Tuesday, August 18, 2009

A Great Day

Today was a great day. Full of the good, hard, but fun training that I so enjoy... and seem to have lacked lately. My day started with a 7 mile hill run with my friend Julie-Anne. We start with a 2 mile warm up followed by 2 1/2 miles of climbing through Las Sendas with grades varying from 4-8%. And then we sailed the last 2 1/2 miles back to our car downhill. We ran the same route last week but today we picked up 30 seconds per mile! Woo hoo!

Then we hopped on our bikes for a nice loop around Usery. 19 miles. 5 miles total climb: 4 at 6% grade and 1 at 8% grade. And once again, a nice mix of flats and screaming downhills to make up the difference. It was a great day for a ride and we were having fun. Last week on the same ride, my seat post fell and I didn't have my tools to fix it, so I was stuck riding with my knees in my chest. Needless to say I picked up a few mph this week when I was able to achieve full extension. My cousin met up with us for the ride except he rode circles around me and basically handed my ass to me on the climb. He was already cooled down and sippin on some gatorade when we got back to the parking lot. Ahhh, to be young and fresh. I forget what that must be like to go for a bike ride and have it feel easy!

After our run/ bike, we stopped by the Breadsmith to pick up a couple of loaves before heading to the gym for our swim. During the 20 minute drive back to town, we refueled with some PB&J and bananas, and plenty of water and gatorade. I was ready to hop in the pool for my 3000 yd sprint session. After an 1800 yd warm-up, I knocked out 5 x 100 at 1:20 pace which is smokin' fast for me. After my first 100, I looked at the clock and was completely shocked. And then of course, that sets the bar so I have to try to hold that pace for the remainder of the set. Yikes! By the last one I was dying!

And my favorite part of the workout.... refueling. We headed across the parking lot after the swim for a slice and a salad at NYPD- my absolute favorite pizza place. I am a pizza connoisseur so you know it's gotta be good! Now I'm killin time and thinking about what to make for dinner. I wish all my training days were as fun as today. There's still hope for tomorrow!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

So happy today was a better day Mary!!!!