Heather Lendway

Here I am on my lunch break, walking through the downtown skyways writing my blog in a note on my phone. Normally I’d be at the pool but the time has come, finally, to take a real break from swimming. I haven’t taken more than a couple days away from the pool since my 16 day hiatus to Europe last March. Knowing I want to get back to some normal training in January, this was basically the last opportunity I’d have for an extended break from swimming. While I absolutely despise resting (I was the person in college that got caught on the stair-master during taper), I understand its purpose and importance in improving. I still can’t handle sitting at my desk all day so I’ll escape to the skyway during my usual pool time.

The past couple months on the bike have been a learning experience. I started working out with a power meter in October so I’m no longer trying to do workouts based on my speed on the trainer but rather my power output. I always track my workouts so I’ve enjoyed having a much more accurate measurement of my training. I can more precisely determine if I had a ‘bad’ day verses wondering if my trainer resistance was off (too tight or loose). Using the power meter, I can also more accurately monitor my progress, so there will be less guessing on my fitness level when the season rolls around.  If you’ve been thinking about getting a power meter, I have loved my experience so far and would recommend it! There are definitely some more affordable options for a power meter, they’re not all 1000$ or more. (If you’re curious check out the Stages power meter at Gear West). I’m looking forward to start cranking out some hard bike workouts in January.

At the end of the 2013 season I went right back into hard run training. I knew I wanted to be faster in 2014 so I got to work right away. While I think the training I did definitely worked to get me faster, I know I can’t continually pound out the runs like that and expect results. In an attempt to honor the off season a bit more, I’ve been trying to worry less about running hard through the fall, I haven’t really even been tracking my workouts like I usually do. It’s been a great break from stressing about hitting the right pace/time and worrying about whether or not one run was better than a previous run. That said I know I’ll back to tracking and analyzing my workouts soon, but for now the mental breather is good.

In other news, here’s a few shots of some fun things I’ve been up to lately…

Last weekend I took my nieces to the Holidazzle Village to see Reindeer and Sled Dogs.  You could pet the dogs which was awesome, but not the reindeer :-/.

Monday it was almost 50 degrees so I walked outside to Irvine Park, even if it was grey out, it’s still a beautiful place.

I do many of my track workouts at Macalester’s indoor track.  The walls of the track have a huge flag mural with 128 flags from around the world.  The mural is made up of 33,500 small photos of the Macalester community.  I was stretching the other day and finally spotted myself! I was pretty excited :-).

Here you can see one wall of the mural.

That’s me! Only a few square inches.

I downloaded an app called Mematic so I can create my own memes, I’ve found it quite entertaining, for example:

And last but not least, cats: