Sunday, March 19, 2017

Staycation & Steelhead

This may have been the most relaxing week I've had since the week I spent in North Carolina last summer because I took a week off work and stayed home!  I haven't taken a week off without travel plans of some sort in a long time and now I'm convinced I should do it more often.

Monday:
*Snow Day

I decided to take the first day of my Staycation as a rest day when I woke up to 6+ inches of snow on the ground - and not having to work from home due to the plows not having gone through yet.




 I texted my trainer and asked to reschedule for Tuesday evening so I wouldn't have to drive through the snowstorm and she was good with it.  I spent my day doing laundry, hanging out with Walter and Spot, and occasionally looking outside as more snow piled up.  When Mr. R&R got home, he dealt with the snow in the driveway (the snowblower scares me), and we hoofed it up the street for burgers, beers, and a really fabulous dessert - which has kind of become our snow day tradition.


Tuesday:
*AM: Bike: Berryessa (60min)
*PM: Warm Up Run and Training Session

I think the operative word for Tuesday was "Stuck".  Mr. R&R and I spent the morning at Dr. Beast's office learning to give Walter and Spot penicillin injections because they're both still battling a respiratory infection.  Let me just say, that I've never felt such horrible guilt in my life, but if it makes them better, I'm willing to do it.  We got home and I hit the bike for what was supposed to be an hour long ride.  About 30 minutes in, my chain dropped as I was shifting between the big and small chainring.  While this is annoying as hell, it happens occasionally, so I fixed it, cursed all the grease on my hands, and went back to my ride.  10 minutes later, it happened again, but this time the chain got stuck between the chainring and the frame and I couldn't dislodge it.  I called Mr. R&R down to The Cave to see if he could help, but that thing was not budging.  I called my bike guy and they said to bring it in the next morning.

I changed clothes and hauled it to the gym for my training session.  My shoulders were burning by the time I left.

Wednesday:
AM: 40min run (w/ 8x 30 speed intervals)
PM: 1600yd Swim (speed intervals)

So, I completely overslept this morning so an early morning run was out of the question.  Then the "stuck" theme from yesterday continued when I went to turn off the shower and the handle wouldn't move!  I ended up having to call Mr. R&R home to strong arm it into place.  I suspect we'll have to change the fixture in the relatively near future.  After the shower debacle, I loaded up my bike (which after almost 2 years finally has a name: Wicked) and it was off to the bike shop.



While they got the chain unstuck, I looked around the shop and ended up coming home with the addition of an X-Labs Mini Wing bottle cage.  This should make refilling my aerobottle and carrying electrolytes a lot easier this summer.


That evening Mr. R&R and I had our Wednesday night swim date.  I struggled with the main set of 6x100 alternating 25yds easy/25yds hard.  I feel a little defeated that I cannot deal with the 10 second rests between 100s and need about 20-30 seconds between them.   When I was done, I swam an extra 150yds very slowly while Mr. R&R finished his workout.  I had originally thought about parking my butt in the hot tub while he finished, but I was convinced that if I did that, I might not ever get out!

Thursday:
AM: 40min Run (w/ 8x30 second speed intervals)
PM: Bike: Ericsson (60min)

I finally got 'unstuck' today.  I went to the gym in the late morning to make up Wednesday's run.  If I thought the gym was a madhouse at 5:30am, 10:30am was even crazier!  I had a really good run - even if I still can't manage to count intervals correctly!

Thursday night found me perched on my bike alongside Mr. R&R as we both sweated our way through our workouts.  Mr. R&R's workout was 30 minutes longer than mine and the movie we were watching was still going, so I hung around to finish the movie and rode an extra 20 minutes to make up for the minutes I missed on Tuesday when my bike broke!

After that, it was time to give the bunnies their meds.  One syringe per bunny every other day.


I felt like the worst human ever even though neither of them really seemed to notice.  Walter even gave me nose bumps afterward.

I hate you for this.
I still love you, mom.

At least it seems like the medication is helping them.  The sneezing seems to be calming down and they both just seem better in general.  Keep your fingers crossed!

Friday:
AM: 40min Run 
PM: 2000yd Swim 40min Run

After some discussion, neither Mr. R&R nor I had any desire to be on the road with all the St. Patrick's Day and NCAA revelers, so we settled on running at the gym closest to us and then holing up at home - with plans to swim on Sunday after our long runs.

Since I ended up rescheduling my long swim, I decided to do something I've been thinking about for weeks:  I registered for Ironman 70.3 Steelhead!

August 13. 2017

So how did this all come about? I wasn't really planning on doing this until 2018, but a few weeks ago, I was looking at the mid-volume plan for my original A Race (an olympic distance tri) and when I was showing it to Mr. R&R he said it was more work than his half iron training plan.  At that point, I looked at his training schedule and decided I'd follow it in hopes of having a really good olympic race.  Then I started thinking about how much work I'd be putting in just to have to do it again next year - and that's when I looked up the date for Steelhead.  It was exactly 24 weeks from the day I was going to start a 24 week half ironman training plan.  *GULP* After some more discussion with Mr. R&R I decided to try the first few weeks of the plan before committing. And then on Friday night, I decided it was time to stop wringing my hands and just do it, so I did!  At this point, 21 weeks to go until I swim 1.2 miles, bike 56 miles, and run 13.1 miles.

Saturday
I woke up wondering what the hell I got myself into by signing up for Steelhead, but there's no turning back now!  While Mr. R&R was out making up a missed run, I got to work in the kitchen and got some Moroccan Chicken going in the crockpot.  Then it was bike time.  90 minutes of sweat-dripping spinning.


Mr. R&R had another hour to go when I was done, so I took a quick shower and made couscous to go with the Moroccan Chicken while he finished up.  The finished product was absolutely awesome and I would definitely suggest making it.  Every bite was a mixture of sweetness from the raisins, salt from the olives, and a little tartness from the lemons.



Post refueling we ran our usual weekly errands (Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, Target) and I was really excited when Mr. R&R pointed out the Ben & Jerry's flavor I've been searching for for months!


We got home, gave Walter and Spot their meds, and settled in for dessert until the bunnies forgave us.

We'll forgive you if you 
Sunday:
We both woke up really sore.  Mr. R&R's knee and hip have been bugging him and my left knee has been tweaky since I got off the bike yesterday.  I  wasn't sure that I was going to be able to get my long run and my long swim in since my knee was hurting and I wanted to put in a quick appearance at the TriWisconsin kick off party.  Mr. R&R and I hit the pool in the early afternoon and it was crazy crowded.  I shared a lane with him and ended up with a few more mouthfuls of pool water than I'd have liked.  Afterward, I came home long enough to scrub off the chlorine, semi-dry my hair, and look presentable enough to put in an appearance at the TriWI party.  It was fun seeing the Iron Cheerleader's face when I told him that I'm registered for Steelhead.  The pull of the beer and pizza were strong, but I dragged myself out of there and back to the gym to bang out my long run (Mr. R&R ran outside while I was gone).  Never fear though, as I'm sitting here re-writing/editing this post, a pizza is enroute - no beer though since I need to be functional tomorrow morning.

All in all, it's been a great staycation and hopefully it will tide me over until my next week off - in late August!


Week 3 Stats:

Swim:       3600 yards (2.05 miles)
Bike:         41.08 miles
Run:          14.66 miles
Yoga:        0 practices
Strength:  1 session (30min)

Total Time:       7 hours, 38 minutes
Total Distance: 57.79 miles


Cumulative Distance: 435.46 miles - approximately the distance between Milwaukee and Louisville, KY.

2 comments:

April said...

Bad Ass. That's all I've got.

Mary said...

Thank you! I feel somewhere between Wonder Woman and a sniveling toddler ready to hide behind my mommy's legs!