Soggy Run

Wanted to run this morning, but it was rainy.  I ran anyway, but I probably should have stuck to the pavement.  Instead I ran up to the Reservoir and ran through the puddles.  It was okay, but a dryer run might have been nice.  Feet were soggy by the time I got home.

Swim

Got in the pool and swam two straight ten minute sets.  I'm coming in at around 65 seconds per lap.  But I'm not kicking.  As I focus more on my pull and my body position I am feeling myself get a little faster.  Smoother.  Keep it up.

Yay me.

I actually got up and got on the bike today.  Go me.

Spinervals 1.0 sounded good today and I just decided to get up and get crackin'.  Break the bad habits.

And work hard on hard days.

Nine Miler

I ran nine miles with my friend Randy today.  He's training for his first HIM, so his distances are much farther than mine and his effort is different.  Sometimes he gets a workout that (sort of) functions in my plan and I like to have company for the long runs when I can. 

This run was hard.  Running it at 9:45 average was a task in and of itself.  I hyperventilated a bit at one point, but I was able to recover and keep going.  I hate it when my body stops me.  It makes me want to push it and say, "No! Don't make an ass out of me, body! Do your job!"

But I made it.  And so did Randy.  He makes it all look so easy.  One day, maybe I'll look speedy and smooth like him. 

Running with Julia

My friend and I ran a nice three miles this morning.  It is always nice to run with friends for the easy stuff. 

One More Lap

I skipped too many workouts this week.  I am getting into the habit of talking myself out of them.  Actually, that's inaccurate.  What I actually do is think about the workout that I have to do, consider how much time it will take, think about the effort it will require, think about the nutrition I should eat/should have eaten, think about what I have to do later, think about how cold it is outside, think about laundry, think about my workout, think about how much time it will take, reconsider what time it is, think about the effort it will require and then start the process from the beginning until I succeed in sitting on my couch or laying in bed through the duration of the feasible workout time required to complete the task and then I talk myself out of it.  Switching almost instantly to berating myself for doing it again.

Today I planned to run six miles and goddammit, I ran six fucking miles.  So there.

This was a good ride

I know that I had been slacking this week, which is why I felt so strong and fresh for this ride. 

If this was a recovery week, that would be one thing... but this is the week after recovery and I just have no excuse.  Being stupid. 

The ride was good though.  I killed the hill a couple times and really tried to power through and make it count.  Wish I felt more motivated to be awesome.  I just feel lame and unawesome.

Early Run in the Fog

I need to update my blog daily again.  I've been disenchanted with my workouts.  I feel uninspired and lonely when I work out most of the time.  I need to tap into something that will bring out the excitement again.  I just don't know what that is.

All I remember about this run is that the thick cloud cover made my data wonky.

A swim set

WU: 200 mixed, 200 drills, 200 kicks (50 left, 50 right, 50 forward and 50 on your back) - total 600
MS: 5 x 100 on 2:15, rest 1-2mins, 5 x 50 on 1:05 - total 750
CD: 400 easy swimming and drills
Total 1750

5x100
Lap 1	58.37	59.47	60.78	60.27	58.04
Lap 2	62.59	61.38	60.12	61.37	61.96
Recover	15.18	12.32	14.75	13.76	60.38
-on 2:15
5x50
Lap 1	54.82	56.21	58	59.97	59.37
Recover	10.05	8.93	6.51	5.05
-on 1:05

New Hat!

I went for a quick swim this evening, barely finished my set before the pool closed (whoops! cut it kind of close...)

I am trying to swim without kicking.  This was my first attempt at a main set and it was... okay.  My feet really want to kick to help me stay afloat.  I really had to focus on telling them to stay still and focus on maintaining balance in the water.  I am not really sure whether or not I liked this, but we'll see what I can learn from it.

Here is my set:

2x (5x100y)	Set 1	Set 2	Set 3	Set 4	Set 5
Lap 1	58.79	56.19	62.27	61.29	60.24
Lap 2	58.56	62.39	66.09	64.8	65.54
R	35.97	21.62	29.4	16.54	49.59
Lap 1	57.5	59.53	58.95	59.77	57.21
Lap 2	65.6	64.09	59.72	65.68	58.75
R	12.75	25.87	15.43	18.93

Two things:  First, I really wasn't kicking.  I was so focused on not kicking, it was all I was thinking about.  Second, I'm really surprised that my times are still around a minute per lap (generally).  I really thought I was going to be in the 70sec+ range.  That is good.

I think I could have probably gone harder, but I was trying to focus so much on my legs that the rest of the body was kind of on auto pilot.  I would try to think about speed or form or how much my head was turning, but then my legs would try to kick... so I had to focus on them.

I did, however, get right into the pool without incident thanks to my handy dandy new neoprene cap.  I put the neoprene cap on over my regular cap and goggles.  I'm sure I looked like a 'tard, but whatever.  I felt good.  I felt warm (thank god) and the bonus feature of no water in the ears was great!  I did have some goggle malfunction at first, but once I fixed it I was fine.

The Flowers are Blooming

I had a nice ride around the park today in the warm, sunny weather.  I did three full loops in 65 minutes, average pace of around 16.7mph.  It was my intention to finish the ride with some bike handling drills around the small fountain, but the parks department is refurbishing it and it is closed.  Booo...

During my three laps I focused on a nice warmup for the first 10 minutes, keeping my cadence up and my bike in small ring/15(ish) then I switched to big ring for the upper half of the park.  I decided this was a good method (small ring below 79th Street, big ring above 79th Street) and kept at it.  It was good to focus on the work my legs were doing and feel the power that I was creating.  I felt really strong today.  I think I benefit greatly from paying attention to my own efforts instead of comparing my efforts to those of the people around me.  I feel more proud of myself for my personal accomplishments when I focus like that.  Nice ride.  Beautiful day.

Good Morning

Once I got out of the house and onto the trail, I felt great.  I ran the Reservoir track because it is the most consistent (flat) area to run and I wanted to put out a consistent effort today.  Nailed it. 

Ran recovery at around 10:00 and tempo right about 8:30/8:40.  Felt good.  Main set was 4 x (4t, 2r).

Spinervals 8.0

This was a good ride.  I felt refreshed enough to put a good effort in, but was thoughtful enough not to over exert myself.  The super spins and one-leg drills really worked well and I felt strong and focused during each set.  Good effort.

I guess you could call that swimming.

Yuck.

Well, my swim consisted of 200y warm up followed by half an hour of being a jackass followed by 200y cool down.

Allow me to explain.  I am trying to make a smaller hole in the water to swim through.  This can only be done by making my body more horizontal and less bendy in the water.  When I saw my legs in the video last week, I finally understood what I was doing.  I seriously bend my knees.  It's as if my lower body is on a bicycle.  Bad.

So, the advice was, "Don't kick."  Great.

What happens when I don't kick?  Well, generally I feel like I'm sinking, drowning, or otherwise not accomplishing the task of swimming.  I tried to do drills without my legs:  during finger drag, my go-to drill, I noticed my knees bending.  My legs were together, yet my knees were bending, bringing my feet closer to my butt.  This caused me to feel like I was dropping my hips (probably because I was) and that made me feel like I was sinking.  So I tried to use the pull buoy while doing my drills.  The main problem here is that when I use pull buoy, I cross my ankles.  When I don't use pull buoy, my legs struggle to stay together and then I bend my knees.

Bleh.

I tried to do a drill that was recommended to another swimmer who scissor kicks.  The drill involves a kickboard between the thighs.  I found I couldn't keep the kickboard in place without crossing my feet.  Again, a problem.

Finally, I decided to just be slow and awkward and swim without kicking.  I found that my legs would try to kick if I felt off balance or sinky.  I also found that my arms were dropping instead of reaching.  My whole body was basically scrunching involuntarily because that's the motion it's used to.  I am a caterpillar in the water.  No wonder I'm not getting any faster.

Better luck next time, I suppose.

Thank God for Recovery Week!

Recovery treadmill.  Ran 4 sets of 5 minutes alternating easy/tempo.  I set the 'mill so that "easy" was 10:45 and tempo was 8:30.  I accomplished my goal.

Early Morning Bike Ride

Bleh.  I think my body is tired.


This ride was okay.  The weather was nice and it was nice to have company, but my body just wasn't giving it to me.  I felt slow and ... slow.  There were a couple of sections that I found the effort inside of me, but for the most part I felt sluggish. 

Brisk Park Run

Ran this one while listening to music.  Kept the pacing at around 9:30 for the majority of the effort.  This run was needed for decompression and psychological cool down.  Feeling emotional today.

Swim Clinic

Got into my suit at 7:50am today.  The pool seemed warm at first, but after treading water and doing easy drills for an hour, my body temperature dropped pretty significantly.  Brr...

We focused on the idea that our bodies are not "swimmer" bodies; namely that we are built to be vertical, move in opposition and we won't sink (or at least most of us won't) but we fear we will.

The drills were helpful, but what I found to be extra helpful was the video recording session.  We each swam a length and were recorded for half of it.  Afterward, we sat around and listened to critique and suggestions.  I really got a lot out of this.  I was told that my overall form was good, my arm position and stroke are strong, but that I kick like a biker/runner and I turn too far when I breathe.

I will try to correct the kick issue.  I have been told not to kick at all... interesting.

Spinervals 5.0

I am disappointed with this ride, mostly because I went into it with one thought in mind - that I was going to be going hard.  However, this is not a "going hard" DVD.  My brain and my calendar and the DVD and my bike and I were all miscommunicating.  I ended up with an hour in the saddle at a moderate effort.  Had I been keyed into the right channel in my head, I would have easily completed the full 1.5hr video, but I wasn't.  Better luck next time!

Home Run

Today was a beautiful day.  The sun was out and the weather was warm.  I decided this morning that I was going to run during my lunch break.  I needed to run for 45 minutes, and lo and behold, this is how long it takes me to run from my office to my apartment.  The run is all uphill, so that was a little tiring, but I kept my pacing right around 9:30 as much as possible.  I forgot to bring my HR strap, so that was a bummer. 

I will be trying this again soon.

Spinervals 21.0

I don't think I realized what the description meant when it said, "one hour, steady effort."

But I found out.

This effort was mentally challenging more than physically.  It was difficult not to zone out or quit.  But I made it through and stayed in the zone.  My left calf was feeling twitchy and tight.  Mildly annoying.

Speed Work

I went to the gym to swim and suited up only to find that the pool was closed for swim team practice.  Luckily, I had also brought running clothes and so changed and used the treadmill.

I was a little concerned about running speed drills on my recently tweaked hamstring, but decided that I would start it out and just listen to my body.  Today was one of those days that my body decided to complain from the start, but not in an "ouch that hurts" way, more like "waaaahhh, why do we have to runnnnn??"  I told it to shut up.  Repeatedly.

I really like 30/30s.  Why?  Because they are just short enough for you to accomplish the fast part and just long enough to recover into the fast part again.  I ran at 7:30 for the speed sections and 10:45 for the recovery.  So says the 'mill.

After fifteen minutes of that, I got a minute to recover and then was supposed to run nine minutes more at tempo.  Well... by this time, my hamstring was legitimately threatening to tweak out again, so I took it a little slower, 9:15.

Reasonable results.  I went to the stretching room after and rolled out my hamstrings on a foam roller.  Best.  Tool.  Ever.

Sunshine and Wind in the Park

Four nice laps in the park.  I felt really good on the hill the first two times up.  That's a positive mark for me.  Also, I felt like I was going at a relatively quick pace even though I was in an easy gear with high cadence for the first two laps.

Third lap I slowed my cadence, but tried to keep up my speed.  I was reasonably successful at this.  I felt like I needed to be careful with my leg in the harder gearing though.  Final lap I was a little tired for, but the nutrition I ate halfway through seemed to kick in a little and help me through it.

The sun was out, which was nice after the rainy morning.  It was a touch on the windy side, however.  I was feeling a little annoyed with the amount of gust I kept feeling.  It seemed that every time I tried to speed up, the wind would push back.  Grr...

Speed Drills

My leg was doing well.  I gave it the day off yesterday, but today on my way home it got all tweaked out again.  I was going to do a ride tonight, but now I'm concerned about it.

The swim was good though.  A good warm up with drills to start, then some speed drills:

6x50y on 1:10	Lap 1	Lap 2	Lap 3	Lap 4	Lap 5	Lap 6
Swim	58.01	55.98	57.01	58.28	59.11	53.96
Rest	11.99	13.76	12.4	13.17	10.42
	70	69.74	69.41	71.45	69.53

6x50y on 1:07	Lap 1	Lap 2	Lap 3	Lap 4	Lap 5	Lap 6
Swim	52.21	54.92	55.33	56.45	59.53	60.24
Rest	14.79	12.55	10.18	10.75	7.88
	67	67.47	65.51	67.2	67.41

 Then some more drills... Then:

2x50y on :55	Lap 1	Lap 2
Swim	48.42	51.38
Rest	8.23
	56.65

A great set.  Cooled down and hopped out.  Leg feels ... mildly annoyed, but okay.

Please note:  All of those laps are sub :60 except one.  Woot.