It was so nice to sleep in until almost 7am on Saturday morning. We were in no rush to get up since we had planned to ride indoors on our trainers. Another reason why we could sleep in was because our cat Madison let us sleep in way past her normal internal alarm clock (aka "feed me now!") went off (which is usually around 5:30-6am).
After getting some work done on the computer and eating a yummy pre-workout snack, it was around 8:30am when I went to our workout room to get myself ready for my bike workout. As I was writing my bike trainer workout on the white board, Karel looked outside and said "it's sunny, let's ride outside." What a relief as I wanted to ride outside but with the temps nearly 30 degrees, we both first thought it would be too cold to ride outside but without a cloud in the sky, we decided to bundle up and enjoy a few hours on our road bikes.
Although our toes were a little cold even with our shoe covers on, we both dressed well and stayed rather comfortable throughout our entire 3 hour ride. Of course, it helps to have lots of hills to warm us up.
With no set plans as to where our bikes would take us, we made our way onto roads that we had not ridden on in over a year. It was so nice to be outside and to enjoy what felt like new roads in Greenville. Since we have so many options for riding, every ride seems like a fun, new experience.
Karel lead the way for our ride and I followed along. I felt really strong during our ride thanks to so much trainer work (and variable cadence sets, with lots of heavy gear riding) so it was a big confidence builder for me to be able to stay on Karel's wheel for most of the ride, even on the climbs. Plus, I love riding my road bike so this was one of those rides that I just didn't want to end.
Karel lead the way for our ride and I followed along. I felt really strong during our ride thanks to so much trainer work (and variable cadence sets, with lots of heavy gear riding) so it was a big confidence builder for me to be able to stay on Karel's wheel for most of the ride, even on the climbs. Plus, I love riding my road bike so this was one of those rides that I just didn't want to end.
With it being so cold (temps nearly breaking 40 degrees), I knew that I would need something solid in my tummy in addition to my bottles of sport drink (a bottle of Infinit Trimarni base fuel and a bottle of strawberry Levelen). I went with this yummy Luna bar as the chocolate peppermint stick was just perfect on this cold morning of riding. I snacked on it throughout the ride, along with drinking my sport drink at frequent intervals throughout the ride.
A nice 4400 feet of elevation gain in 3 hours and 6 minutes of riding. We only covered 48 miles but that is pretty typical in Greenville as our terrain is very challenging so the miles go by very slowly, despite us working hard for every mile.
I finished the ride with a 25 minute treadmill run just to keep myself comfortable with running off the bike whereas Karel didn't run off the bike and he was just fine with that decision.
After a good night of sleep on Saturday evening, Karel and I started our long run around 9am in 40 degree temps. Although we started and finished the run together, we didn't run together. Without a plan as to where I was going to run, I let my legs lead the way. Since I don't enjoy running on flat roads, I stayed on the hills and Karel went to the flat Swamp Rabbit Trail for the majority of his run (he warmed up on the hills first). We both ran for 2 hours but Karel covered almost 3 more miles than me due to his speedy legs.
My run workout included a 40 minute warm-up of nice, form focused running followed by 1 hour of endurance running, broken into 1 mile at a time, with the last 1 minute of each mile as a surge to fast effort followed by a 30 sec walk. It was a nice way to add in some speed into my legs but nothing too hard that would damage my body more than what was done with 2 hours of running. I was able to keep good for throughout my entire run and it was another confidence builder. I have been very patient with my run fitness and extremely diligent with my run training and strength training this season and it's finally all coming together.
My run workout included a 40 minute warm-up of nice, form focused running followed by 1 hour of endurance running, broken into 1 mile at a time, with the last 1 minute of each mile as a surge to fast effort followed by a 30 sec walk. It was a nice way to add in some speed into my legs but nothing too hard that would damage my body more than what was done with 2 hours of running. I was able to keep good for throughout my entire run and it was another confidence builder. I have been very patient with my run fitness and extremely diligent with my run training and strength training this season and it's finally all coming together.
It's always fun to recap our workouts to one another after we train so I was really happy for Karel that he had such a great run.
Here's my run recap, which includes the walk breaks. I sure do love my Greenville hills!
Like usual, Campy was SO excited for us to come home. We just love the feeling that after 8.5 years of having Campy in our life, he still gets so excited to see us and showers us with kisses and hugs. We feel so lucky that we rescued this little 9 year old, golden (with a little white hair) nugget.
As for the weekend eats, Karel had to run some errands on Sat afternoon so he stopped by the European Market (new to Greenville) and enjoyed finding some of his favorite European eats. It's fun when Karel finds a food that reminds him of his upbringing in Czech Republic as he always has a great story to tell with that food.
After our Sunday afternoon swim (2300 yards), we made a stop at the grocery to pick up a few items for our Sunday night dinner which was homemade grilled pizza. We buy the dough at Publix and then grill it up on the outside grill and top with veggies and protein. It was SO good like usual!!
I also made this European-inspired salad with thinly chopped onion, tomatoes and cucumbers dressed with a little vinegar, olive oil and salt topped with crumbled farmers cheese.
It was another great weekend of training and we could not be more grateful to our bodies for allowing us to stay so consistent with training this season. I wouldn't consider us obsessive with our eating and training but we do place a lot of attention on proper fueling and hydrating during our workouts, effective eating before and after our workouts and healthy eating throughout the day. With good daily nutrition, the body can perform to its full ability during workouts and there's a good chance that it will be easier to stay consistent with training. Consistent training = performance gains.