Sunday, January 4, 2009

Catching up...

Sorry for the failure to post the past few days... I got a short lived (thank goodness) stomach virus that started later in the morning on Tuesday. So, Wednesday I did not work out but slept alot. Thursday, after chasing two 2 year old streakers around the house and finally getting them dressed, I went for a walk/run with Ladybug. (Angelfish and Daddy started with us too but Amanda was grumpy and they ended up heading back, even though Angelfish wanted to run with Mommy originally.). It wasn't super intensive on the way to the park, but little Ladybug helped with some interval training by running and then getting distracted and stopping and then running some more, then a little walking and then Mommy carrying her (she's 30 pounds so I'm calling it resistance training) the rest of the way to the park (it's about 1 mile away from the house) where we "raced" each other and then ran the bases on the baseball diamond. She is adorable when she runs - when she's thinking about running she does this thing with her arms where she holds them bent at her sides and swings them wildly left to right, but when she is just running without thinking about it, she has pretty good form! For some reason she didn't want to play on the playground when we got to the park, but when we were done racing on the soccer field and done running the bases, she said, "Mommy, I tired and want juice. Please go home now?" and two steps later asked "Mommy please pick me up." So the last mile of the workout (Mommy walking briskly while carrying Ladybug) gave me a good sweat! Ladybug had been intent on running with Mommy that morning, and I have to say it was a lot of fun!

Friday I did a 40 minute bike ride and then we took the girls to Sea World and had a good time (until the tiredness set in for the girls) riding rides, seeing the animals and watching Shamu and the dolphin shows again. Both Angelfish and Ladybug are obsessed with the idea of riding a roller coaster. We tried to get them onto the kiddie roller coaster, but they had to be 38" tall and they're both at 36" right now. (So, the good news is that Angelfish had a growth spurt and caught up to Ladybug... we'll see how long that lasts.)

Saturday I did another tri-brick. I did a 3/4 mile swim, a 40 minute bike at heart rate level 3, and a 10 minute run. To cool down I did a 10 minute walk and lots of stretching afterward. It was great! I tore up the pool that day to the point that another swimmer told me I was really tearing it up... I talked to her a few moments while putting on my shoes for the run and she had done 2 triathlons herself. Pretty cool! Although, I have to say I hate doing these tri-bricks at the gym, but the pool is too cold right now to attempt it in the neighborhood and it's a lot easier on my legs to train on the treadmill. Usually when I'm on my bike, 40 minutes is over and I think to myself - already? Biking on the stationary bike is boring because I don't get to see anything! But, I did 9 miles on level 5 and at a level 3 heart rate, so I can't complain all together. The 10 minute run was really a 4 minute run, 2 minute walk, 4 minute run but only because of my shin splints which were REALLY not happy with me this past week after last weekend's 10 minute run at the end of the tri-brick. I'm starting to wonder if my shin splint issues are really because of the fact that I naturally suffer from really tight hamstrings. I don't know if physiologically the two can be related but I have noticed that when I'm running, especially as part of a brick, that the pain I get while running isn't in my shin but in the calf muscle down by where my hamstring hits my ankle area at the back, and then the pain shift to my shin afterwards. It's a mystery, but I'm having fun while trying to figure all this out.

I'm not sure if I mentioned that Mr. Darcy bought me a book Women and Triathlons for Christmas. It's a good book, but rather technical for a beginner like me. I'm glad it wasn't the first training book I read (I highly recommend Your First Triathlon by Joe Friel) because I think I would have been scared off. But, it has some good tips, history, and information for training. I think I may get a heart rate monitor because it explained about training based on heart rate and (again while technical) made a lot of sense to me on how you can really improve by training at different heart rate intensities and I've been trying that when I'm on the gym cardio machines and I notice what the author means when she says sometimes it's surprising when you're in say heart rate level 3 because you don't necessarily feel like you are. And of course, since Christmas I think people in my neighborhood have gotten some bikes from Santa because I keep noticing people I haven't seen while biking on these great road bikes that look brand new. Maybe if I'm really good this year I'll get one from Santa next year... although probably not since they are not an inexpensive item and it's not like you can get a trade in on your old model like you do with cars. A girl can always dream of a lighter bike that you can put aerobars and have a more aerodynamic form and allow for more power in your pedal!

Today, is Sunday and I have shifted my training schedule so that Sundays are my days off from training instead of Mondays... that way I am home with the munchkins when they wake up on at least one of the weekend mornings. Our friend Bryan is visiting and we are taking he and the munchkins to Disney. I think Mr. Darcy may be just as excited as the girls are about it because now he'll have someone to ride the rollercoasters with while I watch the munchkins! It should be a good time!

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