Wrapping it up

You guessed it folks...time for a rest week!  Woot!

This weekend wrapped up a two week build.  Yesterday was a 4 hour ride, today was a 1.5 mile open water swim event (with enough warm up/cool down for a total of 2 miles) as well as a 2-1/2 hour ride.  Whew.  

The swim went ok.  Not as good as I might have liked, but just ok.  Start off with the fact that the sign up sheet said we needed to be there by 7:30 for sign in.  And we thought our event was at 9:15, when the wetsuit division didn't actually start until 9:40.  So we warmed up and got ready to go, then had to sit around for about a 1/2 hour.  Soon enough we waded in and swam out to the start line tho and then we were off.  Wow, these folks are serious swimmers.  I'm usually a pretty solid middle of the packer, but I was just hoping not to be last.  I didn't have *any* panic or issues getting going, maybe because there was so much clear water.  I was trying to find someone to draft off,  but pretty much everyone was zooooom, gone.  So I was on my own.  I was swinging wide at the turns for some reason, so I think I actually swam more than 1.5 miles, but it was a solid effort.  Finished up in about 52 minutes.

With work being so crazy, I'm really looking forward to this next week.  And what better way to start off the rest week than with a rest day. Wheee!

Welcome to IM training

Well, I think I'm fully initiated into IM training.  It's 9:45 and after an unbelievably stressful workday I've just finished my workout for the day.  Yeah.  Dinner=a glass of chocolate soy milk for recovery.  *sigh*

Bestest....

husband ever! Brings pizza home to wife who is just finishing up a 2 hr workout (1:15 run :45 spin). :)

Tough week

Quick update.  Suffice it to say it's been a tough week, both at work and on the workout front. The company I work for is presenting at a big oncology meeting next week and I spent most of this week pulling numbers together for the posters and presentations.  Talk about pushing it to the last minute.  And I've still got a bit of work to do, as well as a 1.5 mile swim and a 6+ hr ride followed by a 30 min run.  14+ hours of workout total this week.

The good news.....Monday is a rest day.  And if I finish up my work (or squeeze it in Tuesday morning) it's a workless day too. :)

Oh, the sprint tri last weekend went ok.  Yeah, just ok.  I did good on the swim, an improvement of almost 4 minutes over last year on the same course.  I think I did better sighting, altho I still get pretty breathless at the start of these swims.  I pushed a bit harder on the bike, but didn't see a whole lot of improvement, 2 minutes better than last year.  In pushing harder tho, I had trouble with my nutrition plan.  Didn't take in nearly enough fluids, and despite knowing the advice "nothing new on race day", I tried some new nutrition that didn't work out so well.  Oh, also forgot my salt tab on the bike.  *sigh*  So, I went into the run dehydrated and under fueled and actually ran slower on this course than I did last year by a minute and a half.  Overall almost a 6 minute improvement, but a bit disappointing none the less.  I really would have liked to have done better, especially on the run.  

Gotta take the positives tho....learned something about nutrition, and still a PR on that course even though I'm distance training and not training for sprint efforts.  Keep the knowledge, leave the disappointment behind and move forward!

Happy long weekend!  Enjoy!

What are the symptoms...

of a tapeworm anyway?  What are the chances that I've got one?  

*Sigh* okay, probably not.  I just can't believe how hungry I am ALL the time.  I can eat dinner....10 minutes later hungry again.  Not kidding.  And I'm not eating salad here, I'm talking steak, sweet potato and green beans.  A good size steak,  not some tiny morsel.  

It's just ridiculous.

And breathe

Last week was the second 'build' week in the IM training. This week I get to take a deep breath and allow my muscles to recover...I hope they do some recovering anyway.

The pattern pretty much repeats with medium swim on Monday, ride/run on Tuesday, long swim on Wednesday, ride/run on Thursday, rest on Friday, swim/run one day of the weekend and loooooong ride the other day.

Last Saturday T and I spent 6 hrs total in the saddle, altho some of that was waiting at stop lights, getting lost, stopping to get water, etc. It was toasty warm out there and I went through about 5 bottles of liquids (water and Gatorade) for a total of about 110 ounces. Yeah and I was still thirsty.

On Sunday I felt the effects of the long ride when we did a short run and my HR just wouldn't behave like it should. Had a hard time getting it to jump up when it should and supposedly that's a classic sign of exhaustion.

Oh, and here's something *not* to try. Evidently there's a good reason for doing the swim and then the run instead of the other way around. Getting a super tight wetsuit onto a sweaty body is exercise in and of itself. Probably didn't think about that one quite enough ahead of time. :)

Total workout time for the week....in the neighborhood of 14 hours. This is seriously becoming a part time job, as my filthy house can attest to.

Coming up to cap off the rest week......a sprint tri. T and I are heading down to Morgan Hill to do the same tri we did last year (altho then it was called Uvas). Supposedly both Chris Lieto and Chris McCormack are supposed to be there so there should be some good tri bikes to drool over.

PSA

If you are a swimmer...try swimming with fins.  I've found it the best thing since sliced bread.  I don't know what it's supposed to do (increase muscle fitness for the kick, increase ankle flexibility ??!?!!) but they sure are fun. Especially fun....backstroke with fins! Wheeeeee! :)

One down....

One week of IM training down.  And it would seem, the weekends especially are going to be hell. In the words of Inigo Montoya: "Let me 'splain.  No, there is too much.  Let me sum up."

This week was a total of 12.5 hours of workouts.  Sounds like a lot, I know.  But what just about killed me this week is that roughly 7.5 of those hours were weekend training hours.  Yeah, seems that IM is all about the 'go long' training session.  Go figure.

Some each of swimming, biking, running, all week long, with a rest day on Friday.  Then a 5+ hour ride on Saturday.  And just for fun, a 1 hour run followed by a 1:20 ride on Sunday.  I'm beginning to see what I've gotten myself into and it is a *bit* scary.  

Oh, and the ride on Saturday was hilly.  Oh, and it was pouring rain for about 40-50 miles of the ride.  Oh, and it was chilly.  Oh, and....and....and.... *sigh*  I guess the hardening process might be a bit more painful than I allowed myself to think about.  No worries, I will get there.  I will.