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. :)