First workout in a week!

I have been sick.

It started last Wednesday with a sore throat – annoying, but manageable. I even went to the gym for an easy run that night. The sore throat continued into Thursday, the day I had an outdoor work event in bitter cold temperatures. I’m it didn't help and ended up losing my voice and taking a half work from home day, half sick day on Friday. I didn't do any exercise either day.

Saturday started off OK but I felt crappier and crappier as the day went on. I started canceling plans, bailing on a commitment with my mom (sad face) and hanging out with friends and their kids, including their new baby (super sad face). By that night I had a fever and spent the next 36 hours alternating between sleeping, drinking tea, and taking Benadryl.

The fever was gone by Sunday night and I stayed home from work Monday to sleep and recover. Tuesday and Wednesday I felt OK and had pretty much normal days, except for a bit of head loopiness coming and going in waves. Today, finally, was the first day my brain had felt completely normal since Thursday night. I'm still congested and have a cough, but I found myself looking forward to an easy workout tonight.

So, for the first time since last Wednesday, I found myself doing a tiny bit of training – just a half an hour on the bike today. It felt good to work up a mild sweat (and not from a fever) and get the endorphins going again.

It wasn't much, but it was something.

I have no idea how I got sick in the first place. I work in a building that's populated with teenagers and young adults. In the week before I got the sore throat, I had worked out in at least four different fitness establishments. I go to the farmers market and grocery store. I had made a quick visit to a health clinic. It could have been anything.

I am not expecting to leap right back into fitness, but I am looking forward to doing a bit more training now that I am feeling myself again. And a friendly reminder: WASH YOUR HANDS. THOROUGHLY.

Feb. 17-23: The calm before the germs

And the week started off so well.

I got off to a decent start last week but then... it hit. As much as I tried, I couldn't stop the germs taking over my life and body by Thursday evening. Ugh.

There has been multitudes of flus, viruses, and other crud going around southeast Michigan and I knew it was just a matter of time before it caught up to me. I had a sore throat on Wednesday, stood outside in the bitter cold for a work event Thursday, and was losing my voice by Friday. I took Friday as a half sick, half work-from-home day and drank buckets of tea, but by Saturday evening I was back in bed with a fever.

I was miserable for about a day and a half but the fever was on its way out by Sunday evening. I was still pretty tired and congested today, and I figured it would be best to keep my germs home for another day. I was most mad that I missed a 50+ degree day — in February!!! — and plans with my mom and with my friends. No running outside, no meeting new babies, no hanging out with my parents. Super sad face.

I got two runs in and a bike ride before I got too sick to do more: 

Run: Twice, both on the treadmill, for 13.5 miles in about 2:20. This included one progressive medium distance run, and one easy run.

Bike: Once on the trainer for 15 fake miles in about 1:01.

Total: Three sessions in about 3:20.

Well, this week was definitely a wash and I'm not in a hurry to get back into my routine, either. I'm taking it easy for another few days and maybe will do some yoga later this week. This bug wiped me out and I want to be sure I'm fully recovered so I don't set myself back. I was absolutely miserable and I don't want to do that again!

I hope your week was less exciting and more productive than mine!

Splash & Dash Indoor Triathlon race report

T-shirt and medal -- not terrible swag!

Sunday was the first time in almost five years I swam, biked, and ran all in a row. My last multisport race was a duathlon in 2018, and I completed the swim and most of the bike of Michigan Titanium 70.3 in 2015 before getting pulled from the course for lightning. It was earlier that year, May of 2015, the last time I completed a triathlon.

I did a handful of indoor triathlons to kick off 2012, my second season of triathlon. I started that season with the Splash & Dash Indoor Triathlon at the Howell Area Aquatic Center, so it was serendipitous that my schedule worked out this year and I was starting to feel comfortable in the pool again. I signed up with one goal: To beat a friend of mine on the bike and run. He’s a lifeguard, so I knew I didn’t have a prayer on the swim, but I could shoot for 2 out of 3.

It was the motivation I needed to get back in the pool mid-January and swim a few times a week. I didn’t do anything fancy – just drills, 100s, and 200s, mostly – but did swim for 20 minutes straight (the triathlon swim time) at least once to confirm I could do it. By the time race day came along I was feeling pretty good. Really, I was hoping to have fun and see what I could do.

I gathered all my gear the night before and got a decent night’s sleep, although I was up at 6:15 a.m. to take the dogs outside, prep breakfast, and make sure I had everything ready to go. My husband came along as my cheering section and he drove so I could eat my peanut butter toast on the way. It took us about an hour to get there, and we ended up with plenty of time before my 9:30 a.m. wave. I got my t-shirt, re-familiarized myself with the center’s layout, handed off my coat and purse, and headed to the locker room to change and shower.

Funny signs were posted in the hallway, and this one was my favorite. =)

I went back and forth with being “that person” but I decided to wear tri shorts and a spandex running tank for the whole morning. While in the locker room, I noticed that a few women were changing into swimsuits with ruffles on the butt. Even though I know this was supposed to be a fun, friendly morning, my competitive side was instantly piqued. Maybe if I chugged along steadily enough, I could even win something.

I headed to the pool with about 15-20 minutes to spare. We were allowed to do a warmup swim, but it had to be in the diving well. Really deep water FREAKS me out and gives me vertigo, so this made me more than a little nervous. I told myself to do my usual warmup of a few laps with my kickboard and then my pull buoy – just like I do for every single swim – and it would be fine. It was a little ridiculous that I had a kickboard and buoy for a 5-minute warmup, but it really did help get me in a good head space. I told myself that the scariest part of the day was already over and headed to the lap lanes as soon as the earlier wave cleared out.

We had to share lanes, but I jumped in quickly on the right side, so I could breathe to the right (I swim faster breathing to the right) next to the lane divider on the way out. I made a joke with my lane mate about him not doing butterfly, and he looked at me like I had two heads. Ha! Know your audience, I guess. We got some basic instructions from the ref, did a countdown, and took off!

My goal was to swim steadily and not panic. Breathing toward the lane divider was great, as I could use it as a reference point and remind myself that this was just like any other pool. I had good intentions to breathe on the right on the way back as well, but the diving well was that way – and looking at the depth of the pool and how it curved downward was freaking me out. So, change of plans. I would breathe on the left (toward the lane divider) for about half the length, then take one longer breath and switch sides about halfway through. This did the trick. I didn’t think it slowed me down TOO much, and kept any deep water vertigo to a minimum. I didn’t push too hard, just concentrating on swimming steadily. After I got into a bit of a groove I did try to focus on reaching over the barrel and anchoring my hands, but this was mostly about consistency. I finished the 20 minutes feeling good with 17.5 laps, 875 yards. Yay!

I headed back to the locker room to towel off and grab my bag of shoes – I had brought cycling shoes, but wasn’t sure which type of bike I was going to end up with. I had some insider information (my lifeguard friend) to grab a new white spin bike, and I quickly threw a towel on an available one. (I also took a minute to track down some paper towels and disinfectant for all the sweat left behind.) It had my Shimano clip-ins – yay! Cycling shoes it was. I had a drink of water, listened to the instructions, reset the bike computer, and before we knew it, we were off and pedaling!

I tried to get into a sustainable and fast groove. The bikes were set at a pretty easy resistance, so I just pedaled as fast as I thought I could reasonably sustain for 20 minutes. We had some thumping dance music and the bike ref/coordinator/person, obviously a spin instructor, cheered us on. She had announced at the beginning that she had a “leader kettlebell” that she would put in front of the distance leader. “I am going to get that kettlebell,” I thought. Sure enough, about halfway through the time she announced that I was the distance leader, the first woman of the day to get the kettlebell. Yay! I was working hard and I felt all those Trainer Road sessions in my legs. I had a bit of a kick for the final few minutes and ended up with about 12.3 fake spin bike miles. Hooray!

I didn’t need to go back to the locker room since I had my bag of shoes, so just changed into running shoes, grabbed my water, and headed to the gym. Cones were set up at the four corners and we were to do laps around them. I had no idea what the distance was. I found my husband and our friend yapping, had some more water, got settled, made sure my shoes were tied tightly enough, etc. After our last round of instructions for the day we were off!

I was a bit worried my legs would feel dead but they were fine. A few guys and one other woman took off ahead of me, and the rest of us settled in. Since I had no idea on pace, I just tried for something sustainably hard. If I had to guess it felt like 8:15-8:00 per mile pace. The one faster woman and the 2-3 men lapped me a bunch of times, but I was able to hold off the rest of my wave. I did try to pick it up about halfway through but had to back off again. I did save a bit of a kick for the last couple of minutes and sprinted as hard as I could to the far cone as they were counting down the final seconds, so I could get credit for that half a lap. I ended with either 27.5 or 28 laps, which felt like about 2.5 miles. I was working HARD by the end and needed a few minutes to catch my breath and get a drink before I wandered over to my husband and friend.

I was pretty pleased with my showing and ready to gloat about my 2/3 win over my friend when I got my scorecard back and saw that my biking distance had been “corrected” from kilometers to miles, so I was now at 7.64. I have no idea if I was actually on kilometers, so I really hope the officials didn’t just assume I couldn’t have possibly gotten that distance. I looked up the bike distances after the fact and 12.3 wasn’t even close to the highest, so it’s not like it was a ridiculous number. Then came my second disappointment of the day – they weren’t doing awards! What!!! I was hoping for some kind of AG or master’s woman award. In hindsight, I’m glad I didn’t know, because I probably wouldn’t have worked so hard.

I was bummed for a few minutes but really, it was still a fun morning and I felt good about my effort and fitness level. I got to catch up with a friend I hadn’t seen in a while and “race” for the first time in a while. My husband and I got coffee on the way back and were home by 12:30 p.m., plenty of time to make bacon for brunch and relax a bit. I could have ran or gotten on the trainer again later, but I decided an hour of pretty hard effort was good enough for the day.

I wish there were more indoor triathlons near me because I had forgotten how fun they are. I am not going to let another 8 years go by before I do this one again. Watch out for a rematch, lifeguard friend – and next time I’m going to challenge you on all 3 legs!

Week in review Feb. 10-16: Just the basics

Swim, bike, run, and a rest day.

It was A Week. I spent the workdays trying to get a last-minute project out the door, and the evenings squeezing in some training and family time. I really had to juggle my time and carefully consider what was essential and non-essential. As stressful as it was, the week culminated in a super fun indoor triathlon, something I haven’t done in almost 8 years! It’s been so long, I had to look it up.

The previous Sunday had been an unexpected rest day with family in town, so I was able to rally for a medium treadmill run Monday evening in place of a long run. Not great, but good enough, at this point. Tuesday was a a late start to a typical bike trainer ride, but it got done.

Wednesday I wanted to squeeze in an easy run and an easy swim, so imagine my surprise when I walked by the pool and saw a giant empty pit where the pool used to be. Apparently some glass had broken on the pool deck and the entire thing needed to be drained. I had my run clothes with me, so it wasn’t a total loss, but I was pretty annoyed I would miss a planned swim. I would have gone to a different pool had I known ahead of time.

I wanted to swim at least once before my race so I did swim Thursday, but I had to miss barre class with a promised Galentine’s Day playlist to do so, which was a bummer. I was so happy to see Friday come around, and my husband and I celebrated Valentine’s Day with another trip to the gym. Woo hoo! I did a short stationary bike/treadmill brick (30-ish minutes each) to make sure I could handle it on race day. Everything felt fine.

I was pretty exhausted by Saturday and embraced it as a rest day, sleeping in a little, snoozing later in the day, and doing no exercise. It was nice. My “race” (really not a race since no awards or anything were given) was super fun and went well, and I left proud of how I did. Race recap to come when I have a few minutes.

I didn’t do any weights, yoga, or PT this week. It was just so busy and stressful, and I had to be smart about my time. But what I did accomplish was:

Run: Four times, three on the treadmill and one race doing laps around a gym, for approximately 18 miles in about 3:02.

Bike: Three times – once on my trainer, once on a stationary bike at the gym, and once on a spin bike for the race – for about 31.5 fake miles (best guess) in about 1:51. Not a great week for biking compared to other weeks.

Swim: Twice, both in the pool, for about 3000 yards in about 1:18. This was one swim of drills and 200s to make sure I was race ready, and then the warmup and actual swim.

Total: Nine sessions in about 6:11. Eh, considering everything going on, that I took a full day off, and that I had shortened workouts on race day, I’ll take it. It doesn’t hurt to do a stepback week once in a while.

I haven’t signed up for any more races yet, but I’m hoping to do a few more fun 5Ks this winter/spring, and I haven’t taken a spring half off the table quite yet. I’d like to keep swimming and biking in the schedule, but I might try to do some shifting around to make sure running stays consistent.

I am hoping to the running gods that the worst of winter is behind us and that I can start to get outside in the evenings after Daylight Savings begins. I know, I know – it’s optimistic, knowing that Michigan winters can drag on and on. But I am ready for sun and the fun of running outdoors without freezing!

Week in review Feb. 3-9: Training ebb and flow, ice and snow

Lots of trainer riding, and some other stuff too.

I started out last week great, petered out a bit, had a strong Saturday due to being a hermit, and then fell off Sunday due to family being in town and a snowstorm.

Try as I might, I couldn’t squeeze in my workouts around everything else that needed to be done, so Sunday ended up a rest day. But that’s OK. I was still a bit sore from weights the day before, and I got to hang out with loved ones, and meet my new “nephew” (sister’s best friend’s kiddo), so it was all worth it in the end.

I was kind of beating myself up Sunday evening, telling myself I should have gotten up early to run, I should have gone grocery shopping Saturday night instead of Sunday afternoon, I should have done this, I should have done that. But I did a lot of fun stuff and had some quality rest time, too: I baked chocolate pumpkin bread and cookies, I watched a few episodes of The Crown, I cuddled with the mutts, I slept in a bit both weekend days, I enjoyed a rare hour of sunshine in the living room with my coffee Sunday morning. I could have squeezed something else in but I also need to remember that I’m not a machine and do need some down time.

I’m not unhappy with how the week shook out, as it was still pretty solid:

Bike: Three times, all on the trainer, for 63.5 fake trainer miles in a hair longer than 4 hours. There was nothing remarkable about this: It was two, 1-hour long rides after work, and a 2-hour long ride on Saturday. I finished Derry Girls and started Cheer. My knees didn’t hurt. Everything was fine.

Swim: Twice, both in the pool, for 1600 meters + 1750 yards (about 1 mile each for 2 miles total) in about 1:38. I’m still pretty slow, and I’m still doing a lot of even slower drills (I’m sure I alarmed the lifeguard during my one-handed drills on Friday), but I am getting in the yardage/meterage here and there, so I’m counting it as a success. After I had to stop my swim a bit early last week for foot and calf cramps at the very end, I think I’m going to keep these at about a mile for now.

Friday’s swim also included 20 minutes straight to see if I could do it … because that is the length of the swim in the indoor triathlon I got coerced/talked into signing up for this coming weekend. It’s been 8 YEARS since I’ve done one of these. Stay tuned.

Run: Twice, both on the treadmill, for 8 miles in slightly less than an hour and a half. Nothing flashy here, just me trying to get back into the swing of things after a tender knee took me out for about a week. I really would have liked to do a “long” run yesterday, Sunday, and maybe I should have forced myself to get up early and do it before it started snowing and family and friends came into town, but… yuck. I enjoyed a good night’s sleep and a nice breakfast instead.

Weights: One round of my heavy/body routine for about 1:15. I was able to bump up some weight here and there and add a pullup and pushup here and there, and am still a little sore two days later, so I consider this one a success.

PT: Two rounds of my homework and then rolling out my quads and calves for about 1:10 total.

Total: 10 sessions in just longer than 9.5 hours. Considering I had a full day off, that is GREAT for me. I would have liked to do a bit of yoga Sunday evening, but I was already pressed for time trying to finish prepping food for the week after racing home from the family get-together, and it didn’t happen. The silver lining to a rest day on Sunday is that my legs aren’t THAT tired today, so that’s a small win there.

My plan is to take it easier tonight, finish some stuff around the house, and get a good night’s sleep. Hopefully that will propel me into another good week. Sadly, there is more ice and snow predicted, so I'm going to try to front-load the week again. We'll see how it goes. Hopefully I can stay out of the snow and ice for another week!

Race report: Super 5K

Top shelf swag for the Super 5K.

On Sunday I did something I haven’t done in three years: “raced” in February.

By “raced” of course I mean paid money to get up early and run on a designated route with a few hundred of my closest friends, not actually try to win the thing. Sunday was looking like decently warm temperatures for February, so my husband and I signed up at the last minute for a Super 5K not far from us. The swag looked cool, we haven’t raced in a while, and we figured it would be a fun way to kick off (wokka wokka) the day of the big game, since Detroiters will never have a vested interest in it.

I try not to sleep in too late on Sundays anyway, but that 6 a.m. alarm still hurt. Neither of us had gotten great sleep that night, but we were up and at ‘em before too long, taking the mutts out for their morning walk and making some coffee and quick breakfasts for the road. We were out the door by my goal time of 7 a.m., which was a football miracle, but I ended up driving right by the highway exit. Luckily the next one wasn’t far and sneaking in the back way actually worked to our advantage, as there was still great parking available in the nearby municipal lot.

Bib and swag pickup was at a local high school and took about 5 seconds. We immediately ditched the winter hats we brought in favor of the warm, fluffy, race-themed hats we got with our numbers. It’s nice to have something other than a t-shirt once in a while. We got organized, pinned bibs to our race belts, ran extras out to the car, and people watched until it was time to move outside to the race start.

One note about the weather. I had worn a wicking tee under a fleece and was perfect from the waist up. I had worn my thickest running tights under my lined wind pants, with plans to ditch the wind pants before the race, but… it was pretty windy! I made the decision to leave the wind pants on over my tights, which actually left me a bit too warm from the waist down. If I had realized how windy it was, I would have worn thinner tights underneath. In the great scheme of things, it didn’t really matter for a 5K and I would rather be a little too warm than a little too cold, anyway.

We went off in waves and headed out on the main road, where it was breezy but had clear roads. We took a turn into a subdivision, which had less wind but the roads still had a good coating of snow on them. No one was going to PR this thing, so we settled into a slow and sustainable pace, enjoyed the football jerseys around us, laughed at the few funny signs set up, and tried to enjoy the morning. It had been cloudy earlier – meaning the groundhog hadn’t seen his shadow and that spring was on its way – but the sun started to come out as we ran. It had been a while since we saw the sun!

"Michigan winter is temporary; Detroit Lions playoff futility is forever." So true!

My husband hadn’t run since our last 5K on Dec. 31 so we chugged slowly through the subdivision and back onto the main road, where we could pick it up a little. I was worried about my knee cooperating, since I hadn’t run at all in over a week, but it felt fine except for a twinge or two going down what passes for a “downhill” in southeast Michigan. He had a bit of kick left for the finish and I let him run ahead. And then we were done, woo hoo! We gathered our medals, a finishers’ pint glass, and some water, and headed inside for some post-race food and football-themed shenanigans. We didn’t stick around long; we knew we weren’t winning any awards, and we wanted to hurry home and get started making pancakes and bacon. =)

Did you save any bacon for me?

Overall, this was a fun time and I would do it again if the weather permits. The fun hat was a nice change up for swag, it wasn’t too far away, and it made me feel better about the junk food I ate later in the day while the game was on. It was not a shabby way to spend a February morning!

Week in review Jan. 27-Feb. 2: Gray, cold, and crabby

A good amount of running, and some other stuff.

It was a rough week. As I mentioned in my January review, the last week of the month really hit me hard with the cold and gray, and I was exhausted and crabby all week. I started off strong with a longer-than-usual trainer ride, but Tuesday ended up as an unscheduled rest day to try to recover, get my poop sorted out, and go to bed early.

I was able to rally for a few good mid-week workouts: another trainer ride, a weights video, and a swim on Friday night. (Do I know how to party or what?) I did a long trainer ride again on Saturday, and that ended up being the only discipline I did more than once last week. I had good intentions for an easy swim Sunday evening, but I was still pretty exhausted and took a nap, a rare thing for me.

I had a good reason for my Sunday sleepies, though, which was probably the highlight of last week: a 5K! The weather looked OK, so we signed up at the last minute for a Super Bowl morning 5K not too far from us. We had to get up pretty early to do it, and I didn’t sleep well the night before, but it was still fun and worth the drive. And my knee cooperated, too. Hooray!

By the end of Sunday and again today, Monday, the sun had come out. I’m no fool; I’ve lived in Michigan my whole life and I know winter isn’t done with us yet. But it is nice to enjoy a tiny bit of spring for a day or two as a respite from the unending cloudy skies and cold temperatures.

Overall, last week was:

Bike: Three times, all on the trainer, for 66.5 fake miles in about 4:24. I had a bit of extra time on Monday so I did a slightly longer cycle at a slightly easier intensity. My knee felt OK so I didn’t go too hard on my two other rides of the week, either. I also started watching Derry Girls, which is hilarious if you are looking for a new trainer or treadmill show.

Swim: Once in the pool for 2200 meters in about 1:05. It’s been about 100 years since the swim was my second-highest volume discipline of the week. This was a lot of drills to get settled into the water and then something resembling laps alternating with and without paddles to get some feel for the water back. I am making slow and steady progress here. I had good intentions to get in the water once more during the week and on Sunday but I was so tired, I just couldn’t make it work. Ugh.

Weights: One video followed by chin-ups and pullups for about 1:05. This was one of my old reliables to change it up on a day off both bike trainer-ing and running.

Run: Once on the road for a race! This was 3.1 exactly in about 40:09, my husband’s pace. Hey, we all start somewhere, and I was happy to run alongside him and try to be a good cheerleader. Taking a week off seems to have done my knee good and I am going to try to work in a few short and easy runs again.

PT: Just once for 35 minutes. Ugh. I slack on PT and then my knee hurts again. What an amazing coincidence!

Yoga: Once for about 15 minutes of self-guided moves. I keep lying to myself, telling myself that I’ll get up early and do a short session before I get ready for work. I haven’t make that happen yet, but I do enjoy a few minutes on Sunday evening to stretch out the week before I get into a work mindset. So, that’s something, I guess?

Total: Eight sessions in about 8:04. I had a lot of short sessions this week but some decently long bikes, so it all evened out.

Not my best work, but I had some consistency and still completed a variety of workouts. It wasn't terrible. I am hoping that this coming week brings more sunshine, less stress, more consistency, and solid workouts. "More sunshine, less stress" seems like a good goal for training and otherwise, right?

January in review: Days of darkness

Unfortunately, this has been my view for ... a while.

I was trying not to be the annoying person saying “hee hee, January has been 800 days long” since my month started out pretty great with some solid workouts, hanging out with friends, a trip to our local velodrome for race night, and other random fun. But about a week ago, around the same time my knee got mad at me for doing a regular speed run, the days upon days of cloudy skies caught up with me.

I had high hopes for getting outside for a few runs in January since the sun is setting a bit later, but every time I might have snuck out of work a bit early it was snowing or raining and I wasn’t feeling it. I only made it outside to run twice in January, both times early in the month, to celebrate the new year on the 1st and again on the 5th, when it started blizzarding on me anyway. All my other runs were inside on the treadmill.

The last week of the month hit me especially hard and I was exhausted and crabby all week. I don't have a real explanation other than I hadn't seen the sun in weeks. I had a regular doctor appointment, and she noted that my Vitamin D was low. "I wonder why?!?!" I asked her, pointing out the window. She recommended a bit more D and "try to get outside on the next sunny day, whenever that is." Sigh.

But, I did have a huge victory for January: getting to the pool five times, four more times than I made it to the pool in all of 2019. By my last swim on the 31st I was starting to feel like myself in the water again, actually to the point where I was concentrating on reaching over the barrel and pulling, rather than just floundering back and forth along the line and sputtering.

The month started out great for running, too, but the speed run I mentioned earlier, on the 24th, did something to my knee. It hurt badly enough that I decided to take the rest of the month off running. I still had some good runs and made some decent mileage, though. I was on track to hit 100 miles for the first time since October of 2017 — I can't believe it's been that long!!! Oh well. There's always next month.

Not a bad variety of training.

Overall, January shook out to be:

Bike: 13 times, all on the trainer, for 245.5 fake trainer mile in about 16:16. This is a good trainer month for me; 13 sessions seems to be my sweet spot. I have been consistent with using Trainer Road and training with virtual power for more than a year now, and it shows. I haven't done an FTP test in a while and I am dreading it because my hard rides still seem really hard. But I will keep pedaling away one way or the other.

My last 12 months of running. I'm bummed I couldn't stay on the course to 100.

Run: 11 times, 2 on the road and 9 o n the treadmill, for 80.25 miles in about 13:17. I started out the month doing Fast Fridays and a long run on the road on Sunday, or on the treadmill on the next two Mondays when the weather didn't cooperate, and things were feeling fine. I'm not sure if I overdid it on that speed run or the slacking on weights and PT caught up with me or what, since it was the exact one I had done two weeks before. I figured I would rather be safe than sorry and took the last week of the month off running.

Swim: Well, here's a shocker. 5 times, all in the pool, for 5950 yards + 4200 meters (about 6 miles total) in about 4:48. I don't have a good explanation for jumping back into it (wokka wokka) other than I decided to quit being a baby and just do it, and then I just did it.

Weights: 3 times, 2 of my heavy/body sessions and 1 video that I followed with chinup/pullup practice, for 3:35. Eh, not my best month.

PT: 3 times for about 1:45 total. This is probably why it hurts to run lately. I haven't figured out yet what has to go bye-bye in my life to make room for this. I'm working on it.

Yoga: 2 times for about 30 minutes total. Nothing out of the ordinary here. Working this into my week has always been a challenge for me.

Total: 37 sessions in about 40:11. Just looking at this, it was a great month! And I'm not disappointed with the month, really. I just wish I had more time to do more training ... like I do every single month of my life.

Like I said, I had lots of victories and I'm not disappointed. February is already off to a good start, and the groundhog didn't see his shadow, so hopefully spring weather (outdoor running weather!) will be on its way soon.