Saturday, February 11, 2006

long ride

[2/11/06 Saturday]
Bike - 2:15 - aerobic endurance ride with a few long climbs

Friday, February 10, 2006

music in my head

[2/10/06 Friday]
Run - 2.4 mi, 20:41 - Ave Heart Rate: 157
Bike - 40 min - easy indoor spin

My MP3 player battery died in the first minute of my run. I know I can run without music, but it made the 40 minutes on the spinning bike mentally grueling. I resorted to singing in my head and doing pretend intervals (this was supposed to be a recovery ride so i wasn't doing real intervals). I couldn't have made it much longer.

mind lagging behind body

[2/9/06 Thursday]
Swim - 3400m, 1:04 - 600 free, 400 pull, 400 free, 200 kick, 12 x 50 sprint on 60 sec, 200 pull, 16 x 25 (sprint 1/3, easy 2/3), 200 pull
Bike - 60 min indoor - 6 x (4 min seated climb, 1 min standing climb, 2 min recovery)
Abs (300)

My favorite part of today was my 12 x 50 sprint swim intervals. I haven't done much all-out effort stuff lately and it felt good to see how hard I could push. There was a fast female swimmer in the lane next to me and we were having a bit of an unspoken competition with each other. It is all mental for me when this happens. For much more of my life than I have been athletic, I have been totally physically incompetent. I am slowly getting used to no longer being the slowest/weakest/most-uncoordinated person and not automatically giving up when a close competitor puts up a challenge. I am used to giving up thinking that everyone is faster than me so why even try. My abilities have changed but my mind lags in full comprehension of that. It takes some conscious mental focus to tell my mind what I know is true in the present moment. Things have definitely changed because these days I am swimming in the fast lane at the University pool and comparable in speed to the other "fast" women.

Every cell of my body was toasted at the end of the workout today. My legs were quite sore from yesterday's strength workout, and I managed to pull out two good workouts today anyway. It is funny how sometimes when I feel tired and creaky before a workout, as soon as I get warmed up, my muscles feel better and I am not as tired. Anyway, I crashed into bed at 9:15.

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

building a strong swim base

[2/8/06 Wednesday]
Swim - 2000yd, 37 min - 400 free, 200 pull, 200 kick, 5 x 200 (50E/50M/50H/50E), 100 kick, 100 pull
Run - 2.5 miles, 20:02
Lower body/hips/core routine, Abs (300)

I ran fast today and my knee was ok! What a great feeling that is. With the minimal amount of running I have been doing lately, and with the slow pace, I am happy that I was able to spontaneously run 2.5 miles at just over my recent 5K race pace. This was a good test to know that my fitness is still on track.

Swimming 4-5 times per week is making a difference in how comfortable I feel in the water. Doing 2000 yards frequently seems more beneficial than doing 3000 or more just 2-3 times per week. At this point, 2000 feels like hardly a workout. My arms do not get sore either so I am able to recover completely in one day. Arthur Lydiard is a legendary running coach from New Zealand whose method emphasizes consistency with a slow pace to build a very strong base of aerobic fitness and structural soundness. Though he created his method for runners, I am able to successfully apply it to my swimming. By the time I race Ironman, I want the 4000 meter swim to feel as easy to me as the 2000 does now since I will have a long day ahead of me when the swim is over.

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

numb toes

[2/7/06 Tuesday]
Swim - 2000m, 35:37 - 250 pull warm up, 10x150 w/ 20 sec rest, 250 pull cool down
Bike - 18 miles, 1:12 - outside ride, rolling hills, Hwy PD to Paoli

I had two great workouts today. I had exactly one hour to leave work, get to the pool, swim, and get back to work. With no frills in my swim or shower routine, I made it it 1:07. The swim itself was short, sweet, and to the point: short warm up and cool down with endurance repeats as the main set. I didn't need to bother with a workout card, because I had the workout memorized before I got there.

I am preparing for my bike trip to Hawaii and am concerned that only doing spin classes is not going to prepare me for the hills and longer rides. I decided to do an outdoor ride today. There is no snow on the ground and it is 30 degrees, so conditions, while not ideal, are acceptable. I rode one of my common routes of rolling hills. Next week I need to start working the hills even more, but this week I let myself ease into the outdoors. My toes were completely numb by the end, and I didn't have enough water with me, but other than that it was ok. I started to get cold by the end. My friend told me that while some people have relationship baggage, I have biking baggage. I'm not exactly sure what that means, but maybe it has something to do with enjoying certain rides more when they are over.

Techniques that I work on in spin class were helpful to think about on my real bike today, like: keep my shoulders down at all times, use the entire pedal stroke on flats, when hills get hard only pull up on the pedals. Getting the chance to practice these techniques on my real bike at the same time that I am re-learning them inside will hopefully help them stick in my mind as the weather warms up and I don't go to spinning anymore.

Even though it was 30 degrees outside and the water in my water bottle turned to ice today, the manure on the farmland that I biked through still smelled like manure.

Monday, February 06, 2006

2006 Race Schedule

[2/6/06 Monday]
REST Day

My tentative race schedule for 2006 is:

April 2 - Shamrock Shuffle 8K - Chicago IL
April 29 - Crazy Legs Classic 8K - Madison WI
May 28 - Mad City Half Marathon - Madison WI
June 4 - Lake Mills Sprint Triathlon - Lake Mills WI
June 17 - Horribly Hilly Hundreds 100K Bike - Mount Horeb WI
July 1 - Pardeeville Sprint Triathlon - Pardeeville WI
July 15 - Lifetime Fitness Olympic Triathlon - Minneapolis MN
August 5 - Steelhead Ironman 70.3 - Benton Harbor, MI
September 3 - Cow Chip Classic 5K - Sauk Prairie WI
September 10 - Ironman Wisconsin - Madison WI

Sunday, February 05, 2006

digestion rollercoaster

[2/5/06 Sunday]
Run - 3 miles, 28:32
Swim - 2000yd, 34 min - main set as 800yd pyramid (13:44): 25 easy/25 hard, 50 easy/50 hard, 75easy/75 hard, 100easy/100 hard, 75 easy/75hard, 50easy/50 hard, 25easy/25 hard
Hip strength routine, Abs (100)

My "long run" of 3 miles went well today and my knee didn't hurt. As long as I continue to hold back on distance and pace, I think I will be back to normal running fairly soon. Overall, my body is feeling a little on the edge of tired and sore so I am looking forward to tomorrow's rest day.


[2/4/06 Saturday]
Run - 2 miles, 18:35
Bike - 2:15, 2 indoor spin classes back-to-back

As I have been increasing the amount of time I am training each day, my food is getting a little messed up. After long workouts like today, I get really hungry and then I eat too much and feel sick. Then some days I eat too little and feel lightheaded. When last season ended, it was hard to go from eating as much as was required to sustain training, to relatively little. Now it is the reverse problem. Eating has never been a problem for me, but now it seems that my body is having trouble digesting larger quantities.

Today's back-to-back spin classes were a pretty big jump in my long bike ride time for what I have been doing lately. Other than the food stuff, I felt fine and had no knee problems, even after running.

[2/3/06 Friday]
Rest Day

Not only did I take an unplanned rest day today, I ate a big bowl of homemade macaroni and cheese, a bunch of chocolate, and stayed up late even though I have a big workout early tomorrow morning. Days like this are sometimes necessary.

[2/2/06 Thursday]
Swim - 2000 yd, 37:48 - main set as drills, 5 x 100@ 1:36, 1:35, 1:34, 1:33, 1:32, 10 x 50 alternating hard/easy
Bike - 1:38, outside on mountain bike - broken into several rides: work commute, bike to gym and back home
Lower body and hip routine, Abs (300)

This was an exhausting day. All the biking as transportation was a fun way to get in a lot of biking without an official bike workout. I pushed pretty hard on my leg routine and can tell I am going to be sore.