I love the weather!

So, yesterday, I did my 45 min TNT group training (weightlifting) class. My group consisted of just me! Wooo hooo, nothing like a little 1 on 1 training. It's nice to have that every once in a while. My knee was still bothering me a little from the craptastic fun on Sunday, so I didn't want to chance a run on it.

This morning, the weather's WAY too nice to not run. It was 59 when I got up at 7 this morning... 59! In the summer?! So, I managed to get out and do a 3 mile run. It was definitely a slow one - 10 min/mile pace, but that seems to be my groove these days, so I'll take it. I've been slacking on my track work and I know it. Plus, my knee's still a little sore from Sunday (but mostly I've been slacking).

The bike goes back to the bike shop today to deal with the knee issue and then I'm going to take it out for a short-ish ride. I have my CPR/AED class tonight at 6. Looking forward to having that out of the way!

Today's Brick Sucked

Yup... it sucked. Well... not all of it, but as a whole and man has it left me in a foul mood. On a good workout day, I can be as high as a kite from the adrenaline rush for the rest of the day. Ok, so... to discuss the workout.

Today, we set out for a 2 hr bike ride and 1 hr run. We started out at 6:45 this morning on the trail and went west. For the most part, it was a nice, easy ride out. The ride back was good too. We hit 25.6 mph  at some point, which is awesome! I had so much fun going speedy speedy! We did 1 hr 40 min, almost 28 miles.

We got off the bikes and Jon put them on the rack while I took off for my run (his run was 30 minutes). .99 miles into the run things started to go wrong. My right knee's been bothering me after getting off my bike. It's the new shoes I have and the cleat placement on them and it's driving me NUTS. I'm taking the bike and shoes to the bike store on Tuesday to get it changed. If I knew which direction to move it, I'd just do it myself! So... at .99 miles, my knee started bothering me. I stretched it out, squat-ed a bit, and walked around a few minutes. It felt good enough, so I continued on with my run. When I got to 1.6 miles, I knew I was done. I turned around and started walking back to the car. At some point, I ran into Jon and he turned around with me. After walking for a bit, the knee felt better, so I started a SLOW slog (run... I guess) with Jon trailing behind me. That lasted for about .25 miles and then I had to walk the rest of the way.

It SUCKED. I felt so defeated.

I've let it get to me. Way too much. I was so mentally prepared to have an awesome workout this morning that even though half of it WAS awesome, I haven't even taken the time to appreciate it, which makes me even MORE mad. I need to let it go and just write it off. It is what it is. Tomorrow's another day, with another workout. Onward and upward. I just need to remember the following:

2 days until the weekend!

Today's workouts consist of a 40-60 min bike ride (Z2! baby) and an hour swim. I need to figure out the timing of today since I'm meeting a friend for lunch at noon (which will take me about an hour to get to) and then have a hair appt at 3. I think I can get the ride in after my hair appt and the swim is at 8pm, so that's not an issue. Of course, I still have to get my studies in for the day too. I'm almost caught up on the day I was previously behind (3 more pages to go), so I should be done with that before I leave for lunch with no problems.

I have a text book called "Fitness Professionals' Guide to Musculoskeletal Anatomy and Human Movement" that I also need to be reviewing, but I really need a PC with Windows on it to do that (I'm a Mac girl!). I'm waiting for my hubby to put Windows back on my old laptop so that I can use the CD that came with that text book to really get into that... then I start adding on the studying of the muscles & bones too!

TriRock Race Report

I FINALLY got around to writing my race report for TriRock. I just have to add pictures. I'll do that tonight, if I have time. If not, I've at least written the report! (Only a month and a half late!)

(And... this is my 300th post!)

Half way through

This week seems to be dragging a bit, but we're sloggin through!

Tuesday, I did my bike ride (which was a comedy of errors) on my trainer. My roadie is up on the trainer... probably for the season. Sorry roadie! Let's just say that it was a good thing Jon wasn't home when I was getting the bike set up. I had to change out the back tire, which was funny. I did it... and had grease all over me! Ah well, nothing Lava soap can't take care of.

I had a massage yesterday, which was wonderful and productive. My knots in my shoulders are crazy and he was able to work on them a good bit. They're still there, but I think they always will be. Next month's massage is a hot stone massage! YAY!

After the massage, I went for an hour long swim. I'm really liking the swims with Team Z. The team really works that pool! Two notes:

1) We swam a timed 800m "race" simulation. I timed mine at 15:34! I *think* that's a PR for me! Of course, it'll be slower in an actual race. Something inevitably throws me off.

2) Jon's finally getting the whole idea behind swimming. He's been working really hard at it, and I'm proud of him! He had a lot of help from 2 coaches last night and seems to be progressing well.

Today, I did my weight lifting already. It's supposed to be crazy hot here today, so I'm going to do some yoga instead of run... I know they're not the same, but I also know I have an hour run as part of a brick later this week that I don't want to kill my shins for (too much running too short of time period = shin splints for me). Slowly getting back into my runs... which I need to do a bit more quickly given that my big race is coming up in 2 months, 6 days!

Monday - Bring it!

After a way too lazy weekend (again... um... this is a PROBLEM!), I've decided I need to kick my butt into gear. After all, Maine's only about 9 or 10 weeks away (I need to count). CRAP!

This morning, I woke up with Jon and got my 30 min Z2 run in, before I went to lift weights. Whew! It felt good though. I kept it at a nice, easy 10 min/mile pace, getting in 3 miles before 7am. Nothing like it. Then a 45 min TNT class, complete with too many sets of mountain climbers and a couple of sets of burpees. Love it!

I've also decided that starting today, I'm back to tracking food, weight, measurements, water, etc. It's time. I have to get rid of at least 5 lbs before Aug 26 to be at race weight (and not feel like a stuffed sausage in my wet suit). I'm going to add a ticker (if I figure out how) from myfitnesspal to the website to allow you to see how I'm progressing.

Game on body, game on.

Also, I'm one day behind in my studies, so I'll be playing catch up a bit this week. I'm excited for this week's studies; nutrition. Should be good to read what ACE's stand point is on it.

So far this week

Tuesday, I skipped my bike ride. I know, I know... I need to do it! I did go swim for an hour though. I'm so happy I've been bumped up a lane to "lane 4". I think for now, it's right where I need to be. I'm able to swim at my speed and still work on technique/form. I'm slowly getting to know a couple of my teammates, which is always nice.

Wednesday, I got up and went to TNT at 6:50am again. It'll take me some time to adjust to the new time of weight lifting. My body's sooooo not used to it and is screaming at me for it. I also got to meet up with our former assistant trainer, Mary, to go for a run. I know I'm WAY slower than she is, but it was nice to have someone else to run with. I went to her place and we headed out for a 40 min run (which turned out to be *just* over 4 miles, so the Z2 pace was good) along some trails in the area I don't normally get to run. I think I'll be heading over to that area more often (just need to find a place to park really). 

Today, I have a 40 min bike ride and an hour swim. I'll definitely be doing the swim, and I need to force myself to do the ride later today. I'll update later about how it all goes.

Edited to add: The swim went great! I'm getting super comfortable in the lane I'm in. Definitely a better fit than the one lower. We did about 2500m in an hour, so I'm feeling confident that I can do 1900 in less than an hour - even though my open water times are much slower than my pool times.

In Studies

I'm on week 2 of studying for my ACE personal trainer certification. Since I had my body fat done today, I was interested to learn that the essential body fat for:

Men 2-5%
Women 10-13%

What a difference between the genders. It has to do with our ability to have kids, but wow!

I've been learning all sorts of interesting things, I can't wait to see what tomorrow holds! This weekend, I'm getting CPR/AED certified. Things are moving!

Happy Monday!

This week's a recovery week for tri training, so it'll be pretty light. I got up early this morning and went to the 6:50 TNT (weight lifting) class. We had body fat tests today - YIKES! Class was good, but hot. It's super humid here this morning, and the gym definitely was affected. The temperature itself wasn't too bad, but when you add the humidity, nothing's cooling down!

Weight: 135 (down 5 lbs from about 12 weeks ago when I last had my body fat done due to being sick as a dog 6 weeks ago)

Body Fat: 16.7% (down about 2% from 12 weeks ago)

All in all, pretty good. I need to drop about 5 more lbs and I'd like to see my body fat around 14-15% by August, but we'll see. Since I'm not working right now, I've been doing so much better about cooking at home (out of necessity!) and so the body fat should come down. Also, if I start actually doing my training instead of slacking off (and being 6 weeks behind... ah!), I should see some great results.

Like I said, this week's a recovery week for tri training, so it's pretty light. Here's to getting it done!

Mon - rest
Tues - bike easy 30 min, swim 1 hr
Wed - run easy 40-60 min
Thurs - bike easy 40 min, swim 1 hr
Fri - rest
Sat - run 1 hr easy
Sun - bike 1-2 hrs easy

How is it only Thursday?!

This week has been a tough one workout wise. After having taken almost all of May off, this is the first week I'm "all in" again. With only 12 weeks left until THE race, I've got to get my butt moving.

That being said, I think this week's schedule was a bit much with the way it's structured. I've had 3 workouts on Tues/Thurs and it's just too much... so next week, I'm moving my weight lifting to Mon/Wed morning and hopefully that'll help a good bit.

My bike today was good. I went to the spin room again just because of the timing. Hopefully next week, I'll be able to take my bike out at least to the W&OD trail to ride. I hate riding the trail, but I think it'll be better in the week than on the weekends. I put in a good effort today and actually did my single leg drills - they were tough!

TNT was good today, but tough. T had me curling 40 lbs... any day he pushes me like that, I'm pretty much shot for the rest of the night! The last set of pushups did me in, for sure! Great workout though.

Tomorrow's supposed to be a rest day, but I need Saturday to be a rest day, so I'll be aiming to get in my long run at some point.

National Running Day

Happy National Running Day! To celebrate, I went out and ran 3.78 miles (I know, a weird distance) in just over 37 minutes. Monday's run was supposed to be a 35 minute zone 2 run and I skipped it (oops?). Today was supposed to be track work, but it's sooooo nice out that I decided to do Monday's run instead. The extra 2 minutes I did were to actually get home. For once, I timed it wrong the long way... and not the short way!

Even though she doesn't read this blog, I'd like to take a minute to thank my first TNT coach, Megan, for encouraging me to get on the treadmill and run. After accomplishing that, she encouraged me to get outside and run. She worked with me to get me to do my first 5k - which was in April 2007 and in the 40 degree range and rainy! I completed that and progressed through to a half marathon in January 2008 (DISNEY!) and then a marathon in October 2008 (MCM). The half marathon distance continues to be my favorite, although the 10 miler is quickly moving up there on my list as well.

Megan also encouraged me to start doing tris after I pulled my achilles in August 2009. It took me 15 months to recover from that pull and I had to basically walk my way back into running. When I started talking with her about doing a sprint tri after I knew I could run again, she was so encouraging and helpful!

Recently, Megan's health has not been good (and she's young - not even 30 yet) and she's been in and out of the hospital. She's working her way toward recovery and I know she'll do it; after all, she's an Ironman!

3rd time's the charm

Today was insane. Well... this week has been really. I started studying for my ACE personal trainer exam on Monday. It's taken me about 3 hrs each day to get through everything I need to for the day. Ah!

Today, I had a bike, TNT, and a swim to do (3 workouts!). That's almost a full 3 hrs of working out. Needless to say, I'm TIRED! The bike was good - I went to the spin room to do it. I really need to get out and ride my bike, but it's hard to do that if I'm not on the W&OD trail... so spin room it was. I laid out a 50 minute ride and then walked down the stairs to TNT. Lifted/did abs for 45 minutes.

Then... I went home and made dinner. Cause, everyone should eat between workouts!

At 7:30, we left for swim practice. It was good - I moved up a lane and am probably the slowest person in the lane now, but it's all good. I'll get faster as my stroke improves. I spent most of the practice working on having high elbows. Oh and... Coach R pushed me into the pool. :) I guess we were taking too much time getting in. It wasn't a hard push, more of a "gentle nudge" (and I knew he was standing there and was going to do it).

I have to say, I'm really enjoying the Team Z swim workouts. I need to get my butt to a couple of the bikes and runs!

Thursday & Sunday's workouts

Thursday, I went to the gym to do an hour spin. I'm not sure why I thought it'd be better to do it there, but it turned out... it wasn't. I hate Chatty Kathy's. You're at the gym to work out, work hard enough you can't hold an entire conversation. Sigh... I dislike the trainer of this chick even more, but that's neither here nor there. I got about 45 minutes in and then called it quits. I had lost all motivation and ability to concentrate, even with my music blaring in my ears. YUK!

Thursday night was a swim workout with the team. We had a weak side breathing side that SUCKED. Other than that, the set went well. I'm being moved up a lane because I'm just a bit too fast for the people in this lane I was in Tuesday and Thursday. Tuesday I wasn't sure because they had all hung on the wall for a bit... Thursday made it evident. Swim Coach R gave me a couple of things to work on, mostly just making sure I get my elbows high. My right arm comes too high, which causes my left arm to suffer a bit. So, I'll be working on that.

Today, Jon and I did a brick. We went out for a 1 hr bike ride (on the new bike too!) and a 30 min run. Originally, we were going to do 1.5 hrs on the bike, but I need to build up to that on the new bike. It'll get there. The hour on the bike felt good. I definitely feel it in my shoulders, but I'm told that's a bit normal. The run was great! I need new shoes, but other than that, it was a solid 3.1 in 30:39... I could've definitely run a bit faster to keep that time under 30, but with it being my 3rd brick of the season (and was supposed to be a Z2 workout!), I thought better of it.