Weekly Ramblings - 2/14/2011

Workouts:

My first recovery week of the program, while not drastically different than last week, it was reduced.  Since I am bridging a set plan along with a cycling specific plan, they do not fully mesh together, so the rides were still pretty solid efforts this week.

Monday: S- 1700 Yards (28:32 Minutes), B- 17.44 Miles (62:09 minutes)

Tuesday: R- 6.14 Miles (45:52 Minutes)

Wednesday: S-  1750 Yards (31:40 Minutes), B- 16.46 Miles (62:36 Minutes) 

Thursday: S-  1700 Yards (27:49 Minutes), R- 5.30 Miles (44:22 Minutes)

Friday: B - 22.27 Miles (80:44 Minutes) 

Saturday: R -  11.09 Miles (95:54 Minutes)

Sunday: B-  30.20 Miles (105:06 Minutes)

	Distance	Time
Swim Totals	5150 Yards	1 hr 22 min
Bike Totals	86.37 Miles	5 hr 10 min
Run Totals	22.53 Miles	3 hr 6 min
Total Volume		9 hr 38 min

Week-In-Review:

I am pumped how well my nutrition has been going, my weight is moving in the right direction, Sunday I was down to 161.5, not too far from my goal of 160.  I am quite happy with the results from this week.  Although I had a few things that did not play nicely, I call them treats:)  Two cupcakes on Thursday at work was a bit of a setback, but they were mmm mmm good!  I had been craving French Onion Soup, and decided to make that on Saturday night.  For a first attempt, it was really good!

We prepared for the big winter storm that hit over the weekend.  I managed to get a great run outside on Saturday before the snow rolled in.  It was supposed to be an easy run, but I felt good and my pace looked pretty good in the grand scheme of things.  I took out my Avia Bolt-IIs for this run.  I was a bit nervous going out for 11 miles in these since I do not have a ton of miles on them, but my feet thanked me.  The shoes were like running on pillows the whole run, plus they felt really lite on the foot.  When I got home, I was able to spend some time with my new best friends (Recovery Pump) This thing is amazing!  I am a firm believer in compression clothing, so I was anxious to try this as soon as we found out they were on board with Trakkers this year.  When they arrived last week, I was stoked to try them out.  While I did not have a hard workout to use them, I still got in a short session.  The long run would be a great way to test the capability of this new product.

Here they are straight out of the box.  With very little effort to get it up and running.  Plug the 4 ends into each leg and then into the machine, plug into the wall, viola, medical grade compression!

Recovery Pump recommends anywhere from 30 minutes to 4 hours of usage depending.  They even say some people will sleep in the leg sleeves.  After the long run, I kicked up my feet and watched some tv.  I am very happy with how quiet the pump is.  I was expecting more noise as it pumped air into the boots, but the majority of the sound comes from the release of air.  I found putting it on the ground and placing a pillow over it helped make it much better.  After a while you do not even hear it.  I will be preparing a full review as I get some more use, so look forward to it.  Feel free to follow them on Twitter at @recoverypump  Look for more information on their webpage to come!

I put in my order for First Endurance products.  I am pretty excited to see what everyone is talking about.  My first order looks like this:

• Ultragen - Cappuccino and Orange Creme
• EFS Drink - Grape
• EFS Liquid Shot - Wildberry and Vanilla
• Prerace
• Optygen

With the workouts I have in the next few weeks, I am excited to see what all the hype is about Ultragen (if not just for the flavor alone!)  I will be ordering my Kestrel in the next few days, which means I need to make a decision on size.  I am quite torn between sizes, but will get it figured out even if I have to rely on the coin flip app!  

The remainder of my weekend was also spend watching the Rev3 coverage of Costa Rica Live.  What a great race and lots of updates through each of the races.  Finally, I have a project to begin converting all of my DVDs to put them on a hard drive.  We are moving in less than a month (yeah its only a few miles away) but I want to get my HTPC (Home Theater PC) hooked up and put all of the DVDs away somewhere for a clean installation, but still have access to all of the movies.  Much of my long weekend has been spent getting this process underway!  

Trakkers:

I must say I am in the company of some pretty badass people.  The Trakkes team had a great showing with people doing the team proud.  While I was out running in single digit temps, fellow Age Grouper Andree Miceli had an outstanding appearance with some pretty amazing reults.  Check out her blog to read more about it!

Time keeps ticking away as the season gets closer, and I cannot wait to get out and race for this team.  Right now with all of the action from the team, I am getting anxious to get out and race again!  Patience is a virtue!  Check out the Trakker Blog List to see what my teammates are up to.  Some great performances at the Austin Marathon this weekend as well!  Props to all my wonderfully supportive people!