Hectic

Work and regular life have forced me into some kind of awful, hectic holding pattern or running around all over the state for all sorts of things.  So I haven't had time to update.

I've got crazy hours at all times of the day and night, Norah has Girls on the Run (which involves an easy hour to hour and fifteen minutes of driving each time...  twice a week), I have volunteer stuff at work to coordinate, the Girls on the Run 5K to help plan...  Workouts, swim classes, maybe some time to load the dishwasher/make dinner/do laundry and lastly maybe, maybe sleep.

Not else much going on.  Which is not true really, everything is going on.

Aside from my mastery of time management squeezing in workouts in whatever tiny amounts of time I have.  Darkness (cold and dark o'clock is my favorite time for a run), the hour where Norah is at Girls on the Run (great tempo workouts when you're going to be late picking her up), the two hours I have free between work (if I get out on time) and the time Ben's preschool closes (I love picking him up all sweaty decked out in a tri kit or running clothes).  Biking is slacking a touch because it requires the most gear, but I am packed in my car for every training and weather situation at any time.  It's like an athletic apocalypse in there.  I look a little homeless.

I started Masters Swim which I'm very, very excited about.  I have a long way to go, but it's a relief that I'm getting the swimming thing addressed and working on it.  Getting back in the pool every year is a hurdle for me because I hate swimming.  Most of that derives from being poor at it which derives from not receiving proper instruction.

I had one solid session, and I'm not even on the workouts yet, but I'm feeling much better in the water.  I know it's working because for the first time in almost three years of swimming I was sore in the muscles that you use for swimming.  Go figure.

I was just excited to make it a full lap across the pool the first day while the instructor watched and figured out what's wrong with my swimming.  When the assessment came up "not that bad" I was relieved.  That was my second time in a real 50 yard swimming pool and it seemed waaaay to big.  The first being at MIT for a Total Immersion clinic a year or two back where the instructor asked me if I had any "traumatic water incidents" as a child.  No joke.

Long story short, I felt better in the water.  More importantly, I went back to the pool to practice laps when it wasn't masters swim.  Huge victory.

I've had some easy bike rides, nothing major.  Working on my bike training plan to get some specific workouts in there outside and on the trainer.  Getting out for the long rides on the weekend has been a little harder, but I've been managing some good mid week distances.   I'm off Thursday and I need to get that done over pretty much everything else.

Running is going really well in the new shoes.  I'm running faster.  Which is pretty cool, but even more exciting when I know it's happening on purpose.  I ran almost thirty miles last week and all my runs averaged to 7:45 pace, even the perceived easy ones.  Which as a chronic 8:00+ minute miler with little improvement over time is really a big gain for me.  I'm getting really excited about the half marathon in three weeks, I think it's going to be a really good result.  I don't want to get too ahead of myself and post predictions, but I have a good goal.

Eleonore Rocks kits are coming soon, Kestrel kits are in the works.  I got my nutrition in today so I'll test that out today on my easy ride....  Big things, actually.  The fitness and the reasons are all coming together for this to be a really great season.

Time to go do some easy hills on the bike, hah!  That's funny.