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Sunday, March 9, 2008

Back to Reality


While I wish this was still my training locale, last week it was back to reality both at work and in training. Our week and a half in the BVI was incredible (I'll post more details later), but I can't say with an honest face that I stuck completely to my training plan of threshold swims and water running. This is a picture of Bart and I water running off the side of our boat at the Baths in Virgin Gorda. For those of you who have never tried it, its a pretty good workout, although definitely feels different than running on land.


We also interspersed our vacation with "cross training" with arm workouts maneuvering the sails and dancing to the various bands at the local bars. And, thanks to Rupert at Norman Island, my favorite recovery drink was a Sunshine Painkiller rather than my orange flavored Endura.
Back to training...
Needless to say, two days of training last week and jumping right back to threshold training was tough. My first hard run on Tuesday morning, nearly made me want to vomit and raised the question (it was only fleeting), was vacation really worth it and am I ever going to recover. I continued to sludge through my workouts for the week and by my hard 40 minute ride Thursday night followed by an easy 20 minute run, I was beginning to feel like I hadn't lost all sense of fitness. I met my time trial average of 18 mph on the bike with seemingly less effort and had a pretty easy sub 10 minute mile run afterwards.
By Saturday's ride, however, I remembered I had taken time off. Bart and I braved the elements and rode in the pouring rain with EF coach Mark through Goochland. At the end of our 27 mile usual Goochland loop, when the skies finally cleared and the sun shone, the winds decided to pick up. Bart left to go ride with the boys, and I rode one lap of West Creek and soloed home via River Road to finish out my 3 hours on the bike. I was thankful I had chosen to ride my old road bike because I was certain that McQueen would have been swept off the road in one of the big gusts. I was thankful to reach the safety of home and the end of my only long ride in 3 weeks when I realized that my schedule called for a brick of 15 minutes of running at 9:20 pace. After transition, I was soon back to that hard breathing/vomit feeling that I started the week off with.
Before leaving to travel to Omaha for work on Sunday, I managed to get in my 90 minute long run. Not too bad a pace for having not run, but not as fast as I will have to produce this weekend. I apparently did not drink enough water to compensate for the dehydrating effects of flying and am suffering the consequences of sore muscles today.
Despite the beautiful surroundings of the BVI and the wonderful relaxation that I definitely needed, I am glad to be back in the swing of things and am looking forward to catching up with the gals at Masters on Wednesday and the Shamrock 1/2 this weekend.

3 comments:

TriGirl 40 said...

I can't wait to hear more about your trip - looks like you had an incredible time - and maybe the perfect mini taper as you are right back on track with impressive training.

TriGirl Kate O said...

Welcome home! Anxious to hear all about the trip.

Jonah Holland said...

Nice to have you at Masters...I'm sure we'll be seeing lots of each other there!