Wow we are halfway through January! Days are getting a little longer and yesterday we got a big dose of much-needed sunshine and slightly warmer temps. I got off the trainer and outside on the bike for the first time since just before Christmas. There's nothing like a sunny day and an open country road to put a smile on your face!
I did my annual January replacement of stretched-out swimsuits and chlorine-trashed goggles. I must have looked through 400 swimsuit options before settling on two shimmery ones from the Finals Funkies line. Picking the right size swimsuit for online ordering is tricky. What we need is a database where you can enter your height, weight, and a few general aspects of your build along with what size you are in various brands. I range from 32 to 36 depending on the brand and have to remember what I am in which!
One thing never changes - AquaSphere Kaimen Lady goggles for me all the way...they have never ever let me down!
Other random commentary:
- I am back in the groove in the gym 2-3x a week including working legs again. I really strayed from this they last two years with all my leg issues, but now that the vascular problem is behind me, I feel confident getting after it again. I'm having a lot of fun with various types of squats, deadlifts, leg presses, lunges, etc in addition to upper body work. I will write more about my approach in a future post.
- I am training with POWER on the bike now!!! I'm extremely grateful to my race sponsor, Solar Connexion, for the very unexpected year-end surprise of Garmin Vector pedals. It's been fun, but rather humbling. Let's just say if you had two modest incandescent light bulbs, I could power them long enough for you to read a short story or two!! Plenty of room for improvement there, but now it's measurable.
- I'm happy to be back on my training schedule, even if I did misread a workout last week. I thought the 10 minutes at tempo was 10 minutes at threshold which I took to mean: run 10 minutes as fast as you possibly can! So while I didn't follow Coach Jim's instructions, I did enjoy tapping into some max speed and seeing that I had at least a little there :-)
- I got a deep tissue massage yesterday with Mario, my long-time go-to massage therapist. My upper back and traps are a mess of knots I suspect from swimming more, a return to deadlifts, and also probably the computer. When the chiropractor tells me I really have to go see Mario, I listen. It was uncomfortable but beneficial and as usual I could have fallen into a deep sleep immediately afterward.
- I am cheering for my new friend Joyce who had the same artery surgery as me about two months ago. She was a 2:50 marathoner (and will be again) who has wrestled with this undiagnosed problem for 10 (yes TEN!) years. We are both cheering for P.J. who had the surgery last week. I am excited for both of them to once again run without pain! One year ago I was still undiagnosed, frustrated, tearful, and fearful that my running and racing days were over. I will never cease to be grateful for my repair.
- Our coached swim group has expanded the hour swim to an optional 1.5 hours. We've been together a year now and it's wonderful to just show up and get it done under the watchful eye of Coach Tom.
- I'm not a big scale user, but I did get on the one at the gym the other day to confirm I am at my typical January weight - about 4-5 lbs up from race weight - to be expected, but also to be addressed.
- Both kids have already missed school due to some vague viral headache-y thing. So far I have escaped it. Other than that they are doing really well in school, activities, and with friends.
- In terms of schedule, I am turning electronics off at 9 pm and getting in bed by 10 pm (weekdays) and it's paying off. I know I have to stick to this otherwise it's a slippery slope into chronic fatigue.
- It looks like I'm back to around 10-11 hours of training (swim/bike/run/gym) and it's seeming manageable so far.
I hope you are getting back into good habits and fitness and looking forward to spring as I am!