Week in review: 2/27-3/4 and congrats to my fast friends!

Monday 2/27: easy 4.5miles before a late-night dinner with Aunt Linda & Uncle Dave

Tuesday 2/28: 5miles AM; 1hour spin 2mile easy PM

Wednesday 2/29: failed 60minute tempo

Thursday 3/1: 7miles easy

Friday 3/2: BRICK workout (see below)

Saturday 3/3: LTF Run club, 1:30spin

Sunday 3/4: 16miles, 45min spin

This week was pretty uneventful in terms of running/biking, but not with life in general...

Monday morning, I had a 7am flight out of Midway. Ryan drives me to O'Hare as it's only 20ish minutes away versus Midway that almost triples the time. So, this was the first time in awhile that I had to drive myself to the airport. I change coats over the weekend depending on what my outfit is (business outfits look better with another jacket)....and Sunday night we went out to dinner. Instead of bringing my already-packed purse for work, I just brought my license, credit card and some cash. Seemed like a good idea at the time....until 6am at Midway on Monday. I called Ryan's phone but it went straight to voicemail. Awesome. I debated and finally called his house phone; his mom answered luckily, got the phone to Ryan, he drove my license/credit card/cash to me as fast as he could, and I boarded the 7:45am flight. I got VERY lucky.

My run on Monday really was rough; I had been stressed all morning, had a 2hour drive to the dealership, 1.5hour drive back to my hotel before I could run. But I knew I'd be sore still from my massage if I didn't run, so I suffered through it instead.

Tuesday I was still pretty sore, specifically my left calf. My hamstring that had been an issue for the later part of last year was on my right side, so this left calf tightness really bothered me. I decided that I'd attempt a warmup Wednesday morning and if I was still tight, wait until Wednesday evening after work (something I hate doing) to get my 60min tempo in.

I don't think it would have mattered.

My tempo was supposed to be a progression: start at 6:45 pace and increase the speed by .1 every 5minutes so I'd be finishing at just under 6minute pace. The first 20-25minutes were fine, but then just before 30minutes I started feeling the tightness again. I stopped for 30, maybe 45, seconds to stretch my calves. It seemed to help. Until minute 43 when the tightness came back. This time, I stopped and stretched not only my calves, but my hamstrings and ITs as well; this took 1:30. I seriously contemplated ending the workout right then as I had already stopped twice, but then told myself I could tough it out for the remaining 17minutes. And I did.

I ended up running 9.22miles, which is not good considering last week I ran 9.6miles. I told Cari and she thinks my massage (first one back since December) might have had something to do with it as the tightness in my calves was definitely from that. So, I decided that this past Sunday I'll hold off on the massage. Hopefully I'll have a better recap!

BRICK WORKOUT:

10min bike spin, 5min easy run warmup

5min@10k run, 10min hard bike (race pace), 5min@10k run

5min easy spin

8min@10k run, 12min hard bike (race pace), 8min@10k run

5min easy spin

11min@10k run, 9min hard bike (race pace), 6min@10k run

cooldown

Well, the run is clearly my strength. I ran the 10k pace at 6min as that's what I did for the last brick so figured it's probably right. It felt easy, which is great. Unfortunately, the bike felt hard. Since my bike test showed my all-out effort puts my watts at 210, Ryan thought I should be riding at 180watts....except that I was barely peddling because it was so hard. So, we compromised on 165 and I was able to push hard at a decent pace, but it was just frustrating.

I wish my schedule allowed me to bike more, but with all of the travel it's really hard. I'm home three days each week (except for the one week a month that I am local), so I just bike those three days at decent watts on the computrainer; the other days, I try to find a LifeTime that I can go to and ride their spin bikes or just cross my fingers that the hotel bike isn't a total piece of junk.

I am not making up excuses as I knew training for duathlons would be very tough with not being home very often (goal is to qualify for the team to race for the US at the World Championships). Come race day on March 24th, I'm going to give it everything I have. Luckily, my run is improving and it is only just over an hour of racing on the bike, but I only have a 10k beginning run to get out ahead of as many females as possible and only a 5k at the end to try to catch the girls that pass me on the bike. It's going to be tough.

Hoping to post a great 60minute tempo and brick recap next weekend!

In other running news, HUGE CONGRATS to my former college teammate Meggan Franks on WINNING the Rock'n'Roll New Orleans marathon in a blazing fast 2:49:06. Wanna know what's even better? She had a baby just over a year ago. She's truly an inspiration.

Can't forget my Oglesby Turkey Trot friend! Julie Ralston WON the Little Rock 1/2 marathon in 1:22:53 today! I'm super excited to toe the line with her at the U of I marathon come April.

Congrats to my running friends for a PHENOMENAL weekend!!