Tapering for my first tri

Ultimate was cancelled Wednesday because a bunch of storms came through. I think it was for the better for my legs and tiredness. We went to the chicken shack instead and had a nice relaxing evening.

Thursday I took the day off. I just felt like my energy levels were too low. I considered walking, but didn't even end up doing that (unless you count the walk to Buck's and back for dinner).

Today I ran 3 miles. The first half was terribly slow. And while the effort didn't feel hard, my legs just felt tired and stiff, so I didn't push it. Coming back, my effort was exactly the same, but it was 45 seconds faster for that 1.5 miles, which I might add, includes a long hill. Huh. So maybe I was just really groggy?

I'm getting really excited (and nervous) for the triathlon. I just want to do well and feel like I'm strong, no matter what my times are.

Resting

The rest continues. It's day 2 after the marathon and I'm finally able to walk without zombie-like jerks or limping. Woohoo! I also was able to move around in bed comfortably last night, though I woke up at 3:30 and didn't get back to sleep until some time after 5.

I'm happy my body is starting to recover!

And then...I was thinking about the Mason half marathon this morning... (teehee).  I am not committing to it, but I thought about how it could be a nice "redemption run".  I'm still not disappointed with the marathon or anything. But it could be fun to try again to see what I could do with all of that hard work we did for 22 weeks!

We shall see. For now it's walking walking walking in this wonderful fall weather!

Moving rocks counts as strength training

Friday I took the day off. Kinda. From cardio: yes, from work: yes, from lifting a bunch of rocks and bags of gravel: no.

I am itching and motivated to get landscaping projects done around the house. I decided to redo the 1/4 way done path off the deck to the garage. I had abandoned the project last fall. It just wasn't looking how I imagined and I didn't know quite how to fixt it. I was very tired of looking at the rocks, roughly laid into place but overgrown already. I came up with another solution to just use gravel and pavers as the edging. So I removed all the rocks and re-leveled the land. As much as I tried to not use my lower back to lift, I know I still was some. I made great progress though: shovel-pried up the old rocks and moved them out of the way (except the few I couldn't lift, I flip-traveled those off to the side). Then I went to Lowe's and bought 10 bags of base gravel. After loading all of those into the truck, I was sweating up a storm and was parched, so I got an Icee at Burger King. When I got home, I unloaded all of the bags and spread them out into the path. Then I moved pavers over to be the edges. I roughly laid those in. I was done!

All day I drank tons of water and sweated. I sweat so much!

So, the path is looking good. Saturday I set the pavers in on the short side. The long side is left, and will take a lot more work because I'm going to have to dig out some ground to set them all. Then I'll go get the remaining gravel to fill it all in and it will be done!

Rest

Yesterday I took a day off from the schedule. I wasn't happy about it, but think the kitchen and weather and everything else was catching up to me. After finally finishing up the many many invoices I was behind on, I left work early and painted more in the kitchen...the never ending primer coats. Today I took off work completely and applied coat 3 and coat 4. I didn't do coat 4 on everything, just the lighter areas and walls that I know for sure will be exposed after the cabinets will be up. My arm, especially my wrist, is screaming at me.

I found out Wednesday night that a friend's husband died a couple of weeks ago on the 15th. I used to work with both of them. I am still not 100% certain how he died, but apparently it was either overdose or suicide. From a condolence comment I read on the funeral home's website from an aunt, I'm afraid it was the latter. Either way, it's all very very sad. These past couple of days have been strange and not the happiest. It's as if this news with all it triggers from the past has left a thin film of icky-ness on everything.

But now I'm trying to convince myself to get my butt off the couch and onto the bike seat. I know I'll feel better after I do it and keep telling myself that. So it's time to go change and ride! Think it will just be a steady ride, maybe some Spinflix. Tomorrow the new kitchen appliances come, and I am hoping to get a peaceful, mind-clearing, long run done in the morning before the day of work starts.

Rest Day

After a good three days of quality biking and running, today was a needed rest day. My knee doesn't hurt today, even if I try to make it, so that is good. I'll stop trying to understand it and just accept that it doesn't want to talk about it.

Unfortunately I got my days wrong for spinning at the gym. I thought there was a class on Fridays now, at 8:15. There is but it is that intervals class (that just happens to use the bikes). :( I am a bit bummed because I was happy to add this to my schedule- it fit so well. I guess I'll just get up and run instead and maybe bike Saturday. Crap- now ivejust realized I'll miss the group ride Monday too since we'll be doing fun stuff and watching the fireworks. I am going to have to get out on the roads before the du at least one more time, even if it is (and will be) solo.

Well that was a lot of thinking out loud...