All that you suffer is all that you are. ~Smashing Pumpkins

At the beginning of the year I made some decisions regarding what goals I was willing to suffer to achieve, and this week really felt like a step towards those goals.

Here’s the week of Janurary 25-31:

• Monday, January 25: Stair repeats. The original plan was to do stairs on Tuesday and Thursdays. However, I usually do yoga and cycling on Tuesdays so I requested to Sweat Tracker to move the stairs to Monday. Good thing because these up and down repeats just about killed me. I did speed ups and downs to the 5th floor for 30 minutes, alternating between single and double steps. When I first saw the double steps in my TrainingPeaks account I emailed Dave and Larry to remind them that I’m 4’11” and most regular stairs are difficult for me by themselves. Their response was to be careful and use the railing if needed. LOL, ok, I guess that’s why you have coaches – Do As Your Told (which also happens to be the name of a Sufferfest video we did at our Knighthood ride on Sunday – more details below). Monday is the only day I’ll give myself a B for nutrition since my husband and I went to a 4 course Israeli dinner at our favorite restaurant, The General Muir,  and I was still full 2 days later.

• Tuesday, January 26: Cobra Camp, Indoor Cycling. My calves were dying after the stair workout on Monday but I was able to move deeper into some poses, even if I wasn’t feeling my strongest. At cycling we had an FTP test. Trying to do a power test while my calves were still screaming was less than ideal. Luckily, I had the Sufferfest Knighthood coming up on Sunday to use as an excuse to do an easier pedal. However, even though I was hurting I still managed to beat my last FTP.
• Wednesday, January 27: Jump rope, Long run, Mizuno Bootcamp. Larry and Dave have also added morning jump rope into my routine. Today I jumped for 1 minute and recorded the # of jumps (130). Each morning the rest of the week I start with that number of jumps. Wednesday evenings Mizuno sponsors a free bootcamp, led by my awesome Atlanta Track Club friend Bianca. I decided to arrive early to get in a 7 mile zone 2 run. I never run with music but today I decided to catch up on the last 2 episodes of Serial during the run. EXCELLENT plan! It felt amazing on this run and will admit I pushed past zone 2 a bit with all my enthusiasm. After the run we did 45 minutes bootcamp focusing on abs and arms. Ouch! Yoga in the morning would hurt.
• Thursday, January 28: Jump rope, Cobra Camp, Stairs.  130 jumps completed and then off to the last Cobra Camp of the month. I was correct last night; it did hurt a lot. However, I was the strongest I had been all month and made some great improvements with side crow ( I held it for at least 10 seconds!) and revolved bird of paradise!
• Friday, January 29: Rest day! Love sleeping in (until 6:30 lol) on Fridays! I even had some happy hour drinks at the bar (I had one) with my BRFs Tina and Nisa after work, which I haven’t done in forever. Finally starting to feel like a real human again after saying goodbye to theater life (I did improv comedy for 6 years, in ALL my spare time).
• Saturday, January 30: Long run. Woo! Atlanta Track Club Half Marathon training day! Love these guys! I’m the Pace Captain for the 11min/mile group. Today we had 9 miles, with a 3k indicator run in the middle. The morning was quite cold but it warmed up and the sun felt great. By the mid morning it was no-jacket weather and the Beltline (our current run location) was packed with people enjoying the positive aspect of Atlanta winter. After brunch with the gang I spent the rest of the day shopping for food/supplies for Sufferfest the next day and getting all my gear in order.
  

  Long runs are best with friends new and old! Atlanta Track Club Spring 2016 Half Marathon Program

• Sunday, January 31: Sufferfest Knighthood at Energy Lab! 10 Sufferfest videos in a row. It sounded like a good idea at the time. The first rule of the Sufferfest Knighthood posted on the info page is, “Please see a doctor. You’re not right and are in desperate need of help.” Through several mutual FB contacts I joined this lovely crew of Sufferlandrians raising money for Lifeline Animal Project. The final fundraising total is still being calculated but our day of Suffering was successful; successful in that we finished and we all suffered. My total ride time was about 8 hours 43 minutes, and 150 miles. The undercarriage escaped with minimal damage. Couchlandrians tempted us with Krispy Kreme and Chik-Fil-A but I resisted valiantly. Considering how physically and mentally challenge this was, we still had a great time with a cool group of people. I’m amazed that some people go for the Knighthood on their own; the 5 hour test ride I did the week earlier was the most I think I can do by myself on a trainer.
  

  

  

  

  

Another week closer to Georgia Death Race. On that note, the final course has been released and it’s closer to 72 miles this year instead of 68. What’s another 4 miles, right?

How will you choose to suffer?