Tapering for my first tri

Ultimate was cancelled Wednesday because a bunch of storms came through. I think it was for the better for my legs and tiredness. We went to the chicken shack instead and had a nice relaxing evening.

Thursday I took the day off. I just felt like my energy levels were too low. I considered walking, but didn't even end up doing that (unless you count the walk to Buck's and back for dinner).

Today I ran 3 miles. The first half was terribly slow. And while the effort didn't feel hard, my legs just felt tired and stiff, so I didn't push it. Coming back, my effort was exactly the same, but it was 45 seconds faster for that 1.5 miles, which I might add, includes a long hill. Huh. So maybe I was just really groggy?

I'm getting really excited (and nervous) for the triathlon. I just want to do well and feel like I'm strong, no matter what my times are.

So Tired

So Sunday night I stayed up until 3:30 a.m. working. It was late. And it sucked because I had to be at Lux the next day. Big difference from being able to take breaks the next day after a night like that. Monday was also my day off from exercise, which was good. However I felt antsy and went on a 2.5 mile walk when I came home from work. If I didn't, I would have just crashed and then not been able to sleep later. It was a pretty good walk, though slow.

Tuesday I swam. I chose to sleep a little more in the morning and went during lunch while at work. I'm not busy there and could get away for a while. I looked up a swim workout I have on a training schedule and ended up modifying it some because I just didn't have the energy to do all of it. I ended up doing 10 x 25 yards very quickly. This ended up being 30 sec each for me.  Then I did 6 x 50 yards quickly. These were about 1:08 - 1:11 for me.  Then I did 2 x 100 which were 2:33 and 2:28.

I'm slow.

Tuesday evening I did yoga. It was hard for me to breathe. I wasn't having an asthma episode, but maybe because I'm tired or maybe it is just acting up I had very shallow breathing and couldn't do the u-jai (sp?) breath. It was a very relaxed class, which was nice.

Today (Wed)  I spinned at 5:45 a.m.  And now... I. Am. Wiped. It was a great class with sprint intervals of sorts. Seating sprints, jumps, standing sprints, etc etc. All short amounts before things switched. But man. I am so tired I can't walk fast. If I could put my head down I'd conk out for sure. Last night there were a bunch of storms that came through, so I was awake comforting Harley a bunch and just worried about the storms in general. I'm sure that has something to do with my tiredness, but I'm also wondering if I am just a bit over-trained at the moment. It's frustrating because I haven't lost any weight. I can't believe I haven't with all the work I've been doing. Maybe I'm losing fat and gaining muscle? I don't know. I'm just really frustrated about it. I suppose I should eat less. I thought I already was.

Tonight is Ultimate... and I certainly need a nap prior to that! Then I am forcing myself to take Thursday off. Friday I'll run. Saturday will be another rest day. Then I hope to do really well at the triathlon on Sunday!!!!! :)

26 Mile Bike Ride and Welcome to 10 Days in a Row

It's the weekend, and that's the time I have to do longer rides and runs. So even though today was the 10th day in a row of working out, I decided to get in a long ride anyway. Tomorrow I'm resting!

I decided to kick it up a notch and go 26 miles - out 13 and back. It went by surprisingly quick for the first half, but that's probably because I had to keep adjusting my MapMyRun app to get the mile splits feedback. I need a new battery for my cyclometer. Need to remember to do that.

For the most part, I was averaging 16 mph. I meant to wear my heart rate monitor but forgot. I just keep forgetting to wear that damn thing! I was never breathless, so I think I was in a nice low zone. But the ride was around 1:45 minutes, so it was certainly a long time.

When I got home, I was wiped out. Actually, it was after lunch that I really felt wiped. Maybe I should have eaten something on the ride. I napped for almost 2 hours and woke up with a horrendous headache. After more water, Advil, dinner and an iced Vietnamese coffee, I'm feeling much better. I have a stiff neck though, which I felt happening on the ride. I'm just a bit stiff still from Ultimate, swimming, etc. Need to stretch it out more.

So 10 days in a row. I don't think I've ever worked out for 10 days in a row. No, I know I haven't. The variety of this triathlon training is pretty awesome and fun. I am really excited about it and am loving the training. I will probably try to go for 10 days in a row again, if my body seems to respond well to the day of rest.

Next weekend is my practice tri. I'm so excited!

Run for Dreams 5K

My friend Erin asked me to do a 5K with her and so I did. My body was kind of saying "are you crazy? I'm tired!" so I just decided it would be a run and not a race.

It was so hot. Only in the 70s but 100% humidity. It was a small race in a park, which was very nice. The course was really tough - a few big climbs and the sun was brutal. But I felt really strong for the entire thing. I was pretty happy with my time given the condition of my body, the temps and the challenging course.

I think my time was somewhere around 32:20. So a 10:26-ish pace.

Friday Swim

At the Ultimate game on Wednesday, I had a collision with my own teammate, whose name is Jeff. Someone yelled for him, I thought they said "steph" and we both went for the Frisbee. My shoulder got slammed by him. Turns out it was still sore when I swam, which made turning and breathing difficult. It wasn't a very good session, but here's what I did:

1. Warm-up side-stroke and 50 yards freestyle
2. 4 x 100 yards with a minute/minute and half rests in between
3. 8 x 50 yards with a minute rest in between (because the 100s were sucking)
4. 1 x 50 fast.

Still got in about 900 yards at least.

Funny thing: I was the only person in the pool! So I got to be the show for the lifeguard. That was pretty annoying and intimidating, since I don't feel I swim well.

Ultimate Run and Run

I'm not sure how far I run during and Ultimate game. But our game Wednesday night was an hour and half, and we had all four girls there. So if we can assume we subbed pretty evenly, then I ran around for about 45 minutes. There is a lot of standing and stuff, so maybe 3 or 3.5 miles? I wonder if I could wear my Garmin and get an idea. It would really be interesting to know.

The game didn't wear me out as much as last week. I had a couple of plays and a couple of goofs. Oh well. The team we played were kind of not fun to play against.

Thursday evening I went for a run. Greg wanted to run after work, so I waited to go then as well. We didn't run together because he can't run as slow as me. :(  My run was pretty terrible. Slow, sluggish, etc. I think the days and days of workouts were catching up to me. It left me feeling pretty down about my body and running ability in general.

Yoga and Spinning and Pretty Consistent

Tuesday night yoga went better than I thought it would. I set my mind to breathing the entire class. I'm sure this benefits me to focus on this, since my biggest issues with things come down to being out of breath. Maybe I should break out the clarinet too...

This morning I got up at 5 a.m. and did my second spinning class at that hour with Kathy. It went well - it was kind of a hard class. We did half the class at a fast flat and the other half of the class on a hill. Then there were variations of standing runs, jumps, and sprints. The music was interesting. There were some wordless songs that were really driving. There was a Skrillex song that was pretty awesome. I don't know what it was though.

Tonight is Ultimate. I hope I do as well as I did last week.

Monday slog and 1000 yards

Having my run cut short Sunday thanks to the dog bite, I decided I'd run Monday instead of it being my day off. In reality, I'm thinking Thursday might be my day off anyway. Ultimate can really beat me up and I've been spinning the same day. Seems like Thursday makes sense as a rest day.

Anyway, I was soooo sore from the cross-fit stuff. But I vowed I'd do it no matter how slow and just keep my heart rate down and burn some calories. I went 3 miles. My pace settled in at a turtle-paced 12:00 minute miles. But my breathing was easy and it was quite pleasant. I'm not surprised. My body is just really tired.

But I can't seem to stop.

Today I had to work in the morning dark and early at 5:00 a.m. I should have worked last night but just couldn't get myself to sit down at the computer. So I worked and planned to do my swim at lunch time since I was working at Lux for the day.

It was a pleasant experience, though the gym is very crowded at that time. I had a lane though. I warmed up with some side-stroke and then about 75 yards. Then I started my watch and went for 200 yards (8 laps) and stopped.

5:24. OK. So maybe a 10:00 swim at the end of this month's practice triathlon isn't so possible.

I did it again and was consistent. And then I thought I'd switch up my kick for some reason. For the third set, I kept my knees together and tried to just flutter my feet more, quicker and closer together. It felt completely different! I think my butt was out of the water some and I didn't feel like my body was dropping as much, and therefor dragging. And when I stopped at the end, the watch read 5:13! So it's definitely faster and felt better. I need to look at some more instructional videos. I finished out the last 3 around that faster pace. It felt really good and I'm not tired.

Tonight is yoga. I'm predicting it to be a bit rough as I'm still sore all over! :)

Weekend Update #1: Exciting Dog Bite Edition

In trying to make this training blog more exciting, I think I'll do a weekend update! Each weekend I'm piling in the training whenever and wherever, so it's easy to lump those days as one rather than separate them.

So...weekend update.

I was pretty trashed from wearing my cleats on Wednesday, even the short time I wore them. I don't know what my problem is, but I just can't seem to be ok in them. Maybe they're just too cheap. Anyway, my lower legs were hurting. I spinned Thursday and then swam Friday and was wiped.


Saturday

Saturday we were going up to my parents' for Father's Day. I would have ran because that's quicker, but I thought a non-impact bike ride would be better. But it was going to have to be quick. So I opted to ride my bike down to Kroger to pick up my Rx. Very fun idea - I should do that more often!

The bike ride was uneventful and I took it easy. Then when I got back, I quickly changed into my running shoes and ran to the short end of the street. It was .38 miles, according to when I mapped it. It was rough, but a mini-brick to get me ready for the real bricks I should start doing soon.


Sunday

Sunday I was going to run, but thought some interval training with cross-fit stuff would help keep my legs from being overly-impact taxed. They still hurt so bad!

Greg also wanted to do a workout, so I convinced him to do something from the cross-fit app I have on the back porch, then run a mile, then do another workout, then run a mile... I wanted to run 3 miles total. I should have warmed up with an easy mile then started the cross-fit stuff. Next time.

The first workout set was 12 minutes long and ass kicking. Lots of jumping and immediate breathless work. Then I went out the front door and ran a mile. So did Greg, and not all that faster than me. My mile was 9:20!!!! I was excited. I don't know the last time I've ran under 10 min pace...or eve 10:30 pace for that matter.

It was rough for sure, but doable. And excellent practice for the tri.

The next cross-fit workout was 20 minutes long and way less cardio. But the strength stuff was hard. However, I finished-ish and then set out for an easy run. I did something to my hammy on the last run and didn't want to push it.

A few houses down the road and enter Hank, the big cute rottweiler. He charged me, ran into the street, and bit me on the ass. I couldn't believe it and it was terrifying. But it could have been way worse. I ran a little more and was going to try to cut through yards to get back without passing the house again but couldn't figure out how to. So I sneaked by ok. Then Greg and I went down and talked to the owners. They're very sorry and very lucky I'm an understanding dog person. They will supposedly always chain him up now. But he got out the back door this time...so...  Hopefully they figure it out because I'm sure no one else would have been as understanding.



So that was the weekend! I want to run today...make up for my run cut short yesterday. My arms are mega sore from all the planks. Swimming tomorrow should be interesting.

400 yards straight

So I signed up for a triathlon in Mason that is at the end of this month. I am not ready for a race yet, but I thought it would be good for a few reasons. 1) I also just bought a tri suit so it will be a good chance to test that. 2) The swim is in a pool so that will be a good way to ease into swimming with tons of people. 3) it's right here in Mason- so close and easy logistically. 

The swim is only 400 yards. So today in the pool, I decided I would try that distance straight. I warmed up and realized that my breathing is all whack. I'm at the end of a cold and it's kinda in my chest now. Not bad, but enough to make it weird. I took a few laps to settle everything down. Then when the timing clock seemed to be at an even number (it is hard to read) I began.

The first 100 was pretty easy. It got harder and harder and my form certainly got worse as I went. I coughed a few times in between turning around. But I pushed the last 50 and made it somewhere around 11 minutes. :) That's horrifically slow, but not bad for a sick girl who just started swimming maybe a month ago? :) 

It was a good reminder of how tiring the race is- after than swim...well then I have to bike 12.4 miles...and then run a 5k!

Yeah- like I said, I'm not ready for a race, but it will be good practice and FUN :) 

Race Weekend and Yoga and Ultimate

The 24 Hours of LeMons race left me incredibly sore. For the first day, there was a mirror mounted low that I couldn't see over when turning right. So every time I turned right, I had to pull myself up as much as possible, extending my neck like a turtle (a racing turtle!). It got better as the day went on and I was more familiar with the track, but my neck and upper shoulders were left in a lot of pain. The other thing that hurt pretty bad were my legs...but nowhere I'm ever sore with my legs. It was a weird inner soreness, and my hips hurt. I think it was again because of my having to really extend my legs so much to reach the pedals. And then my lower back sides (love handle area) were tight and sore. That tightened up with every turn, which makes me think I wasn't secured down in my seat well enough.

Amazing how strenuous racing is! I really start to find my groove around an hour. So the next day when I drove for 1:45, it was pretty awesome. I was hot, but then started to sweat a lot and cooled off some. I was tired but elated at the fact that we were coming into 1st place. We kept it out there - that's the name of endurance racing! I am still reliving moments. It was so incredible.

Tuesday was back to yoga. It went better than I imagined it would given my soreness and missing last week. But I think swimming is starting to kick in with helping my strength. And things like my quads weren't sore. Oh, I had a charlie horse in my bicep Tuesday morning. Never had that happen - it hurt really bad.

Sunday night as we were driving back from Joliet, I started wondering if I was getting sick. I had had a sore throat all weekend. It definitely hit Monday - running nose and sneezing all day. Tuesday I wanted to just work a half day but all the emails and responsibilities piled on and I couldn't leave until 4. I tried to sleep a little before yoga but that didn't work too well. Wednesday morning I got up at 5:00 a.m. for a 5:45 a.m. spinning class. It was intervals and surprisingly easy! After an hour of that and then a stressful morning at work, I was pretty beat but feeling pretty energized at the same time. Good thing because Wednesday nights are Ultimate. And I happened to be the only girl that showed up at first. The news that I'd have to play the entire game (in only the second game of the season) didn't make me too excited. Luckily a girl on the other team came to our team, and one of our girls showed up a little late. So it wasn't bad, but I certainly played more than I planned. I was going to try to stay out as much as possible and let the other girls play since I was sick.

Today my lungs are hurting. My throat is scratchy and I'm coughing a lot. It might be a good day to just rest a bit and recover. I am looking forward to swimming on Friday!

Friday Early Swim Before LeMons

I got to the pool the earliest I ever have on Friday. We were leaving for Joliet, IL as soon as we dropped off the dogs, so I had to get there early. The earliest I can go with my membership is 6, so that's when I got there.

I was sore from yard work and Ultimate, I soon discovered. My neck was tense. I took it kinda easy. I did 4 x 200 for 800 yards total. It was challenging to do 200 yards, but I did it! I'm pretty happy, but still have a hard time believing I can ever swim a half mile straight. Certainly glad I started this swimming thing when I did.

The rest of the weekend was car racing! Very physically exhausting. My neck hurt, my lower back on the sides hurt, and my legs hurt in places they've never hurt. More on that later though...

Today is my rest day and I need it. I hope I can get to bed at a decent hour tonight. Not sure what I'll do tomorrow morning. I don't think I should swim. Maybe I'll bike.

Ultimate Frisbee, season 3!

This is our third year playing Ultimate. Wednesday night was our first game. We played Ultimate Mutiny, which is not an easy team. But we did ok. I forget the final score, but we at least had 10...

That's all I did. I didn't get up to spin. I kinda figured after being so exhausted after the swim, I'd be better off saving my body a little. Ultimate was rough. I didn't feel weak or even that slow (aside from not being able to keep up with a woman that outran me) but just couldn't breathe. I was out of breath right away. That's kind of the story of my life these days...not sure what it means.

This morning I thought I could go spinning, but I looked at an old schedule where there used to be a Thursday morning class. Sooooo I might hop on the bike on the back porch. I still have yet to do that.

In other news... my stomach.
I'm not quite sure what is going on. It's been maybe about a month now where I'm having issues with bloating and indigestion. Sometimes its diarrhea, sometimes I'm just bloating as if I ate two Thanksgiving meals back to back. I really have no idea what's going on. There's no pain, until yesterday. I had was coffee and a biscuit for breakfast. Then for lunch I had a baked potato. On the potato I had green onions, sour cream, some broccoli on the side and some kind of butter stuff. I'm not sure - maybe I over did the onions? I was in a terrible amount of pain all afternoon. I also had iced tea, Lipton Sweet Tea. I don't normally do sweet tea but did today. Maybe that was it? I don't know. Nothing of that really should have hurt. I went home and slept a little and then felt better. After Ultimate, I had a taco salad. I only had a couple small bites of the shell. There was chicken and salsa and maybe a ranch sauce? I also had some sangria. By the time I got home, I was pretty miserable. My stomach was huge, and I didn't feel like I had over-eaten. There was a lot of grumbling and some mild pain. This morning for breakfast I had a Bolthouse Farms protein coffee drink. That usually really fills me up, but I was starving by 10:30. I did yard work, but still. Yet, my stomach was huge. Usually when my stomach would get big, I could "reset" it by just not eating much for the next meal. But now it's as if I'm over-eating every single meal.

Ugh.

Now I'm at Panera. I had a turkey sandwich on bread, with tomato, lettuce, onion and mayo. Drinking water. We'll see what happens. I'm getting scared to eat.

1000 yards

Swim day! I thought about doing 200 repeats, but after a shaky warm-up that had me super breathless even though it was easy, I realized my body was a bit tired and I'd be fine just doing 100s.

Warm-up:
50 yards side-stroke, 50 yards freestyle.

Main Sets:
5 x 100 yards with 45 sec rests in between.
2 x 200 yards with longer rests in between.
2 x 50 fast with rests in between.
total: 1000 yards

It was a pretty sloppy swim overall. I felt tense. And now, I am absolutely exhausted. My eyes are baggy, I could fall asleep if I put my head down, and I'm moving slowly. I feel like a kid that played really really hard. :)

I'm hoping I can cram everything in this week. It's rough with work being super busy while trying to get ready for our next LeMons race. A lot to do. I'm hoping I can swim Friday morning at 6ish or 6:30 before we leave for Joliet.

Crummy Running

Saturday morning I had a lot to get done. I needed to shop for two shower gifts for later that day (yay last minute shopping!), make a side dish to take to one of the showers, and a few other errands. So I decided to run instead of bike.

I am not sure if it's just the two solid weeks I've had of training catching up to me or what, but my runs have sucked. This day's was pretty terrible. I felt so sluggish, tired and heavy. I had to stop and walk once. I just went 3, but it felt like the last 3 of 15. On a brighter note, I saw some guy dressed in the same 55 mph yellow shirt and black shorts I had on (cymbal crash). He was running toward me. I shouted "nice outfit!" with a smile. I got a low "good morning" back.  Hmmm. I thought it was funny we were dressed the same...

Today I did yard work all day. We built a small surface with pavers for the trash cans on the side of the house. Lots of rock base, 37 lb pavers, tamping tamping tamping, shoveling dirt and moving it to some holes in the front, etc. It was a pretty solid day of work that I'm going to count as "off" or "strength" :) 

Since I didn't bike today and I guess I kind of switched my day off to today rather than Monday, tomorrow morning I'm going to ride my bike. But I'm going to do it all on the back porch to save time. Hopefully I don't get too bored. I'm thinking some tunes will help. I'm going to set up my trainer and pump up my bike tires tonight so I can just plop it all on in the morning and ride for an hour or so. Not sure I'll last an hour. Hmmm we'll see what kind of tunes I can come up with to make it possible.

900 yards and a couple of them 200s

Friday I swam...and just kept swimming. I did 100 repeats, as I proved to myself I can in fact go 100 yards slowly, instead of just 50. Then of course I wanted to see if I could maybe go 200?

I warmed up with 50 yards of side-stroke and 50 yards freestyle. Then I went into the 100s. Primarily after the first couple, I would do 50 yards breathing every 3 strokes (so taking breaths on every other side) then the last 50 would be every other stroke (same side every time). I did 25 on one side and 25 on the other. I began to notice that one side of me was much much smoother for breathing than the other side. I thought at first it was something to do with the current, or if I was at the end of the 100 and was tired. But I kept switching things up and just noticed that one side rocked while the other side felt clumsy and slow.

I have yet to look this up, but I suppose like anything it makes sense for one side of my body to be more dominant than the other, even in swimming.

After the 5 x 100s, I did what was going to be the last 100. But after I did it, I just kept going to see if I could maybe do 200 without stopping...and I did! I rested after that and then did 200 again just for good measure. I could really feel it in my arms. My shoulders were starting to burn.