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.

Day 4, Week 8: Stupid axial tilt of the Earth as it revolves around the Sun.

This morning's workout?  A sweet little 17-ish mile bike ride on a cool-ish morning with no wind (yay!).  Just a few quick things about this ride because I am about to pass out asleep on my keyboard:


1) The first time I ever wore a tri suit to go biking I was convinced the cows and horses were telling me how fat I was in it with their eyes as I rolled by their pastures.  Now I throw one on anytime I bike and I'm all like "DEAL WITH MY FAT ROLLS SUCKERS I GOTTA TRAIN HOW I RACE"

Tr-suit SEXY.

2) I am secretly (and now not-so-secretly) impressed with the fact I can bust out two splits at and 18 mph average after doing 8-ish miles of speed work yesterday.

3) Did you notice the time the ride started in the picture above?  Did you also notice that there's more and more dark around in the mornings this time of year?  And that dark made the start of the ride look a lot like this:

I did bike on the road, not the grass, btw.

Stupid dark and the stupid axial tilt of the Earth as it revolves around the Sun that causes the more dark to happen.

Cycling in the dark.  Buh.  Double-buh, in fact.  Earth science ruins everything.

Tomorrow's workout: A tempo run has finally appeared in the My Run Plan app...

Duathlon transitions: You should probably practice them more than once.

So yesterday I decided to do a small practice duathlon because that's always a good thing to do (not really) during the week of your race.

I wanted to do more than just 1.11 miles on the second run, but, again, work likes it when I show up on time so I had to cut it short (even though that didn't go as planned since a nice police officer stopped me on my way to work for going just a tad bit over the speed limit...ugh).  But the point of this little practice race wasn't to see if I could do the distances--it was to practice the transitions (T1 and T2).  You see, I am horribly slow during both transitions, and I am also horrible at practicing them to get better.  But I am glad I did get to practice them yesterday, because here are some things I learned:

• If you forget to put on your sunglasses in T1, lots of bugs (and maybe rocks) will become one with your eyeballs.  True story.  
• Untie your shoes in T1 so you don't have to fumble with laces in T2.  Especially if it's super cold on your bike ride and your fingers are pretty much useless in T2.  Like yesterday morning.
• Lay out your stuff in the order you need it.  Because then you won't have to think things like, "Wait...what was I going to do first?" or "Where the BLEEP did I put that?"

I don't need much...I just need to put it on really fast.

• If you carry your phone in the back pocket of your tri-suit and then try to run with it there on the second run it will fall to the ground causing you to freak out at the sound it makes when it hits the ground. Yep.  Leaving my phone in my race belt during the bike fer sure now during T1 and then picking it back up during T2.
• If you carry your headphones in the back pocket of your tri suit during the bike and then attempt to yank them out while running the 2nd run you will lose one of those plastic ear things on them in that pocket and then have to stop and fish it out, looking like you have suddenly developed a serious medical condition as you try to do this and continue to run at the same time.  Some lady going to her car who saw me asked me if I was OK when she saw me attempting to do my running + fishing out small plastic piece out of a pocket you can't see multitasking.  Fabulous.
• No matter what transition it is, I'm always tri-suit sexy.

Especially sexy next to the cat bed.  Mmmm.

And now even more learnings:

• The weather is supposed to be sucky on Saturday in Muncie.  Bummer.  
• How sucky?  Like 90 degrees and thunderstorms sucky.  AWESOME
• Good thing this is a practice race.
• At least my toes won't be frozen chunks of flesh at the end of the bike ride.  You gotta look on the bright side, people.

Tomorrow's workout: Easy run and then off to Muncie!

It was a triple-threat of a workout day today

Today was a triple-threat kind of workout day, with some biking, some running, and some strength training.

Biking, running, and lifting OH MY

The bike ride, however, was the highlight of the morning.  Well, mainly it was a highlight because of the simple fact that I didn't die for almost 25 miles.

Not dying - WIN

Besides not dying, here are the other reasons I'd like to highlight to make the case that this ride was a highlight:

• I didn't melt.  The high for the day was 95, so that forced me out at 7 AM for the ride (and the one mile run I did right off the bike).  Even though it was in the 70s at that point, the sun was pretty intense and I was pouring sweat droplets off the front of my helmet by mile 15.  Which, if you didn't know, sometimes makes it hard to see where you're going when those droplets hit your sunglasses.
• I didn't wimp out. I was going to do the ride on my spin bike because of the heat, but a small reminder to myself that the race in a few weeks would actually be held outside made me get out and get that ride done outside.
• I managed to refill by front water reservoir without killing myself.  I have NO coordination on the bike, so the act of grabbing a water bottle, opening it, and then squeezing it into my front reservoir is akin to me performing the most complicated aerobatics maneuver you've ever seen.  
• I got to practice my transition skills.  And I found these skills quite lacking, especially since me getting off the bike is like a slow-motion replay of any other normal triathlete doing the same thing.  But at least I know ahead of time I will be making a fool of myself farting around in transition.
• I added two extra miles to the ride.  Just to see how close I could get to 26.
• I was completely owning that tri-suit.  I want to do this duathlon in a tri-suit so I only have to worry about bringing one piece of race clothing, and I put that sucker on and rode in it without an ounce of self-consciousness.  Which is not something the size 22 me would ever have done.

• I waved to all the church people going to church in my tri suit.  Because they were staring at me and I wanted to try and be nice.  And sit up on my bike and show them more of my tri suit.

No more highlights-time for learnings:

• It's sad that it takes 95-degree weather for me to not procrastinate doing my workouts.
• For once, there was no wind...it was weird being able to go any direction I wanted and not mentally whine about the wind.
• I like biking and running in the tri suit except for the part where it stuck to me like a 2nd layer of skin during the run.
• And it's that "2nd layer of skin" thing that was probably causing the church people to eye me all crazily.
• Size 22 me would have laughed at the very thought of a bike ride and lit up another cig.

Tomorrow's workout: Speed!  400s!  Lots of them!