Monday, September 25, 2006

uh-oh...

oh, dear. got that post-nasal drippy feeling and i'm tired all over.

i think i've finally caught the crud from one of my clients. it's been going around for a few weeks and i'm actually amazed i've lasted this long.

it's too bad, really--i had kind of a bummer of a training weekend. then today, i couldn't work up the motivation to go for a swim, so i've had two days in a row off.

eesh. headachy.

sigh. i guess i'll head over to trader joe's for a fresh box of airborne and some pomegranate juice for an anti-oxidant boost. maybe i can shake it off before track practice tomorrow.

Monday, September 18, 2006

getting stronger...

been a while since i've posted!

so, first things first--i've revamped some of my swim workouts, because swimming 2K for distance is just plain BORING. a couple highlights have included:

*5x500m with 100's 1, 3, and 5 done at L4. this one kicked ass.
*10x100m at L4-5 with a 100m cooldown after each interval, followed by a 30 second rest interval. after about 500m of warmup and drills, this one REALLY kicked ass.

secondly--i just came off a fantastic training weekend.

friday night, i installed the new cyclometer that steph gave me for a MOH gift at her wedding. it took me a little while and i was up later than i'd have liked, but it turned out to be well worth it!

saturday, i met up with the rest of the team at woodside town hall for a bike/run/bike brick workout. we took off down canada road, hit 92, and looped back. about halfway back, there was meggen with everyone's run gear in the back of her car--so we all ditched our bikes (under meggen's watchful eye) and ran 2 miles north (and of course, 2 miles back to our bikes) on the trail just west of canada road. then, it was back out to 92 on the bikes, where we turned around and headed back to town hall. with the extra half a loop i did to pick up stragglers, i ended up riding about 28 miles.

here's why the cyclometer is so cool: i'm normally a total wuss when it comes to descending hills--any of them. i'm just too keenly aware of the fact that nothing stands between me and the asphalt but a thin layer of spandex.

anyway--the cyclometer gave me something to focus on--mph and cadence. i went about 15 miles before i realized that i'd spent the whole time on the drops AND in my biggest gear, making more speed than gravity could give me on the downhill stretches!

don't get me wrong, i'm still a wuss. according to the meter, my max speed during the whole ride was still only about 28.5 mph. still, it's a huge accomplishment for me. also, i highly recommend the cadence feature--it helps keep your pedaling much more efficient. it reminded me to spin the hills instead of mashing up them and killing my quads.

saturday night i was wiped and probably could have gone to bed by 10, if not for wanting to hang out with some friends i hadn't seen in way too long!

sunday was kind of an active recovery day--early in the a.m. i ran a 5K run by some of the girl scouts of santa clara. unfortunately, it completely conflicted with the 5K in campbell that the rest of my team was running, Luke's run, another benefit for LLS. sigh...duty calls.

then, sunday evening, hiked out to coyote peak in santa teresa county park. beautiful, barren hills awash in a soft sunset.

gotta love living in the bay area.