4 Sports Not 3

Hi. It's Laura. 

I certainly can't complain about the weather anymore. How glorious the last few days have been.  

Where to start? I always have difficulty getting started writing on Fridays, always for various reasons. 

Wednesday seems to have been the turnaround day. I had a beautiful ride along the East River, although I was convinced all morning long that I had a park ride. I had to keep reminding myself that no hills were needed for Wednesday's ride, just a nice long flat.  

Mission accomplished. 

Thursday was a completely different story. I am guessing you are aware that triathlon is swim, bike and run. Traditionally these events are in immediate succession. So what happened yesterday, I will have to call Laur (for Laura) athlon (Greek: contest) Laurathlon. It doesn't roll smoothly off the tongue but it works well enough. 

Thursday morning started with a 5 mile run with hill repeats. Can I curse enough about the wind? Egad. 

The wind was so fierce I  considered going home half way to the park. I checked the temperature and it was 46 degrees. If you add 20 degrees, as my formula states, then capri running pants and a long sleeve should do the trick. Nope! 25-33 MPH wind gusts certainly added a nasty little chill to the air. I was convinced that I was under dressed until I got going. By the end of my first mile, my hands warmed up and the rest of me followed shortly after. The wind gust did nothing for my eyesight the rest of the day. I really need to do a better job of checking the weather. 

I also need to add eye protection on windy days. My eyes, because they tear in the wind, were swollen like I had been crying. Not a good look for anyone. 

Run complete and home I head for breakfast. Or shall we call this T1 (transition 1)? 

On to the gym. I have been neglecting my strength training for the last few weeks. Wait! Before you start in on me, I have been nursing a little shoulder injury and continued my other training.  

I did miss strength training. A few weeks ago I started to experience pain in my shoulder which I self diagnosed as overuse at the rotator cuff. Everything I did with the arm hurt. I couldn't put lotion on, dry my hair or even walk the dog without pain. Not so painful that I couldn't swim but pain nonetheless.  

It seemed that after about 100 meters of warm up, it was ok. I know I was shorting my strokes but I was already behind on my training plan and the work needed to get done. It's amazing how quickly you start to lose strength, cardio conditioning is lost faster, but strength starts to go at about two weeks. I am happy to report that I have no severe muscle soreness from my time strength training. I can certainly tell that I have not been in two weeks. I was very careful with the shoulder and dropped all my weights down slightly just to be on the safe side. I finished off with a solid 10 minutes on the foam roller. Aaaah. 

Strength training complete or T2 

To the pool! When you swim 1200 meters on Monday, 900 meters on Thursday feels like a break. I will happily admit, I had no desire to swim after running and lifting. I was tired and hungry.  

Thursday mornings at the JCC is a bit of S**t show. There is an aqua class that seems to be very popular with the older ladies of the community. It’s set to music and it’s very full. Of the 5 lanes in the pool, they take up two of them. This does not bode well for the rest of us who are just swimming. We are condensed down to fast, medium and slow and it never fails that the lifeguards forget to adjust the signs so it’s actually fast, medium slow and slow. I of course am in the medium slow and people who would not normally be in this lane are in this lane because they are oblivious to everyone and thing around them. I can't move to the fast lane because I am not that fast. There were some serious swimmers in fast lane at the time. Plus its women only, so modest & noncompetitive women tend to show up in this time slot. It was a long painful swim. Long because I had to keep waiting and painful because I hit someone's hand twice as I stroked over (a common occurrence). Also, a woman was swimming some odd stroke that I have never seen before. It is a combo of side stroke and butterfly that aided her in taking up the entire lane. As we passed, our legs smashed.  

On Thursdays, I also need to keep an eye on the clock and get out of the pool before the class ends. There are only so many showers and once the class let's out there is a waiting line. I have been lucky in my timing so far.  

Swim complete onto T3 because this is Laurathlon not triathlon. 

Food! At the end of it all, I could feel the energy drain and really only wanted to curl up somewhere and sleep but I needed serious calories. I headed to my favorite lunch spot only to find out that their credit card machine was down. I rarely have cash on me. My heart was so set on a turkey burger for lunch that I was actually paralyzed at the counter and could not figure out what to do next. I got this incredible idea to look in my wallet. AH HAH. Cash, go figure. I ordered and devoured my turkey burger (I think it’s was gone in only two bites, so lady like). Once I left and was on my way elsewhere I realized I had not had enough food. I headed to juice generation and the place was PACKED, line out the door packed.  

Not going there. I finally remembered that the GNC on Columbus has a smoothie bar. Oh, the peanut butter goodness. I could immediately feel the difference. I was getting the right thing into me.  

Recovery? A little afternoon shopping therapy. 

Saturday is my first brick workout. If you recall a brick is a bike ride followed immediately by a run to simulate how it would feel in the actual race. I have done the actual race and although these bricks are necessary, you don't feel anything like it on race day. On tap is a two hour bike ride and a 10 minute run followed by breakfast and a nap, a long one. 

Happy Friday! 

Laura