This week has been a crazy ride on the Life Rollercoaster.
Monday was my rest day. So, pretty calm and relaxing.
Tuesday morning I got up and did my planned hour swim with no issues. I took the day off from work to get some errands done and for a little R&R. Made it back to the gym at 5:00 for 10 minutes of abs followed by a quick 5 minute stretch in preparation for a 60 min spin class. I wouldn't say I felt strong during the class, but I was keeping up with no real issues. I went next door to my favorite tri store -
Kona Multisport for a bike 101 overview and to meet the New Tampa Tri Club, which I also joined while I was there. More on that in another post. During the meet up, my renters called to tell me that the A/C was not working. And, so begins the slow rise in stress. I wasn't able to get anyone out to check out the A/C that night. I didn't get a good night sleep because all I could think about was 'how much is this going to cost me?'. A/C fixes are never cheap.
Wednesday mornings I usually meet up with a few people from a group that I've been riding with for a couple of months who are also training for an ironman around the same time as mine. Wednesday are fartleks (essentially sprint work) on the bike for about an hour followed by an appx. 4 mile run. I just was not in a 'go get 'em' mood. 1/2 to 3/4 of the way through each sprint session, my energy level was at about a 2 on a scale of 1-10. I felt a little better after I looked at the final numbers on my garmin. The
Davis Island Sprint Workout posted about the same numbers as the those from 2 weeks prior. When I got to the run, I was almost positive it was going to be around an 8:30min/mi run. I thought I would be lucky if I got in 1 mile faster than that. Prior weeks were around 7:45. If I would have been by myself, I would have just gotten in my car and left. Thankfully one of the riders enjoys the run so always sticks around and that helps me. The first mile was about what I expected. But, it got better.
Davis Island Brick Run:
Split Time Moving Time Distance
1 08:18.1 8:13 1
2 07:45.8 7:44 1
3 07:28.5 7:24 1
4 06:45.3 6:44 0.94
Summary 30:17.6 30:05.0 3.94
I was able to get someone out to look at the A/C later that day. The technician said, "It could be the motor, the module, or both. If you bought the unit 8/15/07 or later (making it a five y/o unit), the parts will be covered under warranty. Otherwise, it'll be $470 for one of the pieces, $821 for the other, or $1291 for both." <Queue jaw drop>. So, for the rest of the day I was totally stressed about the A/C. Nothing got done on Wednesday because the technician had to get a diagnostic tool to determine exactly which part it would be and I needed to find out when I had the unit installed. As soon as I got home, I looked for the purchase/install receipt. Guess what the install date was. Go on... 8/4/07. I was out of warranty by 11 days! Normally I would have gone to the gym for some upper body strength training. But nope. I got home late from work and spent the rest of the night looking for the purchase receipt and searching online to see if I could find something that said I had a longer warranty. I was so aggravated. And, skipping my workout made me feel even worse.
Thursday morning I was successful in getting myself up to do my swim workout and managed to put in a decent effort. I was able to get to work early, but figured I would have to stay late anyway. The rest of the day was spent on the phone, back and forth, with the A/C company trying to figure out my options. Around 3:00, they called me and said, "I have good news." Yay! Good news! "It's the cheaper part. So, it will only be $470." Oh, thank goodness! I was so relieved. To add to this goodness, I finished my work early so I was able to leave on time. I have run sprints on Thursday. I was pumped and ready after all this. Once I got to the gym, I got started on the treadmill right away. The session called for a 15 min warmup; couple of minutes of run ups to prep for the main set; 4 X (1200 in 5:00min w/ 400 in 2:00 min); then the rest of the time was a cool down. Here's what I did:
Over the 15 min warmup period, I started at 6.0 and worked up to 7.0
For the run ups, I did 3 X 20 sec @ 9.0 (6:40 min/mi) w/ 40 sec @ 7.5 (8:00 min/mi)
Main set - #1 & #4 1200 @ 9.5 (6:18 min/mi) w/ 400 @ 7.5 (8:00 min/mi)
#2 & #3 1200 @ 9.4 (6:22 min/mi) w/ 400 @ 7.5 (8:00 min/mi)
For the cooldown I spend 3 minutes working my way down to 6.0, then walked at 3.5 for the last 2 minutes.
Total time - 50 minutes
I spent another 40 minutes doing strength training for legs and lower back and 20 minutes on abs and stretching.
Final analysis: Stress sucks! It can throw an ugly, heavy monkey wrench in life and your workout and sometimes it will hit you on the head and give a nasty bruise. But, things get fixed and body parts heal. Try to lessen stress by working it out in your workout. There are numerous articles and studies that confirm working out relieves stress. It's not going to make it disappear, but it'll make it a little more bareable until whatever issue(s) pass... as all things will eventually.
