Wednesday - Swim

Today's workout was this:
Swim: 300m warmup, 8x25 drill set, 4x100 base intervals, 8x25 kick set, 8x25 pull set, 300m cool down

And that's exactly what I did. I had a great swim today. Hey - even the lifeguard was in the pool area today! I did a few different drills today. I feel like I'm starting to get stronger with breathing every 4 strokes instead of every 2 strokes. I'll keep working on it during drills and start putting it into my main sets. I've also been working on my bilateral breathing. I'm getting there!

Tuesday - TNT

Tonight's workout was supposed to be TNT and Spin. I went to TNT knowing full well that I hadn't really worked out at all since the 17th. WAY too long! T asked for our cardio and nutrition numbers... his response to my answer was "SHE IS HUMAN!" I just laughed.

TNT went well, but man did it take it's toll! I rarely ever feel like I did tonight, so I went home instead of spin. On the way out, D saw me and was like "where are you escaping to?!" I haven't been to class in 3 weeks now. I HAVE to go next week.

I need to talk with M about my race schedule for next year and see if she has any suggestions for races to build up to the Half Rev. Can't wait!

Week 7 Low Volume Off Season Plan

This week is for refocusing my habits. I slacked off big time last week, so this will be about getting it back. Only 5 more weeks in the "easy" off season. Here's the schedule:

Monday
off/yoga

Tuesday
TNT
Spin

Wednesday
Swim: 300m warmup, 8x25 drill set, 4x100 base intervals, 8x25 kick set, 8x25 pull set, 300m cool down

Thursday
TNT
Run 5 miles

Friday
Off/yoga


Saturday
Hot Chocolate 15k; Goal time: between 1:30:00 and 1:35:00. I think it's obtainable.

Sunday
Bike: 45:00 foundation ride, 4 drill sets (I have my new trainer and can't wait to get it set up!)

Week 6

Oh my goodness... Thanksgiving got in the way! I didn't do a single workout last week. You know what? That wasn't my goal at all! I'm normally really good about cardio week, but last week, well, I just wasn't.

Week 7 is where I get refocused. Refocused on my training and on food. Bring it week 7!

Week 6 Low Volume Off Season Plan

I was slacking (just on the blog front) yesterday about getting this week's workouts up. It's cardio week, so no TNT this week. Here's the schedule:

Monday
Run 7 miles

Tuesday
Either Spin class or 45:00 foundation ride, 4 drill sets

Wednesday
Swim: 300m warmup, 8x25 drill set, 4x100 base intervals, 6x25 kick set, 6x25 pull set, 300m cool down

Thursday
THANKSGIVING! I'm in charge of the turkey, so this is a rest day.

Friday
Run 6 miles

Saturday
Bike: 45:00 foundation ride, 4 drill sets

Sunday
Run 8 miles

Friday - Sunday

I'm a serious slacker. I didn't work out at all this weekend. Oops. I instead cleaned my house, did a lot of last minute Thanksgiving shopping, wrapped presents, and started making certain dishes for Thanksgiving. So, I wasn't just sitting around doing nothing, just wasn't working out. Some of my workouts from this weekend are getting moved to next week so that I can get the workouts in, especially that 7 mile run!

Thursday: TNT/Run

Today was a much better day than Tuesday. I got out a did my run before TNT, which was fantastic! I have no idea how long the run was because my watch died 0.8 miles into the run. I just knew I needed to get home by 4:40ish to grab my stuff for TNT. I got to TNT around 4:50, so it gave me enough time to get water and bring my heart rate down a bit. TNT was good, I worked hard and got in a good workout. Next week's cardio week, so I have to work hard to get the weight that I've been slowly putting on back off.

Wednesday: Swim

Today's workout was a swim. 250m warmup, 8x25m drills, 4x100m base interval, 6x25m kick set, 6x25m pull set, 250m cool down I had a pretty good swim. Nothing major to note; I even had the pool to myself for everything except the cool down! The on,y thing that has me a bit concerned recently is that the lifeguard hasn't been in the pool area when people are in there. Things happen, even in 3.5 to 4 ft of water. It's probably me being paranoid, but still... I'd just rather the lifeguard was in there.

Tuesday TNT/Spin

You ever have one of the crappiest days you can remember? That was today. I hardly ever let what happens at work affect my working out, but today, it happened. I didn't want to go to the gym at all, so just making it there was awesome. I got through TNT, but just got through. Wasn't really able to clear my mind like I would've liked to. Spin? Yea, I skipped it. I just didn't want tobe around super chipper people. Ah well, there's always tomorrow.

Week 5 Low Volume Off Season Plan

This week, the training shifts into more of a running mode to get ready for the 15k. It's the last race I have on schedule, and I need to get ready!

I actually have 2 off/yoga days this week! Woooo hoooo!


Monday: Off/Yoga (Yoga for cyclists, if I do it)

Tuesday: TNT/Spin

Wednesday: Swim - 250m warmup, 8x25m drills, 5x100m base interval, 6x25m kick set, 6x25m pull set, 250m cool down

Thursday: TNT/ Run 5 miles

Friday: Off/Yoga (Yoga for weightloss, if I do it)

Saturday: Run 7 miles

Sunday: Cycle - 45:00 foundation ride (technique), 4 drills

Sunday - Run

Today's workout was a 6 mile run, but instead I did 5. Not because I didn't feel like I could do 6... but because I ran out of time. I also had a massage this morning, and I was running out of time (literally) to get to it, so I had to cut the run a mile short.

The run itself was good. I chased down one chick who was doing a run/walk and then on the way back chased down an older guy (maybe later 50s?) wearing an ironman hat. It took me about 48 minutes to run 5 miles, not too bad. I feel like I need to get my time down a bit, but I'm also not too worried about it.

I still need to download my stats from my watch. I think I'm going to try to post my heart rate stuff on here, since I'm going to start trying to use it. I need to do a lactate threshold test, but that's going to have to wait until after the 15k.

Update: I downloaded all of the info from my run earlier today.

Distance: 5.08 miles
Time: 49:29 (a little longer than I thought)
Elevation Gain: 186 ft
Elevation Loss: 186 ft
Average Pace: 9:45/mile
Average HR: 178
Max HR: 190

Saturday - Sweat for a Vet

Today's workout was Sweat for a Vet - a 3 hr indoor cycling event to raise money for Project Visability. They buy hand crank cycles for Walter Reed Hospital to help rehabilitate wounded veterans. They're also going to send some of these vets to classes to become cycling instructors. How awesome is that?!

The spin went great! I was so happy to be a part of this. Can't wait to do it again next year!

Total side note: today is J's and my 6th anniversary. 3 hrs of spin = guilt free awesome dinner!

Friday - Run

I had a 5 mile run on tap for today and I completely skipped it. Running fail. I needed a down day, it's been a really rough week and I just needed a break, so I took it.

Thursday - TNT/Spin

This week is pretty spin heavy in preparation for Sweat for a Vet on Saturday. Today was TNT and a 30 minute easy spin.
TNT went well. We ended with one of my least favorite leg/core workouts - 12 pushups, 12 squats, 11 pushups, 11 squats... all of the way down to 1 and 1. I do this activity as fast as I can just to get it over with. I don't even mind that I have to squat until everyone else gets done.

The spin was a chore. I wasn't in the mindset to spin at all today. Plus, I got up there and someone else was in there... and had turned off the fans. WHO DOES THAT?! I should've asked if he minded if I turned them on, but I just did it without the fans. It went ok - just kept moving. I don't know that I've ever been happier to get off a spin bike after such a short spin.

Wednesday - Swim

Tonight's workout was:

Swim - 250m warmup, 6x25m drills, 3x100m base interval, 6x25m kick set, 6x25m pull set, 250m cool down

And that's exactly what I did. For the drills, I did 100m left side only breathing and 50m bilateral breathing. I need to continue to strengthen my left side breathing, so I'm working on it!

The workout was good. I was the only person in the pool until my pull sets, which was great. Nice and quiet. It let me get some stuff out of my head, which was desperately needed. It's been a hard week on so many levels. Not the worst it could be, but definitely not the best.

I've also decided that I hate kick sets. I know they serve a purpose, but they're not my favorite. The pull drills went really well today, I was actually glad to be doing them!

I'm starting to really look forward to my weekly swims again!

Tuesday - TNT/Spin

Tonight was TNT and Spin. I ran over to the gym for TNT, like I normally do. It's been unseasonally warm here since our first snow (go figure). Normally, I'm all sorts of motivated to do my lifting workouts. Tonight, not so much. T asked me why so gloomy, and I straight up told him I'd prefer to be outside instead of inside. He responded back that we could take the bungees outside and do TNT out there, just need headlamps. I told him I could be back in less than 10 min with my headlamp. He just laughed at me.Yea... I really wanted to be outside so bad.

Spin was rough for me tonight. I so wasn't focused on being there. We had quite a few intervals and hills. Blah. I need to get my head on straight since I have a 3 hr spin on Saturday! I think part of my problem is that I've been doing spin in my normal workout shorts, so I'm without padding... it's distracting! D worked hard to keep the entire class motivated, and it was a good workout, I just wasn't the most motivated of them all!

Monday - Off

I took today off to meet up with S for dinner. I miss her, especially now that I'm doing the tri stuff. When she was doing it, I thiough she was crazy, but now that I'm doing it, I wish she was too... and I wish we were still working out together. There are days I wish I hadn't moved to Brambleton to do TNT, but other days I'm glad I did. Today, I wished I hadn't. It's ok though, because S stopped working out at Regency, so I guess I'm not missing much.

Week 4 Low Volume Off Season Plan

Last week was a good week. I got all of my workouts done - even if I ended up doubling up on Sunday instead of doing Saturday and Sunday. It worked out better that way, I was able to get a bunch of house stuff done.

This week's workouts look really doable. I'm so glad I decided to do the low volume training plan before jumping back in on the higher volume plan.

Monday: Off/Yoga

Tuesday: TNT/Spin

Wednesday: Swim - 250m warmup, 6x25m drills, 3x100m base interval, 6x25m kick set, 6x25m pull set, 250m cool down

Thursday: TNT/ 30 min easy spin

Friday: Run 5 miles

Saturday: Sweat for a Vet (3 hr spin event)

Sunday: Run 6 miles

Sunday - Cycle and Run

Well, I slacked off yesterday, so in addition to my 30 min spin, I needed to do a run.

I spun for 30 minutes and kept it kind of easy. My flat road was at a 10 today, which was good. I didn't push too hard (no hills today), but they weren't in the plan either. :)

After the bike, I decided to do a nice, easy run of 4 miles at 10 minute per mile. I wanted to keep it easy since I haven't really been running that much lately.

Everything went well for this workout - onto next week!


Update: Here's the HR data from this run:

Distance: 4:00 miles
Time: 40:00
Elevation Gain: 0 ft (was on the treadmill)
Average Pace: 10:00/mile
Average HR: 175
Max HR: 187

Friday & Saturday - Lazy Slacker

Well, Friday was a scheduled off day. So, I did just that... took off. Today, I didn't run but took off instead. I don't know if shopping for 5 hours (normal errands + Christmas shopping) counts as "off" since I did more walking than I normally do. I just didn't run. Will have to do it tomorrow.

Thursday - TNT/Run & body fat checks

Today was a good day. I got my Garmin Forerunner 110 in the mail yesterday. I already owned the Garmin Forerunner 405 CX... and HATE it. No, seriously, I don't know that I've ever hated an electronic device more (well, maybe my BlackBerry, but that's another story). When I was only running, I disliked it, but didn't hate it. Now that I'm tri-ing, I hate it. For training, it's not bad. Usually, it's fine actually. In races, it sucks. In tris you never really dry off from the swim, so using the touch bezel is incredibly difficult. Stupid touch bezel. Honestly, I don't use all of the "features" and just wanted something simpler, so I bit the bullet and ordered the 110. We'll give the 405 to my brother to do his training with. Nice Christmas present. I decided to order it with the heart rate monitor and decided that I'm going to use it.

I went for a run - with intention to run 2-4 miles. I haven't run since the race on Oct 1. I've also been sick and haven't fully recovered, so that's not so great. I ended up running 2 miles in just under 20 minutes. Not too bad considering. I did wear the HR monitor, but haven't uploaded the data yet, so I'm not too sure what it looks like. It was a beautiful day out and I'm glad I got to take advantage of it!

I got home, changed, and went to TNT. TNT was pretty good. It did wear me out a little more than I'm used to, but I think it's because I'm not 100% yet. One of the other ladies said I was sweating more than normal, so that was probably a good indicator of me not being quite well yet.

We had body fat checks today. My stats are:

Weight: 133.0
Body Fat Percent: 16.1%
Fat Weight: 21.3 lbs
Lean (non-fat) Weight: 111.8 lbs

I'm up 2 lbs from 13 weeks ago, but that's not too bad considering the complete debauchery that's been the past few weeks. Starting next week, I'm getting this back in check, period.

My goal for 13 weeks from now is 128. So, 5 lbs in 13 weeks. Totally doable!


Update: Here's the data from my run:

Distance: 2.04 miles
Time: 19:13
Elevation Gain: 50 ft
Elevation Loss: 63 ft
Average Pace: 9:26/mile
Average HR: 180
Max HR: 196

Wednesday - Swim

I was super excited about today's workout. I haven't been in the pool in about a month now. Crazy!

Swim workout:
250 warmup (4-5 RPE),
4x25 (RI 0:10) drill set,
2x100 (RI 0:05) base interval (6-7 RPE),
4x25 (RI 0:15) kick set,
4x25 (RI 0:10) pull set,
250 cool down (4-5 RPE)

Total: 1000m

I got in the pool aroun 3:45 and there wasn't anyone else in it. So nice. It was getting a little crazy when I was leaving. Anyhow... The warm up and cooldown seemed a little long, given that they were half the workout today. Bit, it was a nice short one to get back into the swing of things.

For drills, I did bilateral breathing today. I think the next swim, I might do only left side breathing. I can tell I'm not as comfortable breathing on my left side, but I need to learn. Also, I need to learn to breathe every 4th stroke instead of every 2nd (so every other time my left arm hits the water instead of every time). I think that'll be a drill at some point this off season.

It feels GOOD to be back in the swing of things!

Tuesday - TNT & Spin

Tonight was my first "real" workout in 2 weeks. I originally wasn't too sure of how it was going to go. I'm at about 90% (feeling better after the cold), so still not quite where I'd like to be, but it's time to get off the couch. My couch and I had a bit of a break up discussion today. :)

I went to TNT and T took it easier than normal on me. He could tell I still wasn't feeling quite like myself, so that was nice of him.

After TNT, I decided to go ahead and stick to the schedule and head to spin class. I REALLY wasn't sure how this would go given that 1) my last bike ride was 102 miles on Oct 15 and 2) I was feeling kind of "eh" to begin with. My legs were definitely feeling fresh. "Flat road" was about 2-3 gears higher than normal. Also, for our sprints, I was in higher gears than normal. However, my upper body wasn't feeling so fresh. At one point, I had snot sitting in the back of my throat - it wouldn't come up or go down - ANNOYING. Around the 30 minute mark, I was struggling. I powered through and was glad that I did.

Hopefully, I sweated out the rest of this cold and left it on the gym floor!