IML 4 & 5

Ok, clearly I am getting bored with recounting my lame training escapades to my adoring public. Let's see...what happened during week 4? You know what? I don't remember but it involved lots of swimming, running and spinning. It also involved my rib still not paying attention to its buddies and where its supposed to sit. Rib? Please sit with your friends.

Week (4-ish and) 5 Saturday - (Swim)/Bike/Run
I worked on Friday night til midnight so I decided to skip the swim and felt ok about that since it is pretty much the only thing I am doing religiously right now. I slept in til 8am (woah!) and then made my way to the Dougherty Aquatic Something-or-Other in San Ramon? Livermore? East Bayness, to meet up with the team. I got there just in time and got my stuff ready for a quick 2 hour ride. We did a really nice loop that went past pastures and cows (of which I CANNOT pass with out yelling MOOOOOO! to every single one of them) and horses and ponies. Early on in the ride we passed the TnT Cycle Team and I saw Coach Cyd. God, how I miss that team. We got back to the parking lot and Moddie and I set outto run three 2 mile loops. We dragged Mike Kyle with us. We managed only to do 2 loops. I did also manage to pee behind a wall in a neighborhood. I am a rebel.

Hez Stretching

Yi, Sedonia, Hez and Mike

Sunday - Run
I readied myself for a 9 mile run. The most I have run this season is 5 miles and I was pretty nervous about it. Would everything work? Would things get tight? Would my hips/back/rib/psoas/knee/foot-arch-thing hold up? YES! It was amazing! Moddie and I met at the monkey bars on the Marina Green and headed out to the Golden Gate Bridge point, turned around, ran up and over the bridge to the other side, turned around and came back. Just under 9 miles with an average speed of 11mph which is really, really good considering we were running 5 minutes and then walking for 2 minutes. We are gods! Then we had a nice lunch at the Crissy Field Cafe place which was much lower key than I expected but a good thing since I was feeling mildly self-conscious about my spandex clad body.

Monday- Day off
Yay!

Tuesday - Run/Swim
I convinced Mike Kyle to come all the way to Burlingame to meet me for a quick run and then an hour pool workout. It was a pretty nice day. We ran around Burlingame for 45 minutes and then hopped in the pool. It was so nice to have someone to workout with! Afterwards we headed over to Stacks for lunch. Yum! I had a massage later that night which was awesome. Jez did A LOT of work on my rib, which may or may not have also included a breast exam. Hahaha, no. Well, it's kinda true since it is all in "that area." He kept asking if I was ok with it. Comfortable etc. I was like, yeah. A little to the left please? NO NO! I didn't say that! It's always completely professional.

Wednesday - Spin
The spin was an hour and a half today. The end.

Thursday - ...
I don't actually remember what I did on Thursday. I did go to the Chiropractor and complained that my rib was still sore. Rabbetz was all, did you ice it after the massage? I was all, no. No one told me! I got some eye rolling in my direction. When my rib first popped out, Rabbetz told me to stay away from the wetsuit because of the compression. So I had to check in with him today to see if I was greenlighted to wear one on Saturday. He said yes. I was really hoping for "no." Then I think I went home and did some more spinning. I don't really remember.

Friday - Nothing. Oh wait!
I spun on Friday, not Thursday. Thursday I think I just did some stretching. The spin was an hour. I putzed around all day pretending to clean my house but sometimes not getting any farther than the couch and an episode of Babylon 5. I made kasha varnishkas (with rice noodle bowties) and cleaned my veggies that came from the organic farm. Sometime around 7pm I pulled my wetsuit out of the closet. It was covered in mold. I guess the last time I used it was in July for my race. Oops. I saw what I thought was three kinds of mold. Gray fuzzy stuff, yellow stuff that looked like it was little sperms and some white whispy stuff (which turned out to be a spider nest). Sigh. I took it outside and brushed it all off mad at myself that I let my $500 wetsuit get moldy. Then I dug around in my cupboard and fished out a bottle of wetsuit cleaner that Ironmo gave me last year before she moved (thank god...the cleaner not the moving). Then I decided that I was in no mood to clean my wetsuit at 8pm the night before I was going to be wearing it. Then I ate my varnishkas and watched more Babylon 5.

Saturday - (Swim)/Bike/Run
Doug picked me up at the horrible, horrible time of 6:45am. Actually it was 7am because Doug rolls on Asian Time. We drove out to Lake Del Valle in Livermore. The weather report had said partly sunny high of 63. But when we got to the lake it was 41 degrees. Granted it was 8am, but still. I was not really prepared for the weather. I always think East Bay = Warm. But today I learned a new rule: if it's warm in the city it's cold in the East Bay (in winter, I don't think this rule applies in summer). So happy I skipped that swim because the water temp was 56 and everyone just looked miserable. Then we set up our bikes on our trainers and commenced with a 60 minute spin followed by a 30 minute trail run...twice. By the last run, my rib decided to stop cooperating and was giving me grief. At first I thought it was a side stitch but then I realied it wasn't and slowed down. Only manged a 15 minute second run. Then we froze our asses off while eating lunch and listened to the Coach give an inspirational talk. Then I looked at Doug and said, I need to get out of here. I had reached my socializing limit. Got home by 5pm (!), showered, ate about 5 times and then passed out by 8pm.

Hez and Leslie Freezing

Hez Starting to Spin

Hez Spinning

What we all looked like

Sunday - Core
Moddie and I had planned to ride the 45 miles that was on the schedule and then follow it up with another 9 mile run, but then we found out it wasn't supposed to be consecutive. Coach wanted us to ride in the morning, come home, eat, nap and then go back out. Right. If I come home and shower and nap...there is no way I am going back out there. So Moddie and I decided we needed to run more than ride and we planned to meet in Sausalito with one caveat, if it's raining I am not going. Woke up Sunday morning and it was raining! Yay! We discussed for 15 mintues what we should do, worked through our guilt feelings and decided to skip it. I ended up doing a core workout with some serious stretching and felt even guiltier as the day cleared up. But then I went shopping and saw a movie. Yay!

Workout Totals
Swim - 1 hour
Bike - 6 hours 30 minutes
Run - 3 hours 30 miutes