Rolling

Another weekend over and done and with that, I am officially in the first race week of 2012. How did that happen???

But before I get to far ahead of myself, let's have a look at how much volume I was able to cram into the weekend.

On Saturday, we once again headed out to ride 55 miles. Because we liked the "Happy Cow" ride from Donaldson Center last week, we wanted to do that one again. Earlier last week, I posted the ride on Facebook and for Saturday, ended up with a group of five including me and Terry.

I never did a ride with any of the other riders, but we turned out to be a fairly cohesive group... or they were holding back... Or maybe a little bit of both? ;-)

The nice thing about riding with new and old friends is (in my opinion) the trading of information and picking each others brains when it comes to all things triathlon. Nutrition was a big topic on Saturday. Two of the guys were trying out boiled potatos for the first time, while Terry and I gave some new (for us) bars (Sunrise Energy Bars from Costco) a try. We talked races, especially the Charleston Half coming up, because 4 of us are signed up for it.

Besides the wind, it was just a perfect day to get a great ride in and with all the chatting going on, it hardly felt like work, eventhough we rolled along at a pretty good clip.

In the last 10 miles, some of the group put the hammer down and my legs were certainly a little sour at this point, because I tried to keep up. But overall, I felt pretty darn good after the ride and running a half marathon after riding 56 miles starts sounding not completely ridiculous.

After getting home and refueling, Terry and I even made it out for a nice doggy walk later that afternoon. I really found, that going for a walk after riding or running really helps my recovery. If I park myself on the couch after a long ride, I feel much stiffer and moving around and walking just seems to shake things out nicely.

Speaking of "shaking": We were not done for Saturday yet either... A Salsa friend of ours turned 50 last week and we actually went out dancing for the first time in FOREVER! Terry and I met Salsa dancing, but we haven't been doing a good job in last couple of years to keep up with it. Having the birthday party to go to was a perfect occasion to meet up with good friends and shake our booties... Unfortunately, I don't have any booty shaking pictures for proof! When we finally got home, I was dead tried and then stole an hour from us!!! But daylight savings also means weekday bike rides! YAY!


On Sunday, I had (of course) my long run on tap.... After getting home from church, I shoved down an almond butter toast and some oreos... both things that I know should be sitting alright in my tummy.

I had 11 miles on tap and they were supposed to be run on a rolling course. Since everything around the house is rolling, I decided to do a double loop of our standard 5.6 miles figure 8 course.

It was kind of nice to know that I would be passing by the house halfway through in case I would have to refill my water bottle or do a pit stop, but I was just rolling along and kept going.

Overall, once again very happy with my run. Just as a comparison: I did 10 miles last week on a flat course a couple of seconds slower per mile than I ran this week. Still not breaking any records, but I really feel like I am making progress in my running right now.


After I got home and found Terry napping on the couch, I just fixed a quick lunch and then headed out for even more hills on my walk with the dog. And just when you think you slam dunked a weekend of training, you do something stupid:

1. Wearing your Vibrams walking for the first time in forever and walk yourself three juicy blisters on my toes.
2. Don't apply sunscreen or put a hat on and get yourself the raccoon look.

Oh well, it's always something. I punctured the blisters yesterday and I can now walk again without pain.

How did your weekend shape up??