Highs, Lows and High

I had some really awesome bike rides this past week and also a couple that weren’t so great.   There was a lot of biking - Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Sunday – some good rides and some really bad rides.  So to keep it honest and so that you all don’t think that all my training is always rosy, here are the highs and lows for the week. 

HIGHS

Tuesday and Thursday bike workouts included some threshold work.  Threshold means to go as hard as possible (without failing) for the specified mileage or time period.  Tuesday’s ride included 20 miles at threshold, Thursday’s ride included 25 miles at threshold.  I performed better than I expected for both these workouts.  Speed way higher than I thought possible!  I was extremely happy with these two workouts! :)

Wednesday was a Women Who Tri Bike practice.  I did a warmup and then 5 hill repeats on Triple Tree (1.5 miles uphill, turnaround, return to the bottom of hill and do it again – x5).  Coach told me to make the first one my hardest effort.  He rode with me on the 2^nd and 5^th repeats.  By the 4^th repeat my legs were feeling the hills.  On the 5^th repeat, my legs were tired.  Coach says “we’ll take it easy the rest of the ride.”  :)  YAY!  Overall this was a really good workout – I was happy with how my legs handled the hill.

LOWS

Rides on Friday and Sunday did not go well.  Both rides were to be done at a hard effort with some threshold work mixed into them.  The wind was blowing hard and my legs were tired.  My mood was not good either.  At one point on Sunday I told myself to think about something else so I started looking around at the beautiful scenery which helped for a few minutes but, then I was back again wondering why I hate wind so much.  I finished both workouts feeling tired, dejected, and disappointed with myself. :(

HIGH

I ended the week on a high though.  After my ride on Sunday I went for an 8 mile run which felt great.  8 miles is my longest distance so far since the hip flexor issue, and I was worried that 8 miles on tired legs (from all the biking) would not go well.  But, I was pleasantly surprised when after about a mile of running the legs started feeling good and I finished 8 miles feeling strong and happy! :) 

Workout Summary for the past week:

	Miles	Hours
Swim	3.3 miles (5400 meters)	2 hours 50 minutes
Bike	209 miles	13 hours 13 minutes
Run	23.5	4 hours 35 minutes
Other (Strength, Core)		2 hours 34 minutes
Totals	235.8 Miles	23 hours 12 minutes

Coming up this week – more biking.  I will be on the bike every day this week – Monday through next Sunday.  Legs don't fail me, I am a little nervous about all the biking! :)