This weekend last year, I was swimming here:
Biking here:
And running here:
The weekend this year was spent in a less exotic locale than the French Riviera (Poolesville, MD, the Wakefield HS pool, and the streets of Arlington/DC) but was no less tiring. Peak training weekend for IM Lake Placid (i.e., spend more time swimming, biking and running than sleeping and eating your weight in burritos every day and every night) was this weekend. Taper starts in a little over a week. Friday was a long swim - I actually managed to get the whole set in before work AND before the pool closed. Saturday I did a long (long, long, long) bike ride with Brian, who is also doing IMLP. We did two loops of the 52 mile course out of Poolesville, plus a few smaller loops to come out with about 120 miles. There were plenty of hills and flats, ascents and descents - similar to Placid. I felt good through the whole ride, taking in nutrition every 20 minutes and water every 10 minutes or so. I'm sticking with mainly Hammer gels for nutrition and, can I just say, I lost count of how many gels I ate during this ride. I don't know how I'm going to carry all this nutrition on the bike - they don't make a bento box big enough. I actually felt pretty good after the ride - not too sore, definitely tired - but in a good way. I capped off my weekend with a 20 mile run on Sunday. Now THAT was painful. I probably pushed it a little harder than I should've - I was mainly in Zone 3 - but I wanted to see how my legs would respond after a long bike ride. But overall I'm happy with the way the run went. After it was over, I managed to get myself up the stairs and spent the next 30 minutes sprawled on the floor, trying to find the motivation to get up and take an ice bath and eat some food. The food eventually happened, but the ice bath didn't. It was also a relatively cool summer day here in DC (only in the 80s), so the recovery tights made an appearance.
I actually did do a few non-training related activities. We had dinner at my aunt's house on Sunday night - spent time with my adorable 3 year old and 10 month old cousins Lilly and Xander - and OD'd on burritos (the impossible has happened - I am over my burrito kick as of today). We took Miles to the dog park and a jaunt around Shirlington on Friday - I've never seen him so excited to be at the dog park. I also made Mark watch a few episodes of Glee on Netflix with me (I think he secretly likes it haha).
Less than a month until Lake Placid!!
6 comments:
Sounds like you need a couple of gel flasks. I'm partial to the Fuel Belt ones (easy to squeeze and good cap), and since you use Hammer you can buy the gel by the jug rather than individual packets. Good luck at Placid, I know you'll rock the course!
Thanks Christy - I've been thinking about a gel flask or two - I've seen the bottles of Hammer Gel at REI... I might have to act on that idea :)
Gel flasks are super, Caroline! Try them!
GOOD job on your training! YAYYHOOO!
I take my pups swimming at the dog park in shirlington - do you? it's one of our favorite places!
lots of luck heading into taper!!
Way to go Caroline!! We're in the home stretch to the big day
@Katie - Yes, we spend alot of time at the Shirlington dog park - Miles loves it there! We actually have another park, right off 4 Mile run near our house that opens up into the stream - Miles usually goes swimming there. @Jackie - thanks!!
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