What was I thinking?

Most of the time, my muscles are a silent army. They do as they're told with minimal protest and they work well together.

But sometimes, there's mutiny. And today is one of those days.

I woke up in pain. I hobbled to the bathroom and had trouble getting dressed. It hurt to bend over to put my shoes on. It hurt to turn the steering wheel of my car. Every single muscle seems to be saying, "Hey! Remember me! How dare you go all-out in a triathlon, then the next day do spinning for an hour and lift weights (harder than usual, too!) for 45 minutes!"

My abdominals were protesting so much I couldn't tell whether I had a stomach virus or just muscular pain. My biceps, triceps and shoulders are so weak I couldn't hold my cup of coffee when the girl at Starbucks handed it to me and I spilled about 1/4 all over my leg and car. Ow. Thank goodness I get milk in the coffee, because an Americano is darn hot.

I had a longer run scheduled - in theory, 75 to 90 minutes - and I was really unsure how I was going to do it. Well, the answer is, painfully. We picked a pretty flat route, but it does have a long downhill section where I just gave up and told the girls I needed to walk. All the bouncing and pressure from the downhill really hurt - especially in my arms, chest, and quads.

I was supposed to swim afterwards, but no way. I can't lift my arms over my head (yeah, washing my hair was pretty fun), so I bagged the swim. I would have gone down to the lake to meet Regan so I could watch her swim (for safety - I won't swim alone, and I didn't want her to), but she happened to be at the doorway of the Pro Club when we arrived back and she said she'd prefer to run anyway, so I was happy with that.

This all sounds really whiny. My apologies! I'm just pretty amazed at how I feel today! But I've definitely learned a couple of things:

1) Do not work out with Danielle the day after a race unless she raced as hard as I did (she didn't because she raced alongside Regan for support, and even though Regan did wonderfully, she finished in 1:51 and I have no doubt Danielle would have beat me had she been racing for herself). Working out with Danielle is just too much fun not to have a full effort!

2) I will not be able to do Danskin as a full-on sprint race next year if I do Ironman Canada. I can possibly do it with a friend much more slowly and comfortably, but feeling like I do now, there's no way I'll be fully recovered by the weekend. (Which sucks because I am racing on Saturday! Again, what was I thinking, two weekends in a row?)

So, today's data:

Food:
Pre-workout: 1 Vitatop and milk in coffee: 130 cals
Breakfast: Two hard-boiled eggs and banana bread and milk in coffee: 480 cals
Snack: 3 oz salmon (leftovers! yay!) 195 cals
Lunch: 20/20 chicken sausage penne pasta, 390 cals
Snack: Laughing cow lite cheese wedge and small piece of chocolate, 90 cals
new total: 1285 cals
Dinner: 4 oz steak, carrots, mashed potatoes, bread (carbalicious!), 700 cals (yes really. Designed Dinners plus my own lighter recipes)
total for the day: 1985 cals - so-so

Exercise:
Run 7.2 miles in 1:15 (okay, that included the walk); 500 calories burned