Perfect!

This morning, I had to lead a ride for the Cycle Club at my gym.  I had planned a 33/34-mile loop with quite a few hills (which I think I may have mentioned when I test-rode it a week or two ago), though I made a couple of changes to the route based on the recommendation of another member of the club.  Well, five other riders showed up - all guys!  I felt a little weird "leading" this ride with more experienced and stronger riders and as the only female, but we all had a good time I think.  The revised route was much better, the hills weren't as bad as I remembered, and we managed a 16-mph average speed as compared to the 14 mph I averaged on my own last time.  Not bad!  And what's more, we got back to the parking lot just as it started sprinkling, though it was warm and sunny nearly the whole time we were riding.  Perfect day. :-)

Excuses...

Stayed up too late last night, so I slept in this morning.
It was a little too chilly out to want to run this morning.
I had a meeting to get to, too, so not a lot of time for the run I was planning.
Had a bit of a headache this afternoon.
Then I was helping Hubby with his last paper of the semester!
Now I'm sleepy and just really craving some quiet time with said Hubby.
Plus I'm riding (and maybe running too?) in the morning, so I want to get to bed at a reasonable hour.

Yeah, excuses.  But sometimes they're warranted. :-)

Better Than Nothing!

After I finished helping my hubby proofread his latest English paper, I still had plenty of daylight (and sunshine!) to get out for an afternoon ride. I was planning to try out a 40-mile route I'm hoping to lead later this month.  I got out to the start and onto my bike by 4:15 and headed down the trail for the first few miles.  I was feeling pretty lethargic, which makes sense considering I only got about five hours of sleep last night.  Still, I figured I could do the ride since there was really only one big climb, and because it felt so good to be outside after all the rain we've been getting lately.  When I turned off from the trail, I was riding along a pretty busy, 2-lane, shoulder-less road, and it was approaching rush hour.  I could tell that people were pretty ticked that I was slowing them down, especially since the bike trail was so close to where I was riding.  Usually I don't care what drivers think - cyclists have every right to use the roads, too - but I just wasn't feeling very safe out there today.  So, when the road brought me back to the trail, I decided to just call it quits and head back to my car.  I still got 19 miles in in an hour-and-a-quarter, which isn't a bad workout even though I'd planned to do more.  Ah, well.  I'm realizing, AGAIN, just how important sleep is in the training equation.  And I should be able to get on that now that Hubby is almost finished with his semester!

Jeff Galloway

I spent a little too much time cleaning house today, so I didn't have time for both my swim and running with Jeff Galloway.  I did get the swim workout in, though, and was at least able to hear Jeff give his talk at Fleet Feet tonight.

My workout:
Warm-up
1 x 400     Free loosen
12 x 25     Free, work dist/stroke

Main set
10 x 75     1-5 build x 25; 6, 8, 10 fast; 7, 9 slow
1 x 400     Pull
Repeat

Warm-down
1 x 200     Easy

Total: 3200 m (2 mi) in 1:20

Lessons from Jeff Galloway's talk tonight:

• He's against puking.  And dying.  He knows that one's a losing battle, but he's still against it.
• Many people actually improve their marathon times by adding walk breaks in.  Many also improve their times by taking more frequent walk breaks.
• You really only have to run three times a week.  The long runs are most important; the other two can be only 30-60 minutes.
• Endurance athletes really don't need a lot of muscle, and most never spend much time at all in the gym lifting weights.
• If you're starting to feel pain somewhere, there's a good chance it's primarily due to your reflex brain restricting blood flow to the area because of added stress.  By acknowledging this, you can talk to the area in pain and use your conscious brain to tell you body to send more blood there, and the pain will likely decrease or go away.  (Or something like that...)
• There is no proof that stretching helps prevent injury, and often times people actually get injured from stretching or doing yoga or pilates.  Warming up and cooling down with a short walk is probably a better bet.

Anyway, cool guy!  And now I've got a renewed excitement to get back to my run training.  I was planning to start increasing my run intervals until I was running a full 10K, which was my goal for shorter-distance triathlons.  But now I'm wondering if it might be faster for me to keep some walk breaks...  I think I'll experiment some over the next couple of weeks with my normal 3:1, as well as some higher and lower ratios like 2:1, 1:1, 5:1, and 9:1.  I'll keep you posted!

Tomorrow, Then

So, I slept probably 9 hours Sunday night into Monday, but then I worked all day and helped the hubby with his Shakespeare paper all evening.  We were up till 2 a.m., then got up this morning at 6:30, exhausted of course.  So instead of staying up once I saw him off to work, I went back to sleep.  And didn't get up again till almost 11.  Which was awesome, except that I missed both my spinning and yoga classes.  I was pretty lazy all day after that and just really enjoyed doing nothing.  Late this afternoon, I started cleaning the house, and even though I didn't get the whole thing done, it looks a LOT better than it has in months.  This evening I went to Fleet Feet to celebrate the completion of our race this weekend, but we didn't run like I thought we were going to.  Oh, well, truly a day of rest.  So, TOMORROW I'll get back to the workouts: a swim in the afternoon (have to work in the morning now) and a short run/walk with Jeff Galloway and gang at Fleet Feet in the evening.  Should be fun!

Day O' Rest

I feel fine today: no sore muscles or anything and the chaffing is healing quickly.  But I think I deserve this day of rest, especially since I had to work a full 8.5-hour shift AFTER the race yesterday!  Yeah, I had time to take a quick shower before work, but that was about it.  The shift ended at 8:15, p.m. and I planned to go to bed immediately, though it ended up being more like 10 or 11 o'clock (I really can't remember now).  At least I was able to get a good 9 hours of sleep before waking up for work again today.

Workouts resume tomorrow:
Tuesday - Spin and yoga in the morning, social gathering at Fleet Feet in the evening (assuming it's still raining and I don't go to the first of QCW's time trials)
Wednesday - Swim in the morning, short run with Jeff Galloway @ FF in the evening
Thursday - 30- to 40-mile ride outside since it'll probably be the only nice day this week
Friday - Probably yoga and another swim
Saturday - Supposed to be leading a ride with my LTF cycle club, but we'll see with this soggy forecast...  if not, then maybe I'll spin and run at the gym, or just run, or... who knows?
Sunday - Rest

Flying Pig 2011

Originally, I had planned to run the full Flying Pig Marathon, but I decided to just do the half when I started having some foot and hip pain once we got up to 14 and 16 miles for our long runs.  As soon as I made that decision, I felt immense peace and relief.  I no longer had to worry about injuring myself, plus I had a lot more time and energy to spend on my bike and swim training.

This morning, though, I did feel a little sad that I wasn't running the full marathon.  Don't get me wrong, I was thrilled to make that turn when the half-marathoners got to head back down the hill toward the finish line, but I also felt like I was cheating.  A half-marathon no longer seems like a significant accomplishment to me, so I was a little disappointed that I didn't push myself to do the full.  Logically, I know it was the right decision, but emotionally it was tough, since I was able to do the distance two years ago.

I had fun, though.  I've been training with a great group of people, and it was a joy and an honor to meet and run with them, if only for part of the race.  Running and racing with friends is so much better than having to show up at these things alone!  The weather was pretty good, too: even though it was drizzly for awhile, the temperature was perfect and the rain actually felt good.  The only problem was the chaffing that resulted from wet clothes...  But at least I didn't have any other major issues!

I was hoping to finish a little faster than my Heart Mini time of 2:26, so I was a little disappointed that I wasn't able to do that (my official time was just over 2:34).  The 2-mile climb through Eden Park was tough, but I think the biggest problem was just how crowded it was, especially for the first few miles.  We were only averaging 12-minute miles in the beginning, and even though we picked up the pace during the second half, it wasn't enough to make up for the lost time at the start.

I realized this morning how much I miss triathlons.  Sure, it's easier to just show up with what you're wearing and run and be done, but the variety and the transitions and all that is so much more exciting.  I also realized that I have a LONG way to go to be ready for IMFL.  I have to run twice that far, AFTER swimming 2.4 miles and biking a century plus?!?  Yeah, maybe it will take me the full 17 hours...  But I'll do everything within my power to get 'er done.  Even if I look like this as I cross the finish line:

(FYI - The first rule for the run portion of the Ironman is actually "No form of locomotion other than running, walking or crawling is allowed."  So, crawling works!  Though hopefully I won't have to resort to that... :-)