6 Weeks to Go

Today I got an email from the Iron Girl Rocky Gap triathlon that E and I are doing September 7th. It was some bad news: they have cancelled the race. They couldn't secure a permit they needed for the roadway and therefor couldn't ensure a safe bike course. Whatever that all means, it is very disappointing that they couldn't pull it together properly. And I was especially disappointed for E, since last year she was injured and could only do the swim portion after registering for it. She's been doing such a great job with training, and this was going to be her first complete race. I know she was looking forward to showing up this year ready.

However, she found another one for us to do that same weekend in West Virginia: The Appalachian Traithlon. It's actually slightly farther away, but it sounds low key and fun enough. It is only the second year for it, which kind of makes me nervous. But I think I'll register on Saturday before the race when I get there, because, well...last year there were only 13 women and 32 men. Yeah. TINY. We can camp at the park it's in, perhaps for free. Kinda roughing it, but whatever. It is just going to be a very different experience! Small race, no shwagg, CHEAP, and just down and dirty - what a race should be, really. The only thing I'm worried about is the lack of people. It's just not as fun to not have someone to chase, but who knows. Maybe this year the word has gotten out and it will be bigger. (Right now there are only 4 people pre-registered though - ha!)

So now I have to get my money back for Rocky Gap, cancel the hotel, say goodbye to the prospect of beautiful, clear water and kayaking the next day in Maryland, and now focus on maybe winning the whole damn (women's) race. Because last year's winner had a bike split of 17 mph. And it's a flat course.

So. Back to work!!!

Here's what this week looks like.

MONDAY:
Just back in town from a LeMons weekend in Joliet and friend-visiting in Chicago. It was a pretty fantastic weekend, even with the LeMons race failure.

TUESDAY:
Bike: Tempo. I'll do spinning (first time at the Y I'm now a member of)
Strength.

WEDNESDAY:
Swim: 1500. Warm up 250, 8 x 25 drills, 8 x 75 max (45 sec rest), 4 x 50 sprint (20 sec rest), Cool down 250.
Run: Tempo Run 32 minutes. 10 warm up, 12 tempo, 10 cool down

THURSDAY: 
Bike: on trail 45 minutes. Speed intervals. 4 x 1 min with 2 minute active recovery.
Strength.

FRIDAY: 
Swim: 1500. Warm up 250, 8 x 25 drills, 3 x 200 (45 sec rest), 8 x 25 sprint (20 sec rest), Cool down 250.
Run: 35 min run + 6 x 20 sec strides.

SATURDAY:
Bike: Long group ride - Breakfast Ride.

Here I go. 6 more weeks - woohoo!

Final Broomball Game and Week in Review

Broomball season has come to an end (at least for the Fountain Square league). It was a fun 6 weeks. I don't get sore anymore. We all had some good plays and I even scored this season. Right about now is when I'm ready for the season to really begin, but it's just the quick outdoor league season fun. Oh well.

Now it's back to focusing on triathlon. Not that broomball took away from it much. But I guess I just feel like it's another little break in things.

Last week was ok training-wise. I took a break from swimming, mostly because of my workload. This week I'll add it back in, but I still want to put most of my efforts into running. I think for now I just need to accept my slow swimming, keep doing it, and keep working on my form.

LAST WEEK:
Sunday - 6 miles
Monday - off (I was pretty sore from the 6. Hurrah for getting back into it.
Tuesday - 3 mile run at the indoor track
Wednesday - spinning class
Thursday - 3.3 mile run
Friday - off
Saturday - broomball? Kinda counts for something.


So that's about 3.5 hours of training. Adding three swims back will be close to 6, plus I need another bike session in there. The hours will be ramping up again.

Tomorrow I'm hoping this sunshine sticks around and I'm going to run 8.

Two Days in a Row!

Wednesday I ran 4.5 miles when it was 22º but sunny outside. Thursday I ran 3.4 miles when it was considerably warmer (but cloudy. meh, it's winter). I met a friend at Winton Woods and we did the loop twice. I was surprised by how ok I felt! I've had no energy lately, feeling pretty bad after 10 minutes into any workout. So this was a very nice change. It's always good to start feeling like yourself again.


And now a little bit about the week:

Monday: swam 100 yards. Yes 100, and it wasn't really swimming. Hurt my back while sleeping and ended up having spasms. Went to an awesome massage therapist and it's on the mend.

Tuesday: no spinning because school was cancelled (and therefor the classes at the Comm Center). Plus, my back. I did hop on the trainer for 40 minutes though. That was all my back could take. Also, it was so cold (50º in the garage) that I brought everything into the living room because I hate the cold!

Wednesday: couldn't take it in the house anymore, so I got outside with my balaclava and ran 4.5 slow miles. It was 22º which is way warmer than it's been and tolerable, but I was definitely getting cold by the end. I could have stayed in the hot shower for an hour.

Thursday: ran 3.4 miles at Winton Woods. It went surprisingly well. I could breathe ok too. Last run at WW was very bad.

Friday- today!  I'm planning to swim today. I have pretty high hopes that my back will be fine. It's still sore, but there is no more tweaky jerks when moving into a certain position. Maybe now I'm at the point where the swim will help loosen me up.

Saturday: I will be playing two broomball games - our team and subbing for another team. And I think it's going to be pretty slick since it has gotten warmer and there may be rain. Ug.

Sunday: Indoor triathlon!!!!!! Looking at it as a kick-off workout to the season. I'm in terrible shape but whatever. Here goes nothing.


And smoothies. I've been making smoothies. So far banana peanut butter with some chocolate powder is my go-to one. I should experiment more though and try some new ones. I'd like to be able to recreate Bolthouse Farms mocha one. Yum....

Here's one I tried with strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, yogurt, and....chocolate powder. Because I have to have chocolate powder in everything.

Thanksgiving Week

The week was, as I expected, hit and miss with workouts and chock full of eating :)  But it's ok. The previous week wasn't much of a recovery week thanks to my hilly long run with the Dav-Huffs. I'm actually fine with how it's gone this week. I feel like I've learned a bunch these past 5 weeks and am excited for December.

Some things I've learned:
1. Eating and Hunger. My appetite has been through the roof. This week I finally felt like I wasn't hungry a lot...but I also only did a few workouts, so I guess that's why. I'm not gaining weight, but I'm not losing anymore either. I guess I'll need to cut back some more calories.

2. Swimming. It continues to be a struggle. However, I know where I need to get stronger before I start worrying about never getting better at swimming. My core and upper body is so very weak.

3. Biking. I am cruising through biking ok right now. Nothing is changing here at the moment and that's ok. I've settled into the Tuesday spinning class and alternating Saturdays with spinning or riding at home with a run afterwords when I feel like it.

4. Running. It was rough running with E and R through the hilly neighborhoods. I got pretty down about my fitness, but realized I had no business thinking I'd be suddenly good out of nowhere when I haven't been working on running all that much. I think that's going to come in December.

5. Overall Strength. I am so weak. I have endurance, but I don't have strength or power. I've decided in December I'm going to work on weights and building some power. I think it will be fun!


So...December is going to be fun. I'm looking forward to seeing some improvements and feeling good! When it gets crazy around the holidays, so be it. I'll do what I can. But first is the Jingle Bell run on my birthday! It's hard to say how it will go. I would be elated with 9s. We'll see, it will be fun to run no matter what.

Spinning + an eventual run

The end of the week again got difficult. I think for a while I'm just going to roll with this. I have no problem swimming on Friday mornings, but getting a run in has been challenging for some reason. I've changed things up by moving the run to Saturday instead (when I also bike).

The first time I did that, it was a true "brick," where I changed as fast as I could after an hour on my trainer and started running on weird after-biking legs. This past Saturday it was more of just a bike....(doobie-doooooo)....then a run. I went to the gym for a spinning class. I cooled down in the class, stretched with everyone, etc. Then after I cleaned off my bike, I went down to my locker and changed into my running shoes, walked back upstairs, and ran on the indoor track for 20 minutes. It was interesting how much the time break made a difference with how my legs felt. I was a little tired from the class, but I didn't feel so disconnected with my legs. I guess this is just proof for how important the brick exercise is to get yourself used to pushing right after the bike.

The class Saturday morning was a good one...and crowded! I counted 35 people in the mirror. It was like a big Saturday morning group ride, except stinky. We did a "running" class, where all of our intervals involved a lot of running and pushing in position 2. I liked how short the intervals were. It wasn't easy, but it was nice to change what we were doing so often.

As mentioned above, I ran after the class. The indoor track is, I don't know, a tenth of a mile per lap? It can get pretty mind-numbing, but I still prefer it to the treadmill. It was a few laps before I settled in to a pace. Half of the track was cool (the part around the climbing wall and big atrium area) and the other half back by the basketball courts was HOT. It felt like I was running by a heater blasting hot air, and maybe that was the case since the track is up high near the court ceilings. It was a strange sensation.

This morning I haven't done anything yet because I'm getting some invoicing done. I'm going to brave the pool crowd at 11. And then I suppose I will go shopping for Thanksgiving! Running today is going to be really chilly and I'm dreading it.

It Got Cold Out = Time to Whine

Wednesday's p.m. run was....cold. It has gotten cold, I know this. But this was the first run I've had to do in tights. And a head warmer. And gloves. Sigh.

Turns out I just went too late and the darkness got to me. I am historically a morning runner. But now I don't run in the morning at all because I swim in the mornings (when the pool is less crowded and less perfumed by, well, perfume). Monday, Wednesday and Friday are a.m. swims and p.m. runs. When coming up with my schedule, I thought this would be awesome for winter, because I'd rather run in the sunny winter afternoon than cold cold morning still in the 20s. This thought still holds true. I just have to remember the time change happened and it's dark at 5:30.

From the above, it looks like I match when I run. I don't typically. (But I am sure I run faster when I do. Hmmm...)

Anyway, it was a good 40 minute run, despite my grumpy face. It was dark, so no one could see it anyway.

Swimming Morning Confusion

This morning's swim workout was supposed to be this:

250 warm up
6 x 25 drills
5 x 150 (50 easy / 25 hard) (:15 recovery)
4 x 50 sprints (:20 recovery)
6 x 25 kicks
250 cool down
= 1750 yards


But for some reason (and I even went over it in my head and counted up the yardage before I got in the pool) I did this:

250 warm up (correct!)
6 x 25 drills (correct!)
6 x 125 (50 easy...except 50 easy twice in a row / 25 hard) (:15r)  (EERRRNT!)
6 x 50 sprints (:20r)   (EERRRNT!)
6 x 25 kicks (correct!)
250 cool down (correct!)
= 1850 yards

So for some reason I just got the main sets all mixed up. Sixes were in my head. And when I went to do the 150s, I even thought to myself but how can it be 50 easy 25 hard...did I really see 100 easy?  And those sprints!! I was dying by the 5th, and took a bit more rest before the 6th.

I guess I'll need to work on memorizing a bit better before leaving the locker room, geesh. I only went 100 yards more, but I didn't do the 150s right and I did 2 extra sprints. I would have liked doing the 150s in the format they were supposed to have been done. And it would have been interesting to recover on 50 after going hard 25.

Anyway...... not a big deal. I just find it funny that I can't seem to keep swimming workouts straight. Maybe I need to laminate some cards.

Still Settling In

The end of last week got busy. Instead of running at Kingswood, I ended up riding inside on the new bike setup in the garage. I watched some Colbert Report and fit in 50 minutes of riding.

In the past, I would bring my fluid trainer and bike out into the living room. I'd set it up and pick something to watch on Netflix or Hulu+...or just listen to some music. And from the street, this is what you'd see:

I'd bring a fan out, grab a cup of water and ride. It's not a terrible amount of setup, but it does kind of take over the living room in our small house. Now everything is set up out in the garage (which is heated to some degree and carpeted with carpet tiles). I have a roku to stream Netflix and Hulu+. That is all hooked up to an old monitor and receiver. I can also plug my phone in and listen to music. It's a pretty fantastic setup for the winter, and makes it easy to just hop on my bike, since it's already on the trainer. I just pump up the tire(s), get some water, pick my media and turn on the fan. No excuses. I don't take over the house, and I can easily get a ride going in a couple minutes rather than 10.

Right now, I'm just going with the flow of things and trying not to worry about missing a workout here or there as I learn what is going to work with my schedule. I am prioritizing swimming and going from there. It's been hard to adjust to colder running weather. I love the warm afternoons we've been having, but they also tease me into thinking it's not going to get too cold. I'll be better when it's just always cold. 

I took Sunday off and did a bunch of yard work. Monday I got back to things with a 1400 yard swim in the morning and a 40 minute run in the afternoon. It started raining right as I was beginning the run. It wasn't that warm and I thought I'd have to bag it, but I stayed out there, running close to home in case it started raining cats and dogs. It never did, so I wasn't too wet by the end. Hot shower immediately!

Last night it snowed, and it was 27º this morning when I scraped the car off and drove to the gym for a cycling class. It was a really tough class! We did two sets of hill intervals and tabata. The hill intervals were 2:00, 1:30, and :30-30 where we'd increase every so often, then push the last :30. Then we'd bump it back down to one gear above where we started the previous interval and go again. I think there were 5 in each set...2:00, 1:30, then :30-:30. Then right after that, we went straight into a tabata that had about 6 sessions I think? I was toast after this entire first set...and then we did it all again. Except this time the intervals were done out in 3rd (instead of seated). My legs were getting jelly-like.

My average hr was 145, but I forgot to stop the monitor until some time during cool down. I maxed out at 170 during the second tabata (which was also when I thought my legs were going to fall off). The instructor said this ride was designed to make our heart rates go up and then back down over and over, and as I watched mine that is indeed what happened.

I'm pretty tired and need to recover well today in order to get up and swim sprints and run my 2.5 mile weekly time push route in the afternoon. Yikes! Like I said, still settling in....