Intense Three Days

Well it has been a good weekend for training, but I certainly haven't been able to get much of anything else accomplished. The list is long...cleaning, grading papers, cleaning, grade more papers and plan lessons for the week. There is also painting to do, but that won't be done today or tomorrow.
Friday's training consisted of an early morning (4:30 A.M.) run. Temps were about -10 F with -20 F windchill. Spin class consisted of aerobic threshold training with a heart rate competition. Of course I didn't have a prayer in this since I had taken a beta-blocker the night before and couldn't get my hr above 143 no matter what. They definitely do what they were intended to do.

Saturday's was much the same. Early morning run at home around the neighborhood followed by about 2.5 hrs of very intense spinning. Again, the bill of fare was aerobic threshold training. I think I tapped out my HR about 13 times during the two hours of class. The rest of the time was warming up and cooling down.

This morning I did something different. Packed my biking gear in a backpack. Threw it on my back and ran to the health club for the 9 A.M. class. It was great because two of mi amigos happened to be there. Bob and Kenny. It was good to see them both and I ended up riding the bike next to Kenny. I may have to move to that spot. It's a very smooth operating, sensitive bike. Kristin was the instructor and once again aerobic threshold training w/ some hills and speed work. Kristin was very good, but she doesn't believe in a very long recovery periods. After two days of hard stuff I know I wouldn't have lasted much more than an hour at her intensity level. The run home helped keep my legs somewhat loose, but after a while at home I could feel the affects of all the work. Tomorrow will be a recovery day for sure. I may just ride the trainer here at home and go for a ride on the beautiful single-speed clunker.

Another thing I thought a lot about was work. It's been a very stressful year at our school. Many changes, many issues, many new pressures. Since this isn't a work blog I'm not going to get into it accept to mention that morale in our building is the worst I've seen in 18+ years and many people are feeling the stress and effects of burnout.

The other thought on my mind is the Arrowhead 135 Ultra Endurance Race. Next year's race to be exact. The seed has been planted in my mind and it's beginning to grow. I still have many unanswered questions along with many concerns. Primarily...bike. I don't own a Pugsley. Sure would like one, but I'm not sure how realistic that is since I already have 4 bikes. Could I do it on the old single-speed clunker? My search for advice will continue and I hope to expand my knowledge base on long endurance events. Any info. in these areas would be greatly appreciated. I have Jill in Alaska and Doug in Duluth to thank for this whole scheme.

Another exciting thing that happened is that all of the Amigos applications for Chequamegon Fat Tire Festival were mailed in by Matt on Friday. At least they were supposed to be. If we don't win the lottery then it's essay writing time.