8 Days of Workouts!!

The inaugural “Ironman New Orleans 70.3” is now just under 3 weeks away, and I told myself that last week and this week are my 2 big weeks of training. Last, week, I did pretty good:

Sunday:
- Indoor Triathlon

Notes: Count that as a “speed day.” I didn’t do anything for very long, just some hard swimming, hard spinning, and hard running. (Scroll down to my Monday and Tuesday posts last week if you missed them.) Here’s a photo from me on the “bike” portion of the day:

Monday:
- 60 lap swim (3000 yards) in 51:28

Notes: That was my longest swim in a year, AND it was my fastest pace in a swim over 30 laps! Lately, my pace has slowly been getting a little faster. During 36-50 laps swims, I’ve had a few that were 1:44.X / 100 yards. This 60 lap swim was 1:42.9 / 100 yards. I completely bypassed the 1:43’s!! Solid swim!

Tuesday:
- Lift weights (upper body)
- Core
- 110 minutes spinning

Notes: I lifted weights early afternoon, went to one of my colleges to work on midterms for an hour, and then came back to the Y an hour before a spin class. I spun for 50 minutes on my own, and then worked right into the hour-long spin class.

Wednesday:
- Off

Notes: Wednesday is my huge teaching day this semester (St. Paul in the AM, MPLS in the afternoon, and back to St. Paul for tutoring in the later PM). I work it into my workouts as my “rest day.”

Thursday:
- Run 8.0 in 55:20
- Crossfit-style workout

Notes: I just wanted to run an “easy” run. I ran it at about 85% instead of my normal 95%. I checked the time from my 8 mile run just after Christmas (as I was training for a half-marathon). I ran that run nearly all out. And it was EXACTLY the same time. Then: running all out. Now: easy. Sweet.

Then I came home and did “Powerhouse Hit The Deck.” I first did this workout about 3 months ago. It’s a series of cards with different exercises on them. I did all 30 cards for 30 seconds each. Nice burn.

Friday: BRICK!
- 4x500s in the pool
- 60 minutes spinning

Notes: I did the 500s with about 45 seconds rest. I averaged about 8:12 / 500 yards. Then I took 8 minutes to dodge the naked, hairy, old men in the locker room, fill up some water bottles, and hop on a spin bike. I spun pretty hard for 60 minutes in the spinning studio alone (except for when the maintenance man came in to work on some broken bikes).

Saturday: Speed Saturday 07
- 3x1600 meters
- Lift weights (upper body)
- Core

Notes: Mindy was itching to get on the track. So I put out the call, and we got 6 people down there for a Sat a.m. workout!

Jen, Will, Eric, Mindy, Jeremy, and I

The track had a few lanes free of snow, and there were just 2 icy spots that had to be dodged:

So we all started running. Here’s Mindy, Jen, and Jeremy. Will is bringing up the rear (but he started later - he’s NOT slow):

Here’s Mindy and Eric:

Jeremy grabbed my camera, and snapped a photo of me half way into my last interval:

I WANTED to run 4 intervals, but I could only gut-out 3 (with 90 seconds rest between). I ran them in 5:47, 5:41, and 5:38 (average of 5:42 / 1600).

Then I headed to the Y for a good workout. Good day.

Sunday:
- 37.5 mile outdoor ride!!

Notes: It was 50 yesterday!! What a day for my first outdoor ride of the year on MY NEW BIKE! I got a bunch of stuff ready to throw in a little cheap backpack:

(Yeah, I didn’t even take my new pump out of the packaging. I was TOO FREAKIN’ EXCITED!)

Here I am before heading out for my virgin ride on Goldilocks (yeah, I think her name is "Goldilocks"):

I was SO HAPPY to be riding outside! Here I am 3 miles into the ride, and you can SMELL how giddy I am!!

The Greenway Trail was PRETTY WET! There were a ton of huge puddles that completely covered the trail:

15 miles later, guess what? I was still giddy to be riding!

Visor with glasses: it’s a good look, right?... Right?...

It was windy (15 mph), so I was fighting the wind on the way out. At one point, my average was up to 19.0 mph, which was sweet! By the time I was done with 37.5 miles, my average had dropped to 18.2, but I was still happy to have been outside.

Once I got home, my bike no longer looked brand new:

So that’s been my last 8 days! I have a lot more to do this week before starting to taper for a bit. I’m thinking I’ll shoot for about a 60 mile ride tomorrow!!

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