Week 23

This week my energy was restored, no more "head on the desk syndrome," I registered for the Wildflower Long Course, kept the week light and then trained with the team for 14 hours over the weekend.What tha!?!!?

Monday - Rest
I honestly don't remember what I did this day. But I know I didn't do any kind of working out!

Tuesday - Spin
I didn't feel like going to the pool, so set up the rig in the kitchen that night and spun for an hour followed by 30 minutes of core. I think my non-existent appetite from the week before, which extended into the weekend really screwed me up. By the end of core I was shaking uncontrollably and ended up cutting it short to eat some bread and almond butter.

COMPARE AND CONTRAST

My body totally changed!

November 2007




March 2008 (4 months later)


Wednesday - Track
Did some speed work at track tonight and my heart rate was back to normal. Still having issues with shoes. Hope to try and return them to Sports Basement even though I've run in them like 6 times outside. Still not really into food after the workout.

Thursday - Nothing!
Had a chiro appointment in the morning and felt awesome when it was over. Weighed myself there and lost another 3 pounds. Whoa!

Friday - Nothing!
Had a doctors appointment where they weighed me and their scale said I was 2 pounds less than the scale at the chiro. DOUBLE WHOA! Had a going away party for a co-worker. Didn't drink and went home early because of my huge day on Saturday.

Saturday - Boot Camp Day One: Start at 9am end at 4pm
The night before I prepared for my 7 hour training schedule the next day. SEVEN HOURS people. I really couldn't even fathom it. I had no idea what to pack for calories so I figured I might burn about 4,000 calories and decided to bring along half of those calories in various drinks and whole food. We started the day at Aquatic Park where I made a last minute decision that I wasn't going to swim. I had heard the swim was only going to be about 20 minutes of getting in and out and experiencing a mass start so, for me, being in the bay in 50 degree water and then dealing with wet hair and clothes the rest of the day, which was only supposed to be 54 and cloudy, was not really appealing. I got the evil eye from the coaches but whatevs.

Nicole and Hez NOT swimming

However, when I got there, swim coach Nancy had an awesome workout planned and I was kinda bummed. See? I wish the coaches would let us in on that stuff BEFORE. I totally woulda done it. The workout consisted of doing a series of jumping jacks, core, wheel barrell races etc in between swimming to a buoy just off shore and back. Oh wells.

We reconvened at Sports Basement where the hell began. We left first on a bike ride following the Escape From Alcatraz course, about 13 miles. Yi and I were the first women back again on the bike. We totally kick ass on that. Then we suited up in running gear and ran to the Lyons Street Stairs, which are about 300 steps on the side of a hill. This is what we did:

Run up
Run down
Run up skipping a step
Run down
Run up
Run down
Hop on two legs up every step
Run down
Hop up on right leg
Run down
Hop up on left leg
Run down

Then if we were done before the rest of the group (which I was, grrr!) We had to run down a little hill and then do LUNGES all the way up it.

*blink* *blink*

Hez and Yi: Stairclimbers

Then we ran back to our bikes and spun for 45 minutes.



Then we ran to the Golden Gate Bridge (about 30 minutes).

Then we ran back to our bikes and spun for another 45 minutes.

Then we had to run about 15 minutes to another location for core where we:
Did side squats across a lawn (about 60-80 squats)
Did 25 push ups
Did 25 pull ups and/or held yourself up as long as you could for 3 times.
REPEAT THREE TIMES

And then RUN BACK to your bikes and pack up.

Duuuude, that last set of core about half of us were standing around glassy-eyed and zoning out.

I literally could not deal and basically threw my shit in the car and left without talking to anyone. I could not get home fast enough! I needed to be in bed ASAP.

Got home. Showered. Made a giant bowl of food even though I wasn't hungry and watched disc 5 of Freaks and Geeks. Went to bed short about 1800 calories. I just couldn't eat any more!

Sunday - Boot Camp Day Two: Start at 8am end at 3pm
Before I passed out in a coma on Saturday I managed to pack my gear up for Sunday. Drove down to San Jose at 6:45am. Sleeeepy. We started our day with a leisurely hour swim, followed by an hour bike ride up a giant hill, followed by an hour run. Then we got down to business:

Our set up in San Jose

Larry the mentor said: Look Sporty

30 minutes spinning-"hill work"
30 minutes of track and core consisting of running 5 minutes and then core consisting of MORE squats, crunches and pushups
30 minutes spinning-"speed work"
30 minutes of running and core consisting of running up and down MORE stairs plus pushups, crunches and step ups
30 minutes of spinning-dude I don't even remember what we did!
30 minutes of track and core consisting of LUNGES, and these weird hoppy things and pushups that I didn't do (shhhh)

Then we were done and we all jumped in the pool to cool off! Sunday wasn't half as bad as Saturday and I was pleasantly coherent on the hour drive back to San Francisco! I stopped in at a gas station to get post workout snack of pretzels and Dr. Pepper (shhh don't tell Dr. Scott!) and this guy in line in front of me asked me what Ironteam meant on my t-shirt. I told him that we were in training for Ironman and this guy, a complete stranger told me that he admired me for that. Then he commented on the "nutritional" food I was buying and when I just looked at him guiltily he said, "awww just teasing!" heh.

So the reason we had two consecutive 7 hour days of training was to see what it was like to push our minds and our bodies beyond reasonable limits. When you think you can't go anymore you learn very quickly that you have to. That may even be a metaphor for life. In a way I dreaded the weekend but I was also excited to see how I was going to be able to handle it. Mentally I really didn't have any issues. I was kind of like, just do it! Physically I was really surprised how well my body just followed along. I was especially impressed with my body the day after each workout. It really wasn't too sore. Maybe a little slower on day two but that is about it. What a nice surprise after months of having to ice everything for fear of pain. Monday I was a little out of it and faded quickly during the afternoon. But on Tuesday I felt refreshed and stronger and ready to do it all over again!