Double-Brick House

Mother Nature is a Bee-otch! For the 2nd weekend in a row, she unleashed her fury in the middle of the night, thereby thwarting my attempts at Saturday morning long runs.

I heard the thunder and lightening when my alarm went off at 5:45am this morning. My phone rang at 6:00am and it was my running partner, Amy. “You still want to meet at 6:30am?”

“Not really,” was my basic reply. “I’ll probably just go to my gym.”

“It’s not raining up here. Let’s meet and if it’s too bad we’ll go to my gym,” she persuaded.

“Cool.”

Twenty minutes later I opened my front door to head to Runtex and was greeted with a flash of lightening and clap of thunder. “Screw this.” I called Amy and told her I was staying put. It’s just not worth it. Runner Mike also called around 6:30am to ask if I was going. "Nope. I basically said yesterday in my email that I would bail if it was raining." I spent the next couple of hours questioning my decision, but that's what guilt does to you. It rained constantly all morning and at times was pretty severe. I don't regret it.

I went to the gym at 8:00am when it opened and set up a spin bike for the 8:30am class. I expected it to be crowded because of the rain, but it was only about half full. I hopped on the treadmill and ran 2 miles prior to spin class. Every ¼ mile, I would alternate between a 1% and 3% grade. I finished the 2 miles just in time to put my cycling shoes on and hop on the bike for an intense 45 minute spin class. That kept my HR up near 85%-87% for the bulk of the workout. Once that was completed, I actually hopped off the spin bike and got back on the treadmill. Yep, I decided to do a double-brick workout this morning in lieu of my missed run and swim.

This time, I ran 4 miles on the treadmill. My pace wasn’t fast, but once again, I did some progressive % increases every ¼ mile. 1%-2%-1%-3%-1%-2%...etc. I really attempted to work on form and strength during this longer workout today.

Once I completed the 4 miles, I actually hopped back on a spin bike and did another 40 minutes! I kept my cadence fast on this one, but alternated between sitting and standing every 5 minutes.

I completed my workout and felt good about my efforts for the day. The “old Carrie” would’ve just skipped the workout all together. The “new Carrie” kicked the "old Carrie" in the ass and did a double workout instead.

As I type this, MORE severe storms are entering the Austin area so I’m not sure what will happen in the morning. Shawn and I were going to meet for dinner tonight, but we just cancelled that because the weather is so bad in the Austin area. I’m supposed to go to swim class at 7:15am and then get a 40 mile ride in at some point. We’ll see what happens!

Man I was hungry today!!


Nutrition:

6am piece of bread with PBJ, coffee
10:45am bowl of kashi after morning workouts (4 bottles of water at gym and home)
11:30am met friend Dena at coffee shop and I had a small skim latte and a blueberry/yogurt biscotti
2:00pm veggie sandwich at Cosmic Café-avacado, cream cheese, mozzarella, spinach, wheat pita, water
5pm sugar free jello
6:00pm another bowl of dry kashi
8:30pm small bowl of whole wheat pasta with sundried tomatoes, small glass red wine