20 Weeks ’til Ironman Boulder

WHAT?!?!?!?! Next week is going to have a 1 in front of it…eek!! I can’t believe how time flies!! Last week was full of workouts, fun and pushing through the final week before spring break…OH…and it was my birthday week 🙂 Warmer temperatures have blessed us, which means outdoor activities where we don’t have to bundle up in down parkas to go outside. Finally…spring is here!!

Monday:

My day started with a 1 hour strength training session where I held plank for 4 minutes for the first time ever. I am excited…a 5 minute plank by the end of March might actually happen. #progress 🙂 It was a long day at work with students who were all starting to mentally check out and go on spring break…UGH!! I was ready to burn off some steam after work, so it was a good thing I had some #bikelove coming my way with the 1-2-3-2-1 bike #interval workout. I thought about taking the bike and trainer to the front yard, but decided 54F might be a bit chilly and opted for leaving the bike in the basement for a few more days.

Plank time…4 minutes 🙂 Can I reach 5 by the end of March???

Tuesday:

Thankfully “early bird lap swim” has started at the high school pool and it has temperatures more conducive for lap swimming…less than 86F. YIPPEE!! While the time of day could be earlier for the Iron Hippie and me, we’ve adjusted our schedule just a bit on Tuesday mornings to get the opportunity to swim at a different location. Soooo, this is how I started my Tuesday…3100 yards of #swimlove swimming. I was really excited about swimming at the high school, but I could not get my swim form to fall together, so I didn’t feel the #swimlove that I was hoping for. I followed this up with another REALLY long day with the students even more checked out than Monday. They were even starting to get mouthy. One student said, “Mrs. Fencl, you’re trippin’!” to which I responded, “I certainly hope I’m not “trippin’ since I have to run after school.” I was so excited to get outside after school and run!! It was a BEAUTIFUL, sunny, warm afternoon. It doesn’t get better than this in March in Iowa!! Can you say #runlove…I had a lot of love on this run!!

Finally…a cool swimming pool 🙂

Outdoor running in shorts and a tank top in March. It doesn’t get better than this!!

Wednesday:

I started my day with an easy 75 minute trainer ride just to spin out the legs. This was followed up with an even longer day than the previous days this week. It wasn’t just the students that were getting antsy for break…I was too!! It didn’t help that we had temperatures in the upper 60s/low 70s all week. I just wanted to be outside!! I debated skipping my swim after school and doing something outside, but I decided I should go swim. I knew I would be upset with myself if I skipped a workout. So I went to the pool and swam. After my swim, I spent the evening outside grilling, walking the dogs and just relaxing while I enjoyed some fresh air and vitamin D 🙂

Thursday:

My day started with the Iron Hippie playing this as my wake up “call”…

This was followed up with 45 minutes of #runlove with the Iron Hippie and Basil. It was so peaceful to run outside at 4:30 am with very few people out, the streets all to ourselves, the temperature near 45F, and an “easy run” on the calendar. Can you say…run bliss?!?!?! After the run, the Iron Hippie made me a “birthday smoothie,” which would replace the “cake” that normal people typically consume. I had another long day at school, with lots of birthday wishes. One class even sang “Happy Birthday” to me…a lot off key, but it was the thought that counts! I was incredibly antsy all day to get outside. It was 74F and I wanted to ride my bike!! I knew I wouldn’t have enough time to ride on the roads because I had to teach TRX, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t ride my trainer outdoors! Thanks to Allen for the party shenanigans while we rode 🙂 It wasn’t all fun and games. We did get to work for some serious #bikelove and #intervals. After all, that is the only way to make #progress. TRX was difficult, because my legs were so tired, but we did a lot more core work in this class, so the legs could take a bit of a break for Friday’s long run.

Chocolate almond milk, 1/2 a bag of mint Oreo cookies, a heaping scoop of peanut butter and two scoops of Osmo Recovery…#toomanycalories

Friday:

There was no AM workout, so it was nice sleeping in a bit…hey a 6 am wake up call gave me 2 extra hours to sleep 🙂 I was so thankful to have an early dismissal at 1 pm today. It was a beautiful afternoon for a run, so I broke out another new Coeur Sports tri kit and ran and ran and ran…

15 miles in the sun and beautiful outdoor weather.

Saturday:

I slept in until almost 7 am. I don’t remember the last time that happened!! When I got up, I went to the gym for 30 minutes of core work and followed it up with Bananas Foster Oatmeal at The Cafe for breakfast…YUMMY!! After taking a nap, I cleaned up the house a bit and enjoyed the sunshine and warmer weather before cheering on the Cyclones to the Big 12 Championships. By the end of the game, I was sure I would need to see Coach Fred Hoiberg’s heart doctor…thankfully, the Come Back Kids strike again 🙂

Basil enjoyed the sun, warmer weather and a bone 🙂

#cyclONEnation

Sunday:

The day started with a 3:20:00 brick. After a 30 minute warm up, we rode 5 minutes in zone 3 followed by 10 minutes in zone 2 which we repeated for a total of 10 times before hopping off the bike and running easy for 20 minutes. Then it was time for fueling, bike cleaning, paying bills and house work.

Weekly Totals:

Swim: 5600 yards

Bike: 85.6 miles

Run: 27.7 miles

Strength Training: 2:15:00

Total Duration: 14 hours and 44 minutes

How was your week? What were the highlights of your week?