Shaking off the chains!

I've had a few tougher workouts recently. Not hard, but just mentally tough to get through them. Training is pretty cyclic; sometimes you feel fantastic, and other times, it's an accomplishment to have simply shown up and have gone through the motions. I did a pretty tough ride on Sunday with the guys after riding on Saturday. We've not been riding the 67 mile ride in Ardmore regularly, and the hills simply killed me (and the guys were pushing pretty hard, too). Swimming this week has been breakthrough workout after breakthrough workout for Justin, but I've been pushing hard on the "easier" stuff just to hang with him! Oy! Things are supposed to be pretty aerobic in the offseason...and I think my body has acclimated well to that aerobic zone!

Today I was scheduled to start some intervals on the run. I was a little leery of the number of 400's I was supposed to do (8), as well as the pace (under 6:00 mi pace...shorter distance, of course, so normally this isn't all that crazy). I've been running long and slow for about two weeks now, and the thought of jacking up the pace by over 2 minutes from what my body's gotten used to seemed like it might be tough. Well, it was tough. But...it felt like I shook off a bunch of cobwebs and chains, so I think I'll be coming out of my mini-slump today! I did only 4 of the 8 - they were pretty tough, after all, but definitely not impossible. Maybe all I needed was to shake off those chains!

A new ride!

Cannondale is the bike sponsor for the OKC-Velo women's team (and guy's team, too), and I had my frames switched out last week. It's a really nice frame, and I'm told the fork is pretty nice...so I'm pretty excited to ride!

Temporary change of plans....

So, Justin and I have both been slightly sidelined with various issues for the run. I have some stiff hamstrings, and J's dealing with a tender ITB (illiotibial band). So, we're not quite set on our quest to tackle the run...yet! Instead, we've refocused on the bike so that we don't go insane. Neither one of our issues seems to be too affected by riding, so we're spending a bit of time on both of our bikes (road and TT). I'm pretty energized right now anyway, since the OKC-Velo women's race team that I am on just enlisted the help of a coach (Aaron Smathers...one of our local pro's). He'll be a tremendous resource, I'm sure. I went on a ride with the roadies here in Norman yesterday, and right away, I have a few things to work on, since Aaron was on the ride and was happy to give feedback...lots of good stuff to think about!