Days 6 & 7, Week 1: My legs have a workout hangover.

Yesterday I did some of my beloved Cathe; specifically, I did her PHA Training workout.  This morning I did the 17 mile bike ride I was supposed to do yesterday before I did the 3 miler actually on the schedule for today.  And this pretty much sums up how I feel right now:

True story.

I think this is partly because I'm coming back from a few weeks of recovery, and partly because I am dumb and have to re-learn some workout lessons over and over again (just like eating lessons).  What lessons would those be?  Well...

Lesson #1: It's hard to train for both a duathlon and a marathon at the same time.

When you start adding bike rides to your cross-training days, you tend to get way more tired.  And then you tend to skip them because you're tired.  It's one of those horrible negative feedback loops that culminate in "whoops maybe I should have ridden my bike more" during the bike portion of the actual race.

I may have to start taking my bike to work and getting those rides done after work and before I go home and pass out for the night. However, I predict this will still make my legs tired.

Lesson #2: Cathe's Strong & Sweaty Series' lower body exercises make your glutes beg for mercy.

There's a lot of squatting using one or more legs during those workouts, oftentimes with a heavy weight in your hand.  This is what happened during the PHA TRaining workout yesterday, and my glutes (which are not used to doing these workouts anymore on the regular) were crying this morning.  So of course they enjoyed the 17 miles of bike this morning.  Not really.

I need to remember not to hit the glutes so hard before another hard workout.

Lesson #3: Every workout is not a race.

Let me show you the average mph for the bike ride.

I don't know what got into me this morning, but I was all in race mode for some reason, taking the hills like there was no tomorrow and just never slowing down.  As you can imagine, this did nothing to help my crying glutes.

Any time I do this I pay for it...and I will on my 25 mile ride tomorrow, I'm sure.

Lesson #4: Don't try and make up missed workouts.

I was actually supposed to do that ride yesterday, but I farted around and it got too late to do it.  So of course I thought I would slap it on the front of the run for today and ended up slapping all the energy out of my legs.  And now visiting the bathroom is an adventure all its own if you catch my delayed-onset-muscle-soreness drift.  Skipping the ride today would have been the better option but, you know, I'm a moron.  That's pretty well-established.

Lesson #5: I have got to get better at workout selfies.

While this is something I usually remember to do, I need to get better at the action shots like all those pretty ones the pretty fitness people post on Instagram.  I think I would get better if a) I remembered to take them during the workout and b) I wasn't afraid of dying on the bike if I tried to use my phone.  So this is as good as it gets for now:

ZOMG there's a camera on the ground.

My face: "Did it take the picture? Did it?  I can't tell."

Enough major learnings; time for the minor ones:

• I also learned that an Instant Pot can get you some chicken salsa verde in 10 minutes, people, so you can top off your baked potato and have some major yums:

• I also learned that my sunscreen breaks down after an hour and hey sunburn hurts.
• I also learned that I have to slow down at intersections out in the country now because of that darn corn everywhere around here.
• And finally I learned I need to organize my transition area just a tad better than I do now.

Tomorrow's workout: 25 miles on the bike...not in race mode.