So yesterday morning I was on my way to the Y to do a track workout, and I didn't realize until I was out the door just how much snow had fallen--about 2". Which meant I had to move it. It was pretty fluffy stuff, and I didn't feel like firing up the snowblower and smelling all like gasoline/oil and stuff, so I just shoveled. I think it took me about 1/2 hour to do it, and then I was off to run.
The warmup piece on the treadmill felt fine, except that I was nearly overheating from my little shoveling warmup. Then I moved onto the track where it wasn't as cool as it usually is, but still fine. I had brought a can of Coke (poured into a bike bottle) to drink.
When I did the piece of the warmup that included some 5K pace work, I just took off and was enjoying the fast running, but I ran faster than I needed to, and it was just enough to make me realize I was still a little tired. I did the first 10K/5K interval exactly to pace, but was disappointed because last week I had run faster, because I was definitely fresher last week, and yesterday I didn't have a full 24 hours between a hard bike workout and a hard run workout, which is significant for me.
I completed the second 10K/5K interval exactly like the first one, only it hurt more to do it. I figured I'd slow it down slightly for the last interval, and I did, but not by much. Still, all things considered, it was a decent workout.
Around noon, I took a short break from work and worked my bis, tris, delts and chest. It only took 20 minutes, but I was feeling it.
I was invited to do a "spin" session at my bike shop that began at 6:30PM. I wasn't too sure it was a good idea to do it after having done a track workout, but whatever, it's all good training, right? Just see what I can do...
I loaded up a bottle with a can of Ultra Violence Voltage flavor cut with grape Gatorade, since I knew one way or the other, I'd need a boost to get through a hard bike workout in the evening (I rarely do evening workouts--I'm usually down for the count stretching about 6:00PM followed by general relaxation and vegetating).
I set up my bike and trainer next to the owner's bike, because I know him, and thought we could chat whenever our lungs weren't burning. Our instructor, Anthony, was facing us barking out gearing and effort levels. I was OK with most of the workout except for pretty extensive bouts of standing, where I took the opportunity to ride seated if I felt I needed to. I did the 3 isometric squats (a la Troy Jacobsen in Spinervals) just fine, and was kicking out good power for the duration. When it was over, either I was a slacker or I am just used to the hard workouts, I shouted, "Next time make it harder!" And well, I got my wish, as I have been asked to lead the next session in 2 weeks! I'm looking forward to putting something together that will be challenging, yet fun.
A few of us went out for beers and burgers afterwards, and when I got home, I was so tired I didn't even shower (I had towelled off at the shop) and just went straight to bed. I was a little pleased with myself that I was able to get through it, but knew it really wasn't a good idea for me to have done both a track workout and hard bike on the same day. Whatever, if I need to adjust after the fact, that's fine.
This morning all I had to do was a short (2200 yards) swim workout, and that went well, except for my throat being a little scratchy, which is just a sign that I had better watch it or I could get sick. I am still going to try and do the remainder of my strength work today which is LEGS!!!! My legs actually don't feel too bad right now, but I know from past experience that sometimes you feel your strongest and best just before you are about to go over the edge and get sick and need a day off. I'm already mentally prepared to take a sick day tomorrow if I at all feel less than 100%, and all I have planned is a swim which can go out the window, too.
I'm sure other people have to put up with a lot of other interferences to their training than I do--the only reason I write about this stuff is because sometimes I go back and read it and learn from it, and other times I find out just how strong I am and achieve a breakthrough by doing something that I thought might be a stupid idea!
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Recovery
A friend asked me about consuming alcohol and its affect on recovery. I ended up stating that I believe that as long as you have a good diet and are getting sufficient sleep, that a few beers or glasses of wine shouldn't affect you too much. If you are really going for a Kona slot or you just want to see how you perform without any alcohol, go for it.
But then I got to thinking about the whole recovery thing, and there are so many factors that enter into it. What is recovery? I would define being recovered as:
the ability to train as hard as or harder than the most recent good, hard effort
where "hard effort" is a workout where you are able to do work at or above threshold/LT/FT pace, however you define it. If your most recent hard effort was a race, you are recovered when you can do a hard workout like the one before the race--nobody can just race and race and race! One reason that I am not an advocate of all long and easy "base" stuff in the "off season" is because it is too easy to slack on recovery like eating well, not putting on weight, sleeping well, etc., since you are not doing any hard efforts that truly test whether or not you are recovered!)
If I trained hard yesterday and all I do today is an easy (Z1/Z2) workout or two, then I can't say for sure whether I'm recovered. But the next time I try and do a pretty hard workout, I can sure tell.
Should we be striving for 100% recovery by the next day after a hard workout? If your job is to train, they I would say yes--otherwise, you need to get in touch with your own body so you know how many days you might need to recover from a hard or breakthrough effort.
For example, Sunday I did a 1-hour sprint race, and I also ran and biked easy afterwards. I did not expect to be fully recovered from that on Monday, and in fact, Monday all I had scheduled was a short, easy swim and an easy run. And I could tell I wasn't recovered. Yesterday, I had a hard interval bike workout to do, which I did after about 30 minutes of strength training. Did I execute well on the bike workout? I did OK, but I could tell I wasn't fully recovered from Sunday (sleeping less than 6 hours does that to me!). Still, I did the best I could, and knew that I it was critical that I focus on recovery last night. I got a massage, got to sleep early, and slept really well, and feel pretty good. But I won't really know until I do my track workout in a few minutes whether I am fully recovered.
If you don't know your own body well, you might start your next hard workout, notice that you aren't going to be able to hit the workout's objectives and bag it altogether or just turn it into an easy, aerobic workout. There are certainly times when this is the best thing to do. I know that for me, I am comfortable "doing the best I can" in the workout, and as long as I am close to the objectives, I am fine with it. I don't get down on myself for missing targets as long as it doesn't become habitual, and I keep pretty meticulous track of my workouts, so for example, on Thursday I am doing the same bike workout as Tuesday, and I should be able to perform it 100% to specs.
Now what about "recovery workouts?" I think this is highly individual. For some people, it's more of a mental thing to get back out there and do something, and our mental state affects our physical state so much, that if you think you will feel like a slacker if you do nothing but rest, then you are probably better off doing some sort of easy workout. But recovery is generally not doing, and for me that means sleep, massage, stretching, reading a book in bed, anything that gets me off my feet! Swimming can be recovery, too, but only if it's only about 1/2 hour or less and real easy.
All most age groupers can do to foster recovery is to pay attention to their bodies and to train at levels that can be recovered from. That is, I can train harder than some age groupers and not as hard as others. Plus, you need to take your goals into consideration. Generally speaking, my triathlon goals are to not suck in my races (MOP or better at any distance), do some really cool extreme shit, and have boatloads of fun while training hard a lot and still enjoying non-triathlon hobbies. Mostly I just like being highly fit! For other people, the goal might be general fitness, which allows for a lot of slack in how hard you train.
I think the key point is that recovery is relative to your goals. There's no need to worry too much about recovery if you aren't too concerned about being competitive, and if you aren't, then you are more likely to just bag a workout than try and execute it "as best you can." The more competitive you are, though, the more you need to pay attention to how your training plan plus recovery gets you there. A training plan is only as good as your ability to recover from it along the way. If you aren't recovering, you need to either scale back your goals (and your training) or bump up your recovery measures. There is no middle ground. And your ability to recover changes as you age, trust me I know!
A few other things post-track workout that I thought about...If you are feeling like you're not recovering, go through this list and see if any of them might be involved:
I fucking love training hard, but I love my recovery, too!
But then I got to thinking about the whole recovery thing, and there are so many factors that enter into it. What is recovery? I would define being recovered as:
the ability to train as hard as or harder than the most recent good, hard effort
where "hard effort" is a workout where you are able to do work at or above threshold/LT/FT pace, however you define it. If your most recent hard effort was a race, you are recovered when you can do a hard workout like the one before the race--nobody can just race and race and race! One reason that I am not an advocate of all long and easy "base" stuff in the "off season" is because it is too easy to slack on recovery like eating well, not putting on weight, sleeping well, etc., since you are not doing any hard efforts that truly test whether or not you are recovered!)
If I trained hard yesterday and all I do today is an easy (Z1/Z2) workout or two, then I can't say for sure whether I'm recovered. But the next time I try and do a pretty hard workout, I can sure tell.
Should we be striving for 100% recovery by the next day after a hard workout? If your job is to train, they I would say yes--otherwise, you need to get in touch with your own body so you know how many days you might need to recover from a hard or breakthrough effort.
For example, Sunday I did a 1-hour sprint race, and I also ran and biked easy afterwards. I did not expect to be fully recovered from that on Monday, and in fact, Monday all I had scheduled was a short, easy swim and an easy run. And I could tell I wasn't recovered. Yesterday, I had a hard interval bike workout to do, which I did after about 30 minutes of strength training. Did I execute well on the bike workout? I did OK, but I could tell I wasn't fully recovered from Sunday (sleeping less than 6 hours does that to me!). Still, I did the best I could, and knew that I it was critical that I focus on recovery last night. I got a massage, got to sleep early, and slept really well, and feel pretty good. But I won't really know until I do my track workout in a few minutes whether I am fully recovered.
If you don't know your own body well, you might start your next hard workout, notice that you aren't going to be able to hit the workout's objectives and bag it altogether or just turn it into an easy, aerobic workout. There are certainly times when this is the best thing to do. I know that for me, I am comfortable "doing the best I can" in the workout, and as long as I am close to the objectives, I am fine with it. I don't get down on myself for missing targets as long as it doesn't become habitual, and I keep pretty meticulous track of my workouts, so for example, on Thursday I am doing the same bike workout as Tuesday, and I should be able to perform it 100% to specs.
Now what about "recovery workouts?" I think this is highly individual. For some people, it's more of a mental thing to get back out there and do something, and our mental state affects our physical state so much, that if you think you will feel like a slacker if you do nothing but rest, then you are probably better off doing some sort of easy workout. But recovery is generally not doing, and for me that means sleep, massage, stretching, reading a book in bed, anything that gets me off my feet! Swimming can be recovery, too, but only if it's only about 1/2 hour or less and real easy.
All most age groupers can do to foster recovery is to pay attention to their bodies and to train at levels that can be recovered from. That is, I can train harder than some age groupers and not as hard as others. Plus, you need to take your goals into consideration. Generally speaking, my triathlon goals are to not suck in my races (MOP or better at any distance), do some really cool extreme shit, and have boatloads of fun while training hard a lot and still enjoying non-triathlon hobbies. Mostly I just like being highly fit! For other people, the goal might be general fitness, which allows for a lot of slack in how hard you train.
I think the key point is that recovery is relative to your goals. There's no need to worry too much about recovery if you aren't too concerned about being competitive, and if you aren't, then you are more likely to just bag a workout than try and execute it "as best you can." The more competitive you are, though, the more you need to pay attention to how your training plan plus recovery gets you there. A training plan is only as good as your ability to recover from it along the way. If you aren't recovering, you need to either scale back your goals (and your training) or bump up your recovery measures. There is no middle ground. And your ability to recover changes as you age, trust me I know!
A few other things post-track workout that I thought about...If you are feeling like you're not recovering, go through this list and see if any of them might be involved:
- Sleeping long enough and restfully?
- Executing good post-workout nutrition?
- Taking in sufficient carbs to support your training load?
- Eating a variety of foods, meeting your vitamin/mineral needs?
- Minimizing life stress and performing rejuvenation techniques like stretching, massage, meditation?
- Attending to lingering aches and pains before they turn into injuries?
- Completing workouts at the appropriate intensity? In particular, are you going too hard when you don't need to?
- Carrying an appropriate training load based on your history? I.e., if you trained 200 hours last year and this year's plan has you training 300 hours, it could be a recipe for disaster.
- Reverse tapering (i.e., ramping back up after a race) appropriately?
- Maintaining a healthy weight to minimize joint stress?
I fucking love training hard, but I love my recovery, too!
Monday, January 26, 2009
Weekly Workout Totals 01/19-2009-01/25/2009 and First Race of 2009!
I'm pretty sure I won my age group handily yesterday, although official results haven't been posted yet. There was one woman in my AG who hadn't raced yet when I left, and I stalked her up and down the Intertubes and can't find any race results for her, so either she's a total ringer or I have nothing to worry about.
EDIT: Yeah, I won my AG and was 7th woman overall. I have some work to do on the bike next time to advance in the overall standings. Two of my men buds each got 2nd in their AG to very tough competition. I know fast people...
I had SO much fun yesterday--sure it's just a little sprint, but it's the middle of winter, and what else are you going to do? Plus, I got to reconnect with some tri friends, go really hard, get in additional working out on the day, and renew confidence in myself that maybe I am not slowing down yet.
Even though I wouldn't call myself superstitious, I do have a number of rituals and things I do before a race that "put me in the mood." On Saturday afternoon, I got a Brazilian wax, and while in process, my "girl" remarked that I didn't seem to wince much from it. I told her it was nothing compared to the pain I'd be in the next day!
Saturday night I fixed up 300 calories of Ultrafuel in my now lucky Hip Hype bottle that I got at Ironman Brazil in 2006. I don't know why it's become a special bottle to me, but it has, and it only gets used for Ultrafuel. I set the coffeepot, but didn't put it on auto, as I knew I'd wake up in plenty of time.
I ended up waking up around 3:30AM, but since I'd gone to sleep pretty early (bored; nothing on TV, full day, why not?), I'd have had enough sleep, but I stayed in bed just thinking happy thoughts for about a half hour. I began drinking coffee out of my 2004 Ironman Hawaii mug, which I like to use on race mornings or the morning of an important workout.
I hadn't chosen race clothes, so first thing was which swimsuit to wear? I have a large drawer full of them--about half are fitness bikinis and the rest are "look good hanging out at the beach" bikinis. I bought 4 new fitness suits at the end of last summer that I hadn't worn yet. I began trying things on, and was surprised that none of the bottoms were the least bit tight, but some of the tops were! This I attribute to my now steady diet of chinups. I settled on the red suit because the top wasn't too constricting.
Next, I began trying on bike shorts. It's been a tradition with me the last 4 years or so to wear my really low cut Desoto bike shorts to these races (I leave the swimsuit top on, take off the bottoms and put on the shorts before beginning the bike) because, well, they look good on me (I hope!) and again, it's the middle of winter, so why not see how low I can go? But I haven't felt particularly in shape, and my back injury has messed with my lower abs, so I wasn't sure how they'd feel or look. I put on the lowest cut black ones and just wasn't ready for them, although they didn't look bad. I settled on some gray ones made out of that Carrera fabric, which is kind of silky feeling.
I chose a pair of socks that I had worn at Triple T last year, so they felt lucky to me as well. For my street clothes, I had just finished sewing a pair of flannel pants that are white with small red lobsters on them, my black NOTHING t-shirt, a red sparkly thong that Shelley gave me a few years ago, and my striped pirate knee socks. To cap it all off, I decided to wear my silver Converse flats.
OK, so all of this stuff is making me feel ready to race and even a bit optimistic. In years past when I did these races, on the day before I'd do a hard long ride and brick run, but this time, I thought I'd move that run to Friday, because I was going to effectively do a brick on Sunday anyway. So Friday I ran sort of easy for 30' and then did 15' hard on the track, and Saturday I did a 2-hour trainer ride and kicked out some really good power.
My legs felt good, I stretched about 10', drank the Ultrafuel, went into a short insulin coma, mixed up my race nutrition--1 can of Ultra Violence and about 12 oz. of Gatorade Glacier Freeze, packed a cooler (since I'd be running after my race), and drove to the race venue (stopping on the way to gas up my car), which is about 3 miles from home. Sweet!
When I got there, I went to register, and the volunteer was getting the participant list ready when he said, "And you are?" My answer was, "AWESOME!" I was feeling pretty good and he got a laugh out of it, and I told him I thought I could do OK today.
I put my stuff in a locker and went to go check out the bikes. Turns out they had older model Precors which I hadn't been on in years, so I got on one, and it seemed easier than the newer models. That could be good or not. I only did 5' on it, which seemed enough for a 20' ride, eh? I never did do a run warmup, but for the next race, I think I'll at least jog for 5', then get on the bike.
I went and watched one wave swimming, still in my street clothes, and it was interesting to chat with some spectators and racers. Everyone is trying to figure out who is a newbie, who is experienced, and we all encourage one another. I have so much fun acting somewhat incognito, like I've never done triathlons before, just to see what people will say. It's tough to tell when I'm in loose street clothes what's going on underneath, although I was wearing my Ironman USA red fleece pullover, but it's got a subtle logo, and unless you're looking for the Ironman thing, you probably wouldn't notice. I had fun picking out who I thought would win that wave I watched, and I was right. I called him "Powerbar" because he wore a Powerbar swimcap, and he won handily.
Now it was my turn to suit up, so back to the locker room, and I put on my red bikini and sauntered onto the pool deck. Now people are looking at me because, well, a) I'm wearing a red bikini and b) I look pretty damn good in it (OMG am I narcissistic!!!). Sorry no pics, but let's just say I was a little noticeable. When I went to get bodymarked (yes, they do that for these little races--all part of the ritual, right?), the volunteers recognized me from years past, even though I skipped last winter because my Dad had just died.
I found my lane, and got in and the water felt really nice--cooler than my Y has been in months! So that would be a good thing. I haven't particularly been doing any intense swim training lately--I've been focusing on my bike and run--and wasn't worried about what I'd do in the pool since these races are won on the bike anyway. Several of us chatted about this and that, and I singled out a woman who looked like a swimmer, and I made that comment, and she looked at me and said I looked like "an all arounder." Whatever that means! I guess that is where my weight lifting pays off--while I'm pretty lean, I have some decent muscle, and thanks I like it that way!
The horn went off and I started swimming. All I cared about was that I swam with good form, stretching out my stroke and taking good pulls. I'd told my awesome volunteer, Stacy, to yell at me with 5' to go, as that was when I intended to try and pick up the pace a bit. I must have been lollygagging for the first 5', but those second 5' I was feeling it. I suppose I should just try and kick more, huh? Anyway, I did 550 yards in 10', which was fine.
Quick shower, strip off my swimsuit bottom, change into bike shorts, socks and running shoes, grab hat and iPod and off to the bikes. I put tunes on and so I guess I didn't hear the announcer dude say when to start pedaling so the volunteer could hit start, but my bike didn't fire up right away, and so I demanded I get 22 seconds after everyone else, and this guy is cool, and recognized me from years past, and he said, yeah, you get 22 seconds!
Well, even though I got a late start, I just fired up the legs and thought, "Let's see if I can make the first mile anyway." And I did. And I could just tell this was going to be a good ride, so I played around with different resistance levels, and even coasted when I took a sip out of my UV/Gatorade mix, and with 5' left, I knew I'd hit at least 6 miles, which is good stuff for these bikes for a female. To give you an idea, the overall female winner for several years running has been Lauren Jensen, a pro, and she does just around 7 miles.
I hit each new mile before anyone else did, and I think there may have been 1 other person in my wave that hit 6 miles, and I was over 6 at the 20' mark and then I had my 22 seconds, and I ended up at 6.65 miles, which is the most I've ever done at one of these races! Huh--guess my little fake taper thing was working!
But I got off the bike and had to lay on the floor for about a minute because I was pretty wiped out, and when I got up, my hamstrings didn't feel great because of the wide bike saddle, but as I began walking and shaking my legs, I felt OK.
Onto the track to run. The only man in my wave, a pretty young guy who must have gotten in by requesting an earlier wave than he was assigned, asked me how I did that on the bike, commenting that I was "really cruising." Of course, we didn't have much time (5') between bike and run, so I just smiled, thanked him, and lined up.
At this point, friends of mine were showing up to race in later waves, so I actually had a few people cheering for me, and then some girls that have worked on me at the massage school were next to the track, too, so in a way, it was good to know I was being watched.
I had told myself earlier in the day to really hold back for 2 laps (the track is 12 laps to the mile), but I guess I just threw that out the window and decided to see what I could do and how long I could hang on. I'm sure I slowed down the last 5 minutes, and I was off by about 1/2 lap from what I thought I could do. I did 22 laps, but I've done 23 before, so that's the objective for the next race.
At any rate, I really doubted anyone else would match my bike time, and that's what wins these races, so I felt pretty good. I cooled down a little bit, hung with some guy friends who were warming up for their race, and headed to the treadmill and ran for an hour. Now it was my turn to root for others, and I'd brought my camera, so I just snapped away while an elite wave of mostly guys was going off including friends of mine. The pool was like glass before they started, and then it was just boiling. Pics are here.
While they were biking, I got in another 15' on a bike before I began yelling at them for the last 5' of their ride, and then it was onto the track. It started out one guy wasn't wearing a shirt on the bike, and then three other guys removed theirs, and I was like NICE! And when they started running, all four shirtless guys were in a pack together, but it spread out a little, with the 2 fastest ones running neck and neck. One of them is a friend of mine, so I was really cheering hard for him, and knew he could take the other dude eventually, which he did.
After all this, we all went and grabbed some food and were just talking a mile a minute, and even though it was such a short little race, we were all talking about how we could do better at the next one! I said to someone, "I know what you need to do next time--GO FASTER!" I will be OK with the same swim and bike, but want to go a little further on the run. I might be able to do a bit more on the bike, too, which is cool, because the bike miles win. So I'm excited about the next race in 2 weeks!
After all that, I went home and tried to nap but mostly just laid there smiling and thinking how good it had felt to race and how auspiciously I am starting 2009 on a high note. Then I got up and read a little of the Sunday paper, made a meal of eggs and rainbow trout (YUM!), and relaxed and capped off the evening by splitting a bottle of champagne with a friend to celebrate our first race of the year!
Life is freaking good...and I'm tired today but I expected that and will be more than recovered by tomorrow--today is an easy day. Off to the pool!
EDIT: Yeah, I won my AG and was 7th woman overall. I have some work to do on the bike next time to advance in the overall standings. Two of my men buds each got 2nd in their AG to very tough competition. I know fast people...
I had SO much fun yesterday--sure it's just a little sprint, but it's the middle of winter, and what else are you going to do? Plus, I got to reconnect with some tri friends, go really hard, get in additional working out on the day, and renew confidence in myself that maybe I am not slowing down yet.
Even though I wouldn't call myself superstitious, I do have a number of rituals and things I do before a race that "put me in the mood." On Saturday afternoon, I got a Brazilian wax, and while in process, my "girl" remarked that I didn't seem to wince much from it. I told her it was nothing compared to the pain I'd be in the next day!
Saturday night I fixed up 300 calories of Ultrafuel in my now lucky Hip Hype bottle that I got at Ironman Brazil in 2006. I don't know why it's become a special bottle to me, but it has, and it only gets used for Ultrafuel. I set the coffeepot, but didn't put it on auto, as I knew I'd wake up in plenty of time.
I ended up waking up around 3:30AM, but since I'd gone to sleep pretty early (bored; nothing on TV, full day, why not?), I'd have had enough sleep, but I stayed in bed just thinking happy thoughts for about a half hour. I began drinking coffee out of my 2004 Ironman Hawaii mug, which I like to use on race mornings or the morning of an important workout.
I hadn't chosen race clothes, so first thing was which swimsuit to wear? I have a large drawer full of them--about half are fitness bikinis and the rest are "look good hanging out at the beach" bikinis. I bought 4 new fitness suits at the end of last summer that I hadn't worn yet. I began trying things on, and was surprised that none of the bottoms were the least bit tight, but some of the tops were! This I attribute to my now steady diet of chinups. I settled on the red suit because the top wasn't too constricting.
Next, I began trying on bike shorts. It's been a tradition with me the last 4 years or so to wear my really low cut Desoto bike shorts to these races (I leave the swimsuit top on, take off the bottoms and put on the shorts before beginning the bike) because, well, they look good on me (I hope!) and again, it's the middle of winter, so why not see how low I can go? But I haven't felt particularly in shape, and my back injury has messed with my lower abs, so I wasn't sure how they'd feel or look. I put on the lowest cut black ones and just wasn't ready for them, although they didn't look bad. I settled on some gray ones made out of that Carrera fabric, which is kind of silky feeling.
I chose a pair of socks that I had worn at Triple T last year, so they felt lucky to me as well. For my street clothes, I had just finished sewing a pair of flannel pants that are white with small red lobsters on them, my black NOTHING t-shirt, a red sparkly thong that Shelley gave me a few years ago, and my striped pirate knee socks. To cap it all off, I decided to wear my silver Converse flats.
OK, so all of this stuff is making me feel ready to race and even a bit optimistic. In years past when I did these races, on the day before I'd do a hard long ride and brick run, but this time, I thought I'd move that run to Friday, because I was going to effectively do a brick on Sunday anyway. So Friday I ran sort of easy for 30' and then did 15' hard on the track, and Saturday I did a 2-hour trainer ride and kicked out some really good power.
My legs felt good, I stretched about 10', drank the Ultrafuel, went into a short insulin coma, mixed up my race nutrition--1 can of Ultra Violence and about 12 oz. of Gatorade Glacier Freeze, packed a cooler (since I'd be running after my race), and drove to the race venue (stopping on the way to gas up my car), which is about 3 miles from home. Sweet!
When I got there, I went to register, and the volunteer was getting the participant list ready when he said, "And you are?" My answer was, "AWESOME!" I was feeling pretty good and he got a laugh out of it, and I told him I thought I could do OK today.
I put my stuff in a locker and went to go check out the bikes. Turns out they had older model Precors which I hadn't been on in years, so I got on one, and it seemed easier than the newer models. That could be good or not. I only did 5' on it, which seemed enough for a 20' ride, eh? I never did do a run warmup, but for the next race, I think I'll at least jog for 5', then get on the bike.
I went and watched one wave swimming, still in my street clothes, and it was interesting to chat with some spectators and racers. Everyone is trying to figure out who is a newbie, who is experienced, and we all encourage one another. I have so much fun acting somewhat incognito, like I've never done triathlons before, just to see what people will say. It's tough to tell when I'm in loose street clothes what's going on underneath, although I was wearing my Ironman USA red fleece pullover, but it's got a subtle logo, and unless you're looking for the Ironman thing, you probably wouldn't notice. I had fun picking out who I thought would win that wave I watched, and I was right. I called him "Powerbar" because he wore a Powerbar swimcap, and he won handily.
Now it was my turn to suit up, so back to the locker room, and I put on my red bikini and sauntered onto the pool deck. Now people are looking at me because, well, a) I'm wearing a red bikini and b) I look pretty damn good in it (OMG am I narcissistic!!!). Sorry no pics, but let's just say I was a little noticeable. When I went to get bodymarked (yes, they do that for these little races--all part of the ritual, right?), the volunteers recognized me from years past, even though I skipped last winter because my Dad had just died.
I found my lane, and got in and the water felt really nice--cooler than my Y has been in months! So that would be a good thing. I haven't particularly been doing any intense swim training lately--I've been focusing on my bike and run--and wasn't worried about what I'd do in the pool since these races are won on the bike anyway. Several of us chatted about this and that, and I singled out a woman who looked like a swimmer, and I made that comment, and she looked at me and said I looked like "an all arounder." Whatever that means! I guess that is where my weight lifting pays off--while I'm pretty lean, I have some decent muscle, and thanks I like it that way!
The horn went off and I started swimming. All I cared about was that I swam with good form, stretching out my stroke and taking good pulls. I'd told my awesome volunteer, Stacy, to yell at me with 5' to go, as that was when I intended to try and pick up the pace a bit. I must have been lollygagging for the first 5', but those second 5' I was feeling it. I suppose I should just try and kick more, huh? Anyway, I did 550 yards in 10', which was fine.
Quick shower, strip off my swimsuit bottom, change into bike shorts, socks and running shoes, grab hat and iPod and off to the bikes. I put tunes on and so I guess I didn't hear the announcer dude say when to start pedaling so the volunteer could hit start, but my bike didn't fire up right away, and so I demanded I get 22 seconds after everyone else, and this guy is cool, and recognized me from years past, and he said, yeah, you get 22 seconds!
Well, even though I got a late start, I just fired up the legs and thought, "Let's see if I can make the first mile anyway." And I did. And I could just tell this was going to be a good ride, so I played around with different resistance levels, and even coasted when I took a sip out of my UV/Gatorade mix, and with 5' left, I knew I'd hit at least 6 miles, which is good stuff for these bikes for a female. To give you an idea, the overall female winner for several years running has been Lauren Jensen, a pro, and she does just around 7 miles.
I hit each new mile before anyone else did, and I think there may have been 1 other person in my wave that hit 6 miles, and I was over 6 at the 20' mark and then I had my 22 seconds, and I ended up at 6.65 miles, which is the most I've ever done at one of these races! Huh--guess my little fake taper thing was working!
But I got off the bike and had to lay on the floor for about a minute because I was pretty wiped out, and when I got up, my hamstrings didn't feel great because of the wide bike saddle, but as I began walking and shaking my legs, I felt OK.
Onto the track to run. The only man in my wave, a pretty young guy who must have gotten in by requesting an earlier wave than he was assigned, asked me how I did that on the bike, commenting that I was "really cruising." Of course, we didn't have much time (5') between bike and run, so I just smiled, thanked him, and lined up.
At this point, friends of mine were showing up to race in later waves, so I actually had a few people cheering for me, and then some girls that have worked on me at the massage school were next to the track, too, so in a way, it was good to know I was being watched.
I had told myself earlier in the day to really hold back for 2 laps (the track is 12 laps to the mile), but I guess I just threw that out the window and decided to see what I could do and how long I could hang on. I'm sure I slowed down the last 5 minutes, and I was off by about 1/2 lap from what I thought I could do. I did 22 laps, but I've done 23 before, so that's the objective for the next race.
At any rate, I really doubted anyone else would match my bike time, and that's what wins these races, so I felt pretty good. I cooled down a little bit, hung with some guy friends who were warming up for their race, and headed to the treadmill and ran for an hour. Now it was my turn to root for others, and I'd brought my camera, so I just snapped away while an elite wave of mostly guys was going off including friends of mine. The pool was like glass before they started, and then it was just boiling. Pics are here.
While they were biking, I got in another 15' on a bike before I began yelling at them for the last 5' of their ride, and then it was onto the track. It started out one guy wasn't wearing a shirt on the bike, and then three other guys removed theirs, and I was like NICE! And when they started running, all four shirtless guys were in a pack together, but it spread out a little, with the 2 fastest ones running neck and neck. One of them is a friend of mine, so I was really cheering hard for him, and knew he could take the other dude eventually, which he did.
After all this, we all went and grabbed some food and were just talking a mile a minute, and even though it was such a short little race, we were all talking about how we could do better at the next one! I said to someone, "I know what you need to do next time--GO FASTER!" I will be OK with the same swim and bike, but want to go a little further on the run. I might be able to do a bit more on the bike, too, which is cool, because the bike miles win. So I'm excited about the next race in 2 weeks!
After all that, I went home and tried to nap but mostly just laid there smiling and thinking how good it had felt to race and how auspiciously I am starting 2009 on a high note. Then I got up and read a little of the Sunday paper, made a meal of eggs and rainbow trout (YUM!), and relaxed and capped off the evening by splitting a bottle of champagne with a friend to celebrate our first race of the year!
Life is freaking good...and I'm tired today but I expected that and will be more than recovered by tomorrow--today is an easy day. Off to the pool!
| Weekly Workout Totals | 01/19/2009-01/25/2009 This week's totals are sponsored by racing and KICKING ASS |
| Swim: | 7800 yards (4.43 miles) in 2.68 hours; 20% of weekly workout time; approx. 939 calories burned Canadian: 7132.32 meters |
| Bike: | Approx. 101.37 miles in 5.4 hours; 40% of weekly workout time; approx. 3034 calories burned; Total TSS=370 Canadian: 163.14 kilometers |
| Run: | Approx. 24.4 miles in 3.75 hours; 27% of weekly workout time; approx. 1698 calories burned Canadian: 39.27 kilometers |
| Strength: | 1.83 hours; 13% of weekly workout time; approx. 458 calories burned |
| All Sports: | Approx. 130.2 miles in 13.66 hours; approx. 6129 calories burned Canadian: 1 kilometers |
| Sleep: | 7.29 hours avg./night |
| Stretching: | 2.8 hours. Massage: 1 hours |
Friday, January 23, 2009
On a Roll?
So yesterday I did the same bike workout as on Tuesday. When I did it on Tuesday, I thought I executed pretty well, but the challenge yesterday was that I'd done the track workout on Wednesday. Plus, I had dinner with a friend Wednesday night, and she and I split a bottle of wine, and I'm such a lightweight I had a slight hangover. I guess wine after a track workout isn't the best idea!
Anyway, I knew I'd have to have supplemental caffeine for the workout, and I wavered between Coke and Ultra Violence and decided on Coke. In retrospect, I should have gone with the Ultra Violence, but whatever.
As soon as I started the warmup, I could feel my legs were a little fatigued, but at least I hadn't lifted weights or shoveled snow! When I began the first FT interval, though, I wasn't feeling like I had much power, or at least not as much as on Tuesday. But I pressed on, and as it turns out, I did slightly better than on Tuesday! I was so happy with myself that after I got through another couple of meetings at work, I decided to polish off my strength training for the week by doing legs and back.
Let's just say my muscles weren't all that happy to be subject to the weights, but I got through things pretty well--it only took 34' to do 5 exercises for my lats/traps and 6 legs (3 sets of 20 reps). I was highly motivated, too, by the fact that starting next week, the strength workouts will get a little easier (yeah, right!) as I move into max power phase.
While I was doing the back stuff, I noticed that I was able to twist pretty freely to both sides! And despite putting the hurt to myself, I actually felt better after lifting than before I started! I laugh at various triathlon training regimens that tell you not to bother with strength training. While that may be good advice for someone in their 20's, I think that from your 30's and beyond, you will benefit from it (or some sort of functional training) and should do it in order to protect yourself from things that can happen as part of daily life. While we can and do get injured from sports, most serious injuries that us recreational athletes experience are from other causes. I guess I should give a big shout out to my buddy Louis for espousing functional fitness along with organizations like Crossfit. In the spring through fall, I garden quite a bit, and do a lot of bending, twisting and squatting, and trust me, swimming, biking and running do not fully prepare your muscles for that! Oh yeah, and don't forget the stretching and massage!
I stretch for 30' last night, and this morning I feel pretty darn good. Of course, I won't know the condition of my legs until I run in the middle of the day. But it will be an easy run.
I stalked all my competition for this Sunday's indoor triathlon, and I have one confirmed possible competitor and one unknown---the other 6 in my AG should be no problem. But we will see, as anything can happen, right? I need to get my long bike workout done early tomorrow so I can get some quality recovery before I go on Sunday. I'm sure it will be interesting, and it will be fun to reconnect with other athletes for a day. Even though it's just a silly little indoor race, they have become quite competitive, and a couple of local pros show up and we get free massages afterwards, so what could be more fun on a winter day?
Finally, thanks to Jamie for pointing out that I have a fan on Flickr. Cracks me up! I did not know I was a MILF!
Have a great weekend, and catch you after my first official race of 2009!
Anyway, I knew I'd have to have supplemental caffeine for the workout, and I wavered between Coke and Ultra Violence and decided on Coke. In retrospect, I should have gone with the Ultra Violence, but whatever.
As soon as I started the warmup, I could feel my legs were a little fatigued, but at least I hadn't lifted weights or shoveled snow! When I began the first FT interval, though, I wasn't feeling like I had much power, or at least not as much as on Tuesday. But I pressed on, and as it turns out, I did slightly better than on Tuesday! I was so happy with myself that after I got through another couple of meetings at work, I decided to polish off my strength training for the week by doing legs and back.
Let's just say my muscles weren't all that happy to be subject to the weights, but I got through things pretty well--it only took 34' to do 5 exercises for my lats/traps and 6 legs (3 sets of 20 reps). I was highly motivated, too, by the fact that starting next week, the strength workouts will get a little easier (yeah, right!) as I move into max power phase.
While I was doing the back stuff, I noticed that I was able to twist pretty freely to both sides! And despite putting the hurt to myself, I actually felt better after lifting than before I started! I laugh at various triathlon training regimens that tell you not to bother with strength training. While that may be good advice for someone in their 20's, I think that from your 30's and beyond, you will benefit from it (or some sort of functional training) and should do it in order to protect yourself from things that can happen as part of daily life. While we can and do get injured from sports, most serious injuries that us recreational athletes experience are from other causes. I guess I should give a big shout out to my buddy Louis for espousing functional fitness along with organizations like Crossfit. In the spring through fall, I garden quite a bit, and do a lot of bending, twisting and squatting, and trust me, swimming, biking and running do not fully prepare your muscles for that! Oh yeah, and don't forget the stretching and massage!
I stretch for 30' last night, and this morning I feel pretty darn good. Of course, I won't know the condition of my legs until I run in the middle of the day. But it will be an easy run.
I stalked all my competition for this Sunday's indoor triathlon, and I have one confirmed possible competitor and one unknown---the other 6 in my AG should be no problem. But we will see, as anything can happen, right? I need to get my long bike workout done early tomorrow so I can get some quality recovery before I go on Sunday. I'm sure it will be interesting, and it will be fun to reconnect with other athletes for a day. Even though it's just a silly little indoor race, they have become quite competitive, and a couple of local pros show up and we get free massages afterwards, so what could be more fun on a winter day?
Finally, thanks to Jamie for pointing out that I have a fan on Flickr. Cracks me up! I did not know I was a MILF!
Have a great weekend, and catch you after my first official race of 2009!
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Wednesday at the Track
I had to wait until 1:30PM to begin my track workout yesterday, as I'd had a few meetings stacked up that I couldn't move. Even though I was hungry, it would be suicidal to eat much before a track workout, but about an hour and a half before, I made a half sandwich of cashew butter and fig jam (yum!), and then while in the meeting just before I left, I drank some Ultra Violence, as I was feeling a little peaked from a few glasses of wine the night before.
When I started, my legs didn't feel bad--I just felt tired. I did the 10' warmup on the treadmill and then 10' of strides on the track, and then the fun began. There were up to 5 people walking on the track at any given time while I was there. Sometimes I just want to mow them down, especially when they are walking two abreast--but instead, I just had fun buzzing them, and I'm sure they could hear me breathing and feel a nice breeze as I whizzed by. At one point, a huge man was entering the track going the wrong way as I was about to round a corner, and I just yelled at him, "HEADS UP!!!" so he would look up and get out of my way.
After the warmup, I did the first little piece of the workout, which is 3x(1' @5K pace, 30" easy), and I hit my watch, and had no clue how fast I was running. Then I started in on the main set, which is 3x(6' @10K pace, 2' @5K pace, 2' walking recovery). Even though I was caffeined up, I still felt tired, so I purposely tried to hold myself back, and figured whatever I could do on the day was just fine.
On the first repeat (remember, I'm fucking slow here), I ran a mile in the 8' total (which is right around my 5K pace or at least I think it is), and that means I was probably going too fast on the 10K piece. So on the second repetition, I tried to slow myself down, and ended up running another full mile. I was like WTF how is that happening? On the third repetition, I came in just a hair under a mile.
It wasn't until this morning that I calculated how fast I was running on the initial 5K warmup and then the pace I was running for the 10K and 5K pieces of the main set. Looks like I'm back to where I was 2 years ago when I felt like I was in really excellent shape after having trained for and run Goofy Challenge, or maybe even a little faster .
Maybe there's hope for me after all...maybe my little forced break due to the back injury was a good thing...
At any rate, none of it means jack shit unless I can pull off something good this Sunday. But, I know that I will be going into the little race having knocked out a solid training week (unlike some of the participants), so this first one will just be a "let's see what happens." Not that I'm competitive or anything...I guess I had better go stalk the other women in my age group and see what I'm up against. That's always fun!
When I started, my legs didn't feel bad--I just felt tired. I did the 10' warmup on the treadmill and then 10' of strides on the track, and then the fun began. There were up to 5 people walking on the track at any given time while I was there. Sometimes I just want to mow them down, especially when they are walking two abreast--but instead, I just had fun buzzing them, and I'm sure they could hear me breathing and feel a nice breeze as I whizzed by. At one point, a huge man was entering the track going the wrong way as I was about to round a corner, and I just yelled at him, "HEADS UP!!!" so he would look up and get out of my way.
After the warmup, I did the first little piece of the workout, which is 3x(1' @5K pace, 30" easy), and I hit my watch, and had no clue how fast I was running. Then I started in on the main set, which is 3x(6' @10K pace, 2' @5K pace, 2' walking recovery). Even though I was caffeined up, I still felt tired, so I purposely tried to hold myself back, and figured whatever I could do on the day was just fine.
On the first repeat (remember, I'm fucking slow here), I ran a mile in the 8' total (which is right around my 5K pace or at least I think it is), and that means I was probably going too fast on the 10K piece. So on the second repetition, I tried to slow myself down, and ended up running another full mile. I was like WTF how is that happening? On the third repetition, I came in just a hair under a mile.
It wasn't until this morning that I calculated how fast I was running on the initial 5K warmup and then the pace I was running for the 10K and 5K pieces of the main set. Looks like I'm back to where I was 2 years ago when I felt like I was in really excellent shape after having trained for and run Goofy Challenge, or maybe even a little faster .
Maybe there's hope for me after all...maybe my little forced break due to the back injury was a good thing...
At any rate, none of it means jack shit unless I can pull off something good this Sunday. But, I know that I will be going into the little race having knocked out a solid training week (unlike some of the participants), so this first one will just be a "let's see what happens." Not that I'm competitive or anything...I guess I had better go stalk the other women in my age group and see what I'm up against. That's always fun!
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Happy Hump Day!
The week goes pretty well so far. It hasn't snowed much at all for several days, and it's not expected to snow again until next week. So getting a break from shoveling is good.
Monday was a nice day off--I did all three workouts (:30 swim, :45 run and 1:05 strength), took a short nap and got a haircut. Just before I left for my haircut, my new ottoman arrived. A friend had suggested that I needed one in the living room, and about a week ago, I sat quietly and thought if I could have anything I wanted, what would it be? And I thought silver leather. Lo and behold, the Internets have anything you want, and I found it and ordered it. I was happy when I opened up the box and discovered it doesn't weigh too much and I can carry it and move it around easily. So of course, the first thing I did was put it in the living room to see how it looks. Awesome! And next I tested out its strength--not so much for my feet, but it looked to be good for incorporating into my stretching routine. Actually, I can turn it on its side and lay on my back and get the best spine stretch you can imagine! Of course, I need to be careful not to slide off of it ;) Let's just say I also noticed the height of the thing might make it come in handy in "other" situations...sometimes a small platform can be useful, you know?
Yesterday, I executed my bike workout:
WU: 15' wup, 3' spinups
MS: 3 x 2' (1') @ 105%, 2' Easy,
4 x (6' @ FT then 1' @ 105-110%, 2' Easy), 1' Easy,
10 x 30/30'
CD: 3' Easy
pretty damn well. Funny how I have so much power when I haven't lifted right before riding and haven't shoveled snow in several days! But I can do better, and I get the opportunity again tomorrow to do the same workout, so I'll see if I can hit a higher TSS number.
I finished up the abs/core piece of my workout in the afternoon yesterday, and after work I got an awesome massage. I'd say my back/hips are at 99% now, as one of the things I was able to do yesterday is my twisting medicine ball/stability ball oblique exercise (that I made up and that is included in my abs/core routine on the sidebar) without feeling any restriction in my obliques! Yee-haw!
After my massage, I finished sewing a pair of tiger-striped flannel pants (I've got 3 more pairs almost finished--blue tiger-stripes, red, orange and yellow flaming skulls and tiny red lobsters on a white background), cleaned up a bit, ate some dinner and then spent some quality time with a friend to cap off 2 excellent days to begin my week.
Today, I've already swum 2500 yards, and I have a track workout to do in a few hours, and then I'm making dinner for a friend that I haven't seen in months...usually I go over to her house, but I'm having her here so she can see what's happened to my place, and we will talk and catch up and eat some good foods and drink some wine.
I am still working on shuffling workouts for the next 2 days because I want to be somewhat rested for the little indoor triathlon on Sunday. It should be interesting...I feel ready for a really hard effort, but I also dread it. Those short, hard things can be really rough, but it will also be fun and nice since this one is maybe 3 miles from home, and my wave goes off at 8:30AM. So I can get up, get it done, run for about 1:30 afterwards, and it will just be noon, and I can catch a nap and just lay around the rest of the day!
I love my new ottoman and decided to make a little art out of it today. Or is it art? Just some objects that I thought would look neat on it:
Monday was a nice day off--I did all three workouts (:30 swim, :45 run and 1:05 strength), took a short nap and got a haircut. Just before I left for my haircut, my new ottoman arrived. A friend had suggested that I needed one in the living room, and about a week ago, I sat quietly and thought if I could have anything I wanted, what would it be? And I thought silver leather. Lo and behold, the Internets have anything you want, and I found it and ordered it. I was happy when I opened up the box and discovered it doesn't weigh too much and I can carry it and move it around easily. So of course, the first thing I did was put it in the living room to see how it looks. Awesome! And next I tested out its strength--not so much for my feet, but it looked to be good for incorporating into my stretching routine. Actually, I can turn it on its side and lay on my back and get the best spine stretch you can imagine! Of course, I need to be careful not to slide off of it ;) Let's just say I also noticed the height of the thing might make it come in handy in "other" situations...sometimes a small platform can be useful, you know?
Yesterday, I executed my bike workout:
WU: 15' wup, 3' spinups
MS: 3 x 2' (1') @ 105%, 2' Easy,
4 x (6' @ FT then 1' @ 105-110%, 2' Easy), 1' Easy,
10 x 30/30'
CD: 3' Easy
pretty damn well. Funny how I have so much power when I haven't lifted right before riding and haven't shoveled snow in several days! But I can do better, and I get the opportunity again tomorrow to do the same workout, so I'll see if I can hit a higher TSS number.
I finished up the abs/core piece of my workout in the afternoon yesterday, and after work I got an awesome massage. I'd say my back/hips are at 99% now, as one of the things I was able to do yesterday is my twisting medicine ball/stability ball oblique exercise (that I made up and that is included in my abs/core routine on the sidebar) without feeling any restriction in my obliques! Yee-haw!
After my massage, I finished sewing a pair of tiger-striped flannel pants (I've got 3 more pairs almost finished--blue tiger-stripes, red, orange and yellow flaming skulls and tiny red lobsters on a white background), cleaned up a bit, ate some dinner and then spent some quality time with a friend to cap off 2 excellent days to begin my week.
Today, I've already swum 2500 yards, and I have a track workout to do in a few hours, and then I'm making dinner for a friend that I haven't seen in months...usually I go over to her house, but I'm having her here so she can see what's happened to my place, and we will talk and catch up and eat some good foods and drink some wine.
I am still working on shuffling workouts for the next 2 days because I want to be somewhat rested for the little indoor triathlon on Sunday. It should be interesting...I feel ready for a really hard effort, but I also dread it. Those short, hard things can be really rough, but it will also be fun and nice since this one is maybe 3 miles from home, and my wave goes off at 8:30AM. So I can get up, get it done, run for about 1:30 afterwards, and it will just be noon, and I can catch a nap and just lay around the rest of the day!
I love my new ottoman and decided to make a little art out of it today. Or is it art? Just some objects that I thought would look neat on it:
Monday, January 19, 2009
Weekly Workout Totals 01/12-2009-01/18/2009
I had a pretty good training week, but I was really worn out by Friday, from a combination of upping my lifting to 3 sets of 20 reps and shoveling snow. I have a snowblower, but sometimes I don't feel like waking my neighbors up at 5:30AM or I'm just clearing an inch or two, and so I'll just use a shovel. I didn't add this into my strength training totals, but I'm pretty sure I did at least 3 hours of it. This week, however, I am committed to not shoveling as I am racing this weekend and have a pretty busy schedule all week long, so I'm going to try and conserve energy wherever I can.
On Friday just before noon, I decided to make up for my shortened Wednesday swim, which would push the workout to 3400 yards. No big deal, right? Except that I had lifted bis, tris and chest in the morning, then shoveled a little snow beforehand (about 1.5"), and the workout included 2200 yards of pulling! My little stick arms were hurting during the workout, but that's OK. Still, it was just one of those days where I compulsively needed to ensure I got in all the swimming I was supposed to do for the week.
After I finished swimming, I made my little Fortress of Solitude (see previous post) in my front yard, and then went inside, ate a quick lunch and all of a sudden, felt pretty exhausted. I thought I would just do a short little lay down, but I fell asleep and napped for an hour! Even still, I fell asleep early in the evening.
For Saturday's brick workout, I decided to add some more calories while I was on the bike to see whether my treadmill brick run issues were really bonkiness or something else. My legs were a little sore while biking, but that's because my hips are just starting to come around and work properly since my back is healing up. I did pretty well with my bike workout, adding 15' to it because I cheesed out on Thursday because I was so tired.
When I got to the Y, I was pretty pigged out from the bike workout, and I got on the treadmill, and within maybe 5 minutes I was feeling a little light-headed. I figured out why, though--it's not a bonk--it's because my family room is about 60 degrees, which is awesome for trainer riding (I still have a fan pointed right at me), but my guess is the Y is kept nearer to 70, or something at least 5 degrees warmer than where I bike at home. I had had plenty of calories in me, so I knew I wasn't bonking--I was becoming hyperthermic! As usual, I chuckled a little at the things my body does and how sensitive it is to temperature and nutritional changes.
I went to run my last 5' on the indoor track, and since it was just 5', I fired up the afterburners and ended up running well below my 5K pace! It was fun, too, because I was woozy from having been overheated and now running in a cooler area. I walked one lap around the track when I was finished.
Yesterday, I started my long run (1:40) at 8:30AM, and my legs were pretty toasty from Saturday's workout (and a little more shoveling before I left, damn!), but getting on the treadmill right away does not cause me to become hyperthermic. I wanted to avoid additional caffeine besides my usual morning coffee, but because I had been pushing it this week, I took a can of Coke with me, and ended up drinking that during my first hour.
The run went really well, in fact, my running is coming along nicely. It now feels bad (i.e., too slow) to run in Zone 1 and Zone 2 on the treadmill. Zone 3 feels like a good pace, and Zone 4 is becoming not so hard. But, as always, we will test out the system this Sunday in the first indoor triathlon.
My back is still about 98%, and with the intensity I put in last week, especially the extra hard strength training (last week and this week are my most difficult strength weeks in a season), it didn't get too much better than at the beginning of the week, but what's interesting is that now I am feeling genuine pain in areas that tells me that the larger complex of all the back muscles is pretty well healed, leaving all the slacker muscles that haven't been working at full capacity to bitch and moan at me! And I love it! I'm feeling my piriformis and TFL really kicking in and getting angry, and instead of my QL's making the fascia over the tops of my glutes feel all gnarly, I am feeling them right up against my spine being the usual motherfuckers they are! See, sometimes pain is a sign of healing, and it sure is in my case right now!
Today I have a day off from work (YEAH!!!), and I've got a jam-packed day planned, including 3 workouts (swim, run, lift), some sewing, maybe a mini-odyssey (Target, fabric store and hardware store), maybe a nap, and a haircut (just a trim as it's growing out to where it was before the shaving incident in November).
I'm laughing because I'm letting my house get a little messy again, in terms of crap all over the place, but it's because I started on another mini-purge--I went through all my shoes (I have way too many) and am giving a bunch away that no longer fit since I bought them before I was running and my feet got a little bigger, and I lined up several more sewing projects, but it's all good.
Anyway, here's what happened:
On Friday just before noon, I decided to make up for my shortened Wednesday swim, which would push the workout to 3400 yards. No big deal, right? Except that I had lifted bis, tris and chest in the morning, then shoveled a little snow beforehand (about 1.5"), and the workout included 2200 yards of pulling! My little stick arms were hurting during the workout, but that's OK. Still, it was just one of those days where I compulsively needed to ensure I got in all the swimming I was supposed to do for the week.
After I finished swimming, I made my little Fortress of Solitude (see previous post) in my front yard, and then went inside, ate a quick lunch and all of a sudden, felt pretty exhausted. I thought I would just do a short little lay down, but I fell asleep and napped for an hour! Even still, I fell asleep early in the evening.
For Saturday's brick workout, I decided to add some more calories while I was on the bike to see whether my treadmill brick run issues were really bonkiness or something else. My legs were a little sore while biking, but that's because my hips are just starting to come around and work properly since my back is healing up. I did pretty well with my bike workout, adding 15' to it because I cheesed out on Thursday because I was so tired.
When I got to the Y, I was pretty pigged out from the bike workout, and I got on the treadmill, and within maybe 5 minutes I was feeling a little light-headed. I figured out why, though--it's not a bonk--it's because my family room is about 60 degrees, which is awesome for trainer riding (I still have a fan pointed right at me), but my guess is the Y is kept nearer to 70, or something at least 5 degrees warmer than where I bike at home. I had had plenty of calories in me, so I knew I wasn't bonking--I was becoming hyperthermic! As usual, I chuckled a little at the things my body does and how sensitive it is to temperature and nutritional changes.
I went to run my last 5' on the indoor track, and since it was just 5', I fired up the afterburners and ended up running well below my 5K pace! It was fun, too, because I was woozy from having been overheated and now running in a cooler area. I walked one lap around the track when I was finished.
Yesterday, I started my long run (1:40) at 8:30AM, and my legs were pretty toasty from Saturday's workout (and a little more shoveling before I left, damn!), but getting on the treadmill right away does not cause me to become hyperthermic. I wanted to avoid additional caffeine besides my usual morning coffee, but because I had been pushing it this week, I took a can of Coke with me, and ended up drinking that during my first hour.
The run went really well, in fact, my running is coming along nicely. It now feels bad (i.e., too slow) to run in Zone 1 and Zone 2 on the treadmill. Zone 3 feels like a good pace, and Zone 4 is becoming not so hard. But, as always, we will test out the system this Sunday in the first indoor triathlon.
My back is still about 98%, and with the intensity I put in last week, especially the extra hard strength training (last week and this week are my most difficult strength weeks in a season), it didn't get too much better than at the beginning of the week, but what's interesting is that now I am feeling genuine pain in areas that tells me that the larger complex of all the back muscles is pretty well healed, leaving all the slacker muscles that haven't been working at full capacity to bitch and moan at me! And I love it! I'm feeling my piriformis and TFL really kicking in and getting angry, and instead of my QL's making the fascia over the tops of my glutes feel all gnarly, I am feeling them right up against my spine being the usual motherfuckers they are! See, sometimes pain is a sign of healing, and it sure is in my case right now!
Today I have a day off from work (YEAH!!!), and I've got a jam-packed day planned, including 3 workouts (swim, run, lift), some sewing, maybe a mini-odyssey (Target, fabric store and hardware store), maybe a nap, and a haircut (just a trim as it's growing out to where it was before the shaving incident in November).
I'm laughing because I'm letting my house get a little messy again, in terms of crap all over the place, but it's because I started on another mini-purge--I went through all my shoes (I have way too many) and am giving a bunch away that no longer fit since I bought them before I was running and my feet got a little bigger, and I lined up several more sewing projects, but it's all good.
Anyway, here's what happened:
| Weekly Workout Totals | 01/12/2009-01/18/2009 This week's totals are sponsored by racing, which I officially begin this week! |
| Swim: | 8400 yards (4.77 miles) in 2.88 hours; 22% of weekly workout time; approx. 1009 calories burned Canadian: 7680.96 meters |
| Bike: | Approx. 83.55 miles in 4.58 hours; 35% of weekly workout time; approx. 2510 calories burned; Total TSS=279 Canadian: 134.46 kilometers |
| Run: | Approx. 25.6 miles in 3.96 hours; 30% of weekly workout time; approx. 1797 calories burned Canadian: 41.2 kilometers |
| Strength: | 1.78 hours; 13% of weekly workout time; approx. 445 calories burned |
| All Sports: | Approx. 113.92 miles in 13.2 hours; approx. 5761 calories burned Canadian: 1 kilometers |
| Sleep: | 7.14 hours avg./night |
| Stretching: | 2.77 hours. Massage: 1 hours |
Friday, January 16, 2009
TIKI HUT FORTRESS OF FUCKING...ER...SOLITUDE!!!
So it's really cold here. REALLY cold. And we've had a lot of snow. For the past week or so, whenever I look out my kitchen window at my neighbor's house, this is what I see:
That house has had no gutters on it for about 10 years, and while the new owner began replacing the roof 3 years ago, they never finished because they discovered the wall facing my house was rotted through. DUH!
Anyway, I've been looking at these awesome icicles, and since it warmed up to -5 today, when I got back from swimming, I decided I should harvest some of them and at least make a nice sculpture thingie in my yard, since the ice probably won't melt for at least a few days. So I began grabbing at them to get some really nice pointy ones, but I couldn't do anything with the one that has frozen all the way to the ground--it is just too strong! I didn't get really artistic or anything, but just made something that reminded me of Superman's ice palace, and this is what I came up with:
Not bad for a few minutes of work, eh? Just so you get an idea of how much ice I harvested, here's the neighbor's house after I pilfered:
But then I thought, hey, the Tiki Hut has never been outdoors in the snow...and you guessed it...
Here's the aerial view:
Here's the front view:
Here's the two horn dogs going at it, as usual:
And then I don't know how they got on top of that big hunk of ice, but they did!
That house has had no gutters on it for about 10 years, and while the new owner began replacing the roof 3 years ago, they never finished because they discovered the wall facing my house was rotted through. DUH!Anyway, I've been looking at these awesome icicles, and since it warmed up to -5 today, when I got back from swimming, I decided I should harvest some of them and at least make a nice sculpture thingie in my yard, since the ice probably won't melt for at least a few days. So I began grabbing at them to get some really nice pointy ones, but I couldn't do anything with the one that has frozen all the way to the ground--it is just too strong! I didn't get really artistic or anything, but just made something that reminded me of Superman's ice palace, and this is what I came up with:
Not bad for a few minutes of work, eh? Just so you get an idea of how much ice I harvested, here's the neighbor's house after I pilfered:
But then I thought, hey, the Tiki Hut has never been outdoors in the snow...and you guessed it...
Here's the aerial view:
Here's the front view:
Here's the two horn dogs going at it, as usual:
And then I don't know how they got on top of that big hunk of ice, but they did!
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Being Used to Pain
As soon as I woke up this morning, while still laying in bed, I could feel that my body was more healed than yesterday without even moving. So I twisted to one side and the next, arched up my back and then swung a leg over the edge of the bed. Still better than yesterday! Then I noticed that my gut wasn't feeling all jumbled up as it has for the past few weeks, which I've attributed to the muscular issues remaining from my back injury in November.
I got up and sauntered around like a cowboy with a swagger. I made coffee and then went to sit in front of the computer. Still feeling better.
Just last week, I said to my massage therapist that I thought I had about 2 more weeks until I'd be all healed up. One more week to go! This is the best my body has felt (in totality; I've been in a good mental place for well over a month now) since early November. Of course, some of my pain has been due to self-inflicted punishment--like my crazy birthday workout, effectively doing a HIM at IMFL and then another one just 2 weeks ago--but underneath has been the mess that I've been from my "accident" on 11/15.
While I've been able to move myself towards a healed state, it's been a slow process. This morning while testing myself out (I'd say I'm about 98% now), it occurred to me that I have become so accustomed to this discomfort, this pain. I'm not even sure what my pain threshold really is. If you asked me to rate how it's been on a scale from 1-10, I'd call it a 3--just something that's there that bugs the shit out of me. But maybe to someone else my pain would register more like an 8. All I know is that I've been able to continue swimming, biking, running, lifting and many other activities without too much restriction. But I've noticed a lack of full range of motion, and I am very flexible and normally my range of motion is well beyond any standards. Yet I'd become OK with limiting myself and being OK with things like not being able to raise a foot to my waist or higher (can't everyone do that?), bend over backwards just because I can--things like that.
And if you restrict yourself like that, eventually it becomes the norm. Even though I've continued pushing my own envelope, I've felt like I might do something at any time that would send me spiraling backwards in improvement. I can think of other times in my life where I've been OK with pain--psychic or physical--and have been just too complacent to try and move forward. Sometimes pain is a sign that we need to push our envelopes more to get through it or know it better so that we can move beyond it.
I'm very happy that as fucked up as I thought my back was that I knew it could have been much worse. It was entertaining to listen to others opine on how long it should take me to recover from what happened, but how could they know how bad it was unless they were there? I knew how bad it was when I was laying on the floor after about 80 pounds of wood had crashed down on my shins and quads after my glutes had already hit concrete and all my back muscles had gone into a protective tightening mode. I knew how bad it was a few minutes later when I was laying on an ice pack and my back muscles were spasming, I was sweating bullets, my pulse was going through the roof, and my body was trying to throw me into shock. I knew how bad it was a week and a half later when I went for my first post-injury run and my shins, quads, glutes and back were screaming at me to the point that I was crying while running--the tears streaming down my face and me wondering if it was a bad idea to try running at all.
So I laughed when one person said I should have recovered from this in 2 weeks! My massage therapist thought I'd be recovered sooner than now, too, but I told him you had to be there to know just how bad it was.
I am grateful that I have conditioned myself, sometimes in extreme ways, so that I was able to withstand the injury, and I'm coming back. I am done being OK with the pain and discomfort. I am done restricting myself. I am done saying I can't do certain things because it might cause me additional pain.
There was a time in my life when I would be OK being immersed in psychic or physical pain for months at a time. During the last 3 years, it's interesting that despite all the crap that has happened to me, my tolerance has shortened to about 8 weeks. 8 weeks is about all the time I will let myself be subject to crap--whether it be how someone else is treating me, how I am treating myself or going easy on myself because I perceive myself to be injured. I could enumerate all the examples of this and bore you, but I know how it's been.
I observe others and how they have built up this tolerance for pain to the point of staying in unhealthy situations for months or even years. What if everyone just decided to put limits on how long they would let themselves be in them? Part of the game is just making a conscious choice and setting a goal, and saying, "x weeks from now I am going to be in a much better place because I choose to take action NOW."
And now I can't wait to be 100%. My 100% is at least 150% of most normal people, I suppose, but I like it that way. Maybe now I should lower my tolerance to only 4 weeks!
I got up and sauntered around like a cowboy with a swagger. I made coffee and then went to sit in front of the computer. Still feeling better.
Just last week, I said to my massage therapist that I thought I had about 2 more weeks until I'd be all healed up. One more week to go! This is the best my body has felt (in totality; I've been in a good mental place for well over a month now) since early November. Of course, some of my pain has been due to self-inflicted punishment--like my crazy birthday workout, effectively doing a HIM at IMFL and then another one just 2 weeks ago--but underneath has been the mess that I've been from my "accident" on 11/15.
While I've been able to move myself towards a healed state, it's been a slow process. This morning while testing myself out (I'd say I'm about 98% now), it occurred to me that I have become so accustomed to this discomfort, this pain. I'm not even sure what my pain threshold really is. If you asked me to rate how it's been on a scale from 1-10, I'd call it a 3--just something that's there that bugs the shit out of me. But maybe to someone else my pain would register more like an 8. All I know is that I've been able to continue swimming, biking, running, lifting and many other activities without too much restriction. But I've noticed a lack of full range of motion, and I am very flexible and normally my range of motion is well beyond any standards. Yet I'd become OK with limiting myself and being OK with things like not being able to raise a foot to my waist or higher (can't everyone do that?), bend over backwards just because I can--things like that.
And if you restrict yourself like that, eventually it becomes the norm. Even though I've continued pushing my own envelope, I've felt like I might do something at any time that would send me spiraling backwards in improvement. I can think of other times in my life where I've been OK with pain--psychic or physical--and have been just too complacent to try and move forward. Sometimes pain is a sign that we need to push our envelopes more to get through it or know it better so that we can move beyond it.
I'm very happy that as fucked up as I thought my back was that I knew it could have been much worse. It was entertaining to listen to others opine on how long it should take me to recover from what happened, but how could they know how bad it was unless they were there? I knew how bad it was when I was laying on the floor after about 80 pounds of wood had crashed down on my shins and quads after my glutes had already hit concrete and all my back muscles had gone into a protective tightening mode. I knew how bad it was a few minutes later when I was laying on an ice pack and my back muscles were spasming, I was sweating bullets, my pulse was going through the roof, and my body was trying to throw me into shock. I knew how bad it was a week and a half later when I went for my first post-injury run and my shins, quads, glutes and back were screaming at me to the point that I was crying while running--the tears streaming down my face and me wondering if it was a bad idea to try running at all.
So I laughed when one person said I should have recovered from this in 2 weeks! My massage therapist thought I'd be recovered sooner than now, too, but I told him you had to be there to know just how bad it was.
I am grateful that I have conditioned myself, sometimes in extreme ways, so that I was able to withstand the injury, and I'm coming back. I am done being OK with the pain and discomfort. I am done restricting myself. I am done saying I can't do certain things because it might cause me additional pain.
There was a time in my life when I would be OK being immersed in psychic or physical pain for months at a time. During the last 3 years, it's interesting that despite all the crap that has happened to me, my tolerance has shortened to about 8 weeks. 8 weeks is about all the time I will let myself be subject to crap--whether it be how someone else is treating me, how I am treating myself or going easy on myself because I perceive myself to be injured. I could enumerate all the examples of this and bore you, but I know how it's been.
I observe others and how they have built up this tolerance for pain to the point of staying in unhealthy situations for months or even years. What if everyone just decided to put limits on how long they would let themselves be in them? Part of the game is just making a conscious choice and setting a goal, and saying, "x weeks from now I am going to be in a much better place because I choose to take action NOW."
And now I can't wait to be 100%. My 100% is at least 150% of most normal people, I suppose, but I like it that way. Maybe now I should lower my tolerance to only 4 weeks!
Monday, January 12, 2009
Weekly Workout Totals 01/05-2009-01/11/2009 and Miscellaneous Stuff
As you can see, one of my dirty whore Barbies is enjoying herself while a Kachina doll watches...I had a great training week. I'd call it a breakthrough week because I had everything fired up--harder and longer swim workouts, harder bike workouts, harder run workouts, and harder strength workouts. Add in a bunch of time moving snow around and a 1-hour (OK I was slow and spastic) cross country ski, and I don't think there is any muscle in my body that wasn't used! I got a great massage from the master, Mike, and was diligent about working on the muscles in my back (erector spinae, quadratus lumborum and iliopsoas) that are still a bit truculent. I had lunch with my friend, Marty, on Friday, and made dinner plans with another friend for next week.
Yesterday was one of those best days ever, which is interesting since it's the middle of winter! It started out well. I cleared the last of the snow from my driveway, took a little walk and took some pics (see previous post) of the snow. It was a beautiful, clear morning, and it was so quiet, as everyone was sleeping in and the roads were still snowy. I had planned on a 1:40 run followed by a :30 swim, but when I got back in the house, I felt a little dizzy or at least that I needed to lay down for awhile. In retrospect, I think my body was telling me that I wasn't fully recovered from Saturday's 3:00 workout plus who knows how much snow shoveling! I'm constantly learning what different bodily sensations mean, and the way this one felt was that I was a bit sinus-y and like my muscles were all out of fuel, despite the care I took on Saturday to refuel (or so I thought). Well, I am learning to listen to my body, so I started drinking Gatorade and got back in bed. I didn't fall back asleep, but it sure felt good to lay down. Also, I felt hot, so I took my temperature just for fun, and it was up--my normal temperature is about 96, and I was at 98.8! So that's almost a little fever to me. But after about an hour or so in bed, I got up, and suddenly I felt pretty much OK.
I suited up to run and headed to the Y. I got on a treadmill, and some guy who's been eyeballing me (he mostly just lifts, I think) asked me how much I was going to run today--9 or 10 miles? It was funny because that's about what I had planned, but I still wasn't sure I could execute on it or not, so I just kind of shrugged my shoulders and said I wasn't sure whether I'd make it that far, but I was going to start on it. He then proceeded to ask me whether I run marathons, and I just told him I do Ironman. I guess there's a part of me that doesn't want to be labeled as just a runner (especially since I don't consider myself one!), because I don't think I look like one. Anyway, I wasn't in the mood to chat, so I fired up the machine, and as achey and sluggish as I had felt just an hour earlier, it felt great to run! I was pleased, but cautiously optimistic, thinking that whatever I got done would be fine.
It was one of those days where I would have been OK with taking a full rest day, but then since I was on the treadmill, I began going over various scenarios--since I knew I might ski later, I could run less, or I could do the last 15 minutes on the elliptical. A 1:30 run would have been plenty. But as I got into it, I felt really good and did 1:30 on the treadmill and then headed to the indoor track.
I decided to just run a mile and see how long it took. My pink Timex watch had finally died (I knew the battery was going because the LED display was fading in and out), and so I had to wait for the second hand of a wall clock to come up on 12 so I could time myself. I wasn't trying to push it or anything, but isn't it funny sometimes how if you don't actually have a watch on you run faster? Seriously, I didn't think I was running faster than maybe 8:45, but it turned out I was running at my 5K pace! I was like what the fuck where did that come from? I ended up running 11 miles. And I was pretty happy to go for a recovery swim.
The pool was stinking hot, but it still felt good, and I knocked out a leisurely 1500 yards followed by about 5 minutes in the sauna (I would have stayed in there longer except there was a woman in there who seemed to be gay for me by the way she was looking at my naked body), then headed home.
I ate a Lean Cuisine and drank a bottle of Endurox R4, and knew I needed a lay down, after sorting through the Sunday newspaper for the sections that I read (I toss Sports, Business, Classifieds and all the ads) so I could take it into bed with me. Side note: I love my bed, and I had just changed the sheets in the morning, so how nice to finish up working out, showering and sauna and come home to that!
I had a message from a friend to meet for skiing at 6PM, so I figured I should try and get my nap on! After about 5 minutes in bed, I figured a beer would be tasty and probably knock me out, so I went and got one, got back into bed, read a little of a book, drank the beer, turned off the light, and I was out cold. I woke up an hour later feeling pretty awesome except for the right side of my back was a little stiff. I got up and had a snack and began drinking more Gatorade, since I was going to be doing another workout, got some laundry done and got things ready to fix dinner once we were back from skiing.
Skiing was great, except that I suck, while my friend is awesome at it. I need to learn to skate ski, as that's the kind of skis I got. I was a little stiff, ginger, wary of the whole thing since in a way I was a little afraid of doing something else to my back. But I managed, even though I sucked. It was beautiful out in the dark and so quiet, and I was mostly just happy to be doing something in the snow! There was one decent downhill, and I thought I had it, but then in a flash I did a huge face plant, and laughed my ass off while getting up. It's fun to fall in the snow when you won't hurt yourself.
I'm not sure of the distance of the course we were on, but it was at least a few miles. This place has lessons, so I think I'm going to do that next weekend and let that replace my run.
After skiing, we cracked open some wine, showered up and I fixed a simple but tasty dinner--Porterhouse steaks, pasta with the red pepper, bacon and Gorgonzola sauce I'd made on New Year's Day, and steamed asparagus. And a good bottle of Zinfandel. I had looked forward to that meal since I was finished running!
After all that, I slept like a baby and this morning I am just doing a :30 swim and think maybe I'll run outside in the snow later on. This week's training is going to be killer, here let me show you:
We are supposed to get more snow (blizzard warning tonight!) today through Wednesday, which is fine by me except it's going to be really super cold, too. But I'll get a little extra strength training done moving the snow.
Hope everyone had a great week and is starting out another good one! I did not include the skiing or the excessive snow removal in the numbers below--it was a solid training week anyway!
| Weekly Workout Totals | 01/05/2009-01/11/2009 This week's totals are sponsored by snow!!! There is no shortage of it here! |
| Swim: | 8400 yards (4.77 miles) in 2.88 hours; 22% of weekly workout time; approx. 1009 calories burned Canadian: 7680.96 meters |
| Bike: | Approx. 78.82 miles in 4.33 hours; 32% of weekly workout time; approx. 2384 calories burned; Total TSS=276 Canadian: 126.85 kilometers |
| Run: | Approx. 23.41 miles in 3.72 hours; 28% of weekly workout time; approx. 1691 calories burned Canadian: 37.67 kilometers |
| Strength: | 2.45 hours; 18% of weekly workout time; approx. 613 calories burned |
| All Sports: | Approx. 107 miles in 13.38 hours; approx. 5697 calories burned Canadian: 1 kilometers |
| Sleep: | 7.04 hours avg./night |
| Stretching: | 3.22 hours. Massage: 1 hours |
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Snowy Morning
It is such a beautiful morning that I decided to take a few more pics of all the snow. It looks like my town got about 8" from Friday through Saturday afternoon! There may be a little on the way again today--who knows?
Pink sunrise!
Pink sunrise!
My humble abode
The creek that seems to overflow every time I do a NothingMan!
Ash tree in my backyard. I like how the snow drifted up the 4 trunks.
Snow-covered Griffen
Beautiful sky with wispy clouds
Pink sunrise!
Pink sunrise!
My humble abode
The creek that seems to overflow every time I do a NothingMan!
Ash tree in my backyard. I like how the snow drifted up the 4 trunks.
Snow-covered Griffen
Beautiful sky with wispy cloudsSaturday, January 10, 2009
Lots of Snow Again!
I just finished clearing my driveway and removing snow from the lower north-facing roof (ice dams will form on the north roof if I don't get the snow off once it begins melting). It took me about an hour of shoveling plus snow raking, then another 40 minutes with the snowblower. The snow is really pretty, and the temperatures are really mild (near 30!), and it looks like it will keep falling until at least noon.Since I effectively just did another strength workout, I'm going to dump some more calories in me, head to the grocery store before more snow falls, and then I'll get on the trainer for 2 hours. I'm supposed to run for 30 minutes afterwards, but the snow is too deep to run in safely on the roads, so I'll either head to the Y for a short treadmill/track run or just skip it.
I do plan on skiing some tomorrow--the snow is just too nice to not do something with!
If you didn't know already, Chicago had a record precipitation year in 2008--the most EVER recorded--and this winter is looking to set records for snowfall, just like we did last winter. Oh well, nothing to do but get out in it!
Wednesday, January 07, 2009
Um...this hurts?
So today I did my first track workout:
WU: 10' Easy, 8 x Strides, 3 x 1' (30") @ 5k pace
MS: 3 x (6' @ 10k pace, 2' @ 5k pace, 2' walking recovery)
CD: 5-10' Easy
I did these a few years ago as preparation for the indoor tris and also Triple T. Only 2 years ago in the prior fall/winter months I had done some serious running preparation for Goofy Challenge that included a lot of tempo work and progressive long runs.
What kind of running have I done so far this season? A lot of mostly easy stuff, with brief bursts (10-15') of tempo pace thrown in in just the last 3 weeks! The same has been true of my biking. So you can imagine the shock to my legs to have done this bike workout yesterday (after lifting for about an hour including legs):
WU: 15' wup, 3' spinups
MS: 3 x 1' (1') @ 105%, 2' Easy, 4 x 5' (2') as 4' @ FT then 1' @ 105-110%, 3' Easy, 10 x 30/30' CD: 3' Easy
and then show up for today's track workout. My legs were plenty toasted by the 3rd repetition, and when I look back at how I did in these workouts 2 years ago, I've got some work to do. BUT, I was happy that I got through it. AND I think I am well on my way to resolving my back injury (I give it 2 more weeks max).
The really good thing is that mentally I am SO ready to punish myself in training, because I know what dividends it will pay. Plus, I have no complaints about the rest of my life right now, so why wouldn't I put some real focus into my training again?
I suppose in some way or other it was good that I had a forced break from my usual Crackhead-style training this fall--replacing it with constant activity related to remodeling. It's cold and snowy here, and I don't fucking care because I have a plan, I have races, I have burning desire to train hard, and if all that happens in 2009 is that I am no slower than I was 2 years ago, I'm a happy camper!
On that note, I need some motivational music, so here we go:
WU: 10' Easy, 8 x Strides, 3 x 1' (30") @ 5k pace
MS: 3 x (6' @ 10k pace, 2' @ 5k pace, 2' walking recovery)
CD: 5-10' Easy
I did these a few years ago as preparation for the indoor tris and also Triple T. Only 2 years ago in the prior fall/winter months I had done some serious running preparation for Goofy Challenge that included a lot of tempo work and progressive long runs.
What kind of running have I done so far this season? A lot of mostly easy stuff, with brief bursts (10-15') of tempo pace thrown in in just the last 3 weeks! The same has been true of my biking. So you can imagine the shock to my legs to have done this bike workout yesterday (after lifting for about an hour including legs):
WU: 15' wup, 3' spinups
MS: 3 x 1' (1') @ 105%, 2' Easy, 4 x 5' (2') as 4' @ FT then 1' @ 105-110%, 3' Easy, 10 x 30/30' CD: 3' Easy
and then show up for today's track workout. My legs were plenty toasted by the 3rd repetition, and when I look back at how I did in these workouts 2 years ago, I've got some work to do. BUT, I was happy that I got through it. AND I think I am well on my way to resolving my back injury (I give it 2 more weeks max).
The really good thing is that mentally I am SO ready to punish myself in training, because I know what dividends it will pay. Plus, I have no complaints about the rest of my life right now, so why wouldn't I put some real focus into my training again?
I suppose in some way or other it was good that I had a forced break from my usual Crackhead-style training this fall--replacing it with constant activity related to remodeling. It's cold and snowy here, and I don't fucking care because I have a plan, I have races, I have burning desire to train hard, and if all that happens in 2009 is that I am no slower than I was 2 years ago, I'm a happy camper!
On that note, I need some motivational music, so here we go:
Tuesday, January 06, 2009
Pics!!!
...since I know that's the only reason most people look at my blog...
It's always fun to lift in a velvet, snow-leopard top and compression tights!
Do these tights make my butt look fat? No--my ass is fat!
It's always fun to lift in a velvet, snow-leopard top and compression tights!
Do these tights make my butt look fat? No--my ass is fat!
Monday, January 05, 2009
Weekly Workout Totals 12/28/2008-01/04/2009
When you look at the numbers below (does anyone really look at them?), it's not a lot of hours, but it was a recovery from ZebraMan and the beginning of focused intensity work.
I nearly screwed up my recovery early in the week by deciding to run on Monday. Usually I take 2 days off from running after a 1/2 Ironman, but I was feeling OK so I went and ran anyway. That wasn't really a good idea as my legs were really sore afterwards, and I was concerned whether I'd be able to bike decently on Tuesday.
Tuesday rolled around, and I looked at the planned bike workout thinking I might not be able to do it and decided instead to pop in a Spinervals tape. Usually I don't think the Spinervals are that hard, but for some reason I was totally motivated to hit the % numbers displayed (they are using HR but I'm using % of FT watts) or better, and I ended up getting a really good workout in.
Wednesday I had a pretty good swim in the AM and run around noon. I wondered if I could nail another good bike workout on Thursday, and I did, even after 4 hours of intense cooking and lifting weights for about an hour beforehand! I was really putting the hurt to myself at this point, and luckily, I only needed to swim on Friday, which enabled me to finish up my strength routine for the week.
And then for Saturday, I had this bike workout to do:
WU: 30' @ 65-70%
MS: 2 x (20' @ 80-85%, 10' Easy), then 2 x 8' (5') @ FT; 6x30/30,
cd 3'
It was hard (after the warmup), but I was focused, and besides, it was only 2 hours, and it went by pretty quickly. I finished up, changed into running shorts and headed to the Y to run for :30. Even though my family room stays nice and cold which is great for trainer riding, I still get pretty hot and sweaty, and I think this was my first really focused long-ish ride on the trainer this winter. When I got on the treadmill, within minutes I was sweating buckets, despite having a fan right over my head, and about 15 minutes in I began feeling a little dizzy and just really overheated. I wondered if I was bonking, but figured I shouldn't be as this really wasn't that long of a workout and I had drank some Ultra Violence before I started and a decent amount of Gatorade on the bike. I decided I better go and run on the track because it's a lot cooler in there than in the cardio room.
I started running on the track and still felt a bit woozy, but after a few laps, the feeling went away and that's how I knew that I was just a bit hyperthermic, and it made me laugh! I mean I'm barely wearing any clothes, I'm sweating bullets, running in a cold gym and I'm overheated! And all I could think was this was a great way to start off 2009!
I was all finished working out and eating by about 1:30PM and so I went to a matinee of "Role Models" and laughed since I was feeling like I have all this time on my hands! It truly is a treat to be done with the remodeling and not be training very much where I have time to do other things like go to a movie, sew, cook, read--a few of my favorite things!
Sunday called for a 1:30 run and a :30 swim, and I thought easy peasy. Well, about :55 into the run (on the treadmill), the front of my right ankle is giving me fits to the point where I thought I might need to quit running for the day. I went to the indoor track to see if that made a difference and hobbled through another mile, and it was while doing that that I realized why it hurt--it was from the 4 hours of sewing in the morning! It's good to remember that a lot of the things we athletes experience as injury is not from the sports themselves but from other daily living activities! Well, once I realized the origin of the pain, I was quite content to finish up on the elliptical (which didn't hurt at all), and the swim felt good even though the water was HOT, and I was done for the day.
I took a shortie cat nap (at least I think I fell asleep) with a smile on my face under my pirates and zebras, finished making some gifts (secret!), boxed up things to mail off, roasted a chicken, ate dinner and went to a friend's place. Meanwhile, of course, my ankle is fine as it had just developed some trigger points that went away on their own.
This week begins the official pattern of training for the indoor sprint races which is basically just preparation for Triple T, which even though it's 20 weeks away, you basically want to be trained up as if you were doing an Ironman, so I am taking everything fairly seriously now.
Speaking of serious, I need to go swim. Have a great Monday!
I nearly screwed up my recovery early in the week by deciding to run on Monday. Usually I take 2 days off from running after a 1/2 Ironman, but I was feeling OK so I went and ran anyway. That wasn't really a good idea as my legs were really sore afterwards, and I was concerned whether I'd be able to bike decently on Tuesday.
Tuesday rolled around, and I looked at the planned bike workout thinking I might not be able to do it and decided instead to pop in a Spinervals tape. Usually I don't think the Spinervals are that hard, but for some reason I was totally motivated to hit the % numbers displayed (they are using HR but I'm using % of FT watts) or better, and I ended up getting a really good workout in.
Wednesday I had a pretty good swim in the AM and run around noon. I wondered if I could nail another good bike workout on Thursday, and I did, even after 4 hours of intense cooking and lifting weights for about an hour beforehand! I was really putting the hurt to myself at this point, and luckily, I only needed to swim on Friday, which enabled me to finish up my strength routine for the week.
And then for Saturday, I had this bike workout to do:
WU: 30' @ 65-70%
MS: 2 x (20' @ 80-85%, 10' Easy), then 2 x 8' (5') @ FT; 6x30/30,
cd 3'
It was hard (after the warmup), but I was focused, and besides, it was only 2 hours, and it went by pretty quickly. I finished up, changed into running shorts and headed to the Y to run for :30. Even though my family room stays nice and cold which is great for trainer riding, I still get pretty hot and sweaty, and I think this was my first really focused long-ish ride on the trainer this winter. When I got on the treadmill, within minutes I was sweating buckets, despite having a fan right over my head, and about 15 minutes in I began feeling a little dizzy and just really overheated. I wondered if I was bonking, but figured I shouldn't be as this really wasn't that long of a workout and I had drank some Ultra Violence before I started and a decent amount of Gatorade on the bike. I decided I better go and run on the track because it's a lot cooler in there than in the cardio room.
I started running on the track and still felt a bit woozy, but after a few laps, the feeling went away and that's how I knew that I was just a bit hyperthermic, and it made me laugh! I mean I'm barely wearing any clothes, I'm sweating bullets, running in a cold gym and I'm overheated! And all I could think was this was a great way to start off 2009!
I was all finished working out and eating by about 1:30PM and so I went to a matinee of "Role Models" and laughed since I was feeling like I have all this time on my hands! It truly is a treat to be done with the remodeling and not be training very much where I have time to do other things like go to a movie, sew, cook, read--a few of my favorite things!
Sunday called for a 1:30 run and a :30 swim, and I thought easy peasy. Well, about :55 into the run (on the treadmill), the front of my right ankle is giving me fits to the point where I thought I might need to quit running for the day. I went to the indoor track to see if that made a difference and hobbled through another mile, and it was while doing that that I realized why it hurt--it was from the 4 hours of sewing in the morning! It's good to remember that a lot of the things we athletes experience as injury is not from the sports themselves but from other daily living activities! Well, once I realized the origin of the pain, I was quite content to finish up on the elliptical (which didn't hurt at all), and the swim felt good even though the water was HOT, and I was done for the day.
I took a shortie cat nap (at least I think I fell asleep) with a smile on my face under my pirates and zebras, finished making some gifts (secret!), boxed up things to mail off, roasted a chicken, ate dinner and went to a friend's place. Meanwhile, of course, my ankle is fine as it had just developed some trigger points that went away on their own.
This week begins the official pattern of training for the indoor sprint races which is basically just preparation for Triple T, which even though it's 20 weeks away, you basically want to be trained up as if you were doing an Ironman, so I am taking everything fairly seriously now.
Speaking of serious, I need to go swim. Have a great Monday!
| Weekly Workout Totals | 12/29/2008-01/04/2009 This week's totals are sponsored by a lack of snow. How did I make it stop snowing? I bought cross country skis! |
| Swim: | 9400 yards (5.33 miles) in 3.38 hours; 26% of weekly workout time; approx. 1185 calories burned Canadian: 8595.36 meters |
| Bike: | Approx. 97.35 miles in 4.77 hours; 36% of weekly workout time; approx. 2625 calories burned; Total TSS=295 Canadian: 156.67 kilometers |
| Run: | Approx. 24.23 miles in 3.77 hours; 29% of weekly workout time; approx. 1715 calories burned Canadian: 38.99 kilometers |
| Strength: | 1.27 hours; 10% of weekly workout time; approx. 318 calories burned |
| All Sports: | Approx. 126.91 miles in 13.19 hours; approx. 5843 calories burned Canadian: 1.25 kilometers |
| Sleep: | 7.64 hours avg./night |
| Stretching: | 2.03 hours. Massage: 1.25 hours |
Sunday, January 04, 2009
Look What I Made This Weekend!
A new duvet cover for my bed...I decided I was tired of the previous one. I went online to search for pirate and zebra fabric a little over a week ago, and I scored big time! Bonus--I also got flames! Here's the finished product on the bed:
Here's a closeup of the pirate fabric. Yes, it says "Bad Bones" on it!
Closeup of the zebra fabric. I really like the fact that it's like embedded zebras instead of just stripes!
The entire thing took about 8 hours to complete, from buying the lining fabric locally (Friday evening) to measuring and cutting (yesterday morning before I worked out) and finally sewing (this morning). I'm really happy with the result, and now I think it's time I ditch the floral curtains and go with pleated shades...funny how I"m into this "decorating" thing after 8 years of total neglect!
The only reason I hurried up on this sewing project is that I only use the duvet cover in the winter, and there's maybe 2.5 months left of that (YEAH!), so I wanted to get some use out of it. Plus, I have another sewing project in the wings, and there aren't too many more weekends (7, maybe) where I won't be wasted from training and/or racing.
Had an awesome day yesterday--cut out the duvet cover, biked 2 hours pretty hard, ran :30 pretty hard (including my first episode of hyperthermia for 2009!!!), went and saw the movie "Role Models" (hilarious), watched a little TV, read a little and early to bed.
Now it's time to go run and swim and then all I have left today is to cook, which I am really getting into now.
Enjoy your Sunday!
Here's a closeup of the pirate fabric. Yes, it says "Bad Bones" on it!
Closeup of the zebra fabric. I really like the fact that it's like embedded zebras instead of just stripes!
The entire thing took about 8 hours to complete, from buying the lining fabric locally (Friday evening) to measuring and cutting (yesterday morning before I worked out) and finally sewing (this morning). I'm really happy with the result, and now I think it's time I ditch the floral curtains and go with pleated shades...funny how I"m into this "decorating" thing after 8 years of total neglect!
The only reason I hurried up on this sewing project is that I only use the duvet cover in the winter, and there's maybe 2.5 months left of that (YEAH!), so I wanted to get some use out of it. Plus, I have another sewing project in the wings, and there aren't too many more weekends (7, maybe) where I won't be wasted from training and/or racing.
Had an awesome day yesterday--cut out the duvet cover, biked 2 hours pretty hard, ran :30 pretty hard (including my first episode of hyperthermia for 2009!!!), went and saw the movie "Role Models" (hilarious), watched a little TV, read a little and early to bed.
Now it's time to go run and swim and then all I have left today is to cook, which I am really getting into now.
Enjoy your Sunday!
Thursday, January 01, 2009
New Year's Day Cooking Orgy
I did not drink much at all last night. Nice to not wake up with a hangover on New Year's Day, as I have plenty of things to do while enjoying a day off from work.
I did some reading in bed, and then I motivated to cook around 7:15. Pics and description are here. I spent 4 hours cooking, and now I must work out so I can eat some lasagna later! I will also do the dishes later on...I hate doing dishes, but I did rinse or soak the gnarly ones so it won't be that bad, and I already cleaned off the stove.
It's gray and depressing weather here, but too bad, I'm enjoying my day. I'm going to lift weights first, and then get on the trainer for about 1.5 hours, or whatever I feel like--we'll see! I will get in at least 2 hours, though, as that is my threshold to eat something so incredibly bad for me but yet so tasty!
Happy New Year everyone!
I did some reading in bed, and then I motivated to cook around 7:15. Pics and description are here. I spent 4 hours cooking, and now I must work out so I can eat some lasagna later! I will also do the dishes later on...I hate doing dishes, but I did rinse or soak the gnarly ones so it won't be that bad, and I already cleaned off the stove.
It's gray and depressing weather here, but too bad, I'm enjoying my day. I'm going to lift weights first, and then get on the trainer for about 1.5 hours, or whatever I feel like--we'll see! I will get in at least 2 hours, though, as that is my threshold to eat something so incredibly bad for me but yet so tasty!
Happy New Year everyone!
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