ironman canada // week 10

My heart hurts, and there are no words…

Sending love + light to my running family in Boston.

• • •

As much as I enjoy rest days, I have a really tough time taking them. In between feeling guilty and lazy for lounging, I think that my fitness backpedals months if I don’t sweat once a day. In my CrossFit days (I once went 14 consecutive days, which was downright dumb), a few twitter folks used to tweet me accountable to a weekly rest day.

Ironman training has been different, a good balance and steady increase of swimbikerun LOVE. While I was a tiny bit reluctant to take the two official rest days I’ve had since I started training 10 weeks ago, I thoroughly relished them.

Enter week-long sailing vacation. Obviously, I was anxious about training and packed my running shoes, goggles and swim cap with big plans to run on the islands and swim in the ocean every single day. Coach Joe emailed me last Sunday, telling me to run when I could, do some yoga and swim as much as possible.

Well, last week ended up being a whole lotta rest.

And… it.was.glorious.

Though it did help that we were in Bahamian paradise 🙂

Nick and I managed to squeeze in two quick runs around Bimini – both the perfect way to explore the tiny tropical island.

My good swimming intentions were thwarted, however, as I just couldn’t get past swimming over stingrays and nurse sharks. Plus, there’s just something really eerie about swimming in 1,000-foot deep water.

As soon as we landed back in snowy MSP on Sunday (seriously, Minnesnowta, what.is.up?!), I hopped on my bike in hopes of finding my land legs. I didn’t (it’s amazing how the world slowly rocks after seven days at sea). Also, sunburned skin and sweat isn’t the best combo. At the end of my 90-minute ride, tiny blister-like bubbles covered my shoulders (they disappeared shortly after I finished).

In non-training news…

Sailing in turquoise water is awesome. So are relaxing, social media free vacations. More to come this week.

And, check out Sunday’s STrib article on quantified self movement. I’m quoted at the end!

Weekly stats

Two hours, 56 minutes

Bike: 24.07 miles, 1:34:31 (trainer)
Run: 8.54 miles, 1:18:10

This week: After a welcome home swim early Monday morning – with a surprising 1:32 100 – I’m working in Utah until Friday. The running shoes and yoga mat are packed so there will be plenty of both.

Have a super week, friends!