A MUCH Better Week of Workouts

A week ago, I posted this image of my training the week of Thanksgiving:

Yep. 42:00 of strength and core work all week. Solid. ;)

I remarked how I felt like I was a little burnt out. After a few weeks of not wanting to do ANYTHING, I started to get some desire back. (No, not THAT desire - I always have THAT desire.) So I started back up, and last week was MUCH better:

• Mon, Nov 29:
- 6.84 mile run and stretching in the AM.
- Upper body strength workout at the Y in the PM.

• Tues, Nov 30:
- 30:00 with Coach Troy on the trainer (that's the little "SP" on the calendar).
- Some core work.

• Wed, Dec 1:
- 2200 yard swim with Julia.
- Upper body strength workout at the Y.

• Thurs, Dec 2:
- 4 x 1500 intervals at the Metrodome.

I posted about this workout here, where I showed a few photos of my lovely Pharmie and Matt M doing laps:

• Fri, Dec 3:
- 2400 yard swim with Julia in the AM. (How did I NOT get a photo with Julia this week?!)
- Over an hour with Coach Troy on the trainer in the PM.

Brother-in-law Matt (different from Matt M above) came over to hit the trainer with Pharmie and I. Here's a photo when we were cooling down. (I barely got back to my bike in time after setting the self timer, hence my awkward still-getting-on-the-bike photo:)

The sweat under Matt's bike at the end of an hour+

• Sat, Dec 4:
- 85 minutes of snow blowing and snow shoveling.
- Solid core workout at the Y.

• Sun, Dec 5:
- 9 mile run.

I'm trying to keep my long runs up so I'll be able to start working my way up for the Winter Carnival Half Marathon shortly. So I headed out for a snow-covered 9 miler Sunday night. It was my coldest run of the season: it was 12 degrees with around a 0 - 4 degree windchill. I resisted the urge to break out the YakTrax yet - I told myself I wasn't going to be running hard enough to need them. Here are some photos I took along the way:

Front yard with 5-7 inches of new snow


Nicely plowed River Road


Crossing the frozen Mississippi


More of the Mississippi


A more melted trail on the other side of the river

I had over a mile to run on the more cleared trail before turning around. I told myself I'd start picking up the pace, and then run hard at the turn around on the less-snowy trail for about 1.3 miles. My mile splits from the start of the run were 7:08, 7:25, and 7:12. Then I started upping the pace (6:45). I ran hard for a mile (6:16), and kept up the pace for part of the next mile (7:07). I had forgotten how much the cold, dry air and all of the layers really slow you down. When I saw 6:16 for that "fast" mile, it felt like sub 6 for sure. I snapped a photo as soon as I eased up after the hard miles:

Proof to those of you in WARM areas that you CAN sweat
when it's 12 degrees! ;) (My face is "glistening.")

I eased up a bit for a final 3 miles.

As the sun is setting along River Road


Some kids sledding at the Town and Country Club

I got home and rewarded myself for a solid week under my belt.

According the the time stamp on these photo files, it only took 4 minutes and 36 seconds to go from that image above to this image below:

And Pharmie only got 2 of those rolls.... ;)

So I know this wasn't an AMAZING week of training, but for early December when I'm not training for anything specific, it's fantastic. If I can keep this up, I'll be GOLDEN come springtime. Happy winter everyone!

p.s. If you missed my last post from Minnesota Tri Night, check it out. I posted the results of the awards banquet along with 2 slideshows of images on my Examiner page. Click here for the results and photos during the awards, and click here to see photos from before and after the presentation. Thanks everyone!