Morning again?

My first thought when the alarm clock went off was "Morning? again?" Mr. Darcy was awesome last night and let me go to bed early while he straightened our house. It's something that annoys me and makes me laugh at the same time - the need to straighten the house so the maid can clean. We're so good for the 2 weeks after they clean, and then the week before they're scheduled to come the wheels pretty much fall off the bus.

Anyway, Mr. Darcy seeing how tired I was offered to put the girls down to bed while I slept but I told him I wanted to help and then started to fall asleep during storytime. I did wake long enough to help out though. Afterwards, I got my gear together for this morning's ride and then went to bed around 9:15 pm at the latest.

When the alarm clock went off at 4:15 am, I just wanted to sleep more. I guess I was catching up with myself from so little sleep the night before last. Somehow I pulled myself out of bed and into my training gear and ate breakfast. While waiting for my training buddy, I thought to myself that I'm looking forward to a week where I didn't wake up so early. The truth is I don't like super early mornings because I miss seeing the lovely ladies when they wake up and I miss some sleep. Yet, once I get going I love being in the moment.

This morning we arrived ready to ride at 5:30 am. We waited for others to arrive and when we finally realized that Coach definitely wasn't coming because she is under the weather, I pretty much told everyone we needed to head out. I like to socialize, but if I got up at 4:15 am I want to ride as close as we can to the scheduled departure date.

The ride was great! I have to admit that at times I had difficulties staying under 17 mph on the bits that were supposed to be at race speed. I can go faster but I understand Coach's point that I have to have legs to run on afterwards. At times I just got into the ride and looked down to see myself about to hit 18 mph. I was good and pulled myself back though. I felt really good on the bike and enjoyed a beautiful sunrise too!

After the bike was a 3 mile run, which I did in about 36-37 minutes. (I stood there chatting for a few minutes afterwards before I realized I hadn't turned off my watch... oops.) I felt pretty good on the run. My legs felt good, which was amazing since I wasn't having any nerve pain. The problems I had I think were allergy related. At one point, I literally had to stop and cough up my lungs because crud was running down my throat and decided to cover my windpipe. Breathing, it seems, is important. Later in the run, I was doing well with my HR about 168 (which is my normal running HR it seems) and passed a man mowing the lawn. I'm allergic to grass and have problems when I pass mowers sometimes (and luckily for me I'm not able to mow the lawn because of it). It only dawned on me when I was going home that this may have been the reason that my HR elevated to 172. I ran a little with it at 172 and then decided that perhaps I should let it come down (that's 90% for me) and walked a little. I walked probably about 4 minutes at most and since my HR was 151 at that point decided to run the rest of the way. I was only a short way from the end of the run when all of this happened so I wasn't too thrilled that I had to walk.

The other thing it could be is that I may not drink enough on the bike. Coach says I need 24 oz. per hour on the bike, and I'm not sure if I do that or not.

Either way, I had an enjoyable workout and had fun. Now if only I can get a shower in... and maybe a nap would be nice...