Friday Afternoon Swim

Today's workout was a swim & run.

I knew I wasn't going to do the run. I should've, but I just wasn't in the mood. So, I swam and swam and swam.

Here's what I did:

Swim: wu 150; 200 choice easy pace; 500 freestyle medium pace; 2 x 100 easy pace; 1 x 250 medium pace, 1x100 medium pace; 6 x 50 alternating pull and kick; 50 cooldown.

Total: 1750m

It took me about 50 minutes with the rests, 45 minutes once you take the rests out. I was pretty happy with the effort. I also had a rather important discovery today. When breathing to my left, I feel like I have more power in my strokes than when I breathe to my right. I'll have to figure that out in future swims.

Snakes in the Pool and Emotional Lifting

Ok, ok, there were no real snakes in the pool, but we did a snake swim in the pool. That counts, right? I started with my warm-up and got halfway through my drills. One of the other ladies asked about my tri and we talked for a while about what the cancellation meant for my schedule. Seems like it's the topic of conversation for the week!

About 15 minutes before I'm done with my workout, Coach L decides that we should go ahead and still do the 400 yard snake swim we were going to do as a practice for my race. It was kind of fun. The only thing is that I kept hitting my hand on the land divider and I've got a bruise there now! Ah well, latest badge of honor. I did the 400 yard swim in 8:09. I'm happy with the time, it was just what I thought it'd be.

Tonight was my last night of TNT at Regency with J. As it got closer to 5:45, the end of the workout, it was getting harder. I did manage to get out of there without shedding a tear, but just barely. Great workout, but super emotional. I'm still not 100% sure it's the *right* decision, but I have to give it a try.

Tuesday Track

Today's track workout was 400s. I got there at 5:05 and managed to get my warmup in before the rest of the ladies got there. I ran with the Coach L to measure out the 400m, talked with her a bit about next steps given that my tri was cancelled, and then got to work.

I averaged a little over 1:30 for each of the 400s. I did two rounds of them and then the rest of the ladies joined me. As the rounds went on, I got a little slower, but not by much - about 5 seconds or so. On the first round with the ladies, I managed to pull away a good bit just because it was my third and their first. I was glad to not be out front for the rest of them! I did 8 of them before I had to get to work.

I went to spin class tonight - which was great. D always puts on a great class. It was crazy speedwork and man did it work me!

This Week's Schedule

This week's workouts leave me going "REALLY?!" quite a bit.

Monday
Tri:off
TNT

Tuesday
Track

Wednesday
Swim
TNT

Thursday
Bike

Friday
Swim
Run

Saturday
Off

Sunday
Brick: 1 hour bike ride; 45min - 1 hour run

Disappointment

Today was a TNT day. I did a nice "easy" 25 minute bike ride before class (stationary bike). I've got one more session with my trainer J and the ladies at the 5pm M/W class. This is a really hard change for me to make. I'll be heading to the gym closer to home with a newer trainer. They class he's got isn't the most reliable, which is hard for me. I'll figure it all out though.

The disappointment comes here... I got an email this afternoon that my first tri was cancelled! They had too low of an enrollment in it, so they had to cancel it. I'm totally bummed out and was really looking forward to it. So, now I need to decide what to do. There's another sprint I was thinking about, but the timing just wasn't going to work before. Now that I'm not racing this weekend, it might be a possibility. I also need to decide if I want to do this same race in September or get a refund.

I hate last minute decisions. I never feel fully prepared for them.

I'll post my workout schedule for this week in a different post.

Bike ride, kinda

Today was a beautiful day! So beautiful that I did barely anything... again. Really not what I should've done the weekend before a race. By the time I was going to head over to the gym for a swim, it was closed.

We did go for a bike ride after dinner, but it wasn't long nor hard. We both rode our hybrids. It feels so different from my road bike! Not necessarily in a good way either. Back to the road bike very soon!

I Guess...

I guess I needed some down time. I haven't done anything since my bad swim on Wednesday morning. And you know what? I don't feel guilty about it at all. I desperately need another swim and a bike this weekend, but if it doesn't get done, it doesn't get done. I'm not going to worry about it at all. I'll pick up where I left off come Monday.

Ah Rest Day

Today was supposed to be a run, but I made it into a rest day. I love my rest days. I'm glad I didn't go out and run, even though it was beautiful out and it was so tempting. My body was screaming at me to just rest today. I'm learning to listen to what my body wants. If I don't, I'll never get through this season.

Tomorrow, another swim and maybe a bike ride!

Today's Swim Sucked

The title says it all. Honestly, I didn't want to get up and go to the workout. I was having a great sleep (which rarely happens) and when the alarm went off I just wasn't ready to get out of bed.

I got to the pool, got in, and started my swim. At some point during it, Coach L stopped me and was talking about my stroke. I was pretty honest with her and told her I was super tired and I knew I was swimming lazy, but I'd definitely try to work on it.

We did talk a bit about my nerves for my first tri (May 1st is coming up quickly!). She told me that my swim would definitely be my slowest/weakest part. She assured me that I'm stronger on the bike than I think I am and that my runs are great, so not to worry. I let her know my goal is literally to finish standing... and she told me that I'd definitely accomplish that goal.

I went to work and never really woke up. At 3pm, I emailed my TNT trainer, J, and let him know I wouldn't be joining the group today. I just needed some rest. I really did need it, as I was almost falling asleep on the way home (BAD!).

Hills, hills, hills, hills

Today's workout is:

Hill repeats (am)
Spin class (pm)

I got to my coach's house at 5:15. As soon as everyone else showed up, we headed to the hill. Now, I mistakenly had mentally prepared myself for the hill near her house. Um, no. This one was about 5 minutes from her house and much tougher! Once we got there, we had to run up a bajillion times and then back down.

I did it 4 times before I had to leave. I actually felt pretty strong. Who knows how the next few would've gone, but the first 4 felt good.

Hopefully I'll get to spin class tonight. I desperately need to!

Edited to add: I got to spin class and it was AWESOME! My spin instructor wrecked her bike last weekend as part of a race and wow. Girl probably has a torn rotator cuff, as well as a bunch of bumps and bruises and a few very swollen areas. She didn't take it any easier on us for class. Love her for that!

Yoga and TNT

During my massage, my massage therapist said that my hamstrings are pretty tight. I decided that the Yogamazing podcast for tight hamstrings was in order before TNT. Just as I was finishing up, class was getting ready to start, so that was great timing!

TNT was good. Not too hard, but not too easy. I had to "break up" with my trainer. I'm going to switch gyms so that I'm closer to home after work. The years of sitting in traffic after work are just getting to me more than ever before. Depending on how next session goes, we'll see if I switch back to the gym closer to work. Hopefully this trainer's good enough to win me over. My trainers have been pretty "crazy" (in a good way) in the past, so hopefully he understands where I am and what I'm trying to do.

Week 5's Workouts

Here's this week's workouts:

Monday
Off/TNT

Tuesday
Hill repeats
Spin class

Wednesday
TNT/Swim

Thursday
Run

Friday
Swim
Bike

Saturday
Run - Long

Sunday
Brick - 2 hour bike / 20 min. run

Sunday Brick

Today's workout was a brick workout. I've never done one, and given that my first race is in two weeks, I thought it might be a good idea to actually do it. So here was the scheduled workout:

Brick - 90 min bike ride, 30 min run

Sometime during the week, I remembered that I needed to get in some transition training as well. Coach L met me a few minutes early to go over everything for transition. I'm glad I got that in with her. There's so much to set out, remember to do, etc. Especially for transition 1 - swim to bike.

We headed out on the ride, and I was up front. Not sure that was the best idea, but hey, it worked. Coach L came up and took the lead for a while. She later told me I'm a pretty strong biker. She kept turning her head, expecting to have lost me, but I was keeping up with her pretty well. We got 8.5 miles into the ride and Coach L asked when we wanted to turn around (there was a group of 5), we decided to do about 12 miles out.

Right after this conversation, there's a downhill with a 90 degree turn at the bottom. Guess who didn't quite make the turn? Yup, me. I ran smack into another biker. Thank goodness he was nice - and that we both ended that with 1) minimal damage and 2) standing. One of the other ladies fell down right behind us, but we (and she said this) think it was more to do with her handle bars being loose than with me crashing into the other biker.

After we all checked out, tighted the handlebars, we continued on our ride. We got to the 12 mile point and turned around. Coach L, her husband, and I were up front, so we waited for the other two ladies. As we were waiting, Coach L needed to move to the right a little, and I was just behind her, so I needed to move over as well. Guess who fell again? I REALLY need to learn to unclip my right foot when I'm standing still. At least it was on gravel this time.

The last 12 miles (back) were very uneventful, which was nice. I got back, threw my bike in the car, put my running shoes on and started on my (short) run. I ran for 10 minutes, which was definitely enough. It was just over a mile and ever second of it SUCKED.

After the run, I headed for a quick lunch followed by a massage. That was fantastic!

Swim and Run

Today's workout was a rough one. I had a swim and run to do.

Since I didn't do my kick and pulls on Wednesday morning, I decided to add them to tonight's workout. Some of my 50m easies were kicks/pulls instead of just being "easy". The swim went really well, but man was I tired afterwards! 1600m down and just a run to go!

I had a hard time getting back out of the door for the run, but I managed. I did my warmup mile and did 10x 60sec on, 60sec off, 30 sec on, 30 sec off. Why? Because I didn't realize I was supposed to do 6. Oops! The run went really well. I saw a few funny things while traveling around the neighborhood. A landscaper got sprayed by the hose when he opened up the fire hydrant for their job. Then, one of the neighbors was razzin me a bit and told me I couldn't possibly be tired (it was on one of my "off" times) and only had about 4 or 5 more laps to go. I laughed and told him he was about right. When I was on my last one, I ran by and told him I was done and headed home. He laughed. I love it when people are friendly and laughing. Makes me smile.

The rest day on Thursday was just what I needed. Tomorrow's a rest day as well. Looking forward to my brick on Sunday - complete with transition training.

Another swim down

This morning was another swim. Nothing too eventful. Here was what it was supposed to be 1200m

Here's what I did: 1050m

Coach L was standing on the side of the pool giving out critiques this morning. I was listening in on a few of them, just because they're basically free pointers and since I'm very new to this sport, I figured "why not?". As I was finishing up, Coach L asked how my swimming feels. I told her that it feels great, much better. She told me that it looks MUCH better. That made me feel good. I know there's still plenty of work to do, but given that it's a lot better than it was just 3 weeks ago, I'm more confident that I'll be able to do my swims.

Posted on the Active.com facebook page was this:

http://www.active.com/triathlon/Articles/Flexibility_training__Swimming_stretches.htm?cmp=17-1-468

Can't wait to give them a try.

Tonight - more cardio and TNT.

Humid Run

Last night, the forecast for this morning said 50-something degrees and a 75% chance of thunderstorms. Guess what?! They were WRONG! It was about 63 and humid as all get out without the rain... at least at 5:15 this morning.

One of the ladies was 15 minutes late, so we ran back to get her, so we had a 2 mile warm-up. Ah well, 3.5 miles in about 30 minutes this morning.

My body wasn't too happy with me this morning. I was actually getting good sleep, making up for Saturday's lack of sleep, so when I got out of bed at 4:20, ugh. I'm still a bit sore from my fall on Sunday, but it'll be fine. Just work through it, right?

We'll see if I make it to spin tonight. I love that class so much, I just really wish is was still at 5:30.

Week 4 - A month already?!

Wow, I can't believe I'm starting on my 4th week with Amazia Fitness already!

Here's this week's self-inflicted punishment:

Monday
TNT

Tuesday
Track

Wednesday
Swim
TNT

Thursday
Crossfit (won't do it)
Bike

Friday
Swim
Run

Saturday
Bootcamp (we'll see if I do this or not, probably not)

Sunday
Brick - 90 min bike ride, 30 min run

If I don't kill myself on my bike...

... it'll be a freakin miracle. So, every rider's had a number of flats and has fallen down while clipped into their bike. I've now done both in the matter of a week.

I show up to the W&OD trail and start to get ready to ride. The other ladies in the group get there and also start to get ready. T was kind enough to inflate my tires since my pump at home sucks (new pump since acquired). Coach L's bike is still on it's way from CA from her race last week, so she was just there to send us off.  After T pumped my tires, I get on the bike, clip in my right foot and must've (stupidly) lifted my left foot because I fell over... standing still.

Man did I feel stupid. The ladies were great - getting me to laugh as quickly as possible, reassuring me that everyone's done it, even telling me their own stories. Coach L asks if I'm ok and I said "yea, I'm ok." and then lifted my capris over my knee. Turns out, I scraped it pretty good. J had bandaids, thankfully since mine were sitting in my garage... oops, and got me a couple. Put the bandaids on and it was time to go.

T and I set out heading west on the W&OD. She's really helped me along in the past 3 weeks I've been with the group and I am thankful that she has. She hung out at my pace for the first 8.5 miles, until I turned around. I hope she had a good rest of her ride.

After 8.5 miles, I turned around and headed back. 17 miles took me 1 hr 17 min. Not a great time by any means, but the more I ride, the more it'll come down.

My husband and I took a bike maintenance class today as well. Very informative and helpful. After the class, we picked up the bike pump and some chain oil. Definitely need to oil the chain. You're supposed to do that every 2 weeks... oops! I've got so much to learn!

Brambleton Step-Sisters Ribbon Run 5k

Today was the Brambleton Step-Sisters Ribbon Run 5k. My husband and I both ran. He was kind enough to not hold me back with him, so that I could try to PR. My training has been completely different than it was before my injury, so I was really hoping that I'd be able to just run a good, and clean, race.

At 7:25, they did the National Anthem. I have a love/hate relationship with races starting this way. I love it because I think it's a wonderful thing... I hate it because for some reason, the National Anthem makes me emotional. Could be the fact that my parents were both military. Who knows. The teenage girl who sang it was really good.

At 7:30, we were off! I got to a comfortable pace within 3 minutes and stayed there most of the race. The first mile, I ran a 8:40. The second mile was an 8:34. The third was an 8:42. The last .1, I ran in 1:09 (an 8:01 pace). Total time was 27:07 (watch and official timing). I broke my previous PR by about 5 minutes. My main goal was to be under 30 minutes and I did it! I was so proud of myself!

My husband's goal was to be 35 minutes or better - he came in at 32:30. I'm so proud of him as well.

I placed 109th overall (out of 785) and 10th in my age group (out of 144) with an overall pace of 8:44/mile. Great way to start race season!

Another Swim and Prep for Tomorrow

Yesterday was wonderful. I mean, sitting my butt on the couch is always a nice break, but yesterday, it was FANTASTIC.

Today's workout was a swim. Here was the original workout:

Swim - 1850m

Guess what?! I did all but the last 100m of the cooldown. I had been in the pool for 45 min and just wanted out by that time. So, a total of 1750m today! I think that may be the farthest I've swam in a single workout. The pulls were hard, but totally what I needed. I discovered that I really need to work on my left arm pull. It'll get better with time, I'd rather be learning these things now!

In addition to the gym, I also picked up our race packets for our first 5k of the season. I'm a bit nervous since I haven't raced since October 2009. The last time I raced, I set a PR for my 10k and then couldn't walk on my left leg for about 2 days (pulled AT). I was also about 20 lbs heavier. I've gotten so much faster, so hopefully I'll break the 30 minute mark and set a new 5k PR. I think my fastest 5k time was 35 minutes and some change before the injury.

Coach L will be there manning a table for Crossfit. It'll be good to be able to let her know how things went right after I get done.

Just need to set everything out, shower, and get to bed at a relatively reasonable time. I'll definitely be updating tomorrow with how the race goes, especially since it's my workout for the day.

Swim and TNT

So today's first workout was my 5am swim. Thankfully a few other ladies showed up at 5, so I wasn't all alone in the pool. Here's what the workout was supposed to be: 1400m

Here's what I got in: 1200m

Coach L did her first race in 2 yrs (after recovering from an injury) - a half iron man (70.3 miles overall) this past weekend. So, The reason I didn't get everything in was because we were all hanging on the wall of the pool listening to her race recap. It gave me a good glimpse of what my (much shorter) first race will probably be like.

After I got out of the pool, Coach L and I were chatting. She said that when she walked up to the pool, she was trying to identify everyone based on stroke and swim cap and she couldn't place me. She said my stroke's improved so much in the past 2 weeks (she wasn't at last week's swim). We talked a bit about what I was doing to help improve it and make sure I'm pulling the water. I feel GOOD about the way my swimming is going. I'm finding that I'm not quite as exhausted getting out of the water, and it's generally easier to swim than it was. I know there's still a lot of room for improvement, but it'll come with time.

After work, I headed to the gym for TNT. I walked on the treadmill for about 25 minutes before class, stretched out for a couple of minutes, and then did my weightlifting class. It was a good class, but I was ready to collapse by the time I got home. Apparently 4 workouts in 24 hours is the most I can do. :)

Is it sad that I'm looking forward to Thursday just to lay on my couch?

Rainy Hills

Since nothing ever goes according to plan, you know today's workouts can't either. Today was supposed to be hill repeats outside (of course). Well... at 3:30am, some wicked thunderstorms rolled through at like 80mph. It was crazy. Hail, pouring down torrential rain, high winds, the whole nine yards.

Needless to say, track was canceled. Unknown to me, emails were flying last night at 8:30pm discussing canceling our workout. I guess I should've checked email before I went to bed. Oops. So, my alarm still went off at 4:10. I slept until 4:20 and then checked email (given that it was still lightening out) and realized that we were off, so back to bed I went.

So, I went to work, came home to relax for a few, and then headed to the gym at 5. I talked with Trey (my potentially new TNT trainer, Jon's current TNT trainer) for a few minutes and then hit the treadmill to do my hill workout. I rocked it out at an average of 3.5% incline and an 8:34 min/mile. The last 3 of my 10 hill repeats I decided to up the ante and did a 4% incline at an 8:00 min/mile. I LOVE THIS. I'm getting faster and stronger in my runs.

I got off the treadmill, stretched for a few minutes, and then headed to spin class. Guess what we did at spin class?! HILLS! Of course. It was brutal after hill repeats, but I powered through and I'm glad I did. I was at spin class for an hour and 15 min (I'm always on the bike a few minutes before class).

I also figured out where my leak in my tube was. Now, I just need to replace the tube. Maybe Thursday when I'm resting and have some down time.

Overall, today rocked... it was just... hilly. :)

Week 3 with the group

So, this starts week 3 with the ladies of Tri 4 Women. I'm slowly adjusting to the early mornings and 6-8 workouts a week including my TNT stuff.

Here's this week's schedule (TNT is not part of the triathlon training):

Monday:
off/TNT

Tuesday:
Track

Wednesday:
Swim

Thursday:
Crossfit in the morning (I don't do this)
Bike

Friday:
Swim
Saturday:
Bootcamp with trail run after
What I'll be doing instead: Brambleton Step Sisters 5k (hoping for a PR and a sub-30min 5k)

Sunday:
Brick: 90 min bike ride, 30 min run

Sunday bike ride

Today's workout was supposed to be a 90 min ride followed by a 30 min run. In the comedy of errors that was my week last week, this is NOT what happened.

So, my husband and I decided to go out for a late afternoon ride. I figured a good, solid, 60 minute ride was in order. We got 27 minutes into it, crossed the last of the roads before our turn around and I got a flat. Not that big of a deal, right? WRONG. The re-inflation by CO2 didn't work... twice. So, my husband rode the 6.5 miles back to the car while I sat and chilled out for an hour.

He apparently was having horrid images of me being raped and murdered - neither of which happened. The turkey buzzards were far scarier than any person who passed. He did laugh when he finally got to me and I still had my helmet on while sitting on the concrete barrier.

Thankfully, all went well... except for the fact that I didn't get in my full ride. Ah well... there'll always be another ride.

Swim and Run (aka: listen to your body)

So, this was today's scheduled workout:

Swim: 1100-1200m
Run: Tempo; 5-6 miles
That, my friends, is NOT what took place. Here's what happened:

Swim: 200m warmup; 4x25m hard, 25m easy; 5x100m w/rest; 200m cool-down
Run: 1 mile easy, 1 miles at 80% of 10k pace, .5 miles easy (aka: walk for the cooldown)
The swim went well. I did some bilateral breathing on my warmup and cooldown to start getting into the practice of it. So much harder than you'd think! But, I could feel that my body likes it more... I just need to learn to do it without taking in water.

Changing after the swim was humorous to say the least. My sports bra was NOT cooperating! Now I definitely know why people have said that if you want to wear it for the tri, wear it for the swim.

The run did NOT go well at all. Remember that water I took in from the bilateral breathing? Yea, my colon did too. I should've just gotten off the treadmill, gone to the bathroom, and started back up. My stubborn self didn't and that made for a sucky run. I did the first mile at a 10:00min//mile pace. The second mile was a 8:47min/mile pace. The second pace actually felt good, other than the cramp where I don't normally get one. Since it was so bad, I decided it was better to cut the run short and walk for a half mile.

Tomorrow's a rest day - thank goodness. My body could use it!