I missed my hour and a half bike ride on Saturday but it was totally worth it to skip. I had a very relaxing day that was MUCH NEEDED. I got my hair cut that morning, enjoyed lunch with Mom, my hairdresser, and the coolest nephew in the world, Ben. Mom and I babysat Ben for the afternoon. He is such a fun age right now! Then Mom and I got pedicures before having another home cooked meal. I ended my day of relaxation catching up with my girls.
I got back into things on Sunday. After a birthday breakfast, Mom and I headed out shopping. I bought a new pair of running shoes and shorts and got an excellent deal. I am quite the coupon shopper nowadays :-) And, because I truly am my grandma's granddaughter, I CANNOT wait to wear something new. So I laced up the new shoes, put on my new shorts, and headed out for an AWESOME 6 mile run. Four out of the six miles were under 9:45 pace. Miles 3 and 4 were just over 10 minutes but I figured out why they were so much slower...I was running into the wind and I was also running in the grass (which was squishy and muddy). It was not my plan to run in the mud but it really isn't safe to run down Meridian St. I was incredibly pleased with this run and afterwards felt no guilt devouring the awesome chocolate cake that my sister-in-law made!
On the menu for today was swimming and a 45 minute run. Swim practice was pretty good this morning. Just in case you haven't picked up on it thus far from my posts...I loathe long distance swimming. The majority of my angry posts are me bitching about Andy's long distance workouts. Today was a long distance practice that I actually DIDN'T hate! It was a pretty standard warmup consisting of 4 x 75 (50 drill, 25 swim), 4 x 100 IM order (25 kick, 50 drill, 25 swim), 3 x 100 kick descend, and 4 x 100 free descend. Then we hit the main set: 5 x 500 free. #1-3 were on 7:00 and #4-5 were on 6:40. I moved to a lane where I didn't have to worry about anyone riding my ass or getting passed and I ROCKED the 500's. The two on 6:40 were pretty tough but I made them. After the 500's, we did some sprints from the block. I did a 50 fly in :32.6, a 50 breast in :37.1, and a 50 free in :31.5-ish. Not bad considering it was at the end of practice. I felt AWESOME afterwards...until I had to go shower and the hot water in UIC was not working. Do you know how painful it is to wash your hair in freezing water? On a side note, apparently the mayor elect of Chicago occasionally swims with the Chicago Masters. I was told today that he was at practice yesterday. I'll keep my eyes peeled and maybe he'll grace us with his presence again.
I did the 45 minute run on my lunch break. I've upgraded to a four mile lunch. And next week my Tuesday runs increase to an hour. So I'll be moving to a 6 mile lunch. The time is really starting to increase on the bike and run. Luckily, I am feeling pretty great while running. I'm feeling strong and averaging 10 minute miles. My goal for Ironman is to complete the marathon in 6 hours of under. That breaks down into just over 13:30/mile. If I can maintain the 10 minute mile in training, I'd like to think I can maintain 13 minute miles in the race. I understand that I will be quite tired by the time I get off the bike to start running but I'm just going to have to push through that. If I want to make my goal time of under 15 hours total, I'm going to have to kick it up a notch on my run.
I'm excited for the upcoming month of training. The past weekend was a great way to reinvigorate myself and get excited. It's the little things in life like spending three days hanging out with my mom, playing with my niece and nephew, and catching up with old friends that really picks me up. 4 weeks down, 26 to go! I can't believe it is March already! Before we know it, August will be here and I will be a complete basketcase.
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