Thurs night, close down the joint....

Friday night, close down the joint....

Saturday night...didn't make it.  Drove up to St. Louis instead to see my old college roomie/ soccer teammate/ bridesmaid Tara and her 3 gorgeous blonde girls.  (and her husband Tim, too, but it was really about seeing the girls :)

After our night at the Mexican restaurant, the girls served us their own homemade popsicles for dessert.  Someone forgot to mix the koolaid, with the sugar, with the water....so the result was a very interesting sour version of a popsicle, which I of course ate with delight. 

 

Tara is going to kill me for posting these pictures on my blog because we both look so exhausted, which we were.  

I woke up Sunday and drove another 2 hours for a road race.  I am quasi-recovered from IMTX, which means I am not sore, but I am not fresh.  Normally I would never sign up for a race only 2 weeks out form an ironman, but I wanted to shake out the sluggishness and move some.  

My new "friend" Lynne.  LOL!  She parked next to me and by default had to become my friend for the day since I didn't know a soul at this race.  Come to find out, she is a bada$$, x-ironman chick from the 1990s that used to place in her AG at Kona.  Love it!

The race was a 52 mile road race with a really small open field.  I seemed to be the only beginner, which was fine with me.  Everyone warned me the course was extremely hilly, and my first clue should have been the "king of the mountain" points on the event bible.  

It happened exactly how it probably should have happened for a tired race.  I felt super flat from the get go.  The pace wasn't hard, but I felt tired.  The King of the Mountain sprint blew the whole field up and I was left all by myself in 3rd place...chasing down 1st and 2nd (working together) and trying not to get swallowed back up by the girls behind me.

I stayed within striking range for about 10 miles, lost 1st and 2nd place, felt miserable with an empty gas tank, and got picked up by two girls at about mile 42 that had worked together.  Lucky for them, my back was killing me because I forgot to lower my seat back to my setting before the race, and I was just plain tired.  I mean, super duper tired. You don't realize how into the well you go for ironman until your next race.  Then you really feel it!  So, while they might have thought I was being smart and sitting up for the sprint, I was actually just hoping they would tow me in so I could go home!

Obviously I wasn't much competition for the sprint for 3rd.  I kept thinking I would find one last surge of energy at the end, but nope!  They sprinted, and I was left standing still.  I mean, I really didn't have a single ounce of energy left in my body...not even to compete for the podium.  I think I got 5th...maybe 4th, but I didn't stay for the finish results.

But the race was a good training day, although at the time I thought..."why in the heck am I doing this?  This is awful!!!!!"  and "how in the world do the pros do back to back racing and ironman all year long?  how do their bodies recover their snap so quickly?"  

So, I am still a little sluggy but will keep battling it out over the next few weeks.  Next up?  Navarre Beach Vacay!!! :))))