Cross-training

My week started off with a 14 miler on Monday. Pretty good. It was supposed to be my Sunday run, but we had company that day. The hill at mile something seemed to go up and up, and when I thought I was done with it, it turned and went up some more. Tuesday I ran 6, and then rode my bike for an hour. The bike is a crazy thing. First I had to figure out which bike was mine, then try to pull the thing down off of the hook. That feat itself seemed a pretty good workout for the day. Upon discovering the bike rack was currently not on the car, I felt the need to shove the bike into the car. Another good challenge. When I finally got on my bike, and figured out which way my helmet when on, and how the gears work, I was off and running . . . no, biking, I guess. I think I averaged13 -15 miles an hour. Don't really know how that chalks up to Lance n'all, but it suited me fine. I was mostly on a flat paved bike path - one small hill at the half way that I forced myself to do so I could play with my gears. I forgot the path goes along the beach, and it's amazing how many beach-goers like to stand in the middle of the bike path. A while after I had come home, I found myself unable to move from the couch, and fell asleep for an hour. What's with that? I wasn't sore or anything, just wiped out. I think I must need to get on my bike more. Wednesday I went to the gym. I lifted weights, which produced the greatest amount of soreness in my body out of all the exercise I did this week - I have no idea how long it's been since I really lifted. Then I went into the pool. I'm afraid of the pool. I don't mind the water, I just can't swim. I've been procrastinating going there for eons. But I dawned the goggles and got in. After I'd grabbed a kickboard, and hopped in, I realized they moved the markers, and I was in the 'fast' lane. That seemed pretty hilarious. I let it go, and continued flayling around in the water. I use the term 'flayling', because that's how I envision I look. I attempt to swim - with my face in the water - I think you call it the crawl stroke, but I'm severely ineffecient at it. I tire quickly and can't get the form right to breathe. I did actually make it down and back - 2 lengths, swimming this way without stopping. I supplement that with my lovely side stroke. I'm sure there really is a stroke with this name, but I'm also sure that what I do isn't the same thing. I convince myself that I'm getting in some cardio and call it good. When I get tired of that I use the kickboard to give my upper body a rest. And then when I need a break, I float on my back. And I know I don't do a back stroke or the back float. I go from one end of the pool to the other on my back by simply wiggling my toes and my knees a little. At some point I was sure the lifeguard was up there laughing, thinking, "Oh, man - I'm actually gonna have to jump in and rescue this one." After twenty minutes of this, some more people had come into the lane. Rather than attempt to share the lane and worry that I'd crash into them all, I called it good for the day. Then I did a track workout. I'm not sure what to think of the whole 'Yasso 800's' idea, but I thought I'd give it a try. I went thinking I was going to do 4 of them at 3:30 pace. I did 6 @ 3:20, 3:25, 3:18, 3:17, 3:17, 3:17. That felt pretty good. But you're supposed to rest the same amount of time between and it seemed like too much. I'm still not sure what to think of how helpful the workout was, but it was fun. Next time I'll probably do longer repeats. I took Thursday off because there was no time in the day for exercise. I ran 6 on Friday, 7 on Saturday. Sunday I ran 18. It was a lot hillier than I thought. I could pull up the elevation profile from my garmin, but I don't really feel like it right now. It was hilly. I took a couple of gels with me, and stopped at some drinking fountains at parks along the way. My left hamstring and my lower back were really sore. Not from running, but from all of the dang yard work I did Saturday. I'd been avoiding it for a long time, not wanting soreness to interfere with my training, then I decide to do it before an 18 miler. Odd. I finished my 18 miler at a park where my husband and the kids met up with me so my husband could run his long run from the park. Little did we know there was a race going on there that day. It was a 5k that people run with their dogs. Hilarious. There were about 3000 runners and walkers, so you can imagine the amount of dogs hanging around. A few had fancy tutus, but most had a yellow bandanna - sort of like a racer symbol I think. Out on the course there were lots of plastic kiddy swimming pools filled with drinking water for the dogs. There were so many shapes and sizes of dogs, it was truly amazing to realize that some of those dogs could make it the whole 5k. It was even more entertaining to watch the finish. It was like watching a regular race finish - guys come flying in, except that they had a leash and a dog attached at the hip, and once they'd cross the line, the dog would be running around, all excited, thinking "what'd we stop for?". Some of the dogs decided the kiddy pools weren't for drinking and hopped in and laid down to cool off. Just like people like to take a dip after a long hard run. What a crazy week. I was exhausted by last night. I'm taking today off, then off to explore some more.