total implosion

I messed up my back pretty well during last friday's run. That twitch that I felt for a split second ended up being two nightswoth of pain. Who knows what the heck happened but the good news is that my back no longer hurts.

But of course as soon as I healed from that I have a freak accident with my eye. Yesterday @ the end of work I was getting ready to leave but my eye started to itch. I looked @ it in the mirror and my entire lower right eye lid tripled in size. What the heck!

I went home popped a few benedril and put ice on my eye. That did the trick, but I passed out @ 7:30 and woke up this AM @ 6:45. Since I was up early enough I went out for a 5 mile run. My legs felt AWESOME. When I was over 3 miles in and nearing the final stretch all of a sudden a side cramp hit with a vengence. Game over. I walked the remaining 2+ miles home.

Grrrrrr......

ran 5 miles!

Woke up this AM and felt like running....so I ran 5 miles! YEAH!

And the crazy thing is that I did it in 43:57, or an 8:47/mile pace!

compare that to last night's run of crap/mile, and I am baffled. Maybe I just needed the intensity of last night to get my legs going.

I have noticed that by taking it a bit easier this week that I feel more sluggish than normal and I have put in some horrible runs where I just feel like crap!

Wasn't enough time to get down the city this AM to get the wet suit and get back before I head upstate for the night. No rush...water is too cold to swim in it anyways for another week or 2. I have time. Plus, saves me from shelling out $400.

bike/run

Tried to do the full duathlon distance...3 mile run/15 mile bike/3 mile run....but the last run I just had to stop before I injured myself. When I ran that race in brooklyn a month ago I felt this strange twinge in my right calf at the beginning of the second run, then my calf locked up and my calf troubles began. Well at the beginning of the second run tonight, I felt that same twing and then things started locking up and I quit. I had already ran 3 miles and did 15 miles on the bike so the entire workout wasn't a total bust. There was just no need to overdo it and injure myself 10 days out from a race.

As for the run, I felt REALLY sluggish. Running in the heat and the sun basically sucks and it saps your energy. To my surprise thought I still ran about a 9:10 min mile. I was happy to be on the bike, though the first two laps really hurt, but from third onwards I started to loosen up and I felt some incredible power going into the pedals. The last lap especially I finished really strong. I wish I had a speedomitor on the bike! I felt STONG.

Then the last run started and quickly ended. Ah well.

Tomorrow first thing I am down in the city to buy a wet suit.

Buy stock in wet suits!

short and easy swim

After 36 lengths of half a mile I stopped. My shoulders have been sore over the past few days (and especially this AM when I woke up). Plus my form has been crap. I am just going to take off a bunch of days and pick it back up next tuesday. Gotta rest!

mini duathlon tonight

Ran 1.68 miles
Biked 9 miles
ran another 1.69 miles in 1 hour 13 mins.

I didn't go that hard and felt pretty good after I finished. The hardest part of the workout was the beginning of each run and the beginning of the bike.

Just gotta keep doing these duathlons until they feetl normal.

I am also feeling a LOT more confident on the TT bike. Which is awesome.

Found out today that the temperature of the water for my first triathlon will be in the low 60's. FUN!

stressfull swim

Water was going up my nose and making it sting. I couldn't catch my breath or my rythm. I still did my usual 1 mile in about 50 mins. The good news is is that I started to incorporate some speed into the swim. This is something that I need to start building (slowly) over the next 5 weeks. I guess I am fortunate that I think nothing of swimming 1 mile when my first triathlon will only be a half mile swim. I just gotta be able to not only swim that 1 mile straight, but do it @ speed.

biked 55 miles today

And I wanted my legs to fall off when I finished the ride! Overall it was a great ride and I inspected the biking leg of the my upcoming race two times. There is a hill called Palmer Hill Rd. It has "Hill" in the title so I figured that there must be a hill @ some point. When I started on the hill it lasted about two seconds and leveled off. I thought, OK, that wasn't bad...then I went around a corner and just looked up...i mean UP! They should call the road Palmer WALL rd!!! I was not expecting the hill to be that steep. Ah well, I did it 2x. Here is my route.

I only climbed 524 feet overall. It feels like I did more, but I guess the amount of the hills overall is what made it feel like I did more elevation.

This was a good ride and it definately felt good to have reconned the race route. I am going to use my TT bike for the race, though @ times (like the wall) I was I could switch to my road bike, then back to the TT bike.

Such a gorgeous day today. 70 degrees and sunny. I had to use sunscreen for the first time this year.

I am going to take a couple days off and rest my legs. They are sore and were hurting a LOT @ the end of the ride.

what fatigue does to you

Yesterday I did 15 miles (or 5 laps) around the 3 mile road around the local college, then I ran 1.68 miles to call the workout a brick. The run hurt more than it should have.

So today I went for a run after work. The title of this post is what fatigue does to you. Well, it will slow down your mileage pace for one and it will also cause you to take an extra 7 mins to swim a mile. Rest is a good thing....when I get to it.

Tomorrow I am scoping out the route for my upcoming duathlon race in a couple weekends.
My planned route is about 55 miles or so. I have a really bad habit of planning out a long ride and never falling through with it. That is why group rides are so good for you, because that motivation of riding with the group is right there.

Speaking of my upcoming race. Planning workouts from here till then is going to be more important. Over the past two weeks I have basically been killing myself by upping my mileage on the run but also swimming a consistent 1 mile swim with little rest. The two days I took early this week were great in that it gave me a great run and swim on tuesday and a great bike ride on wednesday, but all of yesterday and tonight I just feel fatigued. I think I have it in me to do one entire 3 mile run/15 mile bike/3 mile @ semi-race pace next week. I do think though that if I ride, i NEED to brick it to get my legs used to the bike to run transition.

I am rambling here....prolly just my "oh shit the race is 2 weeks away" panic. I should be fine for the race. The race is actually shorter than the last. 2.5 mile run/10 mile bike/2.5 mile run. The run portition is dead flat and most of the bike is too with one hill (which I am going up 2x tomorrow).

Just gotta remember to get a race belt and to get some electrical tape.

out in the dark

Got back from my ride @ 7:54 tonight. Oops! Yeah it was dark....too dark. Oops!

The good news is is that I did 25.9 miles. I didn't realize that ride was that long. Here is my route.

Did it in 1:34, or about 16.6 mph. I am happy about that number as I was not going that fast during the ride. It was merely a recovery distance ride. At the end though, my climbing legs started to kick in as it was getting dark, which was a good thing. I can only wonder how fast I woulda gone had I done that ride @ full tilt.

So far this season I haven't done many long rides. I think my longest is 47 miles. This time last year I was belting out 50 milers. I guess I just don't see a need to do that long of a ride yet because a long ride, 50+ miles @ a faster pace will cause me to recover longer. I just don't have more than two days to recover. Two days after that long-ish ride, I need to be back running and swimming and mostly fully recovered.

My form is really starting to come about. I am starting to gain more confidence in all three aspects: swimming, running, and biking.

run and swim

First the run....upped the mileage again to 4.25 miles, which I did in 37:00 flat, or 8.7 mins/mile! yeah!!! THAT I am proud of, that I finally broke the 9 min/mile mark. Of course, I had 2 COMPLETE days of rest, which was well needed. Towards the end of this run my heart did not feel like it was going to explode out of my chest, but my right calf was acting up in not a good way. I am going to monitor that over the next few days...

Now for the swim. I did 1 mile in 43 minutes. Yeah...43 minutes!!! This reminds me of my first post about swimming for the first time this year:

Kinda funny to read now. I did 4 lengths then basically died. Did 22 lengths total and felt like my arms were going to fall off. This was 3 months ago. I can't even imagine where I will be in three months. Oh wait, RACING!

Today was a succesful day.

turned out to be a gorgeous day!

The f-ing weatherman....says its gonna rain the past two saturdays. I mean 60% change of rain and thunderstorms. Thats more than a 50/50 chance of rain. Did it happen either day? NO!

Well I am glad he was wrong today. Today showed what the meaning of perfect cycling conditions are: 70 degrees flat, no wind, slight clouds with no barring down sun. Thats what I just rode through. Poor me, right? Well unfortunately my legs were a little sore not only from this past week's 10+ hours of working out (the bike ride brought me up to 10 hours 51 mins) but also my run this AM.

I did another 4 miles but on a newer route that was a lot hillier and also took me through a neighborhood of some pretty incredible houses. It was a good route and the hills on it are exactly what I am looking for. That route in the brooklyn duathlon kinda set a bar for me on what a hard course is. At the end of the run, because the hills were adding up, my heart felt like it was about to explode. I was happy that the run ended. Here is my route and elevation profile:



Then this afternoon the weather just kept getting better. I didn't feel like doing a long ride and I wanted to get some more hill work in. So I hit one of my hill climbing extravaganza hills that has about 6 good climbs in it which end with the hardest of them all. I passed a BMW as he was waiting to turn off the hill that I call "beemer hill" and I was coming onto the road. That counts, right? The hill climbing was great and @ times I didn't want to or think I could do the last two hills. HTFU! I knew I would kick myself if I didn't finish the original ride, so I HTFU and did it. I am glad I did put in the extra effort. I was kinda surprised that it took me 1:38:00 to do only 25 miles. I guess its cuz of all of the hills that I went a bit slower. I didn't feel like I was going slow up the hills. I tried to get up them @ a moderate pace. Whatever, these efforts will pay off for sure. Here is this route and elevation profile (I guess I did 835 feet of climbing...not bad!):

swam for an hour tonight

i got lost in my thoughts and forgot how many lengths I had done so I just said forget it and decided to swim for an hour and call it quits. Figure by then I would have done about a mile or so.

The good news is that when I forgot how many lengths I had done (I was trying to do sets of 10) I just.....went. I think I did about a quarter of a mile non-stop.

All throughout the night I was still feeling the mile that I did the other night. By the time I finished this one hour swim, my arms were pretty shot, which is a GOOD thing. I just need to start upping my weekly swim count 3x.

more confident on TT bike

things are feeling better on the TT bike. I almost ate it once going down the only real downhill on the 3 mile loop that I do @ the local college. I got down to the bottom and was really doing some serious speed when I hit a few bumps and felt my rear wheel feel a bit light on the road. It was enough for me, considering that stupid fall I took the other weekend.

Other than that I got 15 miles in or 5 loops. I did 2 full loops in the TT position, but then after that I alternated between sitting up and taking it easy and a few spurts back in the position. I am still a bit sore from last night's ride. AND i keep forgetting that I ran a new personal long only this MORNING of 4 miles.

a real 4 mile run this AM

I actually ran 4 miles this time. haha

Did it in 36 mins flat, so a 9 min mile. yay! I felt great again. Not as great as Tuesday's run, but my body is still showing that it has adjusted to running. I guess the real kicker will be if I can do the ride backwards.

Here is the route.

19 miles on the bike tonight

and boy did it get dark on me! i thought that the light would last a bit longer tonight, but it was cloudy and it got dark a bit sooner than I had hoped. I did the ride that goes up the hill that a BMW always passes me on. Not sure why, but there is always a BMW on that road when I climb it. Here is the elevation profile for the route:

and swam 1 mile tonight

I DEFINATELY feel a change in my training now. I just have the endurance overall to go longer and harder.

I did 1 mile in the pool. Not too fast, but 7 mins faster than the last time I swam 1 mile. Oh and thanks to BodyGlide for keeping my underarms from chafing. Such a lifesaver.

was i injected?

I just had the best run of my life. I have been running 3 miles about 3x a week for the past 2-3 weeks. Today was finally the day to start increasing my mileage. So I decided to do 4 miles, which ended up being only 3.5 because I forgot about a half mile section of my route. Whatever. I don't care. I finished the run feeling better than I have ever felt. I think all of the strain that I have put on my body over the past several months with the running has finally added up and my body has undergone a change, in that it CAN run....finally...

So I did a 33:17 over 3.5 miles, or about 9.4 mins/mile. I thought it was faster, but time and distance does not lie. Again, I don't care. I am going off of how I felt. I went up this hill like a machine. My legs just.....went! It was a lot like on a road bike. Get into a lower gear and crank. I got to the top and just kept going and did not feel that harsh burn.

I am looking forward to thurs AM if I can drag my butt out of bed in time. I am actually looking forward to this run, for a change.

an awesome ride today

I think I had my first peak of the season today. Did 47 miles of some rolling terrain during the 2nd half of the ride. I was hitting these hills with a vengence and was dropping everyone. The great part was that my legs would recover in time for the next hill. Also, the weather was gloomy, but warm enough with no wind, so conditions were perfect.

Here is my route

Looking @ the elevation profile, there is about 500 feet of climbing over 10 or more miles. I like it! I think I am going to do the climbing section of this ride again and see if I can link it up with some other climbs.

light brick tonight

just got back from doing a light brick....9 mile bike, 5K run. did it in 1 hour flat.....not that i was going for any time record...just wanted to get out there and get an outdoor run in after an actual outdoor bike.

i think i need to drop the dreadmill. it has served its purpose in keeping my legs moving...but alternating terrain is going to suit me best from this point forward. plus, any longer than 30 mins on the dreadmill is just....dreadfull...

plus it gives me an opportunity to start exploring my neighborhood a bit and ADD MILEAGE!!!

the biking portion was ok....used my TT bike....still getting comfy....my handlebar position is great now. might need to tweak the seat position. Also my arms dont hurt as much from being in the position, which is a good thing.

As long as the weather holds out tomorrow, I am doing a 47 mile group ride. YES!

had a great swim tonight

i started doing 100's with 10-20 seconds of rest. I was winded after each set but eventually I started to loosen up and I just went. Did a few 150's then a few 200's. I ended the night with a 200 that just felt awesome.

My arms are a bit sore, but that is GOOD. I am making progress again in the pool.

One thing I know I am struggling with is on the bike outdoors. I am just not feeling it this year. My ride last night was great. I know I have the leg strength to do 50 miles....its just all up in the head. I think I am expecting too much out of myself too soon. I just want to do a nice and easy 30 miler with no pressures of going further.

Also, stupid weather! Make up your mind!!!! Get WARM already! this 40-50 degree with gloomy and windy skies has got to stop already!

biking outside tonight

after work I got outside to bike....finally!

felt good...regained a lot of my confidence.

only did 45 mins or around 10 miles. just some hills and some flats at a whatever pace.

good to be outside for real again.

ran this AM

wow did I not want to get up this AM

I was supposed to run outside until I looked out and saw how windy it was.

So I hit the dreadmill for the usual 5 min walk, 30 min run, 5 min walk.

I am feeling back to normal again after the past week and a half of injury.

I have noticed that I am sweating more than usual. Maybe its just really warm in the gym, but I haven't noticed it this much since when I was biking in France those two summers.

Who knows. Prolly its just super warm in the gym.

run/bike/run short distance

Ran 15 mins, biked 20 mins, ran 15 mins.

Just wanted to get some extra running in and go from run to bike to run.

Nothing special.

Tomorrow is supposed to have nice weather. Time to get out onto the road bike for REAL this time. Gonna do 10 miles then see how dark it is and how I feel.

I have zero confidence left after this past saturday. I really want to get at least a 30 mile ride in this weekend.