Attacking Hills...

Since Friday morning I woke up looking forward to this weekends training ride and run.  This was going to be the first weekend of base build one and mark the first time I had ridden more than 60 miles.  Fri afternoon started out with a great 2800yd swim, which included my fave, PBB :-)  I find it so relaxing.  Then I quickly drove home in order to get a run outdoor before picking up the girls.  I was a beautiful perfect "winter" day.  Allen was home, so he joined me on a 6mi tempo run.  It was a fun, fast, sunny run... perfect!  After working up an appetite we headed out for date night, dinner (food!!!) and a movie.
Sat. morning we met at Target on Blanco to ride north and ride some hills.  Kris, Linda, & I had "70mi zone 2 ride, add some hills & attack" on our plan, and Brian was along for the ride... pun intended :-P  We headed up Blanco and it was a little cold, but nothing like the last time Linda & I had rode up!  By Specht Rd. the sun had started to peak out and you could tell it was going to be the start of a beautiful day.  Attack the hills... Blanco was the first of many!  I put in my best effort and attacked, feeling good!  I'm not sure of our route, I'm usually not leading the pack ;-) but we had some pretty nice rollers... and from what Kris saved until the end to inform me, we had done it in the harder direction!  We stopped twice and each time we started back up again I wasn't sure I "had enough"legs" to go up one more hill.  My attack weakened as the miles added up, but I did realize that every hill has it's upside AND a downside, and BOTH sides can be attacked.  That was the fun part!  Cruising downhill and pedaling strong into it, at least I still "had legs" to do that... whhheeeeee!!!!  By our last stop we had 25mi to go and my only reprieve was the tailwind that would take us back home down Blanco.  Headwind!  That's just great!  All in all, I will say my 1st 71miler was challenging and strengthening.

After our ride we headed straight to Willie's for some FOOD!  Our table looked like a fried frenzy: chicken fried steak, fried shrimp sandwich, fried chicken sandwich, hamburger; amongst a few milkshakes and iced teas; followed by a peach cobbler & apple sizzler!  Heaven!  By the end of our late lunch we decided we need to sleep in tomorrow for our long run, 9am Tri-Sition Area.
9am came sooner than I wished, but I was ready for our 13miler.  I finally had a chance to wear my new Lululemon skirt and long sleeve, which I had bought to wear last weekend for the Houston 1/2 marathon until the weather put a damper on my plans.  The whole team showed up with a look good, feel good attitude (even though 3 out of 4 of us were spent from yesterday's ride).  Kris was dazzling in green with a white Lulu skirt, Linda was the envy off the group in her pink Lulu skirt, and Team Loftin showed up in matching orange outfits... Let's do this :-)  The first 1/2 hour Orissa & Brian ran with us & then turned around, while Kris, Linda & I continued on.  The first 10miles seemed like a long warm up for the last 3mile efforts we were about to throw down.  Around mile 8 I reminded the girls where the last 3miles were going to be... hills!  Oh well, we were no strangers to hills... Let's GO!  We picked up the pace and beasted one hill after another along 1604... Attack!!!  By the last hill I found my "other gear" and threw it all down!  That felt... awesome!

Phew... I survived my weekend of training... and this is only the beginning :-)