Big Week and Bob the Rabbit.

Bob, a client of mine, offered to come be my rabbit during my biggest week of training for Age Group Nats. I was so honored that he would want to do this for me. He flew in from San Jose, CA Wednesday night and was on the road by 4:30am Thursday morning to come swim Masters with me. We were a little concerned as he had only been at altitude for 6 hours! He did great and did a good job supporting me in the water. We then headed up to the hills for a 1:30:00 hill run. Bob pulled me along, kept reminding me to check my cadence, and encouraging me to drink. Not only did he do all this, but he also carried my water bottle for me and continually asked me "are you suffering?"...Something between Melissa, Bob and I. I teased him I was going to call him my 'water boy' and threatened back to call me 'princess':-). But he was much more than a water boy on the mountain that day, he was love, support, dedication, determination, a cheerleader and a tear wiper. How lucky am I?

Friday we met at 9am and we rode Deer Creek. Bob loved being on a road bike again as he is always on the p2c and loved the climbing and change of scenery. I was pretty tired to say the least, but could not believe I pulled off my fastest time for that ride! I kept asking Bob, "how much time did I sit on your wheel?" He assured me less that 5min and I think he was right as I could not recall really ever being on his wheel. We jumped in the pool for a swim, that was a challenge for both of us, but we completed it and felt great sitting in the hot tub after a long day of training in some cool temps.

Today, when I walked outside after Bob had arrived, he looked at me and said "Wow, you look tired." I told him that I was trashed and it was going to be a long day. We got to the lake and headed out for our 1 hour swim... the last 20min Bob commented "You are swimming fast now!" I told him I think I was flushing some lactate and getting warmed up. My arms were so tired! I was glad at this point that my upper body workouts were done for the week. We headed out to do interval work on the bike and run. I lead out the first push on the bike and when I was done, Bob rode up behind me and said..."impressive!" I thought to myself, is he just being nice to make be feel good? But I learned he was serious and I definitely was able to search deep in my legs and find some hidden power that had not been spent yet in the grand week of training. We headed out for our first run interval and I was holding record paces for me! I couldn't believe it! As we continued to complete the workout for the day, I held consistent run paces... right on the targets set for me! It was amazing and I yelled to Bob halfway through the last one "BOB, I'm ROCkiNg thiS WOrKoUT!" He chuckled and smiled! Bob was perfect. He knew exactly how much to pull me. He never got too far out of my reach that left me flying off the back. He was PERFECT!. Could I have done all this on my own? Would I have pulled this off today regardless of my rabbit.. well, I'll never know the answer to that. What I do know, is my rabbit was there, helping me and celebrating with me. For that I am ever grateful.