September!

This is how I celebrated September 1st!  A long ride to Lake Simcoe and back with a popsicle and a yummy watermelon stop! :)

I cannot believe it is already September and I am planning on taking advantage of any good weather we have left.  Before we know it, it will be rainy and dreary and then snowing and cold! So I hopped on my road bike and went long, 160km.  I was not sure if I was actually going to pull this ride off but my friend let me draft behind him and I just focused on keeping my legs going, lol!  It was a fun ride with some fantastic weather.

Tomorrow I will be racing in the Muskoka 70.3!  I have some business to take care of on that course since it is one of the more difficult half ironmans out there.  However, I do not know how much I have left in me to put in a solid effort.  I want to do well and I am going to go for it.  I just hope my body and mind responds with me and I can push through it.  I also hope my hamstring does not give me too much of an issue.  Even though I have backed off the training and am doing very little running in hopes of letting it heal, any run I do just makes it worse.  I am now at the point that it hurts to walk.  It doesn't hurt all the time walking and I am not limping but when I run it is immediate pain :(   So I will be running the half on very minimal run training but I have done this before when I was dealing with my PF earlier in the year.  So it can be done, it is just a matter of how much pain I am going to go through, or if I can ignore it, how much more pain will I be in afterwards. This is almost unfamiliar territory for me. I have been very lucky in the injury department and I have had pretty bad ones before.  I have pushed through injuries before and then managed to rest up and heal.  This hamstring though has been lingering longer than I had hoped for and I am not too happy about that.

Which brings me to more thought about Cozumel.  If I do go ahead and do this race, how much of a set back will I put myself in.  The race is at the end of November so afterwards I can take December completely off and even part of January.  I can take that risk.  But if my hamstring really is that bad, and if I do make it that much worse, is it worth it?  Will it be so bad that I will not meet my race goals and then the effort of a 2nd IM goes to waste?  If I am told from a medical standpoint to not do this race, then I am out.  I will talk to my coach about it too and see what his opinion is.  I just have never really hesitated about a race so much that this may also be a sign.  Maybe I am done for the season (well after B2B) and I am not mentally ready to go through the training of a 2nd IM.  Oh boy!? Lol!  On another note, here is a pic of the delicious watermelon we enjoyed last weekend:

Race report for tomorrow's half ironman to come soon! ;) Wish me luck!!!