Thinking About Distance

Ride (Saturday)
time- 4:27
distance- 63.15mi

Run (Sunday)
time- 1:32
distance- 9mi

I can't start a run thinking about how far I have to go. That ruins my headspace and it's really hard to recover from. It popped into my head today as my Garmin buzzed at me that my first mile was now behind me. "Oh, only eight more to go." That sounds like a long ass way. So I shook it out of my head and tried to focus on one step at a time.
I break my runs up by landmarks. I'm running to the bridge. Now I'm running to Dole. Now I'm running to the light. Now I'm running up the hill. And, like magic, now I'm at the halfway point. Since I run out-and-back and not loops the halfway point is very important to me. Most of the time, if I feel strong when I turn around then I'm going to be ok. My pace will fall off some, but I'm going to be alright. I like having that halfway point.
But as my runs get longer the halfway point gets further and further from home. When you're only running four miles, it's only two miles home. And "only two miles" doesn't sound bad. Where I am right now, "only four and a half miles" sounds kind of silly. So I've started breaking up the way back too. And because of all the shorter runs I've done I get a strong sense of accomplishment as I run past my old turn-around points.
I'm trying to keep a strong, even pace while I'm out. My average moving pace today was 10:15/mi. I'd like to get that down to 10:00/mi by race day. Not that I expect to be putting up 10:00 miles during the run of the 70.3, but it would be nice to have that as a baseline going in. However, and this is important, I'm not actually stressing the pacing too much here. I don't go out on Sunday's and run hard. I'm barely running a high DSQ on Tuesday and Thursday. I'm running for consistency. Much like my oft-repeated view on distance swimming, if I can have the same stride at the end of the race that I do at the beginning then I'll be happy. I know there will be falling apart and I'm pretty sure that at some point during the run the wheels are going to come off. But I want to push that back as far as possible.
Anyway, this was my farthest training run. Ever. Never run nine miles before. And it was pretty great. The weather was perfect for it, overcast and cool, but no rain.
Yesterday's ride was plenty nice too. Missed the guys and it was my first solo ride in a while, but that's ok because when it comes down to it the Honu will be a solo ride too. And riding is where you really can't think too far ahead. I'm out for over four hours, don't want to be thinking about that a half hour in. But I cleared that mental hurdle when I was training for the Century last summer. Which is part of the reason I signed up for the Hapalua. Forced familiarity with the distance will ease some of the fear about it.

Mt. Doom has nothing on Mt. Wind. Except nasty filthy hobbittses

The ride featured a strong climb up Pupukea, and then an assault on Mount Wind for pretty much the entire time I headed out. Brutal headwind, lots of down in aero fighting getting tough being strong grrrr Dirtbag get some go again! And I guess there was a tailwind helping me out on the way back, but I didn't notice it too much. I was going to get 70 miles, which with Pupukea means going about 40 miles out, but at 33 miles the skied opened and exploded. Luckily, I was right by a gas station when it happened so I pulled in and waited for the storm to pass. This being Hawaii, the tropical blessing only lasted a few minutes and I was back on the road. But I was back on the road turned tail. The road ahead didn't look friendly and I wasn't anticipating any more soaking. Pineapple was Pineapple. not great, not awful, just another climb.
Good weekend.

Pictured: Downpour