Well, Easter is over, and the kids are just finishing up their Easter Break. They have enjoyed their time off school and they decided to camp out in our home office, needless to say, it's nice to have a laptop for it's portability. (That's my girl, we were baking cookies. Delicious sugar cookies *gulp* If you can see it in the background, that white on the walls is not flour, it's the prep for the touch up painting that is in progress!)I am pretty sure my last post was from the road, and it has seemed over the last while I've spent SO much time traveling for work. It didn't really cut much into my training, I thought I did good at planning to fit my work outs in. Tried out 3 different pools in one city!!! It wasn't always easy, and I did forget my HRM for one trip, which was highly annoying to me.
Just this last week, I packed up my suitcase for a day flight just so I could drag along my swim and running gear :) That day was TOO long though.
I have missed some training over the last month or so though, but because I was sick (maybe from too much travel?!?!). It was the head cold that would not end! I found that so frustrating, but in between there I did my first 10 km run and it could be that the extra rest I gained from being sick helped me to not be too tired for the race. I was really stoked with the race though, because it felt great :) Really good. I feel as though my goal for a 1/2 marathon in the fall is realistic.
Sadly, the sport that was hit the most from being ill was swimming. It is the one that requires the most planning for me, and usually very early mornings. But I also feel like I may have had a bit of a breakthrough with my swimming. First, Shawn has us doing some swim specific strength training with elastic paddles on the deck. I'm really concentrating on my pull and putting more strength into it instead of just thinking about my recovery and breathing, and I had my best ever 50 m time. It could have been a fluke, but I'm optimistic, and have been "enjoying" my pool time. I find myself calculating how long it'll take me at the various distances.
I've also been pretty diligent in doing my stretching, foam rolling and tennis ball "therapy". Including a few visits to physio, and a couple massages. Of course it's been a few nights now since I've done any stretching ;( I also want to start working in some leg strength and keeping up with core. Sigh...oh time where will I find you!
Now that the weather is getting better I'm anxious to get out on the road, and in particular I'm hoping to ride my bike to work in the next few weeks, since my first race is 4 weeks from tomorrow! Holy cow... just did the math on that!!!! Now I'm a bit freaked out. I know I should be doing it for the fun of it, but I really really really want to place top 5 in my age group.
Hope I didn't jinx myself now! I think my age group includes some pretty serious athletes, likely using this race as a warm up for their 1/2 Ironman races. Double sigh.
This post has dragged on too long and now I will really try to update again soon, so I'm not so far behind.
