Ironman training week 6

Settling into a groove of sorts with this training thing. But I can't help but hope spring gets here a little bit faster!

Monday: weights

Oooooh not a rest day! My husband wanted to come check out my gym and switch his membership there (YAY!) so I ended up getting in a quick full body weights workout while he checked things out and did the paperwork. And now gym dates in our future! It wasn't something we thought much about before, but now that our older daughter can babysit the younger one (and they are both old enough to be generally trusted to not burn the house down), it'll be nice to go workout at the same time, even if we aren't doing the same things.

Tuesday: 9k run; TR Berryessa

I was feeling a little off Monday night while trying to sleep, so I cancelled my early alarm and skipped swimming. I figure it's always best if you feel like you are coming down with something to go with more sleep and skip the workout.

You are saying there's going to be how much snow tomorrow? Can't you do something about that?

Older daughter was running a fairly spectacular fever when she woke up Tuesday morning, so probably for the best I got the extra sleep! I worked at home and was able to get in a run after my husband got home - extra important to squeeze that run in knowing we were in for a pretty good snowfall on Wednesday and a run that day might not happen at all.

Each of those pointy bits hurrrrrrts

Tuesday night, VO2s. How can 20 seconds of effort hurt that much? Considering the whole workout includes not even 3 minutes of all out effort, it was completely exhausting. Left me with sort of pleasantly sore and tired legs when I went to bed.

Wednesday: 2500m swim; 7k treadmill run

Fish practice

Snowy Wednesday so I got to work early at home and wrapped up in time to get in a late afternoon swim at the pool. Much more civilized than 5:30 am! Pretty solid feeling swim - I no longer feel exhausted and like I'm just going through the motions after 2000m. Instead I feel strong and energetic through the whole thing. Not any faster, but I'll take added endurance.

Nice fivehead

Because of the snow the sidewalks were a mess, and since I didn't love the idea of running through 10 cm of fresh snow, I went back to the gym in the evening to do 45 minutes on the treadmill. Nothing fancy, just putting in the time.

Thursday: 8k lunch run; TR Tunnabora

I didn't get up early to swim on Thursday for reasons I no longer remember (probably something to do with the bed being all warm and cozy). Damn that bed.

typical February. Grey, bleh, but at least the path was clear of ice.

Easy 8k at lunch running back and forth on the rail trail, since it was largely clear pavement. I am getting mighty sick of that trail but given how this winter is going, there's a lot more running back and forth over there in my near future.

The TR workout was cadence focused, which is always super fun (no it isn't). Tired legs after that!

Friday: TR - Tallac; 2000m swim

Worked at home Friday due to yet more shitty weather, but that meant I knocked out the sweet spot intervals at lunch and got in a solid swim in the late afternoon.

Saturday: TR - Cumberland; 6k brick run; weights

Current theme song

Cumberland is 1:15 spent mostly in the lower end of the sweet spot range, making it manageable but a bit of a grind to get through. Not easy but not really hard, either. Productive physically and mentally.

The slog through the snow after for 6k felt a lot less productive. I am officially over winter.

Then I was going to lie on the couch all afternoon but the husband wanted to go to the gym and we talked each other into it. Teamwork. Solid session of weightlifting, although my squat progress remains stubbornly slow.

Sumday: 3200m swim; 10k treadmill run

With the weather being total garbage, I decided to cancel doing a long run this week and opt for the safety of the treadmill. I have never felt better about not doing Around the Bay this year. It's the right decision for a variety of reasons, but the chance to sleep late on a Sunday morning, hit the gym with the husband, and then grab lunch with him after in the gym restaurant? That all worked out very, very nicely.

Well, other than the fact my bathing suit has started chafing me terribly around the arms/shoulders. I really wanted to swim 3800m but I started feeling the chafe at around 2800 and had to call things off. I'm claiming it's due to all the muscles, but really it's probably that I've been overdue to replace that suit for about 6 months now.

OH! And also is there anything quite as demoralizing as having someone who looked to be older than Methuselah jump in the lane next to you and immediately start cranking out laps far faster than you can swim? Doing backstroke, no less. #lifegoals

view: uninspired

The treadmill was boring but manageable. The secret, for me, is definitely podcasts - I can't watch TV on the treadmill because being prone to motion sickness, it totally throws off my equilibrium - just the thought of using Zwift running makes me nauseated. And music isn't distracting enough. But an interesting podcast and the time just flies by. Currently catching up on Radiolab. I debated going another half hour for 15k but the treadmill shut off automatically after an hour and the husband suggested getting burgers and, well, I will pretty much never turn down a hamburger.

There was a burger on this plate at one point, I swear

So, solid week, no complaints. This week is going to be more of a challenge, both because the TR workouts are ramping up in a serious way, and the current sidewalk conditions could best be described as 'maybe you should just try skating'. One day at a time to figure out how to get it all done.