Monthly Archives: June 2014

Monday Morning Workout

5:00 – Alarm goes off.  20 seconds later, leap out of bed.  Morning!  It is morning!

Put on swimsuit.  Put work clothes over swimsuit.  Check three times to make sure proper undergarments are in swim bag, as a wet swimsuit does not qualify as proper undergarments for work.

Peer in mirror and brush teeth.  Wipe lingering acne medication off of skin.  (Side note – acne and wrinkles?  Thanks, hormones.)

Grab swim bag and go downstairs.  Feed cats.  Make coffee, throw together breakfast and lunch.  Remind cats that yes, there is food in their bowl and they can stop howling.

Take purse, work bag, swim bag, and coffee and run out the door.

Drive to pool while listening to Missed in History Podcast.

At pool before 5:45.  This is good.  Grab swim gear and head into building.  Scan card and then linger with other swimmers in the lobby.  Listen to guy talk about himself for the next ten minutes.

By 5:53, swimmers are starting to congregate at the stairs down to the locker rooms. Finally, at 5:55, the clerk gives the go-ahead and swimmers crash down the stairs.

In locker room.  RUN!  Throw everything into locker, grab goggles, cap, other swim accessories.  Strip off clothes and hang up in locker.  Walk casually but quickly out of the locker room and to the pool.  See a lane at the far end.  Walk past the swim team and drop stuff at the end of the currently empty lane.

Take a deep breath and sit down at the edge of the pool to put on cap and goggles.  Wait for lifeguard to show up at 6.

The official workout hasn’t even started, and I am EXHAUSTED.

 

So busy

Remember when I said I was going to try to take things easy and not register for so many races and not over commit?

I lied.

Well, sort of.  I’m doing fewer half marathons.  But I managed to fill up the space anyway.

July looks good.  A practice swim and Peddle & Paddle, which is a fun day of riding and swimming.

August?  Some sort of athletic pursuit every weekend but the last.

September?  Races 3 of 4 weekends.

October?  A trip out of town, a wedding, two races (one running, one spectating) and a choir concert.

November looks relatively calm, at least through the first few weeks of the month.

But man, things are going to be BUSY.

Fun, but busy.

2015.  In 2015, I will take it easy.  No really.

Wednesday Workout Recap

(So this was supposed to post yesterday and didn’t. Whoops.)

Last week was my first full week on my trainer’s plan.  And even though it’s not drastically different from what I was doing in terms of time, it’s kicking my ass!  But in a good way.

Monday – Rest day.  I’m gloriously good at rest days.

Tuesday – Swim drills, right around a mile of swimming.  Drills definitely keep my brain working while I swim, which is nice.  I’m doing less distance than I was, but I’m working just a bit harder, so that’s good.

Wednesday – Trainer workout.  This is probably the biggest change for me.  When I rode my bike in the trainer previously, I just sort of pedaled, sometimes pedaling faster.  I had no real plan.  Now I have various workouts to complete.  And they are not easy!

Thursday – Team Fight swim.  No coaches this week, but they sent us with a plan, so a dedicated group of 7 did our best to complete the workout.  Someday I will be fast enough to actually complete the whole workout in the hour we’re given.

Friday – Rest day.  I actually failed at this rest day.  I got a massage which was glorious.  I had been having trouble with my left arm and figured it was shoulder tightness.  I was close, but not quite right.  My therapist hit a spot in the middle of my back that I didn’t know was sore and when she worked the knot out, the ache in my arm was gone.  Amazing!  Then I went in for my bike fit, which involved way more pedaling than I anticipated.  I was exhausted when I got done!

Saturday – Thanks to threatening thunderstorms, my 7 mile long run happened on the treadmill.  It was a mental slog, but I got it done.

Sunday – Rode the Iron Girl Columbia course with Princeton Sports.  Had a great time.  Saw two dead deer, which was unfortunate, though one had a giant bird (a vulture maybe) next to it, ready for a meal.  That was cool.  Also had a deer run right in front of us while we rode.  Crazy!

(Aside – I tried to search for pictures of birds that eat roadkill to see if I could figure out what kind of bird it was, and I Googled “what eats roadkill.”  The search results were all about how humans can safely eat roadkill.  Um, ew.)

So that was my week of workouts.  It was an intense week and I already find myself longing for my next rest day.  This current week only has one rest day on Friday.  Is it Friday yet?  I really want it to be Friday.

Bike Fit

On Friday, I splurged on something that I’ve wanted for quite some time – a professional bike fit. A guy at a local bike shop is known for how well he fits people to their bikes, and though it’s not a cheap process, his time and training is totally worth it.

I wasn’t sure what I was all getting into, but color me impressed.  He measured my body and how I bend and what angles I should be at in various positions on my bike.  It was very much all about fitting my body’s particular quirks to my particular bike.  I really liked it.

It was interesting just how poorly fitted I was to my bike.  It didn’t seem like it was that off, but riding 18 miles yesterday was a totally different experience.  I could feel different muscles working.  It’s going to take some getting used to, and I also got a new saddle, which is going to require some “toughening up,” but all in all, I’m happy.

I was frustrated to learn that my bike is, in fact, slightly too big for me.  This is frustrating mainly because I bought it from a reputable bike shop.  They shouldn’t have sold me this bike, but I think that because it was “close enough,” and they had it in store rather than needing to order it, so they sold it to me.  I didn’t know any better.

Oh well, you live and you learn.  It’s been two years.  I can’t change anything now.  But it means that if I keep up with triathlon, I will ultimately need a different bike for longer distances.  Guess I should start saving my pennies!

Trainer Workouts

Last night, I did an awesome trainer workout that my coach provided to me with my new training plan.

Well, I tried to do the workout, anyway.  It was HARD and I sort of failed at the last part.  But I’ll get there.

What did I learn from this?  Riding on the trainer or on a stationary bike can be so much more than just pedaling fast or… less fast for a set period of time.  That was exactly what I had been doing.  Occasionally I would try to pedal faster or slower, but I really didn’t know what I was doing.  I was getting sweaty, so it had to be a good workout, right?

I’m sure it was, but a planned trainer workout is so much better!

Anyone who has been to a spin class has probably figured this out, but I’m slow on the uptake.

A quick search on Google for “bike trainer workouts” comes up with a ton of different workouts, and you don’t just have to do them in the trainer.  You can do them on the stationary bike in the gym.  I definitely felt my muscles working and left a gross puddle on the mat underneath my trainer.  And yes, I did still have the TV on for added distraction, but it was still one of the toughest bike workouts I’ve done in a long time.

Of course, now I fear what else my coach has in store for me!