Weekend Workouts

This weekend was a great confidence builder for me.  After a lot of trepidation about whether or not I would be on, or near, form I was able to prove to myself that I'm still making progress.  As I have mentioned over and over and over this week... this was the first week that I was back on my training plan. 

I had mentioned earlier that I was going to post some of the information that I went over with my nutritionist... and then, I failed to post it.  That being said, I learned a lot of good stuff from her and feel like it has really helped my energy levels and recovery times so far this week.  Basically, the long and short of it was that I found out that I haven't been eating enough.  I have been letting my body get nutritionally deficient during the day and then when night time rolls around I'm looking to pound down as much food (especially Gummi Bears and Jelly Bellys lately) as I can.  By tweaking my eating schedule and learning about which foods will help me "carbo load" I've been able to avoid this type of semi "binge" eating this week.  I've also been practicing my race nutrition and this weekend was the first big test for me.  I used 50/50 Gatorade/Water mix and Gu gels on the bike and felt great throughout.  Again, I didn't have to binge post-workout because I didn't let my body go "deficient" during the workout.  So that's it for nutrition for now, on to the workouts...

Yesterday I did a nice 03:15:00 Brick.  It was AWESOME!  Here is the readout from my bike computer for my ride yesterday:  ride time- 02:56:05, distance- 55.7 miles, avg. MPH- 18.9, max MPH- 33.0 (that was on a flat stretch too!), avg. Cadence- 93.  Like I said, I felt great to get out and do that distance on the bike and also be able to practice nutrition, check out some new routes, etc. etc.  Post ride I went for a QUICK run.  I spent 20" running around the block and went about 1.7 miles.  My legs felt great and my lungs/heart felt good too.  Overall the day was a real boost for me.  As the weather is getting better I'm looking forward to having a lot more days like this.

Today I went out for an 01:20:00 in the Saugatuck Dunes State Park.  Again, it was a really awesome day.  This was my first long day in the Dunes this year and it felt good to push myself.  I love the SDSP because there is a lot of hill work, loose sand, dunes to run up, and BEAUTIFUL views.  Today was the perfect day to get out and let loose.  I started out on the trails that I run all the time and just went.  I ended up picking up a deer trail and just following that until I got lost.  It was a really cool feeling to just be able to get lost out in the woods following this deer trail until I hit the road.  Once I hit the road I was relieved to see I hadn't gone TOO far out of my way and I spent the last half hour of the run on the road.  It was a really nice way to end the run and I realized again how lucky I am to live in this area where there is a lot of really great scenery to occupy your mind while training.  

Looking forward to the start of another week.  This upcoming weekend is the annual 5/3 River Bank Run in Grand Rapids, MI.  I wasn't planning on doing this race but am thinking about going for it now.  It's a 25K and I've run portions of the course before... we'll see if I end up doing it or not.  I'm a month away from the Ann Arbor Tri.  My official race uniform is 50% completed... I have the much talked about Speedo and now am just waiting on my Whisper Tri Top.  It sounds like my Whisper Uniforms will be in, in a couple of weeks and I can't wait.  I'll post pics of the new kit when it arrives... who knows, maybe the Speedo will even make it's way onto the blog... I apologize ahead of time!

Alright, hope everyone is enjoying their weekend!