Training and Life Update: Week of May 9

Another week of training in the books, and look, another post! The pieces are sort of starting to fall together.  It was another week of consistency and fun, and that is what will get me to race season in good form.   However, we are approaching race season VERY quickly, as the first race that I'm signed up for is the Early Bird, this coming Saturday! Yikes!

Monday: Run commute - 6.8k. An unplanned rest day (minus my commute of course).

Tuesday: Swim - 2500m, Run commute - 6.8k. A long course swim in the "fast lane" was a lot tougher than I had hoped it would be, but I sort of survived.

Photo Credit: Kirsten

Photo credit: Kirsten

Wednesday: Morning run commute, Evening Brick.  The OTC group met out at the parkway for some intervals and a brick run.  I got to ride my new Argon 18, but it was giving me some issues, so I missed part of the ride so that Dave could help me fix the shifter (thank you!). The run with the group felt pretty good, though my legs will need some getting used to the new TT position!

Photo Credit: Kirsten (Prettiest sunsets along the river here!!)

Thursday: Run - 8.7k.  I extended my run home again for another long-ish loop.  It felt awful.  I don't really understand my body or heart rate training it seems, given that the pace that I held was significantly slower, at the same heart rate, as my run on Wednesday night.

Friday: Swim - 2500m.  I postponed my swim again to Friday this week, since I was exhausted on Thursday morning. Our main set went 2x50, 100 + 50, 2x50, 200+50, 2x50, 300+50.  It was on whatever pace we felt like holding. I aimed for 1500 pace for the set.

Saturday:  Bike - 90k. We had an awesome group ride out to Alice's Cafe with great friends.  It was perfect weather to start out and nice of the boys to let us draft off of them a bit.  Unfortunately after a long stop for snacks at Alice's, the weather was not so kind on the return to town.  The last 6-7k were in the pouring, freezing rain.  It felt like I had a gallon of water in each shoe and I even had to wring my socks out when we got back to the car. Wild! All in all though, it was a great ride and a nice send-off for Colin as he departs for his new adventures in the wild west! (I wore my new Coeur Sports cycling shorts on this ride and they were MAGICAL. So comfy!!)

A little bit muddy and wet after that ride!

Sunday:  Skills and drills at the Bytown Storm Drafting Clinic.  It was nice to see lots of familiar faces on a very chilly Sunday morning.  We practiced a lot of drills for balance, cornering, contact in groups, and drafting / pacing.  While I don't actually have a draft legal race on my schedule, I am always up for learning better bike handling skills!  Thanks to John and Adam for leading the clinic. (Sorry I left early due to frozen fingers and toes.)