First off this morning Kyle and I registered for the Firecracker 5000 on July 3rd...
I had to go out to my mom's house so to save time I decided I could do my run out round Ames Lake which is a 2 mile loop around the lake plus a little bit back to my mom's house. Once I got started I very quickly remembered how hilly the road is - there is pretty much no flats - either up or down. Probably not the smartest route to do as my first longer run since my leg issues started but oh well. My plan was to do 2 loops and if I felt good with no pain then I would go ahead and do the 3rd.
Over all the downhills were hard on my shins but I really tried to focus on staying loose and not letting my feet roll out. The uphills were rather steep and hard. I found that by the end of the first loop (2 miles) I felt tired but no pain so I kept going. I focused on my surrounding a lot - there are bunch of new houses, places for sale, the lake looked very inviting, a couple of dogs that came out to say hi and other random things. It certainty helped make time/distance go by faster because I was not running very fast - with all the uphills my pace was all over the place and all the way up to a few 9+ almost 10 min miles.
By the end of the second loop I figured I had gone this far with no pain so I might as well go through with doing the 3rd loop. I ate a second gel and focused on just finishing 6 miles with no pain but I was more tired and my paces was slow up all the hills. I finished the 3rd loop in about 55 min - by far not my fastest run but I'm very happy that I was able to run 6 mile with no pain at any time so my slow time does not really bother me esp considering the amount of hills.
Jun 30, 2007
Jun 28, 2007
swim run fun
This evening I met Col and Bryan at green lake for a swim run brick. We started early enough to get some hassle from the life guards but what ever. It was great rather than swim the normal laps we have been we swam out across the lake(of course still with in the 50 yrd distance to the shore) for about 18 min or so then back. On the way out the water was rather calm and I used Col and Bryan to sight off of. About half way out I got a kink in my neck that sort of pinched every time I breathed so I found myself waiting longer between breathes just to avoid it - luckily it went away after we turned around to head back in... Though when we turned around Col mention the r word and it immediately started to rain and even though Bryan threatened to get out and walk back to our stuff he stayed in the water and swam. I'm not sure if it was because of the rain or what but the water got rather wavy - more than once I got hit in the face with a wave when I breathed and I got a few rain drops in my mouth as well. Even so I enjoyed the swim - I may have been a ways behind them but still it was a good swim.
Once we got back we did a transition to run out of the back of my car - mind you it was still raining and rather warm and humid. We then ran out one mile around the lake and back. I must have drank some of the water or something because my stomach did not feel good - but it was only a 2 mile run so I lived just fine. I am just enjoying that I can run at all with out pain - my legs felt pretty good. My left calf is a bit tight now but during it felt just fine. The hardest part is not falling back into my old habit of running on the outside of my feet - I really have to focus on running over my big toe - hopefully as I start building mileage back up it will become more natural. It took me 17.24 to run the 2 miles which I am happy with.
The best part of all was that I enjoyed the entire work out and afterwards felt like I wanted to keep going but of course did not because then I would get in trouble with Col ;) So instead I'm just looking forward to my long weekend workouts.
Once we got back we did a transition to run out of the back of my car - mind you it was still raining and rather warm and humid. We then ran out one mile around the lake and back. I must have drank some of the water or something because my stomach did not feel good - but it was only a 2 mile run so I lived just fine. I am just enjoying that I can run at all with out pain - my legs felt pretty good. My left calf is a bit tight now but during it felt just fine. The hardest part is not falling back into my old habit of running on the outside of my feet - I really have to focus on running over my big toe - hopefully as I start building mileage back up it will become more natural. It took me 17.24 to run the 2 miles which I am happy with.
The best part of all was that I enjoyed the entire work out and afterwards felt like I wanted to keep going but of course did not because then I would get in trouble with Col ;) So instead I'm just looking forward to my long weekend workouts.
Jun 27, 2007
nice night for a ride
After sitting in baseball game traffic thus extending my commute about 10-15 min I went straight from my car to my bike. I had 24 miles on the schedule so I road the lake samm loop and added 2 steep hill repeats for good measure. It felt great to be out on my bike. I need to find some new routes close to home - I'm getting sort of bored of the lake samm route but it is convenient. My legs felt pretty good especially on the climbs which I was a little surprised by since all day I have felt a bit tired and generally out of it. I guess I justed need some time with/on my bike. In all it took me about 1:26 to ride 25 miles which I am just fine with :)
Lets start with Monday - I did a strength work out - mostly stuff for my shoulder and legs plus a bunch of core things. Nothing to intense since I had to do a ton of stuff around the house on Monday. I was supposed to swim 2800yrds but they day was to full of other things so it just never happened.
Tuesday morning I went and did a 3.25 mile run from my house. It was a really nice morning and it actually felt nice to get out and run. I finished up in just over 23 minutes with no pain in my left leg :)
In the evening I got to green lake about an hour before I was going to meet Col and Bryan to swim so I decided to run around the lake. I had asked Col earlier if this was ok and she said I could run 2 miles but I did not know the mile markers so I just ran the whole lake.. oops. It was nice though I ran the outside loop which is compact gravel/dirt and I actually passed a bunch of slower runners which felt kind of good since it does not happen much. It took me about 25 min to make my way around the lake and back to my car to grab my wetsuit and stuff for swimming.
Of course I realized I forgot both a swim cap and a towel... I got down to the water ate a gel, got my wesuit on and waited for Bryan and Col. Bryan got there first but I did not remember what I the plan was so I waited for Col. I was a little bit subdued - maybe I was just tired from the running but once I got going the water was nice. My shoulder felt tight and got tired with in about 15-20 min of course not enough for me to stop. The only other things is I still can't swim straight and I kept getting water in my nose almost every time I breathed - I have no clue what the deal was but it was a bit annoying. I swam for about 45 min - I have no clue how far though.. It was good I figure I need as much practice swimming in open water as I can get and hopefully I'll get better at it.
Tuesday morning I went and did a 3.25 mile run from my house. It was a really nice morning and it actually felt nice to get out and run. I finished up in just over 23 minutes with no pain in my left leg :)
In the evening I got to green lake about an hour before I was going to meet Col and Bryan to swim so I decided to run around the lake. I had asked Col earlier if this was ok and she said I could run 2 miles but I did not know the mile markers so I just ran the whole lake.. oops. It was nice though I ran the outside loop which is compact gravel/dirt and I actually passed a bunch of slower runners which felt kind of good since it does not happen much. It took me about 25 min to make my way around the lake and back to my car to grab my wetsuit and stuff for swimming.
Of course I realized I forgot both a swim cap and a towel... I got down to the water ate a gel, got my wesuit on and waited for Bryan and Col. Bryan got there first but I did not remember what I the plan was so I waited for Col. I was a little bit subdued - maybe I was just tired from the running but once I got going the water was nice. My shoulder felt tight and got tired with in about 15-20 min of course not enough for me to stop. The only other things is I still can't swim straight and I kept getting water in my nose almost every time I breathed - I have no clue what the deal was but it was a bit annoying. I swam for about 45 min - I have no clue how far though.. It was good I figure I need as much practice swimming in open water as I can get and hopefully I'll get better at it.
Jun 24, 2007
birthday weekend recap
Well my birthday was actually on Friday but what they hey why not stretch it out a bit more and enjoy it. Friday I spent the day on a sail boat with the crew I work with in celebration of a job well done on a huge project... It was great fun except there really was not much food - they had lots of beer and whine but not much else. I ate a nectar bar but it was not enough by the end of the cruise I started to get a headache from not eating enough. By the time I got home from work all I wanted to do was take a nap - I had planned on doing a 45 min easy ride then running 3 miles (the priority of the day). Since I felt so out of it I rested a bit then geared up around 8ish to just do the 3 mile run and then go to chipotle for dinner - yes I know I'm boring but I really did not want to do much else for my birthday. Kyle was very sweet and got me flowers and my favorite fruit torte :) Anyway Kyle and I ran at the downtown Bellevue half mile track - my only goal was to run 3 miles with no pain. The entire run I focused on striking more on the inside of my fore foot rather than the outside - (if that makes any sense). I found that if I did not focus on it the entire time almost I would go back to striking on the outside of my feet which would then make the outside of my legs tighten a bit. I quickly caught myself and successfully ran 3 miles with NO PAIN! no foot pain, no leg pain - it was the best birthday present..
Saturday morning Kyle, Futa, Col and I met up to do a 70-80 mile ride - we decided to do the Flying Wheels 65 mile course and then add another 5 or more depending on how we all felt. It started out a little chilly - well chilly enough to need arm warmers and by the time we reached the 1st hill (about 5miles in) I was plenty warm. I felt fairly good (not great but good) - my climbing legs are not all the back but definitely getting better. Kyle and Col were riding really strong and on average it seemed about 2-4 mph faster than me - which I was just fine with my goal for the ride was to just enjoy it and get the miles done. Futa was nice and road back with me a lot - though he gave me a hard time about hitting pot holes and not swerving to avoid them - he started yelling "swerve" at me the rest of the ride...
It was the first ride with an aero bottle and I LOVED it - I drank way more esp when I was actually down in the aero bars. I put nuun in it so that it was not just plain water but I think next long ride I will be putting Gatorade in it so I can easily get calories in. The aero bottle along with the salt stick made things so simple. I still have a hard time with gels - I was going to do a gel flask but I did not have enough of the same flavor of gels so I just used them as they were. I still managed to eat 5 or so of them - the raspberry creme were disgusting.
My legs did not really start feeling really tired till the final big climb up the stair step hill back on to the plateau which always feels never ending. At the bottom of the climb my legs felt really heavy and slow but as I got going I felt better and just kept climbing till I reached the top. The rest of the ride I focused on just getting back to the car - it did not help that the long way around the lake sucks - the roads are horrible with no shoulder by the last bit my legs felt done. In all I did just under 70 miles (69.8) in 4:15 - which I think is the longest ride I have ever done. The best part was I felt better that I did last week :)
Now on Sunday everyone else went for a nice long 10 mile run while I was stuck doing a swim in the pool and the elliptical. I was extra tired in the morning because Kyle woke me up about 10 time though out the night which just made me more cranky about my non-running workout and of course the pool was crowded even though I was there rather early for a Sunday. Anyway I did 400 warm up, 300 drills, 1000 x 2, 100 cool down for a total time of 55 min. My shoulder was more tired then the rest of my body and kind of hurt which makes me think my bike fit might be off. I mostly just survived the swim, I felt ungraceful and heavy. Once I finished in the pool I went and did 45 min on the elliptical keeping the cadence above 170 the entire time. I only survived by watching what it takes on my ipod. I know I need to do cardio since I can't really run much but it really does not feel comparable - I don't sweet as much or feel like I'm getting much accomplished but coach col told me to do it so I did...
Saturday morning Kyle, Futa, Col and I met up to do a 70-80 mile ride - we decided to do the Flying Wheels 65 mile course and then add another 5 or more depending on how we all felt. It started out a little chilly - well chilly enough to need arm warmers and by the time we reached the 1st hill (about 5miles in) I was plenty warm. I felt fairly good (not great but good) - my climbing legs are not all the back but definitely getting better. Kyle and Col were riding really strong and on average it seemed about 2-4 mph faster than me - which I was just fine with my goal for the ride was to just enjoy it and get the miles done. Futa was nice and road back with me a lot - though he gave me a hard time about hitting pot holes and not swerving to avoid them - he started yelling "swerve" at me the rest of the ride...
It was the first ride with an aero bottle and I LOVED it - I drank way more esp when I was actually down in the aero bars. I put nuun in it so that it was not just plain water but I think next long ride I will be putting Gatorade in it so I can easily get calories in. The aero bottle along with the salt stick made things so simple. I still have a hard time with gels - I was going to do a gel flask but I did not have enough of the same flavor of gels so I just used them as they were. I still managed to eat 5 or so of them - the raspberry creme were disgusting.
My legs did not really start feeling really tired till the final big climb up the stair step hill back on to the plateau which always feels never ending. At the bottom of the climb my legs felt really heavy and slow but as I got going I felt better and just kept climbing till I reached the top. The rest of the ride I focused on just getting back to the car - it did not help that the long way around the lake sucks - the roads are horrible with no shoulder by the last bit my legs felt done. In all I did just under 70 miles (69.8) in 4:15 - which I think is the longest ride I have ever done. The best part was I felt better that I did last week :)
Now on Sunday everyone else went for a nice long 10 mile run while I was stuck doing a swim in the pool and the elliptical. I was extra tired in the morning because Kyle woke me up about 10 time though out the night which just made me more cranky about my non-running workout and of course the pool was crowded even though I was there rather early for a Sunday. Anyway I did 400 warm up, 300 drills, 1000 x 2, 100 cool down for a total time of 55 min. My shoulder was more tired then the rest of my body and kind of hurt which makes me think my bike fit might be off. I mostly just survived the swim, I felt ungraceful and heavy. Once I finished in the pool I went and did 45 min on the elliptical keeping the cadence above 170 the entire time. I only survived by watching what it takes on my ipod. I know I need to do cardio since I can't really run much but it really does not feel comparable - I don't sweet as much or feel like I'm getting much accomplished but coach col told me to do it so I did...
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