Louisville Practice Workout

Amy and I headed out to Louisville to participate in the iamtri group's workout session. I don't usually like to preview race courses, but I just felt that it would set my mind a little more at ease if I actually swam in the Ohio River and rode a bit of the course.

It was an fairly easy drive. St. Louis is about halfway, which broke up the trip rather nicely. We arrived in Louisville about 6:00 p.m. to much cooler weather (low 80's!). Amy and I had different training goals. She had a long brick (3 hour ride and 3 hour run). I really wanted to take the opportunity to swim and then ride the course. So, Saturday morning, we went our separate ways.



Swim Start

 I'm so glad that I did the swim there. Jumping into deep water to start the swim was actually a little different than I had expected. My head started doing its thing with whirling thoughts of "it's deep water...there's no place to stand...it's deep water..." so when I finally jumped in, I was sputtering a bit when I surfaced. I started a little of my hyperventilating, so I paddled back to the dock and hung on a few seconds. I got my crap together and started swimming. In no time, I was once again relaxed and doing my thing. The Ohio River was no dirtier than any of the lakes I swim in here. 

I was in a recovery training week, so I only had 60 miles on the plan for my bike ride. I was able to ride the "spur" portion of the course, which everyone had said had the most challenging hills and part of the loop. Overall, the course was a little hillier than I expected, but it wasn't impossible by any means. And, the scenery was beautiful.



The spur was very interesting. It is flat for a little ways when I first turned on the rode. However, it wasn't long before I was flying down a long downhill, then facing a long uphill...and another downhill...and another uphill... only to turn around and go at it from the other direction. Those hills were not terribly steep, but they were long!



Gorgeous sunflower patch at the beginning of the loop.



I didn't conserve on this bike ride since it was shorter and by the time I was done, I was feeling it. The fact that my back started hurting and my right piriformis really, really bothered me didn't help either. Seriously? I have ridden over 1,500 miles so far this year with absolutely no issues. Why now??

Overall, it was a great trip and I'm glad we did it, as I'm feeling a bit more confident to face this race.