Doing Plenty, in Week Twenty

This week started with the best of intentions, but things didn't fall into place the way I would have liked. Sunday went well. It was a beautiful day, low wind, 70-75 degree temps, and, best of all, I had some training partners along to help make the day more bearable. The women of Team Satisfied (Sparkle, Sunshine, and myself) headed out for our first team training ride of the season. After about 45 minutes, we lost Sunshine. Something about having to do something with her boyfriend, whatever; we don't need her. Sparkle and I continue on, as we have a full 3-hour ride to conquer. We ride to Roland under great conditions, after a brief stop for a snack, we head back the way we came, over some small rolling hills and just a bit of a headwind. Sparkle starts to not like biking quite as much as she thought. Maybe it's the fact that I put in some serious time on the trainer this winter (or maybe my new bike is just that much faster... but I doubt it), but she is not a happy camper. Somehow I convince her to continue on with me, only problem is that the next section of road is not the least bit flat. It's just up one hill and down another, as far as the eye can see. By the time we get back to the flat stuff, Sparkle is questioning whether she even likes me anymore. Reagrdless, we did 3 hours, my food strategy worked out okay, and Sparkle had only a minor sunburn.

I was basically wiped out after the ride, both on Sunday afternoon and Monday. I was surprised how much it took out of me - must have been all the hills at the end. I used Monday as an off day and was grateful for that. Tuesday I had a great (but shorter than scheduled) swim and a great (but shorter than scheduled) run. I just didn't have the time I needed in the middle of the day to fit in the full swim, and the run was shorter because it was with the running group and I couldn't figure out how to justify the coach running twice as far as the rest of the participants. Next week, I may just have to get up and do my full workout in the morning and then run again with the group in the evening. I NEVER would have done anything like that the past three years, but somehow, it doesn't seem that far out of touch this year.

Wednesday was crazy. I had to work for a couple of hours in the morning, then I had some time off to train. I ended up doing a 50 minute bike loop outside, followed by a 25 minute run (brick workout), which I immediately followed by my swim workout. I think I might be insane to have tried that. Actually all the workouts felt okay, but the swim ended up getting cut short due to my work schedule - another short swim workout...

I've been trying something new the past couple of weeks. When the weather and my schedule permits, I've been commuting to work via bike. I have 2 bikes and gas is almost $3/gallon, so it makes good sense to me. I like it so far. Thursday I commuted by bike, but had a schedule that was crazy, even if you were driving. I rode about 20 miles in increments of 3-5 miles at a time. By the time I got home, I realized I had a 75 minute bike ride on the schedule. I talked Sparkle into heading out with me for another 40 minutes, and then I called it good for the day. Friday was another strange day. The forecast was for rain, so I planned to hit the treadmill for 6 miles before work, but when I woke up, it wasn't yet raining. I jumped out of bed and figured I could get 3.5-4 miles in before I needed to be back to shower for work. I opted for the outdoor workout over the treadmill, even though it meant fewer miles. My swim workout was great again, but shorter again. One of these days, I'll figure out how to get a full swim workout in...

Funny things that happened at the pool this week: I spent one day trying to swim around a manatee in my lane. When you think of a manatee, you think of a fat sea-cow that kind of floats around in the water with no real direction and maybe blows some bubbles or something. That is exactly what was in my lane. I swim in the medium lane (not the fast or the slow lanes), but this woman was just bobbing up and down near the wall in my lane, rolling onto her front and back, not really letting anyone do what we were all at the lap swim to do - swim laps. Thankfully, she moved into the deep end (with the other sea cows) shortly after I got in the water. Then on Friday this guy gets in my lane and says hi, just to let me know he's there. He swims away and I look at his water bottle and realize he's one of the guys from Ames who is also doing IM Wisconsin. He's one of the few people I hadn't met yet. So, I swim for a couple of laps, trying to figure out how to introduce myself without looking like some sort of stalker. Finally, we are both at the wall at the same time and I tell him that I recognized his name from his water bottle and explain that we are both doing IM Moo, then tell him my name is Julie. He says, "Oh, Julie Vardaman, right?" He then tells me he knows who I am and lists off a couple of people we know in common. So much for me being the stalker...

The worst part of the week was the weather forecast. Rain was predicted for all day Friday, all day Saturday, all day Sunday, and all day Monday. As an athlete training for an IM, four solid days of rain (especially over a weekend) is not good news. The running group met on Saturday morning and we ran 6+ miles in the cold, blustery, driving rain. Yuck! But, we did it and all felt better afterwards.

Weekly Round-Up (Sunday thru Saturday):
Swim: 5700 yards
Bike: 5 hours, 15 minutes
Run: 14.7 miles
Cross-Training: about 60 minutes of lunges, squats, and core with various clients throughout the week. It was the lunges that just about killed me. I did a bunch of them with one client on Tuesday morning and I was walking funny for 2 days after. I can't wait to find out how the client felt...