Weekend Ride Data

Garmin Connect - Activity Details for Apple Valley Ride- 3/20/10

Still trying to figure everything out with the new Garmin but here's my first attempt at sharing this weekend's ride info. Still a bit confused on starting the ride when I'm not at the exact point the Garmin wants me to begin at and our speed is off b/c I haven't changed the timer to auto start/stop when not riding. Hopefully by the next ride I'll have more of this figured out.

Completely Shelled

(Still looks like Winter but its actually 70+ degrees outside)

Having been in the base-building phase for about 2 months now I wanted to spend the last week of training with some added intensity while staying consistent. I've been backing off on running a bit to focus on swimming/biking/weight training/proper dieting/yoga and was finally ready to bring it all full circle.

The training week started well enough but I could definitely tell that the workouts were leaving me more spent than usual. Wednesday was such a nice/warm day in Boston that I tacked on a quick 10 min run in my Vibrams before hopping on the bike. Being the first time this year running in Vibrams, I forgot how much this takes out of my legs.

After a 7.5 mi run on Thursday (it was a struggle to run this far after Wednesday's Vibram run), I woke up Friday feeling like I'd run a marathon...just completely wasted. Knowing the weekend would be beautiful (70-75 deg), I rested up Friday and got ready for a 50 mi ride on Saturday. The day was as good as advertised...sunny/hot. As you can see from the pic, we still have some flooding from last week's storms but it was fun biking through freezing cold pond water since it was so warm outside. Once again I woke up the next day feeling pretty weak so we made it a recovery day and will start the new week's workouts today instead of Tuesday.

As a random side note, I am now officially registered for the 2010 NYC Marathon...I can't wait!

Fridge = Depressing

Our fridge. By the looks of it, I'd say we've reached the weekend (when we've run out of food).

Spring Tease

This past weekend was pretty amazing as it was our first Spring tease! Jus and I were like little kids on Christmas morning when we woke up on Saturday. The sun was shining through the window and temps were expected to reach a high of 56 degrees. Giddy as could be, we prepped our bikes, had breakfast and was out the door for the first real bike ride of the season!

We started our ride in Harold Parker State Forest which was about a 30 min drive from home. I had gotten Justin a Garmin GPS for his last birthday and this was its debut ride (finally!). It was SUPER nice to not have to print directions and cut, fit and tape them to the post of our bikes. The Garmin was a recommendation from Joey, who also has one, and the thing was awesome. Rides can be so much more pleasant when you’re not constantly hunting down street signs or worrying that you missed a turn. Two thumbs up from me!

We biked 49 miles in 3hr 30mins. A 14mph pace was totally ok with me for my first ride back and even better, there was no bonking.

On Sunday, we B-lined it to the gym to get an early morning swim in before the rest of the world woke up. We kept it at 40mins since we still had a bike and run scheduled and didn’t want to kill ourselves too early, especially for me, where this was my first weekend really back at it.

After the pool we made waffles and packed up the bikes again for another ride. This time we started from Concord High. This is a regular starting spot for us (as well as 50,000 other bikers in MA). We biked 36miles in 2hrs 30mins through quite streets and farmland. We got to see what quite possibly could have been the largest cows ever which was an added bonus. When the bike was wrapped up, we finished the day with a 40min run in the city. At that point, we were both tired; I was shaky (dehydration?) so it was nice to be done.

It felt great to be outside riding again, finally. Winter is a drag but makes days like this past weekend so much more special and enjoyable! This upcoming weekend isn’t looking too hot BUT there is a positive to every negative… its daylight savings day!!! WHOOHOO!!!!!

Jus biking through quiet streets...

Fingers Crossed For a Nice Weekend

Anyone living through New England winters can relate to the excitement of the first nice weekend. The weatherman says right around 55 and sunny all weekend- and even though they're usually wrong, I'll delude myself into believing they'll be dead on. That means its time to pull out the workout gear more appropriate for 70 just because I can.

From a training perspective, this is huge. You can finally see the light at the end of the winter training tunnel. Motivation is high and now I'll try to carry this through until the first race (right now its Mooseman on 6/6).

Planned weekend workouts:

Friday- 45-60 min run

Saturday- 4 hr bike, 2 hr run
Sunday- 45 min swim, 4hr bike, 1 hr ru

Checking In...

(Pic from this weekend's swim workout)

Liz was looking back at our posts from this time last year and its amazing how different the years have started off. This is pretty much the result of struggling to mentally get our lives back together after Ironman, some poor race planning (Disney's timing wasn't so great and the weather sucked but its a race Joey's had us looking forward to for the past couple years).

I also think last year was different from a training point of view. Prepping for our first Ironman I had no idea what it would take to actually finish...each missed workout or bad meal felt like a weight dragging me further from the finish line. Even the 70.3's from the last 2 years have had some question marks. The heat/wind for Hawaii, the heat/timing/the Beast for St Croix- they all left me some doubt. Now that I've completed some of the hardest races at each distance, its become more difficult to find that fear (drive) that prevents me from slacking off.

For a while I found enjoyment in doing longer distance races but I think my limit has been found at Ironman and hopefully a 50 mile run. Distances I may do once every few years to prove to myself that I can still do them but more than that would be a chore. So now I'm trying to become a more complete athlete: get faster, lift weights, practice yoga, do more cross training activities and overall find more happiness from sport. Hopefully this will mean more local races (I hate nothing more than every hotel being booked on race weekend 9 months in advance) and a better balance in the types of races we do.

Having said all that, the last couple of weeks have been great in that I've actually looked forward to my workouts and can't wait for race season to start. 98 days til Mooseman...