Week 12: Wednesday and Thursday Recap

Ok--I sufficiently punished myself for "slacking off" earlier in the week. Sadly, I define "slacking off" by resting one day and sleeping in until like 6:00am. What a lazy ass I am :-)

Wednesday

After missing the official 800s track workout and catching some friendly hell from Running Hubby Mike, I decided to leave my desk at 11am, take an early lunch and hit the gym. I started with a 2000 (1.4 mile) straight freestyle swim in the pool that took me 47 minutes. Now, the 1/2 Ironman is a 1.2 Mile swim. If all was equal, I could do the 1.2 in roughly 42 minutes. Still slow, but a PR for me. Someday, I'll go sub-40, but probably not this year. Of course, not all is equal. This was in the pool and I'll be in the Gulf Coast. This was in my swim suit and I'll be in a wetsuit. This was a solo lane swim and I'll be getting my face smacked by hands and feet for the first several hundred meters in murky ocean water. All that aside, I was happy overall at the consistency of each lap and my lack of utter exhaustion, I went at about 80 % effort and focused on my catch. I was very surprised at how good I felt...so good, in fact, that I hopped on the treadmill and ran 5.5. miles. Within that treadmill run, I threw in 5 x 1/2 mile repeats at a 6:20 pace. I know I was getting goofy looks from other gym goers as they would hear the belt speed up to "blender-like" proportions every couple of minutes. I tried to maintain good form for a treadmill, but had to hold on for dear life for brief moments. All in all, I felt vindicated. It's amazing how my stress level went down and my mood perked just from completely a solid workout.

Thursday

Got up and met Amy and Mike for a 7 Mile Scenic Run. Nothing too fast, just a good solid effort on some hills. I finished around 7am and took that opportunity to head to Stacy Pool for an additional 45-minute swim workout that included some laps with hand paddles (increase resistance and arm strength) and fins (leg and kicking strength). I compare this workout to a light weight session at the gym.

So, in the last two days, I've thrown together two decent swims and two respectable runs. I plan on swimming (or resting) Friday because I've got a 20-mile run scheduled for Saturday and a 40-50 mile bike ride scheduled for Sunday. This is my last "heavy" weekend until Ironman 70.3 in Clearwater Beach.