Jun 15, 2008

a week of surprises

After taking Monday off I got back in to the swing of training again. Tuesday i had pilates in the morning then did a 2800 yrd "speed" swim in the evening. I was almost shocked at how good I felt - I was expecting to feel fatigued and tired but I never did. The time and yards just seemed to fly by and before I knew it I was done. Though I did fall asleep on the couch before 10pm.

Wednesday I did a "speed" bike on a crappy spin bike at work after lunch. The work out was good I just never got the bike really adjusted to fit well. I think from now on I will just put my bike on the trainer in the morning before work instead - at least it fits and I can get cadence and all that. The workout was a good mix of short and long intervals and I just went on heart-rate as a guide.
Afterwork I met up with a new friend at work, Marissa (who is also doing Vineman) for a moderate 60 min run. It turned out to be a great night for a run along the waterfront, no rain, no wind. It was actually a little warmer than I had expected but nothing to bad. We are pretty close to the same pace - she said she was having to go a little more than moderate to keep up but we chatted the entire way which always makes time/miles go by faster. Once again I was a little surprised my legs never felt like I had done a hard workout a couple hours earlier. We managed to go 7.5 miles in 63 min which was just right.

Thursday I had pilates again in the morning - always a wonderful way to start the day. Then after my mom came over to help me clean up my yard I went and did a workout on the local high school track. Now for some reason i thought one lap on the track was 200 yrds not 400.. But I did not feel that i had 2 laps x 8 in me so I dropped it to 1 lap x 8 so the main set would up being right.. But when it said 100 I did 200... so even though I was thinking I was cutting it short I would up adding more in. In all I would up running a little over 4 miles. and I had defiantly pushed my legs hard - they were tired and sore. I woke up the next morning and really knew I had done something.

Friday morning I slept in till 7am to give my legs a little more recovery rest... ;) Then after work I went and did a long swim. It was crazy long actually - 4000 yrds planned... I only did 3700 yrds. I felt good I just got to the point where I was just done. I listened to my body and I did not need another 300 yrds - not this week anyways.

Saturday we joined a group (they call them selves a Herd) that we met in Hawaii for a ride on the Lake Stevens 70.3 course. The group is great - we had a blast riding with them. One of the guys - Duane forgot all his gear (shoes, helmet, gloves) but still road the course twice and pushed the pace the entire time - it was amazing really. Kyle, Joel and I did the bike course once (28 miles) and then ran 1 loop (6.8miles) of the run course. It had finally warmed up once we were running which was really nice. My legs felt pretty heavy - still a bit sore from Thursday but some how still managed to run an 8 min pace!! without pushing my heart rate to high or anything. The cruel part of the course is the out and back along the lake - all I wanted to do was jump in.
After finishing running we went down to the lake and cooled off - not as cold as I thought it would be but still an alright substitution for an ice bath. When we got back home we took a 3-4 hour nap :) I also fell asleep in the living room around 9:30pm - could not even keep my eyes open to watch some great ITU races from last week in Vancouver.

Today (Sunday) Monique joined Kyle and I for Kyle's favorite ride out to Snoqualmie Ridge - she did not really know what she had agreed to -lol - but she took us on a hilly ride last week so all is fare in training. It finally felt like summer - it felt great to wear a sleeveless jersey and shorts. I was a little worried that I would be to tired or sore or whatever. But just like the rest of the week I was ok. I climbed as strong as usual and felt pretty good. Kyle just keeps getting stronger and faster but I never got to far back and Monique was always right between us. It turned out to be a great ride. My strength is defiantly on the climbs. I really need to spend some time working on gaining/keeping my speed up on the flats or small rollers. I just don't seem to stay as focused and start loosing speed - just need to spend a few rides going around Lake Sammamish or out on the trail and get those spinning muscles as strong as my climbing muscles. It wound up being about 58 miles in under 3:20 - not bad for a hilly training ride on very tired/sore legs. I had planned on possibly doing a moderate swim this afternoon but instead I washed my car and took a 2 hour nap.

In all I feel good - especially since tomorrow is my recovery/rest day. Then the best part I get to start it all over again :) Lets hope the nice weather lasts more than one day...

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