Next week's workouts

This week looks doable. I have an international distance tri on Saturday and 5k on Sunday. AH! I'll probably switch Tuesday/Wednesday again given that I love my spin class on Tuesday nights.

Monday
Day off

Tuesday
Swim - 3 x ( 50, 75, 100, 150, 200) 10-15 sec rest btwn each; cd kick and non free
TNT
Spin

Wednesday
Bike - 1hr. good wu and cd; 10 x 30 sec. efforts with 2 min. easy spin btwn.
Run - 20 min. run off the bike

Thursday
Track - 4-5 x 400's
TNT

Friday
Day off

Saturday
Giant Acorn International Triathlon

Sunday
Kailee's 5k - 8am at the conference center in Landsdowne
http://web.me.com/lilleyca/Kailees_Run/Home.html

Sunday Run

I wasn't sure if I'd actually do a run tonight given the past week's GI issues. J and I decided to head to the gym instead of running outside and not having a bathroom accessible. So, I got onto the dreamill and set up to run a 10k. If I made it, great. If not, that was ok too. Just wanted to run as long as possible.

I set the treadmill to 6.3 (9:31 per mile) and started running. 59:23 later, I had completed my 10k. I had a few cramps, but was able to breathe deep enough through them to get them to stop. I also took in a Honey Stingers Gold early on in the run to see how my body handled it. I was very pleasantly surprised with how well the run went.

P.S. - I beat my previous (2009) 10k time by over 12 minutes. AWESOME!

Thursday - Saturday

Apparently, my body had a different idea of what should be done this week. Starting on Wednesday night, my GI decided it wanted to make friends with the potty. Thursday, I tried to go to work and let's just say I made it 4 hrs before I had to come home. I just couldn't sit comfortably. I've been doing better, but as of Saturday, it still hasn't cleared up, though it's gotten better. I really need it to be better next week - I've got a race next Saturday!

Wednesday Swim

Since I switched the workouts, today's was this:

Swim - 6-8 x 200 yd. hold efforts within 3-5 sec. 15 sec rest between; wu with drills and swim; cd kick and non free

I did wu of 300m, 6x200m, and cd of 200m. The swim went ok, there were a lot of distractions. As the weather gets cooler, there are more kids in the pool and a swim team practicing in one of the lanes that pushes all lap swimmers into 1 lane. I really need to write a card to the manager of S&H. It's hard to get in a good workout when there's not room to.

Tuesday's TNT/Spin/Run

I switched today's workout with Wednesday's. Coach L's switch in schedule doesn't do me much good honestly. I've got about a month left with her and then I'll be seeing how I do on my own.

Today was TNT. Class went well - but there were 11 of us. T let us know that we'd be getting another trainer next week. That should be interesting.

Spin class was HARD today. For whatever reason, D really pushed us. There weren't too many people there, but man it was rough. Lots of long intervals, not sure if that was the issue...

My 20 minute run turned into a 6 minute run. Like I said, spin was rough and I got a bad side cramp on my left side, which is not normal. I usually get it on my right side.

Monday's Recovery

Today, I took the time to do some yoga. I desperately needed it and really need to start making it part of my overall training program.

Next week's workouts

Here's this week's schedule. It totally doesn't work for me, so there's going to be a lot of rearranging of workouts. Sigh.

Monday
Day off

Tuesday
Swim - 6-8 x 200 yd. hold efforts within 3-5 sec. 15 sec rest between; wu with drills and swim; cd kick and non free

Wednesday
Bike - 10 x 2 min. on 2 min. off; good wu and cd
Run - 20 min. run off the bike

Thursday
Track - 6-8 x 1:30 on 1:00 off; good wu and cd

Friday
Swim - 3 x 500 yd. swim with 30sec rest btwn.

Saturday
Bootcamp
Group Ride

Sunday
Long Run - Distance based on what you're training for.

Sunday ride/run

This morning, J and I got up to meet Coach L and T for a bike ride. T ended up bailing since she'd already been riding 2 hrs. Coach L, J, and I headed out for a 25 mile ride. It felt GOOD. We did it in 1:33:xx, which made me feel good about the upcoming race. I didn't feel like I was pushing it too much at all. After the ride, I went out for a 1.3 mile (or so) run. It felt ok... but not great. At some point, these bricks will feel better, right?

My goal for Giant Acorn Intl is going to be "get through the run". I'll be happy if I accomplish that!

Crazy Thursday

I knew today's workout was going to be a little crazy, and require a lot of mind over matter. I also knew that no matter what, I needed to get through it because I desperately need to figure out my nutrition for Oct 1's race. Here was the workout:

Thursday
TNT
Bike - 4 x 2 mile efforts rest 2 min. in btwn. hold efforts within 3-5 sec of each other; good wu and cd
Run - 15-30 min. off the bike with 5 x 1 min. on 1 min. off


I went to TNT. Did my 45 minutes... which included some wonderfully weighted legs - 20 lb weights in each hand doing walking lunges. Man, that sucked. I don't normally complain about that, but knowing the rest of my workout, it had me a bit worried.

After TNT, I sucked down the Honey Stinger Strawberry flavor (with caffeine). It was pretty good. I took in about 6 oz of water with it as well. Straight to the spin room for me.

I got on the bike and settled in for the 50 minute ride. All of my 2 mile (or 3.2 km) efforts were exactly 5:53 except the last one, which i did in 5:47. I was happy that I was able to keep them even. I know it's a controlled environment, but things can still go wrong, especially when you're messing with nutrition. So, at minute 45, I took in the second gel and another 6 oz or so of water - this time a Honey Stingers Chocolate flavor (without caffeine) - and prepped for the run.

I got off the bike, cleaned it, changed into my running shoes, filled my water bottle one last time, and found my treadmill. I got through the 20 minutes pretty easily. I FORCED myself to run the warmup time slowly and that helped a lot. My five 1 min on 1 min off efforts went smoothly and then I did the 5 min cooldown.

Overall, the nutrition went well. My stomach didn't turn on me, which has been a problem in the past, so that's a good thing. The best part about it was that I didn't feel like I was going to chew off my arm at the end of the workout. Loved it!

One thing that worries me a bit is that when I asked T about the Honey Stinger gels and he didn't know waht they were and when I mentioned they're similar to GU, his reaction was "I don't believe in that stuff. If I'm going to eat, I'll have real food". I forget (constantly) that he's not an endurance athlete and he really knows nothing about it. It's hard for me to talk with him about that kind of stuff. Grrrr...

Overall, great workout, all 2 hrs of it!

Wednesday's Swim

Today was a swim day. We no longer have the numbers to reserve lanes to do our morning swims, so it's on your own. Here was the workout:

Wednesday
Swim - wu - swim and drills 300 yd; 1 x 400yd.TT, rest 2-3 min. (this is all out effort); 4 x 200 yd. (rest 10-20 sec. ) hold within 3-5 sec. of each other; cool down - kick/pull 200-300

Here's what I did:

wu - swim and drills 300 yd; 1 x 400yd.TT, rest 2-3 min. (this is all out effort); 2 x 200 yd. (rest 10-20 sec. ) hold within 3-5 sec. of each other; cool down - kick/pull 200

I was getting taken over by kids. I'm going to have to put a comment in the box about the number of kids in the pool and how the lifeguards aren't doing anything about them coming into the lap lane. It's a real issue. I shouldn't have to stop what I'm doing to kick these kids out of the lanes... especially when they could be using the outdoor pool. There's also this guy giving swim lessons to a bunch of kids and he likes to use the adult lap lane to do it. It's really annoying and it makes me feel like I have to hurry up and finish my workout, when in reality, he should be in a different lane. I'll keep plugging away. I think right now, I'm just concerned about getting through my next race and then into October. I'll deal with the "issues" after that.

Monday and Tuesday's workouts

So, I've got a fire in my belly again. As I take on the last three weeks of this tri season, I've realized that I REALLY need to do my brick workouts... and I need to stop with the excuses about my other workouts. I've seriously slacked off the past few weeks - and as good of a race as I had on Sunday, it showed.

Here were Monday and Tuesday's workouts:

Monday
Day off; Recovery day

Tuesday
Track - Hill Repeats x 6. 30 sec -1 min. recovery at the top. Jog back down and right into next.
If doing on your own. 1:30 hill
TNT
Spin

On Monday, I did some yoga specifically targetted towards my hips since my right IT band was bothering me so much. I also took a bath in epsom salt and rolled out my calves with The Stick.

Tuesday, I met Coach L for track. I think we did 6 or 7 hill repeats. I took them a bit slower than I would've normally because my left calf was still a bit sore. Tuesday night, I went to TNT. It was good - other than the weighted walking lunges (17.5 lbs in each hand). Spin class was awesome. We did lactate threshold intervals. It hurt to do any standing work, so I stayed in the saddle once I figured that out.

This week's workouts

Coach L was a bit late getting these to us this week, but the week looks pretty good.

Monday
Day off; Recovery day

Tuesday
Track - Hill Repeats x 6. 30 sec -1 min. recovery at the top. Jog back down and right into next.
If doing on your own. 1:30 hill
TNT
Spin

Wednesday
Swim - wu - swim and drills 300 yd; 1 x 400yd.TT, rest 2-3 min. (this is all out effort); 4 x 200 yd. (rest 10-20 sec. ) hold within 3-5 sec. of each other; cool down - kick/pull 200-300

Thursday
TNT
Bike - 4 x 2 mile efforts rest 2 min. in btwn. hold efforts within 3-5 sec of each other; good wu and cd
Run - 15-30 min. off the bike with 5 x 1 min. on 1 min. off

Friday
Swim - wu - 500 swim and drills; 12 x 25 meters on 1 min. Hold within 3-5 sec.; 2 x 150 at 85% with 20 sec rest btwn; 300 cd with non free

Saturday
Bootcamp

Sunday
Long Bike

Patriot's Sprint Race Report

Patriots Sprint Tri Race Report

• Race Name: Patriots Sprint Tri
• Race Date: September 11, 2011
• Race Location: Williamsburg, VA (Jamestown Settlement)
• Race Distance: Sprint  (750m OWS swim, 12.4 mi bike, 5k run)
• Division: F 30-34
• Total Time: 1:37:38
• Time Breakdown: Swim – 17:15, T1 – 6:34, Bike – 41:35, T2 – 1:56, Run – 30:20
• Age Group Placing: 10/28
• Overall Placing: 115/255 (women only)

Pre-race

Race registration was online, went smoothly. The race was very well organized. We watched the Half the day before and were pretty impressed with how well supported it was with event staff and not we’d be doing the swim because of 4 days of rain we had gotten. They weren’t incredibly clear about their decision until much later than they’d originally said. Not a bad thing, but annoying.

They had plenty of port-a-potties, so that was a good thing. I didn’t really notice any lines for them, but I used them before I’d be looking for a line. The race venue was across from Jamestown Settlement in Williamsburg. The James River was great to swim in, but it was a ¼ mile run from there to transition. It was a bit far. Good amount of parking (always important). The race packet was really just the race numbers, swim cap, shirt, and a pair of socks (YAY!). I enjoyed that there wasn’t a million useless pieces of paper in the bag and that all of that was done electronically. The race fee was $75 – not too bad for a sprint. Course maps were available online.

I didn’t get much sleep Friday or Saturday nights leading up to the race. The hotel room was way too warm for my liking (the air conditioning was blowing straight into the desk). We got to the race right around 5:30, plenty of time for me to pick up my chip, get transition settled, and get body marked. I had my normal Luna Bar for breakfast and did pretty well on it. The weather was good – a bit muggy (turns out it was 94% humidity), but the temperature was in the 70s. There were about 600 people there; making it one of the larger races I’ve done this season.

Swim

It had been raining for 4 days straight in the week leading up to the race, so we weren’t even sure the swim would happen. If it did, would it be wetsuit legal? We were able to have the swim and the water temperature in the James River was 79.8 – so wetsuit optional. I chose not to use it, and found the water temperature to be very comfortable. The race directors had us moving in a direction such that if you were right side only breathing, the sun wasn’t in your face for 2/3 of the swim, which was good. It seemed to me that a lot of the people doing this race didn’t have much experience in open water and it definitely showed. I got kicked about 5 times before finally grabbing the woman’s foot in front of me. Overall, I felt like I had a good swim and could’ve gone longer. I swung the last leg pretty wide to avoid being kicked anymore and it added some time to my swim, but it was worth it.

Bike

The roads for this race were generally good. The first portion and last portion of the road sucked! It was the part leading to/from the rest of the race site for the out and back course. The course was partially closed to traffic, partially not. In the parts that weren’t, generally, the course officials were great… however, there were some areas where there were no officials and the drivers were pretty obnoxious. I had one guy pass a little too close for comfort and in a manner that let us know he was pissed. The course was relatively flat, with a couple of very small hills. The biggest thing I could’ve improved here was that I should’ve drank a LOT more. Thinking back, I don’t think I drank anything, which I paid for over the run.

Run

Surprisingly, my legs felt great! My side did not. I definitely didn’t have enough to eat/drink during the bike and paid for it dearly the last mile of the run. I wore my visor for the first time during a race and was so glad I did. Almost the entire run was out in the sun. There were 2 water stations, one on the way out, and one on the way back in (same location, table on both sides of the trail). It was pretty flat, so that was good. There really wasn’t crowd support, but I expected that. To improve my run, I should’ve had my nutrition and water. I really needed it and totally crashed because I didn’t have it.

Transitions

T1 was a LONG run (1/4 mile) from the water to the transition area. Hence the 6:38 T1 time. Once I got into transition, I got my sandals off, socks and bike shoes on, along with helmet and bike gloves and got moving for the long run back to the other end of transition to get onto my bike. The only thing that was really bugging me was that my glasses were fogged up and I had no way of wiping them off. For some reason, I didn’t eat my Shot Blox, which would come back to kick my butt later.

T2 was ok, but kind of slow. I overshot my transition area by one rack (oops). I sat down to deal with my shoes, which I never do, but for some reason, I was ok with it today. I really need to practice my transitions more, in general. It’s the only way they’ll get faster really.

Post-Race

This was probably one of the best supported post-race venues I’ve been to in a long time. They had all sorts of drinks, pizza, oranges, watermelon, oreos, and jelly beans. We didn’t stick around for the awards since I knew I didn’t place in my age group, but had seen them the day before at the half. They gave away a wine glass and a bottle of local wine, which I thought was pretty cool. Race results were posted later that night or the next day and photos were sent within the week. The distances were pretty accurate, can’t tell about the swim. I didn’t see the race officials out, but they were fair the day before, so I’m assuming they were this day too.

Summary and Lessons Learned

My biggest lesson learned from this race is the need for nutrition and hydration. Above all else, I must remember to get it in. This week, in training, I’ve been using the Honey Stingers products and have had a lot of success with them (in reference to how my stomach deals with them).

Week in review

Man I'm getting lazy with updating this... but I think that's partially because I've been lazy with my training the past couple of weeks. Last week, I did the following:

Tuesday: TNT, Spin
Wednesday: nada
Thursday: TNT, run to/from TNT (in the pouring rain)
Friday: nada
Saturday: a lot of walking around the Patriot's Half race site
Sunday: Patriot's sprint tri (report to follow)

Sea Gull Century

J and I are all signed up for the Sea Gull Century ride on October 15. I'm soooo not ready, but it'll be fun, right?! It seems like it'll be an easy enough ride, even for the distance. Apparently, I've really lost my mind!

This week's workouts

This week's workouts came a day late since Coach L was putting on a kid's tri. Today was a day off, which I definitely took advantage of (probably too much...).

Monday
Day off
Hope you enjoyed the holiday

Tuesday
Swim - Ladder (50, 100, 150, 200,250 and back down starting with 250) 10 sec. rest btwn.; good wu and cd
TNT
Spin
(I'll probably end up switching this and Thursday's workouts)

Wednesday
Track - 8-10 x 200's

Thursday
Bike - 60-90min. with 10 x 30 sec. pick ups with 2 min. easy spin btwn.
Run - 15-30 min. after the bike
TNT

Friday
Swim - Broken mile (or rest day for those racing Sunday)

Saturday
Bootcamp
Rest day for all racers

Sunday
Patriots Half - Go Sue and Tracy
Patriots Sprint - Go Heather
Reston Triathlon - go Melissa, Jenny, Debbie, Kelly
Nations Tri - go Mary

Sunday Swim/bike Brick

Today was the Reston Swim Clinic at one of the local lakes. We don't get a chance to open water swim much around here, so quite a few from the team headed over. We donned our wetsuits, put on the bright yellow caps, and got into the water. It wasn't too cold, which was good. It took me about 100m to get into my steady breathing. I think it's just not being in clear water. I did 3 laps, which they were saying equaled a mile, but there's no way it did. My right shoulder's really been bothering me lately, and it definitely did today.

After the swim, we got out of our wetsuits, grabbed our bikes, and headed out for the Reston bike course. T was leading the pack and did not let us have a moment's rest! Our first lap of 7 miles was at an average pace of about 20 mph. Crazy woman! The second lap of 7 miles took a bit longer, but that's ok.

We were supposed to go on a run after, but I wasn't feeling up for it, and neither was the majority of the group. I think one person went out for the run after. It's ok though, I needed to get home and get ready to head to the family picnic.

My crazy self

So instead of posting about a workout, this one's going to be about what I talked my crazy self into...

As I previously mentioned, I talked with Coach L on Tuesday about something. That something was a long-distance race: the Maine Half Rev to be exact. Because "IronMan" is a brand name, the Revolution 3 race series calls their Half distance the Half Rev. The Main race is the 70.3 distance - just like the IronMan.

The race is August 26, 2012. This means I have exactly 51 weeks to prepare. Coach L and I talked about whether or not it was a reachable goal. She flat out told me that if I were some of the other people who I train with, she'd tell me I should really think about it... but for me, I have the heart, dedication, and athleticism to accomplish it.

It's so weird to think that I have the athleticism to do something. I've never really viewed myself as an athlete. This is just what I do as a hobby. I'm not crazy good at it, but I really enjoy it. It's hard work, but it's all ME. There's no one else that can take the credit for it. Even my coach... she can put out the workouts, but if I don't do them and am not prepared, that's on me.

So, I signed up. I committed myself - and subjected my wornderful, ever supportive husband - to the grueling 20 weeks of 9 workouts a week. I am so very thankful every day that I have him to stand by my side as I take on one challenge after another. I am also so very thankful that I can. I've learned a lot about myself this season, and hope to learn a lot more next season.

Thursday

ThursdayBike -wu; 10 x 1 mile repeats; cd
Run - 15-30 min. after the bike

Well... I got on my bike! Didn't do the run. Truth is, I forgot I was supposed to run and didn't have a chance to look at my workouts this week. I was watching a movie about inner city kids who were in culinary class aiming to get scholarships. It was pretty interesting and kept me peddling. Did about 30 minutes spin, which was good for today.