Weekap, Post-70.3 Recovery

Having just finished the longest run of my life, preceded by the 2nd-longest bike of my life the day before, the phrase "recovery week" seems a bit of a stretch. But hey, I'll go with it.

I'm still pretty thrilled with my race experience from last week. I'm so happy that everything went well- the lake was calm, the weather was great, my nutrition plan and pace plan worked just like it should, I had no cramping problems. I did find out when I looked at the results from my AG that my bike was really slow. I knew it wasn't going to be fast, but damn- I was about 15 minutes slower than most of the women in my AG who beat me. And also a bunch slower than a lot of the women behind me! I did want to ride faster during a lot of the bike and had to consciously keep slowing myself down in order to stick with the plan. I do know that I probably wouldn't have had as good of a run if I had ridden faster. So, I just gotta get better at this bike thing. I hear that it takes a long time to fully develop your bike legs, so maybe there's hope for me yet.

The rest of this week was pretty relaxed. The first run after the race was on Wednesday. I was surprised how good my legs felt. A little tired, but no soreness anywhere. A couple of "hill simulation" bike rides (my memories of the WF course must be fading, because I actually thought for a second that "maybe I CAN handle the hills at CDA...?"), long aerobic swims, a fun run with a friend and then... the weekend. Long ride Saturday, long run Sunday. The long ride was by myself since most of my teammates were racing the Crescent City Classic 10K here in town on Saturday. I would've liked to, but time in the saddle is way too important to miss right now. So Stella and I headed out on the levee all by our lonesomes. Other than getting hit by a dog with ONE MILE left to go, the ride was fine. Just long. And fortunately neither Stella, the dog, nor I were injured in the incident. I was just ticked off that the people had their dog off the leash in a leash-required area that is very highly traveled by bikers. And yes, the dog ran into me, not the other way around.

Easter Sunday I was going out to brunch. I also had a long run scheduled. Now anyone who knows me knows that I do NOT like to get up early in the morning. But I also hate having long workouts looming over my head all day and then having to do them late in the day when it's getting dark. I think I decided that I hate that more than I hate early mornings, so when 6am rolled around I was waking up to get out there and hit the pavement. I must say, having 16 miles done before 9:30 in the morning was a pretty sweet feeling. Pretty sweet other than that my legs were totally DEAD from the day before. I rode later in the day than normal on Saturday, so there only ended up being about 14 hours between the ride and the run. I realized this right after I started, when I found myself saying, "Wait, I have to run on THESE for 2.5 more hours??"

A few hours (and a few mimosas) later, I was feeling much better.


We caught part of the French Quarter Easter parade on our way out. Any occasion is a good excuse for a parade in this town (there's a float coming but you can't see it too well):


Back at home, I had just finished my easy trainer spin and was watching the 70.3 World Championships on TV when I started hearing more and more noise outside my front door. Turns out it was another parade, going right by my house! It was actually more of a "walking club" than a full-blown parade but it was very cool. Kai and I watched from the front porch.

The banner says "Original Pigeon Town Steppers".


Some of the costumed Steppers themselves, though not a great view:


Then, after the walking club itself, comes anyone else who feels like going along:




My next door neighbors were out watching too (pardon my garbage cans)


My next door neighbor Gus knows EVERYBODY


Kai watched too, and wondered what all the fuss was about





Phew. I think I'm going to go sleep for three days. Happy Easter everyone!


Training totals for the week-
Swim: 5650 yards
Bike: ~138 miles (Long bike: 85 miles)
Run: 26 miles (Long run: 16 miles)
Total hours: 15:22