Welcome to my first week discussing training, food I used to fuel and just overall how I have felt this week. This week was a recovery week from the Space Coast Half Marathon. I have been smiling all week about what a great race it was and what a great race I had. Yes there is a difference. Thank you again to the Space Coast Marathon and Half Marathon for taking great care of all of the runners.
Monday: It was an easy recovery swim. I pulled a little bit, practiced some flip turns, swam and kicked to keep the legs moving. It was starting to cool down a little bit. Even though it is much colder in other parts of the country I could feel the chill in the air foreshadowing the cooler weather we would have starting the next day. Honestly, I thought about skipping this swim. My legs were tired from the run, and I was just tired from getting up so early the day before. Monday evening, I told myself it is a short swim today, go get it done. Every workout matters if you want to continue to improve. After every swim, I always feel the water is magical. I was so happy I moved my body and felt so much better than I had before I swam.
Tuesday: It was cold(for Florida) in the morning. I was grateful it was another swim day, and not a bike or run day. This day was a full swim workout with my triathlon group. It was a wet damp day, and yes it was hard to go. Whenever I think it's cold, I remember "it could be colder." This quote is from a story my triathlon coach told me of a friend of his that did a swim event and it was very cold. My coach asked him how he did the event and didn't freeze and his response was, I just kept thinking it could be colder. It has helped me get myself motivated to do my workouts when I don't want to. Our pool is nicely heated. The workout was great. Once the workout was over, I bolted out of the pool to my towel. I dried off quickly, threw my parka back on, then packed up my stuff and headed to the locker room for a hot shower to warm up. I warmed up but it was not enough. I enjoyed a cup of chicken tortilla soup, a spicy chicken filet without the bread and some macaroni and cheese from Chick Fil A. It is not the ideal meal but it warmed me up and I enjoyed it.
Wednesday: Day off
Thursday: First, meet Captain. He is one of my golden retrievers and will be making appearances in my blog and YouTube videos.
It was still a little chilly Thursday morning so I got some household chores done and Captain stayed under the covers and was a happy puppy in bed.
By noon, it had warmed up and it felt like your normal Florida day. It was another great swim with my triathlon club. Next week we will have our last 500 yd time trial. This has been our team challenge this year. I have decreased my time by nearly two minutes. Our fastest time determines next year's challenge interval. The challenge is 10 X 100s on a tough interval. I'm not enthusiastic about this challenge because I don't like 100s. Any other distance is fine but when my coach says 100s, I inwardly whine. I have trouble getting the speed right, because I either feel like I don't go hard enough or go so hard that I am dying between 60 and 75 yards. Maybe I will figure life out doing over one hundred 100s just in the challenge not including the 100s in our swim practices. Next up an afternoon bike ride.
It was a beautiful afternoon. The weather was perfect. I had been focusing on running the last few months in order to prepare for the Space Coast Half Marathon. One of the other things I had been working on was bike cadence. High bicycle cadence is tough for me because my brain wants a higher gear and to push harder with less pedal strokes. I had been working on it on the bicycle trainer for the last two months and this was my first ride outside. I focused on smooth pedaling and did my best to focus on average cadence on my bike computer and nothing else. My goal was 85 rpm and I completed the ride with an average of 84 rpm. The ride route had a couple of small hills so I was happy. I climbed the hills in a lower gear and didn't coast on the downhills.
Friday: I welcomed December with an early short sunrise run. I felt the bike ride from yesterday and was still feeling Space Coast. My legs felt heavy but I got out and did my run even if the pace wasn't great. I smiled remembering I get to do this, and if I hadn't gone out and tried, I would never have gotten to see this beautiful sunrise.
It was a great week of training, and I can say I enjoyed myself. Yes there were some swim sets I didn't enjoy and I had to tell myself to keep going some days but if every training day was perfect, we would all be elites and have to find different goals.
Food. We all need it and most of us love it. Yes, we exercise to be healthy but how many of us started exercising because we like food and want to eat good food? I know I can't be the only one. To help everyone fuel for training or races I will be including at least one recipe I have tried during the week. While everyone is different, has different tastes, diets, etc., this is what works for me and my nutrition plan.
This is Keto Crack Chicken Soup. I don't do strict keto. I am more focusing on carbohydrates from vegetables and some fruit and keeping carbohydrates low. After swimming on Tuesday, I was cold the rest of the day even after the delicious Chick-Fil-A. After lunch, I decided I wanted a thick soup for dinner that would be on my nutrition plan. This soup was a 10/10 for both me and my husband. There was only a small amount left for my husband to have for lunch. This soup is nice and thick and I could feel my insides warming as I ate it for dinner.
My blogs about training and fueling will always end with a triathlon meme. This meme comes to us from the Facebook page Triathlon Memes and was created on imgflip.com.
Just remember if you use this mantra, it's rude to count the people you pass out loud. Have a great training week!
Thank you for reading. Please subscribe on the homepage or email me at swimbikeruntheplanet@gmail.com