The Weakest Link

It's been a while since I last updated. I moved and unfortunately, the internet in my new building isn't quite working right. So, any tech savvy friends that want to come help are welcome :-)

Training took a back seat to moving during the first week of June. Although, I am pretty sure that the whole moving process counted as quality workouts because I'm STILL sore from it! I got into my new place and have it all set up now though so I'm back in the swing of things.

I used this weekend as a chance to see exactly where I am at. I did two races. On Saturday, I did the Burr Ridge 5K. Every year, my firm will pay the registration for any employee that wishes to participate. I took advantage of the free entry and signed up. I even placed a friendly bet with a friend. I'm not gonna lie...he's kind of a badass runner so I knew it was going to be hard. There was absolutely no way that I could beat him flat out so we had to do a minutes spread. After much Googling, I found his ridiculously fast times and after much thought and calculation, I came up with 9 minutes. If he beat me by more than 9 minutes, he won and I owed him dinner. If he beat me by less than 9 minutes, I won and he buys dinner. I don't think it could have come any closer. He beat me by 8 minutes and 45 seconds. So I WON! But let's not forget the fact he ran a 19:24 which equals 6:15 per mile!!!! That's freakishly fast. So hats off to him for a good race! My time was 28:09. This is my fastest 5K time EVER. So I was really happy with that too.

Then today I got out and did my first tri of the season. I did the Naperville SheROX Sprint Triathlon. I had never done a sprint distance and I think it went pretty well. My goal was to finish in 1:30. My official finish was 1:33:09. I can't complain about that. My swim time was 11:11, 1st transition was 3:36, bike was 45:28, 2nd transition 2:51, and the run was 30:09. So I finished off the tri with a 5K only 2 minutes slower than Saturday's straight 5K. I am EXTREMELY HAPPY with that!

I learned today, however, that the bike is where I need to focus my improvement. My swim is always going to be one of the top times. That's to be expected when you spend 17 years as a competitive swimmer. My run is always just going to be mediocre. When just running, I can hold 9 minute miles. I'm just not built to run (and hold) sub-9's. When you put the run after a swim and a bike, I am lucky to hold 10 minute miles. And regardless of how crappy I feel, I don't really every go slower than 13 minute miles (however that may be my average when we get to Ironman!) So all that is left to improve upon is my bike. I averaged about 17.5 MPH today. If I could bump up my average to even say just 20 MPH, that would shave off a significant amount of time over the course of a 112 mile ride in the Ironman. So that is where I am now placing my focus. I will keep up the swimming as usual and just maintain my level there. I will get in the running but I'm not going to kill myself with any speed work or trying to improve. My main goal now is to increase my speed while decreasing the effort on the bike. If I can cut time on the bike, it will allow me some extra time in the run when I know I am going to be hating life.

This weekend of racing was exactly what I needed to renew my motivation, though. I am a competitor at heart. I like to race. The daily grind of training isn't what excites me. It's the thrill of getting out there, racing against my competitors, fighting against my mind, and seeing what kind of time I can put in. After two successful races this weekend, my inner competitor is coming out and I'm excited again!

What a freaking roller coaster

Oh. My. Goodness. What a freaking mess I am. I don't even know where to begin. I'm still struggling to get in all of my workouts because there just aren't enough hours in the day to accomplish everything I need to. Throw in the stress of moving next week and I'm all sorts of screwed.

I'm also INCREDIBLY frustrated by the weight roller coaster I have been on. You would think that someone who exercises as often as I do wouldn't have any problem dropping those last couple pounds. But nooooooooo...I may be the only person training for an Ironman that GAINS almost ten pounds in a matter of months. WTF?! I try to be conscious of what I am putting in my body but obviously I'm not doing a good job of that. So starting this morning I'm really putting a lot of effort into it. One problem I see is that I don't eat fruit. But I'm trying.

I was also pretty upset with my run attempt this morning. The goal was to get in 8 miles before court this morning. I started running and felt like I was going to puke. I got in about 3 miles of running and a mile and a half of walking before I had to quit. So we will try again this evening and see if I can get it in.

I did, however, have a decent bike ride on Saturday. Put in 25 miles and encountered a ton of obtacles (skater punks in the path, the Autism Speaks walk, some rain and some downpour).

So, send some love my way and keep me motivated!!!!!! I NEED HELP!!!!!!

HALF WAY THERE!!!!!

Well, Ironman Louisville is 15 weeks from today! I started this journey 15 weeks ago. I can't believe I am halfway there. I'm not really sure where the past 15 weeks have gone. I did a really good job at the beginning of training...and of blogging about it. And recently I have slacked off on both. So let's see where I am:

Swimming - this is the one leg I KNOW I am rocking! I haven't upped it to three swimming days per week yet (even though my schedule says I should have started that a few weeks ago). But, I am feeling pretty good in the water. From February until last week, we were swimming short course yards. For the whole month of April, we were relegated to the small pool at UIC and had to share the pool with the triathlon club. That was a little frustrating with so many people in the pool but we made it through :-) Then last week we went back to the big pool and jumped right into long course meters. My first day back in long course, Andy kicked my ass. We started off with a twenty minute warm up. Then went right into a mile for time. The last time we did that for time was back in August. I don't remember my time then but this week, I did it in 22:51. Then we did a 300 kick and 3 x 100 descend. Next up: 500 for time. Did that one in 7:31. Throw in an easy 100 then it was a 100 all out sprint, that I did in 1:19.8. Not too shabby if you ask me. Thursday was another pretty good day and I'm getting stronger every day in the water.

Biking - this one is a struggle. The weather has not been too cooperative with me lately. I'm supposed to be doing 3 hour rides on Saturdays but it has been cold. I'm not going to lie...I'm a wuss in cold weather and I will NOT bike when it is cold outside. Running I can handle but I cannot do the cold wind in my face. I also an waaaaay too ADD to sit on a stationary bike for 3 hours. So the longest ride I have gotten in has been only about an hour. Wednesdays are pretty good for me though and I bike for 45 minutes and go straight into a 15 minute run. Other than that though, I am lacking (and slacking) on the bike. I need to get back in gear there. The weather today was gorgeous though so hopefully I'll be able to get in some good rides soon.

Running - I'm doing alright here. I've let my Saturday nights get in the way of my Sunday morning runs. So I haven't gotten in as much distance as I would like. I did, however, get out today and put in 8 miles. My feet and knees are a little sore afterwards but I feel good. I've not been able to get in my two a days in my schedule because I don't have the time. We switched up the court schedule again too so I'm not quite sure how that is going to affect things. I guess we are just going to have to wait and see. But for now, I'm getting in what I can.

I have 15 weeks to go and a LOT of goals to reach before that day. I'm re-centering myself and focusing on my training again. Let's see where it gets me!

Back on Track

I've really struggled to get in my workouts lately. It seems like life just gets in the way. My mom was here last Thursday-Sunday too so of course, I would rather hang out with her than swim, bike, and run. So after a rocky couple of weeks, I gave myself a pep talk and got back to work.

Unfortunately, the big pool at UIC is being drained, cleaned, and upgraded so we have been relegated to the small pool. So we go from an 8 lane 50 meter pool so a 6 lane 25 yard pool. And we triple the number of swimmers. See, there's this triathlon club that swims at UIC in the mornings too. They are the usual inhabitants of the small pool. But now we have overtaken it and they swim with us. It was a little tough to get used to having so many people in a lane (kind of like high school swimming all over again) but it ended up being rather entertaining. If you know anything about triathletes, you know that the vast majority of them are not swimmers. They can swim well enough to do a tri but most were not competitive swimmers. So having the

m join in our practice and try to hang was pretty fun. They were all really nice though and we adapted practice and did some fun sets that lend themselves to crowded lanes.

This morning I had probably the best workout I have had since I started training. I missed yesterday's hour long run because I had to do some errands on my lunch break. So I extended my run today. On the schedule for today was a 45 min bike and a 30 min run. Riding a stationary bike can get a little boring so I tried to mix it up today. I broke it down by songs. I did an easy spin for one song, upped the resistance for the next song, then upped it even more and stood up on the bike for the next song. Then I kept repeating that for the full 45 minutes. Kept it interesting and didn't seem that long because you just had to get through the current song. So then I moved to the treadmill and decided to do the same thing there. I would run at 5 mph for a song, 5.5 mph for the next song, then 6 mph for the third. Then repeat. When I got to the end, I sprinted for two minutes then cooled down. I felt AWESOME. I really didn't want to get off the treadmill but sadly, I had to go to work.

After sitting at my desk all day long, however, my hips are a little on the sore side. Hopefully after a good night's sleep, I'll feel better in the morning :-)

On a side note, check out the cover of USA Triathlon Magazine. The woman on

the cover is Melissa Stockwell...also known as one of the most amazing women I have ever m

et. You may also have seen her on TV during March Madness as she has a new commercial that

aired. I first met Melissa last year at one of my swim practices. She also swims with the Chicago Masters. At practice one day, she introduced herself and we started talking. I told her that day that I was training for the half and every time I saw here thereafter, she would ask how my training was going and she was the first to ask how the race went when I came back to practice after Steelhead. I'll admit, after talking with her at practice, I did some Google-stalking and came across her website (www.melissastockwell.com). And shortly after that, I started seeing her name pop up everywhere. She is making a name for herself in the triathlon world and following her triathlon career helps keep me motivated. And she's just a nice person! Not everyone can be friendly and cheerful at 6am :-) I'll also point out that I am in love with her dog. He accompanies her to swim practice and is always happy to see you.

I'm glad to get back on track and feel good about my training...Louisville is less than 5 months away!!!!!!!!!

I hate stupid people

Generally, I like to have patience with people.

OK, who am I kidding, I have no such thing. And my patience for stupid people is even less. And that is why swim practice today was brutal. It started out like any normal swim practice. We had a short warm up of 6 x 75 (25 kick, 25 drill, 25 swim), 3 x 100 kick descend, 8 x 25 underwater, and 3 x 100 swim descend.

Then we got right into our main set. We did 20 x 100. There were a couple different interval choices but the point of the set was to hold your best possible average while getting 10-20 seconds rest. There were three of us in our lane and two of us were sure that we could not make interval #1 so we opted to do #2: holding 1:15's but leaving on the 1:40. The third person in our lane (whom I will just call D for "dummy") said, "oh c'mon, we can make 1:20." Coach Andy hears him say this and says, "the point isn't to make the interval, it is to hold your best possible average while getting 10-20 seconds rest." So D just says, "whatever", and we start the set. He decides to go second in our lane. After only 2 or 3 100's, D is already frustrated and says to Andy, "How am I supposed to get faster with all of this rest?" Andy of course responds that we are not supposed to be getting faster but D is just so worried about improving his speed. Andy explains that this is an endurance set and if you do it correctly, it will get harder and harder as you try to maintain that best possible average as your body starts to get tired. D doesn't believe him, takes over our lane, and continues to bitch after EVERY SINGLE 100!!!!!!!!

Finally, we hit #8 or 9 and he starts to feel the burn. So now instead of questioning the coach's workout, he complains after every one that he is dying, that he is not going to make it, and that this is so hard. Mind you, while D is complaining, Patrick and I are rocking the set, maintaining our average, and feeling great. We finally finished our 20 x 100 and D had nothing positive to say. I loved today's practice and felt great afterwards. Had I been able to drown D in the middle of the set, it would have been even better!

So, stupid people aside, today was a great day. And for those of you that are like my good friend D, listen to your coach, suck it up, and quit your bitching!

Where did my ass go?

So, I've lost my ass. I don't know where it went. I realize I am trying to lose some weight and get down to my ideal race weight, but having a little extra cushion in my rear-end is NEVER a bad thing! My butt hurts from biking yesterday :-(

I got up super early (for a Saturday) and headed into the office Saturday morning. My plan was to come home and take a nap afterwards but the sunshine was just too tempting. It looked gorgeous outside and there was more sunshine than Chicago has seen in the last six months combined. So I took the Canondale off the trainer and headed out for my first OUTDOOR bike ride of this training season. I went about 18 miles: started at my house and headed to the Lake Front Trail. I rode south to McCormick Place then turned around and came back. There was a nice tail wind going down so I was holding a steady and comfortable 18 mph. The ride home was a little tougher with the wind in my face so I dropped down.

It was SO NICE to get outside again and ride! It definitely put me in good spirits after the funk I've been the past week. That was the start to an excellent weekend...it was followed by a trip to the Lincoln Park Zoo and an afternoon at Stanley's that turned into a night at Stanley's. Now I am heading out to go to the Purdue game! Here's to a great weekend and hopefully a good week to come!

I'm in a Funk

So, the past week and a half has really been a struggle for me training-wise. It all started about last Thursday. I made every workout for the week until my bike ride Thrusday night. And the excuse is the same almost every Thursday...I go to Buffalo Wild Wings with people from work, have a few beers, and get home too late to do anything. Last Thursday was no exception. I went to BW's, had more than a few beers, and stayed out later than I usually do. So biking was out of the question...as much as I love the midnight rides with the Marauders, it's not really a Thursday night activity. Then Friday morning I was supposed to run an hour before I headed to court then to Indianapolis. Because of the activities from the night before, I couldn't get out of bed in time to run. I woke up, showered, and went straight to court. Saturday was supposed to be a bike ride but I didn't want to fuss with taking my bike to Waukegan and then on to Indy so I didn't bike. And by the time Sunday rolled around, I was just too tired from a whirlwind weekend (plus losing an hour in the time change) to get off the couch and run.

Then a new week started and I tried to have a fresh attitude. I got up Tuesday after an excellent sleep and made my way to the pool. Nothing but frustration. I couldn't hang with my normal lane-mates and went over to LANE 5!!!! For those of you that don't know the set up for my team, that's borderline snail pace. I tend to stay in lane 2 or 3. So to go to 5 was a huge step down. I had planned on running an hour after court but then realized I had absolutely no food at home for dinners or in the office for lunch. So I spent my lunch break grocery shopping. Wednesdays are usually clutch for me and I have no problems. Well, this Wednesday, I just couldn't get out of bed (despite the fact that I got decent sleep). So I skipped the am gym session and went on my lunch. Because of that, I had to cut it down from a 45 min bike and 15 min run to a 20 min bike and 10 min run. There was a get together downtown Wednesday night with people from court so I of course made an appearance, had a few beers, and got home too late. So Thursday was a complete bust this week. I was too tired to get up for swim practice, didn't have time to make the gym on lunch, and went out to celebrate St. Patty's Day with green beer after work. Training FAIL.

I was partially responsible last night though and limited myself to one beer then went home knowing I had to get up and run for 75 minutes this morning. I woke up right on time feeling refreshed, changed my clothes, and headed to the gym. I'm not sure if it is the changing weather or what but it was freaking HOT in the gym. I just couldn't do the full run. I ended up running for 45 minutes and walked for 15 then called it quits. By the time I finished, I looked like I had just stepped out of the shower because I was so drenched with sweat. I also got pretty jittery about halfway through the run. That usually only happens when I don't eat but I had a small breakfast before hitting the gym and went through one and a half water bottles while running. So, not sure where that is coming from.

HOPEFULLY, this weekend will prove to be successful. I would like to get outside to bike a little bit but we will see how the weather is. I'm just hoping I can get out of this funk soon because I don't like the way I feel and I don't like when I skip out on so many training sessions. So keep your fingers crossed that I will have a much more positive update next week!