Thursday:
45 min bike to work. About eight miles - it's really hilly for thelast four miles. I ordered another bike computer so I can start breaking into splits (there are some slow parts b/c of traffic). But the good (or bad) part is that the ride to work is all up hill once Ihit Virginia, and on the way home, it's all uphill once I hit DC. So technically, I'm going to be getting my ass kicked no matter which wayI ride.
Run after work - I'm still building my run times. I'm at pyramids right now of 2 on, 4 off, 3 on, 4 off, 2 on. I'm not doing any speed work this week, just trying to up my distance. So far the knee feels good, but a little tender. I iced and stretched with my bands last night.
Friday:
Swim - 45 minutes. Ouch. Warmed up with 100, then 200 mixing it up plus kickboard. Did decents 300, 200, 100. Then four sprint 25M moderateX25M Sprint. 30 sec rest between. 30 seconds never felt so short. I still can't control my breathing for longer than 50 m at a time - I want to breathe every other stroke, but my body can't take it for longer than two laps.
Then I did 4 sets of 50 with the pull buoys and cooled down with 100.
By the end of it I was convinced I was going to drown in the race. But I'll get back in on Sunday and hopefully I'll feel stronger.
My plan for the weekend is to bike the course tomorrow with a short transition run and then spend Sunday in the pool. I'll report in howit goes. Also, I realized that I left my brand new snazzy water bottle in theshower at the pool. Damnit.
I have so much energy and am so cheerful right now, it's disguising. I *hate* it when the morning people are right. I'm sulking into my much-needed-well-earned latte.
Friday, July 25, 2008
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
32 days and counting
oh god. oh god. oh god.
32 days. Full on panic has been setting in. I'm desperately afraid to get hurt again, but I'm totally panicked to go in so unprepared. And you would think that the bike and the swim would make me sweat bullets. But no -- it's the fact that I am currently running only in 3 minute intervals that's waking me up at night.
I actually ran outside this weeekend - it was brutally hot in New York City. But I did my one minute, two minute, one minute builds. And I admit I pushed that two out to more like three. I felt great. So today I got on the treadmill and I started at two minutes, 3 min, two and my RIGHT knee started getting all this attitude. I can't tell if it's a injury twinge or just a man-you-haven't-been-running twinge. But I was injured on my left side, so who knows what's up with that.
This weekend I'm finally in town so my plan it to the throw the bike in the car and go out and take a look at this course in Maryland. I can't decide whether to bring my road bike or my mountain bike. Maybe my mountian bike since I'm planning to just tool around (for 17.5 miles) and then doing a baby baby run.
Here's my schedule up to Vacay-2008:
Tuesday: Mini run.
Wednesday: Bike home from work. Leave car at office.
Thursday: Bike to work (car transfer is getting increasingly difficult since I hate taking the metro to work with a burning passion). Pick up car. Mini run at lunch.
Friday: Pool time (might try morning swim - have this crazy idea that it might be helpful.)
Saturday: Ride course in Maryland/transition run
Sunday: Back in the pool - be sore and grouchy from saturday ride.
Monday: Ride to work/ride home from work.
Tuesday: Run
Wednesday: Go to Caribbean -- take day off.
Thursday, July 30th - August 5th: Run as much as possible. Eat lots of good food. Drink fun drinks. Swim swim swim.
August 6th: Face Reality. Panic. Realize that there are only 18 days left until race. Work self to death until August 20th. Then tell everyone i'm tapering until race day.
So far that's my plan.
32 days. Full on panic has been setting in. I'm desperately afraid to get hurt again, but I'm totally panicked to go in so unprepared. And you would think that the bike and the swim would make me sweat bullets. But no -- it's the fact that I am currently running only in 3 minute intervals that's waking me up at night.
I actually ran outside this weeekend - it was brutally hot in New York City. But I did my one minute, two minute, one minute builds. And I admit I pushed that two out to more like three. I felt great. So today I got on the treadmill and I started at two minutes, 3 min, two and my RIGHT knee started getting all this attitude. I can't tell if it's a injury twinge or just a man-you-haven't-been-running twinge. But I was injured on my left side, so who knows what's up with that.
This weekend I'm finally in town so my plan it to the throw the bike in the car and go out and take a look at this course in Maryland. I can't decide whether to bring my road bike or my mountain bike. Maybe my mountian bike since I'm planning to just tool around (for 17.5 miles) and then doing a baby baby run.
Here's my schedule up to Vacay-2008:
Tuesday: Mini run.
Wednesday: Bike home from work. Leave car at office.
Thursday: Bike to work (car transfer is getting increasingly difficult since I hate taking the metro to work with a burning passion). Pick up car. Mini run at lunch.
Friday: Pool time (might try morning swim - have this crazy idea that it might be helpful.)
Saturday: Ride course in Maryland/transition run
Sunday: Back in the pool - be sore and grouchy from saturday ride.
Monday: Ride to work/ride home from work.
Tuesday: Run
Wednesday: Go to Caribbean -- take day off.
Thursday, July 30th - August 5th: Run as much as possible. Eat lots of good food. Drink fun drinks. Swim swim swim.
August 6th: Face Reality. Panic. Realize that there are only 18 days left until race. Work self to death until August 20th. Then tell everyone i'm tapering until race day.
So far that's my plan.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
24 hours in - and it hurts
Tuesday: Rock-climbing, 2 hours
Wednesday: 8 miles, uphill - approximately 45 minutes
As I was explaining to a friend of mine this morning, why yes, I am in fact a rockstar.
So far the kickoff into Retraining-The-Tri-2008 is going very well. Last night I went climbing and that was tons of fun and I think I got a good work out. I didn't fall so I guess the arguement could be made that I wasn't pushing myself hard enough -- on the other hand - all my muscles were shaking when I got to the top, so it wasn't exactly a cakewalk. I ate a cliffbar for dinner (delicious), went home, inhaled toast and fell into bed for 8.5 hours.
Then this morning I woke up and hopped on my bike and rode to work - down rockcreek park and up the Curtis trail. It was *amazing*. And when I say "amazing" what I mean is brutal, hard and uphill in 80-degree weather. And I am really really out of shape. Not as bad as when I did it last fall after doing nothing for months and ended up having to sit down on the side of the trail and breathe so I didn't throw up. But in that same range of pain. I think I could whittle it down to a half an hour ride - I'm trying to find the best way to get to the trail without hitting stoplights or running over pedestrians. Oh, or being run over by trucks. If I could get a straight ride and was strong enough to push the whole way, I think it would be pretty fast.
Hitting the pool tonight with E. Hopefully it wouldn't be a total diaster. I am crossing my fingers because although I feel pretty confident that I can get through a 3 mile run and a 20 mile bike -- not gracefully, but through, without crawling, I don't feel that confident about my ability to swim 900 meters before doing all the rest of it. There are may flip turns in my future. I can feel it coming.
Reports to follow.
Wednesday: 8 miles, uphill - approximately 45 minutes
As I was explaining to a friend of mine this morning, why yes, I am in fact a rockstar.
So far the kickoff into Retraining-The-Tri-2008 is going very well. Last night I went climbing and that was tons of fun and I think I got a good work out. I didn't fall so I guess the arguement could be made that I wasn't pushing myself hard enough -- on the other hand - all my muscles were shaking when I got to the top, so it wasn't exactly a cakewalk. I ate a cliffbar for dinner (delicious), went home, inhaled toast and fell into bed for 8.5 hours.
Then this morning I woke up and hopped on my bike and rode to work - down rockcreek park and up the Curtis trail. It was *amazing*. And when I say "amazing" what I mean is brutal, hard and uphill in 80-degree weather. And I am really really out of shape. Not as bad as when I did it last fall after doing nothing for months and ended up having to sit down on the side of the trail and breathe so I didn't throw up. But in that same range of pain. I think I could whittle it down to a half an hour ride - I'm trying to find the best way to get to the trail without hitting stoplights or running over pedestrians. Oh, or being run over by trucks. If I could get a straight ride and was strong enough to push the whole way, I think it would be pretty fast.
Hitting the pool tonight with E. Hopefully it wouldn't be a total diaster. I am crossing my fingers because although I feel pretty confident that I can get through a 3 mile run and a 20 mile bike -- not gracefully, but through, without crawling, I don't feel that confident about my ability to swim 900 meters before doing all the rest of it. There are may flip turns in my future. I can feel it coming.
Reports to follow.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
The Guilt. The Panic.
Well, well. Hello July.
Last night I got "the talk" from a friend of mine. I didn't enjoy it, but I acknowledge that someone had to throw some ice water over this delusion I have that I can run a triathlon without embarassing myself... or training for it. Basically I've been hiding under the bed since I got hurt, hoping that by ignoring the summer I could make August go away. So far, no luck. So now July has showed up like annoying dinner guests, fifteen minutes early when you're still trying to lay crackers out on a plate and you haven't straightened up the house. But I just have suck it up and cope.
So this is me packing my bags from my vacation of not coping.
Today. July 8th, 2008: I went to the gym. And let me tell you, my friends, it was a whole lot more fun then I thought it would be. I'm still really sensitive to the knee, so I did a 10 minute warm-up on the bike and started my run pyramids, which my PT gave me back in - whatever - I don't want to talk about when it was.
So I built - 5 minutes walking; 1 minute run. 5 walk, 2 run; 5 walk, 1 run. Then I cooled down and stretched all the leg muscles and did my foam roller (can I just spare a minute to say, "I HATE THE FOAM ROLLER").
Among other things I'd like to report the following. A) I resent that I feel fabulous right now B) Back in the day when I was doing this, I was damn impressive. My gym bag is so well organized that I feel like I should photograph it - after I dusted it off, C) My heart rate monitor is dead. Go figure.
Here's my plan for the rest of the week:
Tuesday: baby run - rockclimbing
Wednesday: bike leisurely to work/swim workout
Thursday: baby run/yoga
Friday: Bike
Saturday: (In NYC w/ JJ) Swim/Rockclimb
Sunday: baby run
Monday: Bike home from work
Then we will reassess where we are with everything and see if I can turn the baby run into a toodler-like run. I have to stay uninjured. But I also seriously need to reorganize my priorities and get this race together. I feel like since the race is pretty small I might let rockclimbing stand in for my weight training. Between rockclimbing and yoga I feel like I'm probably going to get more tones then I would if I was chaining myself to the handweights anyway - and hey, it's more fun.
Last night I got "the talk" from a friend of mine. I didn't enjoy it, but I acknowledge that someone had to throw some ice water over this delusion I have that I can run a triathlon without embarassing myself... or training for it. Basically I've been hiding under the bed since I got hurt, hoping that by ignoring the summer I could make August go away. So far, no luck. So now July has showed up like annoying dinner guests, fifteen minutes early when you're still trying to lay crackers out on a plate and you haven't straightened up the house. But I just have suck it up and cope.
So this is me packing my bags from my vacation of not coping.
Today. July 8th, 2008: I went to the gym. And let me tell you, my friends, it was a whole lot more fun then I thought it would be. I'm still really sensitive to the knee, so I did a 10 minute warm-up on the bike and started my run pyramids, which my PT gave me back in - whatever - I don't want to talk about when it was.
So I built - 5 minutes walking; 1 minute run. 5 walk, 2 run; 5 walk, 1 run. Then I cooled down and stretched all the leg muscles and did my foam roller (can I just spare a minute to say, "I HATE THE FOAM ROLLER").
Among other things I'd like to report the following. A) I resent that I feel fabulous right now B) Back in the day when I was doing this, I was damn impressive. My gym bag is so well organized that I feel like I should photograph it - after I dusted it off, C) My heart rate monitor is dead. Go figure.
Here's my plan for the rest of the week:
Tuesday: baby run - rockclimbing
Wednesday: bike leisurely to work/swim workout
Thursday: baby run/yoga
Friday: Bike
Saturday: (In NYC w/ JJ) Swim/Rockclimb
Sunday: baby run
Monday: Bike home from work
Then we will reassess where we are with everything and see if I can turn the baby run into a toodler-like run. I have to stay uninjured. But I also seriously need to reorganize my priorities and get this race together. I feel like since the race is pretty small I might let rockclimbing stand in for my weight training. Between rockclimbing and yoga I feel like I'm probably going to get more tones then I would if I was chaining myself to the handweights anyway - and hey, it's more fun.
Friday, March 14, 2008
PT v1
Had my first physical therapy appt this morning. It was awesome - not exactly fun, but really great to know that whatever is going on with my knee is not serious. The woman thinks that I strained by ATL band - or the way she explained it is actually that I built a lot of muscle there and the band has gotten so strong that it's basically pulling my kneecap out of place. Which is, when you think about it, kind cool and kind of gross at the same time.
So here's what I have to do:
3 reps of 1min stretches of my iliotibial band using a towel or a dog leash to pull my leg across my body and down.
15 leg lifts (lying on my back, left knee raised, lift right leg out straight and hold for 5 secs); switch sides, repeat.
Lie sideways on a foam roller and basically massage the tissue in my outer thigh by rolling up and down. This part sucks because a) it demands that I go to the gym and b) it hurts.
Then I have to ice as much as humanally possible. Must invest in theraputic frozen foods and label appropriately.
My friend is now trying to talk me into doing a half marathon in June. I feel tempted, which is hilarious considering that I am basically bench warming at the moment. We'll see how this takes. Back in the pool tonight.
So here's what I have to do:
3 reps of 1min stretches of my iliotibial band using a towel or a dog leash to pull my leg across my body and down.
15 leg lifts (lying on my back, left knee raised, lift right leg out straight and hold for 5 secs); switch sides, repeat.
Lie sideways on a foam roller and basically massage the tissue in my outer thigh by rolling up and down. This part sucks because a) it demands that I go to the gym and b) it hurts.
Then I have to ice as much as humanally possible. Must invest in theraputic frozen foods and label appropriately.
My friend is now trying to talk me into doing a half marathon in June. I feel tempted, which is hilarious considering that I am basically bench warming at the moment. We'll see how this takes. Back in the pool tonight.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
boo-yay with the flip turns
Swim: 45 minutes, warm-up 100 meters; 50 pull; 5x100 w/ 1.5 m rest intervals; 6x50 working on breathing and form; 100 cool down
Oh my friends - spring is coming. I know because I wake up in the morning and think, "oh fantastic. it's so beautiful" a marked change from February where I usually woke up thinking, "f*&% off, world."
So I'm not going to lie to you - in all this spring fevor - I rocked the pool the last night. When I was there on Monday, I talked to the masters swim coach and he suggested that to join the team practices (a grueling 90 minutes of coached drill swimming), I should be able to swim about 10x100's -- basically back to back. This was good to know (in a scary way) because now I have a goal. Having found out on Monday that my first 100 wasn't all that scary, I was detirmined to try a couple of them. So I did.
Here's the best thing about swimming 100's: They much easier to count. In fact, I think you could say that I'm acutely aware of where I am as I come fighting down home stretch on my last 25 - trying to hold on to breathing every other stroke.
Right around 7:30 two other girls jumped in my lane (bring us to a total of 4) - I took one look at these people and was like, "oh for god's sake". One was wearing a bikini. The other one was wearing a bug-green neon bathsuit and had about four feet of hair and no swim cap. Well, that will teach me. Bikini swam breast stroke, but the neon green suit got in and just started ripping the lane apart. No breaks. No rests. Just flip turn after flip turn - and she was fast. So I thought about something I had read about on another triathlete's blog - it's about how you can draft on faster swimmers, which challenges you to keep up, but at the same time, makes it easier to try another pace because you get a pull by being in their wake. So she came through, flipping and pushing off in about 3 seconds, I dropped in behind her and went along for the ride. It was great. I kept my fingers in the bubble trail from her kick and we went zipping down to the other end of the pool and back again, then up and back. Then I dropped out for a lap to rest and when she came back through, hopped on again. It was a fantastic workout. It was also a lot of fun (for me anyway - I bet she never noticed). Before I even knew it the master's team was standing on the deck and it was 8:00pm.
I was so happy with my workout (and kind of sad it was over), so I thought I would walk down to the store and get a frozen yogurt to celebrate. I think I ended up with soft serve ice cream, but it was delicious and made me feel - wandering back to my car still wearing my swimming suit under my fleece - that it was really really spring.
Oh my friends - spring is coming. I know because I wake up in the morning and think, "oh fantastic. it's so beautiful" a marked change from February where I usually woke up thinking, "f*&% off, world."
So I'm not going to lie to you - in all this spring fevor - I rocked the pool the last night. When I was there on Monday, I talked to the masters swim coach and he suggested that to join the team practices (a grueling 90 minutes of coached drill swimming), I should be able to swim about 10x100's -- basically back to back. This was good to know (in a scary way) because now I have a goal. Having found out on Monday that my first 100 wasn't all that scary, I was detirmined to try a couple of them. So I did.
Here's the best thing about swimming 100's: They much easier to count. In fact, I think you could say that I'm acutely aware of where I am as I come fighting down home stretch on my last 25 - trying to hold on to breathing every other stroke.
Right around 7:30 two other girls jumped in my lane (bring us to a total of 4) - I took one look at these people and was like, "oh for god's sake". One was wearing a bikini. The other one was wearing a bug-green neon bathsuit and had about four feet of hair and no swim cap. Well, that will teach me. Bikini swam breast stroke, but the neon green suit got in and just started ripping the lane apart. No breaks. No rests. Just flip turn after flip turn - and she was fast. So I thought about something I had read about on another triathlete's blog - it's about how you can draft on faster swimmers, which challenges you to keep up, but at the same time, makes it easier to try another pace because you get a pull by being in their wake. So she came through, flipping and pushing off in about 3 seconds, I dropped in behind her and went along for the ride. It was great. I kept my fingers in the bubble trail from her kick and we went zipping down to the other end of the pool and back again, then up and back. Then I dropped out for a lap to rest and when she came back through, hopped on again. It was a fantastic workout. It was also a lot of fun (for me anyway - I bet she never noticed). Before I even knew it the master's team was standing on the deck and it was 8:00pm.
I was so happy with my workout (and kind of sad it was over), so I thought I would walk down to the store and get a frozen yogurt to celebrate. I think I ended up with soft serve ice cream, but it was delicious and made me feel - wandering back to my car still wearing my swimming suit under my fleece - that it was really really spring.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
DCAC menance
Monday: Swim 40 minutes
So I have backed off significantly on the training side. It's totally killing me, but my knee is *still* hurting and it's so early in the season that I know if I don't let it heal it will dog me until the fall. Besides, MD yelled at me for pushing myself too hard and I was all petulant about it, ("FINE. I WON'T train. So there. stomp stomp stomp.") But I had to admit she was right. I've got nothing to gain from ignoring it.
So it's been all about the pool lately. I honestly have no idea how far I went on Monday. It was a great great swim. But I got there late - around 7:20 - and the Master's swim team has practice from 8 to 9:30, so around 7:45 I'm working through my laps and I look up to see that there are all these people standing, fully dressed at the other end of the pool, watching everyone in the lanes. Every time I did a 50 and got back to the other side, there were more of them. As it ticked closer and closer to 8, the clothing started disappearing until there was this wall of 40 beautifully scultped, toned gorgeous people holding their googles and standing with their arms crossed, waiting. It was the most unnerving thing that has happened to me in weeks. In some ways I was grateful for it because it made me incredibly conscious of my form (and trying not to flail in the water), on the other hand it was bad because I was so busy concentrating on looking like I knew I was I was doing that I have absolutely no idea how many laps I swam. I think it was a lot. But the other really good thing is that I swam my first 100! I went slowly and methodically and it was actually pretty easy. I think I'm going to try to do a few sets of those on Wednesday - and when I work up to about ten sets then maybe I'll join the masters team so I can can be the one looking sculpted and bored at the other end of the pool, waiting for the novices to clear the lanes.
So I have backed off significantly on the training side. It's totally killing me, but my knee is *still* hurting and it's so early in the season that I know if I don't let it heal it will dog me until the fall. Besides, MD yelled at me for pushing myself too hard and I was all petulant about it, ("FINE. I WON'T train. So there. stomp stomp stomp.") But I had to admit she was right. I've got nothing to gain from ignoring it.
So it's been all about the pool lately. I honestly have no idea how far I went on Monday. It was a great great swim. But I got there late - around 7:20 - and the Master's swim team has practice from 8 to 9:30, so around 7:45 I'm working through my laps and I look up to see that there are all these people standing, fully dressed at the other end of the pool, watching everyone in the lanes. Every time I did a 50 and got back to the other side, there were more of them. As it ticked closer and closer to 8, the clothing started disappearing until there was this wall of 40 beautifully scultped, toned gorgeous people holding their googles and standing with their arms crossed, waiting. It was the most unnerving thing that has happened to me in weeks. In some ways I was grateful for it because it made me incredibly conscious of my form (and trying not to flail in the water), on the other hand it was bad because I was so busy concentrating on looking like I knew I was I was doing that I have absolutely no idea how many laps I swam. I think it was a lot. But the other really good thing is that I swam my first 100! I went slowly and methodically and it was actually pretty easy. I think I'm going to try to do a few sets of those on Wednesday - and when I work up to about ten sets then maybe I'll join the masters team so I can can be the one looking sculpted and bored at the other end of the pool, waiting for the novices to clear the lanes.
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