Monday, January 18, 2010

Legs…where are you???

Sigh, I maybe was not the smartest cookie with my workouts this weekend.

Exhibit #1:

I actually slept in on Saturday morning, as in, I woke up at 10:00 am.  Does anyone else wake up at 10:00 am on the weekend and suddenly think, “oh no, the day is over!”  I do! 

Oh well, I got up and chatted with my parents on Skype (who just made it home from their around the world vacation) so I could say hi to my fur ball Finlay.  I have missed that little character!  With any luck he’ll be back here soon.  By the time that was done I figured I’d spin instead of do my run/swim combo that was on my schedule.  It was a really good spin too that involved a lot of low cadence strength work.  4 x 5 min of hard low cadence (between 60-70 rpm) and after each interval I’d get off the bike and do squats for 1.5 minutes.  After my first interval I realized that I had been a bit of a weenie on the gearing/trainer tension so after that I really socked it to my legs.  I just kept telling myself that this was what I needed to build towards riding that tough Ironman Canada course!  On my last set of squats my legs were shaking…

It was a great spin workout, but on Sunday when I started running I realized that I would have been much better off if I hadn’t swapped those two workouts around.  My legs were beat!  Thankfully, I only had a 45 minute run to do, but the pace wasn’t quite as good as last week’s 45 minute run.  Surprisingly I actually ran one of my most evenly paced runs ever though.  Hmm.

Exhibit #2

I finished my run right at the YMCA and went inside to change for my swim.  I had eaten lunch at 1 pm, started running at 3 pm and hopped in the pool at 4 pm.  As I was showering before getting in the pool I remembered that I had a chocolate mint GU in my gym bag that I had meant to eat, but I didn’t want to run back to my locker since I was now soaking wet.  So I jumped in the pool instead.

First off, it was a bit of a gong show when I got there.  The 25m pool is completely roped off with lanes for aqua-jogging, and slow, medium and fast lanes.  But there were people who were bobbing around and playing at the end of one of the medium lanes.  I grabbed the other medium lane just as its other two inhabitants were leaving.  There was a guy in the fast lane powering through workout next to me.  Just as I was getting in two kids (in boxer shorts????  yuck…) jumped into the fast lane and started clowning around in it, thoroughly pissing off the guy who was swimming there.  I’m not sure if words were exchanged or not, but the swimmer took off soon and eventually the kids went back to the training pool.

Anyhow, I only had an 1800 m workout on my schedule but I had absolutely no juice.  It was one slow go from one end of the pool to the other.  I should have taken that GU!  I decided I was tired of trudging through the workout at 1000 m and called it a day.

Hopefully I’ve learned a few lessons from the weekend!  And, finally!!!  My Christmas tree came down yesterday!  I have to admit that my living room feels somewhat bare without it though.  Happy Monday all!

12 comments:

RockStarTri said...

I hate when the lifeguards don't enforce swim protocol for the swim lanes at the pool. It is really frustrating when the bozos start clowning around as it just completely disrupts any hope of continuity in a workout. I stopped going to one of the pools in the area just because of this.

I think you may have been smarter than you think. Your body was sending you messages that it needed some down time. You listened and will be ready to rock the next workout.

Marlene said...

I slept in til 10am on Saturday too, for the first time in.... as long as I can remember. It felt great, but I did also have that feeling of "There goes my day!"

Sounds like you made the most of your workouts!

J said...

I totally agree - I love to sleep in but waking up at 10am I feel like I lost so much of the day!! Great job on the workouts!

Badgergirl said...

Nice job on the workouts - even if it meant switching them around and cutting down the distance.

And those fools at the pool? They would have annoyed me.

D said...

The most important lesson you learned this weekend is how important the nutrition is - it can even effect the mental side, and that's almost more important than the physical (my one nutrition tip for IM: if at any point you start to feel grumpy... EAT!).

If there's anything I know about, it's nutrition FAILs during IMC ;)

Heather said...

Out here in Banff at the Banff centre, they always have 1 lane roped off, evening during public swim. It drives me nuts when I am swimming & you have the slow breast strokers in my way! Or better yet the people who arent even swimming , just having a chat at the wall & won't move. I will never understand why the lifequards don't tell them to move.
Squats during the bike...I will have to try that torture next!

Mike Russell said...

Good you finally got the Christmas tree down? And man I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall to hear what the guy in the fast lane said to the boxer twins...

Lindsay said...

i definitely feel like the day is "over" if i haven't gotten my run in by 9 or 10. (maybe i'm just too good at making an excuse for myself?)

how nice, people in their boxers... even though that's essentially the same as a bathing suit... still....

congrats on getting your tree down :)

Denise said...

LOVE your post about reasons to do an iron man! I want to some day...just want/need more time to devote to training. Man, you really made me want to do one!

Alisa said...

I can't remember the last time I slept in til 10:00am I would totally feel like the day is over.

I'm still working on nutrition in between workouts too. On Saturday I was able to get in half a banana and some gummy chews in between the swim and bike but I also had like a 2 hour transition since my husband was on the trainer.

Anonymous said...

I would love to sleep in until 10! It would be fabulous. You had some pretty tough workouts this week. But you are right, it is going to make you stronger. Keep up the hard work.

ShirleyPerly said...

Well, sounds like you made up for waking up late and learned a good lesson about nutrition. Not all that bad, me thinks.