Looking back over my posts, I realize I'm too wordy and probably not really saying that much...You probably don't want to read that much. Who cares, I ran, I biked, I swam, I ran, I biked, I swam...
So, I have two options, continue to write once a week about my boring totals, and be a little long winded. Or attempt to write a short version daily or every other day with interesting highlights from my workouts. What do you prefer?
Last week wasn't that interesting that I remember. It was better than the week before it, mentally, so that was nice. The long bike was 62 miles. Its the furthest we've gone in quite some time; and it wasn't as bad as I thought. Long run was a little over 9 miles. And I missed one swim last week b/c I had a meet this past weekend. I know, sounds crazy...I missed a swim b/c I was at a swim meet. But when you are there as a coach, the opportunity to swim is just not there. Especially when its a long course meet with only one warmup/down lane. All in all: 6 runs, 4 bikes, and only 2 swims.
This week we got to take our usual recovery day Monday with just an easy swim, but then we did another kind of recovery day on Tuesday (45 min easy bike, 30 min easy swim) b/c we were SUPPOSED to take a running Lactate Threshold test with Coach on Wed. So after sleeping in a bit on Wed. (instead of the track workout), get a call from coach to say that he doesn't have enough strips to test both Christian and I. Basically he was unprepared for something he knew about 2 weeks ago; for something he convinced us to do; for something we're paying him an extra $115/person for! I was pissed! I mean seriously. He had all kinds of excuses, but the main answer is he waited until the last minute and it bit him in the ass! Very unprofessional. First time I've been really disappointed in him. So, needless to say, Christian went to do the test, and I headed over for my track workout in the SUN! Then swam a 1000 for time that night! Whoa! That hurt after the track workout! But did a 13:42 chasing my friend/coworker to keep me pushing! It was 29 seconds faster than last time! Nice. We took it out too fast, but didn't completely crash.
Today a 2 hour ride. Nothing too exciting. Some hard pushes. Hope its going well for all of you! Oh, I have my test next week for my personal training certification. I'm freaking out! Wish me luck!
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Monday, April 19, 2010
Gonna be a long 4 and a half months
Did almost 18 hours of training this week, and we still have a LONG way to go in terms of training time! Its really a little more than four months away, but my long ride is only 1/2 way there, and I know we do at least one ride that's more than the distance; my long run isn't even half way there, and I know we will do at least one 20 mile run, if not a bit more. It's already LONG, HARD training, and there's still a long way to go! I'm scared! This is the first week that I got a bit scared about making it. It wasn't that I didn't do, or couldn't do the training this week, it was just thinking about how long I have to go! And on top of that, it was just the week that I let some of the workouts get to me. You see, Christian and I pretty much, workout at the same time.
We swim at the pool together, or in the ocean together, and that's the one sport, I'm a little better than him at (though he's getting closer). I haven't gotten much faster in my swimming, it pretty much just holds the same. But in the pool, we do the same workout in different lanes. In the ocean, I just swim a bit ahead of him and look for him at the buoys to make sure he's okay.
On the bike, during the week, we are out with the group. We all warm up together, and then break out to do our workouts. Almost everyone in the group is faster than me, including Christian, who's a lot faster than me. But, once we spread out I don't think about it too much. Its when we're trying to ride together on the weekends or easier rides. He is riding in his "easy," and I'm riding in my "easy," and he just keeps pulling further and further in front of me, until he eventually has to loop back and pick me up a few times. The other day, that got to me. I sometimes get annoyed that he's basically biking laps around me. I got annoyed that we workout at the same time, but not together. The thing is, there's nothing I or he can do about it. I don't want him to slow down and ruin his workout or training, and I can't go much faster and stay within my plan. It just sucks sometimes, you know?
On the run, we all know, Christian is MUCH faster than me. Again though, when its a harder run, or the track, its expected. I'm again, one of the slowest in the group. Its on the easier runs, when I let it get to me...when he's just running right in front of me. If I couldn't really see him, it wouldn't matter, I don't think. Its just having him right in front of me. Sometimes I think about some of the other cultures where the women have to walk behind the men, not beside them! That's the thoughts in my mind at that time!
I know, I'm crazy...but I never said I wasn't. I'm neurotic and competitive and it sucks when you are competitive, but there's nothing you can do to make yourself as fast as the other people. Am I getting better? MOST DEFINITELY. Will I ever be a 7:30 miler in a triathlon, like Christian? Doubtful. So, any advice how to get over my mental blocks in training? I mean, I'm not racing Christian, I don't want to race him. I just want to do my own race well...and I know if I can't get the focus right in training, I'm going to have trouble in the race...Help here would be great!
So, what did I do last week:
4 swims: 1 recovery pool swim, 1 harder pool pull workout, 2 ocean swims (40 and 45 minutes).
4 bikes: 1 hard interval, 1 easier ride during the week, 1 LONG ride (3:15 now), 1 bridge workout ride (10 bridge repeats in the wind and RAIN! It sucked!)
6 runs (WOW): 1, 50:00 breakthrough holding z3 for 15 min, 1 REALLY HARD track workout of 12x400s FAST with a 200 rec, 2 brick runs (35 minutes, and 40 minutes after the 3:15 bike), 1 long run (1:40), and 1 easy 30 minute run. NEVER thought I would run so much in a week, and I'm not hating it!
Oh, and one stretch and core strengthening session!
We swim at the pool together, or in the ocean together, and that's the one sport, I'm a little better than him at (though he's getting closer). I haven't gotten much faster in my swimming, it pretty much just holds the same. But in the pool, we do the same workout in different lanes. In the ocean, I just swim a bit ahead of him and look for him at the buoys to make sure he's okay.
On the bike, during the week, we are out with the group. We all warm up together, and then break out to do our workouts. Almost everyone in the group is faster than me, including Christian, who's a lot faster than me. But, once we spread out I don't think about it too much. Its when we're trying to ride together on the weekends or easier rides. He is riding in his "easy," and I'm riding in my "easy," and he just keeps pulling further and further in front of me, until he eventually has to loop back and pick me up a few times. The other day, that got to me. I sometimes get annoyed that he's basically biking laps around me. I got annoyed that we workout at the same time, but not together. The thing is, there's nothing I or he can do about it. I don't want him to slow down and ruin his workout or training, and I can't go much faster and stay within my plan. It just sucks sometimes, you know?
On the run, we all know, Christian is MUCH faster than me. Again though, when its a harder run, or the track, its expected. I'm again, one of the slowest in the group. Its on the easier runs, when I let it get to me...when he's just running right in front of me. If I couldn't really see him, it wouldn't matter, I don't think. Its just having him right in front of me. Sometimes I think about some of the other cultures where the women have to walk behind the men, not beside them! That's the thoughts in my mind at that time!
I know, I'm crazy...but I never said I wasn't. I'm neurotic and competitive and it sucks when you are competitive, but there's nothing you can do to make yourself as fast as the other people. Am I getting better? MOST DEFINITELY. Will I ever be a 7:30 miler in a triathlon, like Christian? Doubtful. So, any advice how to get over my mental blocks in training? I mean, I'm not racing Christian, I don't want to race him. I just want to do my own race well...and I know if I can't get the focus right in training, I'm going to have trouble in the race...Help here would be great!
So, what did I do last week:
4 swims: 1 recovery pool swim, 1 harder pool pull workout, 2 ocean swims (40 and 45 minutes).
4 bikes: 1 hard interval, 1 easier ride during the week, 1 LONG ride (3:15 now), 1 bridge workout ride (10 bridge repeats in the wind and RAIN! It sucked!)
6 runs (WOW): 1, 50:00 breakthrough holding z3 for 15 min, 1 REALLY HARD track workout of 12x400s FAST with a 200 rec, 2 brick runs (35 minutes, and 40 minutes after the 3:15 bike), 1 long run (1:40), and 1 easy 30 minute run. NEVER thought I would run so much in a week, and I'm not hating it!
Oh, and one stretch and core strengthening session!
Monday, April 12, 2010
Recovery Week and Nautica Triathlon
YEA RECOVERY WEEK! I LOVE RECOVERY WEEK! Monday: 35 minutes of stretching and core exercises, then a 1 hour swim, but nothing hard. Tuesday: 1:30 bike ride with some 3min hard intervals, then a 35 minute run that afternoon. Wednesday: a 45 minute run on the track (FINALLY not the last one done with workout b/c ours was short! YEA!) and NO SWIM! NICE! Thursday: 45 minute easy ride and 15 minute run off the bike. Friday: 20 minute ocean swim, easy! Saturday: a short brick after my swimmers morning workout, a 12 minute swim, a 30 minute bike, and a 15 minute run. Sunday: RACE DAY!
I was feeling like crap about 1/2 way through the week. I guess your body is like not sure what to do with more free time, or not working as hard, so it just goes into exhaustion mode? Not really sure, but I just felt lethargic and my muscles felt tired...but I pushed through. By Saturday's brick, I was feeling much better and actually getting excited about the race on Sunday. It was an Olympic distance race, and its really just a C race for us, but with all this training, I kind of had a glimmer of hope that I could do pretty well, maybe even PR (old Olympic PR was 2:54).
Got up Sunday morning, no big issues, slept a little better than usual on pre-race night. Didn't feel any nerves in the morning. Was able to eat breakfast no problem. It really just felt like another training morning at home, which was nice. We got out the door about 10 minutes later than usual and headed down. Coach wanted us to do a 10 minute swim, a 10 minute bike and a 6 minute run before the race! Never done that much warmup...but was going to try. We parked and Christian and I headed straight for the 6 minute run. Took the bikes in, and went potty and he took his bike out for the 10 minute bike. I went potty again, and again. I hate race day potty! :) Finished setting up my stuff, put the wetsuit on, found Christian and after saying hello to some of my swimmers who were swimming on relays, headed down to the water. The swim was point a to b, so we started walking towards the start with the intention of swimming the final part up to the start to get in the warmup. As we walked it got closer and closer to time for the pre-race meeting. The water was WAVY, which is unusual in Miami. It definitely wasn't as bad as Dewey always is for its race, but it wasn't fun. We did maybe a 5 minute warm up. I really hate ocean water, and I hate fighting waves, so I wasn't very eager about the swim (even I sometimes hate the swim!), but I knew everyone else was in the same boat, so I figured I still have my swim advantage and went into my "Just keep swimming" mantra! :)
First wave: 7:00, Christian's Thunderthigh wave, 7:03, all the females, 7:06 (w/ 55+males). We took off, and I took an outside path b/c I knew everyone would try and cut straight out to the buoy rather than start at the outside of it and let the waves and current aim you at it! I also decided I'm not going to RUN over the waves since I'm not very good at it. I made my way in and hopped over several waves then dove into the 4th one or so. Took a few strokes and got kicked around by a few waves. Started to seep in to my head "man I hate this!" but thought, "Okay Ash, just make it to that first buoy and your are out past the breakers and swimming straight." Once I got out there you had to try and time your spotting with the crest of a roller but I just tried to keep it as straight as possible. I started picking out blue caps from the heat in front of us and just said, alright pass him. Made it past MOST of the blue caps as I made my way by the buoys. Was feeling long and strong, but didn't feel like I was killing myself at all. Mostly did breathing on my right to breathe away from the waves. Stood up at the beach at 23:30, but the chip has me at 25:08 with the beach running. Still pretty happy. Must have had a bit of a current to push us!
LONG distance between entrances and exits in transition. My bike was close to the swim exit, but FAR from the bike start. Managed to get my wetsuit off pretty quickly and started the long run to start the bike! Had a guy ask me what wave I was and he was like "so the elites should be done, right." I was like, um "yea, they should be!" Maybe I beat his Elite out of the water, cool! :)
Took off on the bike, and this is the only course of hills in Miami. We go from South Beach out one causeway that has one pretty big bridge over the water, downtown to the other causeway which has 2 big bridges over the water, around North Miami Beach, and then back over the causeways (6 bridges total, actually 8, but one bridge isn't much of a hill). Going west, wind at your back, going east towards the beach was into the wind...but the wind wasn't as bad as it had been the days before. Coach told me to keep my HR 10-15 beats below threshold, so I was aiming for 160-165. Problem was that my HR monitor wasn't working half the time, so during those times, I guessed. When it would work, I was apparently a pretty good guesser! Felt strong, but all those boys I passed in the water were FLYING by me! So annoying. About 15 miles in, some of those quick girls were passing me to. I just tried to maintain focus. Thought I was really holding 19-20 mph, but apparently the average with 18.5, bummer. One of these days I'll be at 20 average (RIGHT?!). Tried to keep my RPMs up on the bridges and just held steady. Felt pretty good coming in from the bike, 25 miles is a short bike at this point! Finished at 1:18:10.
Another 2:30ish minute transition, and was out for the run. Here Coach told me to not stress about my HR...to just be "comfortable, but uncomfortable" for the first 3 miles, and then try to build into as fast as you can go on the last 3 miles. When I got out of transition I was at 1:48, so I knew if I could just manage to do 10 minute miles, I could PR! However, for me and a triathlon over the past 3 or so years, a 10 minute mile hasn't been very common. I just tried to stand tall and pull the shoulders back and run. Tons of guys and some girls flying past, but tried to focus on myself and my breathing. At first mile, was feeling comfortable, but uncomfortable, looked down and was right at 10 minutes (HR was around 165, so pretty good). I thought "I can do this." Its only 5 more miles. As people continued to pass me I felt myself pick it up a bit, but tried not to get crazy. Had to remind myself that 2/3's of the racers were only doing 4 miles, so relax (there was a Classic and an Olympic distance). Noticed at the 2 mile mark, I was under a 10 minute mile. Still feeling good all the way out to the 3 mile turn. Saw Christian with him having about 2.5 miles to go and looked at my watch, realized he had a good shot of getting his PR/race goal of 2:30! So, gave him a big cheer!
Started making my way back and just focused on pushing a bit more, nothing crazy each mile. Lucky for us the clouds kept cover over the sun the whole run, so it wasn't crazy hot! It was perfect race weather! Finally at the last mile decided to try and push a bit more. HR crept up to 180s, and I just kept saying its only a mile, less than a mile! Saw I was going to make a PR for sure, so that helped to...Rounded the corner and ran over the sand dune (that sucks btw!), to the finish line! 2:46:18! And a 57:41 RUN! WOOHOO! I was a 9:18 pace! I was ecstatic! Still pretty slow for most people, but I was so happy to finally have a good run. I stayed positive the whole race, and really had a good time. And actually I've only run one 10k ever, faster than that! So, all in all a great day! I was 10th out of 25 females in my group, but no issues there. The girls in front were pretty good! Christian however, was 2nd in his Thunderthighs division! And got his PR by 7 minutes at 2:30!
I hope this means that we're really heading in the right direction for August and we'll be ready then. Got a big week coming up, with 17:30 hours planned of training. Back to the grindstone!
I was feeling like crap about 1/2 way through the week. I guess your body is like not sure what to do with more free time, or not working as hard, so it just goes into exhaustion mode? Not really sure, but I just felt lethargic and my muscles felt tired...but I pushed through. By Saturday's brick, I was feeling much better and actually getting excited about the race on Sunday. It was an Olympic distance race, and its really just a C race for us, but with all this training, I kind of had a glimmer of hope that I could do pretty well, maybe even PR (old Olympic PR was 2:54).
Got up Sunday morning, no big issues, slept a little better than usual on pre-race night. Didn't feel any nerves in the morning. Was able to eat breakfast no problem. It really just felt like another training morning at home, which was nice. We got out the door about 10 minutes later than usual and headed down. Coach wanted us to do a 10 minute swim, a 10 minute bike and a 6 minute run before the race! Never done that much warmup...but was going to try. We parked and Christian and I headed straight for the 6 minute run. Took the bikes in, and went potty and he took his bike out for the 10 minute bike. I went potty again, and again. I hate race day potty! :) Finished setting up my stuff, put the wetsuit on, found Christian and after saying hello to some of my swimmers who were swimming on relays, headed down to the water. The swim was point a to b, so we started walking towards the start with the intention of swimming the final part up to the start to get in the warmup. As we walked it got closer and closer to time for the pre-race meeting. The water was WAVY, which is unusual in Miami. It definitely wasn't as bad as Dewey always is for its race, but it wasn't fun. We did maybe a 5 minute warm up. I really hate ocean water, and I hate fighting waves, so I wasn't very eager about the swim (even I sometimes hate the swim!), but I knew everyone else was in the same boat, so I figured I still have my swim advantage and went into my "Just keep swimming" mantra! :)
First wave: 7:00, Christian's Thunderthigh wave, 7:03, all the females, 7:06 (w/ 55+males). We took off, and I took an outside path b/c I knew everyone would try and cut straight out to the buoy rather than start at the outside of it and let the waves and current aim you at it! I also decided I'm not going to RUN over the waves since I'm not very good at it. I made my way in and hopped over several waves then dove into the 4th one or so. Took a few strokes and got kicked around by a few waves. Started to seep in to my head "man I hate this!" but thought, "Okay Ash, just make it to that first buoy and your are out past the breakers and swimming straight." Once I got out there you had to try and time your spotting with the crest of a roller but I just tried to keep it as straight as possible. I started picking out blue caps from the heat in front of us and just said, alright pass him. Made it past MOST of the blue caps as I made my way by the buoys. Was feeling long and strong, but didn't feel like I was killing myself at all. Mostly did breathing on my right to breathe away from the waves. Stood up at the beach at 23:30, but the chip has me at 25:08 with the beach running. Still pretty happy. Must have had a bit of a current to push us!
LONG distance between entrances and exits in transition. My bike was close to the swim exit, but FAR from the bike start. Managed to get my wetsuit off pretty quickly and started the long run to start the bike! Had a guy ask me what wave I was and he was like "so the elites should be done, right." I was like, um "yea, they should be!" Maybe I beat his Elite out of the water, cool! :)
Took off on the bike, and this is the only course of hills in Miami. We go from South Beach out one causeway that has one pretty big bridge over the water, downtown to the other causeway which has 2 big bridges over the water, around North Miami Beach, and then back over the causeways (6 bridges total, actually 8, but one bridge isn't much of a hill). Going west, wind at your back, going east towards the beach was into the wind...but the wind wasn't as bad as it had been the days before. Coach told me to keep my HR 10-15 beats below threshold, so I was aiming for 160-165. Problem was that my HR monitor wasn't working half the time, so during those times, I guessed. When it would work, I was apparently a pretty good guesser! Felt strong, but all those boys I passed in the water were FLYING by me! So annoying. About 15 miles in, some of those quick girls were passing me to. I just tried to maintain focus. Thought I was really holding 19-20 mph, but apparently the average with 18.5, bummer. One of these days I'll be at 20 average (RIGHT?!). Tried to keep my RPMs up on the bridges and just held steady. Felt pretty good coming in from the bike, 25 miles is a short bike at this point! Finished at 1:18:10.
Another 2:30ish minute transition, and was out for the run. Here Coach told me to not stress about my HR...to just be "comfortable, but uncomfortable" for the first 3 miles, and then try to build into as fast as you can go on the last 3 miles. When I got out of transition I was at 1:48, so I knew if I could just manage to do 10 minute miles, I could PR! However, for me and a triathlon over the past 3 or so years, a 10 minute mile hasn't been very common. I just tried to stand tall and pull the shoulders back and run. Tons of guys and some girls flying past, but tried to focus on myself and my breathing. At first mile, was feeling comfortable, but uncomfortable, looked down and was right at 10 minutes (HR was around 165, so pretty good). I thought "I can do this." Its only 5 more miles. As people continued to pass me I felt myself pick it up a bit, but tried not to get crazy. Had to remind myself that 2/3's of the racers were only doing 4 miles, so relax (there was a Classic and an Olympic distance). Noticed at the 2 mile mark, I was under a 10 minute mile. Still feeling good all the way out to the 3 mile turn. Saw Christian with him having about 2.5 miles to go and looked at my watch, realized he had a good shot of getting his PR/race goal of 2:30! So, gave him a big cheer!
Started making my way back and just focused on pushing a bit more, nothing crazy each mile. Lucky for us the clouds kept cover over the sun the whole run, so it wasn't crazy hot! It was perfect race weather! Finally at the last mile decided to try and push a bit more. HR crept up to 180s, and I just kept saying its only a mile, less than a mile! Saw I was going to make a PR for sure, so that helped to...Rounded the corner and ran over the sand dune (that sucks btw!), to the finish line! 2:46:18! And a 57:41 RUN! WOOHOO! I was a 9:18 pace! I was ecstatic! Still pretty slow for most people, but I was so happy to finally have a good run. I stayed positive the whole race, and really had a good time. And actually I've only run one 10k ever, faster than that! So, all in all a great day! I was 10th out of 25 females in my group, but no issues there. The girls in front were pretty good! Christian however, was 2nd in his Thunderthighs division! And got his PR by 7 minutes at 2:30!
I hope this means that we're really heading in the right direction for August and we'll be ready then. Got a big week coming up, with 17:30 hours planned of training. Back to the grindstone!
Monday, April 5, 2010
Wilco Curse, then Easter
Sorry, I didn't write last week. I was teaching a lifeguard class all day each day and then coaching, so I didn't have a lot of spare time. Good news is, everyone passed...the bad news is, I still wouldn't want some of them to be my lifeguard!
So, I'll start with the week before last's training and work up to today. This post will be a bit long!
The week before last was our "Concert week." We had Wilco tickets on Monday night and G. Love tickets on Thursday night. The last time Christian went to see Wilco, he took our friend James...and even though James went, he had a horrible flu and spent the whole night in the fetal position. We went to swim Monday morning, so we could go straight to the concert Monday night. I left straight from work, came home changed, and Christian picked me up to go to the show. We assumed there was going to be an opening act so it was okay for us to go after I got off work. We assumed wrong. I had been hungry, but didn't have time for a real dinner. I figured we'd just grab something quick on the way home or at the show. I ate an apple and a granola bar. On the way there I started to feel a bit nauseous, but I figured it was just hunger. When we walked in, and smelled all the weed, it made me feel sicker. So I sat in the chair, and just listened. The show was good. After about an hour, Wilco took a break and were going to come out to play another set. I was feeling pretty sick by then, and Christian said he was feeling hungry too, so we left before the second set. On the way home, he offered to stop and get food, but everything sounded horrible to me. We got home and I ate like 3 saltines and drank some gatorade and crawled in bed. Christian drank some protein/milk drink and came to bed soon after. About an hour into the night, I woke up to go potty, thought that would help, and 15 minutes after that, puked my guts out! UGH! It was awful. I spent the rest of the night in and out of the bathroom. Top it off, Christian started throwing up right after me. However, he still thinks it was because of the protein drink, not what I had. Either way, we spent the night sick, and didn't feel great the next day...we both called in sick to work and didn't do either exercise scheduled for the day. By about 4pm, I was able to get in more Saltines and Gatorade...and by 7 or so, I was able to eat. I felt much better about 24 hours later. We decided to test out the Wed. morning track workout to get back on "track." We went and I did the whole run, but I was very slow and just felt SO weak from the day before. But, at least I was back to workouts! I had no idea how guilty I would feel for missing one day of workouts, and its completely understandable when your sick, but I still felt guilty. I probably should've taken Wed. morning off, b/c soon after I caught a cold. I think because my immune system was down...I'm still fighting it off. I don't feel sick, just snotty!
Anyway, Wed. was back on track. We did the morning track workout (3x1000, 3x800), and swam a tough ladder at threshold that night. Thursday was a 1:30 bike with intervals in 53x12, and a 15 minute post bike jog. We went from work Thursday up to Ft. Lauderdale to the G. Love show. Of course G. never starts until after 10:00 pm, but the show was great. It just meant we got home at 1am. Friday was supposed to be a morning 45 minute swim, but it was pouring that morning (which I happily went back to sleep), so that was the 3rd workout of the week we missed. But, did our long run (1:30), and I did a pilates class.
Saturday was our first big brick! (I actually had another weekend off, I love time between seasons). We did a 30 minute ocean swim, hopped on the bike for a 2:30 bike ride all zone 2, and then hopped into our shoes for a 30 minute run. I was a bit worried about the whole thing, but once out there, I felt fine the whole time! That made me feel more confident! On Sunday, we ended the week with a 2 hour bike ride where we did 8 bridge repeats (The only hill in Miami), and an easy 30 minute run later in the day. So with the sickness, I got in: 3 swims (one open water), 3 bikes and 4 runs (one only 15 minutes). Total 13:35 (includes core workouts, and stretching).
Now, this past week. As mentioned, I was teaching a lifeguard class, and class was scheduled from 8-4:00 Monday-Thursday. After each day, my swimmers (who were on spring break) practiced from 3-5 (two hours earlier than usual), so I was typically done early in the evening.
I'll just run through the training for the week. Monday is our typical recovery day. I went straight to teach, then worked with my swimmers, then I had an hour and a half to kill before masters swimming. So, I did an hour of stretching and core/weights. Then did a drill type swim workout, totaling 3500 yards. Tuesday, we went to the morning squad ride. Ride was scheduled for 1:30, but I had to leave at 1:15, to make it to the pool for class. Got done with class and my swimmers, went home and did a 48 minute run.
Wednesday was the track workout. Now keep in mind that so far, my "long" runs have been about 1:30 of which I only cover about 7.5-8 miles (I'm slow). Well this Wed. was 1:30 track workout (6x1200, 4x800, 3x200), and I didn't even make it to the 200s b/c I'm slow. The total workout I did was 8.5 miles! WOW! Boy, I was beat, but I was actually pretty happy with my running on those. Followed up that night with an hour swim, that had 5x400 threshold swims in it! Tough Day!
By Thursday morning (with the early morning workouts, right into teaching, and several HARD workouts in a row), I was BEAT. Went to Thursday morning squad ride and I had told my class we would start at 9:00 instead of 8:00 so I could get the workout in. We did a hard interval set over the 1:30 bike ride...and I was so tired from the previous days, I don't think I gave it my all, but I was out there. We followed that with a 20 minute post-bike run. Good news was that I had Thursday evening completely off!
And with Easter, I had Friday, Saturday, and Sunday completely off! Friday morning, we got up and went to a 30 minute open water swim and since I had the day off, I went straight into my long run of 1:40 easy. It was a beautiful Good Friday, so it was quite an enjoyable run. Sat. morning was a lot like last Sat. We did a 30 minute open water swim, an 2:45 bike ride (about 48 miles), and followed it with a 30 minute run. I figured out we were only about 18.5 miles short of completing a 70.3 this Sat.! Of course, 10 of those miles would be running! Still, made me feel pretty good. And again, I felt pretty good on the whole workout! Starting to gain some confidence.
Finally, on Sunday we did a 2 hour bike ride with 8 bridge repeats to get in our only hill training for Louisville. Came home, actually went to Church!, and started working on Easter dinner. We went and did our 30 minute easy run in the afternoon (which Jack HATED, too hot). Then had the neighbors and a few friends over for a Wonderful Easter dinner out in our courtyard. All in all a great week! Total training: 4 swims (2 open water), 4 bikes, 6 runs (1 only 20 minutes), 1 core and stretching workout. Total time 17:27. And I'm starting to feel like we're just getting started! WHOA! Gonna be a long 5 more months!
Sorry for the long post! Do better next week. I'm hoping its a "Down/recovery" week, and we have an Olympic distance race, Nautica, on Sunday! Wish us luck!
So, I'll start with the week before last's training and work up to today. This post will be a bit long!
The week before last was our "Concert week." We had Wilco tickets on Monday night and G. Love tickets on Thursday night. The last time Christian went to see Wilco, he took our friend James...and even though James went, he had a horrible flu and spent the whole night in the fetal position. We went to swim Monday morning, so we could go straight to the concert Monday night. I left straight from work, came home changed, and Christian picked me up to go to the show. We assumed there was going to be an opening act so it was okay for us to go after I got off work. We assumed wrong. I had been hungry, but didn't have time for a real dinner. I figured we'd just grab something quick on the way home or at the show. I ate an apple and a granola bar. On the way there I started to feel a bit nauseous, but I figured it was just hunger. When we walked in, and smelled all the weed, it made me feel sicker. So I sat in the chair, and just listened. The show was good. After about an hour, Wilco took a break and were going to come out to play another set. I was feeling pretty sick by then, and Christian said he was feeling hungry too, so we left before the second set. On the way home, he offered to stop and get food, but everything sounded horrible to me. We got home and I ate like 3 saltines and drank some gatorade and crawled in bed. Christian drank some protein/milk drink and came to bed soon after. About an hour into the night, I woke up to go potty, thought that would help, and 15 minutes after that, puked my guts out! UGH! It was awful. I spent the rest of the night in and out of the bathroom. Top it off, Christian started throwing up right after me. However, he still thinks it was because of the protein drink, not what I had. Either way, we spent the night sick, and didn't feel great the next day...we both called in sick to work and didn't do either exercise scheduled for the day. By about 4pm, I was able to get in more Saltines and Gatorade...and by 7 or so, I was able to eat. I felt much better about 24 hours later. We decided to test out the Wed. morning track workout to get back on "track." We went and I did the whole run, but I was very slow and just felt SO weak from the day before. But, at least I was back to workouts! I had no idea how guilty I would feel for missing one day of workouts, and its completely understandable when your sick, but I still felt guilty. I probably should've taken Wed. morning off, b/c soon after I caught a cold. I think because my immune system was down...I'm still fighting it off. I don't feel sick, just snotty!
Anyway, Wed. was back on track. We did the morning track workout (3x1000, 3x800), and swam a tough ladder at threshold that night. Thursday was a 1:30 bike with intervals in 53x12, and a 15 minute post bike jog. We went from work Thursday up to Ft. Lauderdale to the G. Love show. Of course G. never starts until after 10:00 pm, but the show was great. It just meant we got home at 1am. Friday was supposed to be a morning 45 minute swim, but it was pouring that morning (which I happily went back to sleep), so that was the 3rd workout of the week we missed. But, did our long run (1:30), and I did a pilates class.
Saturday was our first big brick! (I actually had another weekend off, I love time between seasons). We did a 30 minute ocean swim, hopped on the bike for a 2:30 bike ride all zone 2, and then hopped into our shoes for a 30 minute run. I was a bit worried about the whole thing, but once out there, I felt fine the whole time! That made me feel more confident! On Sunday, we ended the week with a 2 hour bike ride where we did 8 bridge repeats (The only hill in Miami), and an easy 30 minute run later in the day. So with the sickness, I got in: 3 swims (one open water), 3 bikes and 4 runs (one only 15 minutes). Total 13:35 (includes core workouts, and stretching).
Now, this past week. As mentioned, I was teaching a lifeguard class, and class was scheduled from 8-4:00 Monday-Thursday. After each day, my swimmers (who were on spring break) practiced from 3-5 (two hours earlier than usual), so I was typically done early in the evening.
I'll just run through the training for the week. Monday is our typical recovery day. I went straight to teach, then worked with my swimmers, then I had an hour and a half to kill before masters swimming. So, I did an hour of stretching and core/weights. Then did a drill type swim workout, totaling 3500 yards. Tuesday, we went to the morning squad ride. Ride was scheduled for 1:30, but I had to leave at 1:15, to make it to the pool for class. Got done with class and my swimmers, went home and did a 48 minute run.
Wednesday was the track workout. Now keep in mind that so far, my "long" runs have been about 1:30 of which I only cover about 7.5-8 miles (I'm slow). Well this Wed. was 1:30 track workout (6x1200, 4x800, 3x200), and I didn't even make it to the 200s b/c I'm slow. The total workout I did was 8.5 miles! WOW! Boy, I was beat, but I was actually pretty happy with my running on those. Followed up that night with an hour swim, that had 5x400 threshold swims in it! Tough Day!
By Thursday morning (with the early morning workouts, right into teaching, and several HARD workouts in a row), I was BEAT. Went to Thursday morning squad ride and I had told my class we would start at 9:00 instead of 8:00 so I could get the workout in. We did a hard interval set over the 1:30 bike ride...and I was so tired from the previous days, I don't think I gave it my all, but I was out there. We followed that with a 20 minute post-bike run. Good news was that I had Thursday evening completely off!
And with Easter, I had Friday, Saturday, and Sunday completely off! Friday morning, we got up and went to a 30 minute open water swim and since I had the day off, I went straight into my long run of 1:40 easy. It was a beautiful Good Friday, so it was quite an enjoyable run. Sat. morning was a lot like last Sat. We did a 30 minute open water swim, an 2:45 bike ride (about 48 miles), and followed it with a 30 minute run. I figured out we were only about 18.5 miles short of completing a 70.3 this Sat.! Of course, 10 of those miles would be running! Still, made me feel pretty good. And again, I felt pretty good on the whole workout! Starting to gain some confidence.
Finally, on Sunday we did a 2 hour bike ride with 8 bridge repeats to get in our only hill training for Louisville. Came home, actually went to Church!, and started working on Easter dinner. We went and did our 30 minute easy run in the afternoon (which Jack HATED, too hot). Then had the neighbors and a few friends over for a Wonderful Easter dinner out in our courtyard. All in all a great week! Total training: 4 swims (2 open water), 4 bikes, 6 runs (1 only 20 minutes), 1 core and stretching workout. Total time 17:27. And I'm starting to feel like we're just getting started! WHOA! Gonna be a long 5 more months!
Sorry for the long post! Do better next week. I'm hoping its a "Down/recovery" week, and we have an Olympic distance race, Nautica, on Sunday! Wish us luck!
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