Two-a-days

Mileage for Week Ending 3/29/09

Being a working mom of two active little boys means that I fit my workouts in when the boys are sleeping or at school so that I spend as little time away from them as possible. That means lots of early mornings and two-a-days to fit in all the hours I need in a given week. I have a standing Monday and Wednesday 5:30 a.m. Masters Swim and my training partner Mark and I have a standing Tuesday and Thursday 10 mile run at 5:10 a.m. When work lunches don't get in the way, I spend an hour at the gym on my lunch break at least 4 days a week (thankfully we have a smallish gym at my office with a great locker room and facilities).

Two-a-days make the days fly by, but the best part is that when the weekend rolls around, I am usually only left with a long bike ride, which I can usually get in Saturday or Sunday morning, giving me the other day off entirely with my guys!

Here are a couple of anecdotes for this week as well as what is on tap for the week ahead:

One one of my 4 spinner rides this week at the gym, I was spinning away and getting a bit fatigued and ready to hit the showers when I moved to a more aero position and found myself staring at the M-Dot on my Timex Ironman watch. That was a great reminder to me as to why I spend so much time on the bike and it helped me pick it up for the rest of the ride. I have worn a Timex Ironman watch for as long as I can remember and long before I knew or appreciated what the M-Dot stood for. In fact, I think this week was the very first time I noticed the M-Dot on the wrist band, but it sure brought motivation to my struggling workout!

There was a time when the thought of the swim leg of any triathlon terrified me ... but not anymore! I love swimming and learning to properly swim is one of the things I am most proud of from 2008. Sometimes it is nice to remember exactly how far I have come and I got two reminder of that this week.

First, there is a new guy in my Masters class who is working hard but has not been able to do the full workouts yet because he still gets fatigued in the water. After our Monday workout I told him, "I have been there, I promise it gets easier" and our coach overheard and replied, "Yeah, you should have seen Anne when she started - it was horrible to watch!" Ha ha ha! I knew I was bad before, but wow, horrible to watch?!?

Then on Wednesday, one of the other triathletes, an older gentleman training for Ironman CDA, told me how impressed he was with my increased speed. It helped me to remember the days when I wondered if I would ever be as fast as the 50-60 year something triathletes in my class ... and I am happy to report that I am faster than they are now.

Then, one of the swimmers (I refer to those that do a lot of stroke work as the 'swimmers') told me that I was the Teacher's Pet because the coach was bragging about me on Wednesday. Apparently, our coach thinks that I am the most improved swimmer in the class. I told her that just meant that I have come the furthest (and when you start with nothing you have a long way to go!). It was nice to get some compliments this week in the water, but I don't want to rest on my laurels. I have seen huge improvements in the water since my Half Ironman last October so I am excited to see what the next 7 months bring as I train for Florida!

This next week brings my first triathlon of the season, a Quarter Distance Tri in Galveston, Lonestar. I am excited because it is put on by the same people that did Longhorn, so it is sure to be a well run race. I just hope we get weather like we have had this weekend (sunny and 60s). The only question I have in my mind is how much to taper. This is not my "A" race, that is the Gulf Coast Tri in May in Panama City, so I need to stay on my training schedule, but I hate going into a race not feeling rested. I think that I am going to do a mini-taper and lower the intensity of some of my workouts this week, but do my best to stay on schedule.

Finally, three weeks from now is the MS-150 bike ride from Houston to Austin. This will be a great ride to really stretch my legs and practice my nutrition and pacing for a longer race.

Here are my numbers for the week --

Swim: 5600 yards in 2:30
Bike: 75 miles in 4:40
Run: 27.9 miles in 4:10
Total Time: 11:20