Soreness: Two Days, 123K

The plan:

Saturday: 100K ride
Sunday: Easy swim
Monday: 23K LSD

The reality:

Saturday: 100K bike
Sunday: Easy swim... then 23K LSD

7 hours of training in 2 days??? Am I nuts?

The bike was fine, easy as pie. 100K has become fairly routine. A little over 4 hours.

The swim was fine (other than the wanker walking backwards in my lane that ran into me!).

The run... ohhh, the run.

It's funny how at the start of the run, it's hard to slow down to 6:00/km, but by the end it took everything I have to maintain 6:00/km. It just smoked me, the last 5K were tough. I had the food - started with Gatorade, refilled half-way, and had 5 gels on the route - but I was tapped. At the end of the run I was down 3-4 pounds from when I started... it was hot, I sweat way too much.

Two kinds of sore

I woke up Monday morning and everything hurt. My feet were a little sore, but my quads were on fire. In fact the entire day I've been sore.

Now there are really two kinds of sore.

Type 1: Oh crap what did I pull/mangle/tear/abuse
Type 2: Ow... my muscles...

Type 1 sucks. It has you questioning whether you'll be able to do your next race or training session... something might really be wrong, and worst of all, it could be something that requires rest. And who the hell wants to rest???

Type 2 rocks. It's a good sore. It's the kind of sore that reminds you you're alive. It's muscles feeling the pain of being pushed... the kind of sore that makes you better at what you do, and gets you closer to your goals.

This is all type 2. It's muscle pain, and I know it'll be better in a couple days. It feels great and painful at the same time... very satisfying.

Next up - 160K Ride for Karen, and hopefully more type 2 soreness! :) And in 2 weeks I graduate to a 26K LSD, which will be my longest ever run (beating a 24K from February). Can't wait!