This Week in Numbers
Swim: 9400m
Bike: 61.73 miles (all indoors)
Run: 24.37 miles
Total: 12:26:38
Thanksgiving………..My yearly quest for pie 🙂 I LOVE PIE and had full intention on eating plenty of it this week along with our traditional Thanksgiving fare 🙂 The week leading up to Thanksgiving is one of my favorites. This year I had to front-load my week in order to fit in the two HIT (high intensity cycling) classes I teach. Our plan was to head up to my mom’s house in Cedar City on Thursday morning after a quick stop at Veyo Pies to pick up the Thanksgiving desserts!
Monday and Tuesday were pretty normal training days. I swam and ran on Monday and did the first of two HIT classes on Tuesday morning. Sydney was out of school on Wednesday and I figured I would get in a swim and run in the mid-morning and then finish everything up with HIT in the evening. When I hit the pool on Wednesday I had no idea of what was to come. I figured an hour swim and then about a 7 mile treadmill run and I would be home by 9:30 or 10:00. Perfect! Well we all know how well “perfect” goes……
My workout in the pool consisted of shortish intervals of kicking and swimming. By shortish I mean 50s, 75s and 100s. The issue came with the 8-10 intervals of each that I was doing. After an hour and twenty-four minutes I was done……..as well done as a Thanksgiving turkey! Wow! That took A LOT longer than I had planned. I texted Adam and let him know I was running behind. I quickly changed into my running gear and headed up to the treadmill for a HR hill workout.
I knew my run would be a bit on the longish (there’s that ‘ish’ again). I was to do 1/2 mile hill repeats. NINE OF THEM! The trick to this workout was to keep my heart rate under 150. I knew what that meant…….this run was not only going to be longish, but also slowish 🙂 I opted to do this workout on the treadmill because I have an easier time controlling my heart rate indoors. If I were outdoors it would be hard to make the incline of the hill consistent. So off I went………..slowly! The minutes were ticking by, but I kept losing track of what interval I was on because I had so much time for my mind to wander. I devised a plan to count the intervals that included moving a little clip along the magazine rack of the treadmill……..new problem…….did I move the clip when I started to interval or did I forget? Ha! Not only was I doing slow intervals, but I now had miscounted and had probably done too many 😉 After an hour and 45 minutes I was finally done. 9.5 miles.
I’ve really been loving HR training lately. It is kind of like a drug. Your body does just enough to pump a whole bunch of endorphins into my blood stream. I feel like I am floating. I get done and I am full of energy and ready to go again. It is kind of a weird feeling. I may go out feeling sluggish and tired, but I come back with TONS of energy. I LOVE IT! I can’t wait to go and run! My body must be adapting to the training because my heart rates are staying within range, while my speed is starting to increase. Instead of crawling along, I actually feel like I’m running sometimes.
I finally got home just after 11 and informed Adam that we were going out for lunch. Since I hadn’t thought my swim and run were going to take quite so long, I really didn’t have much fuel with me. I had a banana before I got in the pool, some Stinger chews while I was in the pool and a Stinger Waffle before my run. I was pretty much on empty when I finished. I gulped a small “chug” of chocolate milk from a vending machine on the way out of the gym and had another banana when I got home, but knew I was needing more. If I was going to make it through another long workout that day, I needed a Cafe Rio salad!
I figured that for HIT, I would take more of a coaching position and teach off the bike. I could warm-up and then just get off the bike and walk around. Class started and I was off and feeling GREAT! I couldn’t believe I had already done 3+ hours of workouts that morning. I made it through the entire HIT class (with the help of a few of Craig’s PowerGel Chews)! At the end of the day I had done almost 5 hours of workouts that I had not intended to do. I couldn’t believe how good I was feeling. I WAS SO READY FOR PIE!
The next morning we were out the door headed to Cedar City with Veyo Pies in tow! (If you haven’t had a Veyo Pie, you have not lived……it is one of the biggest perks while training for Ironman St. George since Veyo Pies is right on the bike route!)
The rest of the week went as Thanksgiving usually does. Lots of food and lots of family! SO GOOD! Thursday night we headed out for our annual Black Friday battle at Wal-Mart and I almost fought some women for sheets…….not because I needed them………but for the principal of the matter 😉 Adam and I actually got in a nice 8 mile run in together up and down Cedar Canyon and I did one more bike and swim to round out the week. The twelve and a half hours of training earned me plenty of pie!
We are now home. The pie is gone. We have one sick kiddo on the couch and another full week of training ahead. I just love this time of the year. It is time when everything just flows. You can’t do anything but live in the moment and soak in the holidays which will be gone in a flash. Workouts are just hard enough to remind you why you love your sport and the weather (in St. George) is just about perfect everyday!
Well I better get to it. The pool beckons. Next up is the Expedition 50 Mile Team Relay this weekend with the HT Training crew. The fun just never stops!
Happy Training!
