Hello! I hope everyone had a great weekend. IMLP is officially less than 10 weeks away. That is really close. I am still not ready for the race, so I'm trying to be thankful for all of these hard training weeks still ahead. Amy and I joke that IMLP is our "Ironbaby" ... we have been training about as long as you'd be pregnant with a baby, and at this point, we are in the third trimester. I have a feeling at the very end, I will feel much like I did with my first pregnancy: a little nervous but d-o-n-e and just ready to get the show on the road. I'm not quite at that point yet.
Readers of the blog probably wonder where the heck my house-related posts are. They're not happening. Honestly, I'm stretched thin these days between kids and spending as much time with them as I can, training and work. I am doing just what needs to be done around the house. I've even broken down and hired a cleaning person because I couldn't find the time (and frankly wasn't making the time) to keep my house clean. I am hoping to tackle three house projects around Memorial Day weekend and in early June: (1) paint the playroom furniture; (2) hang the frames in my stairwell and (3) hang a few things on the wall in the dining room.
I hope those of you who come here for house posts will forgive me for these last 10 weeks! It's all IM all the time around these parts.
Week 26: 12:04:37 hours (wow)
Readers of the blog probably wonder where the heck my house-related posts are. They're not happening. Honestly, I'm stretched thin these days between kids and spending as much time with them as I can, training and work. I am doing just what needs to be done around the house. I've even broken down and hired a cleaning person because I couldn't find the time (and frankly wasn't making the time) to keep my house clean. I am hoping to tackle three house projects around Memorial Day weekend and in early June: (1) paint the playroom furniture; (2) hang the frames in my stairwell and (3) hang a few things on the wall in the dining room.
I hope those of you who come here for house posts will forgive me for these last 10 weeks! It's all IM all the time around these parts.
Week 26: 12:04:37 hours (wow)
Swam: 1:36:24 hours (4,434 yards)
Biked: 7:53:38 hours (91.3 miles outside; remainder on trainer)
Ran: 2:32:16 hours (17.1 miles)
Workouts:
Monday: easy endurance bike
Tuesday: bike with tempo + shake out run
Wednesday: open water swim
Thursday: long run (11 miles)
Friday: easy recovery swim
Saturday: 80 mile bike
Sunday: RACE! Sprint Triathlon (350 meter swim; 11.2 mile bike; 5k run)
So we've gone from Winter to Summer! It was hot this week. Gah.
Monday - not much to say about this workout. It was an easy 50 minutes on the trainer at endurance pace.
Tuesday - I had a pretty short bike but with some tempo work and then a 3 mile shake out run. I wore my new favorite running top on the run: the Lululemon Tone It Tank. I saw some really good reviews of this tank and decided to give it a try. Ummmmm, it's great. It would absolutely not work for someone with a larger chest, but for me it works great and is super supportive, comfortable and flattering. I am going to order it in a different color, because this will be my go to top for hot weather running.
Wednesday hooray. Open water swim! A local multisport coaching group offers open water swims at a local state park in the Spring and Summer. I was thrilled to get back to it. They set up a 1/4 mile course around some buoys and offer lifeguards on kayaks in the water. I credit going to these swims last year on a regular basis with getting over my panic in the open water. I did 1.5 miles, or 6 laps of the buoys, that afternoon. The swim felt great. I could have easily kept on swimming. And they offer cookies and other assorted treats! Cookies!
Thursday was a long run - 11 miles with the now very familiar 9 minutes run/1 minute walk repeat. Even with the walking and a bunch of hills, my pace was still good, and better than that, I felt like I could have run all day long. The conditions were pretty perfect for running too: cool, cloudy, misty. I also appreciate that I burned exactly 1,000 calories. Prepare yourself for the extreme hotness that is my fuel belt.
Friday I had an easy recovery swim and it was really short. I suppose that was by design after my long run and before my long bike and sprint tri. It took less than an hour and was just 1700 yards. I felt like I was getting away with something.
Saturday: 80 miles on the bike. The kids went with their dad so that I could bike and it took me about 5 hours and 45 minutes. It would have been shorter, but for a lot of traffic lights. I found an 80 mile ride on Map My Ride and it looked simple enough. I made a cue sheet on an index card and taped it to my bike stem. Let me just say: if you choose roads that end in a "Pike", expect a lot of traffic. I dealt with traffic and dicey road conditions for the first 10 miles of the ride. 10 miles in, I realized I was at the 202 Trail. My friend Robyn has talked about running on this, so I took a detour. Right before I turned onto the trail, some jerkwad in a black Mercedes wagon got so close to me I could touch his car ... just as I was riding over a big patch of gravel. But for the grace of God, I managed to stay on my bike and not fall over. I gave him the one finger salute and yelled out a handful of very choice words. Honestly, that was terrifying. I rode the trail and realized it was 15 miles, though with a bunch of lights unfortunately. Still ... no traffic, no cars, no dogs and perfect, pristine road surface. After I did the trail, I headed back on my intended route, only to dead end at a very busy intersection. I had no interest in riding on that road. So I went back to the trail and rode it a few more times to get to 65 miles, and then headed back to my start point. I had to to another little detour around Upper Dublin Township. I was stopped at a light and rather than get in the shoulder, I was in the lane of traffic, which I thought was much safer. Some jerkwad in a green Jeep Liberty got really close to me. I turned around and yelled, "How about a little room here, pal?" and he said something asinine and then I just gave him the stare of death. I managed to make it back to the start of my ride with 80.1 miles in the bank and 0.0 injuries. It was a great ride, despite the motorist drama. I think/hope that most of my remaining long bike rides will be with Amy and/or Amy & Bill.
Sunday was my sprint tri. I'll do a full race recap later this week, but I am pleased. I had a 2 minute PR, which I was happy about. Honestly, after the 80 miles of biking the day before, my legs were kind of like this when I hopped on my bike at the race:
See you swoon,
Monday: easy endurance bike
Tuesday: bike with tempo + shake out run
Wednesday: open water swim
Thursday: long run (11 miles)
Friday: easy recovery swim
Saturday: 80 mile bike
Sunday: RACE! Sprint Triathlon (350 meter swim; 11.2 mile bike; 5k run)
So we've gone from Winter to Summer! It was hot this week. Gah.
Monday - not much to say about this workout. It was an easy 50 minutes on the trainer at endurance pace.
Tuesday - I had a pretty short bike but with some tempo work and then a 3 mile shake out run. I wore my new favorite running top on the run: the Lululemon Tone It Tank. I saw some really good reviews of this tank and decided to give it a try. Ummmmm, it's great. It would absolutely not work for someone with a larger chest, but for me it works great and is super supportive, comfortable and flattering. I am going to order it in a different color, because this will be my go to top for hot weather running.
Wednesday hooray. Open water swim! A local multisport coaching group offers open water swims at a local state park in the Spring and Summer. I was thrilled to get back to it. They set up a 1/4 mile course around some buoys and offer lifeguards on kayaks in the water. I credit going to these swims last year on a regular basis with getting over my panic in the open water. I did 1.5 miles, or 6 laps of the buoys, that afternoon. The swim felt great. I could have easily kept on swimming. And they offer cookies and other assorted treats! Cookies!
Thursday was a long run - 11 miles with the now very familiar 9 minutes run/1 minute walk repeat. Even with the walking and a bunch of hills, my pace was still good, and better than that, I felt like I could have run all day long. The conditions were pretty perfect for running too: cool, cloudy, misty. I also appreciate that I burned exactly 1,000 calories. Prepare yourself for the extreme hotness that is my fuel belt.
Friday I had an easy recovery swim and it was really short. I suppose that was by design after my long run and before my long bike and sprint tri. It took less than an hour and was just 1700 yards. I felt like I was getting away with something.
Saturday: 80 miles on the bike. The kids went with their dad so that I could bike and it took me about 5 hours and 45 minutes. It would have been shorter, but for a lot of traffic lights. I found an 80 mile ride on Map My Ride and it looked simple enough. I made a cue sheet on an index card and taped it to my bike stem. Let me just say: if you choose roads that end in a "Pike", expect a lot of traffic. I dealt with traffic and dicey road conditions for the first 10 miles of the ride. 10 miles in, I realized I was at the 202 Trail. My friend Robyn has talked about running on this, so I took a detour. Right before I turned onto the trail, some jerkwad in a black Mercedes wagon got so close to me I could touch his car ... just as I was riding over a big patch of gravel. But for the grace of God, I managed to stay on my bike and not fall over. I gave him the one finger salute and yelled out a handful of very choice words. Honestly, that was terrifying. I rode the trail and realized it was 15 miles, though with a bunch of lights unfortunately. Still ... no traffic, no cars, no dogs and perfect, pristine road surface. After I did the trail, I headed back on my intended route, only to dead end at a very busy intersection. I had no interest in riding on that road. So I went back to the trail and rode it a few more times to get to 65 miles, and then headed back to my start point. I had to to another little detour around Upper Dublin Township. I was stopped at a light and rather than get in the shoulder, I was in the lane of traffic, which I thought was much safer. Some jerkwad in a green Jeep Liberty got really close to me. I turned around and yelled, "How about a little room here, pal?" and he said something asinine and then I just gave him the stare of death. I managed to make it back to the start of my ride with 80.1 miles in the bank and 0.0 injuries. It was a great ride, despite the motorist drama. I think/hope that most of my remaining long bike rides will be with Amy and/or Amy & Bill.
Sunday was my sprint tri. I'll do a full race recap later this week, but I am pleased. I had a 2 minute PR, which I was happy about. Honestly, after the 80 miles of biking the day before, my legs were kind of like this when I hopped on my bike at the race:
Despite the fatigue, I managed a faster bike than last year and a faster run than last year (and I completely blew my old transition times out of the water). I snagged a 4th place in my age group, which is good enough for me.
Dudes - Memorial Day weekend is this coming weekend. Amy, Bill and I are heading up to Amy and Bill's lake house for some Memorial Day fun and some swim-bike-running and a big fat 90 mile bike ride. What else?
Have a great week!
See you swoon,
Be careful out there! Drivers are crazier the closer you are to the city I think.
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