Weekend Warrior #1

I always laugh a bit when I go back to work on Monday morning after a long hard weekend of training and everyone is like "What did you do this weekend?" and I reply, "Not much".  Kind of funny.  So this weekend was a BIG training weekend.  Close to an Ironman in about 48 hours.  I get to sleep two nights in there and eat a couple meals in there, so it should be easier right.....sure didn't seem that way though. 

Friday - swim:

Friday night after work I went and swam with my coach Mike and his wife at a small lake in the Waupaca chain of lakes.  2.4 miles.  This was good practice in my wet suit.  I only get to swim in it once in a while so any open water I can get is great.  This was a nice little lake.  About 265 yards across so there are back 8 times is 2.4 miles.  I felt good and tried to work it like I would in a race.  Got home a little late after this but it was well worth it.

Saturday - Brick

Saturday I got up early and headed out on my bike ride.  I had mapped out a route to Kewaunee along Hwy. 42.  This is a nice road, a little busy but pretty riding along Lake Michigan.  I had some watt goals I was supposed to meet for this ride, so going into this I knew it was going to be my hardest long ride I had ever done.  And that definitely proved to be true.  1,700 feet of elevation gain, which for my Colorado friends is nothing, but for Wisconsin that's quite a bit.  I got to Kewaunee and stopped for a quick break for a snack and a few pics of the lake.  It was very pretty today. 

The pictures don't really do the lake justice.  Sorry.  After my short stop I headed home.  It was dang hilly.  Whew!!  But I made it.  93 miles.  Then picked up Asher and we did our brick.  We were both hot and it was tough but we did it.  And then each drank about a gallon of water when we got home.  3 miles....done.

Sunday - Long Run

Sunday was my long run.  I was going to meet Mark at 6, well at 5am it was lightening and thundering so we postponed the run until 7:30 after the storm passed.  I wasn't real excited about getting struck by lightening, not my idea of a good time.  Well holy humidity after the storm.  This run was tough, for everyone involved.  Mark and I met, did 3 miles, then picked up Erik for some more.  We got Asher 6 miles in and I was struggling already.  We ran back to Voyager and met up with Julie Petersen.  It was nice to see her.  Dropped off Erik and got a big drink.  Asher was steaming already at this point.

The dog days of summer, as my friend once told her Golden Retriever.  So Mark, Asher, Julie and I continued on.  Gotta get the run in.  We ran some more, dropped Julie off, drank a ton more and then headed back.  I was out of gas, totally.  And very warm, as were Asher and Mark.  It was a tough run but we got it done.  16 miles....done. 

After the run Jeff and I went kayaking on the Suamico River.  It was hot even doing that, especially when you stopped but it was a very nice paddle.  It had been a while since we were out on our kayaks so it was nice to get back out there again.  We paddled this river as our second ever outing last year and this year we could tell how much stronger and more experienced we were.  It was cool to see the huge difference. 

 

Recap: 2.4 miles of swimming, 93 miles of biking and 19 miles of running.  Not quite an Ironman but decent training volume.  Oh and a nice paddle of about 2 hours.  Overall it was a very tiring weekend but a lot of fun.  Wouldn't trade this life for anything!  Have a great week everyone!