March Totals
Swim – 17,125 yards, 5 hours 50 minutes
Bike – 247.4 miles, 14 hours 13 minutes
Run – 70.8 miles, 10 hours 11 minutes
Total – 30 hours 14 minutes
March brought with it the end of my marathon training and the beginning of serious IM (read: BIKE) training. After the marathon, I took a few glorious days off from working out at all (four in a row! What?!), and since then, I have eased back into running and spent lots of time on my bike (Yes, I recognize that “lots” is a relative term). I’m happy to report that I actually like riding my bike. This is good since I will be spending A LOT of time on it over the next few months. I’ve decided to ride exclusively on the trainer inside during the week – trying to plan around work schedule, weather, daylight, and traffic is just too much stress. My only outdoor ride of each week will be the long ride on Saturdays. Unfortunately, I’ve also discovered that I hate watching DVR’d TV while riding inside – which is what I thought would motivate me. Catch up on a couple shows while getting in a workout, right? No. I stare at my watch wishing the ride to be over and lose motivation very quickly. So, I’ve turned to biking DVDs called Spinervals. Basically they are like any workout video – you watch a bunch of people biking on trainers and a coach tells the group and watcher what to do. They are cheesy, but for whatever reason, I find these a much better aid to get through my hour indoor rides – and I work a lot harder. I guess I’ll have to find other time to catch up on the shows….
To add to the stress of getting in these workouts, we have also had a lot of changes coming up over the last few weeks. First, I’m changing jobs at work – going from a pretty normal 40 hour work week with minimal weekend work back to a schedule of anywhere from 50-70 hours a week and basically expected to be on call at any time (I originally signed up for the IM because I was no longer working long hours and had moved to a much more manageable 40 hour work week…whoops). Further, I’ve been asked to “commute” from Chicago to New York during the week for a few months. I’m super excited to spend time in New York (especially since my company will be paying for most of it), but when the heck am I going to train? The swimming and running will be ok – but I am still trying to figure out how the biking will work…..it will be so hard to be away from Rob and Dirk (dog) during the week, but I’m rationalizing by thinking that a) I would be spending most of my time outside of work training anyway, and b) since I will be away from home and all of the distractions that come with it, I’ll be able to focus on my workouts. We’ll see.
Also, Rob and I have decided to try selling our townhouse (which we purchased at the market peak about four years ago….). We have been working SO HARD over the past few weeks to get it ready to be on the market – cleaning/organizing closets and rooms, getting rid of junk, cleaning, finishing all those projects that were 99% done but didn’t quite get there, cleaning, and don’t forget paint touchup through the whole house (my least favorite and the thing that I keep procrastinating on), and cleaning. There are just not enough hours in the day right now – I can’t wait for the house prep to be over – it is just so time consuming! Hopefully all of this work will result in a sale :). Wait. But then I’d have to pack the house up to move. Crap.
On to April and with it, nice weather. I can’t wait to get outside and ride and run! Its amazing what the change in weather will do for motivation after months of slogging through cold temps, snow, wind, and ice! Bring on the sun!
Swim – 17,125 yards, 5 hours 50 minutes
Bike – 247.4 miles, 14 hours 13 minutes
Run – 70.8 miles, 10 hours 11 minutes
Total – 30 hours 14 minutes
March brought with it the end of my marathon training and the beginning of serious IM (read: BIKE) training. After the marathon, I took a few glorious days off from working out at all (four in a row! What?!), and since then, I have eased back into running and spent lots of time on my bike (Yes, I recognize that “lots” is a relative term). I’m happy to report that I actually like riding my bike. This is good since I will be spending A LOT of time on it over the next few months. I’ve decided to ride exclusively on the trainer inside during the week – trying to plan around work schedule, weather, daylight, and traffic is just too much stress. My only outdoor ride of each week will be the long ride on Saturdays. Unfortunately, I’ve also discovered that I hate watching DVR’d TV while riding inside – which is what I thought would motivate me. Catch up on a couple shows while getting in a workout, right? No. I stare at my watch wishing the ride to be over and lose motivation very quickly. So, I’ve turned to biking DVDs called Spinervals. Basically they are like any workout video – you watch a bunch of people biking on trainers and a coach tells the group and watcher what to do. They are cheesy, but for whatever reason, I find these a much better aid to get through my hour indoor rides – and I work a lot harder. I guess I’ll have to find other time to catch up on the shows….
To add to the stress of getting in these workouts, we have also had a lot of changes coming up over the last few weeks. First, I’m changing jobs at work – going from a pretty normal 40 hour work week with minimal weekend work back to a schedule of anywhere from 50-70 hours a week and basically expected to be on call at any time (I originally signed up for the IM because I was no longer working long hours and had moved to a much more manageable 40 hour work week…whoops). Further, I’ve been asked to “commute” from Chicago to New York during the week for a few months. I’m super excited to spend time in New York (especially since my company will be paying for most of it), but when the heck am I going to train? The swimming and running will be ok – but I am still trying to figure out how the biking will work…..it will be so hard to be away from Rob and Dirk (dog) during the week, but I’m rationalizing by thinking that a) I would be spending most of my time outside of work training anyway, and b) since I will be away from home and all of the distractions that come with it, I’ll be able to focus on my workouts. We’ll see.
Also, Rob and I have decided to try selling our townhouse (which we purchased at the market peak about four years ago….). We have been working SO HARD over the past few weeks to get it ready to be on the market – cleaning/organizing closets and rooms, getting rid of junk, cleaning, finishing all those projects that were 99% done but didn’t quite get there, cleaning, and don’t forget paint touchup through the whole house (my least favorite and the thing that I keep procrastinating on), and cleaning. There are just not enough hours in the day right now – I can’t wait for the house prep to be over – it is just so time consuming! Hopefully all of this work will result in a sale :). Wait. But then I’d have to pack the house up to move. Crap.
On to April and with it, nice weather. I can’t wait to get outside and ride and run! Its amazing what the change in weather will do for motivation after months of slogging through cold temps, snow, wind, and ice! Bring on the sun!
