weekend update (and dang, it's Wednesday already)

I last posted showing off my elated emotions on a great week of training (at the time) with hopes of continuing it on Saturday morning....I was successful!

Saturday morning I woke to a very cloudy, almost foggy with a very slight mist, 45 degree day. Perfect. I strapped on my Fuel Belt, grabbed a Gu (Vanilla Bean, and should have grabbed two), put on my favorite hat (sunglasses on top just in case; never needed them) and out the door I went with my Garmin too. My plan was at least 1:30 and to not look at my pace. I wanted to run by feel. This was easier than I thought it would be as I am usually obsessed with my pace. I ended up going 10 miles and my average pace was slightly faster than my last outdoor run (two weeks prior) which was shorter and my average HR was 1 BPM (a lot, I know ;) ) slower on the 10 miler. Progress? I believe so. I did not get in the 3rd weekly swim on Sunday, but I did force myself back on the bike for an easy 60 minutes to get my weekly total to 10 hours. This helped me mentally but may have affected the quads a little...

Moral of the story: long ride on Friday morning followed by ice bath followed by long run the next day (no ice bath post run, sadly) = good chunk of training.

I did have some mild quad soreness Monday morning which I sort of shook out with a 15' jog on the TM and also did some UE TB exercises. I've been sort of lacking in the strength training lately. My plan for the week is around 13 hours total - by far my biggest week in as long as I can remember. These are the workouts I want/need to get in (time followed by actual workout) and next to that is the day/time I have planned to do them based on my work schedule as well as how my body typically responds to training.

SWIM
1:00 Form (Thurs AM)
1:00 E2 (Sun AM)
1:15 E3 (Tues AM) DONE!

BIKE
1:15 E2 (Wed AM and part of a BRICK by choice) DONE!
1:30 S4 (Sun PM)
4:00 (will be happy with 3:30) E3 (Fri AM)

RUN
1:00 M2,3Z (Wed AM and part of a BRICK by choice) DONE!
:30 S2 (Mon AM) (just did an easy :15) DONE!
1:45 E2 (Sat AM)

Today's BRICK was great - perhaps another BT workout I believe. I want to go hard and get the ~13 hours in this week, recovery/easy next week and the week after is a RACE week!

To be successful with this I need to remember the following:
*Ice bath OFTEN
*No Garbage IN = No Garbage OUT
*Rest and Recovery as needed

To end - I would love one of these vending machines in my kitchen!

an interesting week

It has been a week of ups and downs. Aren't most weeks this way? Which should I start with? I'll get the downs out of the way - and I will spare the details.

*Ever think you know the truth about someone close to you only to find it it has been mostly lies and manipulations for years? When you find out the truth you are left feeling utterly humilated and with an ache so strong it physically hurts? As of this past Wednesday I can answer yes to both of these questions.

OK - on to the ups!

*Three weeks from tomorrow is my first race of the season. I would like to add that this race is the cheapest race of the year (or, anywhere) at $17.00. Yes, $17, not $170.00 or $1700.00. Of course, you get (or, don't get) what you pay for. I can't wait.

*Part of the reason I can't wait is that I have had a great week of seriously awesome workouts. In the big picture, I am feeling rested and healthy. I haven't felt this great in all honesty for MONTHS. It took getting really sick (my sicky week) to realize how bad I really was - I compare it to how I feel now and it's incredibly different. I rather like it.

Monday was off: forced off just to not overdo it. My legs took a little beating with a double day ride on Sunday.

Tuesday I swam 4000m in the pool - first set was a sort-of 1000m time trial. I felt great and I do think I am getting every so slightly faster.

Wednesday was my mini-du workout. AKA sweat fest. AKA crash and burn workout Wednesday. I feel this was an honest BT (breakthrough) workout. It was basically the distance of my #2 race this year. Therefore my confidence is soaring right now. I did a 15' TM warmup followed by 60' on the spin bike (45' in class 15' on my own after) followed by 45' on the TM with 1-3% incline and some up-tempo intervals as well. What really made this workout so awesome - other than feeling good during is - is that I felt really good on Thursday morning!

Thursday morning I was a little groggy and late getting out of bed (sleep is good) and got to the pool for 2700m of which I worked on my endurance and felt really good again. I love the pool so much; always have; hopefully always will. I just wish I was faster. I did have a few teeny tiny BT moment though. I did 5x100m on 2:00 as my last set and each one got faster than the one before. Yessss.

Friday (this morning) I plopped down on my trainer and rode for 3 hours. Yes, 3 hours...another honest BT workout, another confidence builder as well. Most of the ride was in zones 1 and 2 with 22 minutes in zone 3. Perfect training ride. Practiced my nutrition too. Two Vanilla Bean Gu's (one at 45' and the 2nd at 1:45), one bottle of Accelerade Hydro and one bottle of water. No stomach issues the entire ride, but the last 30 mintues I could have used some more calories. I could/should have had a snack BEFORE getting on the trainer, but I had to get going as I was running out of morning time. (I ended up 15' late for work anyway - oops.) I was able to get in the ice bath about an hour later and I am feeling very good right now.

My plan is an easy long run tomorrow morning. If that goes well (the whole "long run following a long bike" is something I only tried once last year... and I wasn't too honest with it) then I will be feeling better about myself than I EVER HAVE in terms of fitness and being prepared for my A race (Kansas 70.3). To say I am pumped is an understatement.

In case you were wondering what I do during 3 hours on a (practically)stationary bike: The first 60 minutes was spent listening to Mike & Mike in the Morning on my laptop as they were broadcasting live from Target Field. After their broadcast was over at 9am I turned on Friends and watched 4.5 episodes....I am currently paused in the last episode of Season 7 (the one where Chandler and Monica get married).

That's the week so far - been continuing to work on patience and confidence and my overall health. Ups and downs - and happy to have more ups than downs. Happy to be able to swimbikerun :) :) :)

playlist and sleep and sweat

My playlist for 2011 continues to grow...please offer your suggestions. You know I enjoy almost all music...really depends on my mood, but for the most part, I truly dislike country music.

Three adds today - two courtesy of Sean D.

Nelly - Heart of a Champion
Roy Jones Jr. - Can't be Touched
Eminem - Till I Collapse (Eminem gets me fired up like no other artist)

Yes, I am finally admitting....I have been sleeping. I don't want to say it too loudly, but yes, I am. About 10 days now. Last night was stellar. In bed with the sun still going down with two Benadryl to help (my alarm was going off at 4:45). A little magazine reading and I melted into my pillows. I love that feeling of utter smoosh into bed. ahhhh. Woke up once around 1am and felt like it was morning, probably because I had already been alseep for almost 5 hours and worried I wouldn't fall back asleep, but I did. It is amazing what a solid nights sleep will do for me. I am so happy to be sleeping again....but, again, don't want to jinx myself. I'll keep drinking my tea at bedtime and refraining from caffeine during the day and oh, doing the two things my doctor told me to do last week....maybe I'll share those with another time.

My workout this morning was my favorite mini duathlon runbikerun- which I have not gone hard on for a few weeks now. I think part of the reason I slept so well was due to the anticipation of a real-live crash and burn Wednesday - a Wednesday I have not been able to do in awhile :)

I did a 10 minute treadmill warm up - started slow and built up a little speed. Went right to spin class for 45 min on the bike - I didn't tear it up like I had hoped, but overally it was good. From there straight back to the treadmill for another 45 min. I started slow again and built up to about zone 3 and even through in a total of about 10-12 minutes of hills too. A good cool-down, stretch and even 95 abs (thank you for very little dizziness today) followed by some lats, med ball chops, tricep pushdowns and OH med ball throws. Ooooeeee. I am good to go for the day. I really need an ice bath, but (no buts, Erin) okay, I really would like to get in the ice bath; I hope I can make time for one today.

I wore my FR today - looking briefly at the totals before I left for work I am pleased with what my HR looked like during the bike and the runs...nothing in zone 5 (yay) and mostly zone 3. Good deal. Avg HR on bike 130 with a 161 max (on the climbs, love the standing climbs) and on the second run an avg of 137 and a 154 max. The whole run workout was below 80%max - yessss. Maybe the new "easy" is working out for me - I think it's too soon to tell, but....maybe not.

Did I mention I ran OUTSIDE on Saturday morning? Holy cow - yes, I ran OUTSIDE. To make that report brief here are some stats for you:
8 miles
Easy with a hard finish last 1.5 miles
COLD
DAMN COLD
Purple parts of my body post run - oops
Frozen hydration - oops
Cold
Happy :)

snow day, sugar and stats

I started the day out pretty nicely...this was the earliest I have woke up in well over one week (5am), I got ready for spin class and headed out the door with a hunch...that yes, my sad thoughts came true for the first time ever: my Corolla wasn't going to make it out of the garage and out the driveway due to the snow drifts. I was a little bummed - and I felt badly because I signed up for the class and now my spot wasn't going to be used. I didn't feel too badly since the weather was the reason and I am confident I wasn't the only no-show.

Insert big :) here: I could rectify my situation because I own a CycleOps now! I saved my pennies for 3 months and used a giftcard from Christmas as well as my REI dividends (this was all planned) and was able to walk out the store with it in my own arms last Saturday.

Snow drifts? No biggie! I could ride in my apt and then go downstairs for a little high intensity, yet short, run on the TM. And I did just that. And it was sweaty and lovely and better than I imagined. And then I had some cheerios with soy. And then a fruit smoothie. And then a little nap. And then lunch. And by then it was only 12noon of my snow day.

And then my snow day went downhill - long story short because of the stupid details related to "the big dance" (and no, not the NCAA tournament, the SAAC Semi-Formal). I thought I adverted the crisis at 8:30am with an email, but nope. Just because campus IS CLOSED that did not stop anyone from wanting everything from me! I ended up having to go to campus and had to lock myself in the training room and yes, I actually ignored knocks at the door of S-A trying to get in. The door even has a window and I just ignored them out there. And I do not feel bad about that. Once I got home I went to the bag of peanut butter mm&m's that was reserved for making krispie treats for work. Once I start I cannot control myself. Ugh.

I hope, hope, hope that I got everything taken care of...I have not received an email back yet as I am sure "she" finally went home so now I just hope this doesn't keep me awake at night - and that tomorrow it actually IS all taken care of. More m&m's. Sweet snow day.

I had to do something to try and combat all the sugar I had this afternoon so what better than a huge bowl of oatmeal and flax to try and absorb all the sugar I consumed.

I can feel the oatmeal and flax in my stomach turning and grooving and hopefully sucking up all the sugar from the m&m's and taking it with them when they leave :)

How about some non-food related stats?!

Since January 1, 2011 ...
Swim: 60,800 yds in the pool (approx 20h 55min)
Bike: 28 hours (no idea on mileage since it's been all indoors)
Run: 179.5 miles on two feet

Last week was my sicky week and I managed to put in 1h 35min in running and elliptical towards the end of the week. Looking at the totals I am pleased. It seems like a lot, but it's all relative...My first race is April 29, only about 36 days away. It will be a good challenge and more like a hard workout as the race is a modified sprint triathlon. I'm looking forward to it despite still trying to figure out how to train now that I had that life-awakening sicky week. I will modify as I go until I find what works best for me. I realize that may take all year and maybe even longer, and I am totally okay with that.

I do know what key workouts (i.e. two 4-5 hour rides, couple of long bricks, etc.) I need to do before my A race in Lawrence. Which BTW is only like 80 days away - HAHA!

With my North Star goal of a full IM in 2012 I am prepared to work on the details as I go. I now know that "easy" needs to be easy-peasy and that my definition of "hard" is changing as well :) :) :)

Damn sugar...I usually allow myself one "eat" day each week - today looks to be that day. Who wants ice cream tonight? We could sprinkle some protein powder on it to make it feel a little less non-healthy ;)

My fantastic parents and I at Granite City - June 27, 2010