LOOOOONNGGGG RIDE!!

Yesterday I ended my training week with a 4 hour ride on the trainer. Whew!That is a long time to sit on a bike let me tell ya! I parked myself in front of the TV for the entire time yesterday. I watched friends, xweighted, part of Pearl Harbour (I turned it off...wasn't in the mood) and to end it I watched The Guardian. I love that movie:) After about 3 hours I was getting a little antsy and my butt was starting to hurt, it wasn't too bad though. I was getting pretty hungry and the food I was eating wasn't sustaining me. Chad went and got 2 slices of pizza and he gave me the crusts which helped a lot. Apparently I needed something more substantial which I will keep in mind for future rides; maybe a PB sandwich next time?? I definitely have to mentally prepared to sit on the trainer for that long though!

Good news! That was probably my last ride on my old bike! Sugah daddy Chad is going to lend me some moulah so I can bring my bike home and start riding it! His point of view is "why do we have it sitting in the store when you could owe me $$$ and be riding it!" Not hard to convince me of that one. It should only take me a couple of months to pay it off though!

Which leads me to more exciting news...you may already know this depending on whose blog you read first:) Chad bought a bike this weekend....VERY exciting. He was pretty funny....I don't think it really sunk in until he started telling people. Up until that point he wasn't too excited, pretty nonchalant about the whole thing. Once we went to pick up my camera and $$$ did he show some excitement....after that he looked at the pics we took like every 1/2 hour! Ha ha.

OK back to training. Here is the table of my training volumes since I started the Crossing America Challenge.





As you can see I was a little inconsistent in December before I started my IMC training. As well as when I was sick around new years, which is why I don't have steady builds in the beginning. The other thing I have learned is not to play around with my training program during the week. For example if I didn't have time on Sunday to do my long ride I would do it on Monday instead...which leads to an inconsistent build! As you can see since my last recovery week I have stuck to my training plan and I have a good steady volume load! I had to juggle a little bit for the next 2 weeks, due to my race on the 15th. So my volume will go down in the next two weeks for recovery/taper!

That being said I did my last 2 hour run on Saturday for a couple of weeks which I am pretty stoked about! It was really windy on Saturday, but the sun came out about half way through so that made it warm up for a bit! Next week I have a 90 min long run with the following week being race day:)

I also got 3 weight training sessions in last week...that's right three! I was pretty proud of myself. Lots of core training and power endurance training. On Friday I got Chad to help me with my Olympic lifts. I had always been doing cleans (where you lift the bar from your knees to your shoulders), but I did the push press on Friday at the end....so the full clean and jerk (lifting the bar from below my knees to above my head)! I am going to get him to record me doing this so you can see what I am talking about. Olympic lifts are awesome power training because you use your whole body! My core (abs) were sore all week from Monday and I didn't do a single "ab" exercise! I love it!!!

In my Crossing America Challenge within the last week I have passed: Hartford Connecticut, Providence Rhode Island, Boston Massachusetts, Concord New Hampshire, and Augusta Maine. I am about 3 hours out of Mount Pelier Vermont! I guess I have a few capital tests ahead of me, pressure's on!

Last week my swims were going pretty good. I felt strong in the water, I am doing flip turns all of the time now. I always knew how to do them, but never implemented them into my training! Apparently I must look friendly because both of my workouts got interrupted by these guys yaking at me. Don't get me wrong, I love to chat about triathlon, just not for 15 minutes in the middle of my set! I didn't get all of the distance I wanted in because of this. Chad later informed me that they were hitting on me...I thought they wanted to talk about tri's:) Oops....bad judgement on my part...creepos! Ha ha. The random swimmers in my lane are really starting to bug me too! Does it look like I am there to play in the water...no??? Well then don't frolic around in my lane! Anywho, hopefully this week goes a little smoother. Is smoother a word?

That's all for now, I'll update ya in a few days and see how things are going!