There's No Crying in Swimming

Wow...today was frustrating. That is the only word I can use to describe it. I literally was about two seconds away from crying in the pool. It's hard to pinpoint exactly where it all went wrong this morning but it was definitely during the warm up set. My mind has been in so many different places lately, that I couldn't focus on what I was doing. I screwed up the easiest part of warm up! We were supposed to do 8 x 50 (25K/25S) IM order on the :50. I did 4 then moved right along to the next thing. Oops...I screwed up everyone in my lane. I recovered from that though and got ready for our main set.

And this is where I broke down. We were supposed to do 3 x 750 double descend. Intervals were 11:30, 10:30, 9:30. I should point out that distance swimming is not my friend. Especially when I have lots on my mind. I get started swimming then I start thinking about everything else going on in my life and pretty soon, I am completely lost and have no idea how far along I am. Sure enough, this happened today and before the first 250 was done, I had already lost count. So I was already off on trying to build the 750. Then somewhere around 600 yards, I got passed...by both of the guys in my lane. (In my defense, Niles was wearing both fins and paddles so he was swimming fast) That first one just completely defeated me. So I got out of my lane, moved over a couple, and made my own practice. I still did the same distance (1500 yards) but I did it on my own terms. I did 5 x 100 on 1:30, 5 x 100 on 1:25, and 5 x 100 on 1:15. By the time I finished that, it was 7:00 and I decided to call it quits for the day. I headed for the shower and made my way into the office.

After this shitshow of a morning session, the last thing I wanted to do was work out again. But I dragged my [not so] happy ass to the gym and reinstated the three mile lunch. I did 30 minutes on the treadmill at 6 mph. So I ran exactly three miles, cooled down, grabbed a quick shower, and headed back to the office. I felt really good while running so that was the highlight of my day.

And now I am struggling with my internet. For some reason, my network went out and will not reboot. So I'm stealing internet access from one of my neighbors to finish this post. Then I think it is just time to call it a day and go to bed!!!! Let's hope the rest of this week goes smoothly because I can't take another morning like today!

My Butt Hurts

So, my butt can tell that it hasn't ridden a bike in a while. Today was the longest ride I've had thus far in my training program and my rear-end is feeling it. And sadly, I had to cut my ride 15 minutes short because I just couldn't sit there any longer. After an hour and a half of sitting on a not-so-comfortable bike seat not moving anywhere but watching a Law and Order SVU marathon, I called it quits. I've got the padded shorts on and everything but couldn't do it anymore. Nevertheless, it was a good spin session. I can already tell that my legs are getting stronger and the time passed a lot more quickly than I expected it would.

This week was pretty tough in the training world. And I made all but one workout. Unfortunately, I just couldn't get myself off the couch Friday to go for a run. I got home from court around 3:30, got sucked into Jeopardy, and stayed there until it was dark out. So I missed an hour run. Other than that though, I completed every scheduled workout.

Tuesday morning's swim was excellent. The main set was 2 x 200 free, 2 x 500 free, 4 x 200 free, then 1 x 500 free. The times were 2:45 on the 200's and 6:00 on the 500's. It kicked my ass but I felt GREAT afterwards. Niles (one of the guys I regularly swim with) kept me motivated and he and I finished the set together. Tuesday's run on the other hand, was brutal. I need to tweak the Tuesday schedule a little bit. Typically, I get up, swim, eat breakfast, go to court, run, then eat lunch. However, by the time I get to the gym for that run, my breakfast has long burned off. I barely finished my 45 minutes and felt like I was going to pass out. So we're going to have to work on that.

Thursday was a struggle too just because by the time I got home from work, I just did NOT want to get on the bike. But, after a small fight with myself, I did it. I just need to keep up the motivation and I'll be ok.

On the schedule for tomorrow is another hour run. That shouldn't be a problem for me. I was supposed to go out tonight but I think those plans are falling through so I have no excuse not to get up and run before church. 27 weeks left! Let's get it!

Negative Splits

The weather has FINALLY cooperated with me and allowed me to run outside again! It got into the 40's today and I headed out this morning for an hour run. This was the first outdoor run I have done based solely on time instead of mileage.

I got in 6 miles in my one hour which is a great pace for me. I know that I am not going to hold 10 minute miles for a full marathon after swimming and biking. But, I think that i can potentially hole 13 minute miles. If I can keep up a faster pace for my shorter runs, I think I can hold a slower pace for the longer ones.

The exciting thing about this morning's run was that I negative split the six miles. It wasn't a significant negative split but there was a 15 second difference between the first three miles and the second three miles. And my last mile was the fastest of all coming in at exactly 10:00. I felt great and probably could have kept going but I had to get back, shower, and head downtown to church.

I'm feeling good and have enjoyed the rest of my Sunday afternoon. Tomorrow starts Week 3! Let's keep it up :-)

Breaking the Monotony

As I'm sure many of you know...doing the same thing over and over again gets pretty boring. Unfortunately, it is imperative to swim, bike, and run while training for any distance triathlon. And some days are looooong. So I like to find different ways to make it more exciting and make the time pass.

This past weekend was my first weekend of training. Saturdays are long bike days and Sundays are long runs. Because of the weather, I had to stay indoors. So how do you make a 60 minute bike ride on a stationary bike more exciting? You watch the NCIS marathon on USA :-) It's a lot easier to keep going when you are watching something interesting. If you want to mix it up even more, spin harder during the show and take it easy on the commercials. Then it gives you a bit of interval training which can be more beneficial than just straight spinning for an hour. It's best if you haven't seen the particular episode of that show so you don't know what is coming but it had been a while since I saw it so I didn't remember everything.

Sunday morning, I woke up at 7 all prepared to brave the elements and run for 45 minutes outside. Well, Mother Nature had different plans for me and it was snowing with a fresh inch or so on the ground. I'm not gonna lie, I am a wuss when it comes to running outside in the cold, especially when it's slick as shit. I'm not going to bust my ass. So I swapped out my Monday rest day with my 45 minute run on Sunday. I headed into the gym at 6am Monday and hopped on the treadmill. Because this was a long run, it wasn't supposed to be too high of intensity. Making this treadmill run more exciting was pretty much impossible. But thanks to Eminem's Recovery, I had some good tunes to get me through. I'm also pretty sure I look ridiculous when I'm singing to myself and almost dancing while running.

And now my favorite workout I've had in the past week. Today is Tuesday so it is a swim and run day. I headed to the pool this morning. Anyone who has put in the yardage in the pool knows that sometimes it's just flat boring. Especially when you're trying to get in a lot. I, personally, spend way too much time in my head if I'm just mindlessly swimming laps and over-analyze EVERY little detail of my life. So thanks to Andy, I had other things to think about today. We did a pretty standard warm up consisting of 200 kick, 200 free, 200 IM, 200 free. Then we did a vertical kicking set 2 x [5x :40 on, :20 rest, then two 50's free on 1:00 with a max of 3 breaths per 50]. Then it was time for the main set: the 1:01 Challenge. Here's how it works: it's 50's on the 1:01. BUT, you always have to make it back by the top. So you leave on the top, swim a 50, make it back by the top, then leave on the :01. And you keep doing them on the 1:01 but making it back before the top. You keep going until you no longer make it back by the top. I ended up doing about 30 50's. The last one I made was on :30. I'm not sure if I could have made more, but I had to get out and get ready for work. I'll be honest, I wasn't a big fan of this new coach but he's coming up with neat ways of making practice interesting. After about 8-10 months, I kind of like him now :-)

And now it's off to be an adult and go to work. I'll get my 30 min run in at lunch today on the treadmill and will hopefully be celebrating a successful day with dinner with my brother tonight.

Blizzard Blues

So, the infamous Blizzard of 2011 has put a damper on the training. Tuesday was day 2 of training and I needed to swim and run. I got the swim in but didn't make it to the gym to do my running. I thought about getting outside before the snow started to run quickly but I had to sign in to work from home and finish out the work day. By the time I signed out, the snow had started and showed no signs of stopping.

Wednesday was supposed to be a bike transitioning into run day. In all honesty, I could have gotten the bike in but once again, I was working from home and really didn't want to get out of my pajamas. I finally got out of my pj's and trekked over to Target for some sustenance. I took a few pictures and just so you know I wasn't being lazy, here is the proof that I couldn't run outside:

So there went Wednesday's training. Today was supposed to be a swim and bike day. Because my car was covered in snow (see above), I couldn't get to the pool this morning and struggled to make it to court on time so the biking didn't happen either. The CTA was PACKED and it was rather slow this morning.

So my alternate form of exercise for today was shoveling. I'm pretty sure my office wasn't going to let me stay home forever so I needed to make sure I could get there tomorrow. It took me an hour but I am happy to report that I can now get my car out of it's parking spot and can make the commute out to Burr Ridge tomorrow. I didn't wear my heart rate monitor but I'm fairly confident it got up there while shoveling. And I'm also pretty sure I'm going to be incredibly sore tomorrow.

The blizzard may have ruined my training for a couple days, but I'll be back in the gym tomorrow morning bright and early. Treadmill run with Staci then we're trying out the yoga-pilates fusion class. Thankfully, this is just the first week of training so I have plenty of time to make it up...29 weeks to be exact. No problem! I'll get back on the wagon tomorrow and all will be good.

Emotions Run Wild

First of all, few things in this world have the ability to make my eyes tear up instantaneously. One of them just so happens to be this magazine. I started receiving it shortly after completing the Steelhead 70.3 last year. Apparently, they thought I deserved a free subscription after paying the exorbitant entry fee. (Little did I know that the entry for a full Ironman would be even more ridiculous!) The magazine is called Lava and is billed as a magazine for "serious triathletes". I'm not sure if I qualify as "serious" but I'm trying! My first opinion was that there were waaaay too many advertisements in its pages. But they are effective! Each time I open one up, I find new gadgets to buy for my current bike and I am constantly drooling over my dream bike (which cost about as much as the car I'm driving!) Each issue gets even better and sends me on an emotional rollercoaster. One page tells the incredibly inspiring stories of Kona champions and shows me what hard work and dedication can do. I get so inspired by reading their stories and feel like I can conquer the world. Then I turn the page and read a story about how grueling the last ten miles of the bike is and the thoughts running through your mind as you head into T2 anticipating a full marathon run. These stories are the ones that fill my head with doubt, make me question my sanity, and I wonder what I have gotten myself into. But when all is said and done, I put down each issue a little bit more excited.

Now we move on to today's training. Today was the first actual day of workouts in my training program. One the menu was swimming and a 30 minute run. After a short battle with myself to get out of bed, I managed to get my ass out of bed and head to the pool. Thankfully, the snow hadn't really begun yet so I didn't have too much to brush off of my car. The workout was a little brutal. I totaled 3950 yards this morning. Warm up: 200 kick on the 4:15, 4 x 50 drill on the 1:15, and 3 x 200 (25 kick, 25 swim) on the 3:15. First set: 40 x 25 kick on :30 [(ez, fast, underwater, fast, ez, fast, fast, underwater) x 5]. The main set was the same for everyone but our intervals were different. The base time was your fastest 100 free time rounded to the nearest 5 seconds (this was a recent fastest 100 time...not a lifetime best). So my base time was 1:00. The intervals then were your base + 5 seconds for the first 12, your base time for the next 8, and your base time - 5 seconds for the last 4. The main set for Niles and me in lane for therefore was: 12 x 75 on the 1:05 then 1:00 rest, 8 x 75 on 1:00 and 1:00 rest, then 4 x 75 on the :55. It was TOUGH! I made the first 12 easily. Then I made the next 5 comfortably and was touch and go for the next three. Finally, the last 4 were too fast and it was just touch and go. But I finished. And I felt GREAT afterwards! Niles and I were quite impressed with ourselves, not only because we made the times, but because we stayed in throughout the whole practice :-)

I was also supposed to get in a 30 minute run today. There wasn't time to run after swimming and before court. So I originally was going to head into the gym to run on the treadmill. Apparently, the impending Chicago blizzard had other plans for me. The weather was ok after court and I could have made it to the office. But, the snow was supposed to start early afternoon. I did NOT want to chance it and get stuck out in the burbs at the office all night with the storm. So I called it a day and went back to work from home. Running didn't happen today but at least I had an excellent swim practice.

Let's see what tomorrow has in store for my training!