I think this weekend was the first time I really embraced the idea of being a weekend warrior -- you know, one of those people who spends a really long time working out on the weekends to make up for all the time they didn't spend in the gym during the week.

Like I said earlier, my schedule was a little out of control last week and I knew the gym just wasn't going to happen.

By Saturday morning I was antsy to spend some quality time working out, and luckily (? or perhaps maybe unluckily?) I have a few friends at the gym who are in the middle of Ironman training.

That means they have some seriously killer workouts on the books for the weekends.

And on Saturday, I joined in the "fun." On the schedule was two hours of spin, followed by a 45-minute run.

I got to the gym by 8 a.m. for two back-to-back spin classes. This week I remembered to wear my tri shorts, so my butt was much, much less sore afterward than last week. #winning.

I also wore my heart rate monitor so I could keep an eye on how I hard I was working. I knew I'd need to keep my heart rate at a pretty low level during the spin classes if I wanted to have anything left in the tank on the run.


Garmin with total workout time and total running distance

Let's also remember that this was the first time I was attempting to run in close to four weeks. My plantar fasciitis still bothers me sometimes, but for whatever reason, on Saturday morning it was really cooperating, and I was eager to try a run.

The two spin classes went well. I managed to keep my heart rate between 120-135 bpm for most of the workout.

After a quick change in the locker room, I headed outside to run. In shorts and a t-shirt! In February!


Clearly questioning my own sanity for deciding to do this run

I flipped my Garmin to the run screen and tried not to think about how much the run would suck.

And suck it did. My foot held up just fine. In fact it didn't bother me at all.

But my legs felt like dead weight after the bike, and even when that loosened itself up I still felt like I was moving so, so slowly.

It's probably a good thing I couldn't really see the number for my heart rate while the run, because it was spiking into the 180s. So I was working really, really hard to maintain a really not fast pace. Oh running fitness, you have left me completely.


Running stats

When we were finished with the run, and I was looking at the numbers, my gym buddy gave me a hard time about how high my heart rate spiked. He told me I should have told him so we slowed down. But we averaged 9:34 per mile on the run. If we were to have slowed down so that my heart rate dropped into the 140s I think we would have been looking at like 13 minute miles.

I actually didn't feel too dreadful after the workout except for the massive blister I got on my right foot.


Emergency blister supplies

This morning though the DOMS has officially set in. I'm rocking my compression sleeves because the tightness in my calves is out of control.

But, it was a fun workout and I'm glad I managed to stick it out through the whole thing.