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As time permits, in-depth musings on myriad subjects will be posted. Abbreviated adages will be announced via Twitter.

Thursday, June 12, 2014

Triplicate


It seemed like a good idea at the time.

In retrospect after the afternoon's run, however, I think I wound up biting off more than I could chew. After all, it's been a few years since I've tackled workouts this engaging, let alone more than one in a single day.

But tackle it I did: Three intense workouts in a single day. A triathlon, of sorts, though with an hour or so with drive-time factored into transition.



Swim. Bike. Run. But not necessarily in that order.

After readying amazing meals for The Boy (I don't even like avocado, and I was envious of what he would get for nom-noms), I made my way to the gym for the 8:30 spin class.



Grilled avocado & scrambled eggs for (The Boy's) breakfast.

Because the spin room is used for other functions, summer spin sessions are shortened to 45 minutes. Jacqi, the instructor (and probably the best I've had in my 10+ years of synchronized suffering), is not deterred and simple ups the ante for the class, getting in a higher quality workout in less time. Needless to say, I must channel my inner Jens Voigt & his mantra at various points of the class. But it works. Not sure what happened with my HR from ~19 minutes until almost the end.



I'm fairly certain there were sundry intervals worked in that should have caused fluctuations, but it is what it is. The average of 143, however, sounds fairly accurate.

Following the cool-down stretch off the spin bike, I made my way north to New Braunfels (the Schertz recreation center [dba YMCA] still lacks a pool, in spite of voters approving one via bond measure four years ago) for a swim. I wasn't sure what to expect out of myself, so I had just planned to do a distance swim of 500–1000 meters, but that got extended to 2000 continuous meters, coupled with a 4x75-meter cool-down. Woot.

Homeward bound & into the kitchen for some nutrition.



Ready to get juiced.

Nicholle & I bought a juicer some years back, but it's seen precious little service since The Boy was born, due in large part to a fair amount of cleanup that follows making juice. However, because today was a play day (of sorts)—and because all of the week's major cooking was done the day before—I grabbed some veggies (carrots [3], celery [2], beet [1], sweet potato [1], ginger [1]), juice 'em, & mixed it with some veggie protein powder for a super between workouts meal.

After that settled and the kitchen was again clean, it was out for a trail run.



A little less than a mile from my front door is some superb off-road running that follows the bed of the Cibolo Creek. A year or so ago, I was running the creek once or twice a week, attempting to follow it all the way to the highway, though unsuccessful every time due to the trail disappearing from sight; either submerged or overgrown in assorted areas. Then, the rains came, and the dry creek bed was dry no more. In spite of recent rains, I ventured out to see what I could see, run what I could run.

That, like the triple workouts from today, seemed like a good idea at the time. The Ambit showed an average temperature of around 94°, with a peak of 97.3°, but it seemed a fair deal warmer. A lot warmer, actually, and the lone bottle I brought with me proved inadequate after barely 30 minutes in. 

The portions of trail that are not the creek bed itself are a hybrid of jeep road & trails cut out by deer, coyotes, and whatever other critters call the creek bed home. The aforementioned rains have cause quite a bit of overgrowth in many of the areas, so I had a hard time following the upper reachers and wound up along the roadside more often than I would like. Unfortunately, on the return, I missed my drop-in point and wound up following 1518 all the way back into Schertz proper. This displeased—and overheated—me substantially. Consequently, there was much walking involved. Robbed of the cooling shade of the trees & roughage dotting the creek bed, it was the best I could do to keep my heart rate down, seeing  how my bottle was almost entirely depleted by this point.

Despite my trail run having less trail and less run that I would have liked, I felt it was a good workout—for heat acclimation, if nothing more—and that I managed to squeeze in three (3!) workouts today made me most happy. 

Now, it's time go get ready for the evening's festivities of the soft opening of Earth Burger. Good thing I only juiced for lunch, saving room for all those awesome nom-noms. 

Thanks for reading.

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