Sunday, March 25, 2007
marian, March 25th, 2007
Had a very nice run today. I woke up last Friday with a horrible sore throat. I got on the trainer in the morning and did a very easy hour. I thought I would try and run but I didn't want to push it. That evening I swam a Webster and had a good swim. On Saturday morning, not only did I have sore throat, my nose was running and I felt really tired. A few months ago I would have said, screw it, I'm pushing through it and biking for 3 hours. But, the voice in my head reminded me of what has happened every other time I do that: end up in bed for a week to sick to move. So, I sat on the couch all day, watched Borat and the Prestige on dvd, then went top bed around 9:30pm. I also drank about half a gallon of OJ, took Zicam all day and Airborne. Woke up this morning feeling great. i was scheduled to run 1:45, ended up going 2:05. So, i guess that's my lesson for the day, I can not be afraid to take day off every once in a while. One or two missed workouts every once in a while is not that bad in the long run if I really need the rest.
Jackie D - Week 27
Week 27 - starting Monday 19 March 2007
Scheduled hours: 11hrs 30mins
Actual hours: 9hrs 44mins
Ooopsy, the second week in a row where I haven’t actually met my scheduled time. It’s been a week of good things and frustration.
It started on Monday when it was still cold and my indoor cycle trainer broke 8 minutes into the workout. The thread on the resistance thingy had gone. No problem though, I pull out my running shoes and go off for a run instead. I phone a local bike shop that sells my type of trainer and they say to bring it in and see if they can fix it.
Tuesday is when the frustration starts and I have to keep a focus on my priorities. My eldest son is sick so I don’t make it to the bike shop - no big deal as I am hoping to get out on the road later in the week with temperatures forecast to be good. But, then my son is sick on Wednesday and Thursday too, hubby is out of town on business and so I am tied to the house. All I could manage was some strength stuff at home. By Thursday I must admit I was getting a bit stressed about it and a fellow triathlete kindly offered me the loan of his indoor trainer.
Friday arrives and I am so far down on my workouts for the week. The trainer on loan arrives and at the last minute I decide my son is definitely well enough to go to school. Yippee, I test the temperature and decide to ride outside. Yippee, yippee I get my long bike done. Lots of new and exciting stuff on this one. This is the first time I have been out in my new shoes and new pedals. They aren’t as easy to clip in and out of as my old ones but the shoes felt fine (until about an hour in when they went numb with cold - but I am the person whose feet get cold inside on an indoor trainer!). I also have got a new aero bottle which has managed to be jammed between my aerobars. I found out that you can tell the roughness of the road by how loud the aero bottle is rattling. In fact on a little bit of canal path that I use to access the roads there was a bump so big that the mesh plug thing flew out (I caught it mid air and didn’t fall off!). Drinking from an aero bottle is definitely not as easy as you would imagine. First of all, if I am bent down that far I can’t see where I am going ‘cos the peak of my cycle helmet obstructs my view. But secondly I think it could rip your mouth apart whilst drinking and pedalling along. Eventually I figured out if I gripped the straw with my teeth before sucking then it seemed to do less damage.
On Saturday I managed to make up a swim at masters but that is all I could fit in as we have lots of kid stuff going on (Saturday in my usual day off). I could have made up one of the missed bikes when we got home at 9pm on Saturday but decided I would rather have an early night to be ready for the group run on Sunday morning.
The Sunday morning run was really good. I had forgotten how enjoyable it was to run with a group of people. Longest run so far at 2hr 16mins so felt very pleased with myself. I also decided not to make up a bike workout today and just to recover and be ready for a good week next week. I hear so often the “don’t try and make up missed workouts” but it is hard not to do so, especially when in your mind you are just “rearranging”.
Oh and the good news is that a replacement part for my cycle trainer is in the post and should arrive in a few days so all ends well.
17 WEEKS TO GO
Scheduled hours: 11hrs 30mins
Actual hours: 9hrs 44mins
Ooopsy, the second week in a row where I haven’t actually met my scheduled time. It’s been a week of good things and frustration.
It started on Monday when it was still cold and my indoor cycle trainer broke 8 minutes into the workout. The thread on the resistance thingy had gone. No problem though, I pull out my running shoes and go off for a run instead. I phone a local bike shop that sells my type of trainer and they say to bring it in and see if they can fix it.
Tuesday is when the frustration starts and I have to keep a focus on my priorities. My eldest son is sick so I don’t make it to the bike shop - no big deal as I am hoping to get out on the road later in the week with temperatures forecast to be good. But, then my son is sick on Wednesday and Thursday too, hubby is out of town on business and so I am tied to the house. All I could manage was some strength stuff at home. By Thursday I must admit I was getting a bit stressed about it and a fellow triathlete kindly offered me the loan of his indoor trainer.
Friday arrives and I am so far down on my workouts for the week. The trainer on loan arrives and at the last minute I decide my son is definitely well enough to go to school. Yippee, I test the temperature and decide to ride outside. Yippee, yippee I get my long bike done. Lots of new and exciting stuff on this one. This is the first time I have been out in my new shoes and new pedals. They aren’t as easy to clip in and out of as my old ones but the shoes felt fine (until about an hour in when they went numb with cold - but I am the person whose feet get cold inside on an indoor trainer!). I also have got a new aero bottle which has managed to be jammed between my aerobars. I found out that you can tell the roughness of the road by how loud the aero bottle is rattling. In fact on a little bit of canal path that I use to access the roads there was a bump so big that the mesh plug thing flew out (I caught it mid air and didn’t fall off!). Drinking from an aero bottle is definitely not as easy as you would imagine. First of all, if I am bent down that far I can’t see where I am going ‘cos the peak of my cycle helmet obstructs my view. But secondly I think it could rip your mouth apart whilst drinking and pedalling along. Eventually I figured out if I gripped the straw with my teeth before sucking then it seemed to do less damage.
On Saturday I managed to make up a swim at masters but that is all I could fit in as we have lots of kid stuff going on (Saturday in my usual day off). I could have made up one of the missed bikes when we got home at 9pm on Saturday but decided I would rather have an early night to be ready for the group run on Sunday morning.
The Sunday morning run was really good. I had forgotten how enjoyable it was to run with a group of people. Longest run so far at 2hr 16mins so felt very pleased with myself. I also decided not to make up a bike workout today and just to recover and be ready for a good week next week. I hear so often the “don’t try and make up missed workouts” but it is hard not to do so, especially when in your mind you are just “rearranging”.
Oh and the good news is that a replacement part for my cycle trainer is in the post and should arrive in a few days so all ends well.
17 WEEKS TO GO
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Jackie D - Week 26
Week 26 - starting Monday 12 March 2007
Scheduled hours: 6hrs 35mins
Actual hours: 6hrs 30mins
This is week 26 and that means that I have completed half a year, 6 whole months of training so far for this event. That is a long time and I am wonderfully surprised to say that pretty much all of it has been upbeat. So far I have not had any weeks at all that I have either regretted my decision to enter or not wanted to train for it. I know a lot of the hard, long work has yet to happen but even so it is has been a good achievement so far.
Having said that, this week overall (with hindsight writing on the Sunday) has probably been one of my least enjoyable weeks and lots of little reasons have contributed to this. I just haven’t felt like I have made any progress at all this week and I am glad this recovery week is over and I am back to “proper stuff” next week. (Sorry coach, I know recovery is also proper stuff, honest!)
I have had to be (and wanted to be) super flexible this week and I am getting much better at that mentally wise. I knew the kids would be off school on Friday (superintendents day or something) so I had to plan workouts that I could do at home for then, so, I swapped my Friday brick (YES my first brick for months) to Monday and that was a great way to start the week because I rode my bike outside. OUTSIDE YEH! It was a funny ride though. Despite all the indoor cycle training, within the first 5 minutes I thought I was going to die. Then within the next 5 minutes I wondered how on earth I was going to complete the Pittsford sprint triathlon let alone an Ironman. All I did was concentrate on keeping a high cadence to get me through. I guess it didn’t help that it was mostly uphill and into the wind for the first half (I did an out and back). After I had turned around and was on the way back I began to look forward to the longer rides. This one was only 45minutes. I followed up with a 30min run with instructions to go on the feel of breathing, not how legs felt. I honestly felt like I was going really slowly, as slow as my slow recovery runs, so, when my Garmin beeped to tell me I had done my first mile in under 9 minutes I was amazed. My legs felt fine so I am looking forward to more bricks.
I took my bike in to have a tune up and to get some new bike shoes. I had the walkable type shoes that are a little flexible and thought it was time for some nice powerful stiff ones. Yet to try them out though because the rest of my cycling week was done indoors (either pouring with rain, freezing cold again or kids at home).
My second workout of the week was a 1000m time trial swim. I was devastated at the end to find that my time since my last one (in December) had decreased by 40 seconds! After the initial depression and feeling sorry for myself I am determined that the next one will be different.
At this point in the week (actually before the swim but not using that as an excuse ‘cos it was fine once warmed up) I noticed that my right upper arm hurt a bit if I lift it in a certain way (upright row and recovery of freestyle). My second weight session and my second swim session were cut short because of this. Think it is probably a pulled muscle, although no idea how I did it and I am hoping it will just go away soon.
More flexibility in my schedule came at about 4pm on Thursday. I had done nothing all day as that is my scheduled masters evening swim but I had been snacking all afternoon to make sure I had some energy for the swim. Then I got a phone call to say swimming was cancelled because of a pool problem. Yikes! So, I swap my Sunday long run to then and go out as soon as hubby got back from work to take over kid duty. It was cold, much colder than I anticipated so not very enjoyable. It was also dark for the second half of it which was extra noticeable since all the snow had melted and so no white reflecting all the light.
From about 20minutes in I felt really hungry and this was only a very easy run. It did make me think that perhaps I need to rethink nutrition for my evening swims - I am sure I don’t notice that I am hungry during them because they are so intense but I know I am ravenous afterwards.
During the week I read an article about nutrition with the theme “Eat to train, not train to eat” and that rang so many bells for me. I can honestly say that I am well on the way to the better side of that equation, despite my regular sweet tooth lapses. My mantra to help me on this one is one I remember being told whilst learning computer at school…Garbage in…..garbage out! I think that is just as true for our bodies so I want to give myself the best chance by eating healthily. (BTW it is funny that I remember being taught that saying in England as I never really came across the word “garbage” again til I came to the USA)
Waiting in excitement to find out what the next few weeks have in store - and it looks like I may even be able to ride outside again.
18 WEEKS TO GO
Scheduled hours: 6hrs 35mins
Actual hours: 6hrs 30mins
This is week 26 and that means that I have completed half a year, 6 whole months of training so far for this event. That is a long time and I am wonderfully surprised to say that pretty much all of it has been upbeat. So far I have not had any weeks at all that I have either regretted my decision to enter or not wanted to train for it. I know a lot of the hard, long work has yet to happen but even so it is has been a good achievement so far.
Having said that, this week overall (with hindsight writing on the Sunday) has probably been one of my least enjoyable weeks and lots of little reasons have contributed to this. I just haven’t felt like I have made any progress at all this week and I am glad this recovery week is over and I am back to “proper stuff” next week. (Sorry coach, I know recovery is also proper stuff, honest!)
I have had to be (and wanted to be) super flexible this week and I am getting much better at that mentally wise. I knew the kids would be off school on Friday (superintendents day or something) so I had to plan workouts that I could do at home for then, so, I swapped my Friday brick (YES my first brick for months) to Monday and that was a great way to start the week because I rode my bike outside. OUTSIDE YEH! It was a funny ride though. Despite all the indoor cycle training, within the first 5 minutes I thought I was going to die. Then within the next 5 minutes I wondered how on earth I was going to complete the Pittsford sprint triathlon let alone an Ironman. All I did was concentrate on keeping a high cadence to get me through. I guess it didn’t help that it was mostly uphill and into the wind for the first half (I did an out and back). After I had turned around and was on the way back I began to look forward to the longer rides. This one was only 45minutes. I followed up with a 30min run with instructions to go on the feel of breathing, not how legs felt. I honestly felt like I was going really slowly, as slow as my slow recovery runs, so, when my Garmin beeped to tell me I had done my first mile in under 9 minutes I was amazed. My legs felt fine so I am looking forward to more bricks.
I took my bike in to have a tune up and to get some new bike shoes. I had the walkable type shoes that are a little flexible and thought it was time for some nice powerful stiff ones. Yet to try them out though because the rest of my cycling week was done indoors (either pouring with rain, freezing cold again or kids at home).
My second workout of the week was a 1000m time trial swim. I was devastated at the end to find that my time since my last one (in December) had decreased by 40 seconds! After the initial depression and feeling sorry for myself I am determined that the next one will be different.
At this point in the week (actually before the swim but not using that as an excuse ‘cos it was fine once warmed up) I noticed that my right upper arm hurt a bit if I lift it in a certain way (upright row and recovery of freestyle). My second weight session and my second swim session were cut short because of this. Think it is probably a pulled muscle, although no idea how I did it and I am hoping it will just go away soon.
More flexibility in my schedule came at about 4pm on Thursday. I had done nothing all day as that is my scheduled masters evening swim but I had been snacking all afternoon to make sure I had some energy for the swim. Then I got a phone call to say swimming was cancelled because of a pool problem. Yikes! So, I swap my Sunday long run to then and go out as soon as hubby got back from work to take over kid duty. It was cold, much colder than I anticipated so not very enjoyable. It was also dark for the second half of it which was extra noticeable since all the snow had melted and so no white reflecting all the light.
From about 20minutes in I felt really hungry and this was only a very easy run. It did make me think that perhaps I need to rethink nutrition for my evening swims - I am sure I don’t notice that I am hungry during them because they are so intense but I know I am ravenous afterwards.
During the week I read an article about nutrition with the theme “Eat to train, not train to eat” and that rang so many bells for me. I can honestly say that I am well on the way to the better side of that equation, despite my regular sweet tooth lapses. My mantra to help me on this one is one I remember being told whilst learning computer at school…Garbage in…..garbage out! I think that is just as true for our bodies so I want to give myself the best chance by eating healthily. (BTW it is funny that I remember being taught that saying in England as I never really came across the word “garbage” again til I came to the USA)
Waiting in excitement to find out what the next few weeks have in store - and it looks like I may even be able to ride outside again.
18 WEEKS TO GO
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Marian, March 15th, 2007
I ran yesterday outside in shorts!!! I was so happy, the temp was around 60 and a little cloudy. Perfect. It's amazing how much faster the hour of running goes by when you are not miserable. I was hoping to ride outside today but when I woke up it was snowing. I can't say that I was completely dissapointed. The first time I bike outside this season I don't want to go by myself. Thinking about biking outside again brings out all my insecurities of riding in traffic, big intersections and most of all and silliest of all, TURNING LEFT! I usually need a godd 5 or 6 nike rides outside before I start to feel comfortable again and I'm looking forward to that. Hopefully this weekend I get to go outside with a buddy and bike my little 15 mile loop that i love, all right hand turns.
Sunday, March 11, 2007
Jackie D - Week 25
Week 25 - starting Monday 5 March 2007
Scheduled hours: 12hrs 15mins
Actual hours: 12hrs 25mins
Pretty much on schedule this week with the only difference being masters swimming session which is always well over an hour.
My run on Tuesday was er…interesting. I was on the treadmill at the gym and we kept having power outages. They only lasted a second each time and in fact on the first one I only noticed the lights flickering. But they must have got fractionally longer and of course when power stops briefly to a treadmill it er..stops briefly. It is a bit disconcerting and I did nearly lose my balance the first time. However, I was half way through my workout and I just hoped the staff didn’t realise the impact and then decide for safety reasons to haul us off. Suffice to say I did unwind and attach that safety cord thing and just carried on. Luckily it all returned to normal within about 5 minutes.
Swimming was good this week. My first workout (I only swim twice per week) I chose one of Mary’s with a lot of fly in it as I am determined to improve this. I have still not done more than continuous 50m but there were lots of 25m with rest and IM so there was a fair bit in total - all good stuff. I also think I could have done just a few more strokes than the 50m if I had tried, but the workout didn’t call for that - I shall try sometime and see. My second session was masters and I found out something about my breathing. I can comfortably breathe bilaterally but if pressure is on to keep up speed I tend to breathe every 4th stroke. Well, some of the sets were 100m’s breathing every 3rd, then 5th then 7th stroke. I could do them easily enough (OK every 7th wasn’t that easy) but what I did notice was that I lagged behind my lane mates more than usual. I am not bothered about it particularly, but it was interesting to note.
Long bike was 2 hours 45 minutes, inside on the trainer and I am SOOOooooo hoping that is the last long ride indoors. I have seen people out cycling lately and that is going to be me next week. Luckily the weather looks like it is going to cooperate. I use an old bike on my trainer and as I hang it up in the garage each time I pass my new(er) bike and I have noticed that I am talking to it much more lately - things like “soon, baby, soon”. Hope this is normal behaviour for us demented ironman trainees.
We had our monthly Ironman meeting on Sunday morning at 8.30am. The group run at Mendon is normally at 7am but a few are now running at 6am. Well, I figured that as mine was scheduled for 2 hours I would have had to join the daft souls at 6am which would actually be 5am ex-real time as the clocks went forward overnight and that was just too much to cope with - so I ran on Saturday. In the midst of lovely temperatures above freezing and the thawing of the icicles on my house roof I thought it would be great to take the dog and go along the canal. Big mistake! Beyond Pittsford village centre it was just thick ice where the thaw had started but not got far. I backtracked after just a few metres and went round the roads. I don’t think the dog was too impressed as it wasn’t much fun for her - not to mention the fact that this was the longest time she had come out with me running.
Recovery week next week!
19 WEEKS TO GO
Scheduled hours: 12hrs 15mins
Actual hours: 12hrs 25mins
Pretty much on schedule this week with the only difference being masters swimming session which is always well over an hour.
My run on Tuesday was er…interesting. I was on the treadmill at the gym and we kept having power outages. They only lasted a second each time and in fact on the first one I only noticed the lights flickering. But they must have got fractionally longer and of course when power stops briefly to a treadmill it er..stops briefly. It is a bit disconcerting and I did nearly lose my balance the first time. However, I was half way through my workout and I just hoped the staff didn’t realise the impact and then decide for safety reasons to haul us off. Suffice to say I did unwind and attach that safety cord thing and just carried on. Luckily it all returned to normal within about 5 minutes.
Swimming was good this week. My first workout (I only swim twice per week) I chose one of Mary’s with a lot of fly in it as I am determined to improve this. I have still not done more than continuous 50m but there were lots of 25m with rest and IM so there was a fair bit in total - all good stuff. I also think I could have done just a few more strokes than the 50m if I had tried, but the workout didn’t call for that - I shall try sometime and see. My second session was masters and I found out something about my breathing. I can comfortably breathe bilaterally but if pressure is on to keep up speed I tend to breathe every 4th stroke. Well, some of the sets were 100m’s breathing every 3rd, then 5th then 7th stroke. I could do them easily enough (OK every 7th wasn’t that easy) but what I did notice was that I lagged behind my lane mates more than usual. I am not bothered about it particularly, but it was interesting to note.
Long bike was 2 hours 45 minutes, inside on the trainer and I am SOOOooooo hoping that is the last long ride indoors. I have seen people out cycling lately and that is going to be me next week. Luckily the weather looks like it is going to cooperate. I use an old bike on my trainer and as I hang it up in the garage each time I pass my new(er) bike and I have noticed that I am talking to it much more lately - things like “soon, baby, soon”. Hope this is normal behaviour for us demented ironman trainees.
We had our monthly Ironman meeting on Sunday morning at 8.30am. The group run at Mendon is normally at 7am but a few are now running at 6am. Well, I figured that as mine was scheduled for 2 hours I would have had to join the daft souls at 6am which would actually be 5am ex-real time as the clocks went forward overnight and that was just too much to cope with - so I ran on Saturday. In the midst of lovely temperatures above freezing and the thawing of the icicles on my house roof I thought it would be great to take the dog and go along the canal. Big mistake! Beyond Pittsford village centre it was just thick ice where the thaw had started but not got far. I backtracked after just a few metres and went round the roads. I don’t think the dog was too impressed as it wasn’t much fun for her - not to mention the fact that this was the longest time she had come out with me running.
Recovery week next week!
19 WEEKS TO GO
Sunday, March 4, 2007
Jackie D - Week 24
Week 24 - starting Monday 26 February 2007
Scheduled hours: 11hrs 45mins
Actual hours: 13hrs 05mins
Look! Back in business with the training. I still have a bit of a cough and sniffle but the only thing it affects is my sleep - so I haven’t been doing any early morning workouts (not that I do many anyway!)
Pretty similar week to what was scheduled last week except that I did manage my long bike and long run this week. The long bike wasn’t too bad at 2hrs 15mins and I watched a movie so the time went by OK.
The major reason for the actual amount of hours compared with scheduled is that I managed to get out for some cross country skiing again this week, and, I didn’t fall over! I think it was more to do with sticky snow and easy grooves to follow really but I am telling myself it is because I have improved!
It was such a nice day on Saturday and because my long bike (Friday) wasn’t hugely long I decided it would be Ok to do my long run instead of Sunday morning at a horrible morning hour. I was scheduled for 2 hours but I have a bad memory of the other 2hr run I did a month or so ago. It was a lonely, cold experience. From memory I think it was 13.1 miles in 2hrs 6 mins. So, of course I decided I had to at least do a minute longer than that to make sure I felt that I was making progress Well, I set out on the roads from home on a reasonably hilly course - enough to get my HR up to z4 up the hills whether I liked it or not! At 6.55miles (half a half marathon) I noticed that I was just about 10 seconds over an hour. Brain goes into gear and I am feeling good (took 2 gu’s with me on this run plus Gatorade and water) so I decided that I could make an effort to break 2 hours for the half marathon distance. Unfortunately it didn’t get any less hilly and at mile 12 I knew it was going to be close - very close. I must have done that last mile and a bit completely in zone 4 and 5 BUT I made it - by 8 seconds. So I am feeling pretty chuffed with myself. However, I think I overdid it a bit as it took all the way home (seriously - all the way home) which was another mile and a quarter before my heart rate dropped into top of zone 2.
One of my other runs of the week I did on snowy trails in Mendon Park with the dog. I love it down there in the woods, it is so peaceful and pretty. However this run was hard work! The trails I ran were not particularly packed down and where they were it was easier to run in ankle deep snow on the edge of the trail than on the slippery surface. This run had many benefits to the feet - strength (hauling in and out of snow, including sinking to calf depth a couple of times), massage (over some bumpy terrain) and flexibility (just to keep upright!). Needless to say I wasn’t concerned with pace on this one.
I had a bit of a mental break this week with swimming. On one of the sessions I did a workout from Mary which focused on stroke and drills rather than freestyle. I did it on my own and it was really nice to have no pressure to go fast or make certain times and so I just swam. Some of the drills I had never done before and were clearly designed to drown/ improve swimming along the bottom of the pool. It was a refreshing change though and I joined my usual swimming partner at masters on Thursday feeling a lot happier.
20 WEEKS TO GO
Scheduled hours: 11hrs 45mins
Actual hours: 13hrs 05mins
Look! Back in business with the training. I still have a bit of a cough and sniffle but the only thing it affects is my sleep - so I haven’t been doing any early morning workouts (not that I do many anyway!)
Pretty similar week to what was scheduled last week except that I did manage my long bike and long run this week. The long bike wasn’t too bad at 2hrs 15mins and I watched a movie so the time went by OK.
The major reason for the actual amount of hours compared with scheduled is that I managed to get out for some cross country skiing again this week, and, I didn’t fall over! I think it was more to do with sticky snow and easy grooves to follow really but I am telling myself it is because I have improved!
It was such a nice day on Saturday and because my long bike (Friday) wasn’t hugely long I decided it would be Ok to do my long run instead of Sunday morning at a horrible morning hour. I was scheduled for 2 hours but I have a bad memory of the other 2hr run I did a month or so ago. It was a lonely, cold experience. From memory I think it was 13.1 miles in 2hrs 6 mins. So, of course I decided I had to at least do a minute longer than that to make sure I felt that I was making progress Well, I set out on the roads from home on a reasonably hilly course - enough to get my HR up to z4 up the hills whether I liked it or not! At 6.55miles (half a half marathon) I noticed that I was just about 10 seconds over an hour. Brain goes into gear and I am feeling good (took 2 gu’s with me on this run plus Gatorade and water) so I decided that I could make an effort to break 2 hours for the half marathon distance. Unfortunately it didn’t get any less hilly and at mile 12 I knew it was going to be close - very close. I must have done that last mile and a bit completely in zone 4 and 5 BUT I made it - by 8 seconds. So I am feeling pretty chuffed with myself. However, I think I overdid it a bit as it took all the way home (seriously - all the way home) which was another mile and a quarter before my heart rate dropped into top of zone 2.
One of my other runs of the week I did on snowy trails in Mendon Park with the dog. I love it down there in the woods, it is so peaceful and pretty. However this run was hard work! The trails I ran were not particularly packed down and where they were it was easier to run in ankle deep snow on the edge of the trail than on the slippery surface. This run had many benefits to the feet - strength (hauling in and out of snow, including sinking to calf depth a couple of times), massage (over some bumpy terrain) and flexibility (just to keep upright!). Needless to say I wasn’t concerned with pace on this one.
I had a bit of a mental break this week with swimming. On one of the sessions I did a workout from Mary which focused on stroke and drills rather than freestyle. I did it on my own and it was really nice to have no pressure to go fast or make certain times and so I just swam. Some of the drills I had never done before and were clearly designed to drown/ improve swimming along the bottom of the pool. It was a refreshing change though and I joined my usual swimming partner at masters on Thursday feeling a lot happier.
20 WEEKS TO GO
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