Perspective changes everything (plus another long ride story)
It's crazy how much perspective and frame of mind can change your overall feelings. This week was a step back week on my training plan, because I had told my coach ahead of time that this was a really crazy week at school. There was only one workout planned per day, so I knew if I couldn't hit all of those then I'd really have to reevaluate my goals.
Having a training plan and following through with all the workouts has a certain way of making me feel successful. I don't have an empty hole in my stomach that represents the ride that I missed or the run I didn't get done. Instead, I feel better about how things are going. Though I still missed my swim, I've spoken to my coach and we've decided that it's been okay for the time being. I just need to get back to it soon. His exact words were, "you need to prove it in a race." I can do that, but I'll probably start training the swim before my next race.
Here's a layout of my workouts this week:
Monday still stands as a rest day.
Tuesday turned into a rest day when Tim texted me in the middle of the day and told me that we were going to go to dinner at his parents' house. His aunt was in town, so I couldn't say no. Between things going on at school and that, I didn't have time to get my run in. I just moved it to Friday, where my swim was supposed to be.
Wednesday was a phenomenal tempo run. I guess they should be after two rest days. I did one mile warmup, then four tempo miles at 7:43, 7:51, 7:52, and 8:03. Then I did a mile cool down. Those 7:XX paces are feeling better and better, and I'm loving this improvement in my running.
Thursday I rode the trainer for an hour and kept my HR up.
Friday I did a not fun five miler and held a 9:13 pace. It didn't feel good. I felt a little sick.
Saturday I met up with the XP group to ride in Alafia. Felipe is the coach of that group, and my friend Stephanie had invited me to join the weekend before, so I took her up on the offer this weekend. He doesn't tell them the distance before they start, but he noted soon before taking off that we'd do 80-100 kilometers (they do everything in kilometers) and we wouldn't be stopping. My brain had a moment of panic. No stopping?!
When we started we were holding a pace that I was really comfortable with. Between drafting and feeling good, I wasn't having any issues. When we Uturned in the middle of the road and I had run out of water in my reachable bottle I started worrying about how I was going to get more water. I'm not practiced with the water bottle cages in the back, and I couldn't grab them. Luckily Courtney had to pull over for a second to fix a bottle that was falling out, and that 30 seconds gave me enough time to quickly switch the two bottles so I had access to more water. 30 seconds might actually have been longer than our stop. By the time I got the water bottles fixed, without drinking any, I was already behind again. Luckily Stephanie's boyfriend Bill (there were 8 of us riding) pulled me back to the group.
The back half of the ride had a lot of tailwind, but we also pushed ourselves a lot harder than we had going out. At one point I thought, "Yes! We've slowed for a minute!" I looked down and we were at 19 mph. Whoa! Readjusting perspective. For two five mile increments my average pace was 22 MPH. And by the end I was cooked...like, really really cooked! I was super thrilled with my new bike though. Another successful ride. My saddle only started getting uncomfortable for the last 20 miles or so, because I still haven't been on it enough to get myself used to it.
Tuesday turned into a rest day when Tim texted me in the middle of the day and told me that we were going to go to dinner at his parents' house. His aunt was in town, so I couldn't say no. Between things going on at school and that, I didn't have time to get my run in. I just moved it to Friday, where my swim was supposed to be.
Wednesday was a phenomenal tempo run. I guess they should be after two rest days. I did one mile warmup, then four tempo miles at 7:43, 7:51, 7:52, and 8:03. Then I did a mile cool down. Those 7:XX paces are feeling better and better, and I'm loving this improvement in my running.
Thursday I rode the trainer for an hour and kept my HR up.
Friday I did a not fun five miler and held a 9:13 pace. It didn't feel good. I felt a little sick.
Saturday I met up with the XP group to ride in Alafia. Felipe is the coach of that group, and my friend Stephanie had invited me to join the weekend before, so I took her up on the offer this weekend. He doesn't tell them the distance before they start, but he noted soon before taking off that we'd do 80-100 kilometers (they do everything in kilometers) and we wouldn't be stopping. My brain had a moment of panic. No stopping?!
When we started we were holding a pace that I was really comfortable with. Between drafting and feeling good, I wasn't having any issues. When we Uturned in the middle of the road and I had run out of water in my reachable bottle I started worrying about how I was going to get more water. I'm not practiced with the water bottle cages in the back, and I couldn't grab them. Luckily Courtney had to pull over for a second to fix a bottle that was falling out, and that 30 seconds gave me enough time to quickly switch the two bottles so I had access to more water. 30 seconds might actually have been longer than our stop. By the time I got the water bottles fixed, without drinking any, I was already behind again. Luckily Stephanie's boyfriend Bill (there were 8 of us riding) pulled me back to the group.
The back half of the ride had a lot of tailwind, but we also pushed ourselves a lot harder than we had going out. At one point I thought, "Yes! We've slowed for a minute!" I looked down and we were at 19 mph. Whoa! Readjusting perspective. For two five mile increments my average pace was 22 MPH. And by the end I was cooked...like, really really cooked! I was super thrilled with my new bike though. Another successful ride. My saddle only started getting uncomfortable for the last 20 miles or so, because I still haven't been on it enough to get myself used to it.
We ended up riding around 65 miles. I started my watch late, so I just got a little less.
My quads literally burned for half an hour after I got off that bike.
Sunday I met Tori at 6:30 to run 10 miles of her 23 miles with her. I needed to be done early to catch a flight, and she had so many miles that she was good with starting early too. It was a beautiful run with perfect weather all the way through. I wish they could all be like that. Tori is getting married in less than a week, so it was fun to catch up with her and hear about the plans and last minute goings on.
Sunday I met Tori at 6:30 to run 10 miles of her 23 miles with her. I needed to be done early to catch a flight, and she had so many miles that she was good with starting early too. It was a beautiful run with perfect weather all the way through. I wish they could all be like that. Tori is getting married in less than a week, so it was fun to catch up with her and hear about the plans and last minute goings on.
I'm going to be in Massachusetts this week for a work conference until Thursday, so it'll be interesting to see how I squeeze all these workouts in. It's cold up there, I've heard, so I may be finding my way to treadmills and indoor bikes...
What do you do to get in your workouts when you travel and don't know an area?
Did anyone race this week? How did that go?
What do you do to get in your workouts when you travel and don't know an area?
Did anyone race this week? How did that go?
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