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.

6 people in one lane

Last night I swam with Colleen at Helen Madison Pool and it was sooo crowded at one point there were 6 people in one lane and some people were slow and more interested in chatting that swimming. It was annoying. So that we could actually get our swim done Colleen had us move over to the "fast lane" which forced me to maintain a higher intensity that normal. I averaged around 1:54 pace for 100 yrds. I really need to get more comfortable doing flip turns so I can maintain a higher speed.
I did 300 yrd warm up, we skipped doing drills because of the crowds. We did a latter for the main set - 50, 100, 150, 200, 250, 300, 250, 200, 200 (accidentally did 50 extra), 100, 50, 100 cool down in 56 min. I forgot my pull buoy so I only borrowed Cols' a few times and my form felt all over the place - I felt the pressure to not hold the other up and I would get stressed and have to breath every stroke or so. It is good for me since the mass start at IMC is going to be very crowded..
This morning I over slept an dmissed spinning so tonight I will set up the trainer and just do it at home. Also my foot was only a tiny bit sore this morning - but I used the tennis ball and it felt better.

is it hot in here

Last night I went and ran 2 miles on the treadmill to test how my foot was doing and I had no pain :) My legs were sore from the bruising from my fall on Sunday but other wise it felt pretty good. I ran at a 7:30 mile pace even - I love being able to see my pace and then force myself to run faster it is one of the very few redeeming qualities of treadmills. Afterwards I did a bunch of the pt exercises and stretched out my legs really well. I also added in some pull ups and triceps dips for good measure.
This morning I ran on the treadmill again since it was super cold outside and I did not want to risk my muscles getting to tight. I ran 4 miles in 34 minutes then walked another mile with an incline of 6% (whatever that means). The entire time I felt like I had a fever or was just way to warm - around the end of mile 3 I started getting dizzy from it and hence I walked a mile. It was super weird. I still decide to do 20 min of stairs - sort of in training for the Big Climb in a couple weeks. Again I was way overly warm and I was sweating more than usual. I was glad to finish and stretched out my legs and calves. My foot is a tiny bit achy but nothing some time with a tennis ball can't fix and nothing compared to last week :)

not my best day

I'm going to start on Thursday evening I ran about 6 miles with Colleen. I made the mistake of having piece of chocolate cake around 4:30 pm (which tasted wonderful) but sat in my stomach like rock till about mile 4ish. Also as soon as a half a mile into the run the ball of my right foot started hurting - just like it did when I was starting to add on the miles for Seattle Half. It got progressively worse the entire run to the point where I was running on the outside of my foot - which caused part of my calf to shoot with pain. Luckily it was only 6 miles and I just wanted to get it done and I did. Of course afterwards I iced and used a tennis ball to help stretch out the plantar fascia and it is back to doing my pt exercises a couple times a week. It still hurt to walk the next day which was luckily my rest day. But it caused me to cancel running 8 miles on Saturday with Steph :( I just need to get it back under control and I'll be good to go for Vancouver and IMC...
Today I did the Chilly Hilly Ride with Kyle, his friends Ed and Steve and his wife Rachel. It took 30 minutes in the morning to decide if we were actually going to do it. The weather report said overcast and 45 degrees so we went for it. Of course we got to the ferry and I realised I forgot my helmet at home (arg) The lucky thing was Ed and crew were still on the east side so then went to our house and "broke in" and got my helmet for me so we did not have to go back home to get it. With the delay we got on the 8:55a ferry. It started raining on us while we were waiting for the ferry - yuck. It was amazing how many bikes fit on a ferry. I would have taken a photo of it but along with my helmet I forgot my camera - go figure.
We got off the ferry and it was not raining - yeah! but I was still very cold and we were off. It was super crowded - but Col had warned me about that so no biggy. As the name declares the course is super hilly and I was very chilly. The first half of the ride was not to bad - the hills were big but I was able to climb alright (even though the roads esp the hills were super crowded and no one really moved right when they were slow). The only thing was my left arm kept going numb - I think because the reach is kind of long and I'm not able to really relax my shoulders esp when braking. I was riding slower than Kyle which is always hard to handle for both of us so I just kind of did my own thing as much as I could and Kyle was sweet enough to wait for me sometimes and did not push me to hard and stress me out trying to stay with him. The worst part was definatly the decending - I am always scared decending (I know it makes no sence considering my life on skis). Some of the down hills were winding with random turns and stops at the bottom and with the wet road/wheels/brakes what ever it never felt like I could stop with out killing my hands and forarms.
About half way at a rest stop (or so it felt) at a park I think I saw Jess and should have said hi and finally introduce myself but did not so hi Jess. Anyway when we left the rest stop it really started raining again :( I kind of got in the mindset I just want to get finished and be done with this rainy hilly ride. It only seemed to get colder and much much wetter as we went. On the final steeper hill my chain locked up at the bottom and I could not peddle forward - the first time I was able to stop look at it and it seemed fine. But when I tried to start up the hill again it would not move and I could not get out of my pedals fast enough and I fell over to the right of the road. Luckily I fell into a bunch of black berry bushed and other brush so I only really got some bruises and I think I have sprained or got a deep bruise on my left hand from my handle bars/aero bars something. Kyle was almost all the way up the hill so I gave up and walked my bike up the hill all the while I could not catch my breath - I was just gasping. Once I got up the hill to where Kyle was waiting I broke down and cryed and told him what happened. He checked my hand to see if anything was broken and it did not seem to be. He also checked my bike and it seemed to work - he did find that my brakes were almost all the way open. A support van also stopped and wanted to make sure I was ok. I was ok just very shaken up and upset that I had to walk up a hill.
I got back on my bike and just wanted to get home as soon as I could. Kyle even said I rode faster after the fall - go figure. The palm of my hand hurt so much that I could not really hold my handle bars and I pretty much cried for 10 miles or so. I kept going - the last hill Kyle helped me up by putting his hand on my back and almost pushing me up the hill with him. I felt done I just wanted to be done.
We did not hang around the "finish" area because I just wanted to get on the ferry and go home - so that is what we did. Luckily we got on the ferry it was super crowded but we found some space. I did not want to deal with taking my shoes off or leaving my bike so we stayed on the deck out of the wind and ate a nectar bar. It was cold - by the time the ferry docked on the Seattle side I was unable to control the shivers.



I was just glad we were back - we jumped in the truck and headed home to get warm. I got home took a hot shower and preceded to take an hour nap trying to get my body temperature back up. Now sitting at home warm and dry I don't know if I will ever do Chilly Hilly again but I guess I'm glad I did it. It was a good check in - I was able to spin really well, but I need to work on descending and increase my climbing ability/speed.
ok I think that covers everything - sorry about the length and detail. lol

a couple of days

I did my work outs the last couple of days but nothing really exciting or out of the ordinary. Evening workouts are still very much like pulling teeth to do - I have to really force myself to do them. I seem to hit a wall around 5:30 on my drive home where all I want to do is eat dinner, go to bed or just take care of things at home rather than do any work out. To bad I have to (and really like) work it seems to make things twice as complicated - ie getting up at 5 am, having to be at work before 9am and getting home in the dark.. Welcome to the real world of balancing a life and training :(
Ran on Tuesday night on the treadmill - which sucks but it was dark and cold outside. Yesterday I did 60 min of a yoga for athletes dvd (power yoga) - which felt pretty good.
This morning I swam again - today it was way less crowded which is always a good thing. I felt kind of tired - I always feel like I need more sleep lately.
Warm up 300
drills 200
1 X 300
2 X 200
3 X 100
4 X 50
5 X 25
cool down 200
I did every other hard or moderate hard - then recovered on the next one. I felt like the entire time I was swimming against a current - though my times were on par with where I have been for a while now. Average 2 min 100s and when going hard around 1:55ish. I would love to be swim faster but I guess I'm not sure what to do. I worked on my flip turns during the warm and cool down - I get a little disoriented so I'm not ready to do them during the main sets - though hopefully when I do get them down it will help me speed up my sets a bit. I was surprised by my 22yrd times of around 25 seconds - I thought it would be slower since my average 50yrds is 60 seconds or so..

rainy morning

I took yesterday off - I was rather tired and sore from running, yoga and riding on Saturday. Maybe it was a good thing that the weather went back to rain and winter or I would have had to go outside and overdue it.
This morning I went to the 6am interval spin class. It was a combination of high cadence, then high resistance intervals and standing climbing. I felt good - only a bit sore from the weekend. I had a tiny bit of tightness around my left knee - but more like scare tissue stretching. To try and help with it after class I made sure to stretch out really well and of course had a recovery drink right away.

small taste of spring

Today I tried to take full advantage of the wonderfully warm and dry weather. This morning I ran an easy 4 miles or so - 36 min. The weather was so nice it was hard not to feel good - my calves were a bit tight but nothing bad at all. I just enjoyed being out running in wonderful weather.
I got back had a recovery drink and then did about 80 minutes of yoga - I picked up a dvdcalled yoga for athletes so I wanted to try it out and see if doing it after running would help my legs fell better. It was pretty good - I'm fairly familiar with all the postures from other classes I have taken but it felt good. The cats thought I was nuts though. lol
Next the plan was to meet Col, Bman and maybe Kyle for a ride around lake Samm. I needed a new tire put on my rear wheel and Kyle said he would do it before the ride (after his morning ride with other friends) but he never came back and I have never changed a tire (yes I know this is retarded and a shameful admission but totally true). I got overwhelmed and sort of mentally broke down - I'm not totally sure why or anything but I did. Kyle told me to meet him at Idlewood park and he would change the tire quickly and I could still ride.. Finally I did - of course I had already given up on riding so I was not dressed for it - after kyle fixed my tire I drove to Marymoore and changed and road out on east lake samm to meet the group for the last part. My legs felt surprisingly ok and of course I caught up to them after the big/only real hill so I got to do it twice - go figure. We rode the rest of the way back and stopped at Chipotle before getting all the way back to the cars. Bman was shocked that I ate all three of my tacos.
Afterwards I had my bike fitting appointment at SVC - I was plenty warmed up and my legs were tired after all that I had done already. The fit was cool - they measured me and took all sorts of things into consideration like flexablity. I also tried out some different saddles (my current one is a bit to cushy and not very comfortable on longer rides). The end result was that the cervelo R3 51cm would fit me really well with a few adjustments and should work with both the road and tri configuration. My current bike is the right size (though the next size down would have been better). Even so we put a deposit down on the R3 and once I get the new bike I will sell my current bike - it would be way to nice of a bike to only be used as a rain bike (if any one knows of a good home for a 51 cm Trek WDS 5000 2006 let me know lol).

a life in chaos

I have been bad at posting things this week. I have been working out and tracking on Training peaks but I have not gotten in to a habit of when to post. My new job is way more busy than when I was at MS and I don't have time to do it in the mornings before work - I guess I should get more in the habit of doing it in the evenings but then I'm mostly brain dead by then.. I'll figure it out. It doesn't help that life in general has not been calm lately it always seems like I'm going in multiple directions at once - when all is things to calm down and be predicatble.
Well Wednesday was my planned rest day so I took advantage of that and slept in till 6:45am and took it easy. Yesterday I was supposed to spin - but there is not a class at 6 am so I switched it to swimming but on Tuesday I got a rash from using BodyGlide WarmFX on my left shoulder and on my quads - it totally sucks and I just don't want to go swimming till it is totally gone. Anyway so I used the time to do some of the hip strengthening exercises and mostly core stuff. I tried to go easy on the legs since I planned on running with Col in the evening. I also stretched out really well which felt wonderful.
Last night I met Col after work and we ran 5+ miles in about 45 min. I felt pretty good - Col did a really good job distracting me which seemed to help since I only felt my left leg get a little tight around mile 3-4 and I was able to mostly ignore it. A big thing was I did not die on the hill by the zoo which usually effects me for the rest of the run - but not last night. We also talked about that my recent leg issues have probably been due to my body adjusting to running so much. I mean in one year I have gone from not running outside at all to running a couple time a week (well on a good week). So my body is just adjusting and I need to continue to stretch, eat well - esp after work outs so that my muscles can recover.
This morning I overslept and missed spinning. Maybe I will go do something after work - but I'm not sure yet it is always way harder in the evenings to do workouts - I'm just a morning person I guess. I figure I'll be doing at least one ride on Saturday (maybe 2), the bike fit at 3 and Sunday I'll do hot yoga and swimming.

morning swim

This morning I got in the pool around 5:30am (luckily before the crowds arrived). I felt pretty good no sore throat - my legs are still a bit tight esp my calves but not to bad.
I did warm up 300
drills 200
3 x 200
6 x 100 - 3 hard avg 1:52
2 x 50 - hard 50 sec
cool down 200

I focused on pushing my effort/speed every other set and keeping my rests under 15 seconds. I was able to keep good form even when I was focusing more on going fast which was great. A friend of mine who used to be big into tris and training showed up when I had 500 yrds left or so so my over all time is a bit messed up because I had a 5 min break to chat. lol though it was good to see her again. To bad she does not train much at all anymore.

getting my hiney kicked

Well I took 3 days off - it started with my rest day on Thursday then Friday I woke up with a sore throat and just stayed in bed and went to the ballet in the evening. Saturday we planned on doing a bunch of things and instead the day flew by and all I did was have a massage. Of course I got away with this until Colleen got home on Saturday night and checked up on me and on Sunday proceeded to "kick (me) in the hiney" to get out running. Well actually I ran with Col, Bman and Kyle who all have a faster base speed then me. We ran a 6 mile loop that Kyle came up with from our house. It was a good route with a good amount of hills. I felt good at the start - my calves started pulling on my ankles and knees around mile 2-3, I got dizzy around mile 3 so I started eating some gel (which took me the next 3 miles to finish). My quads started hurting around mile 4 or so - the hills did not help much - they never completely cramped up but there were questionable moments. It was very nice of Bman to hang back with me and so I just kept going - never really lost sight of Col and Kyle which is always good. We wound up running an average of sub 10 min miles - which is fine since I have been avoiding running and have not done many longer distances in a while. Afterwards we walked back to the house and stretched out.
To stay on track this morning I went and did the 6 am interval spin class. Just getting out of bed my legs were sore and tight and I had a slight sore throat but I figured spinning could only help things. I got to the gym early enough to allow a little bit extra time to warm up and loosen my legs up (but not enough to do my planned strength work out). The class was way more crowded than the wed class - which surprised me. It was intervals for strength training. I took it sort of easy but still mostly fallowed with the class. Surprisingly other than my legs being a bit tight I felt ok. I'm doing everything I can to not get a cold/flu - I just don't want to deal with that right now - lots of airborn, tea, soup, water, rest ect. I will do my planned strength work out tonight as well - just to get back in the habit of staying on track with what ever Col tells me to do.

early morning

This morning I got up at 5 am and got to the gym in time to do some strength stuff and spinning at 6 am. I had a a 8:30 am meeting so it was tight but I knew I needed it so I made it work. Spinning went pretty well it took my legs a while to really warm up so that I could add resistance with out my quads hurting a little bit but once they did it went well. The class is focused on endurance and no recovery which was perfect. I always forget how much I sweat in spinning class - by the ends I felt like I was soaking.
Yesterday I wrote briefly of how hard it has been for me to get up and get going in the morning and really just get out and do my work outs. This morning I just told myself I would be cheating myself and if I don't do what Colleen plans for me what is the point - I'm just wasting her time really and that is the last thing I want to be guilty of. So I only hit the snooze twice and got my butt to the gym to do my work outs. Yes my life has been super crazy lately but I need to not let it effect my training - having something stable in my life to keep me sain can only help. I'm sure I will go though this again before IMC but I just need to keep at it.

is it spring yet

This morning I swam 2000 yrds in about 45 minutes. I did not really feel like doing drills so I just swam the same distance. I felt kind of tired and my legs felt sort of heavy but I just focused on good form so my average 100 was 2 min. The details are
warm up 300
2x300
2x150
3x100
6x25
cool down 200

On another note I'm having a hard time getting out of bed in the mornings I still wake up at 5 am or even earlier but just lay there and keep getting to the gym late. I'm not really sure what is going on. But I really want it to be lighter later so that I can feel ok running or riding in the evenings. I don't run alone at night and it is hard to find friends that are up for running with me - so I'm postponing tonights run for tomorrow when Kyle can run with me. Which is a pain but oh well.

what a sexy bike

The rain held off today so Kyle and I braved the still very dirty roads around lake sammamimish. We road from our house which means down northrup then south around the lake then we have to climb back up today via the trail that goes along 520. Before we left both Kyle and I had a flat tire each so he fixed those before we left. The roads sucked - I don't get why they could not sweep an extra two feet along the sides of the roads so that the bike lane would be usable. Anyway my legs still felt pretty tight - I adjusted my left cleat a bit which seemed to help a lot. Even so on the climbs my quads were screaming at me. I managed to stay out of the granny gears until the final climb up next to 520 and MS. I had one flat tire on east lake samm which sucked. We road for about 24 miles for a total of 1 hr 34 min. I made sure to stretch out my legs and take a hot shower afterwards to help loosen my legs.
While out riding Samm Valley called and said that they had the R3 cervelo bike built so I could come by and take a test ride. We had to get some more tubes so we went to check it out. I first tried it on the trainer and I just was not sure if it fit but then I went out on the road and climbed up a hill and it felt amazing. Kyle LOVES his like no other so I have heard about how great it is. But it was good to get out on it myself. At first it felt a bit squirly or like there was nothing under me - it is just so light. Though when I started climbing I could feel how efficient the power transfer is. My legs were super tired and there was no granny gear but it climbed really well. The descend was equally impressive - I usually hate descending but it was really stable and smooth. The set up as was did not fit perfectly but they are going to hold the bike till I have the full fit thing done and if I decide to get the R3 they can set up the bike based on my measurements.