So, real quick, this was what I did in the week leading up to the race....
I got my new bike seat on Thursday and immediately swapped it out. It was much easier than I thought it would be, just unscrewed the old one, took off the wedge bag, fumbled with the over and under thingamabob that kept the seat in place, and in about 15 minutes it was swapped out.
I also got some emergency kit stuff - tire patch kits and some plastic tire picks. Loaded those into the wedge pack and found the emergency CO2 cartridge inflator.
Beth left town on Friday for the Big Summer Potluck in upstate PA. Whenever she leaves, I can never get to sleep, and Friday was no exception. I worked the Mobtown show, came home and played some Civ, and finally collapsed in bed at something like 2 AM, and slept fitfully all night. Finally, sometime around 9:30, I decided to get up. I putzed around the house all morning, wondering what I should do. Finally, sometime mid-afternoon, I decided I needed to get a long bike ride in. Of course, by that time it was something like 95 degrees out. But I needed to test my new saddle out, so I loaded up a water bottle with ice and a little water and took off for Fort McHenry.
It wasn't a bad ride, other than the construction of stands for the Baltimore Grand Prix - which is over a month away and just totally obliterated the bike path. Ended up going onto the brick walkway around the harbor and dodging pedestrians rather than go out into the street against traffic. Amazing how people are just sorta clueless when a bike is coming at them. But I was out and back in about an hour - 12 miles through all that stuff. Not bad. At some point I might come back and post my MyTracks data.... I drank a ton of water, hung out, and did my Ghost Tour that night.
Sunday I thought I might do another 30-30-30, but it was again really hot. I got up, made it to the JFX Farmer's Market, came home, switched into tri shorts, and took off on the bike for the gym and an early swim. It was brilliant. Quick bike ride down, no one in the lanes, I was in and out in 15 minutes. And I felt pretty good, so I jumped on the bike, and rather than heading home, I took off on a ride. Went out Boston Street, headed southish on Broening Highway, found myself on Holabird, and remembered the ride Beth and I had taken and Holabird. It's a nice long stretch without too many stop lights, so I barrelled down the road, got to the bottom of a hill, and kept going through a major intersection and up the another hill. Went out Soller's Point Road and found myself in Dundalk, eventually passing the middle school. At that point, the day was getting on, I was in full bore sunlight, and hadn't slathered myself in sunscreen, so I headed back.
The good thing about the ride was that it was nice and hilly - a real good work out. I came back and saw that I had snapped off a good 9 miles in around 40 minutes I think - after the swim. So I was feeling pretty good.
The big discovery early in the week was that I found the course maps had been posted. And somehow - I did it again! I was thinking that this was a 12 mile bike ride - 20 km. And my training had been focused on that. I knew the course consisted of lapS. So when I checked out the maps, I was really confused. There were marking for a mile 7, and my mind boggled - 2 laps? Did that mean this had suddenly become a 14 mile bike? I mean, my training was close, but it wasn't there. And it cautioned that there were "steep climbs." I used Google Street View to check out the course, and realized that it was a steady upgrade on the first half of the course - nothing that looked too monstrous, but a steady climb for about a mile as the course went outside the park and skirted its edge.
What was going on? It was then that I realized that - even with the two laps - the total distance of the course was not quite 8 miles! So, once again, I had inadvertently overtrained. I was ecstatic. This was going to be easy!
It was hot that week, but I decided - if it's hot this weekend, I need to be acclimated to it. So Monday evening I got my ass on the street for a little run. It looked dark, but Beth assured me that there was no thunderstorm activity in the area.
I warmed up going west on Baltimore around the park, which had me running up to the corner of Patterson and Baltimore, and then downhill - pretty much flat on Eastern to the far end of the Little Park, then uphill. The C25k program had me running 25 minutes solid - which I sorta did. I was futzing with the watch, which I couldn't get right, so at about 5 minute intervals in the run I'd stop for like two seconds to try to make sure the watch was working right. But I kept going for the most part.
I got up to the top of the hill, and it was an amazing site, but a storm was most definitely blowing in. I took off my iPhone (stowed in my new arm band) and snapped a couple of pics. Strapped it back on and took off. I finished up by heading back towards Eastern on Linwood a little ways, and then turned around with a couple of minutes left and headed back to Baltimore. Got part way up Linwood when the run ended and I had cool down. Walked back home, headed down the alley, and circled around to complete the cool down.
Beth talked to me about tapering, and I was thinking of doing some swimming or biking Tuesday and maybe a 30-30-30 Wednesday, but when Tuesday dawned, I realized I was too tired. So I took Tuesday off. Wednesday I didn't go 30-30-30, but I was out again for a run. Same thing this time - up the hill on Baltimore towards Patterson, down Patterson. At the corner of Linwood and Eastern, though, I headed up Linwood thinking I would do a big figure 8. Up the hill from the opposite way on the north side of the Little Park, and then I ran out of gas.... I kept going to the top of the hill, but I had to stop.... I walked a little ways - I think maybe 30 seconds - to recover from the uphill, and then back in to the run again. Finished up going around the park and going up Linwood, and did my 5 minute cool down walk going home. This time there was almost no stopping except for the little respite at the top of the hill, but I was tired. I felt like I was running slower, I didn't feel like I was covering as much ground, and the recovery seemed a lot slower. Which was okay - because Thursday I had a read through for the show, and Friday and Saturday I wouldn't be doing anything. So this was my last work out before Race Day, and I had a good three days of rest going into it! Nothing to do now but double check my gear and get ready!