sometimes the bear eats you

"Sometimes you eat the bear and sometimes the bear eats you."

- The Big Lebowski

June was a weird month.  It was book-ended by recovery weeks, and included Eagleman, which subsequently included a small taper and small recovery.  I also experienced some of the hottest days of my life.  This means there was not a whole lot of mileage done this month. 

Not all training days go your way.  I had my first bad day about a month ago which I posted about along with my Herndon Festival 10K race report.  That should have been an 80 mile ride.  Then week before Eagleman was a recovery week, but I did an open water swim and which didn't exactly go completely my way.

I wrote about how I struggled with the bike at Eagleman.  I'm not upset with my performance at Eagleman.  I know the conditions were brutal.  And I finished.  But I had hoped to do better, so that sits with me a little.

Not only taking a break, but leaning Xena against a tree and sitting down!
It was just so hot!  This was maybe 40 miles in at Riley's Lock.

Then the week after that should have been a 90 mile ride.  But it was hot.  So very hot.  And humid.  And we biked at Riley's Lock which is hilly.  It was the trifecta of things I hate (heat, humidity and hills).  I struggled through that ride and threw in the towel after 50 miles.  Then I went home and laid in my bed.  All damn day.  Just trying to cool off.

It's funny how I am frustrated that I *only* got in 50 miles when just a year ago I was so freaking thrilled with myself for being able to bike 50 whole miles!

So there I was at the end of June with my longest ride to date being just over 70 miles, and that was done over a month ago.  And July looms with two 100+ mile rides on the schedule!!  I'm not saying June was a *bad* month.  I got myself out there on the hottest of days, even when I didn't feel like it.  The workouts just didn't always go my way.  I guess that happens.  You can't always feel like a rock star.

We paused just beyond the Lincoln Memorial about 8.5 miles into our long run!

The bright spot of the month was doing my first long run with Paula the week after Eagleman and feeling good for the whole 10 miles, despite the humidity!  The last recovery week in June, I took a much-needed break and went hiking with Sweeney - it felt fabulous to do something different (and we still covered over 6 miles)!

During that ride at Riley's Lock, as I was mentally preparing to stop after 50 miles instead of going out for that second loop, I made a plan for myself to get in a nice long ride over the Fourth of July weekend.  I am happy to say that I *did* get in that ride (82 miles!), and am feeling a little better about the weeks to come.  So that's something.

I used to post these countdowns to the big day with excitement and anticipation.  These days looking at how close we are actually getting freaks me out a little.  Double digits!  Yikes!  Will I be ready?