Coughing Quads

Last night was my first real workout (unless you count digging under the bed for my snow boots and then shoveling some snow on Sunday) in OVER two weeks. My original plan was to go to the gym and spend 30 minutes on the treadmill. That plan was made before I realized that, with the wind chill, it felt like a whopping ZERO degrees. When I went in and out of the office/house on Monday and Tuesday, the cold air would instantly cause me to start coughing. Instead of braving the cold again after dinner last night to go to the gym, I dragged myself down the basement stairs to my bike.

My poor bike has been sitting on the trainer for about 3 weeks now. It looks so lonely sitting down there, not being ridden. Every once in awhile a cat will wander by and scratch their face on a pedal but other than that, it just sits there looking sad. But last night it saw some action....some very slow, clunky action. I climbed on and clipped my shoes in. It felt like I had never ridden a bike before. My quads were screaming after only two minutes. I knew it would be rough getting back at it but TWO minutes?? In three weeks, I am going to attempt a 1/2 marathon that will take AT LEAST three hours and a full marathon that will take AT LEAST 6.75 hours! And then at about three minutes into the workout, I started to cough. Blah.

I forced myself to keep at it for 20 minutes. I was pretty annoyed by the cough but figured my body was telling me that it wasn't quite ready for that so I climbed off the bike and finished up with about 15 minutes of abs and arms. I have made much more of an effort this training season to focus on my abs and arms because after my last full marathon, that is exactly what hurt for the last 6 miles of the race....and for the several days following the race.

I'll brave the cold tonight and head out to the gym to see how the treadmill goes. After consulting with my own personal Goofy coach, Holly, about modifying my training schedule, the plan is to try for 8 miles this Saturday and then 16 miles on Sunday. That means I need to find my marathon legs again. Hopefully tonight will shake out the cob webs and get me back on track.