4 weeks ’til #IMWI: juggling

The theme for this week was…juggling our schedule around to get workouts in thanks to Mother Nature, visitors, and other scheduling conflicts.

Monday:

Following the 4 am alarm clock was a 90 minute run! It was a beautiful morning for a run, and I was so happy to be pounding the pavement. I was even more happy to know that my run was a negative split run, which I found out after my run 😉 I followed this up with making homemade spaghetti sauce, making 6.5 dozen zucchini muffins, cleaning up the kitchen, doing some laundry, and mowing the lawn. When the Iron Hippie came home from work, we hopped on the bike for a 60 minute ride that included a 20 minute time trial. I was dreading this FTP test…I don’t know why, but I was. I had to remind myself of “courage over comfort” and “go for the gold; don’t settle for silver” (inspired by the Olympics) multiple times throughout the test, but it worked! I was able to put out a normalized power of 194 watts. This is 6 watts higher than my last FTP test and it gets me a little closer to my goal…200 watts. #progress I am not trying to get there before IMWI, but it would be nice to see a normalized power of 200 watts before 2017! 😉

Tuesday:

We started the day with 2400 meters (2625 yards) of #swimlove with the sunrise. I could definitely feel the fatigue in my arms from the Okoboji 3.5 mile open water swim last Saturday, but it also felt good to get moving again. When I got home after swimming, I took the dogs for a walk, and did some strength training before lunch. After lunch, I cleaned up the house, did some laundry (this is NEVER. ENDING!) and cleaned some produce from our friend’s garden (she is on vacation for a week). I met a personal training client at 3 pm, picked up our CSA, and made homemade sweet potato and kale pizza for dinner with our neighbors.

Wednesday:

This morning’s swim was a bit of a struggle. My arms were tired, so I finished 2800 meters (3062 yards) of swimming a bit slower than normal, but I pushed through and finished. After refueling, I took the dogs for a walk, cleaned up, ran to the grocery store, I finished the homemade spaghetti sauce by browning burger for each container before freezing them, made homemade beet pesto, cleaned all of the produce from yesterday’s CSA, made an Oriental cabbage salad for dinner, cleaned up the kitchen. It was a very busy day! Since school starts back up next week and the tropical weather has descended upon us yet again this summer, I am trying to get things done around the house so we are ready for the new school year…lots of food prep, deep clean the house, and make sure the cupboards are stocked with household essentials so we don’t have to go to the store for a while. When the Iron Hippie came home from work, we spent 90 minutes on the trainer for some really tough bike intervals before eating dinner, cleaning up, and preparing for the rest of the week.

Long course swimming!

Homemade beet pesto…I can’t wait to try this on pizza!

Coach Basil is sleeping on the job!

Thursday:

We woke up early, went to the gym for an hour of strength training before the Iron Hippie had to go to work. I followed this up with eating everything in sight, puppy snuggles, and a morning nap. When I woke up, it was time for laundry and running LOTS of errands…time to stock up on all of our goods and supplies before going back to school! This meant 2 trips to Sam’s Club, one trip to Target, one trip to Walmart, and LOTS of putting away of items! When the Iron Hippie came home from work, we did a lot of food prep for the freezer. It was nice to have an evening with no workout to get stuff done at home and start to prepare for reality to set in!

One month from today, I will be toeing the line at Ironman #4!!

Friday:

We woke up to swim, but there were severe storms that had passed through the area over night producing high winds and 4+ inches of rain in Ames. We opted for more sleep and not play the game of “will the pool be open, or won’t it?!” After the Iron Hippie went to work, I went to school for about an hour to start putting my classroom back together for the coming school year. After my eyebrow wax, I went home, snarfed down food for lunch, loaded the car, and met the Iron Hippie across town for our 5 hour ride followed by 30 minute run. When we finished, I ate all the food I could find, took an epsom salt bath, and showered before my sister and the twins showed up to spend some time with us since they are in town with friends. When they left, it was bedtime!

Saturday:

We woke up at 5 am for our 18 mile run. It was VERY humid (97% humidity), but thankfully there were others who were able to join us for most of the run…we only had to run ~4 miles just the two of us. After the run, it was time for refueling, legs up the wall, and an epsom salt bath. We went to our friends’ house for brunch, took an afternoon nap, and then relaxed a bit while watching the Olympics. After dinner we got some froyo and then were in bed by 7:30…so tired!

Sunday:

We started the day with a ride that was supposed to be 3 hours, but due to timing with family events, it was cut just a little short. We immediately came home and refueled just in enough time for my sister and the twins to come over. We went to the aquatic center and spent the afternoon playing on the slide, tube slide, lazy river, diving board, and just soaking up the fun. At 3 pm the Iron Hippie and I came home to quickly clean up before his parents arrived to our house. We unloaded pork meat from coolers into our freezer and then took the twins to Orange Leaf for some froyo…Isabella has been talking about this for a full year! After froyo, my sister and the twins left for home, the Iron Hippie, his parents, and I went to dinner. It was good food and good conversation. When his parents finally left, we were so exhausted that we just kind of fell in bed and melted into the sheets.

That’s me coming out of the slide with the big splash!! I finally made it down the slide 🙂

Weekly Totals: 19 hours & 30 minutes

Swim: 5687 yards
Bike: 166 miles
Run: 20.7 miles
Strength Training: 2 hours + 10 minutes of core everyday

Quote of the Week:

“I want to get more comfortable being uncomfortable. I want to get more confident being uncertain. I don’t want to shrink back just because something isn’t easy. I want to push back, and make more room in the area between I can and I can’t.” ~Kristin Armstrong