Thursday Triple

Lunch - 60 min Pilates

Evening 
Easy evening run approx 7.5 miles
Was going to try to throw some tempos in there but that was all depending on my calf, I kid you not it started tightening back up after the first mile. Agh! This is so frustrating. I also used this run to break in my new Nike Triax....I'm not sure if they're a little too big, or I laced them wrong (I lace differently then the average person...I skip the first loop near the toe to open up the toe box and I use the heel locks at the top)...I might need to use that bottom loop at the toe since Nike has widened their shoe so much. I started to feel blisters developing on the outside of the big toe on each foot. Too much friction and movement going on. I'll try to relace and body glide my feet for the next run. Great thing about Fit Right is they give you 30 days to test out the shoe, if it doesn't work you can return it and get something different. So I won't pull the plug on Nike just yet, I'll give em a few more runs. I really hope my calf returns to normal soon.....as for now....no speed work for Kat. The run was rather enjoyable and on my way back I passed by some large water fountains my mom used to bring me to when I was a kid. A cheap way to play and cool off in the summer. It brought back some great memories. Speaking of which, I miss my mom. A mother daughter day is much needed.

Post run I headed to team swim.
I got my sleeveless wetsuit, yay! Open water is going to start soon. I hope this suit fits my long torso better then the last.

Team Swim

100 warm up

10 x 50s, odds: light quick arms, evens: long glide. :10 rest.
Drafting set: rotate leaders every 50. Get into groups of 3, draft in pairs until each person has done 12 x 100s.

Passing drills (demo)

8 x 25s with a partner, practice passing.
Tim was my partner...what was I thinking? He bopped me in the head last year, this year was really no different....he ran me into the side of the lane and I nicked my arm. Lol, we just need to swim far away from one another.
J/K Tim, I <3 ya, but not when you hit me!

Total meters:
2000

Time Trials along Marine Drive

Wednesday evening ride 34 miles - Time Trials along Marine Drive

This ride was pretty non-eventful, which can be a good and a boring thing.
I realized I had highly under estimated the wind chill factor and became cold rather quickly standing around in my Pearl short sleeve jersey with arm warms; waiting to start with the group. Thankfully super Lindsay came to the rescue and let me borrow one of her cycling jackets. I must return the favor with a beer, that jacket saved me the first 20 mins of the ride. I knew starting out, this ride would be challenging. My warm up along Marine Drive on the bike path I was doing an effortless 19-20 mph high cadence spin. This meant heading back I would be facing a great deal of headwind. Oh joy! (Please note this is sarcasm). We reach the part of the ride where the bike path disappears and we hit the road, time to start time trials. Woot! Woot! Bring on the pain. Took me a good 2-4 mins to get my HR up to target 183. I then held 183-186 for 3 mins. Damn this never gets easier. My legs burn trying to push the speed (23-25mph) and keep my HR in the anaerobic zone. It was rather chilly and the cold air (what I could actually process) hurt my lungs. One down....3 more to go. I recovered for 2-4 mins and then hit it again. Ugh, this feels harder then the last! But alas I conquered. The next recovery lasted a little longer since we were starting to approach the airport...I just decided to wait and hit the last two coming in battling the head wind. Not sure how good of an idea this was. Recovery was probably 10 mins and then I pushed forward yet again. Oy! It was hard to get my HR that high again, my legs started feeling fatigued. I was pedal mashing trying to push the power while fighting the wind, now only doing 18mph, I seriously felt like I was trying to ride into a straight wall. Somehow I managed to keep my anaerobic zone for 4 mins. I think the wind might have had me in a time warp or something. Just one more little interval to go. Just one....can I do it? I had a bit of doubt but once I went at it I couldn't allow myself to fail, I just pushed forward. This one was absolutely the worst. I was tired, my legs hurt, my lungs hurt, the wind hurt.....in case I haven't made myself clear I was one hurt kitty. But fail? I think not....maybe muscle failure by the end of the ride but believe you me I triumphed over those damn intervals. Thank GOD Kyle came along for the ride. He stayed with me during the intervals and helped pace line on the recovery home. I'm usually stuck out along Marine Drive alone at the end...it was really nice to have someone to help block the wind and suffer the last bit of pain with. The last might of Marine Drive my HR was a constant 165 and I was only going 14-15mph.

My post recover meal was FANTASTIC. I had my chocolate Endurox shake and a new creation I like to call Black Forrest Delight. It's a 10 grain pancake batter I layer in a bread loaf pan, top with mozzarella, black forest ham, and sugar free jelly, then more ham, mozzarella and batter. Bake it up like bread and eat it as a sandwich, good stuff!

I got home took some magnesium, melatonen (sp?) and rolled my legs. I managed to escape restless leg syndrome. Yay me!

April’s Recap...Life is short, must live every day to the fullest

9 days on recovery out of 30, almost 30% off. Went through a near death experience twice and over training.
Swam 8 days = 13.15 miles/ avg 1.6 miles per day of swim
Biked 7 days = 300 miles / avg 42.85 per day.
Spin bike 3 days = 4.75 hours/ avg 1.58 hrs per day
Ran 13 days = 95.7 miles/ 7.36 per day
Pilates/core work (does not include 20 min session 4-5 days a week. This only includes class time at the gym). 5 days = 4.75 hours / .95 hours per day
Total Mileage 409.85
Up 183.15, miles over last month, taking any extra 2 days off
Included in mileage was one brick day with a 29 mile bike/6 mile run.

Tuesday Swim

Warm-up 200

1 x 100 kick with fins, rest 10 seconds.
2 x 50s swim with fins, streamline and kick underwater, exhaling, for as far as you can before popping up to swim. Rest 15 seconds between 25s.
Swim set 4 times.

1 x 600 steady pace; rest 20-30 seconds
4 x 50s at 70-75% effort, breathing every 4 or 5 strokes; rest 15 seconds
8 x 25s sighting, 2 in a row of a kind; rest 10 seconds
Swim set 2 times.

Warm-down 25 x 5 wall push ups
50 x 5 wall push ups
50 x 5 wall push ups
50 x 5 wall push ups
25 x 5 wall push ups
Total yards: 3200

Swim felt great.
I had planned on doing Yoga at lunch and then swimming with the team on Wednesday morning. But I had some crappy work done on my car and turns out I no longer have brake fluid which means I can drive but I can't stop. So my training is limited to what I can do around my house which will be morning Pilates. I'm hoping everything gets fixed by tomorrow afternoon so I can go on the PDX Tri club bike ride.

Another loooong successful weekend of training.

Saturday.
Rode 68 hilly miles with 3000ft of elevation gain.
I worked on my descending a lot, every hill I could I'd drop low and hit a hard gear and accelerate through. I hit and rode 30-35 without fear, a lot . And at one point I hit 39mph!!!! Kind of scary, but nothing too bad. I also had my team captain help me out with cornering. I was able to take a few without braking in which I would have in the past....slow progress but it's something. Going to continue to work on this. The whole ride was tiring....I rode by myself from mile 43-63. Mile 48-54 I had to have a serious mental talk with myself....I was having some issues. My nutrition on the ride was good, but the day before I was caloric deficient and I think ultimately that had an effect on my ride....will not be doing that again. Mile 63ish I was riding along some guy, we were descending going to fast and missed the turn, went 1 mile out too far so we added 2 miles on to the ride, ugh...at least it wasn't hills.

Sunday
Ran the Eugene 1/2 marathon. First 1/2 marathon I've run as race but didn't use "race pace", does that make sense? I held back and kept my HR between 170-175 the whole time and tried to talk with people throughout the run, utilizing 80-85% of my energy. The goal was to hit an 8:30 pace, which is what I started with for the first 2 miles (there was over 6000 runners starting at the same time (1/2 and full marathoners), over the next 11 miles I dropped my avg time per mile at each mile I injured my left calf doing hopping/skipping drills and track on Thursday so it hurt a bit after the run but am sure it will be fine letting it rest for a few days, also ice will help. I had no taper for this race and was running off fatigue from the last few crazy days of training. I ended up coming in at 332 out of 2628 1/2 marathoners, 27 out of 268 in my age division, and 109 out of 1819 females. Finishing time was 1:45:43/ avg mile 8:05.
This peaks my curiosity into what I could have done with a taper and 100% effort...BTW I really want to do a full marathon now :D

Friday - Easy 5.2 recovery run

Got up at 4:45am to get my easy run in for the day. I jumped out of bed and almost fell over. Damn my legs were stiff. The first 1/4 mile I pretty much limped like a gimp. My ribs felt bruised from all the Pilates core work (good thing btw) and my hamstrings were tight and had no bounce. 3/4 of a mile in I stopped and spent a good time stretching.....then continued on my way. Allergies are again in full effect and I'm sneezing like crazy. About a mile in and my legs felt pretty good. I rocked out to my Ipod and enjoyed the rest of my run as the moon retired and the light came alive for the day. Feeling pretty good now. I'm glad I got my run in early, I'll have a full 24 hours of recovery on my legs until the next training session.

My weekend looks like this
Saturday - RACC Ride around Clark County, 65-MILE LOOP: Loop travels east, around Lacamas Lake, then north through the hills of Hockinson, through Battle Ground, to Daybreak Park, west through Ridgefield, then south through Felida and back to the finish at Clark College. (3,000 ft. elevation gain). This ride is notarious for their kick ass aid stations. It was this time last year that I discovered the wonders of trail putty. Mmmmmmm

Sunday - Eugene 1/2 marathon. I had originally intended on racing this since I have never "raced" a half before. But screw that. My legs are going to be toast after that ride tomorrow. I'll give it good effort and that's about it.

Thursday Track

Noon - 60 min Pilates. Focused on prime core work, my abs were screaming to stop by the end.

Evening track -
1.4 mile warm up run to track from home.
5 min stretch
15 min of drills (a$$ kickers, strides, side strides, high knee skips) 1.5 miles
Start of ladder
400 - 1:49
800 - 3:38
1600 - 7:10
Ugh! This is where I got stopped. A coach asked me not do speed work because he had "rented" the track for his kids and was fearful that I might run over them. I was running at Fowler middle school and my assumption was post school the track was free to the public, apparently not. The track is freaking huge, not really sure why he couldn't just let me have the inner lane. I decided not to argue and just leave. I was irritated before this and he was just the icing on the cake. During my speed work I had to dodge a **** load of kids walking/playing aimlessly and couples and "soccer moms" thinking it is ok to walk 2-3 deep in the inner lane. Do people not know the inner lane is the mile marker?! WTF? I decided to run out 3/4 of a mile from the track and finish the last mile and half back with a 3:40 and 1:50 tempo, to get my remaining speed work in.
Total mileage = approx 7 miles, 2.5 speed work, 1.5 drills, 3 warm up, cool down and floats.