Take the bike to the bike shop

Today's ride probably needed a little more oomph. I found that once I was going, my HR would drop because I was riding on the flat and I couldn't maintain the necessary work without going a million miles an hour. I tried to vary the workout, some hard stuff mixed with some high cadence pedaling... this helped. I wore my watch because I wanted to drop the bike off at the shop and I was nervous that I would forget my Garmin on the handlebars, so it was difficult to track exactly what was going on. For example... I didn't realize that my cadence monitor was not working until the ride was almost over. Whoops. I also ended up riding through town for part of the ride, which explains the stop and go at the beginning and end, but also, once I got downtown I was faced with a ton of construction and quite a few people out with small children whose favorite place to stand around was right in the middle of the bike lane. WTF?

Based on the fact that this was an "optional" recovery ride, I didn't sweat the small stuff too much. I know that I'm not supposed to over-work during this period, so I gave it what I was able to and then let the rest be what it was. Other things that I worked on: pedaling through the triangle with my left leg, passing people without pausing or slowing down, bike handling, getting on the bike in one smooth motion from the left instead of two motions from the right, and I threw in a few good accelerations.

Baby's at the bike shop now, getting a tune up. There's a rattling noise coming from the gear set, which they said they'd fix. Next week I pack it up and take it on the train.

Trifecta 1 of 4

I began today's trifecta with a bike in Central Park. I tried to make sure to keep my HR within the appropriate zone. I think I did a good job, though I may have popped out of Z4.

Followed the bike with the swim. Great effort here.

L1	54.94		L6	59.6		L11	55.55		L16	61.71
L2	59.44		L7	59.15		L12	60.98		L17	60.62
L3	61.77		L8	64.42		L13	59.12		L18	60.83
L4	58.15		L9	56.14		L14	58.74		L19	58.4
L5	58.23		L10	55.84		L15	54.38		L20	55.59
R	62.69		R	71.1		R	64.7

Average lap time is 58.68. I'll take that, for sure. Lap 8 experienced a swim clip slip, and I stood up to fix it. "R" equals rest time. I find that my first lap of a set always seems faster than the effort.

Finished up with the run late this evening. It was funny running for such a short time, when I've been doing long sets recently. I tried to keep my pacing at Z2 (around 10:00 mile) for 3 minutes, Z3 (at 8:45-9:00 mile) for 3 minutes, and Z4 (around 8:00 mile) for 4 minutes. Flipping through the data on my way home, I hit this target in the second set, but went over in the first set. I actually went too fast in Z4... max pace was 7:12, average 7:37, which took my HR too high.

How to train in a Hurricane...

You just do.

Ran yesterday in the pouring rain, ran today in the ultra wind. Today's brick was successful, meaning I did what I was told. I feel like that's where I'm at these days... because of the nature of the workouts, not because of anything else. These workouts are totally reasonable, they are absolutely within the parameters of my ability, and though they can be long, they are not impossibly difficult. Because of that, the challenge lies in actually DOING the workout, motivating to get out and get it done, but not as much in the actual work. At least, that's what I'm feeling.

Anyway, ladder in the saddle. Five minutes each Z2-Z4, repeated 4x. This was good. I worked on my own (without a video) indoors and varied the workout as needed to keep the HR within zone. The first and third sets, I worked easier gears with higher cadence. Second and fourth sets were lower cadence with bigger gears. I was most successful during the second set.

As I was riding, I lost my mind and forgot I had the watch on AutoSport, so the first 5mins of my workout is here.

After a clean transition and a walk down the stairs, I ran for 30 minutes. A few things caught me up during this run, but I feel that (despite the odd data) I achieved my goal. First, my watch takes a while (usually 10+ minutes) to sync with satellites, so the first section of my run is without pacing info. Second, as I hit the first mile of my run I began to cramp up. This is the third run in a row with mega abdominal cramping. I run through it, but it sucks. Finally, as I turned around at the halfway point, I was met with a significant headwind, which had previously pushed me along from behind. You can see this starkly reflected in my HR data. In order to achieve the same speed, I had to work harder. At the end of the 20 minute <9' set, I decided to book it up the hill and max out. Felt good.

Inclement Weather

In spite of the pre-storm rain, I went out into the park and ran a long Z2 (mostly) lap around the park. Paced really well for the first twenty minutes in Z2, then picked up the pace and averaged a nice 9'00 mile for the next twenty minutes (prescribed at race pace), followed by 37 minutes in Z2. Strict instructions not to "overdo it" played in my head throughout the run. I was grateful for this run because I have been thinking about the 10k distance and realized the other day that I haven't run that far in a while. I've run 5+ miles, but not quite 10k. I like to feel it in my body so that I'm not concerned about my abilities.

Good day.

Straight Swim

Drills to warm up (are you surprised?), 300y finger drag, 3T, one-arm freestyle, 3T, catch up.

Forty-five minute straight swim. The first 36 mins, 15 seconds comprised the first 33 laps. This is roughly the distance of the swim in the tri. I was not going at a race pace, but was focusing instead on my breathing. This means, as far as I can tell, that my "slowest" pace at the tri would be around this time... provided, of course, that I don't completely freak out, switch strokes, go off course, go into shock, have an asthma attack, stop, or drown.

Overall, my average lap was 1'05. I pushed the pace to 1'00 for the final lap, finishing 41 laps in 45'07.53. Here are my splits:

L1	65.75		L11	60.19		L21	67.13		L31	68.4
L2	67.58		L12	62.23		L22	67.01		L32	65.5
L3	64.72		L13	64.55		L23	70.92		L33	66.48
L4	64.81		L14	66.51		L24	68.13		L34	68.5
L5	64.27		L15	65.36		L25	66.17		L35	67.69
L6	65.06		L16	66.7		L26	64.63		L36	67.25
L7	65.18		L17	63.87		L27	67.43		L37	64.47
L8	65.78		L18	66.38		L28	67.09		L38	66.09
L9	62.89		L19	64.18		L29	68.27		L39	68.22
L10	67.36		L20	67.55		L30	65.85		L40	70.85
									L41	60.53

Finished with 300y mixed stroke. Total yards: 2650

Long ride

I mentally prepared for this ride all day. The important thing is to make sure to sustain the proper effort for the right amount of time. In this case, my set was 15 mins in Z2, 15 in Z4, 45 in Z3, 15 in Z4, another 45 in Z3 and 15 in Z2. If you got lost, that's 2.5 hrs on the bike, two hours at or above race pace.

I think I did a pretty good job. I felt really sore when I started the final cool down and that last 45 minutes at Z3 seemed to go on forever. My feet were the worst. Quads and knees were pretty stiff too, and don't even ask me about my ... saddle area.

Sweaty. Gross. Sore. But I did it.

Race Pace

Lots of running, biking, swimming at race pace these days. Today, I ran five minutes to warm up, thirty-five minutes at race pace, and five minutes to cool down. I feel like I effectively reached my goal, averaging 9 mins per mile. As I approached the cutoff and Lasker Hill, I saw some people on the shoulder who were petitioning for more bike paths. I (very quickly) stopped to sign the petition, hence the tiny hitch in my HR. I was grateful for the brief respite though, as I had been running very uncomfortably through bad cramps for the last mile or so. There are two other speed dips right around that HR dip, those were both due to a brief pause to try to work out the cramp. After I hit the west side of the park, things eased up and I finished well. Ouchy.

Day off

Today I spent my day working on an edit and happily enjoying my no-workout agenda. There was an earthquake, which was a little thrilling considering I felt it quite well from my 14th floor room. Good food, good down-time, good company, good work, minor natural disaster, generally a good day.

Oh. My. God. So. Tired.

Flight got in late, so I didn't get home until 2:30am. I slept until 8:45am, got some things together, put on my bathing suit and went to the pool. I have a long day ahead of me.

Swim was great. Ate granola and yogurt before leaving for the pool, brought a food bar with me for after, swam 200y to warm up and then set right into 15x 100y on 10". I am very pleased with the results of this swim. Specific data to come, but my slowest lap (50y) was 1'03. I really tried to get my body to work at a race pace the whole time. I am doing much better on my reach and pull, keeping my elbows bent and my hand in a strong position. Trying to focus on my left side, especially at the end of the pull. I tend to flip the hand out and relax prematurely, wasting the last bit of water.

Ate my food bar and went to the office to pick up some materials for my week (and give myself a little break between workouts). When I left I grabbed two hot dogs at Mike's Papaya, which I ate on the train. Upon arriving at home, I ate some leftover turkey meatballs with couscous and green beans. Hopped on the bike to ride for 90 minutes. Tuned into two episodes of Doctor Who and rode about 10 minutes to warm up, 80 minutes at a race-style pace (mostly monitoring my heart rate, kept between 155 and 175 throughout) varying the style of ride. I would pick a gear and a cadence and ride in that zone for 10 minutes straight, then spin fast for a minute 3x, then go back to a long ride with race cadence, "climb" a few hills, keep it interesting. Fed myself a GU after the first episode (about 45 mins in). Drank two bottles of water. I sweat a lot in the house. Yuck.

Transitioned quickly into running gear and bolted out the door, but didn't anticipate how tricky the stairs would be. My quads were not interested in "down". I had to hold the rail to make it down without buckling. Once I got outside, I hit lap on the Garmin and started an easy warm up run. My legs were really heavy. I ate a pack of Chomps right before I got off the bike, but realize that the effects were probably lost on the run, as I didn't have a long set. Once I got into the park, which took about five minutes, I ran one lap around the lower loop, trying to increase my pace as I went. This worked until I got to the hill that crosses back over at 72nd street. Getting up to the top was tiring and I found myself focusing on the cadence of my feet and really pulling myself along with my elbows. I haven't looked at the data for this set, but I don't think I have much at the beginning for pace, since it took the watch a while to find me.

When I got back to the house, I was tired. I took the stairs at a snail's pace and drank my milk as soon as I got upstairs. Hopped in the shower and threw my overnight bag together. I wanted to make the 4:03 train, but it didn't happen. Ended up just making it to the 4:42. Passed out on the train for about an hour. Thank goodness for an off day tomorrow.

Sunday in the tiny pool

Got up early and swam for about 45 minutes in the hotel pool. Did 16 laps of drills, which translates roughly to 400y. After that, I swam around the perimeter for a while, since no one else was up and out in the pool. This was interesting, because I didn't have to turn around, so as long as I stayed close enough to the long walls and paid attention, I could swim almost continuously. I tried to swim smoothly and consistently, but I definitely was not going fast.

Morning Run

I woke up at 3am Pacific time today (6am EST) and told myself to try to sleep more, as I would need the rest for the day. At 6am I got up and went to the sport center to run on the treadmill. I only have heart rate data for the day, as I don't have a foot pod anymore.

Ran 10 minutes to warm up. I set the treadmill at 5.5mph, which translates to nearly 11 minute miles. Once I was finished with the warm up, I had a 40 minute race-pace set, which I ran at 6.9mph, or 8:41. My heart rate climbed gently, but consistently to a max of about 173. I will upload the data as soon as I get back to my equipment. Here's a photo of the data from the 'mill though.



This evening I got in the tiny pool again. Swam a few drills, only about 15 minutes worth. When I got out, I noticed that the kids, who were enjoying late night pool time with me, were actually watching me swim and were mimicking me. It made me smile.

Travel day

Today I flew to Los Angeles. I slept for a little over an hour last night and barely nodded during the flight, which left Newark at 5am. I have a ton of work to do and a big training weekend, plus the shoot in LA. I am worried that I won't make it.

After a long day, I finally got an hour to nap. After that, I hopped in the (hotel-sized) pool and swam drills and laps. It was difficult to gauge how far I went, as I forgot my SportCount at home and the pool was much shorter. I would guess it was 13 yards, based on stroke count. I was in the pool for 45 minutes.

Spinervals 27.0 plus a bonus swim!

I'm unexpectedly traveling this weekend, and so have had to make a few amendments to my workout schedule. I was supposed to swim 1100y tomorrow, but may not be able to so I swam it today. Warm up with 100y drills and then swim a straight 1000y.

1		59.82		11		1'07.97
2		1'04.97		12		1'07.26
3		1'06.46		13		1'04.62
4		1'06.21		14		1'07.04
5		1'11.69		15		1'05.54
6		1'05.63		16		1'07.76
7		1'07.09		17		1'06.06
8		1'05.06		18		1'06.56
9		1'05.22		19		1'04.20
10		1'06.53		20		1'01.19

TOTAL: 21'56.88
Average lap: 1'05.84

Spinervals 27.0 was a good effort. I was asked to do a similar effort earlier this week and I miscalculated my LT by 10bpm. Unfortunately (and uncharacteristically), I estimated too low and didn't work hard enough. Today, I listened to Coach Troy and achieved better results.

Run

I think someone spilled clove oil all over the road at the 72nd Street park entrance. Seriously.

Ran a couple of times around the lower loop this evening, I set out to do 5x 5mins at race pace with 1.5 mins recovery... well, I guess that's what I did do, but I felt slow.

I've been feeling kind of slow lately. In all sports. I am hoping that it is just a cyclical thing and that I will be on the upswing again very soon. The type of training that I'm doing is different too though, so perhaps that has something to do with it. Regardless, I'm trying to do my best to stick to the program, whatever it is.

Long time in the Pool

Two hundred yards of drills followed by 40 minutes straight swim:
L1- 57.68
L2- 1'08.00 (goggle issue)
L3- 1'08.31 (lane miscommunication)
L4- 1'04.14
L5- 1'05.93
L6- 1'03.96
L7- 1'04.63
L8- 1'04.67
L9- 1'03.71
L10- 1'04.97
L11- 1'05.51
L12- 1'03.89
L13- 1'05.69
L14- 1'06.89
L15- 1'05.98
L16- 1'06.31
L17- 1'06.80
L18- 1'04.24
L19- 1'05.34
L20- 1'04.13
L21- 1'06.23
L22- 1'06.41
L23- 1'07.47
L24- 1'07.73
L25- 1'09.78
L26- 1'05.88
L27- 1'07.37
L28- 1'04.50
L29-1'05.13
L30- 1'05.05
L31- 1'05.94
L32- 1'08.30
L33- 1'05.43
L34- 1'09.60
L35- 1'05.95
L36- 1'07.63
L37- 1'04.91
TOTAL: 40'26.40
Average lap: 1'05.58

Followed by 15x50y on 15" alternating easy, hard.
L1- 1'08.30 R: 18.43
L2- 53.10 R: 13.44
L3- 1'08.30 R: 15.67
L4- 51.41 R: 14.27
L5- 1'08.35 R: 16.37
L6- 49.35 R: 15.43
L7- 1'06.72 R: 20.27
L8- 50.09 R: 18.18
L9- 1'06.93 R: 13.00
L10- 50.72 R: 13.81
L11- 1'06.38 R: 13.33
L12- 51.01 R: 15.27
L13- 1'04.00 R: 8.79
L14- 51.50 R: 15.30
L15- 1'04.14

One hundred yard cool down - breast stroke.


Total yards: 2,900

No fun, no sun.

My outdoor ride was cancelled today due to inclement weather. I was supposed to work on bike handling, mounting, dismount and passing today. Instead I hauled out the trainer and put in some time indoors. I watched a couple episodes of Doctor Who and rode 10 mins to warm up, 20 mins at LT (which is always a bit tricky for me to do on my own on the trainer) and 15 mins to cool down.

Made dinner right away. I have been eating all day. Feels like I can't get enough food in me.

Feeling a little achy in the knees again today, just mentioning it in case I need a point of reference in the future. I can't afford to get an injury. Literally. I can't afford it.

Rainy Day Race Simulation

Thirty-five minute straight swim today. I really focused on how I felt swimming and how to get into a rhythm. I took my time - or at least I mentally took my time - for the first 300y and then I checked in with my body. All systems were go, so I thought about picking up the pace a bit. I found as I was going that if I altered a piece of my workout, (ie: focusing on bent arms rather than glide) I would start to windmill. So, I would refocus on the task at hand. The idea of "reach" isn't in my blood yet, it's still a conscious effort. I also made sure to turn around as "gently" as possible. I barely touched the wall, this way I had a better idea of the actual amount of effort required to swim for this long.

400y of drills (alternating regular fs) to warm up:
finger drag, catch up, 3T, underwater switch, right arm freestyle, left arm freestyle, 3T, zipper

35 minute set:
L1- 1'02.06
L2- 1'05.13
L3- 1'04.37
L4- 1'07.12
L5- 1'05.16
L6- 1'06.37
L7- 1'02.62
L8- 1'00.86
L9- 1'03.00
L10- 1'05.21
L11- 1'06.66
L12- 1'03.79
L13- 1'06.43
L14- 1'03.41
L15- 1'06.05
L16- 1'04.22
L17- 1'07.47
L18- 1'00.01
L19- 1'05.71
L20- 1'02.63
L21- 1'01.50
L22- 1'04.09
L23- 1'04.17
L24- 1'04.76
L25- 1'03.68
L26- 1'05.14
L27- 1'04.26
L28- 1'05.87
L29- 1'00.59
L30- 1'05.09
L31- 1'06.12
L32- 1'01.37
L33- 1'02.57
L34- 1'00.38
TOTAL TIME: 36'17.87
Average lap: 1'04.06

Drills: 100y cool down.

Total yards for the swim: 2,200

Training at 10K race pace

Today was another interval set, this one longer than Wednesday's. I had a feeling that I went out too hard on Wednesday and that my idea of "race pace" was incorrect. I was training with the pace that I would race that distance (20 minutes) in mind. In fact, I should be training with a 10K in mind. Today, I achieved that zone.

I looked pretty running too. :)

Good job, Speer

Spinervals 17.0

This was a good workout. I kept my heart rate down, which is usually a big problem for me, and I kept my cadence within the range that was being requested, which meant that I often was in an easier gear. But I am happy with the result. As you can see from my data, I was pretty consistent and maintained the correct steady effort that was requested. I am happy with this.

I am a day late, but yesterday was a long one for me. I started working at around 8:30 and didn't get home until nearly 8:30 that evening. In addition, I have been struggling with a bit of depression that has been difficult to shake. Financial woes are really beating me down and it affects my day to day. I am looking forward to the days of steady work, a nice paycheck and the ability to focus my energy on the things that I enjoy. I'm not quite there yet.

Too fast at the start

I think I began the first race pace set too fast.

I also was a bit concerned about my breathing. Though it was steady, I felt tight today.

Bumped the "start" key on my watch when I plugged it in, so Garmin recorded odd spacing for my data.

Shallow End

A good swim in a tiny pool. Weird to hop in and have the water only come up to your crotch.

Four hundred yards (in theory, the pool may have only been 24y) of drills, each 50 was half drill, half regular; finger drag (2x), catch up (2x), 3T (2x), underwater switch, one arm freestyle (25y each). Added a lap to count strokes & try to minimize the number; 12 strokes forward, 13 strokes back.

Three sets of 400y with 1'30" rest in between. I tried to focus on maintaining a long glide and a strong catch. I was lucky enough to get some pointers as I went along and will incorporate them into my future swims. I try to think about different drills that will help me to focus on the specific improvement that I want to make.

Times:
S1 - ................S2- ..................S3-
L1: 56.81 .......L1: 57.61 .........L1: 54.92
L2: 59.34 ......L2: 57.92 ........L2: 59.43
L3: 1'03.37 ....L3: 1'00.86 .....L3: 59.26
L4: 1'01.13 .....L4: 59.92 .......L4: 1'00.70
L5: 1'02.80 ....L5: 1'02.27 .....L5: 59.71
L6: 1'04.39 ....L6: 1'01.93 ......L6: 1'00.51
L7: 1'01.50 .....L7: 1'02.58 .....L7: 1'01.34
L8: 1'02.03 ....L8: 1'00.49 .....L8: 1'02.34

All things considered, good swim. The pool tasted like people, which was really gross, but the frickin' gym was called "Sweat Fitness," I mean really? What did I expect?

Bike on the Trainer

Well... I couldn't seem to muster the full energy necessary to haul the bike downstairs, complete with gear and dress, but I managed to put it on the trainer, top off with some shorts and a sports bra, try a ride with no socks (not just being lazy here, this is actually for training) and ride my 4 sets while watching Doctor Who.

I tried to keep my cadence consistent for some sets, shake it up for others. Stood up twice, shifted gears as necessary and tried to keep the HR in the 140-150 range. Probably a little low, but my legs weren't responding well to being pushed. I don't like feeling like this was a throw-away. I have a tiny voice in my head saying, "If you're not going to push hard and do it right, you might as well have skipped it."

But I know if I skip it, it will start a pattern for the week.

Just like clockwork

I am so tired. What the hell.

It's as if I had a timer set that said "every fourth week, you will lose all motivation, all inspiration, the ability to function and, just to be ironic, you'll be completely fatigued as if you were working non-stop." That's me today. Great. Welcome to recovery week... sigh.

My goal this week: just do the workouts. Just DO them!

So far today, I have accomplished a swim. Two laps of drills (25 drill/25 reg) and one 1000y TT. Right goggle eye decided to allow water in the whole time, so my eye is red and irritated and the swim was uncomfortable. Swim clip kept slipping and I had to fix it multiple times. I cannot afford to have equipment malfunctions like this during the race, I'm barely functional as a swimmer as it is. Bah.

Here are my laps for the TT:

L1: 55.15
L2: 1'01.47
L3: 1'07.44 (swim clip)
L4: 56.63
L5: 59.61
L6: 1'02.74
L7: 1'01.21
L8: 1'02.54
L9: 58.97
L10: 1'01.31
L11: 1'00.95
L12: 1'03.58
L13: 1'02.99
L14: 1'03.25
L15: 1'05.12 (swim clip)
L16: 1'03.08
L17: 1'01.72
L18: 1'03.74
L19: 1'08.29 (swim clip)
L20: 1'02.55
Total: 20'37.34
Avg: 1'01.867 per 50 yards

I altered my usual turnaround tactic, so I used the wall much less and had almost no "glide" time before I began my stroke. Toward the second half of the swim, I was actually doing the open turn with my arm poised to enter the water for a catch as soon as I straightened out. I feel like I have been relying on the wall too much to lower my stroke count and give me a lot of rest time. I won't have any walls in the Potomac.

I watched the NYC Tri swim today. I was fairly overcome with a mix of emotions and states of mind as I watched the swimmers make their way down the Hudson. Feelings of terror and exhaustion; putting myself into a mindset where I thought about "just swimming, no matter what, for 30 minutes"; thoughts that it was going to take me much longer than that; feeling stupid for feeling anything negative as I watched paratriathletes swim with missing limbs; back to feeling panic, realizing that the Hudson was flowing with the swimmers and the Potomac won't be; wondering whether I'll be able to swim with a wetsuit, since I don't own one yet and don't know how I'll get one; memories of the 450y sprint swim I just experienced and the level of stress and anxiety I was under for less than a third the distance of the Olympic swim...

I have to go ride my bike now.

Humid, but not too hot

I feel like I have more trouble with my asthma when I pace slower. I'm not sure whether this is psychosomatic or coincidental... it was also humid as all-get-out today, so that may have played a role. I seem to be much more conscious of my heart rate monitor (ie: it feels too tight and constricting) when my asthma is acting up. I didn't need to take any meds today, but I definitely felt "tight". Oddly, I felt the most constriction when my HR was in the 135-145 range and less when I was 145+. Again, may be psychosomatic.

So the run was good. I ran the big hill at the north side of the park, it felt good to run up at that point, my arms and back wanted to change position. Good excuse to do so.

I ran backwards at the bottom of the museum mile. This was the first time I had ever done that, and I was by myself, which made it a little tricky. I ran along the white line so that I wasn't veering into anyone's space. When I turned back around, my heart rate had soared into the 160s, which I wasn't expecting. I did sideways drills (grapevine) at around 87th Street on the west side for 30s each side... this also raised my heart rate unexpectedly. Finally, after a short cut across the top of the Sheep Meadow and back, I skipped for two minutes to end my 77 minute run. I was expecting this to cool me down, as it was at the end of the run, but it actually brought my HR to the peak of the entire workout. I will have to consider these drills and their effects... I'm not sure yet how to digest the data.

Anyway, I felt generally good about this workout. I was thinking a lot about triathlon while I ran, as this is just a little under a mile more than the distance of the last leg of an Oly tri. I tried to think about what it felt like to run for that long and what it would feel like to run that distance after a half hour plus in the water and nearly two hours on the bike. I think that if I let myself find my legs (re: warm up) into the run and then gradually increase my pace to a sub 10' mile I'll be happy with the run. I can definitely do that. That will be my goal.

I'm getting up bright and early to volunteer for the New York Tri tomorrow. Got my shirt and credentials today. Hoping the shirt doesn't dye my skin smurf blue after standing in the rain for six hours. Why do I insist on volunteering for rainy triathlons?

Ride and Stride - Spinervals 10.0

Sweaty sweaty sweaty. Oh my goodness, I am SO looking forward to my day off tomorrow. I'm going on two weeks without a break. Although the week heading into the sprint was an easy week, I'm still tired.

Today's bike ride was pretty good. First time in a while that I've gotten up raring and ready to go. I feel like I could have done a little better had I been less fatigued, but all things considered the effort was there. The cadence data is nice and neat.

A good solid effort these last two weeks. I'm glad too - I feel I made up for the crap that was happening before that.

Rainy Run

I was intending to capitalize on the pre-rain temperature drop, but fell asleep instead. I need to stock up on things that I can eat at home. Right now, I am making decisions that will affect my training if I don't rectify them soon. Hoping that this job comes in and I can take a deep breath before diving right back into the search.

So, I missed my window and had to do it in the rain. I was actually alright with that factor, considering that it was not terribly windy and the rain wasn't too cold. There were quite a few runners in the park still, most of them belong to a road runner club or tri club, I could tell by their chatter.

I feel like my run today was very successful, not only because of the pace and heart rate during the intervals (5 minutes at race pace) but more so because I have really keyed into slowing down on the "off" portion (1 minute recovery) and am working on my HR recovery speed.

All my life people have told me certain things about their perception of me, but until I see the proof, I push and push and push beyond my limits. It's not that I don't believe them, rather it is that I don't want to prove them wrong. I don't want to sabotage the opportunity to see what they see by doing "good enough". I want to push and strive and be more so that when I am able to see what they see, I can be 100% proud of myself. I want to prove to them that I am truly as good as they see. That I don't give up. That coasting at "good enough" isn't good enough.

Now that I have seen that I am fast and have done the work to get to that point, I want to go deeper. The next few weeks leading up to the Nation's Triathlon will be about keying into the specifics of each workout. Today, it was about training in spite of the rain, running the loop instead of the reservoir, monitoring and maintaining my speed and, most importantly, using the recovery.

Oh, my aching... everything!

Oof. Today was NOT a recovery swim.

First, swim 500y of alternating drills/freestyle. Focus on glide and reach. I did a really good job with this. Finger drag, catch up, 3T, zipper, etc. Repeat until satisfied.

Now on to the main set, 10x100y alternating hard/easy effort every 15"-20".
(H) S1- 59.93/1'00.29 20" rest
(E) S2- 1'07.25/1'08.69 15" rest
(H) S3- 1'02.09/1'04.87 20" rest
(E) S4- 1'04.89/1'07.52 18" rest
(H) S5- 1'03.31/1'01.47 20" rest
(E) S6- 1'07.00/1'04.36 18" rest
(H) S7- 57.99/1'02.20 25" rest
(E) S8- 1'00.43/1'03.82 15" rest
(H) S9- 1'02.26/1'00.93 20" rest
(E) S10- 1'05.22/1'04.88

Kick drills: 200y, no kickboard. Each 25y add 2 strokes, begin with zero. This was actually much more beneficial and much less difficult than I expected. I really got to focus on the flutter kick and keeping my legs straight, knees together. I became really efficient at breathing in this position too. By the time I was allowed 10+ strokes, I didn't even use all of them, which I probably should have, but I have never done this drill before and didn't time very well. I like this. I will do it more.

One thousand yard straight swim. I counted 100s:
100: 2'06.50
200: 2'12.88
300: 2'14.02
400: 2'13.07
500: 2'12.80
600: 2'16.66
700: 2'17.84
800: 2'01.51
900: 2'12.67
1000: 2'15.13

Three hundred yards cool down. I just split this between freestyle, breast stroke and back stroke.

Tired after. And very hungry.

Recovery Run

A nice easy run today. I actually kept it nice and easy... aren't you proud of me?