brick, swim, run

Yesterday I basically did a sprint triathlon with a long swim.

I started with a brick in the afternoon. I wasn't sure how I was going to do because I was sore the previous day's 10K run and that freaking blister that showed up. I have determined that the blister was caused from running downhill because the impact of the foot inside the shoe is much more severe when running downhill that it rubs more than on flat ground. I have figured out how to run downhill, but unfortunately the one downside is this.

Back to the brick, because I was sore I did 2.5 laps of warmup before I started the race pace intervals. I think I had a tail wind because I was flying faster than I did two days before when it was an all out effort. So my legs started to loosen up and feel pretty good.

Now onto the run portion, I was super paranoid about the blister on my foot. I used a patch of moleskin directly onto the blister and then topped it with athletic tape just in case. It worked! Now only if my right calf was about to cramp up, I was good. It was that first uphill @ SUNY that always makes my legs feel like crap. Fortunately that downhill (that caused the blister) is always a salvation and smoothes things out. I finished the rest of the run out strong and the brick turned out to be one of the strongest and easiest ones that I have done.

Then came last night's swim. I was on the couch and twice I got up about to go and sat down without any motivation. I finally dragged my butt to the small pool and was excited to see that I had the entire pool and a lane to myself, for about 20 mins. Good thing the woman who I shared the lane with was good about sharing. I did about 50 lengths and had to get out because the water temp was 88 degrees! Then I continued and finished with 90, or 1800 yards. I don't know HOW I did that much with zero motivation.

Now for this morning's run I wanted to go outside, and tried to. I even walked to the start of my run, ran for about 10 seconds and realized that running outdoors was not going to happen with my blister.

So I turned around and walked home, then decided to hop on the treadmill. I did 20 minutes with 4 x 30 surges.

At least I got about 2 miles in in 20 mins. My body feels battered.

a successfull run

Ran 6.2 miles in under 54 minutes....53:24 to be exact, and I could have gone faster. We were doing intervals so it was a combination of fast and slow. Had we gone a more consistent pace, I think we could have held an 8:30 or under pace.

Unfortunately I got my first blister of the season. Doh! Good thing I am walking to work and can experiment with mole skin and tape. Hopefully I can nip this! I have to run for the next two days.

hard ride and the golden arches

Up @ 6 this morning, on the road by 7 for some HARD intervals. 4 x 30 seconds "warm up" sprints and then into my main set of 5x 5 min zone 4-5. Such great weather this morning. In fact the past two weeks we have been having perfect weather. I can't get over it!

Then I got home in time to quickly shower and get out the door to work. Didn't have time to eat @ home so off to McDonald's we go for breakfast. mmmmmmmm......mcDonalds.....mmmmmm

I guess I get to reward myself for a job well done this morning. I felt great on the bike.

another easy run under 162

Went out for another easy run....3.5 miles keeping my heart rate under 162. My legs feel great and I am ready for the onslaught of the next 3 days....which are gonna HURT.

Early bike ride in the AM.....INTERVALS!

flying dismounts

Did a transition session with my coach this morning. Basically my cycling shoes are cycling shoes and are not the best for a triathlon for getting them on and off. Oh well, next season I will go for some more appropriate shoes.

That being said, getting into my shoes ON the bike is really hard in these shoes due to the shape of the velcro straps and the shoes having a ratchet mechanism.

Fortunately getting out of them on the bike is easier and doing a flying dismount (getting off of your bike in motion into a run) is possible and actually not as hard as I had expected.

Still need more practice with the dismounts, but it should save me some time.

Sad to already think about this, but the season is approaching the end already!

I have Westchester Sept 21st in under a month, then I volunteered to be in a relay race on the 29th. I will be doing the biking portion, 15 miles, half of which is up, the 2nd half down. Then Oct 12th I am running a half marathon. The olympic I am sorta scared to do, the bike relay not so much, but the half marathon I am REALLY scared of doing. I mean I can run almost 7 miles and be fine, but I think there is a BIG difference between running 7 and running 13. I think upping my mileage for the half marathon now will only help the 6.2 I have to run in the Olympic.

the small pool

All pools in the area are closed for cleaning....ALL of them at the exact SAME time.

Fortunately the small pool at the Y is open for the next two weeks with a liveable schedule to get me through my next race. The downside is that its only 3 (or 4 VERY slim) lanes with a 20 yard length. Its like being back at Mr. Switzers when I was a kid. Unfortunately every triathlete in the area is going to have this one pool to swim in. Strange though...i had the entire pool to myself.

So my stroke count per lenth is pretty consistent that I know when I will hit the wall. Because I am in a pool that is 5 yards shorter, my count is off so I almost cracked me head once.

Then kicking on my back was deemed impossible due to no lines above me or reference to know when to stop to not crack my head.

Oh well...

I did get in 44 lengths for a half mile swim over about 30 mins---ish. It was just a recovery swim. No biggie.

race training ride

Did the Westchester Tri Training ride this morning with a HUGE group of people. I think there was over 100 people at this ride. I stayed towards the front so I could get into my aero bars and climb without passing everyone. I zoomed up the biggest and steepest hill and was happy that I could stayed standing without my legs hitting the bars. I wish I could use two bikes for this race....my road bike for the hills because my position is better suited for climbing and its a lighter bike, then use my aero bars for the flats. The 2nd half of the bike is gonna be fast. I know these long stretch sections pretty well and I know I am gonna be able to fly on this section. I am looking forward to it actually.

Today's ride took 1:45 and was 24.5 miles.....so with all of the stopping and going we only averaging 14 mph. Blah! Fortunately I was able to hit a few sections to keep my speed up.

I was sore going into today am still really sore. My legs were hurting up the climbs but I was still going pretty fast. These next two days I am gonna go EASY because Wednesday through next whenever is gonna be a 100% suffer fest. Bring it on!

and a hot run

Yeah heat does affect your heart rate. I tried to keep it under 162 as best I could but towards the end my body heat was getting high and it was hard even on dead flat roads going @ a super slow 10 min/mile pace my alarm was going off.

I wasn't supposed to do this run today because I have a course preview tomorrow bright and early! Hills here we come!

OWS again

Went up to White Pond with a coworker to do the usual swim. Its actually a .9 mile swim, which is perfect because that is the distance of the swim in my upcoming race.

It took us about 45 mins. Which is strange, because we were going at a really consistent pace the entire time, didn't take a long break at the other side, and got back at a good clip as well. Maybe the distance is further than .9 miles? Who knows....

My arms didn't feel totally wasted at the end which is good because this is the distance that I need to do in about 4 weeks!

casual ride with a hill

This was supposed to be a 30 min recovery ride today but who cares, I wasn't feeling totally wasted from yesterday's run and I know with tomorrow's swim that I will be fine for Sunday's ride if I go a bit further and longer today.

So I did about 18.5 miles of mostly flat roads with one of the two big hills in my upcoming race. The hill is on Riversville Road in norther Greenwich, CT. Its certainly not Harriman but it will get your heart pumping and will make you use your easiest gear, but it certainly won't kill your cadence. I am thinking about doing hill intervals on this sucker next week.

So towards the end of the ride I am cooling down on this small street in Armonk when I start to approach these 3 13-14 year old boys who are walking the walk with their shades on and the bigger of the three sees me and walks behind the other two and into my path trying to look all bad and stuff. I burst out laughing so hard! It was hilarious seeing these kids do this! You could tell they were trying to stare me down and look all badass.....in Armonk, NY of all places! hahahhahahahahahahha!!!

OWS tomorrw AM bright and early.

the devil's run

Went out for a run early this morning with a coworker's husband for a long hill run. We ended up doing exactly 6.66 miles!

I did this run only opposite two weeks ago and I think its actually harder going the longer more steady uphill rather than the shorter but steeper way. Or maybe I am just in that much better shape in 2 weeks? Doubtful but I see the other way as more of a challenge.

So this is what it is like to run a half-half marathon. I gotta get some more longer runs in....

a fun ride

My ride tonight almost didn't happen. Got up to Armonk, pulled out my bike, and realized I didn't have my shoes. Doh!

Back to White Plains, tons of mental garbage and some big debating over whether to actually ride. I didn't have to go hard, so whatever, I'll just ride around the 'burbs for an hour.

I did just that.

And I found a purple house with yellow trim, in SCARSDALE! Across the street from multiple stone houses. Kinda didn't fit into the neighborhood, you know!?!?!?

Then I got lost and had to ask for directions on how to get back. haha!

And its getting dark a lot quicker now. Crap! Long run tomorrow morning up a huge hill. Should be fun!

bbblllaaaaaAAAAAHHHHHHH

thats the description of my swim tonight.

I think I did about 1500-1600 in the pool in about 44 minutes. I just couldn't muster the motivation to go further even though I should be knocking out 3000 yard swims consistently at this point if I want a prayer to do well in the swim portion of my Olympic tri in September.

I think I am not fully recovered yet from Saturday's race.

And I gotta get my head back in the game.

smoooooooooth run

I actually used my heart rate alarm for the first time today to force myself to stay under a certain heart rate level. It worked and I had a very smooth and somewhat relaxing run. This kept me from going too hard and helped me recover. I actually feel very strong and at first felt fast while my heart rate was shockingly low. That changed as the run went on ;)

Of course going up hills I had a hard time keeping my heart rate low and getting it lower when I got to the top of the hill was kinda hard.

Overall, I feel almost recovered. Just need to do a bike ride to smooth those other legs muscles out.

day off, soreness, and a recovery swim

Took yesterday off. I actually thought about riding for 30 mins but realized it prolly wouldn't do any good. Plus my left ankle is a bit sore still from running down the hills at the end.

Tonight I reluctantly went to the pool and slowly did 900 yards in about 26 mins. haha

Motivation right now is a bit......blaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

I am actually looking forward to tomorrow morning's run. wierd!

Some official results

Got some official times: My swim was FAST, the bike was OK, and the run
was faster that I thought.

I think I put in a new PR on the run, even though it was a very hilly and
rough terrained course. What if I was on a dead flat course!?!?!

What was I doing in T1?!?!? Ouch!

Swim:
Total Time: 15:44
Pace: 1:47

T1: 3:12 (OUCH!)

Bike:
Total Time: 51:32
Speed 18.6

T1: 1:00

Run:
Total Time: 25:55
Pace: 8:22

Total Time: 1:37:23
_______________________________________________________
As for time differences between this race and the first race on
June 1st (excluding transitions):

Swim:
This race: 15:44
First race: 20:12
Difference: 4:28 (WOAH!)

Bike
This week: 51:32
First race: 52:04
Difference: 32 seconds

Run
This race:  25:55
First race: 28:09
Difference: 2:14

had a GOOD race

Just got back from my third triathlon. Funny how all of the triathlons that I have done this season were at the same venue. Oh well.

So I took over 7 mins off of my time from the original SBR #1 Triathlon. This race was SBR #2.

7 MINUTES!!!!

WOW!

In ten weeks!

Here is the race breakdown:

Pre-race:

I got 9 hours of sleep last night vs only about 3-4 for all of my other races. I think that made a difference. Last night I ate a big plate of pasta and couldn't eat any more. This morning I was forcing myself to eat and was only able to put down an english muffin with peanut butter and a bowl of cheerios with strawberries. I showed up 90 mins before the start and setup my transition area and put in a short 2-3 min run.

I think I like Saturday races better because I have to work the previous day and will stay busy to make me tired enough to fall asleep at 9 and STAY asleep. For Sunday races, I am ansy and doing nothing on the day before and usually take a nap midday making it hard to fall asleep.

Swim:
I did the swim in about 16 mins and change. Thats a 4 minute difference from the first tri. Finally my work in the pool has payed off. FINALLY! This swim had a lot more contact but I think it was a good thing as it paced me and let me off the hook from sighting since as a group we would go in the right direction. I actually passed people on the swim! Eventually I came out of that group and ran into one of the bouys. Oops! haha

I couldn't believe how fast I got out to the turn bouy. I was hurting after the turnaround but eventually found my pace yet again. I was happy to be outa the water.

Bike:
My legs just hurt from out of transition to back to transition. I gotta figure out how to get a warmup in on the bike. I couldn't get to that smooth feeling! When I got to the windy downhill I almost ate it on one of the many lazy corners. I didn't know what I was doing and almost thought I was going off the road. Fortunately I got my act together.

As for the big hill. It hurt even worse than the other 3 times I have climbed that hill. After awhile I set into a good pace. About half way up the hill it levels off slightly and I was able to gear up a few times, but by the time I got back onto the final steep section my legs just HURT again. I actually wished we didn't have the short break and the hill could have stayed steep from start to finish.

I didn't feel super fast on the bike, and I am curious to see what my time will be.

Run:
I went out fast because it was flat. Unfortunately when I started to hit the hills I slowed and started to hurt. I tried to go fast up the hills but my legs just wouldn't go. I tried to make up the time on the short downs. At mile 1 I was hurting bad and just wanted to walk, but kept going. I wanted to puke during most of the run. At the turnaround I walked for a few steps and got going again. It was what I needed and started to go faster. I felt a LOT better on the way down, but the route was pretty rough and there was a lot of loose rock. My left ankle hurt a bit on some of the loose sections.

I went as hard as I could on the finishing stretch and finished in 1:37:24. Bam! 7 minutes faster!

final tune up

This has turned into a pretty long taper for just a sprint race....oh well!

I hope to be able to take some time off the clock and I feel rested for this race tomorrow. I didn't feel rested during the last race.

Just did a 5 min warmup on the dreadmill, 10 min run with 2 30 sec surges with a 5 min warmdown. Then 10 mins on the bike with a 1 min surge. Just enough to keep me "sharp."

easy easy easy easy bike ride this morning

I haven't checked what my max heart rate was, but I am not sure if I even breathed out of my mouth I was going so easy.

I went exploring into Scarsdale and oggled at the huge houses. I found some new hills to run on!

new half mile swim record

(for me)

(in the pool)

which I did in 19 minutes flat or actually a little bit faster since the last length in the pool should only be about half the length, so a sub 19 min half mile swim. Sweet!

So during my first two triathlons I did about 19 min half mile swim in the open water in my wet suit. But around that same time the best time I could belt out in the pool was about 23 mins, so a 4 min difference between the pool and open water.

I don't think there will be a 4 min difference between today's pool swim and saturday's open water swim. (it would be freaking sweet if thats the case!) but I do expect a faster time. I am only racing against myself. This is kinda cool since this will be the third time that I race this swim. Hopefully the bouyies will be in the same place to make it even.

I feel rested and ready to race. I have about 2-3 more short tune up workouts prior to friday and each of them will introduce some speed, but nothing hard enough to send me negative.

Lets race!

solid run

Had to run 30 mins this morning, and when I finished I ran 29:58. I will call that close enough!

Did a 1 mile and change warmup to the track, with 4 laps including a 30 second pickup followed by a warmdown lap. Then ran back for an under a mile run to round out a total of 3.35 miles. 9 min mile pace.

Good solid run and I feel VERY confident for this weekend's run portion.

Oh, and I am down to 163 again....10.5 pounds down since January/February!

time trial intervals with coach

Up early again for a coached session on my TT bike. We went to a 2K road that was faily flat with enough rollers to add some variety. My coached drafted off of me while I was in my aero position and he liked what he saw. There were two things that I needed to work on, my upper body position and changing gears.

My upper body position is good, I just needed to relax my chest and shoulders slightly. Nothing big here.

So we worked on changing gears in anticipation for an uphill or downhill. I would change gears going up an uphill too soon and would change for a downhill too late. So as he rode behind me he would yell out when to change, and it made a huge difference. The last interval we were FLYING. I really felt it going uphill especially towards the crest of a hill, where I would upshift before the crest so that at the top along the small flat I was already into the speed going downhill. It was work, but that work kept my speed more consistent.

30 min swim

30 more minutes of drills tonight. Im feeling like my stroke is getting there, but at the same time my endurace is shot! CRAP!

I just watched Michael Phelps DESTROY the 200 meter @ the Olympics. He has a funky swim technique and from under water it looks like he is RUNNING horizontally along the surface of the water. That dude is a beast.

Oh and my comments have seem to have returned from vacation. This site is strange...

easy recovery run and no ride weekend

Went up to Lake George this past weekend for a family reunion. My aunt is a serious runner (like 7:15 min/mile race pace serious runner!) so she took it easy on me and took me out on an easy 3-3.5 mile recovery run.

Then Sunday morning I was supposed to get up at the crack of stupid and put in a 30 mile ride with a pretty good hill climb. I woke up at 6, felt like crap and really sore still from last week's adventures, and rolled back over in bed.

I feel better this morning. Hopefully stronger. I just didn't think that punishing my body for 30 miles was really going to accomplish anything. I feel guilty, but I hope I come back stronger for next weekend's race.

the hurt locker

the hurt locker: that whats what my coworker calls it when you are pushing it hard and fast.

I bricked it this morning up @ SUNY Purchase. After yesterday's hurt locker of a hill run followed by a 1900 yard swim my legs were crispy and sore this morning. Fortunately I had a 20 min warmup to get the blood flowing in my legs. It sorta helped?

So after 2.5 laps around SUNY warming up I hit it and hit it hard for 3 x 6 min intervals, or about 3 laps of pain and suffering with a few minutes of recovery in between. I was relieved to get the biking over with, but no cool down as I had to head right into the run. I did the bike in 54 mins and change.

Fortunately the run was broken up into 3 pieces, a 10 min easy run, followed by a 10 min race pace, then whatever was left to cool down to the finish of the 3 mile loop. I did the run in exactly 27 mins, which I was a bit disappointed in because I felt like I was going a smooth 9 min pace on both the warm up and cool down and with 10 mins at race pace I thought I would do a bit better.

Ah well. Put to look at it this way....I was VERY sore and hurting pretty bad starting this workout, and after 5 laps with 18 mins of faster than race pace effort, I think I eeked out a pretty solid run. I was just happy that I could hold that 10 mins of race pace and still feel strong.

swim @ lunch

Did my first swim during lunch today. Ended up doing about 1900 yards in exactly one hour. I think about 600 of those were drills. One drill in particular that I have been struggling with (kicking on back, body slightly rotated to one side, underside arm outstretched while rotating head into water and breathing) all of a sudden got a lot easier. So my swim form is getting there! I am hoping I can get in an OWS this weekend.

comments gone bye bye

Interesting how some comments that were made in the past 24-48 hours have disappeared.

I have NO idea why. Sorry!

running hill interval

Went on a run this morning with a co-worker's husband. He is a runner; he has that runner's body and can fly up hills. So this run was going to be a bit of challenge not only because of the route he introduced me to, but also him being a faster runner.

It all worked out great. He pushed me up some of the hills and I got a rewarding run in. The last hill I was starting to struggle to keep up with him, but again, it was enough of a push and at the end of 5 miles that this was a good thing. This run turned into a HUGE confidence booster.

We ended up averaging a 9:35 min/mile, which is slow, but then again we were going up some serious hills. I think a goal would be to do the run route backwards, which is even steeper!

One thing that I struggled with though, was running DOWNHILL. Not sure why. I guess I need to let my body "go" without falling. I guess more hills will do it!

hill intervals, spreadsheets, and a lingering injury

First my ride tonight. Very productive! I did 4x 30 warmup surges to get my legs speedy and somewhat loose. Then I moved onto the main course: 5X5 min zone 4-5 all out efforts. Yeah....ouch! I have this really good route by where I used to live in Armonk that has perfectly paved roads, no traffice, and enough flats/uphills/downhills ratio to make it an awesome course.

The first three sprints were hard and I was glad to get them over with. The 4th I just blew. I was in that perfect gear at a smooth cadence and just went. I wish I had a computer to tell me how fast I was going. The fifth my legs were getting pretty spent. I was able to do the effort, but my legs just didn't have the "oomph" to put the power to the pedals. I did a long spin home. My legs actually feel fine now.

I use a Polar HRM, which is a great HRM, but I wish the download options were a bit better. It will report in a logical manner what I did, for how long, and some simple heart rate reports. Unfortunately its overall addition and averaging tools are crap.

Sooooo, I am doing it the old fashioned way on a spreadsheet. Basically I want to see totals and averages and be able to calculate subtotals easier. I think at the end of the season I am going to invest in a better HRM system.

Finally, my upper left shoulder/lower left neck. I don't know what I did, but after my run Tuesday morning I was having trouble bending my neck and back and thought that it would go away. Well as I am writing this, it feels a little better but I can't rotate my neck fully to the left and in certain positions I have a hard time breathing. WTF!

It didn't mess with my workout other than I couldn't look over my left shoulder. Hopefully it will go away before I start swimming.

good run turned bad

Started with a good run this morning. My legs were crisp and stiff but after a few hills I came to a long flat stretch and the legs started to finally loosen up. I did two race pace surges to further loosen things up and I was finally smooth at a great pace. Then my GI issues cropped up again and game over. Walking.

I tried to run a few more times, but I was quickly stopped again.

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

awesome swim and july's totals

Did an AWESOME swim tonight. I bought the Total Immersion: Freestyle Made Easy swim DVD and was doing its basic basic drills in the pool. This DVD is AWESOME! I swam with a lot more confidence in the pool and was a lot more boyant in the pool. I will be repeating some of the drills and continuing onto the more advanced stuff tomorrow night.

As for the month of July (wow I can't believe its already freaking August!) I clocked in 33.5 hours of training, only took 5 days off, but only went a total of 308 miles. How is that possible!?!?

I guess it doesn't matter as long as those are quality miles. I know I made huge gains last month. I also only did one race and I crashed once. A 10 hour week really doesn't faze me that much anymore. I guess I got over that initial volume increase when I started the coached regimine.

The goods news! I am in the best shape of my life!

same ride as friday

Did the same ride as last friday when I flew like a bird up those hills. I tried to repeat my feat this afternoon. I guess I repeated my effort? I was able to go up the hills just as fast, but my legs didn't feel as loose and fluid. However, I did do about 4 more miles that Friday's and still did the ride a LOT faster. Didn't have anyone flatting or getting sick....

I guess the good news is that I feel really strong on the bike, I just need about 10-12 miles of warming up before I can really get going. Unfortunately that distance is practically the distance of the biking portion in a sprint triathlon. I guess I need to warm up better....

OWS swim, finally!

The last open water swim that I did was during my last triathlon, June 8th. Yeah....too long of a time.

So two of us went up to White Pond and hopped in for the .8 mile swim. The water last time was 60 degrees and literally took my breath away. This time: bathtub water warm. It was nice!

So we get out to the rock across the pond and another swimming caught up to us. He asked us, "Why the wet suit? The water is so warm!." Before I could answer he was off back to shore.

We went slow, and I think we did it in about an hour. I worked on my sighting specifically trying to keep my head low and not lift it out of the water while I sit, to keep my feet from dropping and dragging. I think I did pretty well.

Overall, a good swim!

flew like a bird again!

Did a group ride tonight with some slower riders to keep my speed down and get a nice easy spin in.

It started out that way, but it didn't end that way. Halfway through the ride my legs started to get super loose and while the slower riders were going up the hill I just accelerated and sprinted up these hills with ease. I felt like a bird!

Towards the end of the ride I started to loose energy and I was feeling the onset of a bonk. Fortunately I had two Gu's with me and those saved me. The last big hill that I went up I went all out. You know you are going fast up a steep hill when you have to upshift to not spin out.

So I am bragging a bit, but I think I deserve to after my performance up those hills tonight!

If only I could do that in a race....