January 29, 2012

26th Birthday Smashfest!

Well I'm one year older...26 to be exact. Which means my birthday tradition of submitting myself to some sort of endurance torture lives on. Last year I earned a shiny new 15K PR at the Newnan's Lake 15K in Gainesville. This year, I asked Coach Hillary to help me cap off yet another 20+ hour training week with a "26-themed birthday smashfest." Of course she was delighted to do so, being someone who takes pleasure in completing epic training days (errr...weeks...months!) herself. So here is what my 26th birthday endurance extravaganza consisted of....


RUN: Twenty-six 400 meter repeats on the track (11 miles total)


Of course, I had to wear my new Lululemon speed shorts that were given to me as a birthday gift. I was also sporting my new Garmin 910XT that Jason gave to me as an early present. LOVE.



A two mile warm up to the track down multicultural 1st street and I was ready to roll. I did these on the track at the Austin School for the Deaf which is pretty cool since you have the Austin skyline set as the background for the workout. These were done as 6 sets of 4 repeats with 2 bonus ones to finish off. I had finished up 18 of the 26 repeats when all of a sudden a security guard drives up on his golf-cart yelling "Get out of here! This track ain't open on Sundays lady! Get out or I'll call the police!" 

Umm, can you say adrenaline! I was out of there like a bat out of hell! Knowing there was a middle school track about two miles away, I ran straight to it to finish up the workout. Those last eight repeats were the fastest of the bunch! Before I knew it, 11 miles of running was in the books. Fun stuff!



SWIM: Twenty-six 200 meter intervals in the pool (5200 meters total)


Of course, it is still January which, per my previous post, means it's still SWIM CAMP. So I was delighted to keep the ball rolling with this fun workout done at the outdoor pool. Fun in the sun! It passed rather quickly, as do most of my swim workouts these days. For the sake of your interest, I won't spell out the workout here. But just know that I'm already trying to think of how I'm going to hit my interval times on my swim workout tomorrow!



BIKE: Twenty-six miles with 2600 feet of total ascent


Ok, it was really 2350 feet of climbing but close enough, right? My legs were trashed by this point and the sun was starting to set. But somehow I made it up the hill to our house just in time for a sushi date with Jason! Five hours and fifteen minutes of what I would call quality training accomplished...and one (err, twenty six) step(s) closer to my ultimate goal.



DINNER: Twenty-six pieces of sushi!


Well, maybe it wasn't exactly twenty-six but I'm trying to keep a theme going here, so work with me people. Here I am displaying plate number one at Sushi Zushi. Funny enough, we had made reservations at a Mizu but I received a call before I left for the pool that the kitchen had caught on fire so our reservation was cancelled...um, no, ya think?!


DESSERT: Twenty-six spoonfuls of frozen yogurt delightfulness!








THANK YOU Coach for a wonderful day! And THANK YOU Jason for allowing me to spend the day training and not grocery shopping, cleaning or doing laundry.

Now, if I could only have 26 hours of straight uninterrupted sleep!




3 comments:

  1. Happy birthday!! I like the way you celebrate :)

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  2. Happy Birthday! Sounds like you had a great day!

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  3. Couldn't think of a better way to spend a 26th birthday!! :) How are you liking the new Garmin?

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