Tag Archives: training

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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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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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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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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Maintaining the Balance.

14 Jun

When I trained for my first triathlon back in 2009, I went all in. In addition to three workouts of each discipline a week, I was doing two days of full-body strength training. I still remember one night when I did a workout consisting of: 6 mile bike, 2 mile run, 6 mile bike, 2 mile run. While it got me into great shape and I was running faster than ever before, after that race was over, I realized that it was just too much.

I had started making frozen pizzas and macaroni and cheese for dinner, stopped cleaning my house and reading books, and felt exhausted constantly. So I cut my training back to two of each discipline a week and no weight training. It was amazing the difference it made in my energy levels, specifically dropping the weight training. I was slower in my second triathlon but I had recovered my life and my sanity.

So that’s where my philosophy of endurance training comes from. I am not willing to sacrifice my life just to be a little faster. I need time to relax. I want to eat homemade meals. I like a clean house. I want to spend time with my husband and pooches. I need time with God every day.

But I also realize that with a longer distance comes longer training times. If I want to race an Olympic distance, I have to train for one.

Like almost everything in life, there must be a balance.

After thinking about this quite a bit over the past couple of weeks and getting Travis’ blessing for me to spend more hours training (I want to make sure that my training isn’t going to be a sore spot in our marriage), I have decided to commit to training for the longer distance – with a caveat: I have to keep my priorities straight.

And those priorities (in order) are:

1. God (daily time in the Word, prayer)

2. Husband

3. Church / Fellowship

4. Job

5. Taking care of our dogs

6. Taking care of my home (cooking, cleaning, laundry)

7. Triathlon training

At times, I have felt guilty for spending so much time training. Should I spend this time helping others? Being less selfish? Should I give the money that I spend on race fees to homeless kids in Africa? That’s my never-good-enough fears kicking in. But I believe that God has given me my love and passion for endurance sports and that when people do things that they thoroughly enjoy, they showcase the glory of God because they are living according to how they were created. So I do believe that I can glorify God and train for triathlons.

But like I said earlier, there must be a balance. That balance can be summed up in two words: God first.

As I discovered earlier this year when I was unemployed, walking in fellowship with God makes all the other things in life fall into their proper places and gives everything the balance its supposed to have. Since I started back to work full-time, I have been letting training usurp my time with God. And I noticed things unraveling. I was dealing with the same problems I had been dealing with a year ago; struggling with materialism, jealousy, and anger; and feeling far from God.

No more!

I am committing to a daily 30 minutes (at least) with God and if I have to skip a workout to make that happen, so be it. Triathlons are transient; God is eternal.

Practically, I am planning my daily time with God to be in the morning, when I am most alert and in need of a reminder of eternity. I think I will still be able to fit in my whole workout (when I’m just doing one discipline) or part of my workout (when I’m doing more than one) in the morning as well. But I might be switching to night workouts anyway because Travis has agreed to do a triathlon! We haven’t decided on a race yet but it will be in August or September. I’m very excited to be able to share this passion of mine with him and to have a new training partner!

I am also going to start listening to sermons and worship music while I run and bike. I used to do this all the time but lately have been listening to Lady Gaga instead (total extremes, huh?).

I am planning on giving a training update every Monday (so that I don’t inundate this blog with training updates) and while I’m doing that, I’m also going to give a spiritual update. How is my relationship with God? Am I growing in being a servant to others and being a light in the workplace? Or am I sliding easily into worldliness, thinking only of new clothes, fitness goals, and vanity? Working in a secular environment is definitely a challenge – to both keep myself from being pulled into the worldly mentality of expensive things, big houses and nice cars as well as be bold in sharing the truth of the gospel. But I have found that its much easier to rise to that challenge when I’m reminding myself of truth daily by reading the Bible.

So that’s my training (and life) philosophy. We’ll see if I can handle the Olympic time commitment!

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Race Recap: Greeley Sprint Tri

13 Jun

That was my face getting out of the swim.

Already, you can tell the race went well.

But let me back up. I did my second open water swim practice on Saturday afternoon at Big Soda Lake Beach again. This time, there was only one other (real) swimmer there using the lap lane so I didn’t have to worry about running into someone else. I put my pool tactics into practice and the swim actually went very well. I was swimming relatively straight and was relaxed. I {almost} panicked after my first length because I feared getting out of breath but I just slowed my stroke down and took longer breaths. I did 8 lengths, which I calculate to be about 640 meters (each length is about 80). I went to bed that night feeling more optimistic and less scared.

Race morning came early at 4:00 am. I woke Travis up (we had discussed the need for his prompt rising, which he did – I was so proud and grateful), then took a quick shower, got dressed, and put my hair up and lotion on my arms and legs where I anticipated no body marking to be. As I’ve mentioned before, lotion helps wetsuits slide off easily but it also makes body marking rub off. So I use regular lotion (to avoid weird tan line blotches) and just put the lotion where I know there is/will be no body marking – on my arms from right above my elbow down and on my legs minus the back calves. But I forgot to put on Body Glide before getting dressed, which I was painfully aware of during my post-race shower. Chafing – ouch!

Since it was so early, I wasn’t that hungry when I woke up so I put peanut butter on 2 bagels (one for me, one for Travis) and packed that, along with 2 yogurts and some grapes, into my lunchbox to eat on the 1-hour drive up to Greeley. I also decided that it was long enough until the race (we weren’t scheduled to go until 7:30) that I could venture to drink some coffee. We were pulling out of the driveway (after returning once to retrieve our phones) at 4:40.

We arrived at the race site at 5:45, after some arguments over roads being closed and wrong directions (sleep deprivation = snippyness). I got my packet quickly, set up my transition area, near D (my racing friend), Michelle, and Susan (who both work with D at the racing company I worked for last year). For both of them, this was first triathlon and they were a little nervous about the swim.

I appreciated having the extra time waiting around because I feel so much more mentally prepared and peaceful when I have more than enough time to get everything together – even though its probably a little boring for Travis. I remembered to tape my Shotbloks to my bike, had time for a 10 minute jog to warm up, and used the restroom twice. So far, so good.

Swim

Five minutes before transition closed, I discovered that because the lake was so small (see picture above) and the swim start was a time trial instead of a wave, the warm up time was over when transition closed. Meaning I had missed the warm up time. Crap it! There went my strategy for the swim… Even though the water was about 10 degrees warmer than the Boulder Res, I was still worried I would get in, get out of breath with the cold water, and be toast.

As we waited around 20 minutes for the Adult Age Group to start, I had decided to go use the bathroom when I heard the announcer say that the Age Groupers could get in the water and warm up while we were waiting. I chose warming up in the water over going to the bathroom, which I believe was a good, but not ideal, decision (more on that later). The water was actually fairly warm and I was feeling good about the swim.

After warming up, we waited another 30 minutes to start due to timing issues (since I was a race timer last year, I can’t really be mad – it’s complicated and messy.) Finally, almost an hour later than planned, the Age Groupers started going. The order was Men, oldest to youngest, and then Women, oldest to youngest. So I was in last 30 or so people to go.

Finally, it was my turn. When they told me to go, I waded down the rubber mat into the water (this was a man-made lake, so the drop-off was pretty steep) and then did the breaststroke for about 10 seconds, letting the water get back into my wetsuit before putting my face in the water.

Then I started swimming. The first 100 meters were great – I felt totally relaxed and at ease. I can totally do this! I thought to myself.

Then I started noticing water getting in my mouth when I turned to breath so I started swallowing when I should have been breathing out underwater. My breathing got slightly off and I was tempted to panic. Why am I doing this again? Since when do I like swimming? As I rounded the second far buoy and started making my way back, I had the thought, “Why would I ever want to do an Olympic triathlon? I can barely stand 500 meters, let alone 1500!” I was able to mostly keep my cool through the whole swim and slowly, the yellow ducks marking the swim exit came closer and closer. I actually made it the whole way swimming! I did it! I did it!

Now you can see why I was smiling and giving a thumbs up when I came out of the water. The swim was OVER!

Official Time: 13:19

T1

The race organizers had wetsuit strippers on hand but I don’t have that much difficulty getting mine off myself so I declined their offer of help. Like usual, I pulled my wetsuit down to my waist during the run to my spot, then pulled it all the way off at my bike. Both Michelle and Susan, who had started the swim after me, were both at their bikes already! Those little speed demons! I was glad that they had survived the swim though. (Susan later told me that it was a horrible experience and she didn’t think she’d ever do another one. I can relate to that feeling!)

I put on my socks, shoes, race belt, helmet and sunglasses, grabbed my bike and was off.

Official Time: 2:06 (gotta love those smaller transition areas!)

Bike

Just like at the Boulder Sunrise, I was pleasantly surprised by how good my legs felt on the bike. I passed quite a few people and definitely pushed myself (maybe a titch too hard). I ate my Shotbloks around Mile 4. The only noteworthy thing about the bike was how bad I had to pee for the last 3 miles. It was seriously painful. I had had to pee since before the swim took off. I now wonder why I didn’t run to pee then, since we stood around waiting for almost an hour. I had contemplated peeing in my wetsuit but didn’t want to do it standing around and couldn’t do it while swimming. I contemplated peeing on the bike but that’s just gross. So I resolved to pee (in a portapoo) when I got back to transition.

Official Time: 35:19 (17 mph average)

T2

After racking my bike, taking off my helmet and grabbing my hat, I made a mad dash to the bathroom. I stopped my watch while I did so, in order to know how long my bathroom pitstop took me when compared to the official time. It probably cost me about 45 seconds. But it was totally worth it.

Official Time: 1:38

Run

Once again, I was confronted with sluggishness on the run, most likely caused by going too hard on the bike. The way out was almost all slightly uphill, so that didn’t help either. I had to stop and walk a couple of times because my heart rate was around 175, which it should have been around 165. The run course also meandered a lot with dog legs so I felt like it went on forever. I felt like I was running very slow and was so ready for the race to be over, although now that I see my running pace I’m not that disappointed – sub-10:30 is pretty good for me lately. Finally, there was the finish line – a giant gorilla!

Official Time: 32:03 (10:21 pace)

Overall Official Time: 1:24:24

Overall Watch Time: 1:23:09

Gender Placement: 74/121

Division Placement: 10/15

I like to think that if we hadn’t had to wait around so long for the race to start, I wouldn’t have had to pee and my Watch Time would be the Official Time, making this race my new PR! (My last race at this distance was only a 350 m swim and I did it 1:23:40). Because it doesn’t really matter one way or the other, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

As far as the race itself is concerned, I think this is a great, very well-organized local race (it’s put on by the Greeley Triathlon Club). The website is informative and has course maps for the swim, bike and run. The race director sent out 2 emails before the race with information about where to park, race day timeline, etc. You get a t-shirt (very cute!), finisher’s medal and towel, plus water, a protein drink, and free burrito post-race. They play good music and the transition area, finish line and swim start are all located in the same general area, so it has a cozy atmosphere. I would recommend this race!

What I Learned:

1. I need to work on my Bike/Run transition.

Even though I have done more running than either swimming or biking in my “racing career,” the run is definitely where I’m struggling the most and not living up to my potential. And I’m pretty sure it’s because my brick workouts in preparation for these races were pretty wussy. For my future bricks, I am going to hammer it on the bike and then run, to get used to the feeling I have during racing (the only other alternative is to not go as fast on the bike and I don’t like that!)

2. If I’m serious about doing an Olympic distance, I’ll have to do the breaststroke.

Doing freestyle for an entire Olympic swim scares me enough that if my only options were that or not doing the race, I’d choose to not do the race. Doing freestyle makes me feel like I’m all alone in a watery world and it’s also harder for me to breathe calmly, especially after swallowing water or running into someone. I am glad that I now know how to do the front crawl (in case of a pool swim, like the Leadville Tri-It-High) but the breaststroke is definitely my most natural swimming method. Plus, I was actually faster doing the breaststroke. Seeing how sore I was after the Boulder Sunrise, I’ll definitely have to slowly transition back into the breaststroke. I’m still going to do plenty of the front crawl during practice, though, because I’m loving the definition in my arms!

3. I need to get me some Athlete’s HoneyMilk.

They were handing this out at the finish line and while I normally shy away from anything even remotely sugary for a good 3-4 hours after a race (even chocolate milk is too much), I decided to take a chance on this protein recovery drink. I’m glad I did! Not only did it not upset my stomach, the Honey flavor was delicious! I think I’ll buy some of this for after intense workouts and races.

What’s Next:

I think I have finally convinced Travis to do a triathlon! We just need to get him a road bike, some tri shorts, a swimsuit, and he’ll be set! (Sportsbasement.com, here I come!) So we may do a different race than the Leadville Tri, since that one is a pool swim and Travis would prefer to try his hand at open water. But I’ll gladly change plans if it means Travis will do a race!

I’ve looked for other Olympic distance triathlons in the Denver region and it appears that the Steamboat Springs Tri on August 28th is the only option for when I’ll be in town. So I’m still planning on that. I also created my new Olympic training plan last week:

{UBW stands for Upper Body Weights – though I might do some Lower Body Weights too. We’ll see. I adapted this training plan to come up with this schedule.}

This plan is subject to change, since I calculated that each week involves 7-8 hours of training – pretty much double what I have been doing. I’ll talk more about my philosophy of training in a different post but for now, I’ll say that I need to have a good balance that involves time with God and my husband. I’ve over-trained before and it resulted in me doing nothing but training, working, eating, and sleeping. Not again.

If I do need to cut back, I’ll do one long and one short workout of each discipline a week, plus one day of strength training.

Last but not least, I have decided to discontinue my triathlon training blog and merge all of my triathlon-related posts into this blog (note the tagline changed to “A Twenty-Something’s Thoughts on Life, Health and God). I started my other blog in 2009 because I felt like this blog’s focus wasn’t physical health, but spiritual health. But as my friend Cathy has been discovering and sharing with me, our spiritual health and physical health are intertwined. And because I love training for endurance races and believe that God has given me that passion, I want to try to show what it looks like to glorify God through personal excellence in a sport (and world!) that is so often rife with pride and selfish ambitions. (But I’m definitely a work in progress, so bear with me!)

Plus, it was too hard to maintain 2 blogs. 😉

That’s all for today!

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Oh, swimming…

10 Jun

Should we get in?

As you may remember from my Boulder Sunrise race recap, the open water swim portion of the triathlon is my most daunting opponent. I’ve had a hard time with it ever since I did my first triathlon in 2009. That first race, I wore my wetsuit but lucked out with the swim course having been measured incorrectly so instead of swimming 500 meters, it was more like 300. I got out of the water in record time! 😉

Between that race and the next, I discovered that when doing the breaststroke, wetsuits are not your friend. With the breaststroke, you want to move up and down in the water. That’s how the stroke works. The buoyancy of wetsuits work great for the front crawl because they make you float on the surface. Not so great for the breaststroke (IMO). So you can see in the picture above, I did not wear my wetsuit for the second tri I did. (It helped that the race was in September.)

This year, I am doing races a couple months earlier than those others (and we’ve had a freakishly cold spring), so the water hasn’t had a chance to warm up. The water at the tri last weekend was 60 (though I could have sworn it was colder!) but luckily, the water this Sunday is supposed to be 68-70 degrees. Woohoo! I think that will make a huge difference.

I did do an open water swim with D (pictured) on Tuesday night after work. We calculated the swim area was 3 swimming pools long (75 yards) and what do you know, we were close. I measured on Google Maps and it’s 80 meters long – slightly longer than 3 pools.

As we got in, the water was pretty cold (the website said 62 degrees) but we got used to it within a few minutes. Then the worst part: putting your face in. Ugh, I hate that. But I did it and then we were off swimming our first length. I got to the end, sighting every 6-7 strokes, and had to move to where I could touch the bottom to rest because once again, I couldn’t catch my breath. I don’t know if it’s wearing the wetsuit that makes it harder or if I’m just going out too fast because I can’t judge my speed or if it’s the thought of “I can’t make it that far!” but I definitely get out of breath WAY faster in open water than I do in a pool.

I also think that swimming in a wetsuit feels a lot like swimming with a pull buoy. Your legs float so much! Not only is kicking them almost completely unnecessary, I feel like I don’t have much control over my torso rotation. I end up swimming “flat” except for rolling to breathe; otherwise I feel like I can’t turn back around fast enough for another breath. Just like with the breaststroke, you lose some of the control you have in the pool. (Maybe that’s just my inexperience talking.)

I caught my breath, though, and made my way back. The second time down and back, I took a 30 second break before turning around, more because my goggles were all fogged up and I couldn’t see a thing (which I discovered this morning can be cured by licking my goggles – thank you Nesties!). D decided she was good after that second lap but I still wasn’t feeling the most confident so I did one more lap – during which I discovered every time I looked up that I was swimming completely diagonally. Which wouldn’t have been that big of an issue but there were like 8 other swimmers out there and I felt bad for going off course so much. Luckily, I didn’t run into anyone.

An unfortunate side effect of my diagonal swimming was that every time I looked up to see that I was 10 feet to the right of where I had expected to be, I did the breaststroke to move back over into my “lane.” As I got out of the water, I realized that because my inner thighs were so sore from the thrashing swim of the Sunrise and hadn’t been stretching, doing the breaststroke just then made it felt like I had torn my groin muscle. I couldn’t walk without it hurting. Great, just what I need. {BUT I am happy to report that it was just very sore, not a pulled muscle. It hasn’t completely recovered so I probably won’t be breaking any speed records on Sunday, but it has healed enough for me to run.}

The end result of the open water swim was that it helped, but left me in a quandry of WHY couldn’t I swim straight at all? So this morning, I headed to the pool with the intention of swimming with my eyes closed. After thinking a lot about why open water swimming is so hard for me, especially doing freestyle, I realized it’s 1) not being able to see where I’m going and 2) seeing the entire distance stretched out before me with no pool walls to grab on to.

Swimming in a pool with your eyes closed is a little freaky – you can’t see where you’re going. Just like open water swimming! I ended up running into the lane divider a couple of times (I’m sure the lifeguards were wondering what was wrong with me) but I got a lot of practice with sighting (every 4 strokes or so) and discovered that my going diagonal is caused by not rotating enough to the opposite side of my breathing (I breathe on the right, so I’m not rotating enough to the left.) To simulate open water conditions even more, I swam 300 yards or so with a pull buoy AND my eyes closed. It takes a little getting used to but it is possible to rotate your torso even when your lower body is floating on the surface.

I ended my swim session feeling like I have a much better feel for what it’s like to swim without seeing where you’re going, as well as handling body rotation in a wetsuit. I think that if I can remember to rotate my torso both ways, I’ll be able to swim straight and if I count my strokes to sight every 4-5, I’ll have something to think about instead of “It’s so far! I can’t swim this far! I’m going to run out of breath!”

I am doing another open water swim tomorrow, during which I plan on putting my two tactics described above into practice. We’ll see if they help!

{Note: If my tactics don’t help, at least with the torso rotation thing, I am contemplating leaving the wetsuit at home again. The water will be fairly warm, I’ll have more control over my stroke, and it saves me that time in T1. I think I would prefer to wear my wetsuit but maybe I’m just not a wetsuit person?}

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Race Recap: Boulder Sunrise Tri

6 Jun

My pre-race fuel (minus the banana)

Packet pickup on Friday night went well – it was fun being back with the gang in that atmosphere but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t happy to leave right when it was over instead of staying to pack and load stuff up. I didn’t really get to eat dinner, which was a downside to volunteering. I ate a PB&J while I was at packet pickup, then an apple on the way home. Once I got home, I had a bowl of cornflakes and went to bed.

I actually slept very well that night until about 4 am, when I woke up and remembered “Crap! I’m doing a triathlon today!” Between random thoughts about rack markers (“Maybe I should’ve bought a balloon…”) and hairstyles (“I have to make sure my ponytail will fit with my helmet and my hat”), I slept a little until I got up at 5:00. Because I had gotten everything ready Thursday night, I just had to get dressed, wet my hair down and put it up into a messy bun, put on lotion (so my wetsuit would come off easier), and eat breakfast.

My breakfast was two pieces of peanut butter toast. I brought the banana along but ended up giving it to Travis because I didn’t need it. Over the course of the 2 hours before the race, I also drank 16 oz of H2O. I was worried that I’d have to pee during the race but I didn’t.

Then I made the first mistake of my triathlon career: arriving to the race site too late. We left a little later than I had been planning because Travis has a really hard time getting up in the morning but really, I should have planned to get there when the transition area opened at 6 am. Instead, we got there at 6:45 and transition closed at 7:10. It would have been fine if I could have chosen where to rack my bike. But the racks were assigned by race number and of course, my rack happened to be one of the fullest. Me and another girl got there at the same time and squeezed our bikes onto the rack between two other girls’. I had to move some of the other girl’s stuff around and ended up being able to stack my bag and wetsuit (after the swim) on the end. So it worked out. But it took quite a bit longer to set up my transition area than I had planned.

The result of that was:

1) I didn’t get to check and recheck everything.

2) I didn’t get to take a picture of my transition setup.

3) I didn’t end up getting to do a jog around the parking lot like I had planned. Instead, I settled for a couple of small laps in a grassy area. I probably looked like a fool but oh well.

4) I forgot to tape my Shotbloks to my bike, which I remembered just as I was leaving transition for the bike.

5) I felt very hurried.

So I will never show up late to transition again! If you know me at all, you know that I HATE being rushed and I hate being late. Boo!

[Note: I just realized that after all that, I went down to the beach where the race was delayed for 30 minutes because the paramedics hadn’t arrived yet. So I didn’t need to be that rushed after all! Aargh!]

Now for the race details:

Swim

I had been somewhat nervous about the swim but I’ve done open water swims before… how bad could it be? Surely I was exaggerating…

Gulp.

My wave was the 3rd sprint to leave, 5th wave including the Olympic athletes. Once both Olympic waves went off, I got into the water to warm up. It was pretty cold. But I was actually pleasantly surprised by how warm my wetsuit kept me. Too bad I didn’t have a wetsuit for my face. For some reason, putting my face in cold water like that just sucks the air right out of my lungs. I got sort of used to the water during warmup but there was probably a good 5 minutes before that and the time I actually started swimming… or should I say “swimming.”

They blew the horn for my wave. I walked out behind the swimmers in front of me until it was deep enough to start swimming. I started doing the front crawl with my head out of the water but then realized it probably wouldn’t be very good to get winded swimming that way so I put my head down in the water. Like I said earlier, it sucks the air right out of me. I was instantly out of breath, cold, and panicked. “I don’t want to do this. I don’t want to do this. Crap! I hate this. Why am I doing this?” was running through my head. I seriously considered taking my cap off to wave it around (I had kept swimming so was farther from shore by that point.) I saw about 10 other pink caps around me struggling – doing the side stroke, the backstroke, floating on their backs. One even said they just wanted to survive. Another waved her cap and was picked up by a jetski to be brought in.

But no. I can’t quit. How many people have I told about me doing this race? How long have I trained? If I get out, I will be defeated. I am not a quitter. I will finish this swim, if it takes me an hour.

So I kept swimming, doing something that resembled the breaststroke, keeping my head above water, and trying to calm my breath as much as I possibly could (I was only somewhat successful). I will say that that swim was one of the painful, tiring, emotionally trying things I have ever done. Everything in my head and body screamed NO! I finished out of sheer willpower. For that, I am very proud of this race. I persevered against overwhelming odds.

I got in sight of the red flags marking the Swim In. It seemed like I would never get there. But then I saw a swimmer in front of me stand up. Hallelujah!! I made it to the shore!

Out of the Water Time: 24:12

Official Time: 25:12

T1

As soon as I got out of the water, I started taking off my wetsuit – partly because that was how I had practiced my transition but mostly because I was sick of not being able to breath. I walked up the beach with my wetsuit down to my waist, then jogged into transition, and as I neared my spot, started pulling my wetsuit down my legs. I couldn’t quite get it off by stepping on it (I think because the legs end so far up on my calves) so I had to reach down and pull each leg off. Then I washed my feet off, dried them a bit, put on my socks and shoes, took off my goggles and swim caps (I wore too because of the cold), put on my race number, then my helmet and sunglasses. I grabbed my bike and after getting encouragement from my friend D (who was also the race director), I was off to the bike mount.

I figured the transition had taken me more like 3:30 but since my goal was 2:00 and I wasn’t in my best form after that swim, I feel pretty good about this time.

Official Time: 2:27

Bike

The worst thing about riding a bike when you’re wet, IMO, is that your socks get all wet. I hate that feeling. I had the thought during the bike that I should get some wool racing socks. Right now, I just wear Nike DriFit ones and while they work (they don’t give me blisters), I just wonder if wool ones would work better.

The bike was actually the best leg of the race for me. I felt really strong and passed quite a few women (I guess that’s what happens when your swim takes so long!) I only got passed by the front runner Olympic athletes (their bike course was only 5 miles longer than ours) so I felt pretty good about my bike performance. Like I mentioned earlier, I forgot to tape my fuel onto my bike so at the first aid station (around mile 6), I grabbed a HammerGel. Even though I know it’s a faux pas to try something new on race day, I figured it was better than nothing. And it didn’t give me any issues for the most part. I still only averaged 16 mph but I made my goal time.

Official Time: 1:04:07 (16 mph average)

T2

T2 consisted of me racking my bike, removing my helmet, and grabbing my hat to put on as I ran to the Run Out. Travis tried to take a couple of pictures of me as I came back but instead, managed to shoot 2 seconds of me and 20 seconds of himself walking (he had left the camera on video mode from the swim so he thought he had taken a picture of me dismounting but had really just started to record. It’s actually pretty funny.)

Official Time: 0:52

Run

I started jogging but had to stop and walk a bit to catch my breath or else I knew the run would be a battle like the swim. I started running again when my heart rate got down to 145 and settled into a nice, comfortable pace. I didn’t have the energy or desire to push myself by either running faster or doing intervals. Even if I had had the energy, my needing to go #2 for the last half of the run would have probably prevented me from doing so. My pace ended up being right on my training pace so I can’t be too disappointed.

Coming in to the finish

Official Time: 34:43

Overall Official Time: 2:07:20

Age Group Placement: 27/37

Gender Placement: 98/147

So I missed my goal time by 7:20 but I finished!

I can tell that I haven’t trained as intensely for this race as I have for the other ones I’ve done. So my take-aways from this experience are:

1. Never underestimate the value of open water swim practice.

I credit this for my swimming FAIL. I didn’t get into the open water once to practice before this race. I am going to remedy this for the coming weekend by swimming tomorrow and Saturday in open water. I might also have to revert back to the breaststroke – I think part of my problem was the thought of not being able to see where I was going. I don’t like that thought.

2. Never underestimate the value of intense brick workouts.

I had done about 3 bricks in training but none of them were intense ones. I did a wimpy bike ride followed by a wimpy run. I need to do an all-out, hard as I can go shorter bike ride so that my legs can really get used to what they feel like during the race.

3. Never underestimate the value of getting to the race with plenty of time.

In addition to being able to fit in a warmup and finding a better spot on the rack, this is a mental thing. Being late to a race is the stuff of nightmares.

Race bib and Finisher's medal

So I am still planning on doing the Greeley Sprint Tri this coming Sunday. Like I said, I am going to get in some open water swims this week (plus one run and one bike). The water is also expected to be 70 degrees (a good 10 degrees warmer than the Boulder Reservoir!) and it’s only 500 meters. But I think those open water swims are going to be clutch.

So that’s my triathlon recap.

 

I have had some really good thoughts about God and trials lately that I’ve been hoping to share… in the next day or two.

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Feeling discouraged.

16 May

On Friday, I officially registered for the Boulder Sunrise Triathlon on June 4th. That means I have 3 weeks left and only 2 to really train (the last week will be a taper). I have to admit, I’m feeling kind of discouraged. Even though I’ve been diligent in training 4-5 days a week (missing only 1 workout a week), I am worlds away from where I was 2 years ago. I had expected that getting a real tri bike would make me faster on the bike, but no, I am just as slow or slower than I was on my mountain bike.

On Saturday, I finally bought a bike trainer so that I can ride my tri bike indoors. I tried it out last night for the first time – I decided to do my 15-mile ride while watching the season finale of Desperate Housewives (which was very good, BTW). I realized after I started that I should have done a little research or watched the training video before attempting a ride of that length on a contraption I barely know how to operate but there wasn’t time for that. So I just jumped on and hoped for the best.

It was brutal. I was ready to be done after just ½ mile. I had my bike gears set on the smallest big cog and the middle of the small ones but I was still only going 8.5 mph. I’m pretty sure an 8-year-old on a 1-speed bike can ride faster than that. After 3 miles of torture, I seriously contemplated throwing in the towel. But I really needed to ride 15 because the bike leg of the triathlon only 3 weeks away is 17 miles.

I remembered that the guy who sold the trainer to me said that you could change the resistance on the trainer itself, instead of on your bike. So I got off, grabbed the cable, and started clicking as I rode. That was definitely the main issue. I decreased the resistance to the point where I could shift my bike gears back to the middle big cog and the 3rd or 4th small one. For the rest of the ride, I was comfortably riding at an 11.5 mph pace (still pathetic but I cared about distance more than pace).

Then the issue became how uncomfortable and at times, painful, it was to sit on the bike seat for that long. After 8 long miles of constantly wanting to quit, I started alternating 5 minutes of riding in position with 5 minutes of sitting straight up to give myself a break. I’m not sure if I just need a different seat or if I just need to get used to it. I plan on riding at least 20 minutes every day to see if I can get more used to the seat. If not, I will have to go buy a new one because that is by far the most miserable part about riding the bike.

Regardless of all that, I finished the whole 15 miles in 1:28.

So you can probably see why I’m discouraged about the bike portion. I’m also discouraged about the swimming and running parts. While I am getting better at the swim, I’m still very slow (it takes me about 21:30 to swim 800 yards) and while I “come from a running background” into the sport of triathlon, I’m incredibly slow at that too (running 10:30-11:30 minutes miles on average).

I’ve always said that I do triathlons for fun and the personal challenge, not to win because I know how slow I am. God did not build me for speed. But I’m even slower than I had been! When I was training in 2009, I was biking at a 14 mph pace regularly (on a mountain bike), running 9:00-10:00 minute miles, and was swimming 200 yards in 4:30 instead of 5:00 or 5:15.

I know that a big part of why I was faster then was that I was doing weight training in addition to the cardio endurance sessions. But I’m hesitant to add that in because it made me so tired that I could barely function. I had no energy for anything beside working and sleeping. I stopped grocery shopping, stopped cooking dinner, stopped reading, writing, doing anything except what I needed to do to survive. I felt like my quality of life went down because I didn’t have the energy to do most of the stuff I enjoyed doing. But maybe if I just did 15 minutes a couple times a week…

Despite my discouragement, I’m not going down without a fight. I’m going to focus more on biking and trying to get used to the seat, doing more running intervals to increase my speed, and look into upper body weight workouts that will help me be a faster swimmer.

And come race day, my time will be what it is.

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