indoor bike and a swim

Did a short and easy 30 min spin on the trainer. No frills, just spun, and no serious wattage either:


Then it was off to the pool for an 1800 yarder. Basically I swam 250 yards straight, then 250 yards drill, rinse and repeat until I got in 72 lengths. Took me a slow 45 mins as usual, but hey, I got 1800 more yards in!

nice and easy 5K run

This morning I got outside (wow its like spring weather!) for a nice and easy 5K run. Well I did 3.28 instead cuz I didn't want to walk my warmup. Is that considered laziness even though I ran the warmup? Maybe mental laziness?

Anyways, it was good to just go nice and easy without an worries about speed or distance. Here is my usual route:



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Kettlebells are back and outdoors on the bike

Kettlebells returned this morning. Already I noticed a difference in my strength. A lot of the moves were easier and my technique was better as well. This one move that you do, where you hold the kettlebell in your hand and hold it straight armed straight up above your head, then you work your way down to a laying down position, then stand back up, all the while keeping that kettle bell straight up. I used to dread doing this move before, but this time I pumped out about 5 or 6 on each arm no prob.

Then we moved to "manmakers". Yeah....they HURT! You take 2 20-25 lb kettlebells arm widths apart on the ground, then you get into a pushup position on them, squat thrust, pushup, one arm lift, squat thrust (without going back to pushup position) cling and press, then back down and repeat 10X. OUCH!

I was feeling it pretty well after that workout.

Then that afternoon I got out during my lunch break for an easy easy 10 miler with a coworker. It helped spin my legs out, but it didn't help get my back sorted out, which became more and more sore during the day. Not as bad as last time!

a punishing swim

This swim class is making me work hard! Yeah it sucks, but its needed to finally kick my ass into swimming shape, something I never really got into last season. I now know what its like to swim 3 different speeds. Slow, medium, and fast. Now the fast speed is fast for me, and not very fast for experienced swimmers, but nontheless its faster for me.

a 55 second 50 yard pace is good for slow (60 seconds is even better)
45 second 50 is a good pace for medium, and not sustainable
40 second 50's are REALLY fast for me and can only be done on 50's

my fastest 25 yard all out pace was 19 seconds.

So besides speed, my form still sucks. I am still dropping my elbows.

So I need to do uber amounts of fist and one arm drills. In other words, I am not starting my pull until I am already 25% through my rotation, which means I am losing 1/4 of my pull. Thats too much!

Drills here we go. Even though I still need to put in some bulk yardage to get my endurance up to snuff.

no spin class, but rather an hour spin

My legs just won't fix themselves. I am feeling some deep soreness.

So tonight I am not going to spin class. I did a 60 min spin on the trainer this morning:

I stayed in the low - med low wattage range. I'd start in a gear @ around 80-85 rpm for about 15 mins, and by that point me legs were loose enough that I'd go up another gear @ 80-85 RPM until I naturally built up to 90 RPM, then up another gear and repeat. I think if I had to do a long ride like his, I'd see how far I could go before I couldn't go any higher.

......

This is a recovery week, so I am gonna treat it as a recovery week, cuz usually my ego gets in the way and whenever I feel good, I will try to go harder than I really should. Why rest when my legs feel good? Well they don't feel good so I am gonna rest. Yeah my legs are trashed, but they arent so trashed that I could even go for a nice easy 5K run tomorrow morning. NOPE! gonna rest instead...

Swim class tomorrow night. I am moving over to the slow lane. I hope I feel more comfortable over there.

toasty legs and a busy pool

Swimming in the morning is great because I can get the swim done and over with for the day, except my pool is really busy in the AM. I shared a lane with a woman who almost didn't let me share the lane. B*!@*!

My legs are still really toasty from Saturday. I did a short 30 min strength workout after the swim. I think running for 10 mins helped loosen me up a bit. Tomorrow night's spin class is gonna hurt. I just know it!

Oh and I didn't have to do a strength workout this morning; I soon realized this when I tried to log my data, and there was no place to log it! thats what you get when you are on a schedule and you start an easy week....oops!

a day off!

I think this is my first complete day off in about 28 days....fortunately there were no zombie encounters....

a new 5K PR!..and then I decided to go for a long bike ride...

This morning I did the NYRR Al Gordon Snowflake 5K in Prospect Park in Brooklyn. My time was 23:43, or a 7:39 min/mile average, a 30 second per min/mile improvement in speed over my last fastest time in a race.

Uhhhhh, WOW! I was totally spent...They bumped me up to an even faster corral this time, which I was excited about, cuz that meant there wouldn't be as many people going super slow in front of me. Maybe my time from the last race bumped me up? Who knows.

But still there were people who went slow in front of me, not too bad, but still they were there. I think it was good that they were there this time, because the race started on a 1/4 mile of flat then hit a 1/4 mile uphill that could kill the rest of your race if you went too hard. I think the crowds kept me back and that prevented me from blowing up.

My mile splits are as follows:
7:38
7:24
7:26

Because tomorrow is supposed to have TERRIBLE weather, I chose to ride tomorrow's ride today. I figured, what the heck?!? since I have a duathlon in exactly 4 weeks, I guess a fast 5K followed by a 2+ hour ride would somewhat prepare me. We did a hilly 34.27 miles in 2:22:48...another slow pace, but it was VERY hilly. Here is the wattage data:


and elevation:

an uplifting swim

I have been really depressed after Wednesday's swim. I realized that swimming 2X per week was just not cutting it, and its not that I was slow @ Wednesday's class, it was that I am OUT OF SHAPE in the pool!

So this morning I said f*&^ it and hopped into the pool and swam 1800 yards, or 1 mile and slight change (more like a few pennies). It felt good....my arms are sore, but it was needed. And I need to do this longer endurance swim at least 1X/week. Drills are cool, but the type of drills that I was doing was giving me too much rest or not enough conistent yardage without stopping. I did a sort of ladder during the swim:
4 X 100
4 X 150
4 X 200

Hopefully this extra long swim will start to pay off in the next few weeks.

Take that pool!

squeak! squeak! squeak!

thats the sound of my new rear tire on the trainer. its really annoying.

I was up @ the crack of stupid this morning to do a short strength workout.

5 min run warm up
strength
5 min run warmdown

Then onto the trainer for 30 solid minutes. I put in a really strong recovery ride, all the while keeping in the recovery zone:

I averaged 140 watts over the 30 mins vs last week's same recovery ride was @ 117 watts for 30 mins. A 23 watt difference while at the same perceived effort is a good thing. Either I am more recovered or I am stronger. I'll go half way on that one, cuz I better be stronger and I better be recovered, or else my 5K on saturday is gonna suck!

Speaking of which, I think I am going to give myself a goal on this one...finish in under 24 mins.

Can I?

short run, hard swim

First, I had ZERO motivation this morning to run. 22 degrees made me not want to outdoors, so I stayed inside on the dreadmill. I got about 15 mins through it and called it quits. Two straight 9 hour weeks just takes it out of you, especially this early in the season. I had no regrets about calling it a short run.

Second, tonight was part 2/10 of my swim clinic. There are a lot of fast swimmers in this clinic, especially all of them! i.e. I am the slowest :)

Its cool though, gives me something to shoot for....that is not be the slowest swimmer.

The video showed that I am dropping my elbows upon entry into the water and into the reach. This is because I am not digging my arms deep enough upon entry. If I can first fix entry to be more downward, this will set me up for a better catch and pull. Fist drilling here we come!

a not so hard spin class

i mean tonight was still really really hard, just not AS hard as the past two weeks. Here is my proof:
The main set was 3 x 30 second REALLY hard then on the 3rd 30 second sprint go immediately into a 5 min piece @ time trial pace. Do this entire thing 3x through. My 3rd, 5 min time trial piece turned out to be my strongest. The 30 second all outs hurt a lot and I felt it the most because I am still not recovered from this past weekend's fun.

Run in the morning.

another day of pain

I have been having days and days of pain. Its the cumulative effect that has been adding up, now to a point that I don't know how much more I can take before I start to go into "over training" mode. I know fatiguing your body will make you strong, but after awhile feeling nothing but pain just takes the fun out of this stuff.

Take for today, which I ran 9.41 miles in 90 mins. I ran it slow, not because I tried to take it easy to get the distance in, but it was slow because my body physically could not go any faster. The first 3 miles were hellish. My legs hurt and I felt really slow. The 2nd 30 mins actually felt pretty good. The 3rd 30 mins I had to force my body to go for 15, stop, then finish the last 15 mins. My knee joints are hurting pretty bad and I am dreading this Tuesday's spin class. I know I will be able to finish it, but I feel like I am digging myself into a hole that has been getting deeper and deeper.

The good news out of all of this is that I can put in a moderate-hard ~34 mile ride, then run 90 mins over two days. I think that means that I should be able to do an Olympic distance triathlon no problem, at least I am not scared the of the distance!

33.78 miles of hurt

I think the cumulative effect of this past week's amount of work made today's 33.78 mile ride hurt a LOT more than it should have. My climbing legs were completely flat throughout the first half of the ride and didn't improve any better towards the end. I was also on my TT bike today while my road bike (with the PowerTap) is in the shop getting a major tune up. When a pin starts to come out of the rear shifter, I think something is messed up.

Here is today's ride:


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I averaged a slow 15 mph, but that was totally due to my legs being fatigued and a TON of rollers on the route. I was kinda surprised at how much I was standing, sitting down, then standing again. I felt like I was climbing the entire day!

a hard week so far

Monday morning I did some strength which was a quick workout of maybe 20-25 mins. I was wiped Monday night, so no swim, which I bumped till Tuesday AM.

So Tuesday AM with a ton of sleep, I had zero motivation to get to the pool, but I went anyways and had to share a lane until one opened up. I moved over, swam a bit, until grandma, who was loaded with stinky, perfume hopped in (without asking!). I hopped out quickly and called my swim done early.

Then last night we were put through the ringer again on the bike through these 7, 30 second increasing intensity intervals. We started out @ threshold pace for 30 seconds, then increased the intensity over 7 notches until the 7th interval was all out. We were almost puking by the end. Then he threw 2 more 15 second all out intervals on top of that! Then we did 6 min @ threshold pace with 30 second ups and 15 second all outs.

I felt like I had been climbing for 3 hours after that workout.

Finally, this morning I got outside for a 3.35 mile recovery run. I felt sore @ first which was expected, but it never went away. I actually felt the worst and most sore by the end of it. Now my hamstrings are totally shot.

Tonight I have my next swim clinic starts. Hopefully swimming will loosen my legs back up.

Then tomorrow AM first thing I have kettles and bells class. "Its paaaaaarty time!"

long(er) outdoor ride and a suprise long week

Did 2 hours or a 30 mile ride this morning in some really nice 50 degree weather. I was riding with 2 others who were on their first ride of the season, so we went easier. I did hit a hill where I put out a max of 809 watts. haha!

Here is my graph:

and route with elevation:


And for the week I put in over 9 hours of work, with that being 3400 yards (not great), 80 miles of riding (improving) and 20 miles of running (new record). Things are ramping up, finally, and I can already feel myself going longer, except in the pool, which is a different matter and I think is more mental than physical. I am starting my next swim workshop this Wednesday, so that will hopefully get the motivational juices flowing in the pool.

3rd longest run ever

I squeaked out 8.56 miles this morning during a run. That would be my 3rd longest run ever to data, and my longest this year. I did it in about 1:20 and change, so around a 9:30 min/mile average. The beginning of the run hurt a lot as my hamstrings were complaining. I knew that as soon as I went up one hill that things would even out. Well that one first big hill kicked my ass and I was moving VERY slow up it, or a 12 min/mile pace, with my HR getting up to around 180 bpm. Overall my HR was in the zone 2/low zone 3 range, except for those hills where my HR would get up into zone 4.

A very successful run!

long swim, weights, and bike

Last night I did a 1 hour tortuous swim. Have I mentioned that swimming is boring?

Then this morning it was back up and @ it with a 30 min strength workout then onto the stationary for 30 mins.

Blah.....just a whatever day.....same with tomorrow. Maybe I will run outdoors tomorrow morning, if it is higher than 15 degrees.

all time best @ spin class

Oh man tonight was brutal. We did a descending set of intervals, starting out @ 6 mins @ time trial pace then decreasing the time by 1 min but increasing resistance. You can see on the graph below what happened. I had a hard time maintaining each interval but I went all out on the last interval of 1 min. The data shows that I put in an all time best on the trainer by putting up 800 Kj of work.



After that 1 min all out effort my legs just felt stupid. Easy spinning was a chore for a few minutes until my senses started to come back. I was beat!

Then this morning I hopped onto the dreadmill for 30 mins. Blah!

went outdoors today!

It hit 48 degrees today and it was sunny with little wind, which means......

I went outside today! I did a slow paced 24 miler over 90 something mins. My legs were pretty trashed from yesterday's race. Wait, I did a race yesterday? It already feels a week ago....wow!

My power graph for today's ride is nuts:

I did hit a peak power of 801 watts going up the hill to work. I stood up and cranked it pretty hard....745 watts is one horsepower, so I am proud to say that I put out 1.0751677852348993288590604026846 horsepower!

Then tonight I hopped into the pool for 38 mins. I was doing mostly kick on my back drills and I used my paddles for some 50's. Man they make a HUGE difference!

my fastest run pace EVER

This morning's chilly 4 mile race around central park was a fast one for me. I did 32:40 over 4.05 miles, or an 8:04 min/mile pace average. That is the fastest I have EVER gone by 25 seconds. The run hurt like heck, but at least that hurting turned into some speed!

I started a bit smarter this morning by picking up my bib early but then hunkering down in a Starbucks up on 96th street. Then with 40 mins till race time I ran from 96th to the start on 72nd street, or a 1.4 mile warmup. I felt suuuuuuper slow during the warmup, but it was enough to get the blood going.

I started this race in a faster corral to avoid the slow people getting in the way. Even in the faster corral it was the same story all over again, except it was WORSE this time! WTF!?!? I might start in an ever FASTER corral next race. Why do people who run 10 to 11 min/mile paces say that they run 8:30 min/mile paces? It doesnt make sense!

After the race I walked across the park then ran from 76th street to 86th street to cool down. My warmdown was at a faster pace than my warmup and my heart race was slower. Amazing what happens when your muscles are greased and ready to go.

My mile splits went as follows:
8:14
7:52
8:06
8:06



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