How Hard Can It Be? 5.0

[7rider]

I've got 11 more days to be a slacker ...

You're a slacker??
Heck. What does that make the rest of us?

Good luck with training. Make sure you allow that foot to get the other 10% back. That's the hardest part, I think.

[Veronica]

Week 1 - pretty much a bust.

I have not been "healthy" since Valentine's Day when I hurt my foot. It seems to have recovered - just stiff now when I first get up. March 5 I crushed my right middle finger between two parts of a moving wall. I didn't break anything, but did a lot of cell damage. It's still pretty ugly and swollen.

This past week I caught a cold and had three major projects - 2 presentations and an outline for a third - to finish as part of a Math grant I'm participating in. I was not thrilled about having to do so many "dog & pony" shows and left the prep to the last minute. Stupid, I know. All three did go well, but it was stressful and sucked up a lot of my free time.

No swims, no bike rides...

But I did do this really fun exercise on Wednesday with the TRX and a set of steps. Put one foot in a stirrup, put your hands on the step and jump backwards on the other foot. Jump forward and stand up, then jump onto the step and jump back off. I did 15 on each foot with I think four steps. Took a minute break, added a step and did 15 more on each foot. I really worked my glutes and of course all the little stabilizer muscles are firing. I REALLY enjoy balancing and plyometrics.

And I did do 30 minutes of intervals on the treadmill yesterday, after a ten minute warm up. Intervals were 50 seconds of running at a 7:30 pace, followed by a 1:50 walking. I was aiming for 1 minute and 2 minutes, but it takes me 10 seconds to change the speed on this treadmill.

Hopefully, this next week will be better.

Veronica

[Veronica]

Week 2

A little bit better than week 1. Still no swim, only bike ride will be today, 90 minutes in the trainer. Morning workouts are so much easier to get in than afternoons.

I did my first "long" run in eight weeks yesterday - 7.5 miles. At first I was pretty unhappy with it. My pace seemed slow and that last half mile felt like a death march. I had my HRM set for my long endurance zone and for the first five miles, I was right there, but the last 2.5 I could not keep it down there. Once I factored in how much wind I had, huge storm has blown in, and 8 weeks of minimal running to allow for recovery, it really wasn't that bad - only 10 seconds off my pace on my last good long run.

I had thought I might swim on Wednesday afternoon, but I could hardly lift my arms over my head. Tuesday Shawna had me do bicep curls into an overhead press with the EZ curl bar and just ten pounds added to it. Oh, it was just 3 sets of 50 reps. OUCH! Muscle endurance work can be so much fun.

Wednesday was mainly a plyometrics day. Jumping with a twenty pound weight vest on is entertaining. It took about 5 jumps each round to get into it. I think we started with 7 steps and added one each set.

I need to work in a yoga session on Sunday because by Monday I really feel the need for it and I want to make Monday afternoons my swim day.

Veronica