[S]he Conquers Who Endures

40 mins water jogging. 

5 min wu, 2x[7x1:30 hard, 30 sec recovery], 2 min easy between sets. 5 min cd. I am so incredibly sore from yesterday. It felt good to work with tired muscles. I don't know why, I'm crazy! Haha.

I took two naps today. I think this water jogging and biking program are working! I'm maintaining the same weight and I feel I'm getting more toned than when I marathon train. :) 

1.25 h speed bike. 30 min wu in zone 2, then true (as in I didn't start the interval time until I reached target HR) 6x2 min in zone 4-5a (81-93% max HR) with 4 min recovery (zone 3), then 12 min cd which ended up being zone 3. 

This was the first ride on my new bike trainer!! I already broke my computer thingy that tells you speed on my first ride so I have no idea how far I went. That's okay, I didn't trust that thing anyway. I'll just stick to HR/time training. That's more important anyway. AND, my first ride with no boot!!! I used the clip in shoes which keep your feet immobilized anyway. :)

Today is my 3 week checkup for my "stress fracture"! I've decided I probably was having more of a stress reaction than stress fracture, which my PT suggested. I looked it up, they will both show up on a bone scan. Now let's see if my dr agrees! Stay tuned...  

Big sigh. What a heavy heart I have right now. Ortho convinced me to pull out of Ragnar in June. It just seems stupid to invest so much time in healing my foot to run few, slow miles and potentially set back my recovery. I want to get back into marathon training, so I think the smartest thing for me is to bite the bullet and be conservative. This is such a tough decision for me. I was looking forward to this since last June. Things could be worse and by September I'm hoping my body will reward me for this investment. Time to dry my eyes and focus on biking. 

1h 20 min waterjogging. I was planning on an interval workout but when I got to the pool the girls from MIT track were jogging away so I decided to chat it up with them for awhile. Chatting it up meant I probbed them for all their secrets. :) One of these girls has a 4:40ish mile time!!! I found out they are putting in 55 mile weeks and waterjog 5 days a week on top of that!!! Yup, definitely adding this to my routine for marathon training this summer/fall.

After chatting with them for 40 mins, I finished up with swimming up and down the lane focusing on good form and trying to fatigue my hamstrings. The bike neglects the hammies so I gotta make sure they are getting adequate attention. Finished up with 5x45sec hard with 15 sec recoveries. I will just switch this workout with tomorrows since I was going to do a steady waterjog tomorrow anyway. :)

I felt like a normal person training with people! Yay!!! 

AM: 1.75 h steady bike. 15 min wu @ 60-65% MHR, then 3x15 min @ 80-85% MHR with 15 min recovery @ 70-75% MHR.

Ahhh...this is the first workout after my stress fracture that my body had that in sync feeling that it gets when you are running well and comfortably hard. This time, it wasn't about my foot, or my quads being too weak to get my HR to the correct zone. I was able to hit the zone and just close my eyes, let the sweat pour off my face and just jam to the music while I replayed a bunch of running memories during the hard interval. Today I feel good. Today I feel like I can maintain a decent base with this. I am happy. :) 

PM: 77 mins water jogging. 20 min wu, 2x[6x2:30 hard with 30 sec recovery] with 5 min easy between sets, 15 min cd.

74 mins waterjogging - ladder workout. 20 min wu, 1/2/3/4/5/4/3/2/1 min hard with 1 min easy between each, 20 min cd. I tried to focus really well on my form and tried to burn out my hammies. :) This felt comfortably hard. I tried to catch my HR between some sets, and it seemed to be around 13ish beats for 5 sec and once got up to 15, which means I'm hitting 156 - 180 bpm!!! I didn't think this was possible without running so I have been assuming I was getting my cardio work on the bike. It's so weird to work so hard and not feel like your body is all beaten up. I think I have conditioned my self to think I am only working hard and improving if I am in pain! This session also felt like my bike session yesterday - like everything is in sync. I think I'm finally gaining enough skill in these crosstraining exercises that now it's about the cardio/aerobic fitness. I didn't want to get out of the pool either. I think I'm falling in love with waterjogging!

3.5 h bike no boot! Averaged 72% max heart rate. This was so hard!! about 2 h in I wanted to quit so bad. It's funny, once you get to 3 h the last 30 mins are a breeze. :)