Its kind of a good thing that this is a recovery week coming up, because over the past 4 weeks of triathlon training I’ve pushed myself to all kinds of new limits. For instance, this past week, i had yet another high in the training minutes peaking at 545 minutes. The big difference over the past week though is that I’m working hard to get outside more now that the weather is starting to turn more spring-like (if you can call 40 degrees spring-like). I find that its difficult to get out on the bike yet, its still a little chilly and there is a lot of gravel on the roads, but at least running wise, I managed to get out both Thursday morning and today, plus I did my circuit workout today outside (which was a unique experience).

So after doing around a 6 mile run this morning, I decided that instead of doing my circuit workout inside today, i’d do it outside. I read in some magazine about the benefits of doing an outside workout like this, even when it was cold. I headed over to the community basketball court to begin this new adventure. I wasn’t exactly sure how I was going to arrange the whole workout, but I easily fell into it by doing a 1 minute circuit exercise and then running 2 loops around the outside of the basketball court (~30 seconds). I added in jumprope, pushups (plus oblique pushups), weighted crunches, squat thrusts, suicide runs, jumping jacks, plyo lunges, mountain climbers and left/right weighted planks .. it really was tough. I managed to do about 40 minutes worth of circuit, which actually turned out to be two circuits until I just ran out of gas. I did take powergels with me, but it just wasn’t even after this and the run. The cold didn’t seem to bother me at all even though the wind was whipping in my face, and I did have a dog try to chase me at some point during the workout also. I guess the people who live right next to the community area where the basketball court is didn’t tie up their dog as they were leaving this morning and he decided to come and workout with me. No damage done though, he was really playful, i ended up having to slow down in order for the owners to grab him and after about 2-3 minutes of trying to get the dog to follow me back to his house, the owners captured him and tied him up. I guess a little excitement in an otherwise boring workout…

With all the time on my feet today between running and the circuit caused my shin splints to flare up again, and its not only on my right leg now, but my left leg is sore also. Its funny how it didn’t seem to bother me all week and I even said this morning that I expected more pain from it, well, the pain came. lots of ice, ibuprofen and rest today has helped cool it down a bit, with a recovery week upcoming, the hope is that it will heal up. I’m surprised it didn’t bother me at all on Thursday when i ran, I’m not sure if maybe the multiple days of spin class is flaring it up and then when Sunday comes, it just can’t take anymore… who knows.

Switching gears, I have to say that i had a killer swim workout on Friday, I managed to swim a 3/4 mile continuous and then another 1/2 mile continuous after that. It really made the time fly. I remember back in October when I got in the water for the first time, I didn’t know how I was going to workout in the pool for 50+ minutes, well, I figured out how.. long swims. The strange thing is that I probably could have kept going past 3/4 mile, but I didn’t want to overdo it.. maybe this week I will since I have a shorter workout scheduled on Friday due to being on recovery, I can probably fit it in. My concerns about swimming are all but gone, except for the fact that my first open water swim will be the triathlon … there’s nothing I can do that about, but the distance should be a breeze (i hope).

I managed to get my bike maintenance done today by getting everything greased up and tightened after a long winter. i’m still having a problem with the front derailleur not working right, it won’t swiftly switch to the high cog without making a lot of noise if it switches gears at all.. next weekend I’ll have to work on it more. I’m still new to all the components of a bike, but the internet has helped me a lot, i’m thinking i just need to get the settings right. I don’t use those gears all that much so it won’t slow me down this week if I can get out. I need to get miles on the road at some point though .. I hope this is the week I can do it, but the weather is going to be the determining factor once again. I think that spin class is only going to take me so far in my training. Don’t get me wrong, I kick butt in spin class these days, but its not the same as being on the bike if you know what I mean.

The last thing that I have to mention is my new found diet .. i wrote back on Wednesday about how i’m putting on weight despite all the training i’m doing. I think i’m over the Gatorade withdrawal right now, which has saved me a ton of sodium and calories the past couple days, that along with increasing my protein intake has helped me lose that bloated feeling. I have yet to step on the scale again, but maybe Wednesday i’ll do it to see how my weight is after a week of cleaner eating.