Wednesday Swim

Today's swim was great! What better way to spend leap day than in a pool? The 100s base intervals are getting easier, which is a good sign. As the volume of training increases, I'm sure I'll be longing for swims like todays!

Spin right round baby...

I did an hour long spin today. Another Trainer Road ride. Love this program! It was a bit weird doing my workout mid day, but it was awesome to get it done before 5pm. :)

Week 2 Olympic distance plan

Last week was a success! I managed to actually get in all 6 of my workouts! YAY!

Here's this week's schedule:

Monday - Off/Yoga
Tuesday - 1 hr spin
Wednesday - 1200m swim
Thursday - 35 min foundation run
Friday - 1400m swim
Saturday - 1 hr foundation spin + 10 min transition run
Sunday - 40 min foundation run


Since TNT running is on my 40 min foundation run day, and I know he has hills on the schedule, I'll probably make the schedule look more like this instead:


Monday - Off/Yoga
Tuesday - 1 hr spin
Wednesday - 1200m swim
Thursday - 40 min foundation run
Friday - 1400m swim
Saturday - 1 hr foundation spin + 10 min transition run
Sunday - TNT running (hills)

Totally doable!

Saturday & Sunday

Saturday, I sat on my bike and did a 45 min foundation ride. I watched a documentary called "Ingredients", which kept me busy mentally while riding. It was a good ride.

Sunday, I headed out for a 35 min foundation run. I did about 3.52 miles in the 35 minutes. Not the fastest, but it was a good run. My body's getting used to running outside again. I need to bring the sustainable time down to 9:30s before April's 10-miler. All things in due time.

My left leg has this weird bump thing towards my ankle. It's pretty tender. I'll have to keep an eye on it, as it seems to swell when I run and then goes back to "normal" when I'm not running. Weird.

I'm really looking forward to tomorrow's rest day!

Thursday & Friday

Thursday was such a beautiful day here. It was in the 60s, so I decided that instead of hitting the dreadmill for my 35 minute run, I'd be heading outside! YEA! I went for a 35 min run around the neighborhood and then headed to the gym for weightlifting (TNT). TNT was a great workout, though the side lunges with a 17.5 lb weight at the end about did me in. I love side lunges, as they really help stretch out my hip flexors, but not with a weight!

Friday, I did a 1200m swim. It was the first time that I've done fartleks in the pool. 50m easy, 25m hard. It was actually kind of fun! I forgot how much I like Friday swims. It's a great way to end the work week. Glad I'm getting back on the schedule to ramp up to these tris!

Wednesday

Today's swim was a short one. After last week's mile swim, it was a welcome shortie!

200m warm up, 6x25m drills, 3x100m intervals, 6x25m kicks, 200m cool down. Total: 1100m.

Funniest part of my swim, T (TNT trainer) came into the pool area and didn't even recognize me! I gave him a hard time later. :)

Tuesday

Today was TNT and a bike ride. It was also when I got to bring my kitty home from the vet! TNT was good. We had a newbie - which is always fun. We also had some chick who's never been in my class that I was less than impressed by. She actually cut off one of the trainers from demonstrating an exercise to do the demonstration herself. We all just looked at her like she had 6 heads. T's really pushing me these days, which is good.

My bike ride was a simple 45 min "easy" foundation ride. I was mentally struggling to get to 45 minutes, mostly because the cat was upstairs and I wanted to be able to take off her collar for her and couldn't unless I was with her. Just a bit distracted. The ride was ok though.

Week 1 Olympic Plan

This week I transfer from the "transition" (read: off season) plan to the Olympic distance training plan. I'll be on that for about 7 weeks and then make the move to my Half Ironman training plan. Man that scares me! In such a good way though.

Here's this week's workouts:

Monday: Off/yoga
Tuesday: TNT & 45 min spin (foundation ride)
Wednesday: 1100m swim
Thursday: TNT & 35 min run (foundation run)
Friday: 1200m swim
Saturday: 45 min spin (foundation ride)
Sunday: 35 min run (foundation run)

This week's workouts

So, this week's been pretty good. I had to completely redo my workout plans for the next 8 weeks based on the fact that I have a 10 mile run in April and a sprint tri in May.

Monday - did yoga. Mostly shoulder stretching, which felt great.

Tuesday - spin for 40 min or so before TNT. Went well, did 3 min on (high cadence), 3 min off. TNT was great. I got the "privilege" of doing double the leg exercises.

Wednesday - I realized when I got in the car to go to the gym that I had forgotten my swim workout at home that morning. So, I decided to do a long, continuous swim instead. 1600m - about a mile. I did it in 35 min flat, so that's good. Right about where I was mid-season last season. :)

Thursday - Run and TNT... this one was just WEIRD. I had a few weird body things going on. Tingling in my hand, tongue, then a killer headache. I pushed through all of those things, but did take it easier than normal. Apparently I was moving slower than normal too because my trainer asked if I was feeling ok.

Friday - I slacked off. I had a 45 min bike ride planned, but my head was still bothering me a bit and I decided to listen to my body and not workout.

Saturday - Run & Bike. I did the run - four 800 repeats. The second one was WAY too fast. I definitely slowed down for #3 & 4, which was good. I forgot I had the bike planned, so I'll add that to tomorrow's workout.

Week 6 High Volume Transition Plan

This week should be a good one. I'm getting back into a groove.

Monday
Off/yoga

Tuesday
TNT
Bike (45 min)

Wednesday
Swim (1700m)

Thursday
TNT
Run (30min)

Friday
Bike (45 min)

Saturday
Running Coach meeting
Bike (30 min)

Sunday
Swim (1700m)

Wednesday - Sunday

Man I'm horrible at keeping up to date on this thing.

Wednesday, I had a swim. It went well, there were a lot of people in the pool though. All good, got the workout done and felt like it was a solid swim.

Thursday, I had TNT and a foundation run. I did my foundation run at a 9:05 pace for the most part, but some of it was sub 9. I'm feeling great about getting my mile times under 9 minutes! TNT was good. My shoulder was bothering me, but I worked through it as much as I could! After the workout, I met a friend for dinner - it was a much needed relaxation time!

Friday, Jon was coming home. I knew I had to get my spin in. I did the Vandever Trainer Road workout. 45 min of VO2 Max training. It was a good/bad thing! I got it done, and it felt great, but it also hurt!

Saturday, I waited until about 2pm to do my swim. I figured the pool would be less crowded. I figured wrong! I had 3 people in my lane. These families in the pool are a bit out of control when someone's coming in to do an actual workout. Jon and I had gotten into a small argument before I left, so it was good to clear my mind. Another solid pool workout.

Today, I had a meeting with CJ/TNT running. We did a 12 minute VO2 Max test (I really need to stop doing bike workouts that match my run workouts!). I pulled an 8:07 mile out!!!! Holy camoly, I haven't run an 8:07 in FOREVER! I did a total of 1.47 miles in 12 minutes, so I was pretty happy with that. My heartrate was a bit crazy, but it's all good. I was really pushing it.

I'll post next week's schedule soon.

Tuesday's Oops...

TNT went really well today. I didn't feel like the workout was too tough. After TNT, I went home to do my spin workout (a Trainer Road 45 min spin), and our wireless Internet was down. Of course J's in Boston and unreachable this week, so I had to text him and wait for a response. It took forever, so by the time he got back to me (a bit over an hour later), I had already changed and I wasn't going to change back into workout clothes. So, I'll have to do this workout tomorrow. On the plus side, now I know what to do if the wireless goes down again!

Week 5 high volume transition plan

This week's goal is to actually get all of the workouts done. I missed my second swim this weekend. Oops. Monday Off/yoga Tuesday TNT Bike (45 min) Wednesday Swim (1600m) Thursday TNT Run (25 min) Friday Bike (45 min) Saturday Swim (1600m) Sunday Running Coach Meeting

Saturday Track

Today was the day that I was meeting with my new running coach and group. I'd forgotten what track workouts felt like apparently. Seriously, 400s suck. Ok, really they don't. And I know they're a necessary evil to get faster. CJ ran with each of us to go over our running form. No huge surprises here. My arm position needs to come in and apparently I over stride. I'll be working to put more of a kick in my step - literally. Learning to relax my upper body is something I need to do in general. It'll be interesting to see what types of things he has me doing to get to be more efficient.

Friday Hills

For some reason, I got it in my head that the Hillacious Spinervals DVD would be a good one to do tonight. I'm not sure what made me think that it'd be a great idea. Man do my quads hurt! And wow, do I need to start actually spending time on my bike. Now that I've basically taken 2 months off, I need to work my booty (actually, tummy) off to get back into tri-shape. Anyhow, I really like the Spinervals collection. I used trainer road (Free 60) with it tonight to at least track heart rate. I have some serious progress to make. (Can you tell what my lesson from tonight was?)

I'm considering getting a power meter. I feel like that'll help me ultimately. Just need to find an option that's not crazy $$!

Tomorrow's the first group meeting with the TNT running coach. Should be interesting!

Thursday's Motivation

Today's run went really well - did my foundation run for 20 min at 9:05/mile it felt great! I was kind of dreading it, but I'm so glad I did it! Total mileage of 2.55 with the 5 min walk.

TNT was good today too. T really pushed me today. I did everything he asked, but man! He wanted me to squat a 45 lb plate. That was way awkward, so he gave me a 35 lb dumbbell instead.

Today was body fat and weigh ins.

Weight: 137 lbs
Body Fat 16.8%

Usually I have the print out to do lean body weight and fat weight too, but the coaches are running out of paper and their boss said that he's no longer going to provide the paper! I'll be putting in an email to him to express my dislike!

Half way through

So, we're half way through the week and I haven't posted an update. I'm horrible about blogging.

Monday - Yoga specifically targeting stretching out my legs. It was awesome.

Tuesday - TNT and spin. I went to TNT and hit it hard, per the norm. Of course, T had me doing some crazy stuff, bench dips with the ball for my feet and 17.5 lbs (each hand) weighted lunges/squats among them. My legs are crazy strong, but really?! I came home and didn't WANT to get on my bike, but I did. I got to play with Trainer Road again, did the "Free Ride 30" workout this time. That means I did whatever I wanted to for 30 minutes. I did a steady cadence ride. I tend to ride with my cadence pretty low, right around 80 rpm. I don't know why, but that's my "happy place". Anyhow, that's what I did for the 30 minutes while watching Coast Guard Alaska on The Weather Channel. The Coast Guard really doesn't get enough credit for the work they do.

I talked with my running coach tonight about my plan from him. It'll be interesting. He doesn't want to mess with my schedule too much given my tri training, but we're still far enough out that he could. We'll see how this goes.

Wednesday - Swim. I REALLY REALLY REALLY didn't want to do this today. My goal for February is to do all of my planned workouts though, so I couldn't skip February 1st's workout! Plus, I've been having a crappy week, so I figured I could use the quiet time. The pool was crowded, but I did manage to get a lane (1 lane was swim lessons, 1 lane was random people, and apparently a family using the 3rd lane left right as I was coming in).

I pulled a rookie move today though... I forgot my towel! Now, I live all of .25 mi from the gym, if that. I could've easily gone home and gotten it. The problem is, I probably wouldn't have gone back to the gym. That's why I pack my gym bag and stop on the way there in the first place. Ah well. So I dried off for a few minutes in the sauna and then toweled down as much as I could with my cami I had been wearing. I can't believe I forgot it!

Now, for the rest of the week. Tomorrow's weigh in and body fat day. Wooo hooo! Can't wait to see how horrible my numbers got over the one session. T's going to have my head. Ah well, starting today, I'm back on track to get where I need to be for May, July, and August!