Wednesday, February 28, 2018

February Round-Up

Another month down ... and it didn't go quite as well as I'd hoped it to, but I almost hit all my goals. Onward!

Swimming: 7564.4m (4.7 mi)
Cycling: 40.9 mi
Running: 32.65 mi
Lifting: 11 sessions (2:08)
Other: one curling session (:60), one stint race volunteering (2:00), two walks (8:00), two yoga sessions (:32)

Not a lot of curling this month, but that's because one or both of us was gone for almost every Sunday and stuff was cancelled due to snow and/or the Olympics. (woo gold!)

I volunteered at the Ralston Creek Half-Marathon/5K. Racing Underground mentioned in their emails that they still needed volunteers ... and volunteering means a free race entry (which I will probably use for Barkin' Dog) ... so I signed up. I helped out with directing parking pre-race and then handed out medals to the half-marathoners. So really, I was out there for more like six hours, but I just counted the two. And a sunburned face.

I didn't actually go on two really long walks; what I did was hang around Disneyland/Disney California Adventure for two days and that is a fair (probably under-) estimation of the time spent on feet. 28, 29k steps each day.

As to my actual February goals, they were to swim at least 5000m, ride 50 mi, and run 30 mi. As you can see, I hit two of the three. I got close to riding, too, despite not riding my bike for about two weeks in there. Almost all of those miles were done in the last 10ish days of February, but hey, I made a valiant effort!

I had a weird malaise mid-month ... and I'm not exactly sure why. I don't know if I'm struggling finding purpose in training since I haven't officially signed up for anything yet, or what. I have had a bit of renewed vigor the past week or so, though, and I'm seizing on to it as tight as I can.

Going forward with March ... I'm actually stopping the HR runs. I was curious as to why it didn't seem like I was progressing and my research told me ... I didn't actually start doing the whole process correctly. Instead of feeling like I just wasted the last three months ... I'm choosing to go forward with a different path. My legs clearly want to run fast, but I have absolutely no lungs. I had better lungs when I was doing hockey training and sprint work ... so I'm going to go back to a bit of that. Plyometrics, agility training, short sprints. All things to build up my lungs. Since Brandon bought new hockey skates and we'd ideally like to try picking that up again ... it'll also help in that realm, as well.

I've been enjoying planning week-by-week, so I'm going to stick with that.

My mileage goals are a bit up from last month (and I actually hit my swim goal so as long as I equal what I did in February I'll be good) - 7500m in the pool, 75 miles on the bike, and 40 miles running. Wish me luck!

Friday, February 16, 2018

Team Amazing Day Run Camp

In my January recap post, I mentioned the possibility of doing run camp with Katie and her Team Amazing Day people. I promised if she didn't fill it up, I'd take one of the open spots, so, well, I took it.

Run camp was a completely different experience from SMASH camp - mostly in that it was a lot less crazypants - but that doesn't mean it was better or worse. I actually really enjoyed the low-key nature of it and the wide range of abilities there.

Camp started Thursday, February 8, with a shakeout run up in Boulder at Tom Watson. It wasn't long and I didn't even do the whole thing - ran out and then walked back - but enjoyable.

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On the way back.

We then all went to Modern Market for dinner, and then I drove back home.

This is where my day got fun ... before I left for Boulder, our neighbor smelled gas and called Xcel out. Apparently it was coming from (so we thought) this chimenea thing that we inherited when we bought the house - valve was loose. Well, I got back from Boulder at around 8, 8:30pm ... and Xcel was back in front of the house. Thankfully I got back, because what was actually wrong? The gas line that was installed when two owners previous converted the fireplace over from wood-burning decided to start leaking. We're not sure if the pipe is corroded or what, but yeah. So we no longer have a working fireplace or chimenea for the foreseeable future. It was also good that I got back because due to the leak, Xcel had turned off our gas. If they had been gone when I got back? No gas until early the next week (when I would have been out of town anyway). The Xcel guy was super helpful, getting our gas back on, getting the pilot lights on our water heaters relit ... and helping with a leaking faucet on the outside of the house (because of course Brandon was out of town for all of this).

That whole story is to say that I didn't even get showered and in bed until around 10:30pm. And I had to be up early enough to be up back in Boulder at 8am the next day ...

... I did wake up, thankfully, but quite tired. Friday, February 9, was hill day. We went for a shakeout run in the fog first.

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Next was the actual workout. Katie found a hill off 51st (near Boulder Reservoir) for us to do repeats on - four rounds of 30/60/90s (30 seconds up; walk/jog back, 60 seconds up; walk/jog back and so on). This is definitely a workout that I can take with me and do on a hill we have nearby. The 90s started getting super hard by the second round, though ...

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Photo courtesy Katie. Doing hill repeats in the fog.

After the run, we had a bit of time to grab some food (and for me, sweet, sweet coffee) before heading over to RallySport for some swim instruction. I was super happy to be able to swim in the outside pool (with snow! and steam so that I couldn't see the other end! #triathlete) for my warmup before my one-on-one instruction (which was first).

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Took this after I was done, but this is where I swam.

I got some good drills and tips from Katie that I'll use going forward and I might actually hire her for some separate instruction (because we know I need it). I didn't swim too much after (as I'm not swimming much right now), but it was awesome.

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Katie doing her thing on deck.

Post-swim, I actually hopped on over to Skirt Sports to buy some longer pants (a new Tough Girl, actually), since I sometimes don't know how to dress for the weather. Oops. (It was colder than expected that day.) I then joined everyone over at Protein Bar for some lunch and then it was back to Rally for a run mechanics session with Charlie Merrill. The session was good ... but I do feel I didn't get all the gait analysis that some others did since I went first. Everyone who went after had their stride changed up a bit and I didn't. I know what's wrong and what I need to change, but I don't know. I just felt I missed out some.

After that session, Katie talked to us some about both success and sports nutrition, with good nuggets of information shared during both segments.

We had an optional group dinner at Roost Longmont (which I went to) ... after which it was snowing for half of my drive back home. It also meant that after showering, another day back in bed by 10:30.

Saturday, February 10, was long run day. We met at Katie's at 7am (which meant I had to leave my house just before 6 thanks to the snow). The run was 60-90 minutes, depending, and I went 60. I also put on the HR for the first time all camp, which meant that I did 4.28 miles in that hour.

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It was teens and snowing. Weeeee!

We all got back to Katie's, got some coffee, I changed clothes ... and then it was off to find more food (and, in my case, more coffee and to fill up my gas tank) before back to Rally with a session with Erin Carson. I know I've mentioned Erin on here before; she's awesome. Brandon was actually landing at DIA during this session ... but I told him I'd pick him up after it since I did NOT want to miss it. I did, however, skip out of the little strength routine Katie was leading everyone through after Erin's bit so I could fight through the snow and ice to the airport.

While I was doing that (in shitty, shitty conditions), everyone else was swimming more. I got Brandon, we went home, ate something ... and very seriously considered not going back up to Boulder for the final session that day. However, we fought the crappy roads (the storm had moved east - which is weird for Colorado - so while Denver roads were fine driving up that morning and got terrible in Boulder ... everything was terrible driving to DIA ... and driving back, Denver was shit while Boulder was okay) back to Rally for a session with sports psychologist Julie Emmerman. Julie had a really good interactive session regarding comfort zones which made us think quite a bit.

Katie had gotten some delicious Kim and Jake's for us to enjoy afterward, so we had our cake and drove back home.

There was officially a final run Sunday morning, which I was going to skip anyway to go curl ... but I had to skip all of it in order to catch a flight, as we were meeting my brother and sister-in-law and their two kids in California to crash their trip to Disneyland.

All in all, run camp was great, and I regret nothing for going. I really do enjoy the camaraderie of camp and I should probably try to do more!

Friday, February 2, 2018

Back with Skirt

Given other stuff I've posted this year, you probably already guessed this, buuut ...

... I'm baaaaack!

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Yep, back as a Skirt Sports Ambassador Captain! If you look over to the sidebar, I have a new code - 306Geis - which is good for 15% off any full price item over at Skirt Sports. They're tracking referrals this year (use my code! it's good all year!), but if I'm going to get something out of it ... I have no idea what that will be. If anything. But if you use it, YOU benefit from wearing awesome comfy Skirt. And if you don't like Skirts, their capris are super comfy and awesome. AND THEY HAVE POCKETS, which is seriously the greatest thing ever.

But I won't be upset if you don't ... because you gotta wear what you like to wear. Just know that I like Skirt. And have been wearing it for a decade now ... and exclusively for running for eight years. EIGHT YEARS, man, it's crazy how time flies ...