Day Two

I'm tired so this one will be brief.  :) We happily had another morning with no alarm.  We planned on riding together and it's pretty chilly in the mornings, so there was no rush to get up and on the road.  We naturally woke up around 6:30 feeling refreshed and excited to ride.  My allergies were acting up a bit (high pollen levels here) so after breakfast, I drove down the street to Walgreens to grab some allergy meds.  We had a good breakfast, made sure Brutus got some good attention, and took off rolling.  We left from the house - looking back, we probably would have preferred to drive somewhere to start our ride, but no biggie.  

It was not a fast ride - it was windy, some decent climbing, and a lot of crappy pavement.  We rode Gates pass which I was quite excited for.  The views did not disappoint, but the pavement condition did :)  The ride was mentally tough for me... it's been a while since I last rode for 4 hours and I think waking up with some allergy issues threw me off a bit.  But once we got to Gates pass, I was happy as a clam to be riding.  The last 45minutes of the ride felt taxing.  I didn't really want to think about running.... 

 Scenic overlook at the top of Gates Pass

One of the roads with good pavement that made me smile

As soon as I put on my running shoes and hit the pavement, I was so happy with how I felt.  It wasn't all smooth sailing, but the majority of that 30 minutes felt great and it went by super fast.  The run was a progression - 10 minutes easy, 10 minutes moderate effort, and 5 minutes strong/half ironman effort followed by 5 minutes jog/nice and easy cool down.  I'm super pleased with my running progress lately and being here, the extra oxygen is much appreciated :) Anthony also had a run off the bike of 20 minutes, so he got a little extra Brutus time before I got back :)

Running views...not bad

 It was a toasty run - glad I had my sports drink and h2o!

After our brick, Anthony and I both had a glass of tart cherry juice and milk with chocolate protein powder.  My amazing coach put pre, during, and post workout fueling suggestions with each of my workouts which has been so nice! :)  After our recovery fuel, we stretched in the yard with Brutus and then hung with him a little extra before eating some real food. 

While our food digested, we cleaned up the kitchen a bit and then took a little time to put our feet up before heading to the pool.  Finding the motivation to go swim after a 4.5 hour workout is tough, but as soon as I jumped in the pool I felt great.  

My swim workout: 

WU: 300 swim + 200 snorkel + 200 snorkel and buoy

Pre-Set:

10 x 25 snorkel, strap and paddles:

odds build to strong

evens strong

All 15 sec rest

MS:

800 smooth pull with snorkel, buoy, strap and and paddles at 75%

30 sec rest

600 buoy, strap and paddles at 80 to 85 %

30 sec rest

400 buoy and snorkel, EZ swim at 70%

30 sec rest

4 x 100 swim (no toys) build by 25 to strong w/ 20 sec rest.

CD: 10 bobs

I finished this swim feeling rejuvenated and I really surprised myself - I was swimming really strong and happy for those last 4x 100 builds! :)  

After our swim we each had a glass of milk and a bowl of fruit and started prepping dinner - after Brutus got some attention of course.  For dinner we had steaks, red skin potatoes, and a spinach salad.  I'm known for taking pictures of our food, but so far this week - I have scarfed it all down before even remotely thinking about taking a picture!  

Tomorrow, Anthony and I have pretty different schedules, so we won't be doing much or any swim/bike/run together, but we will share lots of eating, recovery, and Brutus time. :) For now, I think it's bedtime..