Week Three: 1.14-1.20
Still keeping up with the daily.
Starting to not sleep through the night - I keep waking up or just don't get solid sleep. Not sure if that's related to the training, or if we finally need to get a new mattress.
1.14
What I didn't mention on my last ride last week (Troy on the trainer) ... was that I had a flat before I started that ride. I decided to just pump up my tire and do the workout and it was fine. But, alas, it was flat. B changed that for me over the weekend (because he's awesome) ... but I decided to stay inside for the ride on this day due to lingering snow and ice on the trails as well as debris. We need to stockpile tubes again.
Forget how I got through this trainer ride (45 minutes), but it was kind of bleh.
1.15
Double day. Standard easy-harder-easy run (with a sub-10 middle mile! yay!) ... and the easy parts were made a lot easier thanks to a lot of ice that I walked over. Our friend Ann shattered her ankle on an icy run a few years back and it's haunted me ever since.
I also got in the pool ... and since Brandon was there and doing a shorter swim ... I made him take pictures.
It's so rare I get pictures of me in the water.
Of note: I also actually officially registered for IM Wisconsin today.
1.16
Back to the recovery/technique set. Dropped my chain (only me, I swear) and had issues getting my cadence sensor to read at the outset. Some days, man ...
1.17
Another double day. I don't have too many of these (if I so choose) with the way I'm doing things on the three run weeks.
I officially bumped up my long run to five miles (hooray).
The day's swim was also drill day ... and I added in kick drills. Those didn't go quite as terribly as I would have thought, so that's a plus.
1.18
Long ride day. And, due to weather (it was snowing) ... it was indoors. And I also bumped things up to 30 miles. Friends, my crotch was not ready for 30 miles on the trainer (because it can handle these things outside better than it can inside). I mostly used this time to check out the "Titan Games" which I had DVRed, doing intervals during the ... activities? challenges? ... competitions.
Stupid winter.
1.19
Only a simple little treadmill run this day yet I procrastinated it SO HARD. 2.5 miles (-ish. depends on whether you want to listen to the treadmill or the Garmin) that I kept adding speed to. Progression, kind of?
1.20
Long swim day ... but I changed it up. Instead of doing 40x50 or 20x100, I did 2x100 w/u and cd with a 4x400 main set ... and I descended the 400s. Aw yiss.
*****
So except for the sleep thing (and the general body aches that settle in), this week felt ... dare I say ... easy? Or at least comfortable.
Weekly Numbers:
Swim: 5100m, 2:00:17
Bike: 49.66 mi, 3:14:34
Run: 10.52 mi, 2:03:07
Strength: 1:08
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.
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.
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 ...
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).
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.
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.
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!
... or how I got my ass handed to me for five straight days. Hooray!
I knew I would be undercooked going into camp. Woefully undercooked.
And I was not wrong! I spent a lot of time crying, despite telling myself that someone always has to be the one to come in last and hey, there can be respect in being the lanterne rouge (or ... whatever), and I figured as long as I didn't quit, a win's a win, right?
Day One: Thursday, August 3
I rolled into town the night before, not wanting to wake up stupid early and go straight from the car to the pool. Uh, gross. Stayed at some random hotel by the airport because it was cheap before heading to my casita (a.k.a. the AirBnB on the Starr Pass grounds) that was going to be home base for the next few days. Got all settled in with my stuff and my groceries (eggs and orange juice for breakfast), met roomie Colleen, and we headed down to the swim at the University of Arizona Rec Center.
Except we get there ... and it's pouring. Thunder and lightning and the pools are all closed. Plan B ended up being a hotel pool back up at Starr Pass that was actually 25 yards and had lane lines on the bottom of the pool (but not the actual plastic ones that go on top). All told, with weather and travel and whatnot, we started our swim probably about an hour late.
Thoughts I had during the swim:
- huh. so this is what circle swim is like. and I am ... not good with this.
- bands seem like they might make OWS a lot better. must use more.
- holy crap I'm in the slow lane and getting lapped. so much.
- aw, I see a rainbow! at least that's happy ...
- I am REALLY fucking BOP here.
This swim was probably meant to be about 4k ... yeeeeah, I managed 2900. Oops. I also got quite a bit of stroke instruction from Alyssa which let's face it, I need.
After the swim, it was off to TriSports for dinner and a nice talk from Seton. Thanks, Seton!
Day Two: Friday, August 4
Did not sleep well. Uncomfortable bed, nerves? Who knows. This will end up being a thing for most of camp (but mostly due to sunburn. I'm getting there.).
Friday morning was riding Gates Pass and doing the McCain Loop Time Trial. We did a practice hill before doing actual Gates and then went up and over. Oh hey, that wasn't too bad! Confidence boost!
The TT loop. So, when I think of a "time trial" loop, I think fast. Something not with ridiculous hills. This loop? A couple substantial fucking hills. I guess that's just Tucson? The roads were also full of debris thanks to that pesky rainstorm we had the night before and a camper went down with some road rash. She was a beast though and did all of the riding and running the next couple of days (wasn't allowed to swim).
Also, apparently the west side of Gates? Is the shitty side. I had to stop to breathe a few times going up (and not falling over when getting back on. Hooray! Hillary was kind of impressed at this.) and, at one of these stops, I had my first technical pee-on-the-bike moment. I had kind of needed to go back during the McCain loops, but knew I could hold it. Apparently, standing off my bike catching my breath, my bladder decided "nope. I'm done," and let it go, so I peed standing there on the side of the road. Gross.
I got back to the casita in a huge hole (hallway scale said I was down six pounds from the night before). I showered to feel human again, grabbed my swim stuff, and did the best thing I could do to be able to shove a crapload of calories down my throat - I went to In-N-Out. I knew there was a chance I might regret it later during the swim, but since I needed calories so damn badly, I just didn't care. Thankfully, no burger came up during the swim.
The swim was in theory the 100x100 set ... but since I'm slow, I got to do 50x100. Being in the water for four hours (with no chance to reapply sunscreen) turned me into a super painful lobster. Seriously. OW. My ass is sunburned. Literally. So is my back. A week later, I'm starting to peel, but still have some major red spots. Besides that, though, the swim wasn't actually too terrible. Since I was doing 50s while everyone else was doing 100s, I got adequate rest and I didn't have to do a lot of super speed work (unlike yesterday ...), so it felt manageable, surprisingly. I mean, fatigue definitely set in, but other than that ... it wasn't a workout to really make me cry. Hooray!
(The best part, seriously, was walking back into the Rec Center and hearing Shinedown's "Enemies" come on five seconds later. Felt good to hear my favorite band after doing that swim.)
After the swim, I went over to Sushi Garden for all-you-can-eat sushi. Once again, calories. However, it was tough eating - so much chewing ...
Then on to SMASH HQ for some shopping and social time (new kit! new capris! new sports bras!) and a stop by CVS on the way back to the casita. A few of the other ladies went up to the hotel for s'mores and dessert and I really considered joining, but I made the terrible mistake of flopping on the bed and I just was not getting back up again.
Day Three: Saturday, August 5
Today was a lazy start (comparatively). We got to meet up at 8 as opposed to 6 or 6:30 ... because we were heading higher in elevation and therefore didn't need to try to beat most of the oppressive Tucson heat. We headed southeast of the city to Parker Canyon Lake, south of Sonoita. When we parked for the run, my phone legitimately thought we were in Mexico (we weren't).
The "trail" (dirt road) run was two hours - hour out, hour back. Since my run is trash and I have Pikes Peak coming up, I basically hiked all the uphills and ran as many downhills as I could. The recent rains meant there were water crossings (SO WEIRD). All in all, I got in just over 8 miles. Probably not ideal, but it's what I could manage.
I am very thankful I had the foresight to pack an Orange Crush in my cooler for post-run, because it was AMAZEBALLS.
We had a picnic lunch at the lake post-run ... which I kind of couldn't eat. I really need to learn how to eat in heat, because it is NOT a thing I can really do. When my body gets hot, it does not want to consume food.
While we were digesting, Hillary and Alyssa shared some OWS tips and tricks ... which I will mostly pass off to Brandon because I am too slow to really utilize many of them. Then, it was into the water to swim for about 30 minutes. I got left in the dust - go figure - and at one point, even asked Alyssa why the hell I am so much slower in open water. I mean, I'm mostly comfortable in it. She couldn't give me a definitive answer, but did say my body positioning did actually look better, so there's that. Maybe I just need a new wetsuit and that will help since I loathe mine. Who knows.
After the swim, Hillary approached me and asked my thoughts on Lemmon. I told her that it would probably be difficult, but I really wanted to try and make it all the way up. She said that if I ended up skipping the planned run at the top in order to get the satisfaction of completing the climb, she'd be okay with it. Even hearing this, I decided I would pack my run shoes for the next day regardless (spoiler alert: this was smart).
We then drove back to Tucson, stopping back in Sonoita for some ice cream and snacks. My brain didn't want to figure out dinner, but I figured more calories would be good, so I just popped over for more In-N-Out. Mostly because I could not decide on what to do and I headed over in that direction so I could pick up my Chick-fil-a for the bike and boom. Decision made.
Day Four: Sunday, August 6
We campers got split up into three groups for climbing Mt. Lemmon - four of us at 6am, two at 6:30, and the rest at 7. Obviously I was in the early group.
The four of us rolled out with Hillary (Alyssa would go with the later groups) and as we hit the climb (four miles down the road), I got dropped pretty quickly. I just kept plugging along, knowing there wasn't much else I could do, stopping occasionally to catch my breath (and to eat my pickle juice-soaked chicken). I pulled off about 9ish (?) miles in at Molino Basin to pee. I almost passed it by, but not knowing when my next bathroom opportunity was ... I took it.
I also somehow kept missing the SAG truck. We think there was some miscommunication with him and his stopping spots with us all being so spread out.
It was definitely slow-going, and the asshole groups of eight or nine motorcycles that would fly by going 60 mph were terrifying (and anxiety-producing), but I kept plodding. I think the first person from one of the later groups passed me around mile 12 or 13, which made me pretty happy. Mostly because I was just waiting for it to happen at any moment.
I started panicking at one point because I knew I was getting super low on hydration and I had no idea if I was going to even find SAG. I ran out somewhere around 14 miles and was freaking out because I didn't know if I should even try to make it 11 more miles without any liquid or what. Alyssa and a couple other ladies caught up to me around mile 15, with me on the side of the road crying. She gave me some of her liquid (which tasted strange but hey I needed something), told me that SAG was up around mile 17, and that we'd go together. I didn't really lose her the rest of the ride ... which also means, that except for the pit stop to refuel, I also didn't stop again until the finish. She talked me through a lot of different climbing techniques to try to keep my heart rate down and it mostly worked.
In any case, four hours of ride time (not including stops) later, I rolled into Summerhaven and to the famous cookie cabin. Since I rolled in with Alyssa ... it also meant that I was running. At 8000 feet. It was pretty damn slow and painful - and probably a lot slower and shorter than she would have liked it to be - but I still managed a run.
I got a Dr. Pepper first ... but decided that if I was at the damn Cookie Cabin, I should probably get a cookie. So I did - chocolate chip with a scoop of vanilla on top. The ice cream? Was amazing. The cookie? I maybe ate half of it. I just could not stomach it. Oh well.
The best part of the day was the descent. Well, Lemmon is basically 20ish miles up, a small downhill, another up, and then a cruise into Summerhaven. So leaving was a climb, a small descent, another stupid climb, and then 20ish miles down before a very toasty couple of miles back to our cars.
Lauren said it was like descending into hell. The heat by the end made me think that statement pretty accurate.
In any case, I actually was able to pass a few people on the descent and made it down the mountain in just over an hour without stopping. I wasn't last in something - hooray! And I wasn't last by quite a bit, even. I had time to pop into Safeway for a snack before everyone got back.
Dinner that night was at Hillary and Maik's and we got to Skype with Cherie Gruenfeld, which was super cool.
Day Five: Monday, August 7
Also known as the day I was least looking forward to - track day.
I've mentioned it a few times in this post and if you've been following me for any length of time now ... you know my running is complete garbage right now. I don't enjoy running from our house (neither of us do) and I have no speed anymore and no endurance and no anything and it's so not fun and blah. So, the thought of a track session? Especially one that we learned the night before was going to be two hours? Well, that was enough to give me anxiety all morning.
The perk is I think I was finally tired enough to sleep without waking up the night previous.
We rode our bikes down to the track, as we were doing a recovery spin (which, in camp land, was still going to be over an hour) after. From the second we got to the track pretty much through the time I finished running, I was super ridiculously anxious. On the verge of tears (if not outright crying), barely able to control my breathing, slightly hyperventilating, whole thing.
So the track workout was about a mile and half warmup (I did a mile and a quarter. The slow thing ...), and then it varied depending on who had what going on. Linda and Bri, who have IMCDA in a few weeks, got to do 21 800s, which, with rest intervals, ended up being about a half-marathon on the track. The rest of us? Oh, we just had 4 all out 200s with 200 recovery and then a mile at our goal half-marathon pace. And then repeat it twice more.
I remember a couple years ago, this must have been back at the apartment, when Brandon and I would walk up to the track and do 200s. I remember them not being too terribly torturous. These? Were torture.
The mile was almost worse. Even though my dream goal half-marathon pace is sub-2, I know that's in no way practical for me any time soon, so I said sub-2:10. Which I still technically haven't done yet (my Garmin said yes but not the results). Which meant that my 200 splits should be around 1:14.
Yeeeah, mine were more like 1:20. But they were consistent, at least for the first two of the miles.
Because I finished so far behind everyone and I was dying post every mile, I got to skip the first of the second two sets of 200s (so instead of doing four reps, I got to do three) for the extra recovery. I definitely pulled every last ounce of anything I had out of my poor legs, though. I fell into the grass after the second mile and again after the last 200. Alyssa said she wanted dying animal noises, and this sports asthmatic can 100% do dying animal noises! I was having trouble running in a straight line at this point which is probably why I fell over after that 200. Oops. My final mile was a complete shitshow. At that point, I just did my best to keep running even though I couldn't hold any pace at that point. The mile cool down also ended up turning into a walk/run because my hips were having none of it anymore. Two of the other ladies ended up running a bit with me - Brooke with my final 400 for my last hard mile and Jan for 400 of the cool down - reassuring me that I was doing okay and that yes, this is really hard, but remember, most of them are coached by these ladies (or general Team HPB), so they were a bit more prepared by default.
Post-track was the first time I broke down officially in front of everyone. I cannot express how many times I wanted to quit during that track session. How much pain I was in, not only thanks to my stupid sunburn which I felt, but due to my legs not moving that fast in ages. How my lungs felt like they were burning for an hour straight. How I cried through 75% of that track workout.
But.
I didn't. I stuck through and I did it. It was ugly as sin, but I did it.
From there, it was a recovery ride along the Tucson Loop trail, where I kind of broke off from everyone for a while on the way back because to really spin my legs out, I needed to be in aero going a bit faster than the group. We spent a lot of time out of aero and sitting up at camp and my wrists (particularly the right. Thanks, barista arm.) were stupid cranky by this point. We stopped back at Hillary's car to say our goodbyes and to get our track stuff ... and I about started crying again thinking about climbing the hill back up to the casita. Any mental toughness reserves I had were completely gone at that point. Thankfully, Jan missed the "spin to track" memo and drove, so she offered to take me and my bike back, which was the most amazing thing, and I am so grateful to her for that small little gesture.
*****
Camp was ridiculously tough. CRAZY tough. I was so unprepared it wasn't even funny. And yet ... somehow, I made it through. Quitting didn't ever seem to be an option (even though thoughts of it ran through my brain quite a few times), so I could only acknowledge the voices in my head and just ... put my head down and do the work.
I'm still not entirely sure how I survived, but I did, and I'm so thankful to my body that it was somehow able to hold together for this insane feat.
Chilly Cheeks recap coming next week. Wanted to get this out of the way first.
So, February ... how did you go?
Swimming: 40000m (24.85 mi)
Cycling: 122.99 mi
Running: 34.38 mi
Lifting: nine sessions (3:28)
Other: 14 yoga sessions (2:57), three barre workouts (1:55), one walk (1:02)
The swim streak ... kind of killed me. I had some 10, 12 hour weeks which for me not in an Ironman year and still a good seven months out from my 70.3 is RIDICULOUS. Stupid swimming. I also missed two workouts (one bike and one run) which I'm sad about, but they were also during my down week so okay, I guess?
In general though ...
- HOLY CRAP I managed the swim streak! I swam all 28 days which I am super proud of myself for. Plus I technically played by the leap year rules because I had a swim on the 1st, too.
- The bike hasn't seemed all that great - crying twice thanks to Coach Troy will do that ... - but I was (spoiler) faster at Chilly Cheeks #3 than I was at #2, so there's that
- Running ... is off and on. Legs want to do high-8s, low-9s ... my lungs want to sit somewhere in the high-10s to 11s. Story of my life.
- Keeping with the strength, though I probably need to quit lifting in my basement (that is, mostly body weight). I just get anxiety at my gym so really I need to try hitting up different 24s to lift at.
- I've been happy to add in barre workouts (at home DVD), even though I'm not entirely sure if they're working ... yet ... and I'm stubbornly sticking with the damn yoga.
March might be a "down" month because I probably won't be swimming nearly as much (my right arm is gonna love me now) and I'm going to stick with similar run mileage because I always tend to pop my mileage up before the shorter runs are "easy" ... basically, I'm going back to how I used to run back in the day for a month. The one thing I'm really going to aim for is a better bike month - instead of planning general time on the bike, I've either got a specific trainer workout scheduled OR an outside ride.
Here's to March!
We're at the 15th of February, so just over halfway through the month and since I've already swam today, we've also just passed the halfway point of the #SMASHswimstreak!
I'm at 20700m and, if all keeps going to plan, should be at 40k by the end of the month. Which is ridiculous.
Since this is the first athletic streak I've been able to successfully do (so far), I've had a few thoughts:
- Holy crap am I itchy! All this time spent in chlorine means that I've kind of been constantly itchy for the past few weeks. Living in a dry climate in winter in general doesn't help, but the pool is making it so much worse. I've been slathering myself in lotion every day and drinking a crap ton of water, but OMG THE ITCHY.
- My new Finis paddles (along with my pull buoy, when called for) are my new best friends. Seriously. I had a pair of Strokemaster paddles that I'd been using, but I'm pretty sure they were too big/advanced for me. I'd seen the Finis ones on several people and asked for (and got!) them for Christmas and I am in LOVE.
- It took about eight days for me to need a 4-500m warm-up in the pool to start feeling good ... which usually takes me a few MONTHS to need while in IM training.
- I kind of constantly smell vaguely like chlorine. It seems to be unavoidable.
- Getting in the swims has been surprisingly easy. I'm actually looking forward to getting to the pool. Working on getting in everything else, however ... that's been a struggle. I mean, I've managed, but it's been hard. And I've had some shitty bikes and runs.
- I am seeing new dents in my back/shoulders that I don't think I've ever seen before.
- I handle arm fatigue waaaaay better than I handle leg fatigue. And if the shoulders get really cranky, I try to find a way to make sure there's around 24 hours between swims (so if I swim at 7am one day, make sure I'm not back in the water until 11am the following day) as that seems to recover me enough.
- Best of all, the swim hunger? The I-swim-so-I'm-ravenous-the-rest-of-the-day feeling? If you swim every day, it's not as big of a thing. Which makes sense, since apparently that feeling is due to changes in body temperature so if you're in the water all the time, you're more adapted? Or something? I don't know. I just know that I don't always want to eat everything in sight this month because of swimming, so that's good.
15 days down, 13 to go!!
First of all, eight days into February, and eight swims done. This ... is kind of difficult, but also kind of awesome?
Anyway, when I chose the swim streak, I did it because February is the shortest month. However, I neglected to remember the fact that we had a mini vacation planned for early February to go up to Grand Forks, N.D., and watch hockey. Oops.
Unless a trip is planned for the purpose of exercise (read: races), we sometimes have issues working out on the road. However, breaking my swim streak three days into the month just wasn't going to happen. So, we did the research into pools. Okay, Brandon did the research into pools.
We were originally going to hit up the University of North Dakota wellness center (their gym), but the new fitness center apparently doesn't have a pool attached, and the building that does have the pool has stupid pool hours.
Okay, plan B.
Plan B was Choice Health and Fitness, which had possibly my most favorite pool to swim in to date. It was indoors, obviously (people don't swim outside in Grand Forks in the winter!), and gorgeous. Three wide lanes, clean water (it smelled so much better than our home 24) ... glorious.
We swam both Friday and Saturday (swam Thursday before our flight and Sunday after we got back home). Friday's swim was amazing; Saturday's, not as much. Probably because it was a terrible, gloomy day.
From Friday, when it was sunny. Featuring: SMASH swim cap!
While the gym was glorious for swimming, neither of us liked lifting there. I had a baby lift planned for Friday and I'm glad I got the majority of my strength done earlier in the week because it was a super short crappy lift.
On Saturday, Brandon took me on a running tour around campus. It wasn't snowing a lot that day, but it was snowing just enough to be annoying and to make the sidewalks super slick. Those factors combined with the fact we were chatting the whole run (okay, mostly him playing tour guide), meant it was super slow, but it was also really fun.
From Instagram. Featured: SMASH beanie, Skirt Sports Lioness (paired over Skirt Toasty Tights).
The other thing that I think helped getting in the training is that I do believe I'm being successful in my 2017 goal of enjoying the process - I genuinely looked forward to getting in the pool and for going for this run (despite it being cold and windy). We also planned both into the trip so there was time set aside for it.
Too exhausted to do much of anything yesterday; a 70.3 distance race on shit training will do that to you. So, posting schedule gets a little shifted this week ...
As I posted a bit ago, I was on vacation two weeks ago so my workouts got a little wonky. Still, I had a few that I wanted to share with you here.
Wednesday, August 28, we were up in the northern part of Minnesota to see Split Rock Lighthouse. We hiked around there and detoured to Gooseberry Falls and got even more hiking in there (I'm a sucker for waterfalls).
Upper Gooseberry Falls.
The next day, Thursday, August 28, we decided to explore some of the Twin Cities by bike. It was slow and lazy, but also a lot of fun. We parked at Steve's house on the St. Paul side, rode into St. Paul, saw the capitol building and Mickey's Dining Car and paused by the Xcel Energy Center because they have a statue of 1980 Miracle on Ice (and UofM and SCSU and the 2002 games) coach Herb Brooks outside. Which I somehow never knew about before today. Obviously we took pictures.
"Do you believe in miracles? YES!"
Bikes and Brandon dealing with work stuff.
Picture time!
From there, it was off to the Minneapolis side of things. We stopped by Brandon's old high school and then made our way over to Minnehaha Falls.
Last time I saw these, they were frozen over.
After a few minutes there, it was back on the trail to go further into Minneapolis to Marathon Sports where our friend Lindsey works. Unfortunately, we had just missed her - she saw us while on the bus - so we grabbed a snack at Bruegger's and then headed back to the car. We had hoped to do a bit more riding, but the stops made the ride take a bit longer than planned, we had a lot more stuff to do that day and the rain clouds were rolling in.
So, we headed back to Steve's house, shared with him some root beer and baked goods and then topped off the adventure with some delicious ice cream.
The next week was fairly uneventful, but on Thursday, September 4, we met up with our friend Richard so I could get some open water swim help before my next race. We met at Bear Creek out in Morrison - a place neither of us had ever swam at, but we'll definitely be going back to.
Richard found that I had some inefficiencies in my stroke, making me take more strokes than needed and thus tiring me out quicker. So, I was taught essentially to slow things down - make myself more efficient - which will, in turn, speed me up in the long run. I was also given a few drills - some to help slow down my stroke and some for easier sighting. I made some slow improvement in the short lesson, so hopefully things would pay off for me come race day.
Which is a good place to leave, as that'll be my next post this week ...
I want to start out by saying I did actually sit down to write a blog post Monday. I did. I just didn't have anything to say. My head was filled with Ironman thoughts thanks to several MX12 teammates finishing IM Melbourne after a long journey. It made me want nothing more than to do another IM - even though I know it's impossible this year and we're going to stick to that 2016 goal no matter how much it kills us - but I didn't want to write a post just about me whining that I miss IM training and having a huge goal and suffering over the course of a day.
(No, I'll just leave that to a paragraph.)
Instead, I just decided to not blog. Figured it was the better option.
Now that that's out of the way, last week's featured workout.
Last week I had my first double swim week since before the shingles disaster. It wasn't a lot - 1700m between the two - but still! I swam twice!
The first swim was kind of a disaster - had to cut it short due to feeling horribly nauseous - a feeling that ended up lasting until I had to go to bed. The second, though, was much better.
Rocking that TYR Sports swimsuit! With the awkwardly huge selfie arm.
The bottom picture is the story of a triathlete at the pool. Fins, paddles and pull buoy with my goggles and cap next to my lock and the shoes I wore (and would lift in later on).
Other Week Highlights:
- Three run week!
- Sunday was another three-a-day
- Outside ride
Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone! It was a gorgeous day, so we went out for a ride. Gorgeous ... until the ridiculous wind kicked up.
Anyway, that's not what today's post is about. Today is another in the "Things I Love" series ... which means, as a reminder, I am not sponsored by TYR (though if they want to change that, I'm all for it). I just love their swimsuits.
As a triathlete, I swim. Not as much as I probably should, but still a decent amount. Therefore, I obviously need a swimsuit. I also have a weirdly long torso, so I prefer two-piece suits as they fit better (I also seriously cannot remember how to squeeze my body into a one-piece. I tried a few years back; it was awkwardly awful and also, looking back on it, hilarious).
The brand that I keep coming back to - especially now because I know how their suits fit on my body - is TYR Sport. I've owned four suits by them - two of the exact same (the middle in the photo below). I love the fit, the durability and the option for fun prints.
Completely fun, right? The one on the left was, quite possibly, the first swimsuit I bought for triathlon purposes. As mentioned above, I had two versions of the middle - stretched out the top. The one on the right is my newest that I just got and it is bright and happy and AWESOME.
The suits are comfortable and last for ... if I had to estimate, about 50 miles worth of pool swimming (based off wear of my last suit and last season's usage). They're relatively affordably priced and I love how I can just go with a size and know that it's going to fit my body. For a female who typically wears two different sizes on her top and bottom, that is an extremely helpful thing.
So. If you swim or are looking to get into it (or know someone who is) and need a new suit, maybe try out a suit by TYR.
I still have my Tri for the Cure recap to do (Monday, probably, or later tonight), but I just got back from the gym and neeeeeeeeed to do a quick post.
So I swam today. 1000m, nothing special.
BUT.
The speed! I did 2x100m, 1x600m, 2x100m. As I typically do, my first either 50m or 100m of any pool workout I go as fast as I can. Today, I did UNDER 2:00 for the FIRST time EVER - 1:59.58! I was at 800m in 18:18, which is some of the fastest I've ever swam that distance.
Also: total time today was 22:30.19 ... that's four minutes faster than I was doing the same distance back in Februrary. Four minutes! That's also comparable to some of my 900m times from March and April:
23:20.87
22:40.70
23:03.03
I've swam close to 30 miles this year and it's FINALLY paying off which makes me so, so, so, so, SO happy.
Not that you could tell, or anything.
P.S.: My weight was under 165 (163!) for the first time in like a year, so that was nice too. My body decided to stabilize at about 168ish for the longest damn time and it might be finally budging the slightest bit which would be AWESOME.
So training hasn't been going all that wonderfully lately.
Well, it has and it hasn't, but the motivation has been kind of lacking which is a BIG problem given that we have a race in ... *checks watch* ... exactly one week. I'm pretty sure part of the issue is the fact that I just don't get enough sleep. Add that to fairly heavy/consistent training, and my body can only take so much before it wants to shut down. "No, you canNOT do a long run today or anything for the next few days until you sleep, biatch!"
Yes. My body swears at me. A lot.
Still, for the most part, I push and plod and perservere, getting in something even if it's not what was actually planned.
Take this weekend. Since the hubby was overnighting in the Springs and I had today off, I figured I'd drive down Saturday afternoon, hang out, go to a 24 down there to swim and lift (back to Mark Allen lift again), spend the night and drive back up in the morning, grab breakfast with the parents (and ask them for a loan. damn hospital bills.) and then go for a longish (5 miles) run.
The swim/lift ... was definitely not as good as it could have been. We just didn't have the motivation to swim and the 600m I got in were definitely forced. The good about this? My first two 50s were SUPER fast (for me) - around a minute a piece, which is just crazy talk. I thought the pool might be shorter, but no, as I started getting into the longer part of the set (and not attempting to compete against the much faster husband), my times got back down to normal. Still finished with an average that was faster than usual. The lift ... was what it was. Oh Mark Allen lift, I really haven't missed you.
Then we come to today's run. Which I kept putting off. And putting off. And putting off. Like my May recap which will hopefully come tomorrow. Finally, I dragged my ass out the door around 5pm, only planning to do our 3.48 mile loop as opposed to our 5.37 mile loop. This decision was furthered in the run, where my legs felt like lead for the first mile and a half and my breathing refused to get under control.
Despite that, my times at my usual watch checkpoints (I have a rough estimate of where I like to be at certain spots to crack a 10:00/mi) were speedier than usual. I didn't check my watch on the last half mile stretch and just pushed it to home. I stopped my watch in front of the driveway and read 35:something. That pissed me off. SERIOUSLY? I know the last half-mile was slow, but there's no way in hell it could have been THAT slow.
I stormed upstairs, took a shower and then came downstairs to log the run on BeginnerTriathlete. Much to my sheepish surprise, the actual time on the watch? Was not 35:something. More like 32:51.33 ... which, after some research, was my fastest time ever on that loop.
(The loop in question, I might add, SUCKS. The first half-mile is fairly flat with subtle elevation changes. And then you turn to go up a nasty, awful hill that lasts for the next half-mile. The next ... probably third of a mile after that is also uphill, but not as bad as a grade. The run then flattens out for another, say, third of a mile before an ever-so-slight incline that you don't physically see, but your legs hate. Mile three starts off with a short incline but then you get to logically run downhill for a good half-mile or so. This is where you can pick up some serious time. Mile three continues with a little bit of flat and then another climb up another stupid hill (we kind of live at the bottom of this wave), curve it around until essentially the start of what would be mile four and then wind it down steadily to home.)
While I took Friday off, I think tomorrow's also going to be relatively easy given the fact that I am tiiiiiiirrrreeed and really should be in bed instead of posting this.
... 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.
Sorry about the delay in this one, folks ... I just finally got the rest of my photos uploaded online about ... oh ... two minutes ago, so here we go!Exactly one week ago at this time ... I was at work. Probably just off of lunch. After I got off work, I came home, packed, had Brandon help me pack up the car, and we headed up I-25 ... through Denver, north Denver, Erie, Loveland, Fort Collins ... and soon enough, past enough fields, farms, buffalo and cows, we hit Wyoming.
Woo, Wyoming.We continued on the next 11 or so miles into Cheyenne to our exit. Rather than stopping at the hotel first, we quickly went over the park where our race would be the next day. We dipped our toes in the water (kinda cold), wandered around a little bit and talked to the few race people still around after some meeting we missed to double check and verify the locations of transition and the swim start.Afterwards, we checked into our extremely ghetto Rodeway Inn. Seriously, the place was falling apart. We were thinking about heading back to Fort Collins (and delicious famous dave's) for dinner, but ultimately decided not to given on time. Instead, we drove around Cheyenne. Where there is nothing really to eat. We saw a Denny's on our way in and decided on that ... but sadly, it was closed until the 11th (the next day). Which helped us a lot. So, we drove back into town and settled on Village Inn. We're so classy.After dinner, we went back to this Taco John's Event Center we had passed by for a little relaxing mini golf.
Mini golf was not nice to me.In walking around after mini golf, we realized that the Taco John's Event Center also housed a rink ... go figure. We find the one ice rink (albeit one not in use) in Cheyenne. It was currently just a hard floor for inline/roller skating, but still.Obviously we took pictures.
I think I look more excited than Brandon.At that point, it was time to go back to the ghetto Rodeway. We dragged the bikes into the hotel room, got ready for bed and curled up with some TV before sleeping. We did have an early wake up call, that is.
Night night, bicycles!Well, 4:45am came a lot sooner than we would have liked, but oh well. We got up, pumped up our bike tires, filled our water/Gatorade bottles, got dressed and generally got everything ready. As it was only a sprint and I don't really do nutrition on races (something i reeeeeally need to get out of), I tossed the smallest member of Team Baby Dino, Ivan, in my bento box.
He's so cute.It was then time to head downstairs for the continental breakfast ... which I was hoping would be like most of the continental breakfasts I'd experienced at other Choice Hotels ... cereal, oatmeal, fruit, yogurt, hard-boiled eggs, toast and perhaps some waffle batter.Yeah, no. First of all, breakfast was out a little after six when the dude at check-in said it would probably be out by like 5:40. Secondly, apparently due to budget cuts, breakfast was some sketchy looking pastries, boxes of cereal and packets of oatmeal. And nothing else. I'm a girl who needs her protein in the morning; specifically, her eggs. I can handle hard-boiled eggs in the morning if need be. Instead, my pre-race breakfast ended up being ... half a glass of sketchy orange juice and a packet of Quaker's instant maple and brown sugar oatmeal. Mmmm.After the breakfast disaster, we said, oh screw it, and biked the mile to the park for the race. Once there, I saw some chick wandering around with some peanut butter and I gave serious thought to paying her for the jar. No joke.I ultimately decided against it, though, and we went to pick up our packets instead. They had a bit of an issue finding mine until they learned I was an Athena. The girl gave me a skeptical look until she put me on the scale. 179. Yep honey, I made the cut by a whole 29 pounds. I'm good.After that was body marking, where I got Steve in a Speedo homage #1: the calf smiley face.
Hehe.Then, off to set up transition. It's funny, but the more races I do (this was tri #4 for me), transition gets easier and easier.
If you look, you can see Ivan in his bento box.Then, it was off to do Steve in a Speedo homage #2: the port-o-potty shot.
Oh the sweatshirt clashes with the port-o-potty so badly ...Since there were still a few minutes before the race, we wandered around and took a few more pictures.
Transition.
Part of the swim course. That far yellow blob was one of the ducks we had to swim around.Soon enough though, it was time to head down to the swim start. One thing this race did that I liked a lot ... and I'm sure only allowed because there were like 200 of us ... was that it let us all in the lake for a quick swim. For me, one of the few people not in a wetsuit, it was nice to help get accustomed to the water. After a quick spin ... time for the race to begin.The Swim:This race was the first I've done where it was a ... well, I don't remember the name of it, but each of us got our own start. One swimmer would go, and about five, ten seconds later, the next swimmer would go. I was about the 15th swimmer to go (descending age start). It was definitely ... interesting. The pre-race swim did help a lot; I didn't get that chest shudder that I usually do when I start off in cold water. As for the swim ... it didn't go as well as I probably would have liked. Looking back on the times later, it was a faster average than last year, which was nice. Still, I got through it with really no hiccups, which is all I cared about.Time: 16:35T1:T1 was not happy. I don't know what it was, but it just did not go well. I felt like I was moving slow, having issues getting my bike shorts on (i put my shoes on first. yeah, stupid), my jersey on ... everything. Still, I got out. Oh well.Time: 2:27The Bike: The bike started off well. And then we crossed the highway and encountered the hills. Oh the hills. I know my cycling hasn't gone as well this year as in years past. In last year's tri, I was passing people on the uphills. This year ... I passed a few people, but very, very few.Once I hit the turnaround, though, things felt a little better. One of the motorcycle marshals yelled at me saying that I hit 33 mph on one of the downhills (to which I replied, "yeah, i'll be going 6mph up the next hill") ... which isn't true (odometer said 29.something as a max speed). Regardless, it was kind of nice.Besides all the damn hills, though, the course was awesome in that there were a TON of volunteers - so many it was hard to thank them all, though I tried. Quite a few had cowbells and some were dressed up. They made riding that nasty course a lot easier and I loved having them there.Time: 51:30T2:T2 went a lot better than T1 ... even though time-wise, it didn't go much quicker. I'm a nerd and had to put on my engagement ring (forgot to before the bike) and body-gliding my feet (kind of non-negotiable) took longer than I would have liked. Still, I was feeling ... okay and went off to start my run.Time: 2:09The Run:I got on the run and my legs were heavy. Seriously heavy. Still, I plugged on through. About ... oh, a third of the way through the first mile, I saw one of those bank signs that gives you the temperature. It read 76 degrees. Given that I've started the run portion of some tris when it was close to 100 degrees, it was nice to see and feel.The first water station was right at the first mile and I actually got both the water and the blue PowerAde. I'm not a blue energy drink person, but damn that tasted good. As far as time was concerned, I was going pretty slow, but it wasn't too bad.Second mile was honestly just there. Most of it was along the same road as the first part of the cycle and it took us back near the hotel. The water station at the end of mile 2 was disgusting. That cup of water went on my head. Eeewwww.Mile three I picked off some people. There was a slight hill, but when I went up it I was like, hill? What hill? Pffft ... (running hills around here really does pay off on race day).As always, I sprinted into the finish, pulling it out of my butt.The totally completely AWESOME part of this run was that it was the first ever time during a tri that I have not walked on the run. I will add the caveat that I did a tiny bit through the water stations, but that's because I haven't perfected the art of drinking on the run while not a.) choking and/or b.) getting it all over me. Still. NO WALKING.Time: 33:16Overall Time:1:46:00.930/54 female (lake swim)4/8 Athena (my division)Final Thoughts:I initially thought I was 13 seconds away from a podium finish as I was 13 seconds off the Athena in front of me ... but then I realized I read the sheet wrong and that I was the fifth overall Athena to finish and the one in front of me was not in my age group. Oops.I was also not initially happy with my performance (save my run) ... until I realized that this wasn't an A race. This was a warm-up tri for RattleSnake. When I also looked at my averages from My Way or the Tri Way last year ... everything actually improved. So while I'm not necessarily thrilled with my performance, I'm okay with it given all the things I later factored in.That being said, if I have a similarly crappy swim and bike at RattleSnake, I'm not gonna be a happy camper.
