Recovering is so much fun!

Last week was my recovery week from the Half IM and I have to admit that I loved every minute of it! I slept in, went for walks, and biked slowly to work. I went to a concert and I watched movies with my family. It was glorious!

At the same time, I feel even more inspired to continue the building period of my training. So this week has been about getting back into the swing of training. It's funny how I miss something only when I haven't done it in a while. I've also changed my schedule to include yoga 2-3 times a week in the morning. This will work because I should be running when it's hot out later in the day. I'm a big believer in training how one races and the run is never the first event.

So on Monday morning I did yoga, but my most favorite DVD will not work anymore! So I was thinking that I might start going out to the back deck to get in my sun salutations. Tuesday morning I went for a run, after skipping my Monday night workout due to family and home stuff. Then last night I went for a stellar bike ride! I held a 25.5 km/hr pace for almost 2 hours. It was a great ride... one of those perfect rides where the sun was out, the wind was low, and my legs were responding the way that I like. In fact, I don't think my legs have really responded to me that way all season... this is my favorite part of training! Feeling the power build and the blood rush, and all the endorphins flow through my body and I feel free from everything, like I could fly! So good.

So today is my day off. I was going to go swimming tonight, but after last night's workout I think it's best to give my legs a break. But it's back to the grind on Thursday with a swim of intervals in the morning and a mountain bike ride with my beloved women's ride. Friday morning is yoga time and I might go for a bike ride at lunch time. Saturday I'm going to do a long-ish run and Sunday I'm going to do a 4-hour bike ride with a short run for the brick workout. I'm excited for a weekend at home!

Long rides are great!

Friday night I was lame. All of my friends were out dancing and I was at home sulking at the fact that I was getting up at 6am to go riding. I love it and hate it at the same time. On Saturday morning at 6:30am there is almost no traffic, the sun was shining, the air was a little nippy, but it felt good. I did a good 70km at a good pace:
Distance: 69.65km
Time: 2:46:47
Avg speed: 25.1km/hr
Max: 39.9
We had a head- to cross-wind coming back, but I had a ride back to the city which was nice. I used a PowerGel on the ride and it helped a lot. It felt good to ride for such a long time, even though my left foot keeps cramping up and my butt area was kind of sore after that. Small prices to pay, I suppose.

On Friday I had my first swim in many weeks and it felt pretty good. I'm not very worried about the swim, so I just feel like I'm just maintaining right now. I'm just not motivated in that area.

Last Thursday morning I ran the same 4.8km in 33 minutes, which is 2 minutes faster than Tuesday. On Tuesday I did intervals and on Thursday, I just tried to keep up a faster pace to see how it would pan out. It felt better than the intervals, but I think I need to do faster intervals and maybe some hills. Basically I have to get up earlier to fit it all in. That night I climbed hill intervals with my women mountain bike group, which was uber fun. After the hill climbing, one woman and I did a nice half our, fast-paced ride. I got home completely rejuvenated.

On Sunday I did my first mountain bike race of the season. 1:21 of high-paced single-track, hill-climbing, and stellar down-hills. Fun times!

Last night (ie. Monday) I did about an hour of swimming at a pace. I did some 500m intervals and it felt good, but again I was not motivated to move my butt. In total, I did probably around 1800m.

This morning I went running in the windy cold rain and then biked to work. Tonight I'm going to hit the trainer for about an hour while watching Sex and the City. Should be fun!

Balance

I find that balancing my home life with my work life with my training life to be the most difficult part of training. It is a kind of training in itself. This weekend was a long weekend and I had big plans of a long road ride and a long run. Well, I guess 1 of 2 is good. It probably just wasn't the right "one." I went for a longish run yesterday (Monday):
9 minutes running:1 minute walking for 8km in 1:02
It felt pretty good, despite the down-pouring rain. I wore headphones for part of it, just to get me going, but I turned off my iPod shuffle halfway through.

On Sunday I went for an easy-ish mountain bike ride along the river with the dudes from my LBS (Local Bike Store), which was pretty fun. We stopped a lot, which I'm not super into, but it was good anyway.

This morning I went for a short run with some short intervals in it. I did 4.8 km in 35 minutes. It felt pretty good as well. It was windy and cold outside, but good anyway. After I got home I did half an hour of yoga, which felt amazing. I'm going to try to make this a regular occurrence after I run. Tonight I'm going to do a short road ride after work, probably around 35km. It is supposed to be cool for the next few days, but I kind of like it. I'm like that. Wednesday is my day off and Thursday I'm going to run some hills and then hopefully ride with the women for a mtb ride.

Somewhere in there, we're trying to plant our garden and do laundry. I might hire someone to clean our house. I don't know how long I can juggle all of this while standing on one leg. Balancing is hard!