Guten Tag!

I’m typing this blog from the Frankfurt airport. Due to travel, this past week has made for some interesting workouts. This morning for example, I got up (well, I never really slept) at 5:00am and headed for a 45 minute treadmill run before heading back to the airport en route to Muenster. When I stepped on the treadmill, I noticed everything was in German. Do you know your weight in kilograms? Me neither. After a few minutes, I figured out how to type in, 45 minutes. The run was a bit surreal, with the exception of sleeping off an on –on the planes, I haven’t really slept for a day. I feel pretty good though regardless.

Usually on the weekends I can play the weather. This means that if it is snowing or sleeting on Saturday, I will ride on Sunday or vice versa. Since I was to be out of town on Sunday and without my bike for 4 days, I was forced to ride on Saturday. Saturday’s weather was the great North West in its best. Freezing rain, snow, wind, the works. Rob and I started the day off on our mountain bikes, planning to ride for 4 hours but an hour into the ride Rob’s bike broke. We headed back to the car, loaded the bikes and went the pool where I got my 3,000 yards in. Then we quickly went home and I hopped on the rollers for 3 hours. I should explain, there are “trainers” and there are “rollers”. With a trainer, you attach your bike via the back wheel and ride. Rollers are a set of 3 rollers that you put your bike on, and so you are not attached. I like the rollers better because they force you to keep your cadence up, or you will ride off of them and into whatever is around you. Yes, I have done that, more than once. It takes a lot of determination to ride the rollers for that long, I had the TV on and I just kept thinking about Ultraman, and how all of this training will be worth it when I am out there on race day (s).

Weeks recap:
I had Wednesday completely off, but I thought on Monday that I may do an easy bike to make up for this weeks travels. Its funny though, as soon as Wednesday morning rolled around, there was no way I could have rode. Coach D is so good at this training stuff. He gauges my workouts perfectly, he got everything out of me until I really needed a day off . After resting on Wednesday, I was supercharged.

Swim: I swam 3 times all workouts 3,000 yards. I made some serious gains in the water this week, as I was able to speed up my 50 and 100 repeats. I am now doing my 50’s on the 45 and my 100’s on the 1:30. I can’t go forever at this pace, but it’s good to know that I’m getting faster. I am now at the pace I was in 2003, which feels good.

Bike: I rode 3 times this week. One ride was an easy road ride and the others were on the rollers. I am beginning to plan for a double century in May that will be part of my training. LMK if you would like to join in on the fun!

Run: I ran 3 times this week, twice on the treadmill and once on the road. I didn’t get my weekly trail run in which was a bummer but I’ll get it back next weekend. I’m beginning to enjoy the treadmill runs because I can really push myself. I am so used to, “working the clock” from swimming that it’s an easy transition for me to do that running. Once a week I have been doing an hour treadmill run and I try to see how much distance I can cover in an hour, while following the heart rate zones prescribed by Coach D. I hit 7 miles this week. The more fit I get, the more distance I should be able to cover without blowing up my heart rate.

Strength Training: I had 2 sessions in the gym and I am also doing core an additional 2 x’s per week.

Well, that’s all for now. The next few days will be all about running and Bratwurst. I will be home on Thursday evening, just in time for next weekends training. I hope you have all had a great week. Thanks for your support!

Beth