Maje Recap

(Us at the lake)

It has been a while, but honestly doesn't feel like that long. How come time keeps passing by so quickly? I'm writing this now, at 5 p.m. to kick off my swim workout that I don't want to do (surprise!). Last you heard from me I was about to venture to the cabin for the weekend. I'll attempt to recap my training below:

5/16/09 (Sat) - 1:30 bike + 30 minute run
5/17/09 (Sun) - off (skipped my easy swim)
5/18/09 (Mon) - off (skipped my easy run)
5/19/09 (Tues) - 1:30 tempo bike
5/20/09 (Wed) - 2,200 yd swim
5/21/09 (Thur) - off (skipped track workout)
5/22/09 (Fri) - track workout (skipped off day)
5/23/09 (Sat) - 1:30 bike + 4 mile run
5/24/09 (Sun) - 7 mile trail run
5/25/09 (Mon) - 1:00 bike

As you can see I skipped 3 workouts and only made up one. It has been the trend lately and sucks. I feel guilty about it and know there is not much sense in skipping workouts even when life gets in the way. I have plenty of time to do these and I'm not that wiped out physically. It is laziness and doesn't help.

The weekend of 5/15 I was away at the cabin and had a terrific ride on Saturday. I forgot my Garmin and am waiting on my friend to hand over the stats from her bike computer. It was a hilly ride in Carson, WA along a great road - not much traffic and good elevation, but not too tough. Weather was perfect and the scenery was great. I was with great people. It made me feel like I do actually enjoy biking. After the bike my training buddy (who is new to running) went along with me on the brick run. I vowed to stay with her but we ended up walking most of it. We got in around 20-30 minutes but didn't go too far. I still felt like I got in a good workout and was satisfied w/the results. Later on that day I did about a 4 mile hike in the woods and my legs still felt great.

*****

That Sunday we didn't get back home until late and there was no way I could do the swim workout. If I'd had a wetsuit I could have done an open water swim at the cabin, but I don't have a wetsuit yet. Bygones!

*****

Monday was a 6 mile easy run and for some reason I didn't do it. I can't remember why.

*****

Tuesday's ride was just what I needed. I did this solo in Vancouver, WA near the site of my half marathon back in January. The road was nice and very little traffic - I really had the space to open up and get in a good workout. The workout was a 15 min warm up of Z2 riding, then three sets of the following: 15 min @ Z4 + 3 min recovery + 5 min @ Z6 + 5 min recovery. I am still finding that my legs don't have the energy needed to get my HR up where the training dictates, but I pedaled my ass off and got somewhat close. I did the first interval as dictated, but then the last two I skipped the middle 3 min recovery and did 8 min recovery at the end. I found it REALLY hard to go fast, then slow down, then try to get my HR up really high in those 5 minutes of Z6. So I just tagged on the Z6 right after the Z4.

Set 1:

15 min @ Z4 = 17.4 mph/168 bpm
3 min recovery = 13.1 mph/131 bpm
3 min @ Z6 = 19.3 mph/169 bpm

Set 2:

15 min @ Z4 = 18.9 mph/162 bpm
3 min @ Z6 = 21.5 mph/173 bpm

Set 3:

15 min @ Z4 = 19.7 mph/162 bpm
3 min @ Z6 = oops - I guess I skipped this!

I think my out and back had ended so I cut off the final 3 min of Z6 so I could cool down and finish. TOTALS: 1:26:19/16.6 mph/152 bpm

*****

Wednesday I finally did another swim. It had been quite a while since I'd been in the pool - I think the last time was when I went head to head with Jerry Garcia/Santa Claus. That totally turned me off! So I decided to go to another 24 hour facility that was newer in hopes of finding a better pool. I did. My workout was:

Warm up: 300 swim, 300 kick, 300 pull, 8 x 50 IM order on the 1:30
Main: 3 x 500 time trial effort w/4 min recovery
Cool: 100 choice

I ended up skipping the 3rd 500 and the cool down since I suddenly realized I was really late to meet someone and had to jump out. My first 500 was 8:39 and the 2nd was 8:44. Good? Who knows? This swim helped me realize that I'm not doing myself any favors by missing these swim workouts. I'm simply not getting any better at swimming by not swimming. Crazy logic, right? Also, I'm not getting any better at running or biking by skipping my swim workouts either - its not like each time I've skipped a swim I've gone on a run or bike instead. It is basically a lose-lose situation. So hopefully I've whipped myself into shape on this one.

*****

Thursday I skipped the planned track workout so I could leave early for California. We drove all afternoon and ended up hitting the coast just in time for the sunset. I found a track to do my workout on the following day.

*****

Friday I went to Del Norte High School (go Warriors!) to do my track workout mid-morning. I had the day off and it was actually really fun to get out there. My workout was 2000 meters in 8:30 (6:50 pace) + 5 min recover + 2000 meters in 8:23 (6:45 pace). (At this point I realized that I forgot my Garmin at home, so no recording any HR info - at least I was on the track so the distance was known, but I was livid about this since I had several more workouts planned for the weekend...)

I did the first 2000 in 8:20 (splits were 1:36, 1:40, 1:41, 1:41, 1:40) and the 2nd 2000 in 8:27 (splits were 1:38, 1:44, 1:41, 1:45, 1:36). This was hard. I think speed is getting harder because I'm not running as much and possibly losing it overall because of the missed workouts. I don't know, but I don't like that it didn't feel good. Toward the end of this I was really hurting. I didn't puke (thank god!) but my heart and lungs felt like they were going to tear out of my chest. During my cool down I was thinking about marathon training and whether I had it in me to tough it out and try for Boston. I know I should just focus on the task at hand (i.e. my next triathlon) but that is hard. I got a little down on my myself and homey don't play/like that. Bleeee.

After the track workout we stopped in the redwood forest and did about a 6 mile hike before heading to Ashland (OR) for the rest of the weekend.

I gotta take a break and finish the Sat/Sun/Mon recap later. Off to find something that will inspire me for my swim workout tonight!

I have tons of pictures to share and will post them soon.