Saturday, March 28, 2009

A 2 Verve Day

The sound of the alarm woke me but the sound of ice pellets hitting the window made me want to stay in bed. On the schedule was a 1:30 run with 30 sec. to 12 minute surges (90 sec. to 3 min. recovery) followed by a 30 min. easy spin and then later a 30 min. swim. The treadmill was NOT where I wanted to start the day. I have made peace with riding on my trainer, but the treadmill...NEVER! I decided to stall the decision and see if the weather would make a gore-tex run a little more reasonable a bit later.

I usually go to spin class on Saturday mornings and then clean and do simple maintenance on the bikes for a membership trade-out. It is a sweet deal and I'd rather take the class than just go clean the bikes some other time so at least some of the sweat I mop up is my own. So, I drank Verve #1 and went to class. I had to remind myself to stay in the moment and enjoy the ride and let go of impending treadmill dread (while also keeping the effort easy since I was adding another hour to an already long enough training day).

I admit I spent most of the ride thinking of ways to re-arrange my training so I wouldn't have to run inside. I could swap Sunday's long ride with today's run but the forecast still threatened ice and snow and a low of 19 tonight which could make for a just as likely chance I'd end up on the treadmill anyway. After class it was sleeting hard...UGH!

Once I got home, after navigating the thick slush through the iced over windshield, I knew it was time to suck it up and climb aboard the gerbil machine. All in all it wasn't so bad. The mix of surges made for a good distraction and I got to watch some quality public television which included learning how to make a wooden wine bottle stopper and how to select a good table saw (it was either that or The Care Bears). I finished up with an easy spin on the trainer while touring some gorgeous gardens in France.
After refueling and resting for a while I sucked down Verve #2 and headed to the pool.

I don't know why I get so worked up and anxious about some of my workouts. Again and again I am amazed how time passes and the effort eventually comes to an end. I love being on the done end of a workout and once I am there it sure makes getting it started worth it!

I've been hibernating (and silent) for quite a while and I am so glad Spring is here (although you wouldn't know it by going outside today). I am going to Duathlon Nationals in Richmond, VA at the end of April with my Coach, Karen Buxton. I can't afford missing any workouts after my most off off-season I have had for many years!

I'm contemplating Verve #3 as the next dreaded task of the day is taxes!

5 comments:

GoBigGreen said...

Welcome back! I agree, spring is being fickle. But soon. Take care, Verve racing julia!

Jennifer Harrison said...

finally you are ALIVE! Curley, you need to post more! Oh, and....I did my taxes on Friday and it ruined my weekend. :) Welcome back.

Jennifer Harrison said...

Let me re-phrase that, I did taxes for the 2nd time b/c the 1st time was SO bad....so, I put it on hold and then re-did them. HOPE yours went better! :)

tri2fnsh said...

hey leslie! I haven't talked to you in forever. Will you be doing the WIN for KC triathlon this year? Hope so...I'll be out there again.
I'm also curious - sounds like you're still doing the Vemma business. I've been taking it for a couple years, and am going to try my hand at selling it too. We'll see how it goes.
Hope training is going well. It's SO HOT here this week!

Ann Pai said...

Hey - you were absolutely inspiring at WinforKC! That was my first triathlon - I'm getting ready to post my first ever triathlon race report on my blog. Before I found your blog, I was looking at your splits and saying the big WOW, that's AWESOME - then I realized that the Lesley Curley in the results was probably the same person of whom my husband got such a good photo coming into the dismount line. I compared the bib # in the photo - and here we are. (He was just looking for the fastest cyclist. He had to wait a bit for me.) Anyway, if you'd like me to email it to you, drop me a line at ann dot annpai at gmail.com. Happy training!