Prepping for my new plan...

It's been an XL Cardio Extravaganza over here lately.

And I just realized that I feel like I did in the old days. Just this very minute I realized that. I wrote this whole post and have come back to the beginning to add this. I've been lying on the sofa nearly comatose since 9 a.m. this morning (it's now almost 2 p.m.) and not because I feel sick. It might have a little to do with getting up at the butt-crack of dawn to take Big G to the airport for his school field trip to DC...but this feels differently than just lack of sleep for one night. Poor little Miss C has watched the same Shaun the Sheep DVD no less than 6 consecutive times while I have been crashed out. Bad mommy.

Of course, she did her crashing on the floor at the airport this morning...

but only for about 10 minutes...not 5 hours!

Here's what I've been up to...

After getting some solid cardio in 5 times the previous week for a total of a bit over 5 hours, the training goal this past week was to get something in every day...hopefully for at least an hour. I managed 7 cardio workouts for a total of just under 8 hours. It looked something like this...

• Monday: 55 min. on the elliptical trainer henceforth referred to as ET (followed by 90 min. of rock climbing, not counted toward workout time total)
• Tuesday: 40 min. bike ride + 20 min. easy run = 60 min.
• Wednesday: 90 min. cardio extravaganza! 20 min ET/10 min StairMaster (SM) X 3
• Thursday: 40 min. ET (followed by 2 hrs of climbing, not counted toward workout time total)
• Friday: 60 min. cardio... 20 min ET/10 min SM X 2
• Saturday: 95 min. cardio extravaganza! 25 min ET/10 min SM X 2 + 20 min ET/5 min stair climber thing (different from SM...this one is those weirdly rolling stairs)
• Sunday: 74 min. easy run

Increasing my volume did come with a price. My Thursday workout felt super blah or even blech. I was tired and sluggish. Usually on the machines I am revved and excited and hit my HR targets cleanly and consistently while maintaining a very even (or often slightly increasing) pace. But Thursday I was struggling. My legs just didn't really want to turn over with any alacrity. My mind was wandering all over the place, and little things started to annoy me...a sure sign that I am not doing so well. But it was short, and the climbing after it was great...so I'm not dwelling on one imperfect workout :)

I'm LOVING the longer sessions. There is something super satisfying about 90+ minutes of hard work.

This coming week will involve a bit more running. I miss being outside. And my run Sunday told me that I do need a little more pounding of the pavement. I think had it not been a whole lot hotter than I am used to it would have felt like a great, chatty run with a great friend...or two :) All of the cardio work certainly helped, I didn't feel tired just hot and distracted by being hot. Oh, and then we got lost on the return of our out-and-back! We were bringing up the rear of a whole lot of runners participating in the local Lululemon anniversary fun run and didn't see where everyone else had turned. Oops.

"Did we go through a tunnel on the way out?"
"I don't think so..."
"Me neither..."
"Where the F are we?"

...and that question hung in the air for quite a few minutes while we tried to figure it out....

We made it back to all of our friends at the meeting place after running an extra mile and went out to brunch with quite an awesome group...

top row: page, sima, kristin, aron, courtney, cate, A, beth

front row: katie a, SFMarathon, me, layla, jessica, karin

and forgive me if I screwed up any names or links...and sima, I couldn't find your info!

and you can see my Happy Birthday balloon from katie reflected in the mirror!

And because I was having a great time running and brunching with friends yesterday, I missed my joint birthday party with George Clooney. Yes, we were both celebrating our special day...sadly, not together...again.

It's hard to tell who was more bummed that I couldn't make it...

him or me?

Nah, he looks like he's doing alright...

But my family did make me a cake and brownies. And if he could see my cake...

I know it looks like I turned three hundred nineteen, but seeing as how we found ourselves 

once again lacking the proper candles, we needed to get creative...

3 + 1 = 4...that's the tens. And the 9 is the ones.

Put them together and you have...

49!!!

...you know George would be jealous.

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and is looking forward to a fantastic week!