Here is a brief update:
*Health-wise, we are all doing great!
*I recovered from IMOO 2011 fairly well and my "off" season was a success. I still kept active for the few months after, but with a lot less structure.
*As of December, Rachel is now a member of the BBMC team, and I couldn't be more thrilled! She will graduate from UW Madison in May, and I CANNOT get my mind wrapped around that.
*Robyn has applied for the School of Nursing at both Madison and Edgewood. She will be getting her CNA in a few weeks, and is volunteering at Meriter Hospital. Keeping our fingers crossed that she gets in at Madison!
*Mike is his usual crazy, busy self. The latest projects are wine making and Hydroponics. (He's trying to grow me some salad in the basement. So far....the results have been pretty sketchy! ;-))
*Work is...let's just save that for another post. Suffice to say, I have never felt more overwhelmed and inadequate than I have this year. It's really making me question what I am doing with this career. Is this where I am truly happy? Lots of soul-searching to be done!
*While we are enjoying good health, my dear sister has had challenges and been a constant source of worry. We are praying things will turn around for her soon! :-(
* I have a new bike!!!!!!!!!!!
Did I mention that I have a new bike???
>
Yet again I'm filled with gratitude. There are many people responsible for the fact that I posses this beauty including my coach Blake and the Team BBMC relationship with Trek, and of course my hubby Mike who planted this seed in the first place. I have been riding it for about 6 weeks and am still trying to get used to all of the new feels. I need to go in for another fitting...and I'm definitely getting a new seat. My bum is NOT a big fan right now!
The "Off" season turned back "On" for me in December. I have been putting in consistent work in all three areas and have been back to enjoying my love/hate relationship with the TRX classes. (I truly love them...on most days! ;-) We've increased the running mileage very carefully. When I look back at my log and compare what I'm doing now to what I was doing at this time one year ago, there is definitely more intensity built into the workouts. The overall volume is up slightly as well. My body was slow to respond at first, but I'm really feeling like I'm getting my running legs back just in the last two weeks! Still, I am having to deal with the arthritis, and my pelvis and hips are never happy on long run Sunday nights.
So, it's 8 weeks until Boston, and Coach Blake has a new plan for me in terms of my long run/heavy volume weekends. The approach is a bit different from how I've always trained for a marathon, but it is also a continuation of how my training has evolved over the past 1 1/2 years. We will be breaking up some of the longer runs and spread them out over the weekend. An example: 1 1/2 hour run on Saturday with intervals at near 10k pace, then a 1 1/2 hour easy run on Sunday. I will still bike on Saturday and swim on Sunday...just to keep me from getting bored!! ;-) This should be interesting, and I'm really curious to see how my body/legs respond.
Today marks the start of a recovery week, and I am so ready for it! This past weekend I rode for two hours on Saturday, (the longest on my new bike...and my bum is still yelling at me!), had a 30 min transition run after which included a few pushes up my favorite hill. It felt so great! Sundays long run of 16 miles was feeling pretty good until mile 11 when I turned into that blasted wind. I DO NOT do well with running into a headwind above 20 mph, and the gusts were up to 3o. At mile 13 I was reminded of that not so pleasant feeling of the dreaded bonk. UGH!! To support my plan to take this recovery week very seriously...I skipped TRX this morning! Since I had the day off from work, I was able to sleep in until 6:45. It felt like heaven!!!
Enjoy this day!!
