Day Off

This last Monday Jose and I were fortunate enough to be able to take the day off from work, but our version of a day off is not what most people would expect. When I looked at my training schedule, I felt a little bored by the workouts, but a few small modifications quickly turned it into an exciting training day. The plan was to swim an hour, ride 6 hours and run 2 hours. Yes, I realize it is not normal to have this kind of training day on a Monday after a full week of training. But the idea of it had me a bit scared and nervous, which made the training exciting.

We started the day with a pre-sunrise swim. It was sort of non eventful and before I knew it we were on our bikes in a frigid 40 degrees. Our neighbors gave us some funky looks as they prepared to head off to work, but I am pretty sure if they knew what we were up to the looks would have been much worse. Unfortunately it seems that every other morning this month has been above 60 degrees with light winds, while we had to ride the first hour in really cold temps and with a very strong headwind. I kept wanting to turn around and call it a day, after all, it is not like I had to do this.




This is about an hour in, we had been averaging about 15 mph into a fierce headwind, I could not feel my extremities and was not enjoying my "day off".



This was our first planned stop at Gardens Corner. Unfortunately the Piggly Wiggly has closed.

Once we got past Beaufort and out of the headwind, we hit a short section of tailwind before the wind direction shifted and we had a crosswind, followed by more headwind latter in the day. The good news was that it did warm up a for a little while about 4 hours into our ride. However, as we were finishing the ride the clouds moved in and the temperature dropped again.



Once we got done with our ride it was time to head out for the run. I was really unsure about this section of the day. My plan was simply to head out the door and just see how I felt. There was no sense in hurting myself and jeopardizing my training. In the end, Jose and I kept the pace really mellow and just chatted the entire way. Before I knew it we were back home and we had just done a 9 hour training day.

Update

Nothing much is new in terms of personal stuff. After a successful trip to Puerto Rico I settled into some solid training. I feel completely unprepared for an 140.6 mile race, but I am told that is somewhat normal for 8 weeks out. I was kinda bummed to not be able to make it to Costa Rica for the Rev3 race. I heard it was an awesome event. Being part of the Trakkers team though allowed me to follow the race and cheer for my team mates who were able to make it. I also really have enjoyed getting to learn about our new sponsors, two of which really stick out.

First Avia running shoes. I will be honest, I have been curious about these shoes for a while. This is a company that has been in the business for a while and I was excited to try out their innovative shoes. My big issue with shoes is that I need a certain level of stability, which ends up in me running in a bulky feeling shoe. The Avia Quest is the shoe I have been training on, and I am happy to report that it is not bulky feeling at all. While it might look bulky sitting on the shelf at a store, I think you will quickly realize that even though it is a stability/motion control shoe, it allows my foot to track more naturally. Having said that, I am not really sure how a motion control shoe can feel natural, but that is why I leave the shoe making to the experts.

The second new update is Recovery Pump. This is an Active Pneumatic Compression System which, in my most basic of layman's terms, pumps air into four different chambers. The process begins at you feet and moves up your leg, then starts again. The goal being to flush out all the waste product from your legs. The bottom line is it feels good and I can tell you that this is becoming a common sight around our house.