Stroller Run Wednesdays

Some of my friends do "Tempo Tuesdays" so this is my answer. Yes, the more appropriate answer would be to do the tempo run. Shhhh.

28 hours away

A quick trip to the mountains to spend the night with friends. Many paralyzers drank and a ton of laughs. Even a run on Sunday morning in the mountains. Last time I ran in Canmore I was pregnant with my daughter and duped into thinking that a half marathon was 23km (it isn't, you know!!). Totally worth it, even though 8.5 of the 28h were spent driving, it was nice to get away.

This week's summary:
swim 1:00 (1.9km)
bike 2:45
run 2:17 (21.3km)

Atta girl!

Something the swim coach says to me. I know it is something that one would say to a dog, but I think it is funny.

I am not the fastest in the group, not by far, but my hunger to improve is huge.

We did fast, faster and fastest 25 m repeats. 28-30s was fast, 25-28s was faster and 21-23s was fastest. I swam 25m in 21 seconds!! Funny thing was that after most of the repeats I would look at the clock and say "wow" out loud because I didn't think that I could swim that fast.

My arms and back are so tired after swimming and even a bit during. I have never swam like this and it is proof that I made the right decision by signing up for the class.

Another stroller run

Another run around the track with the stroller done. Sets of 5 laps was how I could get through it. Including warm-up and cool down laps (and a dash to the bathroom) I was just shy of 11km today. I timed each set and they got progressively faster.

We are getting settled in the house. It feels like home already.

Birthday!

It's my birthday. It's also moving day. Both good things. Fueled by a junk food breakfast, it will be a long but productive day.

Last week's summary:
Swim 1:00 (1800m)
Bike 3:05:00
Run 1:15 (12.8km)

So a shortish week since the run and swim that would normally be on schedule isn't today.

Back to full steam with the real IMC training plan starting in 2 weeks.

Little fish in a big pond

I moved up a lane today. Mainly because there were 4 people in the lane that I have been swimming in, and I moved to a lane with only 2 people in it. It was a good move for me. One of the other swimmers was quite fast and the other swimmer was a bit slower than me. I would always catch up to her at the end of a 50, no matter how much lead I gave her. Swimming with faster people really forced me to work harder as I didn't want to get dropped. I also was reminded of the power of the draft.

My back, shoulders and core are always sore after a swim. I am really concentrating on being powerful through my stroke, and not over rotating, and not crossing over my body, and swimming with a strong pull, and.... you get the idea.

Training has been easy this week. I took a much needed rest day yesterday as there has been so much to do in preparation for the move, and there have been a few nights where sleep has been a bit short. Not an excuse, per se, but I do need to do what's best for my body (and I hate listening to my body) and be able to get through the next week.

Scary...

I have put in the first 2 weeks of the official training plan for Ironman. It is 11 workouts: 3 swim, 4 bike and 4 run. I'd be lying if it didn't look a bit scary to me.

The sweat smiley

You know when you work hard and you get that pool of sweat on the inside of your bra and possibly on the front of your top? I didn't get that today. Instead I was soaked all the way to the bottom of my tank. Awesome!

Energy debt

I took an unscheduled rest day today. I have been feeling tired and not feeling like myself. The latter is usually an indication that I need more rest or more to eat. I have been meaning to track what I am eating but I haven't started yet. I am sticking to mainly healthy choices. Sleep can be out of my control. I can go to bed at an early hour, but if the kids are unsettled then we are too. The past two nights I have gotten about 5 hours of good sleep between them.

Swim yesterday went well. 1800m total and I am happy that I can finish the whole workout in the class. I have been paying attention to the rest breaks and not taking more than what is suggested. I do find I get tired in the workout but it's a good tired. I did an hour on the spin bike first, just to get the saddle time in. Nothing challenging in terms of power or gear, but trying to maintain 90rpm.

I do know that I will have to make some scheduling changes once my parents are able to resume sleepover night with the kids. I can't have the workouts get longer and harder as the week progresses. I need to divide them better. I do have to work around teaching spin Tuesday evenings and coached swim group Thursday mornings.

So far I am enjoying the journey and I am glad that I am keeping up for the most part.

How do they do it?

Both the older fuzzies had school this morning so that leave almost two hours for Junior and I. I have my current training schedule set up to have that morning as a long run day and I attempted it with the stroller at the indoor track. Now it may also be because I didn't get a lot of sleep last night, but it was a PITA to get through and I gradually was slower and slower. Hardly enjoyable. Maybe when the weather is nice we can take it outside?

The frustration started before we even left the house. As I was packing up to go I grabbed my gym bag and things must have shifted because my iPod turned on and I could hear it. I left it knowing I would be grabbing it later. However, "later" I couldn't find the damn thing! I easily spent 15 minutes searching all the pockets in my bag and came up empty. FFS. So no distracting music aside from the group fitness class that was on the field below and when that was over there was nothing except my own thoughts. Which, after being up most of the night, weren't original at all! So I am rethinking my current plan of the long run on Wednesday with the stroller.

I have friends that can run for hours with their running stroller. I don't know how they can do it.

So much to do

The condo for the race and surrounding days is booked, so that is one less thing to stress about. However, we will be moving in less than two weeks and the list of things I need to get done before that date is long and I need to pick away at that.

The next two weeks will be busy and exciting and I am looking forward to it all being done. I can't wait for the memories that will happen at the house and I am going to love watching the kids grow up there. It is so the right move for our family. They are so excited and are counting down the sleeps. It is so cute when Sweetpea asks if her stuffies will come to the new house. And her shoes. And her brothers.

Next week is a cut back week for me. I have three full rest days, although one will be lots of lifting, packing and unpacking.

I'm a triathlete!

..sort of. My workout today was a brick bike and run, then I hit the pool. If I triathlon involves a spin bike, abnormal distances and doing the events out of order, then I totally rock.

Another week of completed workouts for me.

This week's summary:
Swim 1.5h (2900m)
Bike 3:20
Run 2:01 (19.2km)

Body is feeling sore and tired, but the good news is that I don't have a workout planned until Tuesday afternoon so it is like having 48h off!

Poor mommy

Poor mommy didn't have a good night's sleep and was woken up too many times by a girl who needed cuddles.

Poor mommy was woken up too early in the morning by two handsome boys who wanted to play.

Poor mommy couldn't put her feet up because daughter wanted to colour and oldest son wanted to do a puzzle.

Hardly a poor mommy, I know. I am very lucky. Today's run got preempted by life but it did get done as planned. 42.5 laps of the indoor track completed. I even managed to gradually increase the pace to finish fast but strong.

What do you do when you're doing a boring workout?

I was spinning this morning and watching the group fitness class below. Here is what I discovered:

-66 participants: 62 female, 4 male

-26 participants wore a lululemon tank

-16 participants wore shorts, 8 wore pants, the rest wore capris. All bottoms were black

-4 participants wore a hat

-9 wore too much make-up

-21 participants used the 5lb dumbbells. 19 of them were in the back half of the class

I also discovered that without a plan I find spinning boring. Tomorrow I have 1:30 on the schedule and I am going to have to come up with something.

Swim today was 1900m and I finished the whole workout. We did 3 x 100m descents and my times were 2:15, 2:12 then 2:02. We also had to do some hard pulls and were my arms ever tired at the end. Apparently I am reaching too much from the shoulder joint instead of reaching with a body roll. Something else to work on.

It's been a good start to the week. Yesterday was a 45 minute spin which did feel a bit tiring and today was a 40 minute run.

I am noticing that I am getting stuck running the same pace for my runs. It is time to mix it up...