Training Recap: Through Spring Break

April 13, 2015 Faux Runner Comments 6 comments

This week was spring break and instead of taking the minions on a nice vacation, we ended up staying home because this usually supermom had a crazy brainfart moment and thought the break was the week before! We had no childcare either, so it was a juggling act trying to work, workout and watch the kids. Last year was much easier to workout during spring break with kids since I wasn’t working and I only had CrossFit to get to.

Luckily, they are now old enough that they don’t need constant supervision and can do their own thing while I do my own. Still it was a long week of reading about other moms sleeping in while I was up earlier than usual to get my workouts in. Atleast Mr. FauxTriathlete wasn’t traveling and I could get my workout (especially swim) done before they woke up.

Monday was a rest day that I used to catch up with a TON of work!

Tuesday, after a short 45min trainer spin, I went to the swim to try the things that I learnt at the swim clinic. I was greeted by a completely empty pool! I tried to focus on only two things – stabilizing my hips and pulling deeper. I feel like it made a HUGE difference. I will have to wait for a few more weeks to see if I remember everything learnt and to see how I can make it a regular habit, but as of this week, I was hugely pleased with the swim.

Wednesday was back to hill repeats that I did on the treadmill as the family was sleeping upstairs.

Thursday is usually my longer back-to-back days but I got lucky when coach split up the workouts over Thursday and Friday. Whew! Apart from the usual drills, it was a day of 15 x 100yds (75 easy: 25 fast) bringing up a total of 1500 yards of pure swim – a first this season. By the time I got through half of those, I had lost count and I am sure my arms and legs were all over the place for towards the end. I assume I did all 15 of them and didn’t go under or over. I need a more substantial way to count these sets.

Friday was the other long trainer ride for 1.5hrs. The minions and I said goodbye to Chris Eccleston’s 9th Doctor as I was spinning. (Side Note: I think my 9yo is super excited to be able to watch David Tennant‘s 10th doctor now. She is completely taken in with his amazing voices in the “How to Train your Dragon” audiobook series)

Saturday was my long run that got pushed until after lunch. I was ok with it as I wanted to start running in something more than 50F morning temps.

I made some mistakes going into the run. I had had breakfast at 8:30am and nothing after that. I had my usual UCan about 30min before the 1pm. And I don’t think that was enough. I was ok when I started the run even though legs were heavy. About 30min in, stomach cramps hit me and hit me bad. Wasn’t too pleased about that but it is what it is and I continued on. By about 2 hrs, I was just fatigued. No other word for it. 2:15 when I got to the car, I had a UCan snack bar that I tried to eat (grossly sticky if left in a hot car). I tried to collect myself and spent quite a while trying to talk myself into going back out for the remaining 45min. I went, but I soon turned back.

I don’t know if I’d have given up with the 30min of z3 to go or would’ve just slowed down – I didn’t think I had it left in me at all, even though the stomach cramps had subsided by then.

That’s when George spotted me in the parking lot and and I said I’d go out for a bit with him. I ended up running that last 30min strong (and perhaps with higher HR than needed as I was talking to him).

Sunday, a small group rode on the Silver Comet trail. Felt sluggish at the beginning and took a good while to shrug that off. I felt like I was on a cruiser bike instead of my beauty. I practiced bending down to the water bottle and attempting to pull it out (not yet drinking). And I feel like I am ready to try aero, but I keep hesitating. I’ll get there, one pedal stroke at a time.

All sorts of discomfort after the 2hr mark. Thumbs hurt on the outdoor bike rides. And I had to move around a lot to find a comfortable spot. Oh the joys of being a lady cyclist who forgets one pre-ride ritual!

And a ton of chain grease on my hot legs!

Areas for Improvement

Workout Nutrition – I am quite sure that it was nutrition (or the lack of) that derailed my 3hour run, but it is close enough to Pittsburg on May 3rd that I’m concerned enough to look into addressing it. I had the same fatigue when I had a 45min lunch hour swim (that ended up taking closer to 1hr) and I didn’t eat anything before the swim. If I am to run during the afternoons, I will have to figure out what I can eat in the morning so I can still do my workout properly but not be afflicted with GI issues.

Stretching – My stretching routine suffered badly this week. The five minutes of quick stretch after each workout just doesn’t cut it with me anymore. Perhaps it is time to put it up on Training Peaks so I can be sure of getting a good stretch in 1-2 times/week.

Honorable Mention

I took back control of everyday nutrition a bit by attempting to have a little variety in my food but keeping in with the basics. But the problem I have for dinner is that by the time I come home (around 6:30-7pm), the kids are hungry and it’s too close to bedtime. So I have to make something quick for their dinner and also eat myself because it will be another hour atleast before I can get to sit down. Too late for dinner by then.

And I don’t know about everyone else, but when I’m tired and hungry, fixing myself a bowl of salad (or eating one that’s already been fixed) is the last thing I want to do. I want FOOD! And so do the minions.

So I have gone back to my Indian roots. Traditional Indian families (especially in South India) always have ingredients at hand to make “Tiffin”. Tiffin is an Indian English word for light midday meal that replaced the afternoon tea in British India. And this past week, I worked on making that Tiffin meal as healthy as I could, eg. by using plant based carbs like lentils instead of rice.

One of my re-discoveries was “Pessarattu” (pronounced Pe-sar-at-tu), a crepe made out of Whole Green Moong Gram and eaten with ghee and a side of chutney or vegetables on the side. (Recipe coming up!)

Pesarrattu — Photo: Mallika Badrinath (Because I was so focused on gobbling these up that I forgot to take final photos – I do NOT have red gingham tablecloth!)

And how could I not mention the minions having fun over spring break! Even though I had a ton of work during the week, I took some time off to take them to the Georgia Aquarium and to their favorite park at Morgan Falls in Sandy Springs.