A Tiring Weekend for Sure

Sometimes you just cram way too much stuff into a weekend. Luckily I didn't have a race as I don't know if I would have been able to even get to the start line.

The weekend started Friday with a plasma donation. That in and of itself never wears me out. I have run races following plasma donations in the past. However, this weekend was my first time of the season heading out for speed skating lessons.

Knowing that Saturday was going to be given over to speed skating I had to hit the bike on Friday. Things are shifting around in the training schedule I guess.  I set up the trainer, hooked up the laptop to watch a show and hit the bike. I didn't have a lot of time with company coming over, so I decided to really work on high cadence work some more.  One hour later and I lost about as much sweat as I had lost plasma early that day. Whew.

Family party Friday night, late getting to bed and then early to rise the next morning. Saturday was a day I was really looking forward to. I just wish I hadn't needed to be also getting up early to do it, ha ha. Speed skating, a sport I took up last winter and one that is not only tons of fun, but also kicks my butt. The weather was perfect, cold but with only a slight wind. I started with a few warm up laps and then hit the lessons hard.

This year I joined a local Masters Speed Skating club to learn more about this sport. The lessons were a great way to start the year and hopefully will lead to me being able to have a fun time competing later on in the year. I hit the ice (luckily not literally) for 19.5km worth of skating in 1.5 hours. Still I was feeling in good shape.

Then I woke up Sunday morning with visions of a long run early and then to the pool. Well, I found all of those muscles that I had obviously not been using.  Wowza. I managed to get a 11.5 km run in and while the pace seemed fine (4:26 avg km) it seemed a shuffle more than anything.

Finally to the pool for a 2100m interval session and I was done. Well, I still had to get the dogs out for a nice walk in the park, so why not add another few kms of slippery ice filled sliding around, ha ha.

I hope this gets easier as the winter continues along. Either I am going to come out of the base season really strong or dead tired. We'll see I guess!