T-9 weeks: "Build 1 Week 2 - Papa Can You Hear Me?"

Dear Papa,

What a great week this was! I had such good workouts with great company, I'm feeling great and strong, and I'm starting to get so so excited for the race!

The highlight of the week was definitely yesterday's 70-mile ride with Jim and Maryam! We rode downtown to see the cherry blossoms but had to bail there early because the crowds were just insane. We then went out to Potomac through Georgetown and had a great mix of all types of challenges: Steep hills, rolling hills, highways, country roads, and finished up on car-free Beach Drive to get the final miles in. It took us 4:30h and a few breaks to take pictures and fuel up. It is always great to be riding with really strong cyclists because it keeps me on my toes, even on more endurance-type rides that aren't supposed to have a ton of hard pushes. It was simply heavenly to be out there, feel the wind, and be in great company!

I also tried the Maurten gels again during the bike ride, as that will be the gels during the race in Hamburg, and although I still don't love them, they at least didn't make me gag like the first time I tried them. I might be okay sticking to those for the race. As for the Precision Fueling electrolyte drink they will be handing out, I am not in love. I even feel like it might've made me a bit nauseous, so I will have to try that again this coming week. If I don't take that well, I'll probably have to bring some Skratch powder or something that I can fill into the water that they will be handing out, but man, I really don't want to carry more than I have to during the race.

The long run this week was also really great! It was 15 miles, which is the longest run since my last marathon, so I geared up with liquids and compression socks - which seem to have made a difference, as my legs recovered surprisingly fast after. I chose to go out on Wednesday instead of Saturday with the big group, because Saturday was the best weather day, and I definitely wanted that for my long ride. Katy and Rachael joined me for half of that run, which was amazing! It is so much easier to get it done with people at your side, and time and miles just pass much faster. I had to smile after seeing this picture: I look like Robocop next to them, totally dressed for an adventure. It was great, and I felt good and could've kept going, which is really encouraging!

The track workout with MCRRC Speed Development Program was good as well! I got there late and everybody was already running. Frank was the only one of my pace group buddies who was there, and he was 5 laps ahead, so we had to coordinate our laps in order to have big portions of our intervals together still. We did 3 repeats of 2 miles each at 10k pace - the first on at current 10k speed, the second increasing our pace it during the second mile, and the last repeat at 15s per mile less than current 10k speed. It was challenging but felt really good! I feel like my running has improved significantly during this program, and I'm so grateful to have joined it.

Swimming was fine this week. I don't feel like I'm actually gaining much speed at all, but achieving that in swimming, especially later in life, is so hard, and I'm pretty happy with where things are at generally. My form seems solid enough that I'm benefiting from it, and I'm starting to feel super comfortable on the longer swims as well without really losing a lot of energy, which will be important for the triathlon.

This week's training in numbers: 3 swims with 8,500 yds in 2:45h, 4 bike rides with 135 miles in 8:15h, 3 runs with 29 miles in 4:45h, and 45 mins of strength training. No yoga this week, as Amy is on spring break in Bermuda. Total: 16:30h of net training. Next week, we will have our dear friends Chad and Amanda visiting, and I have the Cherry Blossom 10-mile run on Sunday that I'm hoping to PR. I'll be getting my race shoes out for that one! Maryam and Rachael will be running it with me, and I'm sure a bunch of other people from MCRRC and E2P.

I thought a lot about you this week, Papa! I found these two pictures with you and all of us kids. On the tops one, it's Steffen, me, Tim, you, and Michel, and on the bottom it's Tim, Michel, Steffen, me, and you. It's so fun to see these two next to each other! The you on the upper picture could easily be another brother of ours in the bottom picture, couldn't it? You would fit right in with us in terms of age.

Mama sent me a song yesterday that had me all in tears all over again. It's called "Papa Can You Hear Me?" from the musical YENTL, sung by Barbra Streisand. It is almost impossible for me to listen to the song without my whole soul being squeezed and pressed, and I can't help crying every time I do now. It will be a special song for me that will help me rest and dwell in your memory whenever I want to and will help me release all the sadness and grief that is still sitting at my core.

That's it from this week, Papa! Can you believe it's only 9 more weeks?? At this exact time as I'm typing this, I will be getting close to the finish line in Hamburg, if everything goes well. I can't wait to do this together with you!

With all my love,

Kathrin

P.S. Dear Reader, if you have comments, questions, memories, or thoughts to share, please leave a comment (and leave your name in the comment so I know who it's from). I would love to hear from you!

Go to the full list of blog posts or read more about the project Ironman for Papa