March Madness!

It took me a week to recover from the Austin half marathon. Seriously, why I did not take an ice bath, I'll never know. Oh yeah, now I remember. I had checked out of my 1-star motel and I did not have a tub to take an ice bath in. Anyway, my calves were shredded. I did a little 3 mile run a few days after the half marathon and it felt like my heart was racing. I did a few Yasso 800's a day later and my blister painfully informed me that it was not happy about that. I could feel my calves wanting to cramp up when I pushed off the wall at Master's Swim.

I took a few days off of running and just worked on the bike. I figured that there was more knee flexion than ankle flexion going on when I was pedaling. Last Thursday, my training schedule had what I thought was a mistake on it. After confirmation with my coach, it was no mistake. The day started out with my Master's Swim workout. We did a tough workout that included a 1650 meter swim set for time. I got it done in 29:05. That is a 1:46 per 100 meters. Not bad, I guess, but I felt sooooo slow with the guy who was swimming in my lane and the people in the lanes next to me. I was so slow that my lane partner (who has raced IM CdA) asked if we could swim on either side of the lane rather than circular swimming so that he would not have to wait to pass me. Um, *sniff* yeah, I guess so. He finished a good 350 to 400 meters ahead of me. Total swim workout that day: 3150 meters.

After getting home and feeding my face, it was time for item #2 on my training plan. 6 x 25 minute Zone 3-4 intervals on the bike trainer. Wait.....HOW MANY??!!?? Yup, 6 of those puppies. I set up the bike in the Hot Box, the table for my lap top, my Hulu shows to watch and I got going. Around the third interval, El Esposo came home to drop off one of the cars with adopted daughter #1 and saw me sweating my ass off as they pulled into the driveway. Now he knows for sure that I am not sitting around on the sofa watching "Real Housewives of Miami" and eating ice cream sandwiches when he is at work. I ran out of past episodes of mindless television to watch and had to do the last interval and a half to the iPod. I killed it and pushed some even bigger watts than the earlier intervals. I was 90 seconds away from finishing when Bud walked up the driveway from school. I sent him in the house to fetch a granola bar for me as I finished up. I don't think that I have ever been so sweaty when I finished that workout. I had worked my way through four bottles of water and never once had to get off the bike to go pee. I had sweat it out all through my pores. My had sweat dripping off my rear through the tri shorts, sweat dripping off of the shirt I was wearing from the bottom hem and from the sleeves. Sweat had been running down my forehead and off my nose. I had sweat that was running down my legs and into my shoes. Sweat dripping off my elbows and hands. Later that evening, El Esposo asked me what was all sticky on the garage floor. Um, sweat...

After a shower and more food I got a chance to take a little rest before Workout #3 for the day which would be a TRX workout. I got that done when Bud was at swim practice. That workout seemed easy compared to the other two of that day. Even though there was a brick of 40 minutes of cycling and 40 minutes of running the next morning, I decided to just sleep in and rest. Friday was a busy day and I knew that if I did not get that brick started by 4:30 am, it was not going to get done and I did not want to put it in the afternoon only 12-13 hours out from the Saturday long day.

On Saturday, I had Master's Swim at 6:30 am. Coach Tim worked us hard. I was dying to try to hit the time splits on the last 50's at the end of the workout. I hit two at :38 seconds but the other two were a miserable :41 seconds. I was tired after 3000 yards of swimming to eek out those last two 50's at :38 seconds. After drying off and changing into bike gear, it was time for me and Greyhound to begin our 72+ mile ride. The Hound stated that he was going to take it easy and not dig himself into a hole. I said that I would let him set the pace and I would follow along. It was humid and a little cool and foggy when we got going. All I can say is that I guess I was drinking enough because I had to make a mad dash to the bathrooms at all of our normal stops. Around the 40 mile mark, Greyhound had some chain issues and told me that he was getting near the edge of the pit. I took over and pulled us into Richards, TX for a stop and then let him sit on my back wheel as we plowed into a headwind 24 miles back to the school. I was feeling good and took a couple of looks over my shoulder just to make sure that I was not getting out of control and not doing my job as a good training partner to keep the effort under control. Gads it was windy. Once we got to a road that was not going straight into the wind, Greyhound told me to pick it up and we would regroup at a gas station that was about 8 miles or so up the road before we had to maneuver an intersection with railroad tracks at the corner of the school. I just let it fly and it felt really good. Once we got back to the school, Greyhound had to take off, but I still had a 20 minute transition run that I had to get done. I also had to find a secluded area behind the football stadium or the tennis courts to take a leak.

I was so glad to get home, have a tasty lunch of leftover Asian Chicken Soup and some fruit, get a shower, and get a nap. Later that evening, we did movie night and we all went out to see True Grit. Great movie. Make sure you also see the original. Bud was doing some good comparison and contrast on the way to get me some Chipotle soft tacos after the movie.

SLEEP IN SUNDAY!!! Wow, that was awesome! Sadly, 6 am is sleeping in for me. I got two hours of quiet time before everyone else woke up. Greyhound and I had decided that we would take advantage of the warm temps in the 70's to get our 10 mile run in. I also think that by starting our run around 2pm is helping mentally because that is around the time we will be getting off the bike on May 21st. It was warm. Ugh, it was warm. And my legs were heavy. I felt like I was running through mud. We ran a 9:20 pace and it felt hard. Now I know why my coach was questioning why I was going against past years of training and doing my long run on Sunday instead of Saturday with my long bike on Sunday. Frankly, I would like to do it that way, but family time is tricky and that does come first. We got the run done and it was time to race home, get some pizza dough started and get cleaned up before watching The Oscars.

I stayed up way too late watching The Oscars and Jimmy Kimmel, but seeing Tom Hank's "Toddlers & Tiaras" spoof was worth being tired the next day. Monday was a day off. Yahoo! Today begins a new month and a new week in the training. It was an interval ride on the trainer early this morning, a Pilates mat class at 9 am, a 6.6 mile run around lunch time, a two hour nap this afternoon, and a TRX workout this evening. I am heading up to take shower #3 of the day and then it is bed time. Yes, it is March Madness!

Stay tuned to see what kind of craziness this week in the training brings.

Later Gators,

Liz