Okay, Now Where Was I...

Let's see now...the last time I wrote it was Sunday and I had a great bike ride....it's now Friday!! So what's been happenin' in my exciting tri life?!

Let's start at the beginning shall we...

(Ok, this would be a good time to get a glass of your favourite bevy....this will be a long one in true Susi fashion!)

So, on Tuesday's swim we had a 450 m warmup then got into a 45 minute endurance swim. The concept is simple - swim for 45 minutes straight, just like you would in a race. So off we went...lap, after lap, after lap. Ya, not too exciting, haha. Then again I always manage to have a little excitment happen, no matter how big or small.

So I must have been doing my flipturns REALLY fast (ha, ya right!) cause my damn swim cap started to slip off. As hinted to above, there is no stopping in this type of swim. I had to keep going, just like I'd do in a race. Actually, this was good practice. Something wasn't going my way - it happens all the time in a race - and I needed to keep going despite it. So I did.

Before I even hit 1000 m the cap had somehow slipped off my head and was hanging on under my goggles in the nape of my neck! My pigtails were still in a bunch in there too. Hmm, can you say DRAAAAAG. haha. By the time I got to around 1800 m or so my pigtails were flopping by the side of my head and my cap was barely hanging on under the strap of my goggles. So I took it off. Only I did so at the wrong end of the pool so I had to swim with one hand in a fist and the other normal. haha. I blame these events on my only going 2050 m in 45 minutes. I should have been able to swim farther!

Lesson learned though - I felt great during those 45 minutes. I can tell I've improved since last year and that's an awesome thing. I also know that next time I can turn it up a notch. Very cool.

That night I had IG's bike class. It was a gooder!! After warm up we did six by two sets of 2 min hard, 2 min easy intervals. I was really happy with my biking as I got my HR up where I was supposed to AND kept my cadence up. My legs were burning and I could have used my inhaler, but it felt damn good. I felt strong!

It was only at the end I started to feel a wee bit off. I figured it was because I really didn't have a dinner before the bike - I had worked late that night. The last three sets were the toughest, but I still had strength. After I got off the bike was another story, haha. I had to sit on the floor of the shop for a while. Katie kindly gave me a little bit of chocolate to help me.

I finally decided I had to get off the floor - at some point IG would want to go home, haha - and drive home. I felt pretty crappy by the time I got home. Yes Keith, to answer the question I KNOW you are going to ask - I got a core workout in too. haha.

Wednesday was a run day. I was late getting home that night so headed out around 6:15pm. It was funny running by all the houses and seeing TVs on and people eating. I started thinking, hmmm, what would I rather be doing. Sitting in my warm cozy house watching TV, or being out here in the cold running?? Believe it or not, I choose the latter. haha. Yup, I'm nuts.

It's just nice being out there on your own and running. I, of course, had my safety vest on that Mum sent me. I learned as a kid that she is always right. When she said to put my coat on because it was cold out, and I didn't...I'd always freeze. Needless to say, I knew that if she sent me a running safety vest and I didn't wear it...that I'd be roadkill. haha. So run I did, for a good hour. I meandered around the paths (that were somewhat lit by the houses and my LED cap) and the roads.

Hang in there...I'm almost done!

Thursday was a swim day. Unfortunatley our coach wasn't able to make it, but we didn't know that beforehand so there were four of us in the pool. We did our regular 600 m warmup then figured Jenn wasn't coming. So on a whim, I took the lead and figured out a lesson, haha.

We did 100 m swim drill, 100 m kick drill, then 10 x 50 m sprints. (Yes, I'm mean - but hey, I had to do them too!!!) I went on 1:05 minutes. The first few were skookum - I was finishing in about 46 s. Of course that wasn't going to hold, haha. Towards the end I was resting for only about 6 or 7 seconds, haha. To finish off our set we did 200 m backstroke and 200 m breaststroke. Not too shabby for an amateur coach!

I didn't have to run on Thursday night, so I squeezed in a visit with my treasured chiropractor. I was in desperate need of a back adjustment not to mention my calves were 'tighter than a cow's ass in fly season!'.

You know, I really think my chiro needs to hand out disposable leather straps for his patients to bite when he's working on them. AIYAAAAA!!! At least I didn't drop any F-Bombs. I was close to doing so and had I not had the breathe sucked out of me because of the pain, I would have dropped one....or five. LOL.

My calves were seriously burning when he was working on them. Hopefully, with another visit I will be able to get the rest of the muscles to loosen up with some further stretching. Sigh... I think this counts as a workout though, because the next morning I sure felt as if I had worked out!

Okay, last but not least....it was SweatLab night tonight!!! It was a short ride tonight - 1:40 hr. I focused on my technique and keeping my HR where it should be. The ride we did tonight was to mimic the section from Oliver to Richter Pass. I wasn't pushing it so I only made it a smidge up Richter, which is fine with me!

Tomorrow is a xcountry ski day - I can't wait to hit the mountains!!! Hope everyone else out in TriLand had a wonderful week just as I did!!!