Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Heat....

5 mile run
8:30 pace
88 degrees
1pm

I'm ok with that. But just ok.

Swim yesterday was good. That's kind of how swims have been lately.....just..good. But I feel like I lost a lot of fitness and confidence lately with the swim, so now am working on getting it back in time for Portland. I'll just keep trying, and hopefully it'll be enough on race day.

I GOT A NEW BIKE. By Saturday, gone are the aching shoulders, the sore back, the heavy frame, and the snickers of other riders. Instead I will be whizzing right past all the snickerers on my beautiful new Ridley Compact. I think I'll call her Roxanne or Roxy.

Monday, July 26, 2010

Blogging Break

It's been too long since my last post to recount all the workouts I've done...I guess the thing to mention now is my revisited training plan pre-Portland. I discovered that Portland Tri is the Age Group Nationals qualifying race...so my new goal is to try to qualify. Whether or not I can achieve that goal with only three months of training behind me, I don't know. But I'm going to try my hardest.

In light of this new goal, and recent issues with making workouts and burning out and over-loading my plate, I redid my training plan for the next month. I realized that with school, homework, training and my job, I have a hard time making two workouts a day five or six days in a row. Somewhere in there I miss a day, and feel badly about it. This happened again on Thursday. I spent all evening thinking about my circumstances. Consistency seems so much easier for other people...but I'm not other people. And I thought about what makes me different. Or anyways, what affects ME. Not other people. I realized 1) If I only had a job, not a job I have to bring home each night (i.e. homework), training plans would be simpler. 2) I've never trained steadily through the summer heat. This is no doubt taking somewhat of a toll on me, mentally and physically. 3) I've never trained so consistently before. It's always GOcrashGocrashGo..CRASH. Not this time. 4) Maybe I'm just not ready for 2x daily, 6x a week workouts. And that's OK. I've only been at this for three months!

So now my plan is something like 'three days of workouts, one day off'. I just finished the first three days of training, and today is an off day. And I feel great! Tired, for sure, because I was able to focus more on my workouts without feeling overwhelmed by all I had to do before an off day, even when I was tired. This time, when I was tired, I knew I could rest soon. And therefore, I think my workouts went way better.

We'll see if this positive trend continues!

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Long Week..

I don't remember most of the workouts I did the past 8 days, but I do remember many of them were good. Running's been going well, with some solid half hour runs sans knee pain, breathing issues, stomach cramps, etc. Just the running I needed to get under my belt before I move forward. Biking's going well..Some good rides solo, and with Travis. I'm sick of riding in 90+ degree heat though! Swimming's been interesting. I went to my first Master's swim group on Monday, and had probably the best swim workout of my life. Meant to go again on Wednesday but after a night of tossing and turning I couldn't get myself to function at 5am. Tried to swim later but it was as though I forgot how to swim overnight. After a mile of absolutely pitiful turns, horrible times, and all sorts of other swim catastrophes, I called it a day. I haven't worked out since then...I hit a sort of wall yesterday and there was no way I was getting on my bike as I had planned. today, too, the runners stay by the door and my suit stays hanging upstairs. I really did feel good enough to train today, but I have tons of homework looming over my head and I know I never train as well when I have something looming over me, so I'm taking the day off to get some homework done, and to get excited about training again. I am, really, I'm just trying to figure it all out.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Lots to Update!

I can't believe how lax I'm being about updating this thing! I'd better get more strict about it...by the time I post I can't remember half the workouts I did, and that defeats the entire purpose of this blog!

Last Wednesday I swam 2k after class and rode an hour and a half.

Thursday I didn't work out...I've been having a hard time on Thursdays..they're the end of the school week for me, and I'm usually freaking out about a test or something and can't get myself to work out. If this Thursday presents the same issues, I'll go ahead and make that my off day from now on.

Friday I ran in the morning...thirty minutes or so, and it was hard! My legs felt fine, but my breathing was all screwed up. Like, I felt asthmatic or something...I couldn't take in a good breath. So it was a slow run, but a good lesson in toughing it out! I was supposed to run 40 minutes, but I couldn't make myself do it with such labored breathing! Then I rode a good two hours in the evening, the first hour alone and the second with Travis. I always ride better when I ride with him! So it was good.

Saturday I swam 2k and worked a lot on flip turns..the swim was ok. I'm working on improving my stroke, and playing around with different concepts/techniques. Flip turns are tiring!

Sunday I ran a 2 mile race in the morning! I tempo-ed it the whole way...it was a fun race, so I didn't want to be the asshole 'charging' everyone. I ran it in 13:48. Good, considering I hadn't run fast in awhile! In the evening I rode about 45 minutes with Travis, a good hilly ride. I need to work on climbing. And consistency.

(Holy moly this is long!)

Monday I swam a mile which was really difficult because of my breathing...after that 2 mile race I got a gnarly cough that didn't really go away for a few days, so while I was swimming I found I couldn't take a good, full breath. Made it really hard! I worked on flips again, too, for about 2k total of swimming.

Tuesday I rode an easy hour before class. Easy. It was early, and I was tired, and I had to pee SO bad the whole time! But I hate to stop on the side of the road....Then I was supposed to run half an hour in the evening, but I had a horrible gut ache from some undercooked rice, so after running through excruciating stomach cramps for 20 minutes, I called it good. Felt bad about quitting early AGAIN, but I feel good in that my legs never hurt or got tired, so I think I'm in good running shape, I just need to get better about lining my cards up right for a good, long run. I've got it in the legs, I know.

All in all, training's going well. I'm still really frustrated with running right now, but I'm hoping it's just another running funk I'll push through.