So I missed last week’s post and feel horrible about that. Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating a bit, but I should’ve posted. I’ll use a lame excuse like “I’m too busy” or “my computer broke.” While I won’t go through excruciating detail of each of those workouts (lucky readers), I will do that for the latest week (don’t go buy lottery tickets yet) and show both weeks’ mileage and time summaries. Worthless, yes, but I’m a data dork so you’ll have to live with it.
Monday: I had mixed feelings about Masters class today. On one hand, I was excited to work and keep up the improvement I’ve seen since I started the sessions. On the other hand, my body was on quite a bit of pain after Sunday’s 2 hour hilly run. When I got to class, Coach Kelly introduced me to a man who was interviewing for a swim coaching job and let me know that he was taking the practice. Once she reassured me that it wasn’t for the afternoon sessions I go to, I was fine with it.
Unfortunately, the guy wasn’t a great coach. No yelling, screaming, encouragement or anything. “Come on man, I can swim laps on my own, I came here to be coached!”. I said that out loud, in my head. After several laps of his planned backstroke (I don’t do backstroke) I was about done. I really didn’t get anything out of that class except to loosen up the muscles, which did help my soreness. Coach Kelly apologized profusely after the class. I still got yardage in, but it wasn’t a great start to the week.
Tuesday: I had another 40 tempo bike ride on the trainer. Felt great and really pushed hard to keep the speed and heart rate going. Legs were shelled after, but I felt good. Oh…and I sweat a lot! Just had to add that in there.
Wednesday: Masters class was a great one, but my body’s fatigue was noticeable. I was off a few seconds on each interval, but I just didn’t have anything left in the muscle tank. Even with that, the day was far superior to Monday’s session.
Thursday: I was destined to have another less than ideal day. I had a lunch run planned and headed out at 10:00 to beat the storm. I just had one of those days where your run feels labored, and not very smooth. I struggled to get into a rhythm, but it wasn’t meant to be. My pace wasn’t far off from a typical run like this, but I ended it not feeling all that great.
Friday: I was set to do my long brick again today but it didn’t go as planned. First, work was so busy that I couldn’t get on the bike in the morning like I had planned. I finally made it on the bike just before lunch, but had to escape for a conference call. With only 45 minutes in, I still had to crank out another 2:15 and a run. Once the call was over, I hopped back on the bike and finished out the ride while working. I had to bail on the run though…we were in the midst of a big storm and ended up receiving over 18 inches. Instead of the run, I decided to do some 100 Ups to get some leg work in the set. It wasn’t as good as a real run, but I had to improvise.
Saturday: My son had a big day planned for us on Sunday, so I pushed my long run to Saturday…snow or not. The snow had mostly stopped and I decided to go out after breakfast for the planned 2:15 minute haul. I ran to the nearby 470 trail and ended up breaking first tracks for most of the run. It was great and nice to have the solitude. I was happy and smiling the whole way, even though it was getting tough to push through all that snow.
Fresh snow before I broke the trail.
...and after.
At the halfway point though, I could tell I was getting tired. Not so much from an aerobic perspective, but my legs were feeling the effort. The last 1/4 mile before I turned around, the snow was up to at least knee deep and I had to walk a few times just to get through. I turned around and struggled back with another hour left on the push. I was surprised when I got to within about 50 yards from where I was to break off the trail, that the snow plow showed up. He kindly plowed that last 50 yards for me to give me a short break.
I made it home, but my legs were destroyed! Having said that, I was excited about what I had just accomplished. It was a good day!
Snow balls on the shoes.
Sunday: A much more relaxed workout day, with some ab work (not easy, but didn’t take 2 hours so I’ll call it relaxed…relatively).
Previous Week’s Workout Summary: 1/23 – 1/29
Run: 3 hrs 15 minutes, 24.37 miles
Bike: 3 hrs 50 minutes, 71.15 miles
Swim: 2 hours, 5700 yards
Total: 10 hours, 98.8 miles
Workout Summary 1/30 – 2/5
Run: 3 hrs 14 minutes, 19.05 miles
Bike: 3 hours 56 minutes, 76.68 miles
Swim: 1 hr 48 minutes, 5400 yards
Total: 9 hours 58 minutes, 98.8 miles
Thanks for reading!
- Brian
