30min with 3x20sec. accelerations.

Well, I made up for the lack of sleep last night.  11 hours!!!  Definitely a good thing.

Anyway, has to be one of the best 30 minute runs I've ever done outside of a race.  I really didn't push it and I did almost a 9:00 pace.  Sure, that's with the accelerations and all, but even with those and the expected slow downs afterwards, still a great pace.

Figured something out about my stride during that hilly brick earlier in the week that finally kicked in.  I've been trying to run a little more upright (I have a tendency to look down and haunch a little bit sometimes) so I've been trying the "Kenyan" running.  Up right.  Chest out.  Arms up.  Pretty stride.  Etc.  Well I didn't feel like anything was improving.  Then during the brick on Tuesday, I did something that caught my eye.  I leaned forward a little bit and my pace improved dramatically without putting any more effort into my stride.  So I started doing some experiments.  DOH!  I've been leaning back when running.  Idiot.  You know better than that.  So today, during the run, I concentrated on form, again.  This time with a slight forward lean, or at least straight upright.  Anything but leaning backwards. 

It made a HUGE difference.  I did that pace and felt great.  I would say RPE was only about a 5 at most.  I wasn't winded.  It took me no time at all to recover and get my HR back down to 120 and below.  I'm hoping I'm making a break through.  One more week and we will know if it truly has made a difference.  I think I'm becoming a runner.  Or at least really starting to enjoy it.  Who'dathunkit?!?!?

speed day
wu: 250 continuous.
main: 10 x 100 EBEH (each 100 = 25Easy, 25Build, 25Easy, 25 Hard)
cd: 150 easy

What a horrible nights sleep. Ugh. Finally got to sleep after 1 but then it was the off and on kind of crap. Meh. Oh well, didn't seem to affect the swim this morning. At least that went well. Hopefully will get the ride in tonight BEFORE it starts to snow.

That's right ladies and gents, snow. Again. I'm hoping, since we are on the southern end of this system, we will get little if any, but I doubt it. They are predicting anywhere from 4-9 inches. WTF?!?!?! Seriously. This is one of the few drawbacks of living in the Midwest. Probably the only one I really truly dislike.

Other than that, I have to leave early today and I have tomorrow off from work. I guess there are a few things to look forward to. But I will have to work my tail off to get all my workd done before I split.

Added later.  I'm too tired to do the spin.  I'm exhausted.  The 4 hours of sleep finally caught up to me.  Besides, 30 minutes wont get me too much, and it was only a recovery spin. 

Speed day
wu: 250 continuous.
main: 4 sets of (4x50 fast with 50 kick recovery). Rest 1min after each set.
cd: 150 easy

Swim felt really good tonight. I'll put the individual splits in later. Problem is, now I can't sleep. Was tired at 10. Crawled in bed. Heart rate shot up. Mind took off. Nuts. So now it is 11 and I'm wide friggen awake. Doh. Just watchin a little Robot Chicken.

I did forget to talk about something that happened at the gym last night.  So I posted once, a long time ago either here or on a thread on the forums about a girl at the gym that I find a lot of inspiration from.  She is technically a quadriplegic.   She has some use of her arms, but not much at all.  Anyway, sometime last year, I was fortunate enough to watch her take some of her longest steps with a walker.  She walked approximately 150 feet non stop.  She had never gone that far before and I got to witness it.  Well, she was at the gym last night and she was actually pushing herself around the track in her wheel chair.  That's new.  She now has the strength to not only hold herself up, but to also push herself.  I continue to be amazed by her.  Her strength inside and out.  Her determination.  Her drive.  There have been many times when I've been in pain training, and I think of the pain and exhaustion she has gone through and I keep pushing.  She truly is an inspiration. 

Race-specific
wu: 6 x 50, odd swim, even kick.
main: 1900 ladder. Start with 300, then 275, 250, etc.. Until 25. Start pace should be T pace +10 or about RPE 3. Increase pace each set until finish
cd: 200 easy

Logging this in on Tuesday morning because I didn't get to it last night.  Tough swim.  Shoulder started to actually hurt a bit around 1/2 way through.  Whatever it was it was worked out.  I'll have to keep an eye on that, though because it is my right (bad) shoulder.  Last thing I need is to injure it.  It feels fine this morning, thankfully.

Long workouts this week, again.  And don't have a day off till Sunday. 

Yeah!  Day off day!  And of course it is beautiful outside.  When in the world will it stay nice out permanently.  I'm so sick of the cold.  I know, I've been harping on that a bit, but still.  Sheesh. What a long winter. 

Liverpool won yesterday.  Torres scored yet again.  What a stud. And the Fire start soon.  And so do the Sox.  What a great time of year for sports!  Awesome! 

2.5 hour bike. Keep RPE 3-4. Use race clothes if possible. Use race equipment.

20 minute recovery run after the bike at RPE 2.

Today was both the best and worst workout/ride I've had.  It was the worst because of the wicked head wind I had to ride into the whole way back.  I wasn't paying attention to the wind on the way out and I paid for it dearly when I turned around.  That being said, I was able to learn quite a bit from it, making it a good one.  I learned what I need to do when going into the wind.  Aero tuck first and foremost.  Dropping it down to the small chain ring too.  But more importantly, I learned I still need tons of T.I.T.S.  Even after a year of training, I need more T.I.T.S. 

And again, my toes were frozen.  Made for a VERY difficult run.  Felt like I was running with logs on the end of my legs.  So hard.  REaly glad I have the day off tomorrow.  I'll need it.