Indoor Fun!

This past weekend, we had a cold front move into Colorado, so I knew I would have to do my long brick inside.  I wasn't really looking forward to it, but I knew I just needed to get it done!

My alarm went off at 4AM and I DID NOT want to get up.  It was so warm and cozy in my covers, but I managed to drag myself out of bed, get dressed, and head to my basement.

Here is where I would spend the next 6 hours!

Yes, that is a concrete wall!  Our basement isn't finished yet, so it's a little creepy.  BUT, it makes for a great workout area!

This is my "Motivational Wall"  This is right next to my treadmill and I love it!

Here I am at the beginning.  A little sleepy eyed, but I'm ready to go!!

I started my bike workout by doing the IMAZ spinerval.  Coach Troy is awesome!  My husband and I have quite a collection of spinervals and I have to say I really like them.
The IMAZ spinerval was roughly 2hrs. long, and basically did 1 loop of the 3 loop IMAZ bike course.  Doing the spinerval actually made the first 2hrs. go by pretty quickly.  Coach Troy had a lot of great tips throughout the workout that I plan on incorporating at IMAZ.  One of the big things was that because the course is relatively flat, you'll be able to go pretty fast.  He said a lot of people will go super fast, because of their egos, and end up burning out their legs.  Instead, he suggested really concentrating on cadence during the first part of the 1st loop to make sure that you don't go too fast or try to push a bigger gear, which will kill you legs pretty quickly.  Overall, I liked the spinerval and thought it would be a good resource for anyone doing IMAZ.

I was originally planning on doing the spinerval twice, but decided to put in a movie instead.  I ended up watching 2 movies, which really helped the time go by.  BUT, I have to say, after 4hrs, I was dragging.  I was ready to be OFF of my bike and I was tired of being in the basement.  Because I was home, I could have easily quit, but I pushed through those thoughts and continued on!

FINALLY, I was done!  WOOHOO! 


73 miles isn't too bad for a 5hr. trainer ride!  Besides, it's all about time in the saddle..right??!


















SOOOO glad to be done with the bike!  I don't know if you can tell, but my hair and shirt are completely soaked!!


After a quick change of shoes, I was onto the treadmill for my 1hr. run!


I started off at an easy pace for the first 15minutes and my legs felt great!  Gradually, I increased my pace and just kept on going.  Before I knew it, I was almost done with my run!  I couldn't believe the time went by so quickly!  Then, I looked down, and this is what I saw:

YES!!!

5 hours on the trainer....DONE!

1 hour on the treadmill...DONE!

Woohoo!!!







I went upstairs, and this is what I saw:

Are you kidding me?  BRRRRR!!
I am soo glad I decided to do my workout inside!












I was pretty gross and I'm pretty sure I smelled awful, so I took a shower, and pulled on my favorite Zoot recovery tights.  I also put on my favorite warm and cozy slippers. :)





For the rest of the day, we hooked up our laptop to our TV and watched the live streaming of KONA!  What an awesome race! AND, I cannot believe Chrissie ended up winning!  She is just simply amazing!

A week in review and other things too

Training:
I had an awesome week of training this week!  I feel like I'm finally finding my groove with scheduling my workouts!  Hopefully this will carry through my training when the volume really ramps up!

Me, Doreen, and Bine

Biking:  I went on a great ride with 2 of my TriBella teammates on Sunday!  We did one loop of the Harvest Moon HIM course (which I'm doing in September) and it was awesome!  The course is a great mix of fast flats, rolling hills, and much bigger hills.  We finished 48 or so miles in about 2:45, so it was pretty fun.  Usually I do my training rides solo, but I have to tell you, I loved riding with these two!  They are doing IMFL in early Nov, and I'm doing IMAZ at the end of Nov., so we should be able to do a lot of our long training rides together!  Woohoo!

Swimming:  I had a great swim this week where I had to do 100m intervals.  Now, normally I don't time myself because it usually depresses me.   But, for some reason, after my 4th 100 I decided to just see what my time was.  I swam the 100, hit the wall, stopped my watch, and looked....1:46!!!  I was soooo excited!  Now, I know that's not fast compared to some of you out there, but it made me feel fast and that's all that matters! :)

Running:  I had my longest run volume week and I felt awesome!  I haven't had any IT band pain in awhile now and it just makes me happy, happy, happy!  Woohoo!!

And Other Things Too:

*  Look what came in the mail this week!  My replacement aero extensions!  Woohoo!  They actually sent me an entire new set, so I was super happy!  I brought them over to the TriBella shop and had them reinstalled.  He put bike tape on it too, but I'm not sure I like the BLUE.  I know it goes with the color scheme of my bike, but what do you think?  Should I keep it, or go back to BLACK??

BLACK or BLUE??

*  So, after my boys' music class the other day we drove next to a van that had huge pictures of cupcakes on it and it read, BIG FAT CUPCAKES!  My boys pleaded and begged to get a cupcake.  We rarely get sweet treats like that from places, so I decided to cave.  We followed the van hoping it would lead to their store.  It did, and this is what we walked out with: 3 BIG FAT CUPCAKES.

They were huge!  Seriously, look how big they are in my boys' hands.  YIKES!

Well, I wish I could tell you that they were the greatest things we have ever tasted.  BUT, they were a BIG FAT DISAPPOINTMENT!  In fact, we ended up throwing most of the cupcake away.  AND, I felt sick for the rest of the night....seriously, sick.  Ugh...next time we're craving a sweet treat we'll just drive the extra few miles and get some of that yummy self serve yogurt again!

 *  The IMAZ bike course is relatively flat, so your legs just pretty much spin constantly.  One piece of advice I got from a teammate that did IMAZ a couple of years ago was just to get on the trainer and ride for 4hours to get used to just that constant spinning.  So, I decided to order this Spinerval from Amazon.  It is the IMAZ bike course led by Coach Troy himself and I'm actually really excited about it! Am I excited about sitting on my trainer for 4 hours???  Umm...not really, but I am excited about being able to "practice" the course.  We'll see.  It might completely suck, but hopefully not!


I hope you all have a great weekend!  Good luck to all of you that are racing this weekend!!  :)