Yes, remiss in blogging, but when I'm not doing jack, I don't have much to blog about. I'll do a year-end post soon (as well as my 2015 goals post), but for now ... this.
It's weird being an adult. Christmas presents are barely a surprise and when asked what you want, all you want to reply is, "I dunno, bill money?" The few things I might want (since come on, triathletes always want new gear), I don't want enough to get for Christmas ... especially because those few things are out of our gift budget.
That being said, most of our presents to each other were definitely triathlete-related.
This is a big box ... I wonder what it could be?
That big box? Was a second trainer for the house. Yep, Skippy got a brother (or sister) as well as a climbing block to accompany it.
What else is triathlete-y in that pile?
- Ironman sweatshirt (for me)
- Ironman 2XU compression socks (for Brandon)
- USA swim trunks (for Brandon)
- a doughnut swimsuit that yes, says "will swim for donuts" on the butt (for me)
- a BU running pullover (for me)
Simple, and easy.
Hope your holiday season has been wonderful, everyone, as has your 2014. We here at TBD can't wait for 2015!
Despite being in the midst of run training, I'm trying to make sure I cross-train as well. Strength-training is staying around and I'm also attempting to swim.
The main thing I've been trying to do (mostly for next year's plan) is to get on the bike. Outside time hasn't happened so much, but I got on the trainer twice last week for a whole hour. That's nothing compared to what I was doing (five hour trainer ride, anyone?), but if it helps me get back into it, all the better.
Getting back used to this view ...
I also tried something technically new on Tuesday, October 8 - Crossfit.
It was somewhat intentional. SkirtSports does monthly group "runs" (although I hesitate to use the word run as this one was NOT really a run) on the first Tuesday of the month. I thought there was going to be more running then there was, but there WAS Crossfit.
More specifically, two laps around the office complex, stretching and then three sets of 25 each squats, push-ups, and lunges (with a short lap in between each set) followed by two more laps to cool down.
Stolen from the SkirtSports Instagram feed. I'm in front in the pink shoes and IMAZ shirt. Taken during stretching.
I ... couldn't walk for a few days thanks to that workout. My manager who does Crossfit says the workout we did was no joke (and it was technically half of what was supposed to be done).
My thoughts? I get the appeal. I really do. I finished the whole thing, but both my squat and lunge form purposefully went to hell by the last set - I did NOT want to pull something and I felt that if I kept trying to keep proper form AND go fast ... I would injure myself. Which is something the detractors of Crossfit mention, and I totally agree with. I like how Crossfit gets people lifting. I really enjoy lifting (and need to do it much more often than I actually do), but you need to lift safe, and I'm not sure that always happens with Crossfit.
I will also say that I probably could have slowed down and kept with proper form even if it took me longer because we weren't actually being timed (like we would in an actual CF box), but I'm a little competitive and felt like I had to go fast. I do think Jen (our instructor, who was great) maybe should have told us to NOT go as fast as one normally would so as to keep proper form/reduce injury risk, but maybe that's just me.
Work has been kicking my ass lately (last Friday, Sunday and Monday especially) which means I've been exhausted which also explains why I haven't blogged this week. Oops.
I also don't have too horribly much to say - haven't been doing a whole lot since I got a cold/allergy-something after the shingles nightmare - but! I did get back on the trainer again last Saturday.
It was 18 minutes and it was embarrassingly hard, but I have to start somewhere. I've been on again since then and while it was about the same length, it did go a bit easier. I know the strength is still there; it's just buried under a lot of laziness.
It took until the end of last week for me to get a featured workout, but man, was it worth it.
As I mentioned in my last post, I'm training right now for the sheer love of training. I think nothing but that or an actual training plan would have made me do what I did Sunday, the 27th:
My first three-a-day of the year.
Granted, I don't think I had many (if any) in Ironman training. It's been a really long time since I've done one.
The other weird part of it was the workouts I did.
I swam - and did 50s just because. I liked some of the swim workouts in IM training. There was a 1700/3500m pyramid set that I adored. However, there were also swim workouts that I hated. The 50 sets were the worst - 30x50, 60x50 ... just ugh. Sunday? I did 20x50 (framed by 100m kick sets) by choice.
After, I lifted - it was short (just under 15 minutes), but it was good.
That afternoon, I wanted to ride outside, but the weather didn't cooperate (so I'm training, but I'm not going to go out if it's below 40 degrees) so I hopped on the trainer. I did 45:00 ... which is a length of time that I usually don't have the patience to do until at least a month from now.
View from the trainer.
Water bottle set-up. That blue tube is our Rumble Roller ... a.k.a. foam roller of PAIN.
I don't plan three-a-days, but since I'm rolling without a plan right now, we'll see if another one arises soon.
As you know from training, I had to do a century ride in training. Since circumstance was that Brandon and I couldn't do it together and that was way too long of a ride to do alone (and unsupported) given my crash history, we both did century rides on the trainer.
We've spent a lot of time on Skippy this year (even had to get new rear tires as a result) and this was the longest single session yet.
I know some of you are probably asking why, oh god why would we do this (and I wondered that myself at times), but I think it worked out for a few reasons:
1.) It was fantastic mental training.
2.) As mentioned before, crash risk is negatory.
3.) It took a lot less time than it would have outside - less time out of my day is a giant perk.
It went well and as you saw in my training log, the run off the bike was very spry and I had tons of energy afterward and felt pretty good the next day.
So, here's the story ... in pictures.
The beginning.
Food pile. Apple pie Bonk Breaker bars, "crack" (no-bake) cookies, an extra bottle of water and potatoes from the Feed Zone cookbook. I think I screwed something up with them though since they did NOT taste like they were supposed to ...
The videos I chose to watch.
Run clothes set up for the transition.
Tempe ride, ready to go.
"Let's do this!"
Essentially my view for the next few hours. ALSO: new water bottle - Profile Design HC Aero. SO AWESOME.
Since Coach Troy during the Tempe ride is a drinking game waiting to happen, I had iTunes blaring as well.
Mile 25.
And we are now doing the Kona DVD. It is ridiculously boring. Sorry Troy.
Mile 40. I'm getting sweaty.
Mile 50. This is when it started to get horrible.
The dwindling food pile.
Mile 75. The sweat is driving me insane.
Mile 90. Yes, that is the look of insanity. It is also the look of me starting to go inside my own head to finish this crazy crap.
The view outside. Worst part was, it actually was a nice day out.
The end is near, so very, very near.
DONE.
On April 25 of last year, I had a post titled essentially the same thing. I did Spinervals DVD 23.0 - Time Saver 1, workout B: Tempo/TT. I about died.Because of that experience, I'd been putting off doing that exact workout again, even though I've done workout A (technique) a whole bunch and have done C (sprint/power) once or twice as well.However, since I didn't have a lot of time to ride today and I needed to get in a tougher workout, I decided to chance B:Tempo/TT again.And ... it was surprisingly easy. Granted, my legs still hated me through good chunks of it, but I didn't have nearly the lung/cardiovascular problems as I did last year.Just proving once again that visible progress is the best progress to have.
Coach Troy made me cry (as part of an asthma attack) today. That is all.In other news, besides the above, training is going well. I think. Hopefully.
While we're the proud owners of two entry-level Trek road bikes (Brandon's and mine, Bob (bucket o' bolts)), we are not proud to say we're not the best when it comes to bike maintenance. This is definitely something that we would like to remedy here coming up, but for now, we do what little we can (essentially, lubing up a chain).Well, it recently came time for Brandon to replace his grip tape as it was getting worn and chewed up. He ripped off all his old stuff and picked up "melon bubble" grip tape - a delightful lime green. The following sequence of pictures show Brandon attempting (and succeeding!) in retaping his handlebars.
Naked handlebars!
Trying to figure out the knobs.
"Hey look, I think I've got it!"
One side done!
Starting side two.
Trying to finish stuff off.
Taping things off.
Finished!Once done, it was time for Brandon to hop on Skippy for a little while. We checked out early Troy (Spinervals 1.0) from the library, so Brandon decided to join Troy in all his 80s/early-90s glory.
Getting started.
Remember, just because a Spinervals DVD may have a lower number, it does NOT mean it is easier. Unless it's maybe Spinervals 101: Intro to Troy's Worlds of Hell (not actual name). Still, Coach Troy's fluffy hair is amusing.
Once again, death by Skippy (and Coach Troy).
Okay, so quite a bit has happened since the last time I blogged.While I did get over the initial death plague, I think Brandon's flu triggered a repeat performance (that, or it was a really weird extended case of food poisoning). In any case, I feel like I haven't done anything this month. I feel weak and out of shape and blah.But! I did not come here to post about depressing things. I came here to talk about the good that's happened recently.- Way earlier this month, we went snowshoeing.
What what. No, I don't know what I'm doing here.- On Valentine's Day, we went for a nice bike ride outside as it was the first day in a while I didn't feel like death. However, I don't have pictures of that (even though I did stash the camera in the bento). So, instead, you get pictures of us all dressed up and not in workout crap!
Snazzy. We gorged ourselves on French food and ice cream that night. Tasty.- Thanks to Kris and Mark, we have been initiated into the Pain Cave. I survived my first go around ... although I didn't quite complete it to 100% of satisfaction. Let's put it this way - Coach Troy would have been yelling at me for slacking at one point. :( Still, Pain Cave on Skippy while sick is better than nothing. Plus it got me on the damn bike (and actually on the same day I posted this).Brandon tried out the Pain Cave a few days later ... right at the start of what would be his death plague (or the flu. either way). This was the result (and the picture he was talking about):
Aww.A few things of note in this picture:1.) Brandon's shirt. Woo Vegas half!2.) Brandon's bike (and Skippy). The two of them look so smug, don't they?- We learned that Kris and Mark may be joining us for IM Boulder 70.3 ... which would be SO FREAKING AWESOME OMG.- We have a wedding registry now. Yay. Now we need another one ... and need to do more wedding-y crap (seven months!).- Lastly, I FINALLY RAN AGAIN TODAY! For the first time in like three weeks (... the 4th or 6th i want to say). It was hard and I felt like I walked half of it, but I managed a whole three miles. Go me. On the plus side, my time still wasn't all that bad, comparatively, so yay.Since I think I'm finally back to relative normal health *crosses fingers*, I hope to finish out this month strong so I can start March on a good note. Today was a good start.
Our friends Kris and Mark sent us (and Skippy) a gift a few weeks ago. It was a Spinerval DVD, number 33, titled Entering the Pain Cave. For those of you who don't know what Spinervals are, it's a training program that you can do on your trainer or a spin bike. My friend Steve, who at one point was an accomplished triathlete himself who was on Team Gear West, told me the day I got my trainer to invest in some of these DVD's.
Thankfully, our trainer came with one, which was Number 27, Threshold Test and Suffer Fest. We hadn't tried it yet though. Basically, we spent January just getting on the bikes, getting used to the trainer, and getting our cycling legs back.
Then T decided to be bold and enter the Pain Cave herself.
She described it to me as one of the worst feelings in the world. Brutal. Naturally, I was intimidated; yet I was interested. So yesterday, I decided to hop on the trainer for 45 minutes of pain.
And I was in pain.
I quickly realized that workout, only 45 minutes long, was one of the toughest I have ever done. Equivalent to the ride to Maroon Bells we did in the summer of 2009. It was hard, tested me in ways I've never been tested, and yet I rose up to the occasion.
Then I laid on the ground for a few minutes.
T took a picture of that and we'll have it up later today.
Gotta love the challenges of this year. :-)
So this is the blog post alluded to on Friday.Friday ... a day that seems so far away now. It was 65 degrees and GORGEOUS. Today? 10 and snowing. Tomorrow? A whole ZERO degrees. Oh Colorado ... I love you and your 60 degree weather swings in four days. Really. Really I do. I promise. (and it'll be 50 again by the weekend. figures.)ANYWAY, even though Friday was a crazy busy day for me - up at 5am, work at 6am, working hockey later that night (thought 7:30p; ended up being 8pm which meant I didn't get HOME until 12:20am), I wanted to take advantage of the gorgeous weather. Luckily, I got out of work a little early so I was able to do so.So, as soon as I got home, I quickly snarfed a quick snack and then got my cycling stuff on.
Oh unflattering cycling shorts.I put on a lightweight jacket because I didn't know if the ambient air would be cold or not. When we did our first outdoor ride last year in March, even though it was sunny, the air was still coooold and hurt our lungs. Not so on Friday.I was ready to hop on my bike, but I did feel bad for Brandon's bike still stuck on Skippy.
Doesn't it look so sad? :(I didn't have too much time to feel bad for his bike though, because I had to get a-ridin'!
Happy bike in the sunshine!I hopped on and went for a ride. I decided to go explore a bit on where the county/city expanded the road off my preferred highway exit and, in turn, found a safe back way to cycle to the gym (if we ever really wanted to) that wouldn't involve us most likely getting killed by going on the bridge over the highway with all the crazy people trying to get on I-25.(Seriously. I've ridden that way before ... illegally on the sidewalk so I wouldn't get killed. SCARY scary stuff.)Of course, a ride around here wouldn't be complete with a couple nasty hills. Here's one of them.
Ugh. The road does keep following that curve in the landscape at the top of the pic, in case you were wondering.The good thing was that the ride didn't even seem that bad. Yes, the hills sucked, but they didn't seem to suck as much as I remember them sucking last year. It was a relatively short ride (10.21 mi in 39:44) and slow (well, for most of you; decently quick for me - avg mph of 15.42). However, it felt fast. I thought it was faster than most of my rides last year ... which was actually inaccurate. However, the faster rides were on a flat path (Platte trail). This was faster than anything else I had done with major hills, so obviously I'll take it.I got home, took the world's longest transition (about half an hour, in which I hopped on facebook, changed and ate some cereal) before going out for a run.
I think I took this picture to prove that I'm still in my cycling shorts ...... Which also means I forgot what it was like to run in a diaper. Okay, so running in cycling shorts isn't running in a diaper, but it kinda feels like it.I ideally wanted to go at least three miles, but I got out there and my legs told me, "yeah, pffft whatever woman." So instead of running up the usual stupid hill, I ran down to do what is essentially a two mile loop ... and extended it.Final stats? 2.53 miles in 25:30.95 for a 10:05.12/mi. For what was essentially an early season brick, I am HAPPY with that. I was also kind of surprised that the run ended up being that fast (shut up, i'm slow) even though my legs felt like lead.It was a really motivating moment, especially since I went swimming the night before. I know I took the stupid SwimLabs lesson to improve my form and really, it did work. The problem is ... I can't freaking breathe.Background: I am incapable of breathing through my nose without it sounding all nasally. I cannot take in a nice, deep, soothing relaxing breath through my nose. There is nothing physically wrong with me (they've done x-rays/MRIs/CT scans); I just can't do it. This is a problem when I'm swimming and the damn nose still decides to somehow inhale water into my sinuses when I'm trying to take in air instead. To get in air without rinsing out my sinuses in the process, I almost have to rotate to the point of compromising my form.Pretty? No. Efficient? No. Frustrating. YES. It's making me feel that I'll never be able to make it through a sprint swim, much less a half-Iron swim. I'm calling SwimLabs this week for another lesson to try and focus on this crap before I relegate myself to a life of dus.
... Hopefully one of these days Brandon will blog about his run and cruiser ride in Santa Barbara from this week, but that's neither here nor there for this second.As I mentioned a few weeks ago in my December Round-Up post, Brandon got me swim lessons at SwimLabs for Christmas. Well, my first lesson was yesterday and hoo boy, was it insightful! The good news: I'm not a lost cause when it comes to my crawl. Yay!The bad news: I still have a TON of stuff to work on. My breathing, which I knew was going to be an issue ... is. I kick with my knees too much and my stroke isn't so efficient. Therefore, I have a huge old list of stuff to work on:- breathe into my shoulder
- kick from my hips- reach on each stroke- hand/arm entry into the waterIt's a lot of stuff to keep straight and it's rough trying to put it all together. I'm just hoping that one day it clicks for me. In the meantime, it looks like a pull buoy is going to become my new best friend in pool training. In Skippy news ... I've been on him four times so far this month. I've worked my way up to 30 minutes, though it's still in a few segments. I know it's rough; a few weeks ago, I posted on facebook how I was going to learn to love the Skipster even if it killed me. A friend posted the following: it takes absolute discipline cause trainers suck!!!!And he's totally right. I've heard that the Spinervals DVDs are awesome and indeed, one came in the box with Skippy, but I have a feeling it's a bit too advanced for Brandon and I. I know that the series does include some beginner DVDs and I think that we're going to have to try and track them down.In the meantime, I've found that sports-related movies (okay, just Center Stage (don't judge me!) and Miracle) DO help. I don't know whether it's a mutual suffering - you suffer along with the people on the screen - but it helped. Particularly watching Miracle tonight as I put in 30 minutes on Skippy.My new goal for him is to be able to either suffer through an hour (even if it takes a few breaks) and/or 20 minutes consecutively by the end of the month. I hate that I can't do that now, but I have to keep reminding myself - building blocks. That's all this is.
Meet Skippy.
This is Skippy the Green Monstah, our trainer. He's a douche. (he's also a kinetic road machine fluid trainer.)Okay, technically we've only hung out with him twice (photos are from session numero uno), but we've already decided he's not a nice guy. Ultimately, I'm sure we'll end up thanking Skippy for being a part of our existence at some point (probably when we get used to him ... and when we get his climbing block cousin), but for right now, he sucks.Right now, 20 minutes on Skippy is extremely rough. 20 minutes on Skippy is not 20 minutes consecutively. Which is frustrating and, in some respects, embarrassing.Still, we'll keep on plugging on Skippy, much like you see below.
Brandon finding something to watch before hopping on Skippy.
Brandon on Skippy.
Me on Skippy. Obviously this was within my first five minutes because I'm smiling.For those of you who have been on trainers before ... we ditched the sweatshirts shortly after. I'm also going to try and dig an old fan out of storage to use while on Skippy.Hopefully, Skippy gets to be an easier bastard to work with, or at least more tolerable. Either way, we'll probably keep you updated on our progress with Skippy the Green Monstah.
