low energy week

This week so far I have been dragging. I took Monday off to let me body recover from Sunday. Tuesday I ran 4.5 miles in 38 min - I just went nice and easy with no hills since my calves/shins were pretty tight and the rest of my legs just felt heavy. It was supposed to be nice so I planned on riding my bike after work for an hour or more but when I left work it was pouring - not just normal Seattle rain but really heavy hard to not drown in rain. So I rested instead - I fell asleep on the couch around 8pm. I considered going for a ride yesterday morning since it was actually sunny out but I stayed in bed till I had to go to work.
Last night I met Col for a swim - we went to Kyle's gym the epicenter in Bellevue. It is a really nice place but the pool was not in the best shape last night. The water was way to warm and the chlorine was pretty strong which did not help me feel more awake. The goal was to swim 2500 in about an hour or less - we only did 2300 in about that time. 300 warm up, 100 drills (50 fists, 50 single arm), 200 x 4, 150 x 4, 100 x 4, 100 cool down - in the main set we alternated between swimming for a fast time and focusing on form. I was able to push myself on the fast/hard sets to get an average of about 1:54 - 57ish - the other ones were closer to 2:00+. We had planned on doing 50 x 4 but both Col and I were tired and ready to get out of the hot water so we just did 100 cool down.
This morning I got up and went for a 5 mile run in about 43 min. It was super chilly, dry and there was a really colorful sunrise with a bit of high fog. I took it kind of easy just doing an out and back from my house on most flat to gradual hills - mostly just focused on keeping my pace up and striding out even though I would have preferred to still be in bed.
Hopefully the weather will stay nice through the weekend to make my longer workouts more enjoyable and I can get some extra sleep to help get my energy levels back up.

10k race and more

This morning was the Mercer Island 10k - of course it was pouring rain all day yesterday, all night and still coming down this morning. Bryan (doing the half) and I were the only people in our crew doing the race so we carpooled and both braved the rain. My goal was to run sub 9 min miles - Col estimated 58 min total for my goal and I wanted to beat 54 min total time. I got started at 9 am - still pouring rain. It was crowded but it seemed to thin out quickly so I did not have a hard time getting up to my desired pace. I warmed up pretty quickly - took the gloves off by mile 2 and hat off by mile 2.5 and had my rain jacket unzipped to get some cool air. I felt really good and had no pain in either feet or shins/calves - it was wonderful esp since the course was rolling hills the whole way. A mile from the finish I saw that I was ahead of my 54 min goal and tried to pick the pace up a bit even though there is an up hill right before the finish. I came across the finish and my watch said 52:45 - guntime was 52:58 but it took a little bit to get across the startline (they have not posted official chip times yet). No matter I'm very happy with how I did :)
Afterwards I tried to find Kyle - he was going to meet me with dry clothes and stuff but had a hard time fining parking so I actually beat him to the finish. haha. We hung out and waited for Bryan to finish his half marathon - he had a similar goal of sub 9 min pace. Futa showed up and we all cheered Bryan in - he finished about 1:54 - he was pleased. We went to Starbucks first then breakfast at Gilbets in Bellevue - both super yummy and I ate my entire order of french toast which is unheard of.
Kyle and I got home took quick showers then since it was sunny (yes sunny) we got suited up to go for a bike ride. I did not want to go out to long or hard but I have been itching to get a ride out on my new bike. So we drove down to Marymoore and just went out and back on the trail for a total of 20.2 miles in about 1:10.

I LOVE my bike - it feels like I'm on a race car. I did get a bit tired about half way which was not helped by a bad headwind the entire way back. I just tried to stay on Kyle's wheel so I could draft behind him and not completely exhaust myself. We made it back to the park and Kyle road up the hills back to the house so he could get more of a workout in while I drove the truck :)

long swim

This morning I went and did 2850 yrd swim in 60:28. I wanted to get an early start on it but as usual for weekends it just did not happened that way. I got in the pool around 10:30a and it was already crowded with a ton of kids and swimmers who don't seem to know how to swim laps. There were people just standing in the middle of lanes. I got in a lane with a guy that actually seemed to know what he was doing - but once I got going he hit me twice, kicked me once, and splashed every time he went by. It only got worse - he left and a larger guy took his place and he could not even swim and did not stay on his side - I got kicked a few more times and he created huge waves esp when he took off from the wall - a couple of times I felt like I was going to drown. I guess it was good training but I think I will avoid the pool on weekends - except super early or late when the crowds are gone.
My goal for this swim was to maintain a 2 min 100 pace for the entire planned 2800 yrds - I did 400 warm up with the pool buoy, 200 - 3:57, 400 - 7:58, 600 - 11:58, 600 - 11:55, 400 - 7:56, 200 - 3:57, and 50 cool down. I kept my rests between 30 seconds and 45 between the 600s. My shoulder never really hurt and I felt like I could have kept going but I was tired of getting beat up.

it does not really feel like spring

Wednesday was a lovely dry day and of course when I got home I was exhausted so I actually crawled into bed around 5:30ish and relaxed until the continual growling of my stomach made me get up. So I never did go for a second ride yesterday.
Yesterday morning I did part (70 min) of the mt conditioning class and fallowed it up with a 4 mile run with 4 x 30 seconds of tempo mixed in. My inner shin still hurts pretty bad especially on right leg - it loosened up a bit while after the first mile but never really went away. I hope it gets better before the Mercer Island 10k on Sunday... Otherwise I'm doing alright, a little tired and I'm sort of fighting a slight sore throat. But nothing some extra sleep this weekend can't fix :)
Last night I went to a bike maintaince clinic for woman at rei in Redmond and was thoroughly disappointed. It turned out the instructor was in no way an expert and mostly just rode as a commuter. They demoed changing a flat on a mountain bike , which did not even need levers to put the tire back on with. I wound up answering a lot of the questions about road bikes and stuff for the people in the class. I left after the first hour - since I really went to see if there was any tricks to changing a flat on a high psi road tire and I just did not trust them to even get close to messing with my wheel/tire. Oh well it did prove to me that I do know what to do and how to take care of my bike. I should thank my dad for always making me help take care of the bikes when I was little and Kyle for always talking about bikes and all the little things to do (and he never thinks I listen to him). So I might try and talk Bryan into helping me change my tires one day but I know that if I get a flat I may be slow but I'll be able to fix it which is what really matters right now.

all sorts of stuff

Monday I did the 6 am spin class. I felt good - no soreness or anything from the stair climb on Sunday or anything like that. Though in getting the new bike I also got new pedals and cleats and something was left under the new cleat which rattles. It drove me nuts the entire class - I could not focus on riding because I hated the noise and I knew it bugged other people in the class as well.
Yesterday (Tuesday) I swam 2050 yrds in the morning instead of doing the mt conditioning class - since my foot has been a bit temperamental and tri workouts are higher priority. I did 400 warm up (200 with pool buoy), 150 x 4, 200 x 4, 100 x 2, 50 cool down in about 45 min with rests. I swam a consistent pace of 1:55 100s, my shoulder never really hurt. I only did a few flip turns because the guy that I was sharing a lane with was sort of rude and I just wanted to get done and out of the pool really and my flip turns still slow me down a tad.
Last night I ran close to a 5 mile loop with Col and Bman with the goal of running a close to race pace in preparation for the Mercer Island 10k on Sunday. It was very very cold to start with and had been raining but luckily tapered off as we got started. I got my new running shoes super dirty on the wet/muddy trails. Col held me backa bit the first mile - we kind of got going to fast to maintain up the mile long hill that was still to come. I ran hard up the hill and felt surprisingly good - I never really got dropped by them (though I'm sure they were taking it easier than I was having to). I was able to run of the top of the hill and recover somewhat quickly. then we ran back down towards the lake - which was really the worst part - I'm not sure if I doing something wrong but some muscle on the inside of my shins got super tight and just plain hurt and then it started to pull on my foot. Luckily we got back to the trail around the lake and it loosened back up so I was able to keep going just fine. Bman was a bit in front of us by then and Col asked if I thought I could catch him in the last half mile - I felt ok so I said sure. Then of course the last bit of trail got worse and super slippery so we ran in the bike lane but it slowed me down a tad and Col though Bman speed up as well. But in the last couple 100 yrds I finally caught him - I was completely out of breath but it was nice to be able to push my self that hard. All in all the run was fun, cold and challenging. When I got home I washed my new shoes they were so dirty.
This morning I did the 6 am endurance focused spin class. I used my mountain shoes so that the cleat would not bother me since I have not gotten around to figuring out how to fix the rattle sound yet. I felt good and just fallowed the class. If the weather stays dry when I get home tonight I might try and get a short ride on the new bike in - it just seems a shame it just sitting in the house.
On a work note a mini site I designed launched the other day for a new cd called Off the Clock. It is a mix of music all from Starbucks Batista's across the country. It was a fun projects and it always nice to see things go live. :)

Big Climb

This morning I did the Big Climb for Leukemia. My mom's company sponsors a team so I did it mostly to do something fun with her. Though she does the non-timed or "climber" version and I did the "racer" version. We meet at the top to enjoy our success and she takes lots of pictures. Anyway my only goal was to beat my time from last year which was 14:26. I felt way better this year I never had to stop and catch my breath or anything and I did beat my time and finished the 69 floors in 13:57 this year. Yeah!


Team Jetstream



At the Finish


Mom and Jerry

new bike

I got my new bike and it rains.. I'm not ready to get it completely gunked up just yet.. It weighs only 17.4lbs with everything on it :)

Since I am not ready to get my bike wet and dirty I swam 2100yrds in about 45 min with rests. The pool was sort of crowed with casual swimmers. i felt kind of bad Kyle and I jumped in a lane with a guy and he was rather slow (but everyone was sort of slow) after a 5 min or so he got out and went to the other pool.. Oh well. Kyle and I shared a lane - he was swimming long sets - like 900s. I did 400 warm up, 300, 200, 100 (1:45), 100 (1:44), 200, 300, 400, 100 cool down. I was swimming next to the wall so I only did a few flip turns, I was scared of bumping into the wall. I felt pretty good - I only really used the pull buoy during the warm up which seemed to set my stroke up correctly so that my shoulder did not ever really hurt to bad.

three days

Lets see Tuesday I did the mountain conditioning class - I was not super motivated by it - we mostly did step ups, squats, some lunges, a bunch of abs stuff, and a few stairs. On Tuesdays they have a conflict of locations so the instructor just told half the group to go do some cardio while he worked with the other group on form.. I just went and stretched.
In the evening I ran with col and piper dog on a 4.5 mile loop around/near greenlake in about 42 minutes. It was way more cold than I expected - it took about a mile or more to really warm up. We went up and down the hill by the zoo + the outside loop of the lake. I felt mostly ok, my legs were a tad heavy from the stuff in the morning and my calves got tight while running down the hill by the zoo.
The fun part was chatting about Hawaii - she warned me that we would need to accelerate the training plan so that I will be more than ready for the half iron race in June vs July. I'm finally looking at getting a heart rate monitor - I had given up since I have not been able to find one that works with a mac :( So I'm giving in and I just need to get one. I still have to figure out which one I want to get...
Yesterday morning I felt kind of tired but still managed to get to the 6 am spin class. I just fallowed along with the class - 3 long intervals with increasing resistance. It took me a while to warm/wake up - once I did I felt good.
Last night I took a nap when I got home from work - only planned on 30 min but was more like an hour - then I dragged myself to the pool around 8:30p. It was rather nice actually the pool was not crowded and I had my own lane the entire time - which gave me tons of time to work on my flip turns. I did 400 warm up, 300, 200, 100, 100, 200, 300, 400, 100 cool down for a total of 2100 yrds in about 45 minutes. I did flip turns almost the entire time - still think it is slower but it sure makes it feel easier to do longer sets and just keep going - less stop and go type of stuff.
This morning I was rather tired even though I went to bed right after I got home from swimming. I got to the gym around 5:10ish and did some warm up cardio. I found out that the mt class had a substitute instructor and I was really just not interested in going so I did some more cardio and my own thing like core, some squats, and some of the pt exercises for my foot stuff. then preceded to go back home sleep another 30 minutes till I had to get up and go to work. I'm looking forward to tomorrow - my rest day...

daylight savings sucks

Yesterday it was extra early and a very dark morning thanks to dumb daylights savings time change a month earlier than normal.. I got in the mostly empty lap pool around 5:30a - my body knew that it was actually more like 4:30a (yuck - there is just a big diffrence between 4 and 5 am - 4 is to early for me). The plan was to swim 2500 yrds and I did that in about 58 minutes - 400 warm up, 200 drills, 6 x 100, 3 x 200, 4 x 150 (was going to be 6 x 100 but I did an extra 50 by accident so I just went with it), 100 cool down. The best part was that since I had my own lane for the majority of my swim I used the space to work on my flip turns. I'm still super slow at them - they seemed to add about 10 seconds to my 100s - averaged about 2:05 with flip - 1:55 with out. I figure with more practice eventually I'll get it down and will be faster when I flip - as it should be. I also only used the pool buoy twice - on one 100yrd and one 200yrd set. I figure I should start using it less so that it does not become a crutch. The only negative really was my left shoulder is still kind of achy - which really forces me to focus on form to keep it only an annoying pain and not get any worse. I think a massage is calling my name.
In other news our crew finally picked a half iron race to do before IMC - Ford Ironman 70.3 Hawaii!! I registered Kyle and I today :) I'm a little worried about no wetsuits for the swim and salt water - but I think with Col's help I will be just fine. I'm also a tiny bit bummed we will be missing the Issaquah sprint which is on the same weekend - it is just a fun race. But who in the right mind would pass up a chance to go to Hawaii to do a triathlon. hehe not me

9 mile run

Saturday I did a 9 mile run with Col and Bry (well Bry was in front of us a bit). We did the same loop I did in October - starts by going the long way around the lake, down stoneway, through the UW then back up through cowen park and back to greenlake. I felt surprisingly good - my calves were sort of tight but never got to bad and my foot only felt tight not painful. Otherwise my energy and pace stayed rather consistent - way better than last time I did this loop :) Mile 8 is all uphill which completely drained me last time - this time I slowed a little but still felt good and recovered rather quickly. The loop took a total of 1:20 - probably about 10 min faster than last time :)
I learned that rather than trying to get a gel down while running it is faster for me to walk for a minute to be able to get the entire gel down quickly - rather than it taking me an entire mile to get it down. I'm going to start working on being able to jog while eating then hopefully I'll get to the point where I can run and eat.. But for now walking a little bit and getting the gel down is better than now.
Today while Kyle went and ran the St. Patrick Day dash I went and did a spin class. Nothing to exciting - my legs were a little tight/tired but not to bad. We spent the rest of the day cleaning the house which is never fun but feels good when finished.

mt class 3

I was awake at 4:30am - don't ask why I have no clue. Luckily I went to bed around 8:30pm last night so I got some sleep. I got to the gym as they were opening and on the treadmill by 5:10am - ran 2 miles to warm up before class. In class we started with step ups, squats, hip exercises, one leg squats, touch downs, and some basic upper body stuff. I did a plank instead of push-ups because my left shoulder still hurts some and I'm sure my abs can benefit from the extra work. Then did a bunch of stairs, and repeated everything. Around 6:20am we switched and went up to the circuit training room to do intervals on the treadmill - 2 min moderate (9 min mile pace) - 1 min hard/sprint (7 min mile pace) for 15 min or so. Then did more upper body and core stuff and repeated the intervals for 5-10ish minutes. Finished with core work and stretching. All in all I tried not to push to hard but still feel good. My foot is a little sensitive - not to bad but a bit tight - luckily tomorrow is my rest day.

sleepy brick

I woke this morning with a sore throat and ready for a nap. I got to the pool super early (5:05am) so that I could get a good swim in before spinning class. I managed about 1850 yrds in 40 min - did 300 warm up and a ladder of 50s from 50 to 250 then back down and a cool down of 50. I felt ok, my left shoulder is acting up a bit even when I had good form - I think mostly residual tightness from Sunday. I swam hard and tired to keep my rests around 15 seconds but still never really woke up.
Next was spinning class - I had to kind of rush to get to class on time to get a full 60 min on the bike. Luckily it was an endurance/recovery ride so I sort of fallowed the class but did not really push the resistance much. My legs felt tight from yesterdays squats. Afterwards I stretched out as much as I could before I had to head out so I could get to work on time. Two lattes later I still don't really feel awake - the sore throat as sort of faded though. I think I will be going to sleep early tonight...

sunday, monday, tuesday

Sunday morning Col, Bryan, kyle and I set out to do a 40ish mile loop around the north end of lake Washington loop. We got started around 10 am from our house heading north west on Northrup to Kirkland. I hate riding in traffic especially on busy streets and Northrup is definitely that.. Most of the ride went great, the weather cooperated with us and it stayed nice - we even saw the sun a little bit. I was able to stay with Col (or she held up for me) up the Juanita drive 3 mile hill which either way felt great - of course Kyle and bman got up faster than we did (but not much). We got on to the trail and headed south - at some point I hit a bump and lost a gel (the guy behind me grabbed it). We made it to the UW took a short stall to eat something and for me to loose my balance and fall over with one foot still in the cleat - seems to be a recurring thing these days. It was really just kind of embarrassing we were all just standing there and I just fell over in slow motion like a total retard - oh well I just got up and luckily only got a few bruises.. Then we continued to wind our way to I90 bridge - by this time my left shoulder started to really hurt and I could barely move my neck with out it spasming. I tried to take the pressure off it but the reach is a bit long and by this point it even hurt in my aero bars. This made me cranky and slow. We wound our way back through Bellevue and more nasty traffic. I was glad to be done and the ride just made me want my new bike more.. My legs did not really hurt to bad especially compared to my shoulder/neck - which was cool and I never dropped into the granny gears (since my new bike will not have them best not to use them anymore).
After we got back I could not find my phone/id/debit card which I thought was in my jersey.. I figured it had come out of my pocket when I lost the get on the trail.. So we drove back out there and looked and did not find it of course. I spent the rest of the afternoon brainstorming with col about her website and logo I'm designing - Kyle went and got me a new phone to replace the "losted" one. I got home around 8ish and low and behold I found my little baggy with phone etc under a gel by the front door.. arg I felt so dumb - all that stress for nothing. The last couple week I keep doing this - last week it was my helmet - hopefully it will end soon.
Ok so Monday Morning I slept in - just felt like I needed it. In the evening I did 4 mile run - down the Northrup hill to the lake samm road and back up twice. It was super dark and rather hard work as well. The down hills hurt my calves pretty bad esp the second time. My right foot and both calves still hurt today..
This morning I went and did the "Mountain conditioning" class - it went well - my shoulder is still sore/tight which hurt a lot when doing push ups (after 5 I just did a plank instead). The cool thing is we did sprints in the gym and I was the fastest girl and even beat most of the guys aswell :) - I never get to be the fastest in our crew of friends so it was fun. Then there was a misunderstanding of what class was supposed to be were and they had our class join a class called "sports conditioning" which had a bunch of stations and most involved jumping. Since my foot still hurt and there was only 30 min of class left anyway I took off early and stretched out. My foot is temperamental enough and it is just not worth it to me to push it any more than I need to. Being able to run is way more important to me so no jumping.

swim + run

This morning I got Kyle to go swimming with me. We got there later than I would have liked - the pool area was filled with kids.. Luckily we got an empty lane that we shared. Kyle's goes was to swim fast - mine was to just swim at a moderate pace and work on my flip turns. So I did 400 warm up, 100 drills, 300, 200 x 2, 100 x 3, 50 x 4, 200 x 2 with flip turns, 100 cool down for a total of 2200 yrds in about 55 min (including all rests). I felt a little tired from the start and my legs are still a bit sore from Thursday still - my legs felt like they were sinking a bit more than normal and I could feel the soreness in my quads every time I pushed off the wall. My left shoulder hurt a bit more than normal as well - esp when I was not using the pull buoy when I could really focus on my form rather than not sinking. I'm way slower when I do flip turns - I seem to stall when I have to turn over from my back - or I flip to deep - or I miss the wall - or get water up my nose. lol Oh well I'll just keep practicing them a bit every time I swim and hopefully someday I'll feel good enough to be able to do them during my main sets and not mess me up..
Later in the afternoon I went and did a run. It took a bit to get myself out the door - kyle had to push me out (well not literally). I just did not feel much like running. Once I got started I did enjoy getting out side - the rain had stopped and it was rather nice out. Anyway I did it - I went out into Microsoft land and ran out and back from the house for a total of 7.3 miles in 65 min. It is mostly flat with only some gradual hills which was perfect for my energy level. I must have worn to much - I was to warm the entire time. I have been working on being able to eat better/easier mid run and today I was able to get a gel down in about 5 min or so (has usually taken me 20+ min). I carried some water with me which seemed to help get it down. Otherwise the run went well - a little tightness/soreness in the legs and feet but nothing to bad. Afterwards I spent some time streching out and used the tennis ball on my feet.

mixing things up

I took Wednesday as a rest day - just was not going to happen. Anyway Yesterday (Thursday) I had the first class of Mountain Conditioning - it is intended for people preparing to climb Mt Rainer in the summer so it consists of strengh, cardio and stability training twice a week for 90 min classes. The club describes the class as "The "Alpine Start" will get your body conditioned for exercising early and help you build endurance for our annual Mt. Rainier climb or any other outdoor activity. Strength, cardio and stability training two mornings each week will condition your legs, heart, and core for a variety of optional Saturday "excursions" into the beautiful northwest wilderness. Classes offered in the summer time." I did the entire series (March - July) last year and loved it - I don't think I will do that this year but I wanted to add it in to my training at least for the month of March. Well yesterday was the first class so it was an "easy day" to get everyone used to the class structure and stuff - did probably about 300 squats, 100 crunches, 100 bicycle crunches, 100 step backs with forward lunge, 60 step ups, upper body stuff like push ups (which I hate and suck at), lateral shoulder raises standing on one foot, bricept curls, calf raises, and some hip stability exercises as well. Then we did a couple short cardio "bursts" of 5-10 min of high intensity running on the treadmill. I could already feel the lactic acid in my legs last night - this morning my legs are very sore (in a good way).
I got up early and did the 6am spinning class - it is a strength class and I was not having anything to do with that so I did my own thing. I just tried to loosen up my legs and spinned at around a cadence of around 90 or so the entire 60 min. By the end my legs felt pretty good so I randomly decided to run a mile at a 8 min pace. My legs felt heavy and tight but I did it. Afterwards I stretched out really well while my legs were warmed up.