Yesterday was a smokin’ 36C/96F and beach was packed! We went to Kelso beach once again to practice our open-water swim.
Thankfully it was flooded with lifeguards! There were even lifeguards farther out where we did our practicing.
I admit, I had butterflies in my stomach. I always have butterflies before open-water swims!!! The swims do get easier though, I will admit. All in all, I am much more comfortable in the lake now…I don’t even get frazzled by seaweed on my face now, which is a victory in itself. We were in the middle of our swim and Eric was near me and he started cracking up because apparently I had seaweed ALL OVER MY FACE and HEAD…and I had no idea it was even there! How hardcore am I?! :lol:
As I mentioned previously, if you swim along the buoys (near arrows), there and back = 350 metres which makes it a great place to train for a try-a-tri (375 metres)!
Oh it was COLD getting into that water yesterday because the air was sooo warm it made the water feel like ice. Totally the opposite of our try-a-tri when the air was freezing and the water felt like bath water.
During our last open-water swim, we made the mistake of trying to swim the entire 350 metres right from the start and we felt a bit overwhelmed. Today, we made sure to warm up first by doing small ‘laps’ of about 25 metres or so until we got comfortable. After the warm-up we swam about 50 metres at a time, there and back and overall we felt like this swim went better than the last. We swam for around 30-40 minutes, but I honestly have no idea as we didn’t have a watch on hand!
Our Belwood try-a-tri is quickly approaching and we are both feeling a bit nervous because we haven’t had much time to practice lately. We are really going to have to amp up our training over the next couple weeks if we are going to be ready.
POST-SWIM HUNGER!
Eric fired up the grill as soon as we got home!!! Bless his kind soul.
He made me an Amy’s Texas burger and I topped it with spinach, tomato, tomato paste, sea salt, and red pepper hummus. WOWIE!!!! This was awesome. On Ezekiel toast of course.
He also grilled zucchini…it was SO juicy it squirted me in the eye!
drizzled with EVOO, S + P
and corn on the cob slathered in earth balance…
I almost burned my mouth on this because it was just so good and I couldn’t wait patiently!
Incredible post-swim dinner, it was.
Then we ran some errands and we were pretty much zonked after that so we decided to have a movie night, watching Mr. and Mrs. Smith, while eating some Cherry, Banana, and Coconut Butter bread!
I proceeded to eat two huge slices the size of my arm (how is that for portion control!!) and then pass out on the couch at 9pm! I don’t think I have been to bed earlier than 11pm in a dog’s age.
I stumbled into my bed around 11pm and slept until about 6am when I naturally woke up. I felt sooooo much better this morning. I really needed that break yesterday, especially now that I am working on Saturdays I don’t get much time away from work. I didn’t so much as touch the computer yesterday morning after I posted. It was awesome and much needed disconnect.
Today is another scorcher outside, however unlike yesterday today is humid, humid, humid! YUK! I knew I had to get in my run asap this morning, so I headed out around 6:30am. Before my run I snacked on a new raw + GF Glo Bar flavour I am working on. Any guesses as to what flavour this is??
I walked outside this morning expecting to find a crisp and cool morning, but I was met with humid air so thick I could have sliced a piece and had it for lunch. Thank goodness for Camelbaks!
My goal for this run was to challenge myself to stay under 9 minute miles. My Camelbak was full and I was ready to go!
The Run:
- Distance: 3 miles
- Time: 26:15 mins
- Avg Pace: 8:45 min/mile
Mile splits:
- Mile 1: 8:59
- Mile 2: 8:51
- Mile 3: 8:24
What a beautiful negative split this run was!!! After almost a year and a half of running, I finally feel like I am getting a handle on running negative splits. It makes runs a lot more challenging and I highly recommend them if you need to add some interest into your routine runs.
I came home and sweat poured out of my pores as fast as I could replenish my body with water. No joke. This humidity is sickening! I need some nice dry heat….
Or a Green Monster will have to do!
Green monsters are pretty much the perfect post-run snack!
In this bad boy was: 1 cup almond milk, 3 kale leaves, spinach, 1 frozen banana, 4 pitted cherries, 1/2 scoop Amazing Grass wheatgrass powder, 1 tbsp chia seeds.
Today’s question- Do you have to modify the time you workout in the summer? Do you have to switch to evening workouts or get up earlier before it gets hot? What are your summer workout strategies?
This was one of my first early morning workouts in a long time. With myself being so time-crunched in the mornings to get my orders out, it is difficult for me to squeeze in workouts before 6:30am, but I really enjoyed being done my workout by 7am this morning! I might see if I can work it so that I switch to a few early morning workouts each week. It is so nice not to have it hovering over me the whole day!
“Even if I don’t reach any of my goals, I’ve gone higher than I would have if I hadn’t set any”
-Danielle Fotopoulos, soccer player
Oh god, wasn’t the weather disgusting yesterday??
It was like being under a heat lamp in a steam room!
Holy moly!! That is a CROWDED beach! Strange as it sounds, I find myself working out more at the gym in the summer, just because it gets so hot outside! I also try to run earlier in the morning, because otherwise, I know that it’s just not going to happen.
Have a great Monday!
It is just as bad here today too…so hot and humid. I hate it unless I’m laying in a pool!
Congrats on the open water swim AND the negative splits on your run! Doing negative splits is really tough. I’ve been running for a long time, and often have to retreat to the treadmill to do them (because I can force myself to run faster that way).
I do feel like I need to adjust my workout time in the summer, but sometimes it can be tough. In theory, I’d love to become a morning exerciser. I do love getting my workouts out of the way first thing, and I feel better the rest of the day. But…I have a really hard time working out/running in the morning. I feel sluggish and it seems like everything takes twice the usual amount of effort. I know part of it is just that I’m not used to that schedule yet and that it could get better if I become more consistent. I just haven’t motivated myself to get to that point yet.
I’m an early morning work outer…I feel if I don’t get it over with early, by the time the afternoon rolls around i’d rather not do it at all!
Horrible, I know.
When I can drag myself out of bed I love early morning but it doesn’t happen very often. I also enjoy evening workouts after all the dishes are done. When it’s really hot I hit the treadmill.
I live in Toronto so lately if I’m not up for my morning run by 5am, I can’t go until late night! On Sunday I ran at 7am and it was too hot even then! I may revert to the treadmill this week to avoid the heat…getting up at 5am to run sucks :-)
I try to get up in the summer nice and early to do my early morning workouts. Today I went running around 9 and it was SO hot to run, but I made it. It was brutal though! I’m so impressed with your open water swim, the seaweed in the face would gross me out! :)
No matter what the season, I try to workout in the morning because I love the extra zip it gives me for the rest of the day. That and I don’t have to keep worrying about when I’ll be able to fit a workout in later on in the day.
I’ve been thinking about starting up with swimming again, especially since it’s summer and I can just use the lake. I hate pools so usually avoid water activities like the plague.
Woohoo!! Congrats on the negative splits girl.
I love working out in the early morning (6:00-7:00) before it gets too hot. It also gets my metabolism revved for the day, and ensures that I’ll actually fit a workout in (things always come up in the afternoons.)
I’m with you on the soy products – I use Garden Medleys for the same reason. Yum!
I thought about switching to evening work outs this summer because it’s hard to cool off and stop sweating in time to get showered for work. But I hate putting it off all day, so I just make sure to leave a bit of extra time to cool down before hopping in the shower now :).
Congrats on your swim! I know you run with an ipod, but do you swim with one as well? I know they make those waterproof cases, but I still feel a little nervous about the idea of taking mine in the pool!
Nope I don’t swim with music…I dont find I miss it either. I think it is b/c I am so focused maybe?
It was hotter than blazes yesterday, and even hotter today! Ick. A swim was an excellent choice! I love the Amy’s Texas burgers too… so delicious! Actually I love pretty much anything Amy’s, its a bit of an addiction!
I don’t mind hotness as much as I just HATE humidity. Then it gets all hot and sticky and gross! D: I’m not a runner so I don’t exactly know what negative splits are…?
My form of working out usually just involves workout videos. I’ve sung the praises of the 30 Day Shred, and I’d sing them again! I always turn on two fans directly at myself when I’m exercising. :D
Wei-Wei
Oh man, yesterday was crazy! I ran 12k in the morning and thankfully the first half was fairly shady but the last 6k was pretty brutal! I think I chugged back TWO green monsters when I finally got in the door!
When I was working out in the evenings I would push my runs later into the evening in the summertime to get out of the humidity. Now that I exercise in the morning it’s not too bad, thankfully today was yoga day but it was still boiling hot inside the house (our a/c is broken!!!).
I’m really in love with the support you and Eric seem to have for each other. It’s so beautiful that you two do these kinds of things together … gives me hope :)
Summer workouts … Usually I ride my bike outside but these days for cardio I turn on the AC in the basement and go for a run on the treadmill. My other fitness choice is Pilates, and we do that indoors in a nice cool studio haha.
I try to go out early and they stay in between 10am-2pm when the sun is the strongest. Also, I made you chia seed jam for my daughter (another hit!) since we just picked 16Ls of local organic strawberries and wanted her to have some jam too (too much sugar in traditional jam). Thanks for the great recipe.
My Guess it it has something to do with Summer because of the the SUN flower seeds…i could be totally off though!
You should take some time to relax. You have bee such a hard working lady lately.
I’ve been getting up at 5:30 a.m. every day to get my exercise in before work. It’s just too hot to wait until I get home!