My muscles feel like blah!

Since my 20 miler on Tuesday, every day has been a struggle. Wednesday was a really busy day. I was still in Manchester, and had a full day of work ahead of me. We (my co-worker Mike and I) woke early, and headed into the office. The work day flew by, and before we knew it, it was time to call it quits. The Penguins played Wednesday night, so I had to squeeze in my recovery run, and recovery swim in before the start. I ran first, then swam at the downtown Manchester YMCA. I really enjoy swimming out of town, mainly because even though it's still a lap pool, it's something different. After my two workouts, Mike and I headed to a local pub for the game. As it turned out, the Penguins beat the Senators, and swept the first round series. It's the first time we swept a series since 1992 (and we all know what happened in 1992).....okay, we ALL don't know.....but put it this way, the season ended with Lord Stanley's cup in Pittsburgh!!!

Thursday was yet another hectic day. We still had work to do, and had to catch our flight home by 1:30 PM. We went into the office around 7:30, worked till noon, and caught our flight just in the nick of time. Our flight took us through Philadelphia (my least favorite city to fly through). Surprisingly, we boarded 5 minutes early and departed on time. When we touched down in Pittsburgh it was 5:30 and I was anxious to get home for my long mid-week bike ride. Little did I know that as soon as we got onto the parkway we sat and sat and sat in gridlock traffic. Normally it takes me about 50 minutes to get home from the airport....tonight over 2 hours!!!

As I finally walked through my front door, the temperature outside read over 70 degrees but the sun was setting, and my chances of riding outside were slim to none. Great I thought. It's 70 freakin degrees outside, and I'm going to do another 2+ hour ride on the stinking trainer. I realized my fate, hooked the bike up to the trainer, and turned on the tube. Luckily Thursday nights are my favorite nights for TV. All of the shows that I like seem to air on Thursdays. I watched Survivor, My name is Earl, 30 Rock, and the Office. I called it quits after 10PM, and made my way to bed.

Friday morning started off early with a warm up 2 mile jog to the local track. Not only was I still asleep during the warm up, but my body was in no mood to do a speed / track workout. Plus my legs were extremely heavy from the 20 miler Tuesday, the long flight home Thursday, and the trainer ride Thursday night. Oh well, just get through it. Most of the time track workouts like this one are 100% mental. So after our run Jen and I hurried to get ready for work. My plan was to call it a day shortly after lunch, but instead I got pulled into a conference call with a supplier of ours at 4PM on a Friday. And to make it worse, the call was delayed 20 minutes. So by the time it was over, it was 5:30. After work I laced up my shoes for another run. Tonight was an hour negative split run, and my turnover was much better tonight than earlier.

Saturday morning, the alarm went off early (no rest for the weary) and Jen and I headed to the pool for 3300 yards at 7AM. We had a full day ahead of us so we knew we had to get the swim out of the way. We rushed home after our swim just in time for my friend Paul to pull into our driveway on his bike. We headed out on the bike and by the time we stopped for our first water stop we had 23 miles in just over an hour. We had a feeling we were going fast, but we also knew we had a tail wind that pushed us the first hour and the next couple of hours would be tough. To put it in perspective, there is no such thing as an easy course around here. We picked the flattest 70 mile course we could think of, and still climbed 6300 feet. The temperature rose to around 80 degrees today, and I knew that nutrition was very important today. I was drinking around 200 calories an hour, and about 200mg of sodium / electrolytes so I wouldn't cramp. We finished the ride in just under 4 hours, and averaged 18mph. Today was also a little brick workout too, so I transitioned for a 15 minute run. So to sum up Saturday, it was just plain HARD! After the long running week, 5 1/2 hours of training today was exhausting. To make it worse Saturday night was our running banquet in Bridgeville. We had about 2 hours to relax before we drove to Bridgeville, and what a drive it was. I had no idea that the Parkway was closed, and our 50 minute commute turned into a 1 hour 40 minute commute. We were a little late for dinner, but we made it. By the time we got home it was past 10PM, and time for bed.

The only thing planned today is a long swim, and another track workout (10x800's)....blah

We slept in till 9:00 AM, ate Jen's newly famous whole grain blueberry waffles with pure maple syrup, and drank 24 oz of my favorite batch of Dunkin Donuts coffee!!!

Sooner or later we'll make it to the pool.....most likely later. :)

Enjoy your Sunday!

posted by Chad Holderbaum @ 10:07 AM Comments: 1