Week 9 (or 15 according to my new plan)

Week 9 was a good week.  It was one of my higher volume weeks and felt good.  I really think keeping my protein intake up helps with my mood and my tiredness.  I did skip dinner one night and woke up in a bad mood.  More anecdotal evidence of the link between low protein and a bad mood for me.

So the week was good for several reasons. 

The swim:  I got two decent swim workouts in.  That is the first time in a long time I got two decent swim workouts in.  I decided to do a long continuous swim for one of them just to see how the shoulder would do.  I swam 2500 yards straight and while the shoulder ached, it reached a certain point and didn't keep getting worse.  I really focused on trying to take it easy on the shoulder to see if I had a chance at swimming 2112 yards in New Orleans.  The answer is yes!

The bike:  Nothing too exciting but I did get 3 solid work outs in again.  Cut my long ride 30 minutes short Sunday to get the house ready for visitors for the football game.

The run:  I managed to get up early one day, had a nice run in the snow on another and a long run Saturday.

Thursday we got about 11 inches of snow.  I had a doctor appointment in the morning then planned to run on the treadmill then go in to work in the afternoon.  Well, with the snow, I planned on a treadmill run then working from home in the afternoon.  Before heading to the Y, I was reading some forum posts and ran across one about running in the snow and decided to give it a try.  It was beautiful but brutal.

Where are my feet?


 Like I said, the run was brutal.  It was like doing intervals with leg weights on.  I would run until my heart rate hit mid zone 3 then walk until I hit zone 1.  I almost quit after 2 minutes, but the thought of changing again, going to the Y and changing again, running, changing again, motivated me to keep going.

For the first part of my run, there was one set of tracks, then none.

Fresh Powder



My tracks looking back up the trail.

I was bored during the recovery period, thus the cool pics.  And a bonus video :-).

After running, I decided I didn't feel like working, even from home, so I relaxed and got my trainer ride in early enough to have a cookout.  Grilled chicken breasts, grilled asparagus, and grilled mushrooms.  Yum!  First I had to clear off the grill!

 s/b/r hours this week were 1.75/5/3.1

Oh, and to cap the week off, Go Steelers!