A NON-stop weekend

Now that Christmas is here and gone it's time for Jen and I to get back into a somewhat normal routine. As I was getting ready this past Saturday for my long run I got a frantic call from Mom saying that the ambulance is on it's way for dad and he's getting rushed to the hospital. He had lower right back pain and I could hear him screaming in the background. I quickly threw on a pair of jeans and rushed over just in time to follow the ambulance to Allegheny General. Luckily there was nothing major wrong and he had a case of kidney stones and that was the root of the pain. After spending the morning in the ER (he was released around 1PM) , I got back home and headed out for my run. I really felt good on my run and could really tell a difference between now and a month ago when training was just starting to ramp up again. I got in a smooth 11.5 miles, got a quick shower, a bite to eat and then headed to the Greensburg YMCA for my long swim of the week. Saturday's swim workout was 3400 yards consisting of a main set of 10x100 yards and 10x50 yards at my T-Pace (pace it takes to swim 1000 yards). I was consistent and right on pace with all of my times. So basically after a long day it was time to go to bed. I think Jen and I were in bed by 9:00 PM, and I know I was asleep within 10 minutes after my head hit the pillow. The alarm went off around 7:00 AM Sunday morning and after we hit the snooze button one or two times, it was time to get up. Paul wasn't coming over till 9:00 for our bike ride so it was nice having some time to relax, wake up, and eat breakfast. Typically I'm always rushed on our weekend workouts especially if I'm meeting someone at a certain time. Paul arrived on schedule, and we headed outside for a brisk 27 degree 2 1/2 hour ride. I was actually able to stay with Paul today and I think it's because I lowered my seat height and was no longer reaching as much on my pedal strokes. I felt good in the saddle and had an average cadence of 88 (about 5 revolutions higher than my long ride last week) and our average speed was 17.2. Although our speed was still slow, it was 1 mph faster then last week when my knee was extremely sore. Jen opted not to go outside, and instead biked over 2 hours indoor on the trainer. I still don't know how she does that! I get bored on that thing in like 20 minutes and time seems to crawl. We got home around 11:45. We had just enough time to quickly recover with a protein shake, eat a quick lunch, and then we were off again for the Y. Now after Saturdays long swim workout my workout on Sunday called for 2700 yards (700 shorter than Saturday). The ladder intervals were to be done again at T-Pace, but arms thought otherwise. After one or two sets, my arms could no longer keep up, and my times were off by 5-10 seconds and maybe even slower as the workout went on. I'm going to take two days off from swimming and hopefully the rest will help me recover and come back stronger. So after another hour in the pool it was time to call it a week. So to sum up my 4th week with Coach Kevin, I exercised just over 14 hours, swam 9150 yards, biked 101 miles, ran 26.5 miles, and spent a couple hours weight training at the gym. I'd call that a good solid week of training! So we got home around 2:00 PM and I cooked up some spaghetti left overs as a small snack before Jen's family arrived. Jen's Aunt Lainie, Uncle Rob, and Grandma were in town to see our new nephew Marty and the whole clan came to our house for dinner. I'm not sure when Jen had time to cook up a pan of Lasagna, but then again her time management skills (or energy) is way different than mine. After my workouts I'm dead and want to have nothing to do with anything else besides relaxing on the couch. Jen on the other hand will spend hours cleaning, cooking, you name it she's doing it. So after dinner we looked at Marty pictures, Wedding pictures, and pictures from Hawaii. It was a long day and I was again happy to sink deep in my bed. Monday is a half day of work and we're off to a couple of New Year's Eve parties tonight with some of our good friends. I hope everyone else has a fantastic night and brings in 2008 with tons of excitement!

posted by Chad Holderbaum @ 9:43 AM Comments: 1