Day 7, Week 9: I've been a little busy.

As anyone who works in public schools can tell you, this time of year gets a little hectic because, you know, school starts back up again after that weird 3 month break we take.  And since I'm in charge of some of the activities for all of this starting up, my life this week has consisted of a lot of not sleeping, talking, running around setting things up, and trying not to fall asleep when someone is talking to me.

Oh, and I did manage a few workouts this week.  Some lifting, some running in the dark, and some cycling in the living room.

I did have to abbreviate a lot of the workouts in order to make it to work on time (hour commute yo), but my left butt has thanked me for that by not screaming at me anymore while I run.  So it all worked out in the end.  Well, I hope it's the end of my left butt screaming at me, anyway.  It was pretty quiet during this morning's brick workout:

A few things about this brick workout:

1) I didn't want to do it.  I was exhausted from the week's activities.  I just wanted to sleep until late in the afternoon and then eat until I fell asleep again.  But then "56 miles" kept running through my head and the fear of dying during my race won out.

2) I actually had another 50-mile ride on the schedule for today, but I just wasn't motivated to do it in the heat (I didn't head out until around 9 AM).  Instead, my brain decided that brick workout would be a nice compromise.

3) I decided to head out on a road I hadn't biked on for a while just to mix it up a bit.

4) I am a complete moron because a) WTF kind of compromise is a brick workout in the heat of the day especially when you do the running on a road that has NO shade and you're running at 11 AM in August for crying out loud, and b) that freaking road mentioned in #3 was one huge uphill climb full of rolling hills for around 8 miles and I was a gibbering mess by the end of it.

Well.  At least I did a workout today, even if it did almost kill me.

And now I shall end this post to put it out of its misery.

Tomorrow's workout: 18 mile run because, as we all know by now, I'm an idiot.

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.

Advantages and disadvantages of actually eating like you should normally eat because you're an adult.

This morning I got the joy of doing a little brick workout in the humidity and heat of what was going to be a freaking hot day.  For all that heat out there in my way, the bike and the run turned out pretty good.  Although I have to say I could see the heat waves coming off my body whenever the wind was at my back.

This looks all artsy-fartsy but I'm really trying not to hurl.

You just know it's going to be a scorcher when sweat is dripping from the front of your helmet by mile 5 and you feel a touch queasy at the end of the run.  Here's a close-up of how drippy I was after all that brick-ing and after I stopped thinking I might be throwing up so I better stay outside just in case.

I'm glad the nausea subsided, because I've been eating pretty well these days and I was looking forward to lunch, which consisted of salad, strawberries, and no-bread turkey wraps with cheese, mayo, and bacon (I finally succeeded in getting them to actually wrap and stay wrapped today...the answer is toothpicks, for all you wrap-challenged people out there like me).

While I have enjoyed eating like I should eat because I'm a grown adult for crying out loud and should be eating this way anyway, I've noticed that there are distinct advantages and disadvantages of eating real or close-to-real food.  Allow me to list them out for you because, you know, I have nothing better to blog about tonight:

Advantage: You get, like, nutrients your body needs and stuff.  Food is fuel, especially when you're training.  This seems a little crazy, but every time I eat a real food item I didn't used to eat on the regular, I remind myself of the specific nutrients I'm taking in and how this will help me run and bike faster (even if it's not true, because I'm good at lying to myself).  

Disadvantage: You hit the grocery store more often.  To get fresh fruits and veggies, I find myself at the store 3-4 times a week.  Well, I tell myself it's for fruits and veggies, but somehow an iced coffee from Dunkin always makes it into my hands before I leave the store somehow.

Advantage: You feel way better during your workouts.  It might be all in my head, but the workouts haven't been feeling so hard these days...even while running in some hot heat.  And 

Disadvantage: I feel like my life revolves around food prep.  Just when I think I can relax, I remember that I have to cook some food--either for immediate consumption or so I can have good food during the week.  While the effort is worth it not to eat crappily all the time, I feel like my kitchen and I have developed an enormously co-dependent and very weird relationship.  

Advantage: Guilt-free eating.  Gone are the "oh I can eat this crappy stuff because I'm training" excuses and, along with them, the guilt I felt afterwards about eating that junk.  

Disadvantage: Hubbs keeps eating your food.  This is one of the main reasons why I have to go to the store 3-4 times a week.  Who said he could eat healthy too?!?

Advantage: Hubbs keeps eating your food.  This is my unintentionally sneaky way of getting him to eat better, too.  Because I need him to keep on living so he can watch the dogs while I'm away at races.

Disadvantage: The cats could care less about any of this.

Hyooman.  Go away.

Aaaaand one last advantage: Desserts look like this:

And learnings look like this:

• Eating real food is really, really filling.  I get fuller much faster.
• Eating real food is hard.  I've never spent this much time searching for recipes.
• Biking and running in the heat is hard.  But not as hard as not being prepared for your half duathlon.
• Ending blog posts sometimes is hard.  So this is the end of the post now.  Scram.

Tomorrow's workout:  My Run Plan app says it's 2 miles.  So that's what it must be.