Here Turkey, Turkey, Turkey

It's been an interesting week.  There were workouts. There were Garmin issues. There were turkeys!

Monday, May 20th:
85 degrees and more humid than a steam room when I leave work? No. Just no.  Since I didn't go for my planned run, I decided to be proactive about preparing for Tuesday's Pedal Stroke Analysis clinic, so Mr. R&R and I dug out our bike rack and managed to get it anchored to the car so all I had to do in the morning was load up my bike before I left for work.  Not 5 minutes after we got inside, I got an email saying that the clinic had been canceled.  Grrrr. Back outside to remove the rack.

Tuesday, May 21st:
So...I looked at a calendar today and realized that the South Shore Duathlon is just over 3 weeks away and although I've been running and riding a lot, I haven't done a single brick workout since August.  Unlike last year, I know what to expect at this race and I figured I should probably a) remind myself what the "jelly legs" off the bike feel like and b) figure out how to deal with that feeling, so I set myself up for a little brick workout: 1 Mile Run/5 Miles Bike/.5 Mile Run. I'm still not quite willing to take my bike outside, so I knew that I'd be doing that part on the trainer.  The first run was ah-mah-zing.  Who am I? Where is this coming from?

T1 consisted of running down the basement stairs, changing into my cycling shoes, and flipping my Garmin from GPS to Indoor Mode.  Of course, this is when my Garmin decided to be super-flaky and shut itself down!  Not cool.  I wasn't really planning on having to buy a new one, but if this problem continues, a new one will be purchased post haste.

Once I got my Garmin back up and running, I hit the bike hard for 5 miles and it hurt so good.  My quads were screaming and I'm pretty sure that small puddle formed under the trainer from how much I was sweating!

After that, it was back into my running shoes, up the basement stairs (stairs + jelly legs = interesting) and back out to the road for a 0.5 mile run.  I made it about 0.25 miles  before my legs started cramping up. I gritted my teeth and pushed through the remaining 0.25 miles before flopping down into a lawn chair in my back yard because it was the nearest place to plant my butt!

Wednesday, May 22nd:
It rained cats and dogs all day, and then on the way home I saw the craziest thing:

 It's not the best picture, but a freaking turkey ran across the road in front of my car, through some people's yards, and in the direction of a very busy street!  Turkeys in suburbia are not normal!

Later in the evening, I hopped on the trainer and busted out 10 miles. My speed was abysmal, but I wasn't too upset by it since I could still feel Tuesday night's workout in my legs.

My view from the trainer

Per the Iron Cheerleader's instructions, I rode the first 5 miles at an easy pace and then focused on riding the second 5 miles faster.

Success!

Thursday, May 23rd:
I think I fell into some sort of alternate universe today.  I did a quick change in my office and pointed my car toward the pool - in rush hour traffic.  Given what traffic is normally like, it should have taken me at least 40 minutes to drive to the pool. I made it in 30.  Once I got there everyone I encountered was incredibly polite. We're talking southern manners polite. An older gentleman told me he'd be "more than happy" to share a lane with me. A child receiving swim lessons in the next lane over apologized for splashing me when I was resting against the wall - and I have no problem getting splashed since I'm at a pool. After a fairly uneventful 250 yards, the desk clerk wished me "a lovely evening" when I left. I'm not complaining, but...this. is. not. normal. Then, as I was driving home, I passed an open field between a golf course and a big building and out of the corner of my eye I spied two turkeys! When I looked closer, there was a whole freaking flock of turkeys in that field. The pool is in a much farther flung suburb, so it's not as surprising to see them out that way, but I still think I'll be laying off the turkey sandwiches for a while!

Friday, May 24th:
Oh summer hours, how I do love thee. I got out of work early enough today to go shopping for a much needed new swimsuit. After an hour of trying on swimsuits (in a tiny dressing room. with a fun house mirror. under harsh fluorescent lights.) I found one that I really loved and one that was tolerable. Of course the one I really loved was $80 and the tolerable one was $40.  I settled for the $40 suit and headed to the pool.  I love quiet afternoons at the pool. I had a lane all to myself, the sun was shining in through the windows, and the 300 yards felt really good. Even better? No turkey sightings on the way home!

New Swimsuit

Saturday, May 25th:
I was going to run this morning, but I succumbed to the gravitational pull of the couch. My great accomplishments for the day were petting bunnies (whose super soft summer coats have come in), eating a bunch of cheese, and drinking a glass of Shiraz.  It was exactly what I needed. Remember, I said less beer/wine/cheese, not none!

Sunday, May 26th:
My favorite part of a holiday weekend, besides the whole 'not having to go to work on Monday' thing? Sales. Really, really good sales.  Remember how I was complaining about how my Garmin was acting up the other day?  As it turns out, the one I was thinking about buying as a replacement, should it become necessary, was on sale for 25% off at REI this weekend and I unearthed a $100 gift card that I'd been hoarding since my birthday back in February.  I took it as a sign that I was meant to have Garmin's latest and greatest multisport GPS watch, so I bought it.  Meet the 910XT.

It does all the things my Garmin 305 did (record speed, distance, route, etc. on the bike and run), and it's 100% waterproof and can calculate my swim speed, number of strokes, and swim efficiency in both open water and indoor pools!  Talk about the complete package. This means no waiting for my watch to lock onto satellites before beginning the bike leg of my upcoming triathlon since it will already be on my wrist and recording swim data.  Now I just have to read through the manual and figure out how to use all the features!

Once it was all charged up, I took it out for a short run and so far I'm loving it.  It's quite a bit lighter and lower profile than my old Garmin and the display is much sharper.  Another nice feature is that it beeps and vibrates at each mile. The other one only beeped - which was sometimes difficult to hear over my iPod.

There were a few issues when I went to upload all the data, but fortunately Mr. R&R was able to sort them out for me. I'm really excited to get it paired up with the sensors on my bike and to test it out in the pool!

Week 4 Totals:
Swim: 500 yards
Bike:  15.01 miles
Run: 4.51 miles
Total Hours: 2 hours, 50 minutes