Week in Review

What a week! It's the week before Spring Break, and I think no matter what, that week is always crazy! I felt like I had a million things to do, and I went to bed Monday night and woke up Thursday morning.

This week was test and rest week. Monday was a rest day, as I had trained 7 days in a row. Tuesday started my swim test. 10x100's all out, 10 seconds rest in between each. Last time I went 15:12, which was (after subtracting out rest) a 1:22 pace. Not too shabby. THIS TIME, however, I finished in 14:59, which was a 1:20 pace! I was definitely happy with that.

Wednesday was my bike test. Warmup, followed by 20 minutes all out. First off, I really think the resistance on my trainer was higher than last time. I was dripping sweat everywhere, as Junior was trying to lick it up. Sick, I know. The first ten minutes were grueling, as were the last ten minutes. I felt pretty good and kept a decent pace. I increased my distance by .3 of a mile. Not bad, again! My pace was somewhere around 15.5, and for the trainer, I think that's decent! Like I said, I think my resistance was higher than last time, so increasing my distance (while maintaining the same HR from last time) was definitely a bonus. When I finished, I thought "Man I could have pushed harder, I feel fine", then I came out of my aero bars and almost threw up and passed out at the same time. Then I thought "Oh....nevermind...." Overall, it was good.

Thursday I had an exam so I studied all day for that (well, sorta), and took a break to swim. I didn't realize it until I got to the pool, but I had 4200 yards planned! WTF? It's a rest week! But, it was mostly drills and nothing too terribly fast. I ended up having to cut out one 300 because I had to run home and let Junior out before I came back for my exam. Well, the exam sucked, thanks for asking, but at least its over, right?

And now its Friday. Today is my run test. I'm kind of excited to see how I improve, because I think my running has improved the most. We'll see...I'm feeling kind of fatigued physically, and sleepily. Does that make sense? No, OK just go along with it. Finally spring break is here, but I think I have more work to do next week than I have in the last month combined. Although much more sleep will be involved :)

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Man am I TIRED. Had an amazing weekend at the Hope Women's "Girl's Getaway"...aka retreat. It was so much fun and I learned so much. I cannot even begin to describe how great it was.

So, I'll focus on the training from this past week. 12 hours of training...so far my biggest week. I know I have so much more to come. But, this was tiring. 7 straight days of training. And not just "go run around a little bit"...it was like an hour of jumping between HR zones while running, or on the trainer for 2.5 hours, or 3500 in the pool. But it was a really good week. I only didn't get to do one part of it, and that was a 15 minute run off the bike yesterday. I crashed when I got home from the trip for 2 hours, and when I finally got on my bike (let me rephrase...when I finally had the energy to get on my bike), it was 8pm and I was not going to run outside and risk getting mugged. Plus, I was pretty much ready for bed as soon as I was finished.

This week is "recovery week"...but its also retest week. I'm a little hesitant about the tests because although I want to blow my previous tests out of the water, I'm afraid my body is too fatigued. But, we'll see. No sense in thinking negatively going into the tests. I'm going to put my optomistic hat on and get after it. Because....you know the drill....that's how I roll.

I know its cold there, but...

...for being in the "south" and in Memphis, its cold here, too. Ok, not deathly cold like in Chicago or KC (-4-ish), but for a place that rarely sees snow, 32 is cold! Now I can't complain about today because according to my nifty temperature thingy on my computer, it says its 57 outside. I can deal with that. That's rideable weather. 32, however, is not. I've read of heroic cases where people are riding in single digit temperatures, but you will never, I repear, NEVER catch me outside riding my bike in anything less than 50. I tried riding at 40 one time, and I regretted every pedal stroke. I'm just not built for that. Plus, I do not own cold weather cycling clothing. I avoid riding in freezing cold. That is why I have a trainer! And like I said, we do have the occasional warm winter day so I can escape the monotony of the trainer. I'll run outside in just about anything except darkness, because I do not want to get mugged. But riding? Nah...I'll stick to my trainer.

I realize I will get hate mail from many of my lovely triathlete friends, saying "I can't believe you think 30-40 degrees is cold. Well.....all I can say is....its all relative. And I get my "wimpy cold" gene from my mother.

BREAKING NEWS

A train has derailed in Memphis, TN. No injuries are reported, but feelings of remorse are apparent. The cause of the derailment is unknown, but suspected to be related to participation in frequent gatherings that are damaging the train track; known to be the foundation and pathway for the train to make it to future locations. We will interrupt regularly scheduled programming with future details.

Ok, I confess: The only train that has derailed in Memphis, is Robyn's Healthy Eating Habits Train. Man has this past week been completely BLOWN. The culpret? Being on the search committee for the open professor jobs in our department. The candidates are in for 2-3 days and there's 2-3 meals a day possible for me to attend. Now I know you say, why just not go? Don't even tempt yourself! Well, because there are 3 graduate students on the committee. Me and two other guys. One of them is crazy super busy with his thesis on 2 other projects going on in their lab so he rarely gets to come because of appointments with subjects. The other? Yeah, he's cutting weight for a competition in two weeks and honestly, when all you get to eat all day is cucumbers, tuna, and water, why would you want to go sit in front of people eating delicious food? So, that leaves Robyn. And since we want to make a good impression and have as many people attend the meals as possible, that usually means I "get" to go. I'm not completely complaining, because in the past two weeks, I've probably received over $100 in free meals. And most of the time, I am making relatively healthy choices. Portion control, however, becomes an issue.

Needless to say, I went to the grocery store last night and purchased all my normal healthy foods for the week and so far so good today. Too bad its only approaching noon, and I've been successful for a total of.......5 hours! But hey...baby steps right?