Sunday – 34 mile ride

I’m going through a creative writing block…I can’t write or document for shit right now so I’ll just bullet point some highlights

• To my surprise many people showed up to the Rebel Ride, even after the weatherman said there was black ice and a chance for snow, afternoon thunderstorms and hail.
• The Pumpkin Ridge hill was not as bad as I had thought. It was just a long moderate climb….I guess time flies when you talk the whole time going up.
• Worked on training in the “heat”. Lol, kind of…sort of. It was in the high 30s….add wind chill and that is pretty damn cold. To make sure I was warm enough I wrapped my shoes in plastic wrap, covered by booties, wore arm warmers, a fleece and a wind breaker. I was warm : ) a little too warm as I started climbing that damn hill. I started sweating bullets and there was nothing I could do about my layers…they were too bulky to take off. Oh well, I survived and at least I wasn’t cold.
• I finally did it! I got AERO!!!!! After a month or two of trying to hit my aero bars I finally did it with stability and control. River City fitted and installed my bars to give me the best aero dynamic positioning….well that’s all good but not really for someone who has NEVER ridden aero before and has issues with balance. Up until now I have been able to drop an arm down and that was it…I had to keep balance with my other arm on my regular bars. BUT not on Sunday. I managed to ride aero 2 x 3-4 mins. Sure it wasn’t that long but it is a start….I’m going to work on it more on Wednesday’s flat ride out along Marine Drive. It’s an odd feeling being so low and the breathing is much different.
• Thanks Lindsay for giving the option for a few extra miles. I felt so good during that ride I really didn’t want it to end and it was nice to take an option to extend it. The added hills were good too.
• The shit weather held off for the most part. It misted as we rode up Pumpkin Ridge. As we hit our turn around the road was dry but the nearby grass and trees had snow all over them….and then it started lightly snowing. It was kind of cool to ride in. About 400 meters from our finish it started hailing, thankfully it was small hail and only lasted 60 secs. Even little hail hurts.

12 mile LSD run...It’s snowing at the end of March..WTF?

So glad I took an extra recovery day off. I needed it and today I felt great.
We did an easy 12 mile hill run, Avg'ing 9 miles going up and bit short coming down. I'm finally enjoying the long slow distance pace....whew...I thought it would never happen. I came to realize something, I am fast. For the longest time I have felt I am slow, I run and run and run and it never feels fast enough. I think this might be because I usually try to run with people faster then me. I want that extra push....in return it makes me feel as if I'm not up to "par" per say. But I started running just 18 months a go, within a year I've cut my 5k PR from a 8:45 pace to a 7:15, a min and a half in just a year. Why is it progression feels so slow when in all actuality it's fast? Perception....it can really be a mind fuck. I am now eager to run these LSD runs...take my time and build my aerobic "plumbing".....which has a lot of holes and cracks in it at this time. I want to hold my faster pace longer and longer and longer.....I am so intrigued how running slow will help me achieve this. I got so much from this run today. I ran at the head of the group with Coach Seth and Kyle. We talked about racing and training the whole time and not once did I get tired, bored or "think" too much. Instead I enjoyed hearing the stories, listened (not a big strength of mine) to training advice, and soaked up the sun....ok that last part was a lie since it was partially snowing/raining....but I soaked up a whole lot. I really feel alive today....I have a refreshed view on everything. Running is good.

Slow vs. Fast....its all relative.

PS
We went to The Stepping Stone post run to refuel and team bond. Nate one of my team mates ordered the full stack of Man-Cakes....my tummy cringed when I heard him order. It was nice to see a man 100+lbs up on me had a hard time finishing them all.....made my accomplishment that much greater.
Hard time or not he did finish them....I mean come on now, he's triathlete, we don't quit ANYTHING.

Kat AKA "Man-Cake" eater

I got OWNED in Track ~ Thursday Triple

Noon – 60 min Pilates

Evening Track –
The track workout for the night was 3 x 1600’s with a 90 sec recovery float. I will start off by saying this is one of the worst track workouts I have had in a looooong time. Track worked me and made me its bitch. I think this was due to several factors; not enough nutrition, going out too fast, leg pain, negative mental thoughts, and digestive issues. I firmly believe they all feed off each other and it was a downward spiral from the start. Usually I’ll start with my warm up mile, stretch, 15-20 mins of drills and get into the speed work. I really need to do drills first as they open up hips and stride. BUT today my energy was lacking….I’m not eating enough. I’m trying but have been waking up in the middle of the night to a growling tummy. This has been going for about a week and a half now. At first I just thought it was on light caloric days, then I had those monster pancakes and figured my tummy was just pissed at me. It did have every right to be. It took until Tuesday for my tummy to recover from the sugar poisoning and I’m still waking up….so I need to up my calories. Since my calories were low as was my energy level I thought I’d just cut straight to the speed work and do the drills if I had spare energy to burn. Not a good idea. The first 1600 I went out too fast. My stride was short and I felt tight and tense. This made me turn over more to compensate my stride, which made my HR sky rocket and I shot my 7:40 goal with a 7:00. I knew pushing 3 more miles was going to be difficult. Plus my legs were getting pain in the shins. %^$%$##$@!! Drills help alleviate any pain in speed work. Oh well, on I went. 90 sec easy jog. 2nd 1600. I burned out at 800. I don’t know what happened….I just stopped and said “fuck it”. VERY unKat like. I can’t explain it. I slowly trotted along thinking, I’ll pick it up again, it will be ok. My shins are now screaming as I’m telling them to STFU. I try to finish the 800. Ok, I’m able to do that but now my tummy is pissed. WTF? Can’t my body just work with me? I make my way to bathroom pit stop #1. Hit the track again and opt for some drills. Tummy is not happy and is now going off on a fucking tangent, so for the next 20 mins of sprints and drills I make 4 more freaking bathroom breaks before I said “fuck it” for the second time and gave up. Blah. Track OWNED me tonight. I went out too fast without enough nutrition and then allowed negative thoughts to stop me, then my digestive system turned bitch.

Post Track – Team Swim
200 warm up
100 Farlech
6 x 25s fast
6 x 25s breaths: 3,2,1 per length.
1 x 150 easy
5 x 100s descend 1 to 5.
1 x 150 easy
5 x 100s with buoy, focus on rolling
1 x 150 easy
5 x 100 with zoomers/fins, light quick arms
1 x 150 easy
4 x 25 half catch-up freestyle
Total meters 2800

Swim went great. I had a nice challenging workout that didn’t tax me too much. I think I’m starting to get this technique thing.

The tops of my quadriceps are swollen and a bit inflamed. I usually get these lumps or knots from doing hard bike work, yet I haven’t done any since Sunday. Tomorrow I have a 6 mile tempo run scheduled. I think I’m going to take the day off and do some Yoga instead. We have some nasty hills to climb on Saturday and I want to make sure I’m 100%. I like to give it to them hills :P

Run drills/Swimming and a very odd dream

Tuesday morning
1 mile easy warm up run
20 min run drills across the gym floor
A$$ kickers, strides, high knee, skips, side strides

Followed up with swim
Warm up 200 easy
10 x 25s, 2 easy, 2 fast, rest :10 between each
4 x 100s, 50 drill/50 light quick turnover. Drills: fist free, long glide, or half catch-up. Rest :15
1 x 600, at 60% effort,
breathe every 5 or 6 strokes; rest 20-30
1 x 50 easy
2 x 200s, at 70% effort,
breathe every 4 or 5 strokes; rest 20-30
1 x 50 easy
4 x 75s at 80% breathe every 3 or 4 strokes; rest 20-30
1 x 50 easy
1 x 200 easy with a buoy, roll your hips through to both sides.

Warm-down
25 w/ 5 pool pushups
50 w/ 5 pool pushups
50 w/ 5 pool pushups
50 w/ 5 pool pushups
25 w/ 5 pool pushups
Total mtrs:
2700

I almost rolled back into bed this morning, I was tired. I'm glad I got up though, I had fun with the run drills and a great swim. I'm going to cut out my second workout for the day and focus on packing...besides I need the extra rest

On an odd note; I had a really weird dream last night. I dreamt I was in a house that was on a hill and the land was flooding. Water was slowly rising and we (friends) were all sitting around drinking just waiting to die as the water rose. Then when it was almost at the top and we were swimming around to keep our heads above water, we swam up and out of the house, and ran up to a higher hill, as the water continued to follow us. Throughout the whole dream I was running and swimming from the water on the verge of drowning while being semi intoxicated. It was sooo weird. At each point I was about to give up and just die and I found a way out......

I don't dream much so I found this to be interesting.

Riding in sideways Rain

I'm really too tired to write up a quirking training recap.

34 miles hilly in sideways rain and cold, 3.5 hrs. What is side ways rain? Rain that hits you from the side because the wind is so strong. For anyone that knows PDX we rode from Johnson Creek, down Spring Water Corridor across the river, up to Washington Park, Up Sylvan, Up to Council Crest, Up Skyline, Back down to Naito Pkw, hit Spring Water (massive head wind) back to Johnson Creek. Damn, it was cold, wet and windy....BUT you know what? I was riding with AWESOME people and that made the ride the BEST.

Post ride we recovered at Julie & Pascal's Easter Brunch Fundraiser. Bloody Mary's, Crab filled deviled eggs, the BEST au gratin potatoes I have ever had!!! and pastries, great recovery for burning 1200+ calories. I <3 TNT.
Thanks to Michele and Johann for carpooling

Training and Too Many Damn Pancakes!!

Just the typical Saturday….ok maybe not

So the day has arrived that I have to buckle down and eat a full stack of those giant man-cakes to raise funds for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. I was going to eat lettuce all day on Friday to try to “train” for the event and stretch my stomach out. But that ended up not happening. My training has been ramping up and I’m suffering a nasty allergy cold so my energy levels area bit low. I need to eat to keep Kat healthy, not to put me out of commission for a week. Another factor is I have been again experiencing insomnia and waking up to a growling tummy. 3 nights this last week I have woken up 3-4 times through out the night, usually at least once to a growling stomach. This happened a lot last year so I figure I just need up my caloric intake. I’m hoping the insomnia is just do to my cold/allergies I have. So I went to bed at 8pm last night. I woke up 4 times throughout the night, I had dreams of pancakes chasing me and blueberries dancing circles around me, this can’t be a good sign. At 4:30 I finally said screw it and got up and made my way to the gym to do the following swim workout. Oh and I had a few pieces of home made trail putty, factoring in about 200 cal

Warm up 200 easy

10 x 25s, 2 easy, 2 fast, rest :10 between each

4 x 100s, 50 drill/50 light quick turnover. Drills: fist free, long glide, or half catch-up. Rest :15

1 x 600, at 60% effort,
breathe every 5 or 6 strokes; rest 20-30
1 x 50 easy
2 x 200s, at 70% effort,
breathe every 4 or 5 strokes; rest 20-30
1 x 50 easy
4 x 75s at 80% breathe every 3 or 4 strokes; rest 20-30
1 x 50 easy

1 x 200 easy with a buoy, roll your hips through to both sides.

Warm-down
25 w/ 5 pool pushups
50 w/ 5 pool pushups
50 w/ 5 pool pushups
50 w/ 5 pool pushups
25 w/ 5 pool pushups
Total mtrs:
2700

The swim felt great. I had a good amount of energy and I am no longer experiencing shoulder pain. Post swim I shower and down a Lara Bar (200 cal) and head up to Germantown and Skyline Rd to meet the team for a 10 mile LSD trail run. Holy mother of God! It was freezing up on the hill. I realized one I arrived my energy was dragging and I was getting hunger. I couldn’t very well run with zero calories, I mean come on, I’m high off of Sudafed, lacking hydration (got to leave room for pancakes), and can’t breath for shizznit. I down a mini LaraBar (100 cal) right before the run. Then we’re off. LSD trail runs were meant to go slow and that is what I did. I ran with Fred for a good 30 mins and then caught up to Chris and Randle with whom I stuck with for the rest of the run. We reach the 5 mile ½ way point and I’m feeling it, I’ve only had a sip of water and my head was really dizzy. I take down a little more water and about 120 cal of trail putty, we make our way back. The first two miles felt great. The water and trail putty kicked in and felt grand…..that was short lived. The last 2 miles were two of the longest miles I have run in my life. I can’t say the longest because there are a few other runs that can top the worst on many different levels but this was not pleasant. I was dehydrated…..I had maybe 4 oz of water during the run and not much prior, cotton mouth and Sudafed head from my allergies/cold, and I was caloric deficient, my tummy was growling…and yelling at me as long as it could (this will not be the last time this happens today), plus I almost ran into a tree a few times and during the last mile I actually thought a tree started talking to me, then I realized Emily had caught up to me. I was very thankful to reach the trailhead. Coach Jane drove me back to my car and then I made my way down to training session part 3, Pancake Thrown Down.
Driving in my state was not a good idea. I was dizzy and shaking and yelling at traffic. I arrive at The Stepping Stone and am happily greeted by some friends/team mates and my mama! Carly was a doll and placed my order so that I could eat immediately. I still had to wait a few minutes to change and have the food come out and I was not in a good state. Changing seemed to take an eternity…it might have helped it I didn’t put my pants and shirt on backwards….yea I was a bit out of it. I get back to the table and the pancakes had arrived. Yay! Food! I dived right in. Now, call me lucky but these pancakes were not as big as I had remembered. Did they use less batter? They did know it was a fund raiser. Carly had ordered me 5 pancakes. WTF?! I swore a full stack was only three!!!! Which after I got home I checked online and yes ladies and gents, three Man-Cakes do equal a Full Stack. The first few bites were like heaven on earth. I opted for those evil little blueberries that taunted me in my sleep over the buttermilk. It was time to unleash the wrath! I started to devour them, Brian made a comment how I should chew slowly for digestion. But I thought about that and my brain has a 20 min delay from my tummy and if I did that my brain would be like “WTF are you doing?” and I just wouldn’t make it. So I proceeded to inhale them. The first 1/2 were delightful , the syrup, blueberries, whole wheat goodness was just what I needed. It was about the last ¼ that really kicked in. My tummy started grumbling and things were not feeling so well. I was so dehydrated I needed to start drinking water, not a good idea. I’m looking at the last ¼ thinking to myself “I know I can do this.” As my tummy is yelling back “No, No, No you can’t. Let’s be reasonable here. Let’s talk things out….” I asked my table, “What do I do? Do I take the last few bites slow and take my time or do I just go for it and not think, just do?” The consensus was to “Just Do”. My tummy was already arguing with my brain and this was a battle I was not willing to give up. Stupid stomach, have I mention how much I want a transplant? Anywho, push came to shove and I finished them all. Each pancake was weight out prior, 10 oz each = 30 oz plus ½=3/4 of a cup of Maple syrup = 34-36 oz of food, 2.2 lbs. I don’t know what was worse, the lbs of whole wheat carbs and blueberries or the evils of the syrup. I’m pretty sure it was the syrup. Approx 4-6 oz of syrup = 300-500 cal and 80-120 grams of sugar. Do you know what that looks like weight out in white sugar? 28 in an ounce = 2.8 – 4.2 oz of freaking sugar. This is not good for a girl whom is 99% sugar free. I hit comatose state within an hour…..then for the next 6 hours I felt like I was going to puke. I never did, but I’m sure it would have helped things….I was surprised that my weight only increased by 1 lb. I was 134 pre swim and 135 when I got home from the Stepping Stone.

So for $275 in donations…..was it worth it? Hell yea, that’s money to find a cure for cancer!!! Thanks for supporting me!

Multi-Sport...always something different.

Thursday – Lunch time 60 min Pilates. My core is starting to feel like a board  Yay me!

Post work evening Track
1 mile track warm up
20 min drills
200 leaps / 200 recover jog x 4
25 step a$$ kickers/ 50 recover jog x 4
30 skips /200 recover jog x 4
30 side leaps / 200 recover jog x 4
25 step high knee/ 100 recover jog x 4

7:20 20 min time trial pace
400 (1:50 pace) (1:45 actual)
200 float
800 (3:40 pace) (3:30 actual)
400 float
1600 (7:20 pace) (7:15 actual)
400 float
800 (3:40 pace) (3:40actual)
400 float
400 (1:50 pace) (1:35 actual)
400 float (recovery)

Total 6.6 miles, 2.5 of speed work.
We had a monsoon on the last 400 float. Seriously I was drenched within 30 seconds, it felt good through. I was surprised at my speed work. I have started to feel like I’m getting sick, swollen lymph nodes and stuffy nose….but I keep telling myself it is allergies so I’ve been training as normal. I wasn’t sure if I would hit my speed, but I did, in fact I went I went faster. The italic was my actual versus my time trial pace. I don’t think it was necessarily a good thing that I was faster but I am happy I didn’t burn out and I kept the pace.

Post Track Team Swim
200 warm up
10 x 25s, 2 easy, 2 fast, rest :10 between each
4 x 100s, 50 drill/50 light quick turnover. Drills: fist free, long glide, or half catch-up. Rest :15
No intervals, just regroup before starting again.
1 x 600, at 60% effort, breathe every 5 or 6 strokes
1 x 50 easy
2 x 200s, at 70% effort, breathe every 4 or 5 strokes
1 x 50 easy
4 x 75s at 80% breathe every 3 or 4 strokes
1 x 50 easy
1 x 200 easy with a buoy, roll your hips through to both sides.
Total 2500 meters.
I had a great swim! Again I was worried about energy from allergies/sickness and then the pre track workout, BUT Jane has done wonders in helping me change my stroke. Effortless baby, effortless.

Friday morning 90 min “easy” spin
Mother of God. I didn’t get to bed until 10:30. I slept like shit, woke up every 2 hours from nasal congestion. Finally at 4:45 I decided I had enough, got out of bed and headed to the gym. I did a 90 min easy spin on the spin bike. This workout was supposed to just keep my legs moving and staying on the bike for a while without much effort, it was a recovery workout. Again surprisingly enough it was EASY. I kept my HR between 130-150. The first 30 mins I spent talking with a guy next to me who was in a row club. I like learning about different sports. He left me and for the last hour I read Michael Carmichael’s Triathlete’s Training Bible Part 2, nutrition portion. I also caught up on the latest and greatest edition of Runner World. Time just flew by……

I’m tired now, from lack of sleep I believe. I was going to feast on lettuce all day to try to expand my tummy lining to pack in 3 lbs of pancakes tomorrow morning but I decided to say “Screw That”. I’m a bit tired and weak today and I have to swim an hour tomorrow morning and then go on a 10 mile LSD run, I can’t afford to be weak. Also if I am fighting a cold I need good fuel to kick it in the ass. So screw training for inhailing 3 lbs of pancakes, I’m just going to do it. The mind is a powerful thing.

Wednesday 75 min moderate/time trial spin

20 mins moderate pace (HR-160-170)
20 mine time trial "Race Pace", flat high cadence HR 170-180)
30 mins moderate pace (HR-168-175)

This spin sucked ass. My energy felt tapped and an hour post workout I feel sick and weak. This is not a good feeling.

Training, training, training :)

Tuesday Morning
30 min “easy” run on the treadmill. 3.2 miles
It’s funny how not “racing” lol can change your HR. Even though I didn’t race the Shamrock 15k my HR was elevated between 178-183 for a little over an hour. This affected my run today. I did my easy pace 6.3-6.5 with a .5 incline, usually my HR stays between 142-148, today it was 10 bpm higher avg’ing 150-160. It was annoying, but I still kept my pace slow.

Followed up by swim
Warm-up, 200

6 x 50s, tread water at the deep end for :15 each time.
Rest :15 at shallow end.
2 x 50s, quick & light turnover. Rest :15.

1 x 50, rest :15
1 x 100, rest :20
1 x 200, rest :30 (paddles)
1 x 300, rest :30
1 x 50 easy (regroup before starting again).

Swim set twice.

4 x 50s, A-Ok, Fist, Karate, Free drills Rest :10.
Warm down
Cool down
25; 6 wall push ups
50; 6 wall push ups
50; 6 wall push ups
50; 6 wall push ups
25;

Total meters: 2400

No shoulder pain since coach Jane helped me with my stroke. I’m freaking energized today!

Tuesday afternoon Part 2

Run on treadmill 2 miles - Easy HR 142-148 (funny how it stayed low during my afternoon run, same 6.5 level at .5 incline).

Light Strength Training – 40 mins

Core - High to low woodchop 5 lbs, 3 sets of 15 ; rest 5 per side
Shoulders – Arm Circles (compound) 4 x 15 wide circles w/6lb per arm; rest 10 sec
Quads- (compound) - Pile Dumbbell Squats with 15 lb weight, 3 sets of 12; rest 30 sec.
Core - Crunches hanging off bench with 2 sec hold at top; 2 x 15
Back & Bicep; (compound) - Weight assisted pull ups 2 x 15 at 70 lbs lifting 65 (decreased weight by 15lbs since last lift)
Chest & tricep; (compound)- Weight assisted dips ups 2 x 15 at 70 lbs lifting 60 (decreased weight by 15lbs since last lift)
Bicep (isolation) – Alternating Bicep curls 3 sets at 12 lbs x 15; rest 10 sec.
Chest (compound) - Cable Fly - 3 X 15 at 25lbs; rest 10 sec.
Triceps (isolation) - Cable pull down 3 x 20 at 30lbs; 20 sec rest
(decreased weight by 10lbs since last lift)
Lats – Close & Wide Grip Pull Downs (compound) 3 sets of each t 60 lbs x 15; 15sec rest between sets
Lower back – Hyperextensions (isolation) - 3 sets of 12.
Core - Roman chair 2 x 20 straight, 2 x 20 side to side

Ugh, the iron hates me. I haven't lifted for two weeks and I know my chest and back will be fatigued tomorrow.
Oh well I'm not down cause my multi sport is kicking ass yo!

Forgot to post Saturday's workout.
Hill repeats up at Mt. Tabor. Not as challenging as I had hoped. I guess there is a time and a place for everything and will wait for the challenge either A. when it is on my training schedule or B.when it decides to suprise me. No longer will I act like I know what's best and push my self to the limits; unless it's called for.

Shamrock 15K ~ Race Report

Coach Seth once told me if you have a perfect race it makes for a boring race report. So please be forewarned this is pretty boring :)

First off I’m not sure I would categorize this as a "race" since A. I didn’t taper, B. I didn’t go balls to the wall with 100% effort and C. I wasn’t serious about it and had some wine the night before :P. A girl’s got to live a little right? Anywho, pre race I met up with a bunch of TNTers that were doing the 15k (out of the 5k, 8k and 15k options). We did the usual pre race thing, chat, hydrate, warm up and stretch….then made our way to the glorious starting line. We’re waiting in the massive group line to start when some lady walks by and hits me in the knee (yes, they’re still scabbed over) with her bag. Ouch! Not a great feeling right before the race started. A minute or two later and the gun went off and we slowly made our way through the start. Now it gets pretty boring. The first 2 miles I went slow and easy, in fact I met up with Scott H and we talked most of the way. He made a little pit stop around PSU as I continued up Broadway. I spoke with a few people before this run and was advised to take it easy and slow during the first ½ since it was all up hill and Twilliger is no little hill, so that’s what I did. I took my time and conquered that hill effortlessly. Ok, there was a little effort, in fact more then I had intended. I wanted to keep my HR below 180 for the duration of the run but somehow that was just not possible. I avg’d 180-183 the whole time, although it didn’t feel like. My energy level was not taxed. Once I got to mile 5 I knew it was pretty much down hill from there. Normally the down hills kill me, not great on my knees. So in the back of my mind I just concentrated on keeping a loose upper body, allow my body to lean forward down the hill and not pound down on the road in front of me. This worked like magic! I avg’d 9 min miles up to mile marker 5 and I ended up with a 1:15:20 time. So somewhere around a 8:25 min mile avg, I made up some serious time on those down hills, yay Kat! I was really happy with my finish time. I wanted this to be a nice comfortable fun run and that’s what it was. At no point did I get any tummy cramps, leg pain, chest/breathing pain or excessive fatigue. I kind of felt like a tinkle bell flying along, don’t laugh : ) It does peak my curiosity as to what time I could have got if I went into this as a race. But really I don’t care much, the fun out weighed the thought. I kept my promise and met Michele at the end with her cup of wine; which we then raised up a toast to.

Oh yes, and the best part, the kiss me I’m Irish flair worked, some what : )

Training Updates

Thursday

Lunch - 60 minutes Pilates

Evening – Moderate the light run. 1 mile warm up at the track. Ran up Twilliger and back at a moderate pace. 1 mile cool down around track. 7.2 miles

Evening – Team Swim.
Warm-up, 100 meters (I got into the pool kind of late)

6 x 50s, tread water at the deep end for :15 each time. Rest :15 at shallow end.
2 x 50s, quick & light turnover. Rest :15. Regroup before starting the next set…

1 x 50, rest :15
1 x 100, rest :20
1 x 200, rest :30
1 x 300, rest :30
1 x 50 easy (regroup before starting again).
Swim set twice.

4 x 50s, your choice of drill on the way down/long glide freestyle on the way back. Rest :10.
(Didn’t have much time to break with the late start and stalled lanes….Diane and I turned this into a quick 200)
Total meters:
2100

This was a productive swim. Right off my first 100 my right shoulder pain kicked in. Coach Jane watched me swim a few laps and was able to see a problem. I roll out and reach too far in my right side stroke. I also have a wide arm pull. She had me focus on keeping my right side short and just cut into the water and pull down while keeping in mind to keep my arms close in and not wide. I kept this in my mind during the whole swim and it helped, helped a lot. I still had some pain, but it was minimal. I think it’s going to take a while practicing on that for it to go a way, or so I hope. The best part was I finished the workout with plenty of energy. I always go into the group swims with an amount of fatigue from running. So I am use to just taking it easy, but regardless I end up uber tired in the end. Not last night. I ran longer then I usually do and then I swam longer then most of our sets and I had more energy. Things are finally starting to click in swimming. Yay!

Friday – Lunch time – easy 5 mile run on the treadmill (HR 142-150)

And to save the best for last…….
I went in on Monday to get my bi-annual echo scan done. Most of you know I have a heart murmur that is rather large and my doctor monitors it every few years to make sure it doesn’t get too serious. In my early 20s the valve actually opened up more and caused a lot of concern. BUT today I got the results back, and get this shiznit, it’s actually decreased! The valve is closing more and she doesn’t think that we need the echo’s preformed anymore. Yay me! I wonder if this has anything to do with training…or maybe just my age. Who knows! My dad has had a murmur his whole life and it never caused any problem. All I know is I am happy I have one less thing to worry about. Now, if we could just get my body to retain iron and get rid of pesky acid reflux I’d be a happy camper.

Ah yes and this weekend I’m looking forward to Bike hill repeat in the rain up Mt. Tabor and the Shamrock 15k. Ooooo the excitement, can you feel it. Kiss me I’m Irish!!!

__________________

Wednesday 75 min Moderate Spin with 4 X 2 min time trials

15 min moderate spin (HR 160-182) (Started out strong. My muscles felt recovered and energized, only took 2-3 mins to get my HR on traget)
*2 min time trial (HR 183-189) (Ouch, that hurt just a bit)
12 min moderate spin (HR 160-182) (Keeping my HR up after the time trial was cake, it was actually hard trying to get it down around 175)
**2 min time trial (HR 183-189) (K, this one hurt too!)
12 min moderate spin (HR 160-182) (Wow, this is starting to feel long....snacking on a PowerBar inbetween tempos, keeping energy levels high and alive)
***2 min time trial (HR 183-189) (Mother of God!)
13 min moderate spin (HR 160-182) (This was actually refreshing, I think the PowerBar energy was starting to kick in)
****2 min time trial (HR 183-189) (Amen, last one! It was hard to get my HR up to 183, took about 30 sec. longer and I was only able to maintain it at 185 unlike the past three which all stayed at 188)
15 min moderate spin (HR 160-182) (Yay, last 15 minutes to spin out )

Kick ass tempo spin, I'm happy.
On a flip side I have nasty hurtful acid reflux from the anaerobic training.

Tuesday morning swim
200 warm up
150; fartlech
12 x 50’s; Alternating Fist, Karate, A-Ok, Freestyle; rest 10 sec
3 x 50; ½ lap sculling, ending freestyle

1 x 150 with buoy; rest 15
2 x 100 swim; light quick arms; rest 10
Repeat 3 x; rest 1 min between sets

2 x 50; easy

Cool down
25; 6 wall push ups
50; 6 wall push ups
50; 6 wall push ups
50; 6 wall push ups
25;

Total 2450 yards

I took Sunday as an extra recovery day this week. Everything finally caught up with me and I caught some major fatigue. I think I’ve been handling my training volume and intensity well but I had a major fund raising event Saturday night, lost an hour w/day light savings time, PMS and really bad sinus problems. The extra day of rest did a lot of good. My swim felt great this morning and I’m ready to jump back in where I had left off. Although, I’m still feeling that pain in my right shoulder pain. It’s kind of like a stabbing pain at the top of my shoulder, kind of feels like it’s in the joint. Hmmmm, I don’t like this.

Tuesday Evening Run
1 mile track warm up
20 min drills
200 leaps / 200 recover jog x 4
25 step a$$ kickers/ 50 recover jog x 4
30 skips /200 recover jog x 4
30 side leaps / 200 recover jog x 4
25 step high knee/ 100 recover jog x 4

Ran around the track in an easy cool pace for about 20 minutes with Coach Rick. I've decided that I'm not going to "race" the Shamrock 15k this Sunday, instead I'll push some good effort, thinking 80% but not go all out. I'm not training to PR this race, I'm not going to taper and I'll be running on a high amount of fatigue come Sunday. So all my workouts (except for tomorrow, it's my one day of speed/tempo work) will be at a moderate to easy level until Sunday in which I will kick it up a notch or two. The course is pretty hilly and I'd be happy with an 8:30 pace, we'll see how it goes down.

Summary 20 mins of drills, 40 mins of easy running, approx 6 miles.

On a side note I spoke to Coach Jane about my right shoulder swim problem. The good news she thinks it is probably a problem with my technique. It only happens on my right side which happens to be my breathing side and usually after about 1000 yards or so. We're going to work a few drills on Thursday to see if we can correct it :)

Fund Raising Recap

I have been stuck around $1,500 for some time now. I swear I have been in a creative fund raising funk. I hate when that happens. But as of last night I am up and out of it.

I joined forces with one of my teammates to host a LLS date auction at his Disco party and it turned out to be a HUGE success. Chris organized the party, thought up a fun and clever theme, 70’s Disco. Secured a venue, McMenamins Kennedy School and got the RSVP covered $25 Evite out. I ventured out to secure a bevy of beautiful people inside and out. I feel very honored to know so many beautiful giving people. I few stresses here and there with people not sure if they would be able to commit, life decided to throw a few rotten lemons our way, but everyone made some sweet ass lemonade with them.
Auction night came and I arrived early to help Chris set up. The party started at 7pm but it didn’t really start poppin until a little after 8. We had a 120 RSVPs and we recruited some outsiders that had walked by with displayed interest. I was very happy to see my 3 lovely girlfriends Josie, Katy and Colleen show up. Thanks for the support ladies, it really meant a lo to me. Around 10pm the auction began. Overall it was a huge success. The DJ was very nice offering to help Chris auction people off. Each person went for a min of $70 all the way up to $500. I had contemplated being auctioned for some time. Right now I really don’t have time to spare on dating. Training is heavy, moving and packing is time consuming and I still have more fund raising to do. BUT the money from one extra date is worth a couple hours of my time so I opted in, and boy am I happy I did. I ended up going for $500, top bid of the night. WTF? I seriously had no idea that would happen, blew my mind really. I’m so focused on training and my goals I don’t have much time and effort into looking pretty and in all honesty I feel like I forget what it feels like. It’s just really not a priority for me. It was kind of nice to look glamorous for an evening. Post auction I helped finish collecting donations and cleaned up a bit. It was at that time it all hit me, I’m going to do this. Tonight I raised $1,900. I’m going to make my $4,000 minimum without a problem, in fact $5,000 looks easy to achieve now. I huge weight of stress was lifted from my shoulders. I celebrated dancing at Embers with a girlfriend and her boyfriend. This was a very memorable night.

I still have a few GC’s for random things like massage, acupuncture, spa treatments and so on. I’m going to find another party or auction to team up with. And of course there’s still my pancake throw down, which will take place on the 22nd. I hope I don’t die from combustion.

Wed/Thurs/Friday Quick Recap

***Wednesday ***6 mile easy recovery run during lunch. HR 142-150, L1; 9:15avg .5 incline

I did this run on the treadmill at my gym, it was the only way that I would assure myself to keep a L1. I almost lost my freaking sanity. I HATE running that slow, alone on a treadmil. My hunger is insatiable and my upper body is a little sore and tight from yesterday. Must eat again!

***Thursday***
60 min of Pilates

We had a sub today and MOTHER OF GOD!!! Did she work us! I sweated a lot! It was rather irritating thou....I do the Pilates for the core and upper body work, today the sub focused on legs. I REALLY don't need much work on my legs other then flexibilty, screw the toning, my legs are fucking rocks. I'm sure I'm going to feel the pain come my "easy" evening run. Damn her!!!

Evening Run-
1 mile track warm up
20 min drills
200 leaps / 200 recover jog x 4
25 step a$$ kickers/ 50 recover jog x 4
30 skips /200 recover jog x 4
30 side leaps / 200 recover jog x 4
25 step high knee/ 100 recover jog x 4
5 min stretch
30 min run up Twilliger (hilly)
.5 mile cool down on track
Approx 6.5 miles

Evening Team swim
150 m warm up
100 Fartlech drill― go easy until you feel like going fast! Then go fast until you feel like going easy again. In short, bursts of speed to get the blood pumping.
~Drills~
*fist freestyle, karate, a-ok, relaxed hands
*catch up freestyle
12 x 25s, 1 fist, 1 karate, 1 ok, 1 regular. :15 rest
Regroup
1 x 50 catch up freestyle
1 x 100 swim with a buoy: tuck in rear and roll, hips moving out of the way of the hands on exit. Feel your pull grabbing the water.
1 x 100 swim: light, quick arms.
*Swim entire set 3 times. Make sure to REST :20 between each distance.
6 x 50s long glide free, rest :15.

Total mtrs:
1500

Swim went ok. I’ve been holding some tension in my right shoulder blade for the last 2 weeks now. Coach Jane noticed. I hope it’s nothing serious, it’s getting rather annoying.

Friday – Easy 60 min spin.
HR between 150-165. High cadence with a few moderate hills and jumps.

20 min Running Time Trial/Strength Training

Warm up 16 min run on treadmill 2 miles

Light Strength Training – 40 mins

Core - High to low woodchop 5 lbs, 3 sets of 15 ; rest 5 per side
Shoulders – Arm Circles (compound) 3 x 15 wide circles w/5lb per arm; rest 10 sec
Quads- (compound) - Pile Dumbbell Squats with 10 lb weight, 3 sets of 12; rest 30 sec.
Core - Crunches with 2 sec hold at top; 2 x 25
Back & Bicep; (compound) - Weight assisted pull ups 2 x 10 at 55 lbs lifting 85
Chest & tricep; (compound)- Weight assisted dips ups 2 x 10 at 55 lbs lifting 85
Bicep (isolation) – Alternating Bicep curls 3 sets at 12 lbs x 15; rest 10 sec.
Chest (compound) - Free Fly with dumbbells- 3 sets w/5lb per arm x 15; rest 10 sec.
Core -1 x 20 crunches upper body ½ way off bench
Core -1 x 20 air bike crunches lower body ½ way off bench
Core - 1 x 20 leg lifts lower body ½ way off bench
Triceps (compound) - Body dips 3 x 20; 20 sec rest
Lats – Close & Wide Grip Pull Downs (compound) 3 sets of each t 60 lbs x 20; 20 sec rest between sets
Lower back – Hyperextensions (isolation) - 3 sets of 12.
Core - Roman chair 2 x 20 straight, 2 x 20 side to side

This is really starting to suck ass! I am losing a lot of strength and it is making me feel really weak. I felt nauseas midway through the end of my workout….and I forgot my post workout snack. Blah….. I only did one leg exercise since I will running track tonight. Hopefully I'll feel more successful at that.

Part 2 – Track 20 min time trial

1 mile warm up
5 min good long stretch
200 leaps / 200 recover jog x 2 (try to lengthen out my stride before the time trial started…..didn't help much)
20 min time trial L3-L4 HR 173-185
This pretty much sucked ass. My stride felt really short, energy was a bit tapped from PMS and some light strength training earlier in the day….and did I mention how much I love women pains? 6 laps and I was ready to quit. My tummy was cringing and my stride felt so short, it was disappointing. But yet I was ½ way done and if I quit I'd just have to try it again on Thursday. It would also mean that I didn't pace myself well and that I was a wuss that couldn't handle the pain. So did I quit? Of course not! I ran out any energy I had left stored. Finished my 20 min time trial 50 meters short of 11 laps, 4400 meters = 2.75 miles. I think that avg's a 7:20 min time, not certain thou.

Post time trial I ran into coach Rick from the Lizards and ran a 2 lap cool down. I really like that guy. He provides a lot of good info and is really nice and funny.

I finished my run off with a few form drills.

25 step a$$ kickers/ 50 recover jog x 4
30 skips /200 recover jog x 4
30 side leaps / 200 recover jog x 4

Summary 6 miles, 20 min time trail, 10 min drills.
Spent a nice 30 mins soaking in a hot bath filled with Epsom salts and I'll spend another 10 mins rolling my legs tonight. I roll 5-15 mins a day/2x a day even when I don't run. My legs have never felt better, I <3 my foam roller and medieval stick.

The longest shortest bike ride of my life

What happened to be a short 31.8 mile right turned into a 2hr 56 min adventure. I’m too brain dead to write a cleaver witty story line so I’ll just hit some high/low lights/recaps if you will
*Chris hands us our 30 mile map (1.8 miles will come along later). Love this map, simple to read, right here, left there, and a helpful little elevation graph. Kudos Chris
*Off we go, our group of 11 into the west hills.
*Uh oh, my cadence reader decided to stop working. WTF?!
*Chris starts our ride off with hills. Kudos are deducted. Not all but some.
*Since our group was so large and we had riders of many levels we would have to stop often to make sure we weren’t leaving anyone behind, mainly post hills.
*Come to Mason road, this isn’t on the map….missing small details
*Lost one rider after 30 mins, she had enough….on we went.
*One rider went down when her jacket got caught in the wheel spoke…this was not me btw. Lol (laughing only because no one was seriously hurt), and another rider happened to fall on top of her when it happened, he was twice her size. I was part of the front group when we were notified to wait. As we wait we have the oh so fun tri conversations…..things along the lines of not having enough body glide, painful sex machines, (LMAO Shannon, I love that term), what’s been down our shorts (gloves, whole another story) and so on.
*Chris takes us upon gravel dirt with lots of corners. All your kudos have now been removed.
*Riding along, beautiful sunny day, nice long flat and Pssssssssh, Chris gets a flat. We wait at the next country road intersection….I swear we waited 20 mins…..and we’re back on the road again.
*Two more riders head back since we have been out for 1:40 mins and have only gone 13 miles.
*My body does not like sitting for long periods and then expecting to get back into training. My legs were starting to feel fatigued. It’s my 6th day training in a row, we just finished our hills and the wait in the cold helped tighten everything up.
*Coming back we come across map typo #2 and up going .9 miles too far, hence 31.8. Back track we go….at this time 2+hrs in we realize that none of us brought enough nutrition and there were a few people bonking. Oh the humanity! Kudos are gone and I am now grading this ride a D-
*Thanks to Ken and his margarita shot blocks. Where they good Shannon?
*Last 8 miles Shannon and I ride side by side, ^&%$#%!!!! ^%%$^!!!! (&^^%$%^!!! Is it $%#$% over yet!?
*More gravel!!!!! And it hurt, not enough damn body glide!!!
*Rock Creek Tavern, we have finally reached our destination 31.8 miles later, 3 people short and 1080 calories deficient.
*Recovery took place at Pizza Schmizza, beautiful day, good food, great people, long ass ride.