Feel the Burn

I’ve been on “the plan” for 2 days and I’m feeling the burn, in a good way. Monday I swam and it was glorious. Shortly after I started my warm up, two dudes got in the lane next to me. They were very “triathlete” looking guys both had their own paddles and kickboards. Normally I don’t care who I’m sharing the pool with but I also don’t normally do long sets. In fact, I haven’t done a set over 400 since February. I started my set and tried not to think about tri boys in the other lane. Then, something miraculous happened…I lapped Tri Boy #1…a few minutes later I lapped Tri Boy #2. I’m not trying to toot my own horn (too much) since there are PLENTY of MUCH faster swimmers out there BUT sometimes a girl just needs confidence boosts. (I felt like her.)I rarely pass people running so passing someone in the pool was a HUGE confidence boost. I finished the 800 and glanced at my watch during my rest interval; I finished the 800 in a respectable 14 minutes. Certainly not lightening speed but not snail pace either, I wasn’t going all out nor simply cruising. I finished the swim with a 600 and a cool down (which was a lot of kicking). Post swim I hit the weight room, too bad I didn’t look in the mirror to see my raccoon eyes first. Tuesday I woke up sore! (Need to do weights more often! Any PDX’ers want to do crazy weights sometime? They have the class at other times besides 6:00 am.)

Tuesday I hit the track in the morning to test out my leg/inner thigh/butt. It was feeling okay so I went ahead and did the Will Run for Wine-inspired track circuit workout. I didn’t push the 400’s and I didn’t do the lunges (did extra abs instead). My tempo mile was much much much slower than last week as were the 4x400’s at the end but I still did them! 5 miles in the AM = check! (In other random running news, last weekend I think I may have seen...That's right, Kara Goucher! She lives in a suburb not too far from where I live. I was walking the dog and I see this runner barreling down the road coming at me. My first thought, DAMN speedy! As she got closer, I noticed a long brown pony tail, a super long stride and BUN shorts! Who wears bun shorts? Elite runners, that’s who. Of course, this sighting is unconfirmed because I was alone with the dog but I’m 80% sure it was Kara—if it was—how freakin’ cool is that?!)

Last night, I wanted to do what this girl did, just ride. Unfortunately, I got home a little after 5pm and the combination of the traffic and the hills scared me into riding the spinner bike down at the apt gym. I ended up doing my own little spin class, I’m sure the other people in the gym thought I was crazy but it was a good 45 minute sweat fest. I think I need to choose a morning and ride my ‘hood in the morning when there is less traffic and less people to see me huffin’ and puffin’ on the hills.

Tonight I have the trifecta workout of spin class/brick run/open water swim---eek!

Good thing Jen and Zach will be with me for the OWS.

Looking ahead to the weekend, I have a lot of fun things planned and am so excited that it’s heatin’ up in P-town (maybe I can sit in my office without the space heater on?). The forecast is sunshine and heat for the next few days!! I woke up this morning to sunshine—I love those mornings. I can’t wait for berry picking this weekend, my long run and ride, another open water swim (with Gazelle), and previewing my Tri course. Yay weekend—HURRY up and get here!