Sophie
Lauren
It's been a while since I posted some pictures of the girls... They are getting so big!! They are starting to be able to sit up and eat cereal, and they love to "talk" and laugh and play - especially with Grandma!
Monday, June 26, 2006
Brett and Melissa's Wedding
On Saturday after the triathlon, I high-tailed it one hour to Des Moines. I got to the hotel exactly one hour before the ceremony... and got a (much-needed) shower, got dressed, and even made it to the church a few minutes early! Thankfully, the triathlon numbers washed off my arms and legs without too much scrubbing! I stayed awake through the wedding and only needed a brief nap between the wedding and the reception!!
Jason, me, Brett (the groom), Sparkle, and Sid
Sunday, June 25, 2006
Into Racing Season I Delve, In Weeks Thirteen and Twelve
It has been a very hectic couple of weeks since I returned home from Madison. I feel like I live in my truck and sometimes get to visit my house when I have time. Work has been crazy; most nights I find myself finally getting home around 8-8:30, then realize I haven't even had dinner yet, but it's so close to my bedtime that I can't eat a very big meal, or I'll never get a good night's sleep! I've had triathlons the last two Saturdays (more on those in a second), but those weekends have also involved travel and a wedding!
My schedule calls for a bit lighter training week before races, but I took that to a whole new level. Being so busy right now has really caused me to have to omit or decrease a workout or two per week. But, as I look at the calendar, I see that IM Wisconsin is only a mere 11 weeks away, which means I have to buckle down for the rest of the summer. It should be a bit more do-able as I don't have as much travel planned for the next 2 weeks.
My schedule calls for a bit lighter training week before races, but I took that to a whole new level. Being so busy right now has really caused me to have to omit or decrease a workout or two per week. But, as I look at the calendar, I see that IM Wisconsin is only a mere 11 weeks away, which means I have to buckle down for the rest of the summer. It should be a bit more do-able as I don't have as much travel planned for the next 2 weeks.
This was my third year competing in the Quad Cities Triathlon. It is a great race - 600 participants, well run, great schwag, free chiropractic, close to home! I was kind of curious to see how I would perform this year. My training has been (for obvious reasons) lots different from previous years. For one, I've actually been swimming on a regular basis (last year, it seemed like my only swim "training" occured during races!), secondly, I had a much bigger base of running under my belt, and finally, I had a sleek new bike to ride!!
The weather was great for the race, although a bit windy - sunny and in the low 70's. I was in the 6th wave of swimmers: women 30-39 (silver swim caps). The swim start was a bit rough. It seems like every year I get kicked and grabbed and swum over more and more, but this year I decided to start in the middle of the pack (rather than my usual outside position) because I wanted to see just how well my swimming was coming along. I just kept my head down and tried to get into my rhythm, and every time I looked up to sight, I saw fewer and fewer silver caps ahead of me. That was a nice little boost of confidence and as it turns out, I came out of the water 6th in my age group of about 32!
Even though I was pretty light-headed coming out of the water, I had a quick transition and got out on the bike. We had a cross-wind most of the 15 miles, with a couple smaller stretches headed into or with the wind. As usually occurs at the QC Tri, the tailwind was on the "out" of the out and back. I passed quite a few people (mostly from earlier waves) on the bike out because they hadn't quite figured out how to take advantage of the help! The headwind was brutal coming back, but I had the 10th fastest bike in my age group.
At T2, I made a last second decision to not wear socks on the run and had another quick transition. The run starts out on a trail and has a couple of short, steep hills in the first mile, then we hit pavement for the rest of the run. By this time, I was getting pretty hot, but I managed my best pace ever in a triathlon run! All in all, I bettered my time from last year by 6+ minutes! It was another great race, and a great way to kick off the racing season for me!
Next up was the Dutchman Olympic Distance Triathlon in Pella. I met Roehr in Pella for packet pick-up, and then we headed out to drive the bike course to see what we were up against. Although Roehr grew up in Pella, she had forgotten just how hilly that part of Iowa is! The course has a couple pretty nice climbs that really reminded both of us of the course in Madison.
Roehr dropped me off back at the church where I met up with Terri, Jerry, and Tina (friends I met on the training weekend in Madison) for the pasta dinner at the church. We had lots of laughs as they ran out of pasta twice - both times before we got to eat any. Plan B was dinner downtown at George's where we found more pasta and free ice cream with every dinner!! We ate our fill, then ran into more DM triathletes in the corner (only in Pella would this happen...), where we hung out for a while, chatting about ice cream, triathlons, and shoes! As 9pm approached, we all headed to our accomodations for the evening. I stayed with Roehr at her high school band director's house - random, but perfect!
I was kinda nervous before the start of the race. Not because I didn't think I could handle the distances, just because I'd never done a race this length and I wasn't sure how to pace for it. The swim looked pretty long (1.5K), but oddly enough, that was the part I was least worried about! All the women started in Wave 2; there were 54 of us. I didn't get kicked/grabbed as much as at the QC tri, but it took forever for the field to spread out. As soon as the women started to open up, we began to catch the men from the wave before, and about that same time, the faster men from the wave after ours were catching us! At right about the turnaround, I finally felt like I was finding some sort of rhythm. As soon as we rounded the 750m bouy, all I could see was the sun glaring back at me. It was pretty hard to sight on the return trip, but I made it. I did have one "first" for me on the swim: I completely swam over the top of some guy! One of us was not going straight back to shore (him), and he just started to cut right across my path, so with a couple well-placed strokes, I just slid right over him and on my merry way! I was 6th out of 15 in my age group out of the water.
I experienced the same light-headedness in T1 that I had at the QC tri, but again managed to wrestle myself out of my wetsuit without face-planting on the ground. Roehr was already in T1 when I got there, but I managed to sneak out a few seconds ahead of her, but that would be the closest to her I'd be for the rest of the day. The bike out was fast; there was a little wind at our backs. Pella had tons of volunteers - at least 2 at every intersection, and they were great at cheering for everyone. The course weaved through town and then out to the north. My only real complaint about the course were the two blocks of brick paved street that we had to ride on. Going out was great - with a slight tailwind which was increasing as the race progressed, but that meant it would be a decent headwind for the trip back into town. Plus, all the major uphills seemed to be on the second half. I only got passed by a couple of women, and I passed a couple others. I ended the 40K bike leg with a 19.2mph average.
As we made our way back to transition, the sun began to come out and start to show its stuff. I made it through T2 without any major catastrophies. I did opt for socks this race, and I was glad I did! The 10K run starts with a little incline out of the transition area and onto a gravel, then asphalt trail. After what felt like a nice, gradual decline for about a mile, we settled into the run along the river by a campground (were the campers basically just gawked as we went by). There was little shade there, so each water stop involved one cup of water for drinking and one for dumping over my head! We'd been told of the "hill" around mile 3, but I guess I was thinking that it wouldn't be quite as long as it was! As I started up the hill, I saw Roehr coming down and she told me to take it easy on the uphill, 'cause it was a doozie! I took her advice and played a game with myself that I will from here on out be calling "Dutch Letters," in honor of the Pella Dutchman triathlon. Not only did I return to my coping mechanism of repeating the alphabet backwards, but I added also singing it forwards, and at a couple points during the hill, adding a few choice words to the whole thing. I finally reached the top of the hill, found the turnaround, and started back down, thinking the worst was behind me. I saw Terri, Jerry, Jess, and Kerrie (someone I graduated from PV with) and tried to give them whatever encouragement I could muster.
Although the BIG hill was behind us, there was still a lot of climbing left to to do get back to the finish line, and this was where I had to do a bit of walking. It wasn't pretty, but I walked and ran from about mile 4 to mile 5, then just tried to gut it out the rest of the way. Roehr was cheering for me as I got closer to the finish, reminding me that we had just checked off another race on the countdown to Ironman! I finished in 2 hours and 55 minutes - 9th in my age group of 15, but it still felt great. In the back of my head before the race, I expected to be right around 3 hours, so beating that was awesome in my mind!
The post-race was great, and I found lots to eat. We hung around for a while for the awards and door prizes. The RD was basically pulling numbers out of thin air to give away the prizes. Then he switched to just basically asking who wanted what! I won a big jug of Hammer Gel just for being one of the people in the race training for an IM. Then, I won some gloves and a water bottle just because my birthday is close to 10/10. Random! I think the best part was just hanging out with Roehr and her parents and all my new friends from the DM Tri Club. It's been great getting to know them, and going to races is so much more fun when there are a bunch of people you know! And, most of them will be at Racine in 4 weeks, too!
Week 13 Weekly Round-Up (Sunday thru Saturday):*
Swim: 3800 yards
Bike: 1 hours, 35 minutes
Run: 23.7 miles
Cross-Training: about 120 minutes of core and strength work.
*Including Quad Cities Sprint Distance Triathlon
Week 12 Weekly Round-Up (Sunday thru Saturday):**
Swim: 5200 yards
Bike: 4 hours, 5 minutes
Run: 16.2 miles
Cross-Training: about 120 minutes of core and strength work.
** Including Pella Dutchman International Distance Triathlon
Thursday, June 15, 2006
Epic Camp Madison
12 athletes. 5 hotel rooms. 2 (or 3) workouts. Nearly 100,000 calories burned. At least 100,000 eaten!
That pretty much sums up my first IM Epic Camp.
We had 9 athletes from Des Moines, 2 from Mason City, and 1 from Ames (me). I knew 2 of the DM athletes previously, but the rest were all new to me. Most were IronVeterans, but there were a few IM newbies.
I was actually a little scared for the trip. My longest ride so far had only been a couple of 50-55 mile rides, and those had been on the flat Iowa roads. And my runs had been going okay, but not great. Truth be told, I was a little worried that I was really unprepared for not only the race, but even the training weekend. Then I had the bit of apprehension that goes along with going away for a weekend with a bunch of people I didn't know much about except for the fact that they were mostly all a lot faster than me in biking and running.
With gas prices where they are, I opted to ride up to Madison with someone else. Of course, I'd never met them before Friday, but Rich and Jess turned out to be great people and I felt much more at ease once we were on our way. I also discovered through Jess that she and one other woman were pretty compatible speed-wise with me.
After arriving in Madison, I met the rest of the group and we headed down to State Street in search of a grocery store and some dinner. This was my first look around the downtown area of Madison - where the hub of activity of for the weekend will be. It reminded me of a cross between Iowa City and Berkeley, California. As we walked through the ped mall, the veterans gave a running commentary of landmarks and points of interest that might be useful on the IM weekend. As usually occurs in a large group, it took forever to decide on a place for dinner, but we finally settled on none other than a pizza joint. It was the first of many meals that we would share. I knew I was going to like this group when the unanimous decision was made to head to Maggie Moo's for ice cream after the pizza!
The main topic of discussion since arriving in Madison had been the weather. Although this spring in Iowa has been uncommonly hot, we were not meant to enjoy any amount of heat on this weekend. The forecast was actually for rain and temps in the 40's and 50's all weekend long. Not exactly what I (or any of us, for that matter) would have liked to see. Especially as we looked forward to a long ride on Saturday morning. After ice cream and some swapping of clothes among the group members until everyone was confident of staying remotely warm on the ride, we all glued our eyes to the weather channel and hoped for the best. The first group was to leave the hotel at 5:30am to ride the whole course, including 2 loops of the bike course. The second group (mine) was to leave at 7:30 to meet the first group for one lap of the course. We all awoke to rain and 45 degrees. Everyone decided to wait until at least 8am, then we were going out for the ride, no matter the weather. At 8am, we met in the lobby and the rain had stopped, but the cold temps remained. Instead of riding out to the loops and just doing one loop, we opted to instead drive to the loops and do two loops. Those who wanted to ride the out and back could do so at the end of the day. Since the loops are the most technical part of the course, this worked out great for the newbies especially.
Wearing everything I could to keep warm, we headed out on the very hilly course. I rode with Terri, Terri's dad Jerry, and Jess. Jerry had done IM Moo in 2004, but we still were slaves to the route map and directions to make our way around the 44 mile loop. The hills were pretty intense right off the bat, but with fresh legs, they were very doable. As we made our way into Mt. Horab, I started to realize exactly what I had gotten myself into. This route demands a great deal of respect throughout the race. Going too hard on lap one would almost guarantee that you'd never survive the second lap AND a marathon. It is a beautiful course that flows in and out of towns and past some amazing old farms and brand new residential developments. There is no shortage of dairy cattle along the route, so you'll be sure to never forget that you are in Wisconsin.
Near the end of the first loop, the sun begain to peek through the clouds and I started to cook! We stopped at the cars to eat and remove some layers of clothing. I ended up heading out on the second loop with just a short sleeve jersey and shorts! It really turned out to be a great day for riding. The second loop was so much better than the first. I knew the route without checking the map all the time and I could just concentrate on riding and the more technical aspects of the course. I really enjoyed the ride for the second 40 miles. And my nutrition was working well and everything felt good. I had previously decided to just do the two loops and call it a day, but (thankfully) I really felt like I could have made the out and back without any problem. But, I stopped after 85 miles. Better to be a bit conservative now, than regret not sticking with my initial plan. Plus, I had a half marathon to run in the morning!!
After we'd all completed our rides and had a shower, we headed out to our reservations at Bellini Italian Resturant. It was really quite funny to see this big group of 12 skinny athletes sit down at the table and literally inhale everything within a 3 foot radius of the table. If it wasn't bolted to the floor, we ate it. The waiters got a great workout bringing out basket after basket of bread. Then the table went silent after the dinners arrived. No one spoke for about 10 minutes while we stuffed ourselves with calories. After cleaning our plates, no one batted an eye when someone suggested we return to the ice cream parlor for the second night!
Sunday morning was tons better weather-wise. No rain, but still plenty chilly. All but three brave men decided against a swim in Lake Monona. But we all did go down to the lakefront and had a "guided" walk-through of the events and landmarks of the IM morning. After the guys had finished their swim, we all took off along the run course. The course is great and winds through campus, around the interior of Camp Randall stadium, and then along Lake Mendota, finally coming to a trunaround on State Street (with the capitol building in view). Then it's back roughly the same way back to downtown (basically returning to the capitol building again). That is one loop for about 13.1 miles, then repeat for the full marathon. We "only" did one loop, but we all felt great when we were done! Great, but ready to hit the showers!
Then it was off to breakfast - one more meal as we headed out of town. Our poor waitress at Perkins did a great job of bringing us almost one of everything on the menu. Terri, sitting next to me, ordered eggs, hash browns, wheat toast, and a side of french toast! And she weighs at least 20# less than me!
I was a bit nervous going into this weekend. I was pretty afraid that it would be a good indication of just how little training I had done and how painful the actual race would be for me. However, I feel so much better having seen the sights, tackled the bike course, and navigating the run! I feel like I've got a lot left to do to prepare, but this whole IM thing is within reach! I can't wait for September 10!
That pretty much sums up my first IM Epic Camp.
We had 9 athletes from Des Moines, 2 from Mason City, and 1 from Ames (me). I knew 2 of the DM athletes previously, but the rest were all new to me. Most were IronVeterans, but there were a few IM newbies.
I was actually a little scared for the trip. My longest ride so far had only been a couple of 50-55 mile rides, and those had been on the flat Iowa roads. And my runs had been going okay, but not great. Truth be told, I was a little worried that I was really unprepared for not only the race, but even the training weekend. Then I had the bit of apprehension that goes along with going away for a weekend with a bunch of people I didn't know much about except for the fact that they were mostly all a lot faster than me in biking and running.
With gas prices where they are, I opted to ride up to Madison with someone else. Of course, I'd never met them before Friday, but Rich and Jess turned out to be great people and I felt much more at ease once we were on our way. I also discovered through Jess that she and one other woman were pretty compatible speed-wise with me.
After arriving in Madison, I met the rest of the group and we headed down to State Street in search of a grocery store and some dinner. This was my first look around the downtown area of Madison - where the hub of activity of for the weekend will be. It reminded me of a cross between Iowa City and Berkeley, California. As we walked through the ped mall, the veterans gave a running commentary of landmarks and points of interest that might be useful on the IM weekend. As usually occurs in a large group, it took forever to decide on a place for dinner, but we finally settled on none other than a pizza joint. It was the first of many meals that we would share. I knew I was going to like this group when the unanimous decision was made to head to Maggie Moo's for ice cream after the pizza!
The main topic of discussion since arriving in Madison had been the weather. Although this spring in Iowa has been uncommonly hot, we were not meant to enjoy any amount of heat on this weekend. The forecast was actually for rain and temps in the 40's and 50's all weekend long. Not exactly what I (or any of us, for that matter) would have liked to see. Especially as we looked forward to a long ride on Saturday morning. After ice cream and some swapping of clothes among the group members until everyone was confident of staying remotely warm on the ride, we all glued our eyes to the weather channel and hoped for the best. The first group was to leave the hotel at 5:30am to ride the whole course, including 2 loops of the bike course. The second group (mine) was to leave at 7:30 to meet the first group for one lap of the course. We all awoke to rain and 45 degrees. Everyone decided to wait until at least 8am, then we were going out for the ride, no matter the weather. At 8am, we met in the lobby and the rain had stopped, but the cold temps remained. Instead of riding out to the loops and just doing one loop, we opted to instead drive to the loops and do two loops. Those who wanted to ride the out and back could do so at the end of the day. Since the loops are the most technical part of the course, this worked out great for the newbies especially.
Wearing everything I could to keep warm, we headed out on the very hilly course. I rode with Terri, Terri's dad Jerry, and Jess. Jerry had done IM Moo in 2004, but we still were slaves to the route map and directions to make our way around the 44 mile loop. The hills were pretty intense right off the bat, but with fresh legs, they were very doable. As we made our way into Mt. Horab, I started to realize exactly what I had gotten myself into. This route demands a great deal of respect throughout the race. Going too hard on lap one would almost guarantee that you'd never survive the second lap AND a marathon. It is a beautiful course that flows in and out of towns and past some amazing old farms and brand new residential developments. There is no shortage of dairy cattle along the route, so you'll be sure to never forget that you are in Wisconsin.
Near the end of the first loop, the sun begain to peek through the clouds and I started to cook! We stopped at the cars to eat and remove some layers of clothing. I ended up heading out on the second loop with just a short sleeve jersey and shorts! It really turned out to be a great day for riding. The second loop was so much better than the first. I knew the route without checking the map all the time and I could just concentrate on riding and the more technical aspects of the course. I really enjoyed the ride for the second 40 miles. And my nutrition was working well and everything felt good. I had previously decided to just do the two loops and call it a day, but (thankfully) I really felt like I could have made the out and back without any problem. But, I stopped after 85 miles. Better to be a bit conservative now, than regret not sticking with my initial plan. Plus, I had a half marathon to run in the morning!!
After we'd all completed our rides and had a shower, we headed out to our reservations at Bellini Italian Resturant. It was really quite funny to see this big group of 12 skinny athletes sit down at the table and literally inhale everything within a 3 foot radius of the table. If it wasn't bolted to the floor, we ate it. The waiters got a great workout bringing out basket after basket of bread. Then the table went silent after the dinners arrived. No one spoke for about 10 minutes while we stuffed ourselves with calories. After cleaning our plates, no one batted an eye when someone suggested we return to the ice cream parlor for the second night!
Sunday morning was tons better weather-wise. No rain, but still plenty chilly. All but three brave men decided against a swim in Lake Monona. But we all did go down to the lakefront and had a "guided" walk-through of the events and landmarks of the IM morning. After the guys had finished their swim, we all took off along the run course. The course is great and winds through campus, around the interior of Camp Randall stadium, and then along Lake Mendota, finally coming to a trunaround on State Street (with the capitol building in view). Then it's back roughly the same way back to downtown (basically returning to the capitol building again). That is one loop for about 13.1 miles, then repeat for the full marathon. We "only" did one loop, but we all felt great when we were done! Great, but ready to hit the showers!
Then it was off to breakfast - one more meal as we headed out of town. Our poor waitress at Perkins did a great job of bringing us almost one of everything on the menu. Terri, sitting next to me, ordered eggs, hash browns, wheat toast, and a side of french toast! And she weighs at least 20# less than me!
I was a bit nervous going into this weekend. I was pretty afraid that it would be a good indication of just how little training I had done and how painful the actual race would be for me. However, I feel so much better having seen the sights, tackled the bike course, and navigating the run! I feel like I've got a lot left to do to prepare, but this whole IM thing is within reach! I can't wait for September 10!
Monday, June 12, 2006
The Hills are Mean, In Week Fourteen
The IM training road this week was just a roller coaster in so many senses of the word. I had a couple of really great experiences, and some big-time lows as well. Coming off Dam to Dam, my recovery was great! I really experienced no after-effects of the race on Sunday. Sparkle was not as lucky, so she bailed on doing my Sunday long ride with me. My Canadian friend, Kevin, who rode with us the previous week was ready to ride though. Kevin and I headed north then west towards Pilot Mound. Iowa is not totally flat, but there aren't any really big hills very close to Ames. Pilot Mound is known by central Iowa cyclists as one site of a couple of big hills, and since the IM Wisconsin course is riddled with big ones, I decided Sunday would be a great day to go tackle them... and since Sparkle is NOT a big fan of hills (especially big ones), this would be a perfect opportunity to check them out. The wind was out of the SE, so it basically pushed us along at a pretty good clip.
As it turns out, there are only 2 hills at Pilot Mound - one down into the river valley and one back out. But they are pretty hefty! I sent Kevin down the hill first. He's a man, and you know men... they think first with their ego and second with their head. He got aero and just went for it. I took the more cautious approach (since I could see that there was a turn at the bottom of the hill and a bridge and I had no idea what condition either of these were in) and rode the brakes most of the way down. When I caught Kevin at the bottom, his first words were, "THAT was scary!!" He said he hit 76 km/hour (he's Canadian, remember??) on the downhill. After I kicked his butt up the other side, we settled back into our ride with the wind. I think the uphill really took a lot out of Kevin, because it soon became clear that we were not going to ride back to Ames into the wind. We forged ahead until I thought Kevin was gonna fall off his bike from fatigue. So, for the second week in a row, we sagged in from a 3 hour ride. This time Kevin's friend (also a Canadian) came to pick us up. The funniest part of that ride home was when his friend made fun of Kevin for saying, "Eh?" all the time.
For the first time in 16 weeks, I missed a swim workout. That's not to say that I've swum every yard of each assigned workout up until now, but I was really doing well with the frequency of the workouts, if not the duration. But, I'm okay with missing one workout. Life goes on...
My running has never sucked more than it did this week. As you can see from the Weekly Wrap-Up below, I managed about 7.5 miles of running, and even that might be pushing things a bit. Part of the low mileage is due to the long bikes on Sunday and Saturday, but the other reason is because I just couldn't run. That's all there was to it. It has happened before, but for some reason this had a profound mental effect on me. Especially the run on Thusday.
I was pretty wiped out on Thursday, but I knew it wasn't due to any tough workouts in the previous 4 days, so I headed out for my 7.5 miler. I made it about 1 mile before my heart rate was through the roof. That was just fine with me acutally, because I didn't want to keep running anyway. I walked-ran for another mile before I just decided I was going to do a 5 mile walk, rather than run another step. A day like that can affect your psyche quite a bit. Here I am, 14 weeks from racing in an Ironman and I can't run more than a mile without dying. It's not a very comforting thought. Plus I knew I was heading to Madison for the weekend with a bunch of great athletes and I wasn't in good enough shape to even start a workout, much less complete some grueling, breakthrough workouts with them. Basically, I decided to forget my Friday workout (there wouldn't be time for it anyways) and just rest instead.
Weekly Round-Up (Sunday thru Saturday):
Swim: 4900 yards
Bike: 9 hours, 50 minutes (including a 6-hour workout in Madison)
Run: 7.5 miles
Cross-Training: about 30 minutes of core work.
As it turns out, there are only 2 hills at Pilot Mound - one down into the river valley and one back out. But they are pretty hefty! I sent Kevin down the hill first. He's a man, and you know men... they think first with their ego and second with their head. He got aero and just went for it. I took the more cautious approach (since I could see that there was a turn at the bottom of the hill and a bridge and I had no idea what condition either of these were in) and rode the brakes most of the way down. When I caught Kevin at the bottom, his first words were, "THAT was scary!!" He said he hit 76 km/hour (he's Canadian, remember??) on the downhill. After I kicked his butt up the other side, we settled back into our ride with the wind. I think the uphill really took a lot out of Kevin, because it soon became clear that we were not going to ride back to Ames into the wind. We forged ahead until I thought Kevin was gonna fall off his bike from fatigue. So, for the second week in a row, we sagged in from a 3 hour ride. This time Kevin's friend (also a Canadian) came to pick us up. The funniest part of that ride home was when his friend made fun of Kevin for saying, "Eh?" all the time.
For the first time in 16 weeks, I missed a swim workout. That's not to say that I've swum every yard of each assigned workout up until now, but I was really doing well with the frequency of the workouts, if not the duration. But, I'm okay with missing one workout. Life goes on...
My running has never sucked more than it did this week. As you can see from the Weekly Wrap-Up below, I managed about 7.5 miles of running, and even that might be pushing things a bit. Part of the low mileage is due to the long bikes on Sunday and Saturday, but the other reason is because I just couldn't run. That's all there was to it. It has happened before, but for some reason this had a profound mental effect on me. Especially the run on Thusday.
I was pretty wiped out on Thursday, but I knew it wasn't due to any tough workouts in the previous 4 days, so I headed out for my 7.5 miler. I made it about 1 mile before my heart rate was through the roof. That was just fine with me acutally, because I didn't want to keep running anyway. I walked-ran for another mile before I just decided I was going to do a 5 mile walk, rather than run another step. A day like that can affect your psyche quite a bit. Here I am, 14 weeks from racing in an Ironman and I can't run more than a mile without dying. It's not a very comforting thought. Plus I knew I was heading to Madison for the weekend with a bunch of great athletes and I wasn't in good enough shape to even start a workout, much less complete some grueling, breakthrough workouts with them. Basically, I decided to forget my Friday workout (there wouldn't be time for it anyways) and just rest instead.
Weekly Round-Up (Sunday thru Saturday):
Swim: 4900 yards
Bike: 9 hours, 50 minutes (including a 6-hour workout in Madison)
Run: 7.5 miles
Cross-Training: about 30 minutes of core work.
Monday, June 05, 2006
Like a Machine, In Week Fifteen
After the big training weekend, I started to focus on the race this weekend. Really, I planned to just use the race (a 20K) as a well-catered training run. But I also kind of wanted to test things out a bit to see how far I'd come. I trained pretty well throughout the week, but used Friday as a rest day just to make sure I felt decent on Saturday. I tried not to do much with my clients or in the fitness classes, but, of course, work was swamped on Friday and I ended up doing more physical labor on Friday than I had the whole week before!
Sparkle and I decided to run the beginning of the race together and then we ended up doing the whole thing side by side. I didn't set any PR's, but I did come away from this race with WAY more confidence than any other race before! Ususally at about mile 8 or 9, I start to wish for a city bus to come by, run me over, and put me out of my misery. But this year, I felt strong through the whole race and even felt like I could have continued running for another 3+ miles after the end. I didn't of course, but instead I found the osteopathic manipulation tables and the beer garden...
I also made another big discovery this week! The city outdoor pool (with a rather funny name: Carr Pool, get it??) opened. And wiith the warm temps we've been having, it is very comfortable to swim in! So, now, over my lunch hour, I get to go swim at the pool and get a tan and a little mini-vacation during the work day. I now LOVE to go swimming during my lunch hour. Acutally, I may even start to teach water aerobics, too!
Really, the biggest change I've noticed in myself recently is that I am really enjoying my training. Not just the swimming, but all of the workouts. And, I know exactly what to blame it on. The weather around here has been amazing - sunny, hot, humid. I LOVE it!! For some reason, I just don't mind going out to train if it's good summer weather. That rocks since the rest of my training will be in weather just like this!
The next few weekends are full of training and racing. I'm heading to Madison next weekend, then there's the Quad Cities Triathlon, then the Pella Dutchman Triathlon. I am just really looking forward to doing some racing and testing some of this training!
Weekly Round-Up (Sunday thru Saturday):
Swim: 6400 yards (about 1800 of that in open water)
Bike: 5 hours, 55 minutes (about half of that on the trainer...)
Run: 21.9 miles
Sparkle and I decided to run the beginning of the race together and then we ended up doing the whole thing side by side. I didn't set any PR's, but I did come away from this race with WAY more confidence than any other race before! Ususally at about mile 8 or 9, I start to wish for a city bus to come by, run me over, and put me out of my misery. But this year, I felt strong through the whole race and even felt like I could have continued running for another 3+ miles after the end. I didn't of course, but instead I found the osteopathic manipulation tables and the beer garden...
I also made another big discovery this week! The city outdoor pool (with a rather funny name: Carr Pool, get it??) opened. And wiith the warm temps we've been having, it is very comfortable to swim in! So, now, over my lunch hour, I get to go swim at the pool and get a tan and a little mini-vacation during the work day. I now LOVE to go swimming during my lunch hour. Acutally, I may even start to teach water aerobics, too!
Really, the biggest change I've noticed in myself recently is that I am really enjoying my training. Not just the swimming, but all of the workouts. And, I know exactly what to blame it on. The weather around here has been amazing - sunny, hot, humid. I LOVE it!! For some reason, I just don't mind going out to train if it's good summer weather. That rocks since the rest of my training will be in weather just like this!
The next few weekends are full of training and racing. I'm heading to Madison next weekend, then there's the Quad Cities Triathlon, then the Pella Dutchman Triathlon. I am just really looking forward to doing some racing and testing some of this training!
Weekly Round-Up (Sunday thru Saturday):
Swim: 6400 yards (about 1800 of that in open water)
Bike: 5 hours, 55 minutes (about half of that on the trainer...)
Run: 21.9 miles
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