Last "Easy" week wrap-up

I think I failed to mention that last weeks cramping incident in the pool caused extreme tightness, soreness and a general dull pain most of this week.  Biking was uncomfortable and running was difficult as well.  Monday & Tuesday I was a bit concerned that maybe I could have strained or worse, torn something in the calf.  I went to work on it by using my foam roller, massage & compression socks during the day.  It didn't seem to get better, so after some persuasion from a Mr. DJDavey, it was decided I take a few days off to rest things up a bit.  I took Tuesday, Wed & Thursday off and continued with my rehab.
 
I am happy to report that Friday was my first day back and I did an hour long run with some tightness in the calf, but nothing like earlier in the week.  Even better was that my post run had no issues with pain or tightness and it felt fine the next day.

So that brings us to the weekend!  Once again it should be a recovery/easy weekend, but over time these easy weekends have grown in volume and I officially declare them no longer easy.  On Saturday I avoided the Tosa WAC pool becuase of their horrific morning schedule and I drove out to the North Shore WAC and did a 5,000 yard swim.

WAC Glendale at 6:30 with me and about 4 other cars (that you can't see in this pix) in the massive parking lot.

It was a solid swim for me in which I felt good and had zero calf issues!  Following the swim I needed to do a 2 hour bike ride on flat terrain just to give the calf a bit more rest.  I ended up doing this ride on the trainer and once again I had zero calf issues.  After a nearly four hour endurance day and no noticeable leg issues, I would say I am 99.9% recovered and I am happy about that!

Sunday I was out the door at 7am for a nice 2 hour ride up to Lannon, Sussex and Menomonee Falls.  Pretty nonventful ride that finished with a 1 hour 45 minute BRICK run.  The run was a bit tougher with a couple 20 minute intervals in higher z2/low z3 which got the blood flowing pretty well.  But what made the run better was that Colleen joined me for the first 3-4 miles making the climb up to the water tower!  Running with someone even for just a few miles makes it a little less annoying IMO!  The run ended up being a bit faster than I wanted, but with a nice low heart rate which is always a good sign.

As I type this I am sitting comfortably in my leather chair wearing my compression socks and feeling pretty good about my "EASY" weekend.  Now I have to start worrying, stressing and thinking about the next two weeks which are going to be flat out NASTY mean on me.  It's just starting to get very exciting because I feel like I could do an Ironman now with my fitness level, so as long as I don't do anything stupid in the next five weeks I should make it to the starting line of Ironman Wisconsin!

By the way, here is what I was doing Sunday afternoon. Would that be considered stupid??