I *RAN*!

I've been fighting this IT band injury for weeks now, which is why I dropped out of the marathon, but yesterday...I RAN!

Okay, it was two miles on a treadmill with no incline at a 12:00/mile pace, but I did it and it didn't hurt! YAY!

Also, Dr. Z and I just got back from "hiking" Mount Baker. It's really a little bump compared to some of the mountains around here, but it was our first time in a year, so we wanted to start small. It was PERFECT weather for it too - sunny and 50. A beautiful fall day.

Tomorrow is still up in the air training-wise. I still haven't decided between swim, bike, run, or a combination. Depends on how my knee feels. I also have Karate class tomorrow - gotta get there since I missed Wednesday.

Friday Follows and Fun!

First of all, LOVE this UnderArmor ad because it pumps you up and it actually features female athletes without being all "Girl Power!" In fact, they could have used male athletes and it would have worked just as well.



Now for some follows:

Just stumbled upon Kara Goucher's blog. Head over and congratulate her on her new son Colt.

Next, head over to Sonja's blog. She's an AGer heading down to Kona and just beat the Elites to win her "tune-up" 70.3 a couple weeks ago. Woman is SICK fast, yo.

And finally, if you're not following Steve in a Speedo's Twitter feed, you're a moron.

Was Sick, Now Better

Hey All,

Spent yesterday sick. Blech. Stomach was hurting so bad I didn't even work. (And that takes a lot when one works from home.) Needless to say, no training was done.

Finally felt better today. Skipped the morning swim, but got out there for the Fun Run. The course of the week was "No Name," a course that has always boded bad luck for me. I finally did decent on it - no GI issues, no bonking, nothing. I finished the 4.28 miles in 35.37. Not a speed record by any means, but not bad. I really want to get back to doing sub-8's though. I hate having lost my speed. I just have to keep telling myself that I've made huge improvements in my endurance.

In other news, Lake Placid is absolutely crawling with Ironman competitors. Awesome!

Anyway, tomorrow will be a 20 mile bike and swimming the Ironman course. First 1.2 mile open water swim ever! I'm nervous, but I know I can do this. (Actually, physically, I can. Put me in a pool and it'd be no problem. It's totally the mental aspect of being out in the middle of the lake that gets to me.)

...and back!

I've been up since 5:30 and Dr. Z. took his camera home anyway, so I'll make this short for now. I did indeed get my sorry ass out the door yesterday and run 10 miles in a surprising 1:32:30. Pretty freakin' sweet! Now I just need to get back on my damn bike. I haven't ridden in over a WEEK! (I was hoping to get out there this afternoon but was just WAY too tired between the lack of sleep and the three hour drive home.)

Anyway, Dr. Z's XTerra sprint tri started off strongly - he survived the swim. He was back of the back, but putting in pretty damn good times for him and was far from the last one out of the water.

He looked good leaving T1, but unfortunately completely twisted and wrecked his chain about halfway through the bike. Frustrating because he had just finished the real technical part of the course. He was understandably upset and not just DNFing, but also having to throw yet more money into his hybrid.

Anyway, more details to come with pictures, but now I must SLEEP.

Quick Note

Going out of town soon to sherpa Dr. Z through his first official triathlon - the Sky High XTerra down outside of Albany. It's a sprint-distance offroad triathlon - a bit too crazy for my tastes. (My bike handling skills are Teh Suck - no way I'd survive.)

Anyway, I'll be back Sunday night or Monday morning with pictures. In the meantime, I'm hoping to get in a quick ten miles before we leave today and fifty miles on the bike tomorrow after we get back. (That's the plan anyway. We'll see if it actually happens.)

Evening Swim

Had to cancel my bike ride today thanks to torrential rains all day long. I think I'm going to remove the slicks from my mountain bike Beast, put the knobbies back on, and use him for bad weather. I haven't ridden in a week and I'm NOT happy about it. (Admittedly the other missed workouts were my fault - I've been dealing with insomnia all week and it's affected my training.)

Anyway, had a nice evening swim with Dr. Z after work. Went out to the first orange buoy after the yellow ones in ten minutes. Had a panic attack when I went to cross over to the other lane to head back and ended up fighting the wind-driven current. I switched to breaststroke and managed to get to the other line without completely losing it. Once I was on the line again, I was fine. Something about the buoys soothes me even though I'm not tall enough to stand on the line. It's like I feel connected to land and civilization as long as I can just watch the line under me. Got back REAL fast though - 18:30 when I hit the last buoy. Since it was so early in the workout, I went back out four buoys and this time DIDN'T freak out crossing over. Still finished early at 28:00, but just wasn't feeling it today. Will hit it again on Tuesday. I do get nervous heading out much further without an escort boat though. Don't know how other triathletes do it.

Fun Run #2 and When to Throw Out Your Shorts

Well, I just got back from Fun Run #2 of the year. It was hot...AGAIN. I bonked and ended up walking parts of it...AGAIN. I finished in 34 minutes even, which is 4 minutes off my PR for the Hillyman course. Sigh. I was hoping the extra Gatorade and adding salt to it would help. I'm starting to run out of ideas.

On a positive note, my pace was almost 15 seconds faster than last week (8:57 vs. 9:09) despite it being a MUCH tougher course, so I guess that's something. (Last week was Flatlander.) I know it wasn't totally the heat - I haven't been doing my hill work.

Oh, and I guess it's time to retire these shorts. It looks like my ass has been attacked by a wildcat.

New Record For Me

Yes indeed. No posts since freakin' FEBRUARY? Sheesh. So much has happened that I'm not even going to try to catch up. I'm just going to post today's workout as if nothing's happened.

Went for a swim in Mirror Lake this morning. I'm really starting to love the early morning swims. I just wish I could zip myself into my wetsuit - it's always a pain to find someone to do it for me. The downside of liking a tight fit.

I swam out to the second yellow buoy. I had been hoping to go further but started feeling wheezy and the water is NO place to mess with an oncoming asthma attack, so I turned around. Luckily, by the time I got back to the start buoy it had passed so I went back out and swam the first four buoys again. I'm really hoping to finally do the whole line tomorrow night and prove to myself that I can swim 1.2 in open water. In the meantime, I'm upping my Pulmicort (steroid inhaler) back to twice a day instead of just once. My doctor told me to try bringing it down to just once a day but it's not working, at least in this heat. I'll also use my rescue inhaler before going in.

Tonight will be another hot Fun Run. Argh. Plan for not bonking like last week is full Gatorade (already slurped down half a liter) instead of diluted, the Heed Endurolytes I got at the criterium, and tucking in behind IronDad for the first three miles. He's SO much better at pacing than I! (I should have known not to pass him in the first half mile last week, but the pace felt too easy - needless to say, I blew up and he ended up passing and finishing way before me.)

Let's see if we can iron out these issues!

My Butt Hurts

Yep.

Three hours. On the trainer. Longest bike ride EVER.

Man, the sore legs weren't too bad. The trainer wasn't even too bad - I put in Fellowship of the Ring and geeked out. My butt, on the other hand, was KILLING me. I was wearing bike shorts but I'm just not quite conditioned yet.

Otherwise it went really well. Next up is tomorrow's 1:45 run. Hopefully my legs will feel at least somewhat fresh in the morning.

GOOD Swim! Yay!

Had to take yesterday off due to feeling like crap. Mother Nature stopped by for her monthly visit, the bitch, and left me feeling totally drained.

However, after a solid two weeks of frustration in the pool, I had a breakthrough today. Still don't have a lot of stamina, but something clicked about halfway through my workout and I was hitting well under a 2:30/100 pace. I even did one 50 yard lap in 1:10. Yay! (Keep in mind, this is without doing flip-turns, which I have no idea how to do.)

So, I'm still a lousy swimmer, but I'm LESS lousy. I also e-mailed my coach to schedule another lesson at the end of next week. (I'm going for one lesson every two weeks for the forseeable future.) Hopefully I'll get even better!

Long Run, Long Bike, and More Bad Swimming

Friday's 2.5 hour bike went really well. I had two back-to-back "Listen-Only" type meetings so I actually did it during work. Kept my heartrate around 140.

Saturday was a 90 minute long run. Did it on a treadmill and started at a nice easy 9:31 with no incline. Want to go slow after last week's blowup during the long run. Increased it to 9:03 for the last half hour. Once again, felt great! Plus I had an excuse to put on my compression socks and hang out on the couch watching the Olympics the rest of the day.

This is a light week, so not much happening. I've been working the swim. Good news is I can breathe every OTHER stroke now, but bad news I can only do it for 50 yards at a time and at a 2:50 pace. Sigh.

Tempting to skip today's bike - just got my period and am REALLY dragging. We'll see.

Swim Lesson

The one part of my training that hasn't been going well lately is swimming. Well today I finally got in touch with my awesome swim coach. Turns out she was heading to the pool at the same time I was, so she spent nearly an hour walking back forth alonside the pool shouting corrections while I did laps.

Because of my out of control kick, I got to use a pull buoy. It felt very weird to have a large bouyant thing between my legs.

(Did I get a spit-take on that one? Hee.)

Anyway, I got so much good stuff today, it's a shame the pool is closed over the weekend for the final basketball games. Boo. (Actually, it's a good thing because I'm not supposed to swim again until Tuesday and otherwise I'd be ignoring my plan and doing extra swimming.)

Yay!

First Week of Training Complete

It was tough. I'm sore. My knee is a bit achy. I'm behind in work. But I completed the first week of HIM training without missing a workout. YAY!

It culminated in Saturday's brick. I woke up at 5 to take my meds, dozed until six, and then got up, had breakfast and coffee, and was on my bike by 7:00. Two hours later, I hopped off, used the bathroom, threw on about three more layers of clothing, and then headed out for a 45 minute run in 5 degree F weather. BRRRR!!! My skin was so cold that I didn't realize that my Fuel belt was bouncing around and scraping me until afterwards.

All in all it went great! I felt tired but not worn out after the bike, hit my 9:00 race pace on the first mile, and while miles three and four were tough, got a nice shot of endorphins to finish strong!

Thank God, because yesterday's swim was a real goggle-thrower. Grrr. My speed is going DOWN, if that's even possible without actually sinking.

First Week of HIM Training and POOL IS OPEN!!!

First week of HIM training has begun. It started on Superbowl Sunday - managed to get the hour on the trainer in before the party without a problem.

The volume is incredible. This plan brings up the volume early and then focuses on speed the rest of the time, so keeping up has been a challenge. I'm desperately training to complete the volume so that I don't have to drop down to the beginner plan. The real test for this week will be Friday's 2 hour bike/45 minute run brick. (Yeah, you heard me. Five months out, this is what they want.)

Today's run was the hardest I've done in a long time. I did 10 minutes at a 9:13 pace, then did a 40 minute tempo run at 8:27. Cooldown was 5 minutes at 9:22 and 5 minutes at 10:00. I was a wuss and didn't incline the treadmill although you're supposed to. It was 7 miles even, total.

The pool opened just in time for my training plan. (Literally - it opened Monday, the day of my first pool workout.) I took it easy on Monday - 50 yard warmup, 4x100, then 100 yard cooldown. Hit two sub-2:30 splits, so I haven't gotten any slower. I was a bit sore on Tuesday though, so it's good I kept it short. Figured it was a good idea since I hadn't swam in two months.

I'm going to do 100 WU, 6x100, 100 CD this afternoon - I'll get back up to the long workouts they want soon enough.

Last Week of Off-Season

Well, this is officially my last week of the off-season. My half IronMan plan starts on Superbowl Sunday. AAAAAHHHH!!!

The pool is STILL closed (it's been almost two months now), but FINALLY got an update saying that they at long last got the pump running and now are just waiting for the temperature to come up. I'm ready to show up TODAY with my wetsuit - 70 degrees is perfectly fine with a wetsuit.

I did 40 minutes on the trainer today. It was one-leg drills, which was really tough. My left leg rides nice and smooth but I have a big "dead space" at the top of my stroke with my right foot. It was enlightening.

Tonight is Karate - I missed all last week so definitely have to drag my ass over there no matter how tired I am. (That's what usually gets me - class doesn't even START until 6:30, by which time I'm starting to crash, especially in the winter when it's already dark out.)

Skiing!

We've had such an amazing winter this year! (So far anyway.) Both Saturday and Sunday were warm and sunny, so cross-country skiing was in order. The snow was PERFECT! It was actually TOO fast for a beginner like me. I did alright on Saturday, but fell half a dozen times on Sunday. My skis just kept getting away from me on the downhills. Those long, skinny skis just have no control. I torqued my knee pretty bad and pulled a ligament. I spent a lot of yesterday afternoon watching the football and icing.

The knee felt a lot better this morning. Still not a hundred percent, but much improved. I did LT training on the bike for 50 minutes, which went really well. My plan also called for weight work on the legs, but I'm skipping it because of the knee. I look at weight training as icing on the cake anyway.

Tonight is Karate. I've barely attended the past couple months for a variety of reasons, but am looking forward to getting back into it.

In other news, although it was supposed to open this week, I've still heard no word on the pool. I'm REALLY getting nervous here - I want to start back up with tomorrow's swim workout that is planned.

A MONTH?!? Crap!

Hey All!

Between the craziness of the holiday season, starting a new job, and being sick there's just not been time for training, forget blogging.

I'm just starting to feel better. I've been easing into exercise. I did half an hour easy on the trainer yesterday - didn't even wear my HR monitor. Just spun comfortably.

Today I did 45 minutes of yoga. Didn't realize how tense and "locked" I was. Wow! Definitely have to keep yoga in the rotation even after I'm well enough to fully S/B/R.

Back from Business Trip

*dusts off blog*

Hello? *tap* *tap*

Anybody still around?

Seriously though, I can't believe I haven't updated in two weeks. I spent the second week of December in L.A. on a business trip, where the only workout I managed to get in was a 1.5 hour ride on a recumbent bike. (The only bike the hotel "gym" had.)

I've managed to get right back into the swing of things though, so yay! I've been missing the swim workouts because of the pool being closed, but am hitting all of the bike and run sessions.

Yesterday was an hour easy on the bike. The plan said to find rolling hills, so I simulated that on my trainer by putting it into a higher gear for a few minutes every so often.

Last night Dr. Z and I went out and helped with the children's class. It was SUPER easy - no one-on-one training at all. Spent most of the time just kinda standing around. We got a half hour of private training afterwords as our reward. Well worth it!

Today was one of the toughest run workouts I've ever done: 20 minutes easy at 8:57 pace, then seven sets of 3 minutes at an 8:00 pace followed by a two minute recovery at 9:05. Finish that off with another 20 minutes easy, this time at 9:05 because I was TIRED. Total workout: 8.54 miles in 1:15. WOW!

Tomorrow is a well-deserved day off. (There's supposed to be an easy swim workout, but...POOL CLOSED.) I'll do some walking to loosen up the legs but that's it.

Swim and Run

Yesterday's swim workout went fairly well. I did 3x400 for my main set and hit 10:03 in the middle one. ALMOST a 2:30 pace. I'm looking forward to taking another swim lesson when I get back from L.A. I don't expect to ever be a fish, but I do need to get my long-distance speed down to 2:00-2:15/100, which I think is a perfectly reasonable goal.

Today was long run day. I did seven miles again. It took me longer than last week on the treadmill, but there's some nasty hills, a strong headwind, AND my hamstrings were killing me. I did keep it at my goal 9:00 pace with a time of 1:02:42.

Anyway, tomorrow will be hitting the pool and a short stint on the bike trainer. Sunday is my day off, which works out well since I'll be spending most of it travelling.

Let's see if I get up early Monday morning to do a long bike before meeting my client. At least I have the time zone change working in my favor!

Officially Signed Up! AAAAHHH!!!

It's official. I'm signed up for the Tinman 70.6 in June. Bib number 67. I've added a countdown at the top of the blog. AAAAAHHH!!!

Anyway, been a few frustrations lately. I cut yesterday's long swim short after not being able to crack a 2:45 pace. Dr. Z. keeps going on about how at least I'm not exhausted at the end and can go forever, but I've been looking at even MOP people's paces and that just won't cut it. I was hoping to see much more improvement between all the time I'm putting in and the lesson I took, but no luck. I'll definitely be scheduling another lesson after next week's trip. That brings up another annoyance with swimming: The pool will be closed for the holidays when I return. It's a college and everything closes down for winter break. ARGH!

On top of that, I had to bring the bike to the shop today. Turns out that I had the trainer drum too close to the wheel and have prematurely worn out my tire - to the canvas in one part! Now I have to go online and try to find a trainer wheel in a 650 size - they only had 700s.

So anyway, much frustration. Many technical and form issues to work out before my swim and bike are on par with my running.