Sunday, July 31, 2011

Sunday Ride & New Shoes

So, I was ubber lazy (and totally uninspired) to do Friday and Saturday's workouts. I sooooo need to get better about the runs. After this sprint, I've got goals to work on.

Today, we rode the course for next week's sprint. We did 3 loops (17.7 miles because we did the first one wrong) in 1:11:xx. On June 5, I did the course in 42 minutes, so my goal is to break 40 on Sunday. Clipping in faster would be a good help! Hopefully that won't be as much of an issue this time.

I knew I needed new running shoes, so I didn't do the run after the bike (it helped that no one else did it either). After I got home, we went out to run errands and I got new shoes. I didn't get the same ones as last time because they no longer carry them. So, I'm in Saucony Progrid Ride 3's now. We'll see how they do! The best part is that they're originally $95 and were on sale for $76. Not only that, but we were close enough to earning our $20 coupon that they went ahead and gave it to me. That's right, I got my running shoes for $56. Seriously?! I've never gotten off so cheaply! Now, to run in them.

This week's workouts

Here's this week's workouts. I have a race next Sunday - and can't wait to crush it!

Monday
Day off

Tuesday
Track/Speed workout - wu with drills - pose drill (#4), exaggerated lunge, lean with hips. Here is a link to a video describing pose. Scroll down on page to find it.
http://www.crossfitimpavidus.com/events-community/endurance-blog/?bib_page_offset=10
10 x 30 sec . on 30 sec. off; 5 x 1 min. on 1 min. off

Wednesday
Swim - wu - 400 swim and drills; 20 x 50 yds. (1st 25 sec. rest 2nd 20sec. rest 3rd 15 sec. rest 4th 10 sec. rest. 5th  5 sec rest. Repeat rest in this order until finished); 4 x 50 pull  50 kick; cool down

Thursday
Bike - wu 20 min.; 2-5 x 5k Time Trial with 5 min. easy spin btwn. Try and find a good stretch on the trail that you can go hard for the distance or simulate on trainer or spin bike; cd 20 min.
Run - 20-30 min. off the bike

Friday
Swim - wu 300-500 with swim and drills; 800  yd. time trial; cool down
Run - 3-6 miles

Saturday
day off (pre-race)

Sunday
Dog Days Sprint - 7 am. Come out and cheer for Mary and Heather.
Bike - (for those not racing) 2-3 hours

Thursday, July 28, 2011

TNT Thursday

I didn't bike today. I really should've, but with how the week has been going, I just didn't feel like it. So, I did just my TNT workout today. I'm glad that I got my butt to the gym for it - it was much needed. I stayed for a bit and rolled out some of the tension in my legs, which was also much needed. Hopefully next week will be a bit better.

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Wednesday Swim

This morning's workout was:

Swim - wu - 300 swim and drills;1 mile timed continuous swim; cool down.

I did:

Swim - wu - 200 swim and drills;1 mile timed continuous swim; 100 cool down.
Total: 1950yds

I did my mile continuous swim in 32:51.35!!!! A few weeks ago, we had a 35 minute swim and I did 1600m in 35 minutes, today, I did 1650yds in 32:51. I was so pleased with my swim. I feel like I'm slowly getting stronger in my swim. I made sure to swim wide and push my head down - it definitely helps! It makes me feel better to know that I'm able to do the swim for the international/olympic distance and have now done it more than once.

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Tuesday Track/Speed, TNT, and Spin

Today's workout was this:

Track/Speed workout - wu with drills - pose drill (#4), exaggerated lunge, lean with hips. Here is a link to a video describing pose. Scroll down on page to find it.
http://www.crossfitimpavidus.com/events-community/endurance-blog/?bib_page_offset=10

3 x 1 mile repeats hold within 1-3 sec. of each. Rest 1-3 min. btwn each repeat.


Any time that Coach L is out of town (like this week), it seems that no one wants to do the track workout. T & I were the only ones to show up, so we didn't do this workout. Oops?! Instead, we did a 5 mile run. It felt great! The only bad thing about the run was that T told me that she's leaving the team after this week. It makes me a bit sad, but I totally understand.

I need to figure out how many miles are on my shoes. I think it's time to replace them. My left hamstring and calf are in pain after the runs and my right IT band is bothering me again. Grrrr. Ah well, a good reason to get shiny new running shoes!

Tonight, I did my TNT class. It was just ok. The workout itself was good, but it was just quiet... weird quiet. Ah well.

After TNT, I drug myself up to spin class. I really didn't want to, but I did it. D wasn't there, and her sub C loves standing climbs... which I hate. It's all good, I got the workout in, but I definitely didn't enjoy it as much as normal.

Today was a good/bad day, in general, but definitely in my workouts. Hopefully tomorrow's better

Monday, July 25, 2011

Monday Rest Day & Yoga

Today was a rest day. My shoulder's been bothering me so much lately, that I finally broke down and decided to do some shoulder specific yoga. You know, I felt a lot better after. I always feel better after yoga, I'm not sure why I don't do it more often. I need to start working it into my regular routine. Before bed, I laid on the heating pad for a while too. The combination seems to really help it.

Sunday, July 24, 2011

This week's workouts

Here's this week's workouts: (I won't lie, I'm not looking forward to Tuesday's run)

Monday
Day off

Tuesday
Track/Speed workout - wu with drills - pose drill (#4), exaggerated lunge, lean with hips. Here is a link to a video describing pose. Scroll down on page to find it.
http://www.crossfitimpavidus.com/events-community/endurance-blog/?bib_page_offset=10

3 x 1 mile repeats hold within 1-3 sec. of each. Rest 1-3 min. btwn each repeat.

Wednesday
Swim - wu - 300 swim and drills;1 mile timed continuous swim; cool down.

Thursday
Bike - wu 20 min.; 10 x 2 min. hard 1 min. easy; cd 20 min.

Friday
Swim - wu; 6 x 200 yd. (15 -20 sec. rest btwn); cool down

Saturday
Run - 3-6 mile run

Sunday
Brick:
Sprint - 1.5 hour ride / 30 min. run
Olympic - 2 hour ride / 45 min. run
Half Ironman - 2 hour recovery ride

Long Ride

We went for a 30 mile bike ride this morning on the country roads of Southern VA. It was absolutely wonderful! Not too many hills, only about 5 cars, and 1 almost run in with a deer. I did learn that I can do about 20 miles on my bike without food - but anything after that is a struggle. Oops. Other than that, it was a good ride. We averaged 17-19 mph overall. Good pace.

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Thursday Run

Today was a 5k time trial and TNT.

Workout:
Run - 5k time trial. Record time. This is race pace!

It's been so hot here that I had to do this on the treadmill. I would've preferred to be outside, but with the heat index being over 100, I decided to be safe instead. I ran before TNT, so I was up against a hard time cutoff. I managed to get in 2.77 miles (I was running late to the gym) in 21:46. I was thrilled with that time! It's faster than I've ever run continuously before!

TNT was good. There were only 2 of us. J (the other girl) had never been in a class of 2 before and didn't know what she was in for. I knew exactly what I was in for, and was prepared for it. I did forget how much running before class takes out of me though!

Still feeling strong though! How could I not?!

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Wednesday's Swim

Today's swim was:

Swim - wu - 300 swim and drills; Drills - 1 arm drill, heads up drill, front to back drill; 8-10 x 100 yd. on either 2 min. /2:10/2:20 depending on your pace. You want to have a 15-20 sec. rest btwn.
Cool down - 200 non free (kicking, breast, back)

I did:

Swim - wu - 300 swim and drills; Drills - 1 arm drill, heads up drill, breathing drill; 10 x 100 yd. on either 2 min. /2:10/2:20 depending on your pace. You want to have a 15-20 sec. rest btwn.
Cool down - 100 non free (kicking, breast, back)

This morning's swim was good! T and Coach L watched my swim when I did my first 100. They suggested I make my stroke wider - apparently I was crossing my center line when entering the water. I had no idea! As soon as I did though, I felt so much more powerful. Crazy how that works.

Coach L was asking what my time for my first 100 was, and I told her it was 1:43. She was like "oh, that's good" and then realized what I said and was like "Heather, that's great!". We chatted a bit about how much I slow down throughout the set. My slowest is usually about 1:50, so that's good. I'm pretty happy with the improvements since March and DEFINITELY since January!

I'm feeling very strong this week. I like this feeling!

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Biking in the Dark

I've never ridden my bike in the dark before. It's staying darker longer again, so 5am doesn't really mean light anymore!

Equipped with our headlamps, Coach L and I started out on our 1 mile repeats in the DARK. We saw lots of beady eyes... so many deer out. Thankfully, they all stayed in the fields.

The repeats went well - I kept a pace of 20-22 mph on each one, with a little under a 1/2 mile recovery. I felt great! It's amazing how much I've improved since March. Got in 10.5 miles total, 7 repeats with their recoveries. I would've loved to have stayed and done another hour of that. I'm off my rocker, I know.

TNT tonight - debating about spin since I rode this morning. We'll see how I feel tonight.

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Sunday Sunday

Once again, I REALLY need to stop slacking off. I have a race August 7 that I feel less than prepared for. It'll be fine and I'll power through, but man...

So, here are next week's workouts. We'll see how the week goes!


Monday
Day off

Tuesday
Bike - Mile repeats. Bring headlamps. Should be light enough but just in case.

Wednesday
Swim - wu - 300 swim and drills; Drills - 1 arm drill, heads up drill, front to back drill; 8-10 x 100 yd. on either 2 min. /2:10/2:20 depending on your pace. You want to have a 15-20 sec. rest btwn.
Cool down - 200 non free (kicking, breast, back)

Thursday
Run - 5k time trial. Record time. This is race pace!

Friday
Swim - 3 x 100 pull, 100 kick , 100 swim; 2 x 400 swim; cool down

Saturday
Run - Speed work
wu - 15 min. with drills/ easy jog; Ladder - 30 sec. on 30 sec. off /1 min. on 1 min. off/ 1:30 on 1:30 off/2 min. on 2 min. off and then back down the ladder 2, 1:30, 1:00, :30; cool down 10 min.

Sunday
Brick -
Sprint - 1.5 hour ride / 30 min. run
Olympic - 2 hour ride / 45 min. run
Half Ironman - 2 hour ride/ 90 min run

Saturday, July 16, 2011

White Water Rafting

Because it can't be all training and no fun... we went white water rafting today on the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers. It was absolutely beautiful. The weather was perfect, the people we were in the boat with were good, our guide was great. I really enjoyed the experience and can't wait to do it again. We did Class I - III rapids, so it was pretty tame. I'd love to do some Class IV sometime.

I'd post pictures, but they said "don't bring anything you don't want lost, ruined, or wet because it will end up one of the three", so we didn't bring the camera.

Friday, July 15, 2011

Swimming on Friday

I've decided the chemicals in the Brambleton S&H pool SUCK. They hurt my eyes... even with the goggles on.

Today's swim was:

Swim - wu with drills, pull, kick - 300 yd; Tempo swim - 1000 yds at 85% pace; cool down with non free

It's exactly what I did. My 1000m (since I'm in a meter pool instead of a yard pool) was done in just about 20 minutes. I'm happy with that time - just about 2 minutes per 100m.

I felt good for most of the swim, but was getting a bit tired towards the end of it. In a way, I was glad to be done, in another, I wanted to keep swimming. I'm going to start devising a plan for my off-season shortly. I want to really shoot for stronger swimming skills next season.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Slackin off Thursday

I had every intention of doing a Spinervals DVD tonight... until I let myself talk too much on the way home from the gym. I was getting to know one of my fellow TNTers, which needs to happen in order for me to feel better about making the switch to Brambleton. (Yea, I'm still secon guessing myself).

TNT was great though. T told me that I have "freakishly strong legs", which I guess is a compliment.

Tomorrow will be better...

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Wet Wednesday

Today was another swim day (the weeks are predictible, aren't they?). I feel like today's swim was pretty easy.

wu - 300 swim and drills; Drills - 1 arm drill, fist drill, 6 kicks each side drill; 3 x (50y, 100y, 200y); Cool down - 200 non free (kicking, breast, back)

I did:

wu - 300 swim and drills; Drills - 1 arm drill, fist drill, 6 kicks each side drill; 3 x (50y, 100y, 200y); Cool down - 100 non free (kicking, breast, back)

Total: 1550 yds

The rec center where we swim moved one of the lane lines, so 2 lanes were 1. Coach L had all 5 of us swim in the large lane to kind of simulate open water swimming. We were all at different points in the workout and all over the place, so it was kind of simulated, but not really. It was a good swim overall. Not too hard, but not terribly easy (definitely qualified as one of our easy swims though).

On another note, I always feel like I need to do more cardio on Wednesday nights. Maybe I'll have to start doing yoga on Wednesday nights to fill that hole.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Tough Tuesday

Today was a really tough day for me. Not so much work-out wise, but mentally. Here are my workouts for today:

Track - Running drills - practice #4, pulling with hamstring, leaning with hips , exaggerated forward lunge; 4-6 x 400's - staying within 3-5 sec of each other
TNT
Spin

Track was really hard for me today. Coach L snapped at me for no reason and I'm still not sure how I feel about it. After she snapped, she did go back into normal "L", so it was really weird. Apparently, my running form is pretty close to POSE running, which is what she's trying to get us to work towards. Such an odd workout.

TNT was good. I always love the first one back after cardio week. I did manage to pull T back when he was putting more tension on my squat rows! One point for me!

Spin was HARD! With the Tour de France going on, I apparently need to pay attention to what stage is going on. Today was a sprint stage - so we did an hour of sprints. Hard work I tell you! It's ok, I feel like I'm getting stronger, so I can't complain at all!

Overall, I think the 3 workouts today have gotten me out of my funk. Thank goodness!

Monday, July 11, 2011

This week's schedule

Here's this week's schedule. I seriously slacked off the past 2 weeks - need to regain focus and get back on the horse. I especially need to make sure I get my long run in. I've been seriously slackin on getting those in and it shows in my training.


Monday
Day off

Tuesday
Track  - Running drills - practice #4, pulling with hamstring, leaning with hips , exaggerated forward lunge; 4-6 x 400's - staying within 3-5 sec of each other
TNT
Spin

Wednesday
Swim - wu - 300 swim and drills; Drills - 1 arm drill, fist drill, 6 kicks each side drill; 3 x (50y, 100y, 200y); Cool down - 200 non free (kicking, breast, back)

Thursday
Bike -  20 mile time trial (all out effort)
TNT

Friday
Swim - wu with drills, pull, kick -  300 yd; Tempo swim - 1000 yds at 85% pace; cool down with non free

Saturday
Run - long run
Sprint -  4 miles
Olympic -  7 miles
Half Iron - 11 miles

Sunday
Brick -
Sprint - 1.5 hour ride / 30 min. run
Olympic - 2 hour ride / 30 min. run
Half Ironman - 3 hour ride/ 60 min run

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Been Slackin...

I skipped both Friday's and Saturday's workouts. Oops?! I did get in a 75 min spin today. I used the Spinervals Aerobase 17.0 today (part 2 of 5 basically). I really liked it - low intensity, lower cadences, low heart rate - but still great workout. The nice thing about the Spinervals DVDs so far is that they don't feel like the amount of time that it's been taking (ie: 75 minutes felt like about 30). I think I'm going to order a few of the hill training ones so that I can get in some harder training as well.

I also took the time to clean my chain today. It DESPERATELY needed it. Man that cleaning solution was disgusting by the end of the cleaning. It's all shiny and pretty now, so we'll see if I can keep it that way!

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Spinervals

Today's workout was for the bike:

wu 20 min; 40 min. tempo ride - hold a fast pace, just under race pace

Since I've been horrible about doing the Thursday bike rides, I bought the 5 Aerobase Spinerval DVDs. Tonight, I did Aerobase 16.0 (which is the first of the five). It was an 80 minute ride. High cadence, aerobic capacity. Great ride - can't wait to do it again! I think my next spin will be Aerobase 17.0 (the 2nd in the series). Happy to get it in!

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Swimming lap after lap

Today's workout was:

wu - 500 swim and drills (Drills - 1 arm drill, fist drill, 6 kicks each side drill, breathing 3, 5, 7 drill); 10 x 75's (10-15 sec. rest btwn); Cool down - 300 non free (kicking, breast, back)

What I ended up doing was:

wu - 500 swim and drills (Drills - 1 arm drill, fist drill, 6 kicks each side drill, breathing 3, 5, 7 drill); 10 x 75's (10-15 sec. rest btwn); Cool down - 100 non free (kicking, breast, back)

The only thing that changed was my cool down. The swim felt good, especially for a day when I was trying to convince myself that I NEEDED to do it. I even skipped the morning workout. I'm glad I talked myself into doing it in the afternoon. I was trying pretty hard to concentrate on my form, especially keeping my head down further in the water. I'm still reading Total Immersion, and have been working on tips from it.

My 75s were anywhere between 60 and 70 seconds per set. I was pretty happy with it. I know I can get faster, but that'll come with time.

Total: 1350m

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Spin torture

I don't know what I was thinking in going to spin class tonight. I was tired (still) from the run. I think I was hoping that it would flush out the lactic acid from my earlier run that had been gathering in my legs all night.

It did. And now, I'm more tired than I was to begin with.

We did "Tour de D" tonight. Hills, hills, and more hills. Long, steep, standing hills. I hate standing hill work. It drives me nuts. I just hate being out of my saddle. I need to get over it and go with it.

Back on Track... Literally

Today's workout was the normal Tuesday track workout:

Running drills - practice #4, pulling with hamstring, leaning with hips.
We are going to stick with the 200's this week, keeping the distance of the sprints shorter to practice good form.
6-10 x 200's

Only 2 of us showed up. I was so glad that T showed... for a while I was sitting around alone. We went for about a mile warmup (at a T & Heather pace of 9:00/mi). We walked out the 200m, which looked longer than 200m for sure! We proceeded to run 5 of the 6-10 we needed to. Ah well... 6:00am came a little fast this time.

T really pushes me. She's been so great this season and has really taken me under her wing. She rocks. :)

Up tonight - spin class!

Sunday, July 3, 2011

100th post & Next Week's Schedule

Hard to believe it's my 100th post already! This season's been crazy. My first and last tri's of the season have both been canceled, forcing me to find new ones to take their places; I've done an aquathon; and I've done things I never thought I'd be able to do. I've looked into things I never thought I would and have set goals I previously would've thought I was crazy for setting. I think the most important thing the world of triathlons has taught me so far is that it's OK to roll with the punches; get mad, get upset, but suck it up and move on. I feel like I've been able to apply this in the rest of my life since I've started with my training for tris. Self improvement is always a good thing in my book.

Speaking of my last tri of the season... TriRock Gettysburg got "postponed" until next year for "logistical reasons". Whatever. All I know is now I need to find a new tri... again. I feel like this is the story of my season. I have it narrowed down to the Giant Acorn International or the Half Full (International distance). Just need to determine which to do.

Here's this week's schedule:

Monday
Day off

Tuesday
Running drills - practice #4, pulling with hamstring, leaning with hips.
We are going to stick with the 200's this week, keeping the distance of the sprints shorter to practice good form.
6-10 x 200's

Wednesday
Swim - wu - 500 swim and drills (Drills - 1 arm drill, fist drill, 6 kicks each side drill, breathing 3, 5, 7 drill); 10 x 75's (10-15 sec. rest btwn); Cool down - 300 non free (kicking, breast, back)

Thursday
Bike - wu 20 min; 40 min. tempo ride - hold a fast pace, just under race pace.

Friday
Swim - wu with drills and swim  300 yd; Broken mile swim (11, 10, 9, 8, 7, etc. down to 1); cool down

Saturday
Run - long run (distances below)
Sprint - 3 -4 miles
Olympic - 6-7 miles
Half Iron - 9-11 miles

Sunday
Brick (distances/times below)
Sprint - 1.5 hour ride / 30 min. run
Olympic - 2 hour ride / 40 min. run
Half Ironman - 2. 5 hour ride/ 60 min run

Friday, July 1, 2011

Friday Easy Ride at the Beach

So, the reason my schedule's been all sorts of messed up this week is because we were headed to the beach yesterday for a short vacation with J's family.

Today, we took an easy ride - about 12 miles, we think - from our beach house to the end of the island and back. It was actually one of the most stressful rides of my life. There were a ton of intersections on the bike trail that really confusing. Some motorists waved you through, some didn't. It was hard to tell if people were turning or not. There were a lot of families on the trail, so that didn't help either. I almost ran into a kid when I said "on your left" and he started going left. Ugh. So stressful. On top of it, we were on the hybrids, so I didn't feel like we could move to the road.

Hopefully whatever our next ride is won't be as stressful!