Week #32 - Recovery Week

Hello All,
This is a much earned recovery week. Although, only Ironteam peeps would have an 18 mile run as a workout at the end of a recovery week. I'll talk about that in a minute. Here is how my week played out:

Monday - off

Tuesday - I dyed my hair purple and green for the winner of my fundraiser. It looked great for a few hours and then the purple started to blend with the green and create a third color. By the time I got to my evening workout, the green wasn't so green anymore. :-( The workout was suppose to be 30 min bike and 30 min run, but I decided to bike for an 1hr up Mt. Diablo. I mean I didn't do Mt. Diablo during Saturday's ride and my right hip flexor is alittle tight and it doesn't bother me on the bike but it does on the run. I made it up to the 1000 ft sign. Then my teammates bought me my salmon dinner for my birthday. It was very sweet and touching.

Wednesday - my hair is even less green now. The purple is taking over. When it gets wet, I still have purple coloring come off on the towel. Great and I had to a swim marker to complete. I completely my swim marker, 3 x 900, at the Hearst Pool. I even wore my swim cap home because I didn't know what the pool water would do to my hair. LOL. After reflecting on my times, I was very pleased with them and even more with my consistency. When I noticed my stroke shortening, I envisioned my swim coach saying to me, Long, Strong and Smooth and I was able to adjust my stroke when I felt my form wane. That is critical and will go along way for me on race day.

Thursday - I did 45 min of cardo on the flo rider at the gym and then worked out with my trainer. We did a number of leg exercises and incorporated core exercises into the workout.

Friday - was athlete's choice day so I decided I would set up an appt to put my aerobars on my bike. I arrived at the SF Sports Basement on Bryant for me appt and I was so excited. My excitement turned to frustration and disappointment real quick. The guy fitting me was not my regular guy who I really like. This guy didn't seem like he wanted to put the aerobars on. There was a whole lot of dialogue between me and the guy and he wanted to change a number of things to compromise the road bike position for the aero position. Bottom line - there were too many changes too close to my race day so I didn't put them on. As a matter of fact, I returned them and got a wireless computer with cadance so that was the positive thing out of the day.

Saturday - I ventured over to Aquatic Park because Sedonia was offering to give swim technique. The workout was an hour open water swim. There was also a 30 mile bike ride on the calendar for today but since I don't enjoy riding in SF, I planned to return to the East Bay for my ride.

So, I get in the water, which was very cold. (I'm been swimming in much warmer open water lately). Sedonia was planning on pulling us in one by one to give us feedback on our technique. Off I go and then stop because the water was hurting my face. Off I go again and then stop. This was my pattern until I got use to the water, i.e. numb. I make it out to the first buoy. I round the corner and bam, I get hit in the face with a wave. I start swimming again and bam another wave hit me in the face and I swallowed salt water. This happened over and over to me throughout the hour. I got tossed around like a toy boat out there. I was the last one to get stroke feedback so I was out there for an hour and almost swam a mile.
Sedonia said the look on my face when I came into her area for the feedback made her feel like the meanest coach ever. I don't even remember making the face. I was just soooo tired from being tossed around and swallowing water and coughing it back up. The feedback on my stroke was very helpful so I'm glad I went over to get it.

I returned to the East Bay and was getting ready for my bike ride. I had to eat again so we went out to brunch. After brunch, it hit me - I was soo sleepy. I was even closing my eyes at the table. Change of plans, I was gonna nap for an hour and then got for my 30 mile bike ride. HAHAHAHAHA I slept for 5 hours. I was exhausted.

Sunday - 18 mile run was scheduled but since I didn't get my bike ride in the day before, I was gonna ride. So, I met my teammates at our meeting location and went on a bike ride, working on lactate threshold intervals at points in the ride since it was a very flat course. I'm very glad I decided to bike ride vs run.

After the ride, I wanted to do something that I had never done before or been, since it was Father's Day, so we went to Santa Cruz for the afternoon. Being on the boardwalk brought back soooo many memories of when my family would go to the Jersey Shore. We saw the Pirate Boat ride and that was one of my dad's favorite rides. It was a great day to play and to remember.

I am heading to San Diego tomorrow morning for the NACURH Conference and I doubt I will be getting in the workouts. It's ok, I'm not gonna lose my fitness if I take three days off. Besides, I have the famous triple brick workout (9 hours) the weekend I return.

Here's to a great week ahead.
Cheers,
Dana