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Weekly Recap: 7/04 – 7/10

11 Jul

This past weekend was fantastic. Even though I stayed up until 11 pm on Friday night cleaning my house for the BBQ on Saturday (not my first choice of Friday night festivities), I got to sleep in until 9 am on Saturday morning after which Travis and I drove up to Evergreen (about 30 minutes from our house) to do a run at 7,000 feet (the same elevation as Steamboat Springs, where my Oly tri is). More about that in a bit… After getting home and showering, we went grocery shopping, finished preparations for our party, and then from 4 to 8, had about 25 of our friends from church over. While our yard is more than big enough to accommodate everyone, things got a little cozy when it started to rain and we all moved inside. Luckily, it only lasted about 45 minutes and then we dispersed to a more comfortable amount of personal space.

Sunday was glorious. After church (during which Travis and I served for our first time as part of the projection/lights team), we ate lunch and then I proceeded to take a 2-hour nap. (I had decided to take a rest day and push my brick workout to today.) After that, I went grocery shopping and made butternut squash and sage lasagna (using sage from our own garden!) to bake tonight for dinner, and then Travis and I checked out a new Mexican restaurant near our house called Las Salsas. Travis had a burrito/enchilada/chile relleno combo plate and I had fish tacos. The food was very tasty but the prices were a little high for Mexican. Since we were the only patrons there until we were leaving, the service was very prompt. We watched Batman Begins on TV and then went to bed at 9:45. I slept in this morning until 7:15. Guess I was pretty worn out from my workouts this past week:

Monday: 5.5 miles backpacking in holy heat

While the way back was easier cardio-wise than the way there, my legs still ended up exhausted, my feet hurt and I was totally ready to be done. But getting Dairy Queen in Silverthorne made it all worth it. Mmmm… {Pics are coming soon, I promise!}

Tuesday: Rest day

Wednesday: 2000 yd swim + lower body strength

Because of the following reasons,

  • my IT band has been acting up some during my runs (causing soreness in my outer knees)
  • I’m increasing the distance of my long runs to 7-8 miles in the next few weeks
  • I’m toying with the idea of doing the Denver Rock’n’Roll Half Marathon in October
  • I am trying to add in 1 day of lower body strength

I decided to do the leg strengthening exercises I learned in physical therapy last year (when being treated for my IT band): reverse lunges off a platform and one-legged squats on an exercise disc. I also added in calf raises. So I did 3 sets of 15 reverse lunges on each leg + 3 x 15 calf raises + 2 x 10 one-legged squats. My legs felt fatigued by the end (considering I haven’t done any sort of lower body strength since January).

Thursday: 13.8 mile bike to work (1:13:25) + abs

I’ve already told you about how difficult this ride was for me. Since I had woken up that morning very sore from my lunges and squats the day before, then went on the most challenging bike ride I’ve ever been on, I could barely walk at work. I seriously had to use my arms to push myself out of my chair. Note to self: don’t bring heels to wear to work after you’ve biked in. Even harder to walk.

This ride was supposed to be 27.6 miles (with the bike home from work) but a stupid thunderstorm decided to thwart me. Boo!

Friday: 2000 yd swim

I was so tired this morning that I tried to figure out any possible way to push my workout to a different time/day so that I could go back to bed. But unfortunately, there was no other time so I bucked up and went to the pool. I did 100 yds freestyle and 100 breaststroke to warmup and 300 yds of freestyle drills (pull buoy, one arm). For my core workout, I did 300 yds freestyle, 400 breaststroke, 500 freestyle. For a cooldown, I did 150 freestyle, 150 breaststroke.

Saturday: 4.95 mile trail run in Evergreen (1:07:38, 561 ft elevation gain)

Since the Oly tri I’m doing is at 7,000 feet and Wheat Ridge is only at 5,200 (roughly), I wanted to see if the elevation would affect me. It was a little hard to tell, since trail runs are harder than road runs (steeper grades) but on the flat parts of the trail run, I determined that the difference in elevation won’t be much of a factor. The hills will though! My legs were still tired from my lunges + bike ride so I had to walk up some of the steeper grades (6%) and the last mile was shot to heck when it felt like I was running through quicksand. Considering my half marathon pace last year was 12:30, I’m not feeling too bad about a 13:40 pace on a run like this.

Sunday: rest day

I had no motivation – mental or physical – to do anything except be a bum yesterday. (I went grocery shopping because I can’t survive without healthy food.) I’m glad I made the choice to switch my brick workout to today because I’ll get to do it with Travis and I have much more energy today.

Weekly Totals:

Swim: 4000 yds

Bike: 13.8 miles (wah.wah.)

Run: 4.95 miles

Hike: 5.5 miles

I also decided against doing the sprint triathlon in Leadville that is taking place this coming Saturday. There were a couple of reasons for that decision: 1) I wasn’t sure I had it in me to do a full sprint at 10,200 ft (that kind of elevation difference does matter) 2) It would take up pretty much our entire weekend and 3) Travis isn’t ready for a triathlon yet, specifically with the swim leg, so he’d just be a spectator again. I hate to make him give up yet another whole weekend to devote to my hobby (since I don’t go hunting or fishing with him, it’s not really even).

So that means I can just focus on preparing for the Warrior Dash on August 21st and the Steamboat Springs Olympic Tri on August 28th. My goals for the next few weeks are:

  • Get 3 strength training workouts (1 upper, 1 lower, 1 core) in per week.
  • Get at least one 30-mile bike ride in per week.
  • Increase the amount of breaststroke in my swim workouts (this is the stroke I plan on doing in the race – read why here).
  • Keep rockin’ the runs.
Tomorrow, it’s been a month since the Greeley Triathlon – which means I’m a month into training for this Olympic tri. When I first looked at the training plan I came up with, I was a little skeptical if I could handle the training load. But even though I was really tired this past week (must.get.more.sleep!), I have maintained a good level of energy for non-training things (I still cook, clean, grocery shop and do laundry every week). Granted, I don’t think I’ve done a full week of training exactly as it was on paper (bike rides must stop being thwarted!), but I’m still putting in 5-6 hours of training a week. So I am going to keep on keepin’ on toward my goal (our Minnesota vacation on the horizon is helping too).
Spiritual update:
I just realized that I didn’t include this in the past couple of recaps I’ve done. Whoops. But I have been spending time reading the Bible almost every day! I’d still like to increase that time (right now, it’s about 20-25 minutes in the morning) but I haven’t been as much of a Nazi about my bedtime as I need to be to make that happen. Regardless, I feel close to God, am being challenged to grow, and have been thinking about/praying for others. (I hesitate to say I’m “doing well” because I tend to fall into a legalistic mindset where I feel more deserving of God’s grace if I’m on top of things and vice versa. So instead I’ll just say that I feel very encouraged by my relationship with God lately.)
How was your weekend?

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Thwarted again.

8 Jul

Yesterday, I finally biked to work for the first time ever. I had forgotten to bring my clothes to work the day before so I had to bring a big backpack with my clothes, toiletries and makeup, bike lock, lunch, and towel (I wasn’t sure the locker room had ones that contractors could use – we kind of get the shaft around here – but they do). So my backpack was a little on the heavy side but it has the straps that go around the waist and across the chest so it didn’t move around too much.

I only took 2 wrong turns, which were quickly corrected. I’m sure that I would’ve been very lost if I hadn’t driven the route beforehand so that I knew generally where I was supposed to be going. The part that was the most confusing was being on the bike trails (though it was also the most enjoyable because there were no cars to worry about).

The most notable part of the ride? The hills. Holy crap. I got dominated. It was sheer grit and stubbornness that got me up those hills. (For those of you who are intense bikers, you probably think I’m a wuss to whine about a 3% grade that lasts for 1.5 miles but for me, it was hard! It probably didn’t help that I had done squats and lunges for the first time in 5-6 months the day before and woke up very sore.) According to MapMyRun, there are two main climbs on this route: on Carr Street (above) and then on Simms Street (below).

Carr Street was the shorter, but steeper of the two. I was huffing and puffing and seriously considered walking my bike. But I didn’t. This is when doing endurance sports is purely mental. Your entire body is saying STOP but you keep pushing. It was nice to have a bike lane on this hill, just in case I was a swerving spaz.

 The hill on Simms was not so kind to me though. Giant hill, no shoulder (see pic – though it doesn’t do the hill justice). As cars were whizzing by at 50 mph and I was trying to not swerve either in front of one or into the gravel shoulder, I was repeating Jerry Seinfeld’s bit on scuba diving to myself: “Just don’t die… don’t die, don’t die, don’t die… there’s a rock, there’s a fish, who cares… just don’t die…” 

I didn’t die. And I made it to work on time, though it took me 1:13:25 to go 13.8 miles.

But when it came time to bike home, this was the sky:

I was still going to bike home, even after Travis told me it was raining in Golden. It wasn’t raining in Broomfield at that very moment so my stubbornness kicked in and I decided it would be an adventure.

I had just gotten my sweaty bike gear back on (note to self: don’t forget to bring an extra sports bra to work next time! EW!) when Travis called back and told me about tree limbs being ripped off, flash flood warnings, 40 mph gusts, and rain everywhere. “I’d feel a lot better coming to pick you up,” he said. “FINE!” I raged.

Let me explain my horrid reaction: My sensible self appreciated my husband’s concern and willingness to drive 30 minutes one way to come pick me and my little ole bike up. My nonsensical self wanted to bike home at all costs. I had been thwarting in my first attempt at biking to work and now this? I would not allow it. Sensibility (and my husband) won the day. And I will say that I was very happy (later) that I did not bike home. It would’ve been miserable and probably deterred me from ever riding my bike in to work again.

While we were up in that neighborhood with the car, I suggested we get Chick-Fil-A for dinner. So we did. It was delicious (though I’ll warn you to not get their Chicken Caesar wrap if you don’t like massive amounts of Parmesan cheese – I like it but not that much so I ended up eating only 3/4 of it).

After tidying up the house in preparation for cleaning it tonight for our BBQ tomorrow, I went to DSW and finally bought my new sandals!

After trying on something like 15 different pairs and styles, I decided these would work well with both black and brown tones, they have a slight heel and some good cushioning (advice from my friend B), and they’re freaking cute. They do feel very different than flip flops, since there’s nothing to hold the front of my foot in, but I’m sure I’ll get used to them.

I saw a few of the different options I had been looking at online in the store but after trying them on, realized that they either didn’t fit my foot well or I didn’t like how they “wore”. So I’m glad I went to the store instead of buying online! That’s generally the way I operate. I usually only buy stuff online after trying it on in a store. But I do make exceptions if it means I get a good deal and free shipping.

Here’s a pic of my feet in my new sandals:

LOVE!

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Weekly Recap: 6/27 – 7/03

5 Jul

Happy Tuesday readers! Did you all survive the first day back to work after the long weekend? I was actually very productive today at work – and productive doing work things. (Shocking, I know.) And I was productive today after work: I went to the bank and grocery store, made dinner, am now blogging, and will be folding the last load of laundry shortly. Then it’s probably off to bed for a little reading and lots of sleep. This weekend’s backpacking adventures were exhausting – I’ll post pictures tomorrow.

Life caused many edits to the training plan last week. Here’s what I ended up doing:

Monday: Rest

Tuesday: AM – Ran 5.65 miles in 1:04:23

PM – Biked 3.14 miles to/from Rec; Swam 1800 yards

The focus of my run this day was just distance so my pace was my normal 11:23 range. My knees and IT band were acting up. I’ve noticed that when I run slower, my legs hurt more. I think it’s because when I run faster, I engage more muscles so it stabilizes my leg more. Must run faster more often.

For my swim, I did a pyramid again – 2 x 100, 2 x 200, 2 x 300, 2 x 200, 2 x 100; alternating between the front crawl and breaststroke.

Wednesday: Biked 31.62 miles

My longest bike ride EVER! And man, did my back say so loud and clear. I biked with a friend who is a leisurely biker and while it was great to have the company, the ride took me longer than expected – 3:06:39 to be exact (that is 10 mph). No wonder why my shoulders and palms were crying out in pain – I increased my time spent on the bike from 1:07 to 3:07! The biggest lesson I learned from this ride is that I need to get in some longer rides. I don’t know if my back would have tolerated a 10K run after that.

Thursday: (Unplanned) Rest

Due to getting home at 10 PM after Wednesday’s bike ride, I didn’t swim in the morning like I was supposed to. And after work, I was so pooped that I did. not. want. to. swim. So instead, I got in the pool. Yes, you read that right. I used that evening just to coach Travis in the pool on his technique. I did get in a couple hundred yards but I’m not counting it as a workout.

Friday: BRICK – 6 mile bike on the trainer; 1 mile run

I was worried that doing too much on Friday would make me too tired for our backpacking trip on Saturday so while I averaged 20 mph on the bike and then ran the mile in 9:50, I wasn’t hammering it like I had planned to do my bricks. But my legs were still tired on Saturday. Oh bother.

Saturday: Backpacking – 5.7 miles; 1,800 ft elevation gain

Holy crap. This was a hard hike. There was sweat pouring down my face, dripping off my chin, and soaking my shirt. My pack weighed about 25 lbs, which I’m sure added to the difficulty, but this trail would’ve kicked my butt regardless. About 4 miles in, I was cursing and questioning what crazy idea ever made me think backpacking was fun. Obviously I survived. But I’ll leave the rest of the details for tomorrow.

Sunday: 1.5 mile walk/hike

This day was just spent reading and watching Travis and our friends, Ahren and Lauren, fish. More details to come…

But here’s a sneak peek at pictures:

 

Totals:

Swim: 1,800 yards

Bike: 40.76 miles

Run: 6.65 miles

Hike: 7.2 miles

Today was a much-needed rest day (although I’m not as sore I expected to be). Tomorrow it’s back on schedule!

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Happy Freedom Day!

1 Jul

I will be leaving early tomorrow morning to go backpacking with Travis, the pooches, and two friends and their pooch. So I won’t be blogging (until next week when I’ll post pics of our adventures!).

But have a GREAT weekend and enjoy yourself (safely)! Go watch some fireworks, which is my most favorite thing about this holiday (though my husband does not share that fondness)!

I can tend to get wrapped up in the fact that it’s a 3-day weekend filled with fun festivities that I forget what we’re actually celebrating: being a free country. It is such a huge blessing to live here and be able to walk down the street without fear, attend church publicly every Sunday, and not worry about where I’m going to sleep or what I’m going to eat.

This day of freedom also makes me think of the Ultimate Liberator: Jesus Christ. Without His death on the cross, we would all still be captive to sin and Satan, destined for an eternity in hell. But because of His sacrifice, we can have freedom when we trust in Him for salvation! Freedom from sin, self, this world. Freedom to love God with all our hearts, enjoy fellowship with Him and one another, and do fun things like watching fireworks, all the while knowing that this world is temporary and the real celebration will happen someday soon in heaven.

How do you use holidays to remind yourself of the gospel?

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Weekly Recap: 6/20 – 6/26

27 Jun

Last week’s training was characterized by a lot of rearranged and piecemeal sessions. (Like my intelligent word of the day week? If you don’t know the word, here’s the definition.) But I’m still sore and tired today and my watch shows that I trained for a total of 5:27:34 and burned 2,139 calories. It was mostly my run workouts that kicked my butt.

Monday: Off

Tuesday: AM – Swam 1,300 yds

   PM – Ran 2.6 miles in 29:12; upper body weights

For my swim workout, I did a nice little pyramid: 2 x 100, 2 x 200, 2 x 300, 2 x 50. (I was supposed to swim 1,500 yds and just realized that I had calculated this wrong. Whoops!)

My run was intervals: 2 minute walk, 2 minute run, 1 minute sprint. Definitely harder to sprint for a minute than 30 seconds!

Wednesday: Bike to Work Day FAIL = 6 mile bike and mopey face.

If you’re looking at the photo and wondering where the rest of my thumb is, you now know that I have freakishly short thumbs. My brother used to say that I had alien thumbs and I have been asked if it’s hard to use the controller when playing video games. For the record, I don’t and it’s not. Tell me there’s not something weird about your body.

Thursday: AM – Ran 3.5 miles in 35:36; abs

   PM – Swam 1,250 yds (workout rearranged for Travis’ beauty rest)

My run this day was great. I won’t bore you with the details again. But I rocked it!

For my swim, I followed a plan from swimplan.com. I want to start incorporating more drills into my swimming routine and this is a no-brainer way to do that (because it tells you what to do.) It told me to do 8 x 50 of bilateral breathing freestyle. Since I don’t know how to do that, I did 4 x 50 of single arm stroke to the left, then 2 x 50 of freestyle breathing to the left, then 2 x 50 of bilateral breathing. It’ll take some getting used to but I’m excited that I can *almost* do it (I lift my head too much to breathe, which reminds me of how it felt to learn freestyle. Ahhh… the days.)

Friday: AM – Biked 8 miles

PM – Ran 1.15 miles with pooches; Biked 6.7 miles with the hubs

My bike rides this day were to make up for Wednesday. Travis went out for happy hour after work – 3 heavy beers + hot sun = 2 hour nap & poor bike ride. Travis’ back tire ended up going flat (the air got let out through the nozzle) so I had to bike home and come back with the car to pick him up. Charlie snuck out of the car and almost got run over. I man-slapped her. (Not really.)

Saturday: Ran 3.2 miles in 48:46 in Red Rocks Park with friend Carrie

This was my first trail run ever and I think it went pretty well. There are a couple of significant climbs (MapMyRun rates them a 3 and 4 on a scale of 1-5, with 1 being the hardest) totaling 656 feet of elevation gain and since I suck at hills and Carrie just started running a couple months ago, we had to hike those parts – hence our slow time. I was also slower than Carrie coming down, due to my fear of twisting an ankle or falling on my face.

Sunday: Biked 9.2 miles with the hubs

The first 3/4 of this ride was on Ralston Creek Trail, which goes through Arvada. There are a lot of turns, bridges, and people to avoid so our average speed was only 13.5, even though Travis pushed it to 21 mph on his mountain bike at some later points (where the trail is straight and not through neighborhoods). I had a hard time keeping up! I told him that he was leading from now on because I had been underestimating his abilities.

Totals

Swim: 2,550 yards

Bike: 29.9 miles

Run: 10.45 miles

Overall, the week wasn’t bad training-wise, though I skipped lower body weights, my 25-mile ride on Sunday (did 9 instead), and my 3rd (and longest) swim workout. I’m finding that having two swim workouts back to back is not appealing to me whatsoever. I just do not want to go to the pool twice in a row. So I think I’m going to cut out a swim workout. It would take a lot of work for me to get faster at the swim (since it’s so much about technique) and it’s the shortest part of the race so I feel okay doing only 2 swim workouts a week. Plus, I need the time to motivate myself to do longer bike rides. My longest ride so far has been 20 miles (and I wasn’t pushing myself on it either).

I spent time with God every day except Wednesday, when I putzed around with my broken bike too long in the morning. I’ve been going through 2 Corinthians, which has been very good and continued to remind me to stay focused on eternity and what God is accomplishing in my life right now, even when I can’t see it clearly. (More thoughts to come on that.) Even though I only spend 20-30 minutes reading and journaling, that time gives my life the balance it needs to stay on course.

I was very productive this weekend – I went grocery shopping, did laundry, vacuumed, bathed the dogs, and deadheaded some perennials to encourage reblooming so tonight, I am just going to take it easy by watching some TV, continuing to slog my way through David Copperfield (though it’s a good book, it’s taking me forever to read it), and stretching/foam-rolling. Back to training tomorrow!

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I broke into my own house.

24 Jun

It’s a Friday. Things were pretty slow at work (when are they not?) so I headed home at 4. I was anticipating a delicious nap in air-conditioning while the dogs were roaming outside so they wouldn’t wake me up. I was feeling pretty good about my mad traffic navigation skills, too, as I was able to avoid practically all of the jams I saw on my way home (side roads are where it’s at).

I went through my usual routine of parking my car in the driveway, opening the garage door with the remote, and grabbing all of my crap to carry in. But when I reached the door to the laundry room, the knob didn’t turn. Thinking it was just stuck, I jiggled it a few more times. Nope, it was locked. That had happened to me one other time. Since it’s the kind of doorknob that you turn the notch to lock (see pic), sometimes the notch gets turned just a little bit every time you use it until bam, the door is locked.

No problem, I thought. I’ll just go through the front door. Well, unfortunately the recent re-addition of our screened door put the kaibosh on that. It was locked as well. No key for that door.

Hmmm…

While the dogs were whining and pawing at the door to get out, I called Travis and told him the predicament. He suggested I take the pins out of the hinges of the door.

Good idea!

I was able to get the pins out fairly easily but then the dilemma was, how do you pull a door off that is still locked? Those skills were beyond me. So I got out the cordless drill and removed my side of the doorknob. When I couldn’t figure out how to get the door unlocked even then, I remembered my friend Carrie’s story about a friend’s little boy locking himself and his playmates into her daughter’s room. Apparently, he only knew how to lock it but not unlock, so she also resorted to removing the doorknob. I remembered her saying that didn’t work, but I couldn’t remember what actually did work. (Maybe she coached them through how to unlock? Do you think that would work with my dogs?)

While I was standing there jiggling the knob, I could feel the cool breeze blowing from the laundry room into the hot, sticky garage. Taunting me.

Finally I gave up on that door. It was of no use. Maybe there’s a window open!

Indeed there was. And luckily, it was my bathroom window, which had yet to be replaced with the new kind with screens designed to only come out from inside. Instead, the screens were homemade (we think) and held in place by some plastic clips that you turn to remove (see pic).

Between a nail and a putty knife, I was able to turn the plastic clips enough to push the screen out and into the bathtub.

Then I got out the ladder. Carefully straddling it over one of our beautiful shrubs, I climbed up.

Now, as you can see, our windows are pretty high up and fairly small. Good thing I don’t weigh 200 lbs or I would’ve been cooking in the hot sun until Travis got home from happy hour.

So the question was, Should I go in head first or feet first?

I decided feet first would be the safest route so I lifted my left leg into the window and straddled the sill. I stared down at the hard, porcelain bathtub. Whatever you do, don’t get hurt.

I kicked off my flipflop so I could better grip the side ledge of the bathtub. Now, how to get my right leg inside too? I pushed aside the shower curtain and leaned down onto the toilet tank. Holding on to the window frame, I was able to wrestle my right leg in too.

Whew! I’m inside.

Time for a nap.

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Getting my running mojo back!

23 Jun

When I first started running, I was fairly speedy (for me), averaging between a 9:30 and 10:00 pace. The first race I ever did, the White Bear Lake Freedom 10 Mile, I ran at a 9:30 pace for 7 miles until I got this weird blister thing under my toe. I ended up finishing right around 1:40.

Then I moved to Colorado and the altitude instantly added a minute to my per-mile pace. But the more I ran, the more I got used to the altitude. I started running shorter runs at a 10:00 pace again. I ran my first half in 2:30:46, an 11:31 pace. A week later, I ran my first and only 10K in 62:36, a 10:03 pace.

The next year, I trained for my first sprint triathlon. As I have mentioned before, I was really gung ho about training. With the weight lifting and cross-training, I was regularly running at a 9:30 or even (gasp!) 9:00 pace.

It was awesome.

But once I stopped training like a mad man, my pace went back to just a little over a 10-minute mile.

And then 2010 happened.

Any speed I had ever had completely disappeared. While I was training for my second half and what I had hoped to be my first full marathon (but ended up being my third half), I was running so slow I was practically walking. No Joke.

It was so bad that I felt good about anything faster than a 12:00/mile pace. A lot of runs, I didn’t even make that goal. My half marathon times slipped to 2:33:50 and then 2:44:44.

What was happening to me?!?!?

Maybe I’m just getting old.

But actually, I’m pretty sure the same thing that caused my IT-band injury while marathon training is the same thing causing my excessive slowness. It’s three-fold:

1. Not enough (or any) weight training.

When I was training for my first sprint triathlon, I did full-body weights 2 times a week. I am almost positive that had a lot to do with how much faster I was running.

2. Not enough (or any) speedwork.

The ladies on The Nest’s Health & Fitness board like to say, “To run faster, you have to run faster.” You’d think that it being such a simple concept, I would have adopted it when I found myself progressively getting slower. Nah. I’d rather just put the miles in and hope the speed comes magically.

If there’s anything I’ve learned from frequenting the H&F board on The Nest, it’s that a lot of speedy runners work for their speed. They aren’t just out doing joy laps. They’re doing sprints, mile repeats, tempo runs, hill workouts. They’re balls to the walls.

3. Not enough stretching.

Not stretching, specifically not stretching my IT band, is definitely what caused my injury last year. I’m pretty sure that not stretching also has an effect on how fast I can go, because it affects hip flexors, hamstrings, calves, and generally makes running more enjoyable. It’s no fun to start a run and realize that your hamstring is as tight as a fiddle string.

To put these realizations into practice, I’ve decided to incorporate one day of upper body strength and one of lower body into my training, as well as at least 2 speed workouts a week (for running), and stretching after every workout (this is still hit or miss). I’m also trying to do drills and speed work for the swim and bike portions, but that looks different.

So far, since adopting my new philosophy, I’ve done several tempo runs, intervals, and some 1/2 mile repeats. So I was super excited this morning when I went on a run and ran the fastest pace I’ve ran for over a mile since training for that first triathlon. After 1.5 miles at a steady pace with the dogs, I went out for 2 more miles alone. I felt like I was pushing it (I was very out of breath) but my legs also started feeling heavy. I’ve been disappointed before when I feel like I’m running fast and I look at my watch, only to see it’s a 11:00 pace. So I wasn’t expecting anything (though secretly hoping for a 10:00 pace). I looked at my watch at the 1 mile point –

9:40.

WHAT?!?!

I was totally impressed by my little legs and pathetic lungs. Aw, you guys are getting stronger from the speed work – that’s so cute!

That achievement gave me the motivation I needed to push through another mile. I felt like I was slower. A negative split would be nice, but I’d be satisfied with around a 10:10.

My breathing was very labored. I was so ready to be done being out of breath. This was one of those runs where my legs felt amazing but my lungs just couldn’t keep up.

I was about 1/10 of a mile from my house when I looked at my watch. I only had 1 minute left if I was going to break a 10:00 pace.

I punched it and just about died.

But I made it. Split time: 9:36.

Sahweet!

That run totally made my day and reassured me: Yes, I can get faster. 

{Update: I took my bike to the bike store last night and they said the rear derailleur hanger was bent. They fixed it and I can go pick it up after work! Bike ride tomorrow, here I come!}

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Bike to Work FAIL.

22 Jun

Today was Denver’s Bike to Work Day. I have never biked to work before but have always been intrigued by the idea. And since I am now training for an Olympic triathlon and needing to bike rides of 20-30 miles every week, I figured it would be a great way to get in my training, as well as my commute (it’s 13.5 miles to work by car or bike).

I spent a couple hours at work yesterday getting everything mapped out, typing up directions and stowing my work clothes for today in one of the fitness center lockers. I drove my route home last night, to get better acquainted with the streets and make sure that everything looked pretty safe. I was so excited and nervous that I went to bed thinking about it and woke up thinking about it. I packed up my Camelbak this morning with my smaller-than-normal lunch, flip-flops, cell phone, phone charger, camera, photo ID, credit card, chapstick, deodorant, and makeup. I had my helmet, water bottle and sunglasses. I wore a bright orange t-shirt over my long-sleeve gray tech tee.

I taped my directions to my aero bars

I forgot just one small thing.

Check the bike.

I didn’t think it would be an issue since I had just biked 20 miles on it Sunday with no issues. But now that I think about it, the chain was making some weird noises during that ride – so much so that Travis asked me what the noise was. I said the chain was rubbing like it does when it’s in the highest or lowest gear, ignoring the indicator on my shifter showing that the chain was actually on a middle gear.

I left the house at 6:35 and followed my route north. Since I haven’t biked on actual streets very much – this was maybe the third time? – I was approaching a stoplight when I realized (too late) that I should be in a lower gear in order to get started more easily. So as I was braking, I downshifted twice without pedaling, so that I didn’t *actually* shift.

Big mistake.

It may have just been a coincidence that the problems started right after that, or it may have been the cause.

The Magnificent Sliding Chain

But my chain was jacked up big time. It was sliding all over the place, trying to choose between 2 or 3 different gears. I pulled into a parking lot and tooled around there for about 5 minutes, changing gears to see if I could get my chain back on track. No luck. Then I got off and looked at the chain. I didn’t see anything obviously wrong and know next to nothing technical about bikes so as much as it disappointed me, I knew the smart thing would be to go home. I didn’t want to get stranded on the side of the road, or worse, ruin my bike.

As I pulled out of the parking lot to where I was going to turn around, the chain seemed better. Maybe, just maybe, I can still make this work. I continued on my route for another mile. Things were good. Chain in place. Then I encountered a hill. I tried to tackle it without downshifting but I couldn’t. So I shifted down one gear. Still good. Down another. Still good. Down another.

::Crunch… crunch…crunch::

Crap it.

I turned off on a side street, resolving that it just wasn’t in the cards for me to ride my bike to work today.

I got home and went into the office to escape my dogs’ excitement and mope. But then I realized, it was only 7:10 – if Travis could fix my bike in 10 minutes, I could still bike to work. So I went and woke Travis up and being the sweet, dutiful husband, he rolled out of bed early to help me futz with my bike. But no matter what we adjusted, poked, moved, or tested, the chain refused to work. It needs professional help.

So I did not get to bike to work today. I’m bummed. But I’m not deterred! I WILL ride my bike to work one day soon.

My sad little bike computer only read 5.759 miles by the time I took a shower (my short bike ride + ride on bike trainer to figure out what was wrong) when I had been expecting something more like 27.xx miles. What makes me more frustrated is that we have our church group tonight from 6 to 9 so the morning was my main workout window. I’m still going to try to squeeze a short run in after work so that the day isn’t a total bust. But I’m thoroughly bummed about this whole thing.

So I called up an old pal for consolation:

You can always count on Mr. Donut to cheer you up. Mmmm…

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I guess it is 60% of the body…

21 Jun

Somehow, over the past month and a half, I have managed to drink at least 64 oz of water a day.

Some days, I even drink 96 oz. That is 3 Nalgenes of water.

For some, this might be normal. They’re probably not having to run to the bathroom every hour having to pee like a mad man. But for me, this is a feat.

Rewind back 18 months to my time at D2S: It’s 2 PM. I’m sitting at my desk, my empty coffee mug long since stowed away in my cubby, my completely full Nalgene still untouched. I happen to glance over and realize I haven’t drank anything since my coffee that AM. So I open my Nalgene, take a few pathetic sips from my straw (knowing that I spill water all over myself without one), but still go home at 5 pm, with an almost-completely full Nalgene. At dinner, I choke down a glass of water. During and after my workout, I stomach another 10 oz.

Total water intake: 20 oz.

So what has changed in the past month and a half?

……I’m thirsty?

Honestly, I don’t know why I enjoy drinking water now. I never really have before. In Minnesota, it wasn’t a huge deal that I didn’t drink a ton of water because it’s so humid. Ever since we moved out to extremely dry Colorado in 2007, I have regularly endured headaches from being dehydrated. But even those headaches were not enough incentive for me to start drinking more water. I just couldn’t do it.

Obviously, since I brought a Nalgene with me to work every day, I had the best of intentions. I wanted to drink water in theory. But to drink that water, I had to force myself to do it because I never felt thirsty. Never. Ok, maybe for the 30-60 minutes I worked out a day. But seriously, the minute I was done exercising, my thirst was gone. I could be out on a 5-mile run in 95 degree heat, having fantasies of an ice cold glass of water and hardly wait to get home. Once I finally have that clear glass of deliciousness in my hands, my mouth full of anticipation, I take a drink and… eh. Do I really have to drink this? I pour out my glass of water and drink a glass of milk instead.

While I can’t pinpoint it is all of a sudden enjoyable for me to drink an entire 32 oz before 10 AM, I can pinpoint a wonderful side effect of my new love affair: energy.

For many months, I had come to the conclusion that I just had less energy than most people. Travis would get up at 3 AM on a Saturday to go fishing or duck hunting, come back around noon, and instead of taking a nap like I expected him to, he’d mow the grass, change the oil on both cars, clean out the gutters, work on his assemble-yourself muzzleloader, and do whatever else he does out in the garage. I, on the other hand, would roll out of bed at 9 AM, have a cup of coffee and breakfast while reading the Bible and a book, then lay around all day watching TV, possibly prying myself up long enough to take the dogs on a walk. I thought about doing productive things, like printing those vacation pictures I’d been meaning to, or vacuuming up the massive clumps of dog hair in the kitchen and bathroom – but I just felt so tired.

I had heard that lethargy can be a result of dehydration. I am living, walking proof that that statement is true. I cannot believe the amount of energy I have now, compared to then. When we went camping over Memorial Day, I felt that familiar lethargic feeling when we got to our campsite and were setting up our tent. After a moment of self-pity (and a nap), I decided to drink some water. And it worked. That feeling went away and I felt great for the rest of the trip.

I’m convinced that this is why I, a person who does not like being busy, have been able to handle constant busyness over the past couple of months with minimal breakdowns. It is so much easier to handle being busy when you have energy! It’s AMAZING!!!! Just kidding. But seriously.

Another thing that helps me handle constant busyness is having a routine. That was one of the hardest things about my job last year when I was traveling and working from home – no two weeks were alike. Things were constantly changing so I could never get into a routine. I like routines because I love being organized and it helps me to ensure that everything that really needs to get done in a day gets done. If I have extra time, sahweet!

Now that I’m back in a regular 9-to-5, I am getting my routine down:

Daily Routine

5:00 am – Get up.

5:15 – Train.

6:30 – Shower, do makeup, get dressed.

7:15 – Make lunch for me, snack for Travis. Brew coffee.

7:40 – Eat breakfast while reading the Bible.

8:20 – Leave for work.

9:00 – Work (aka read blogs, surf the net, log workouts, etc).

5:00 pm – Leave work.

5:35 – Get home and make dinner. Eat dinner.

6:30 – Take dogs on a walk.

7:30 – Get workout clothes ready for next day.

7:45 – Watch TV with Travis or read a book.

9:00 – Lights out.

My weekly routine has become to go grocery shopping on Sunday and do laundry/clean the house on Monday (my rest day). It’s working so far.

Have you noticed your water intake affect your energy level? Do you like to have a daily/weekly routine or wing it?

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Weekly Recap 6/13 – 6/19

20 Jun


As I mentioned a few days ago, I am going to post weekly recaps of  my training and time with God.

This past week went pretty well training-wise. I was able to stick to my schedule and get in all my workouts except for one.

Monday: Rest Day

Tuesday: Swam 750 yards; Ran 4 x 800 (in negative splits: 4:30, 4:20, 4:10, 4:07!!); abs

Wednesday: Biked 14.4 miles in 1:06

Holy hills batman! This was supposed to be 15 miles but I couldn’t remember the route I had mapped so I just followed the trail but ended up turning back early.

Thursday: Swam 1,500 yards; Ran 2.6 miles with pooches in 29:40 

Can we say spastic dogs?

Charlie actually did really well on my run. Her attention span waned after the first mile and a half but she didn’t pull on her leash or misbehave hardly at all.

Running makes some hungry dogs (like they aren’t hungry all the time, though):

 And a very sweaty me:

See the sweat dripping off my chin?

Friday: Supposed to swim 1,000 yds but instead ran 4.1 miles in 45:50.

Saturday: Hiked 7 miles in 4 hours

Travis and I went down to Divide (an hour west of Colorado Springs) to visit some friends. We hiked to Pancake Rocks and little did we know that the trail was all uphill on way out and downhill on way back. It was a challenging hike so we went up at a leisurely pace, enjoyed our lunch at the top, and then hiked back down. When we got back to their house, we watched Flushed Away and took a nap.

The hiking crew

Sunday: Biked 20 easy miles in 1:35 ish (13.5 with Travis, 7.5 on trainer)

The trail that I had mapped out (Clear Creek) was closed about 4 miles into our ride, so we improvised by going down the Ralston Creek Trail, which was actually very pretty, and then taking side streets home. The last 7.5 miles on my bike trainer were brutal because I was so bored. I need to figure out something to do on the trainer that keeps me entertained.

I also did well at spending time reading the Bible every morning, except Saturday when we were visiting friends, and Sunday when we were going to church.
It was a good week but I am living up my much-needed rest day today (by doing laundry and cleaning the house).

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