Category: Calendars

This week was an interesting mix of highs and lows. I was so happy to run 12 miles on Tuesday! It was all thanks to some scheduling adjustments at work… It was awesome 😊! Thursday swim was all about focusing on my kicking and it helped improve my pace 💪. Friday was a bit disappointing in terms of speed. It was really crowded courtesy of ‘bike to work day’, so I decided to just take it easy. Also: my legs didn’t want me to go fast 😉. Saturday was a mixed bag: it turns out that the end of the bike path was closer to my house than I hoped, but then the 3 mile run without paying attention to my pace was a lot faster than expected 🔥. I was impressed by my Sunday performance, too: I kept a pretty decently even pace through 19 miles and it included a number of hills. I will be working on the last one! Maybe over time, I can get that even pace to be more like 9 minute/mile? 😉

Welcome to the monsoon season! There will be plenty of miserable runs and rides in the next few weeks! The worst part, though, is that if there is thunder, they close the swimming pools (both indoor and outdoor). On the positive note: I tried my wetsuit on last week. I could definitely use a little bit more of breathing room in my chest, but I think I can live with it. And in 2 weeks, when they open the pools, I can try using it on a chilly day and see how it feels in the water.

I have more months until the Ironman 70.3 left! I am definitely having some low motivation days, but I can see that my endurance is improving. Now I need to work on speed. I am very self-conscious about that…

What an interesting week it was… I wasn’t able to get out for a swim on Thursday, but I think I got plenty of work done! So let’s focus on the main accomplishment: I did a 56 mile ride on Saturday 🤩. That’s the distance for my race this summer, so I am happy I got there and it took me less than 3:30, too. I am beyond excited about that. I will be practicing this over and over and over and maybe at some point, I won’t feel like I’m about to collapse afterwards. And I am thrilled about the time, since I have been using 4 hours for planning purposes. My run on Sunday was a rather sad thing on a treadmill (the weather sucked and I was feeling a bit under the weather), but I still did it. Sometimes, you just need to suck it up and get it over with. Hopefully, I will do my intervals training and weights with Diana without any problems tonight!

Now that I’m looking at it all on one page, it looks like I didn’t do very well with running this past week… In my defense: Friday went a bit sideways and I wasn’t able to follow the plan. And on Monday, I was still quite banged up after the bike issues before. I know – it all sounds like excuses. I will do better in the future! I also can promise to do better with the biking – I got my new bike on Friday! 🤩

I thought that the quote about suffering was particularly appropriate for last week. Those of you who follow me on Instagram already heard about my ‘adventures’ on my Saturday bike ride. When I was 19 miles away from home, bolt holding my bike seat broke off. My friend, who was with me, went over to a bike shop and got a new bolt, although it was not quite the right size. We did our best, but I had to bike on a poorly adjusted seat, uphill and against the wind. It was not one of my favorite bike rides… My left hip is now pretty banged up and my back took until Monday to stop hurting. I did make it through 16 miles on my Sunday run, which was 4 miles short of planned 20 (yes, my default in the schedule is to do 20 miles every other Sunday), but I am just proud I went for a run at all. At least the weather was amazing for my weekend workouts!

And a quick thank you to all the people who offered help to me while I was having bike problems. It definitely brings back faith in humanity 😊

I biked to work and back last Tuesday and I have a mixed feelings on the experience… It is cheaper and more efficient than taking the metro and then working out, but it is a hard ride… I am going with: the harder the training, the easier the race. So I will be biking to the office every Tuesday I can and running the last 5 miles on Wednesdays. It really helps me fit everything into the schedule. Let’s enjoy the spring and great training weather while it lasts 😊

I am getting back to the my ‘usual’! It’s so exciting. Those 20 miles took me less than 3:30, which is great for me. I know I’m not supposed to run another marathon until after the Ironman 70.3 in August, but maybe I could improve my time during the next marathon? I am starting to think which one I should do this fall. Maybe Shepherdstown, WV in October?

Monday was still a waste after the weekend of a stomach bug… But I survived. Last week was still generally slow, but I am getting back at it. This week, for example, I managed to run part of my way to work, enjoying beautiful cherry blossoms.

As to Sunday – just because I didn’t have a formal training session, doesn’t mean I didn’t do anything. I went with my daughter to the pool, so I did fair amount of swimming on the kick board and kicking at the wall. I also started working on training videos. Youtube channel and instructional videos are coming soon!

Are you wondering why I had a 16 minute workout on Friday evening and then nothing all weekend? Well, remember my daughter’s stomach bug? Yeah… I am planning on doing strength training with my trainer today (Monday), but I am not sure how it will go. The best I can say for right now is that I am able to eat again. What a nightmare! The weather is back to being beautiful though and I am hoping to go back to running the last 6 miles to the office and biking from my train station to the office. So, obviously, it’s supposed to be absolutely freezing overnight! I might need to wait another week for the biking, but maybe running can happen on Wednesday? I will let you know in a week!

Took me long enough to post… Despite beautiful weather, I didn’t get to train much. First, it was a board meeting, which kept me occupied from early morning until late at night. And then came Friday night… My daughter went to a late night event and when I picked her up, she looked off. I assumed that it was too much St. Patrick’s day fun. Oh, how wrong I was… Stomach bug! So she spent the weekend sick and I was going between taking care of her, cleaning up and trying to get a little bit of rest. That was more brutal than a marathon!