Monday, May 10, 2010

May Weekend #1 Down

I may have mentioned a few (ok several) times that my coach is trying to kill me this month.  Or at least make sure I'm super-duper prepared for Boise.  This basically equates to more training than ever.  I just hope I can survive.....

Thursday - 45 min spin class + 1 hr yoga in the morning (normal routine).  Added bonus was a 1 hr descend pace run after work.  In the heat.  boo.

Friday - recovery day.  However, I actually worked this day (first Friday in a month I had to work... boo!) and then I volunteered for field day at the elementary school our office adopted.  I mentor a 5th grader, who had the afternoon field day shift, so I wanted to brave the heat and work the afternoon shift so I could see her in action.  Good plan, except her Mean Girls friends accused her of cheating on a state test (she passed, they didn't), so the poor kid was tossed in suspension for the day.  There were tears, it was bad.  Anyways, I ended up supervising the obstacle course, which was signficantly easier than last year's tag duty.  All I had to do was watch them go through hoops, jump rope 10 times, then walk with tin-can stilts for a while.  Not hard, but it was 95 degrees and I was doing a bunch of walking around, so not exactly a true recovery day.

Saturday - morning run then afternoon bike.

I ran 8 miles through the park, started a bit earlier than normal (6:30 AM) so I could beat out the heat.  Fortunately, a cool front blew through and it was actually nice out.  My pace wasn't blazing, but it was in the "acceptable" range for the zone I should have been running in.  Quads felt a bit heavy, but that's not entirely unusual.  Ended up doing the last part of my run going upstream through a group of very new TnT people.  I'm assuming they're training for the Houston marathon, because I can't figure out why else they'd be starting up so early.  And most of them were walking and looked pretty much straight off the couch.  One of them even exclaimed "wow, you've turned around already".  The look on her face was priceless when I told her I was on mile 7 of 8 for the day.  She's in for a shock if she thinks 8 miles is a long way....  After the run, I headed home, tried (and failed) to take a nap, then just ended up catching up on my TiVo.  Headed out on my bike at noon (so I could take a nap that afternoon) and rode 90 minutes (25 miles).  It was windy so my speed wasn't there, but my average cadence was 86, which for me is awesome.  I'm usually in the upper 70's to low 80's, so I was happy.  Especially to have light/quick legs after running in the morning.  My nap plan failed when Will called and said the guys were going to the bar for lunch.  I had only eaten on piece of pb&j toast (plus about 70 ounces of Infinit), so I was starving.  So much for my nap...

Sunday - brick day! (90 min bike + 30 min run).  Coach brought in a photographer for the website, so he wanted a ton of people to join the team brick.  Half of Team Erin came along (A), which was great, because I'm very clearly in the middle of the two ability levels of the group (very fast or very slow), so it was nice to have a buddy.  Since this was my third trip through the same park in 25 hours time, we took a slightly different route (out on Westheimer Parkway instead of staying on the trail to the end).  It was windier, but it was nice to see new stuff.  Cadence was 84, so I was a happy camper.  "A" had things to do, so I ran the 30 min by myself.  Pace was faster than yesterday but my legs still felt heavy.  Photos should be interesting - my tan lines from LoneStar are terrible.  Overall, a pretty good brick, though, and I was happy.  Then off to grab Will and head for breakfast.  And a much needed nap.

This weekend is a bit wonky, as I'm part of a relay team for the Beach to Bay marathon relay in Corpus.  I'm riding 2.25 hrs on Friday (so I don't have to ride on Sunday AND drive back home).  Then Saturday is race day.  I've got my leg (4.5 miles) and then I'm doing an extra leg to get my miles in.  And that afternoon I hope to do another 2.25 hr bike ride somewhere along the coast.  Or the beach may be too hard to resist, since we've rented a house on Padre Island.  Or maybe both, we'll just see.  The following weekend is crazy, with 12 mile runs and 3 hr rides - all on hills. I guess its nice to have something to look forward to, even if its scary.

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