Gettin a little hectic...

Hey everyone!

I would like to discuss my recent training...mainly because it has sucked the last 2 weeks! I will give myself a little leeway- school is CRAZY!! I have WAY TOO much grading for my activity classes, my HFI certification stuff takes up a lot of time, and now thesis stuff is getting rolling, I'm crazy crazy!

I've been going to Masters swim Tue and Thu mornings (I've made it once each week the past two times, I suck), and they are amazing. Wow it sucks getting up at 5AM. And yeah it sucks that it is still so damn cold outside. And jumping in that pool REALLY sucks when you are still cold! But Scott the coach has helped me out SOOOOOOO much I didn't think it was possible! He's given me a great progression of drills the last few weeks. I seriously think right now I could swim my fastest IM time. Laura needs to swim 3x a week to get good...

Biking...I've been doing ok, aiming for 3x/week, but only doing 2. Spinervals are amazing! I'm trying to get through all the aerobic/base builder ones...then the hill/strength ones...then the fast ones. I'm much farther along with the biking than I have been in MAY previous years...

Running...I was doing great...then I took it easy the week of the track meet, and haven't really picked it up since!I think I've ran like 3 times the last 2 weeks. And once was 2 days ago when I did the Boston-bound 20miler...

So I'm not completely sitting on my ass getting fat, I'm swimming and biking a little, and doing aerobics/strength stuff everyday in the classes that I teach. I was hoping that for the BB 20-miler, my legs would be rested a bit and I might be able to pull off a tough run...HA!!!

On Friday, I thought it would be a good idea to do a kick-butt workout for the last 9-week aerobics class...it was a kickboxing/step combo class, and it was truly awesome. HOWEVER...I kicked my own ass in the process...I had my class jumping on and off the steps, doing lots of step-kick combos, and worst of all, JUMPING LUNGES. They didn't fatigue me at the time...but Friday night I realized that probably wasn't the best idea if I wanted "rested" legs. My abductors, glutes, and hip flexors HUUUUURRRT!!!!

So Saturday I had a 3-hr bike ride planned. I checked out a 3-hr spinerval dvd, aerobic training, shouldn't be too bad, right? In fact, it should loosen my legs up! WRONG!!!

Coach Troy had us riders standing up for 1-minute intervals on and off for lots of sets!! About 45 minutes into the workout, my quads were BURNING...crap. So I started cutting the standing intervals short....then I decided to nix the entire workout at 1.5 hrs. Quads were burning, everything else was hurting from the Friday workout....

So I definitely went ahead with the BB 20-miler on the Chicago Lakefront...Ironman simulation right? Your body hurts after a 112 mile bike ride, so get used to it! Ay yay yay... Tom came up to Chicago as well, so he was my running buddy for most of it! We were able to maintain 8:45-9min miles, even though they were VERY painful for me (usually my heart rate is about 150-160 at this pace...it was 170-172 on Sunday!) and there was a lot of snow, ice, and puddles on the path- had to do a lot of dodging, slipping, and sliding. Near mile 14, my knees started to hurt from my fatiguing hips and compensation for the dodging I was doing! I felt bad for Tom, I know he was being nice and running with me, but wanted to pick it up!

Every single potty stop along the lakefront was closed for winter...(ummmm, people still gotta go?!!) and I ran the entire time having to go, but holding it...so finally I saw that there were bathrooms open for the Polar Plunge that was going on along the lakefront, so Tom took off, and I went potty =) I ran the last 4 miles in, nothing special, but I did it!

So, averaging 8:55-9min mile for 20, on super sore legs isn't too bad. But I do need to run more. Looking forward to altitude training in Colorado...tomorrow!!!!!!

Hopefully I'll get caught up on lots of stuff over Spring BReak (while getting in training and a vacation in Colorado and some time with my MAN) and then training will pick up again in a week or two =)

-Laura