week 12 begins

T-minus 18 days until Wildflower long course.

This will be the last week that I can get any significant training done before I start a taper.

On tap for the next seven days:
Today: 12 mile run. Bagging the swim to work on my USAT test.
Tuesday: Swim
Wednesday: Spin/bike and possibly surf if the swell and tides are with us
Thursday: brick with the team
Friday: rest/recover, possible light swim
Saturday: practice triathlon @ Stevens Creek Reservoir (1 mile swim, 24 mile bike, 6 mile run)
Sunday: rest/recover

On the systemic side of things, I am feeling overall wiped today. Quite a ride yesterday. I am hoping that adrenaline will do a lot to carry me through the 13.1 miles that will come after that 56 mile ride in a few weeks. At this point, my tactic will be to hold back and spin comfortably as much as I can for the first 40 miles, headwinds allowing. Then, jump into the granny gear and find my mantra for Nasty and the 14 miles beyond it.

Also...I think I'm going to have to breakdown and try out a chiropractor soon. For all the great cardio and strength work cycling hills allows--it SUCKS for your posture, and after a year, mine has started to suffer a little bit. My back has been bugging ever since surfing last Wednesday, which is unusual for me. Whole lower right side of my rib cage is hurting now, front and back. Is this what it feels like to have a rib "out?" Thank goodness for Azeeza; she is willing to take a look at it later today.

a change of plans...

This weekend's training schedule was a *bit* disrupted by Saturday morning's torrential downpour.

After a nice swim with a 20 minute marker set thrown in (I showed slight improvement over the last one), my group transitioned to bike gear and and headed out of the locker room into a deluge. Cyclists from the first group were straggling in from a short marker set ride gasping, sputtering, swearing, and flinging water off their sunglasses.

Long course riders put it to a quick vote. Nobody wanted to go for a 50+ mile ride in such weather, so a few team captains agreed to come back and lead a ride on Sunday morning.

I briefly entertained the thought of running Saturday. I realized I'd have plenty of time on Monday and opted to go home and do nothing instead. :-)

This morning about 20-25 of us met up at MVHS for the ride.

We headed north on Foothill to Arastradero, went west, followed it out to Alpine, went west again onto the loop, and headed up Old La Honda.

I've only been up OLH once before with Steph, last June. I remember it being very hard and not wanting to talk very much. I think I managed about 34 minutes from the bridge to the stop sign.

Today's ascent was great--I spent at least the first 2 miles chatting with a couple other riders on the way up. I didn't time myself, but I know for sure I took less than 30 minutes!

At the top I scarfed a Fig newton and checked the cyclometer...argh..only 18 miles down--which meant more than 32 to go! We regrouped and headed north on Skyline to Kings Mountain road. Really just another long ascent for most of the way. My quads were toasty and my rear end was killing me by the time we got to King's Mountain Road.

Headed down King's Mountain for the descent. Not my favorite part. I'm so so so so chicken. The first 2/3 are riddled with rough pavement and 10-15mph hairpin turns. SO not fun. Once you pass Huddart Park, though, the pavement is nice and smooth, the road opens up, and you can look through most of the curves...it's actually fun then!

Anyway, once at the bottom, we regrouped again, hung a right on Woodside, followed that to Portola Valley Road where we took a left (though the map said right, and poor Lynn and Trista made it back up to Skyline on 84 before they realized their error!), then left on Alpine for a nice fast spin to Serra/Foothill where we headed back to MVHS.

A great confidence booster, and the farthest I've ridden at once...though I'm not sure I was ready to run a half marathon right away!

I did okay on the nutrition...I think I need to eat more, and much more frequently. I think I'll set my watch to beep every 15-20 minutes on race day, to remind me to take in something. Fig Newtons are awesome on the bike. Actual food!

Anyway, the plan tomorrow is to get a swim in during my morning break, and then a run in the late afternoon. I was supposed to run 12 miles today!

ah, Friday the 13th

A good day...a recovery day!

Wednesday: cross training! I got up extra early and carpooled to work with James. We had been monitoring the surf and had the express intent of heading down to Santa Cruz later for a little wave action. As we worked with our respective clients, we kept glancing at each other as the wind picked up more and more outside. The swell was good, but that much wind could blow it out and make it unrideable. Anyway, at 130pm, we had a quick look at the Steamer Lane webcam and decided to head down to check it out.

We made it down there about 45 minutes later, and conditions were awesome. After a little run-in with a few foul-tempered locals, we paddled out at the Hook. This was only my 4th or 5th time out on the short board, and I did okay--never in quite the right spot to catch anything, but my balance and paddling has improved ten fold. Been gettin' my swim on! Anyway, sets rolled in about 6-8 feet and James got a nice long ride all the way in. Kept it short and headed in shortly thereafter.

As long as the swell and tides cooperate, we're going to try to make surfing a regular Wednesday foray.

Thursday: first brick with the team! We headed up into the hills of Los Altos, and I managed three Taafe loops. Not bad...I felt the best I've felt since practice weekend! Once my legs were nice and warmed up, I even managed to avoid the bail-out gear for the second two loops. Now, on to my stinky descending skills! Headed down Natoma on the last loop for a particulary wimpy descent: I kept hearing a disconcerting rattle from what I thought was my front wheel and thought I'd play it extra safe...finally figured out it was my car keys in my bento box. Doh! They're usually in my jersey pocket. Anyway, from there headed down Elena (which is a fun descent, actually), then to Purissima and Arastradero and back to the track on Foothill. It was getting pretty dark by this time, so I had to fall in behind Nami and ride blind without my shades (they're prescription). By the time we got to the track, most of the other long coursers had just about finished their 2-3 miles. Damn. Could only fit in 2 miles, but the good news is, I was able to just float along with a nice high turnover.

It's good to feel like I'm fully back in the game, with at least another solid week of training before tapering down.

Tomorrow, short swim marker set and LONG ride with the long course crew. Coach Steve said to be prepared for the longest, toughest ride of the season...so you can bet I'm taking a FULL recovery day today!

and, oh yeah...

Yeah, that whole ring of fire thing?

I drove that in my car on Monday.

If it were 4 longish gradual climbs, I think I'd have been okay...but the ring of fire is 4 STEEP climbs...with the longer ones at the end.

Yeah.

Not quite ready for that one.

tuesday ride

Yesterday evening I went out for a nice ride. I started out from Foothill College, went up Moody (what a nasty little hill that is!), descended Page Mill, went up Arastradero (where I passed a group of people tending to a cyclist that I think had just been hit--eek), headed down Alpine, right onto Serra/Foothill, and toward Mt. Eden. My intention was to head up Mt. Eden, but I got within a mile of Stevens Canyon Park and noticed that cars were starting to turn their headlights on. Rats. Time to head back. I'm a little bummed I didn't get that second good-sized hill in, but it's okay. By the time I was headed north again, the remnants of the virus from hell were catching up to me a bit, particularly when I had to stop at red lights.

Disappointing to know that I'm not at 100% yet. I had this rudely highlighted for me when I reached the top of Moody. The last half-mile sucks, but it really wasn't as bad as I'd been anticipating.

Anyway, I reached the top where there were three other cyclists, about to part ways after their ride. As I'm catching my breath and grabbing a quick drink, one of them turns to me and says, "Wow. Heavy breather." Nice.

What I wish had happened: I glare at her, hawk a massive glob of phlegm, spit it near her front tire, and say I've been trying to shake a nasty virus for awhile. She edges away and keeps quiet.

What really happened: I mumble something about getting over a nasty cold and having never been up that particular hill before. All three of them nod vaguely and take off in their respective directions.

I'm just not quite evil enough to be a bad-ass cyclist, I'm afraid.

Anyway, what followed was certainly one of the wussiest descents of Page Mill in history...but I don't care, because I actually had the guts to go down a big hill by myself! I don't think I ever got much over 20mph, but that's justifiable. It was my first time down it, and it's riddled with blind corners. The pavement is great, though--I can undertand why cyclists with great descending skills think it's a lot of fun.

The rest of the ride wasn't too exciting (except for the shudder while passing the downed cyclist), mostly rolling or flat, and lots of work keeping a high cadence.

Today...surfing with James. It's a bit rainy and gross. I don't care about the rain, but hopefully the wind won't pick up and pull the waves apart.

picking up momentum

feeling good today. a little sore from an 11-mile run yesterday morning, but the good news is, i RAN 11 miles without collapsing into a coughing heap.

this week should be pretty big for me.

swim today.
tuesday, i'm planning on riding the "ring of fire."
wednesday, surfing with james.
thursday, team brick workout.
friday, recovery.
saturday, short swim and long ride with the team, up old la honda.
sunday, another long run.

i'm going to concentrate on stretching and nutritional strategies.

RIDE-N-TIE!

Today's workout was a TNT tradition, and the most fun anyone ever has while getting a brick workout.

FYI: a brick workout is a workout wherein 2 (or sometimes all 3) of the triathlon disciplines are performed together. Usually it's a bike followed by a run, to get your legs used to that awful, jello-y feeling they get for the first mile of a run done immediately after a long, hard ride.

Anyway, the term ride-n-tie refers to a method cowboys used to use to get around when there were two cowboys with only one horse between them. One would set out riding, the other walking in the same direction. After some time, the one on the horse would stop, tie the horse up on the side of the trail, and set off on foot. The second cowboy would "catch up" to the horse, jump on, and pass the first (now on foot). Thus, they would leapfrog along the trail at a pace faster than if they were both on foot.

Anyway, our ride-n-tie happens at Bayfront Park. We partner up and use mountain bikes. We are also required to dress up with our partners in matching costumes. Susan and I were Team Hottie, wearing our pink hottie socks, pink hottie hats, bright pink feather boas, and leopard print sunglasses. Lynn and Hayley reigned supreme by showing up as Catholic school girls.

It was a ton of fun and I felt pretty good. The evil cold is almost completely gone! It's fun to tear around on a mountain bike over bumps and potholes when you're used to being a scaredy-cat roadie. Running felt great--I probably ran a total of 5 miles.

The legs and lungs are definitely ready to get back into some serious mileage. Long course pros are meant to run for 11 miles tomorrow.

Next week will be a big week...time to get my HILL on! I found a ride on the PA bikes website called the "ring of fire." I think I might attempt to tackle that Monday afternoon or Tuesday evening. Swimming is still taking a backseat to cycling and running, but I'll fit at least one good one in this week...plus a tentative paddle out to go surfing with James on Wednesday! Keeping the fingers crossed... Thursday is a team brick workout, and Saturday will be the last long ride with the team before race weekend...Old La Honda! Yep, gonna be a big week...

hack hack cough back to track tonight!

still feeling better and better...but i hate that week or two of aftermath when you just keep coughing and hacking and can't get it to stop.

i'm heading back to track practice tonight. we'll see what i'm up for. i haven't run in a couple weeks, so i need to be careful and not push it too much. probably will stick with the elites or age groupers. i have a bit of a headache, but i think that's a result of coughing a lot today.

also--went out for another ride yesterday, with much better results than tuesday...hardly any coughing at all. i did the entire mckean/bailey loop from almaden lake park--about 18.5 miles. it was fun--i've never ridden out there on my bike before, and it's very pretty--you go right past calero reservoir. plenty of cyclists about, too. descending bailey by myself was a little scary for me--it's a little twisty but really no worse than 84...just a whole lot shorter and lots fewer cars.

i haven't slept very well this week. i'm glad i have a relatively late start tomorrow morning. it will give me a chance at a little extra rest.

i can still ride my bike!

Yesterday, I actually made it out onto my bike! It was great.

I drove (I know, I know, but wimpiness was required by the tail end of this cold) out to Canada and Edgewood so I could get a little spin on Canada Road.

Hopped on and headed toward 92. I had the intent of keeping all efforts less than 15mph, but it ended up being more like less than 20mph. Feels too weird to drop to a low cadence.

Anyway, even though it was 73 degrees out, it didn't take long for my lungs to protest the fresh air. I only went out to 92 and back, and by the time I got back to my car, I was a little coughing machine with a crazy runny nose. That's okay, though--it kept me from going out too hard. I took it slow and was only out for about 30 minutes. Just enough for a little re-entry.

Today I have a superlight schedule and I end early, so I brought the bike again. I need to get some work done during the day, but this afternoon (when the air is warmer) I think I'll head out to Foothill.

here goes--back on the bike today...

After 8 full days away from training of any kind, I'm feeling a lot better today. Still a little bit of coughing and some sinus drainage, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hoping it's my immune system ushering out the last of this wretched cold.

I'm going out for an easy ride later on today, when I finish up with clients. I think I'll just drive out to Canada Road and Edgewood, and sweep up and down between there and 92 for an hour or so. I'm going to try to fix my cyclometer so I can keep track of my mileage and mph, and try to keep it on the low side, unless I'm coasting downhill.

Hopefully I'll still feel up to it after 5 clients. Thankfully it's a light Tuesday for me.

I can't wait to MOVE again. This has been sheer torture!

week 9 was a wash

I've been laid up with one nasty virus since Tuesday night. Shortly after writing that last post, I felt much, much worse. Couldn't stop coughing and shot up into a fever that stuck around until Thursday morning.

So, I've been in bed ever since.

Not training. No practice Thursday night. No practice today. Not gonna run tomorrow. Just recovering.

I feel a little anxious...I've just missed a key week of build training.

On the other hand, I do myself no good by pushing through a cold...as this uncomfortable episode has taught me.

Looking back--I've already put in a lot of training. I did the whole course (except 10 miles of the bike due to flats) two weeks ago, quite comfortably. Just not all in one day.

The plan now...take it easy until Tuesday at the bare minimum, and then do a day or two of recovery workouts...spinning, light running. Go to track Thursday, and either do half the volume, half the speed, or take double the rest (on Stephanie's orders, thank goodness I have her to help keep my head right about this stuff). Maybe a light swim on Friday to restore water-feel and then to practice on Saturday for whatever I can handle. Then ramp back up week 11 for 3 weeks of building before a taper.

In the grand scheme of things, Wildflower half is not intended to be an all-out effort for me. I just want to finish, to see if I can do it. It's my first half, and it's a tough one.

All along my intent has been to use it as a B race on the way to Escape from Alcatraz. Thinking about that is helping me to put things back into perspective and is alleviating some of my anxiety about race day.

The only thing I'm a *bit* worried about is making the bike cut-off...but I dont think that'll be too much of a problem. Now that it's light later in the day, I'll be able to focus on bike training a little more intently.

Sigh. Back to recuperating. I am so sick of chicken soup. :-P

discouraged

argh. another day off for being sick.

i came down with this blasted cold a week ago...had almost shaken it, and then found myself in sinus pain hell after 3 hours in the pool at happy fish yesterday. today i feel...slightly better. tired and achy, but i think that's more delayed onset muscle soreness from hiking sunday.

i already took yesterday as a recovery day. must today be one, too?

i'm tired of taking days off from training. i feel like i might start to fall behind. this is getting very frustrating!

ending week 8

Even after taking most of last week off from any serious training, I'm still feeling a bit under the weather. Throat feels better, but now I've got a pesky cough that settles in every evening. I read recently that a common cold takes 5 days to show up, inflicts misery for 5 days, and then takes 5 days to go away. If that's the case, then I really hope this one's on it's way out.

I didn't end up going to track last Thursday at Stephanie's urging. Instead, I slept for about 11 hours. It helped. Friday, I hit the pool after work for a very light swim just to maintain water-feel. Only did about 1000m of drills.

Saturday, I went ahead and went to team practice. I knew it would be a down week after the workout at Wildflower, so I was pretty sure I'd be up to it.

We did a bike-run-bike-run brick. The biking was all flat; disappointing but probably better for me. It gave me a good chance to feel the handling of the new tires. They're nice. The runs were quick and on the track.

The swim ended up being a bit more than I bargained for, but I hit a groove and could have gone on a lot longer were it not for my better judgement.
400m warmup
10x50 drill
50 @ L2
100 @ L2
150 @ L3
(repeat 4x)
and then...Soren the slave driver gave us this:
20x50, 25L4/25L2

After that, the count was well over 3000m and I decided I wasn't about to blow out a shoulder. I said "I'm out!" I hopped out onto the deck and it wasn't long before my teammates followed suit. :-)

Sunday...There was no workout posted, but I knew it would be a long run, probably 9-10 miles. Still feeling hacky and sick, I decided I wasn't up for a run but that a hike would be fine. I drove out to Big Basin and did the Berry Creek Falls loop. It's an old fave of mine and it's about 12 miles, with a fair amount of climbing. The falls were all running quite nicely, and I got an early enough start that there weren't many people out at all. The trillium were blooming all over the forest floor. I had to watch my step to avoid squishing scores of newts and banana slugs along the trail. The air was clean and moist and served to soothe my throat and cough. What a great way to fit in a little cross-training!

middle of week 8

i realized i've blogged a lot over the past few days, but not so much about training.

the past two weeks have been rough--at least in terms of midweek training.

last week, the only workouts i was able to fit in after my killer dish run on sunday were a 2K swim on monday and a 1K swim on friday (at the OTC, no less).

then the big weekend at WF.

monday I decided to slack it completely--no swim, no nothing...just a little bit of stretching.

tuesday morning, i woke up with a sore throat that got worse as the day went on...so i refrained from spinning.

wednesday...i should have had a swim, but i was feeling worse yet. i decided to spin lightly for a little while. after 20 minutes, i'd broken out in WAY too much sweat for a spin that easy...so i cancelled the rest of my clients and went home for a nap.

today my throat is still bothering me, but not as much. i feel better, but sound a lot worse. squeaky squeaky! i went ahead and packed my gear for track tonight...we'll see how i feel when i get there.

it's gotten very hard for me to take a break from training when i probably need it. i know, intellectually, that i've got a great base fitness level developed...but it's tough to let up when I've got a couple of big races hanging over my head.

aha!

Last night I figured out why I kept flatting at Wildflower.

While replacing my tires and tubes (with significantly better ones acquired at the-shop-formerly-known-as-Santa-Teresa-Bikes), I found a large hole in the rim tape right over a spoke port.

Checked the tube to see of the location of the blowout corresponded. It did.

Sigh. Off to PA bikes to get some rim tape.

pondering nutrition

If the past weekend has taught me something, it is that I need to revamp my nutritional strategy for a long event.

For the past year, I've been an Accelerade/Accel Gel devotee. Having something with a little protein in it really seems to be the best thing for me; perhaps because I'm so darn dense. I weigh in at 155# but I'm only 5'6"...there's a lot of muscle on these little bones.

After a year, though...it's gotten pretty boring. Now I am reluctant to drink/eat because I am tired of the taste, and this is no good.

This past weekend, I decided to experiment with a few new things:

1) I replaced my Bento box of gels with a flask of raspberry Hammer Gel. STRIKE! When you are deep into an endurance event, the physiology of your taste buds actually changes. Hammer Gel is cloyingly, disgustingly sweet to me at that point. It was also hot out, and hot fruity gel? EEEEEW!

2) I added a Profile Design under-saddle bottle mount so I could carry more liquid. With 4 bottles, I brought 2 of Accelerade and 2 of tri-berry Nuun. The Nuun worked great--it was refreshing even when warm. It will also be very easy to replenish on race day. I think I will drop down to 2 cages again, and bring a tube of Nuun tabs with me to mix more at the aid stations. That will be easy!

3) The question of solid food...Gels and drinks are fine for a 3 hour Olympic race, but WF Half-Iron is probably going to take me about 7 hours. That means my stomach will be empty for a long time, and growly. I had thought that PB&J would be good in transition, but after cadging a few Fig Newtons off a teammate, I have decided that's the way to go. It's no wonder they are an official Ironman sponsor.

4) Tried the new Powergel formula--not bad! And it now comes in Caramel... I think I may switch to it for a few weeks, and see how it runs out for me...

Hello, NASTY!!!

I've spent the past two days out at Lake San Antonio getting a feel for the Wildflowerlong course. It's amazing I'm feeling as good as I am, considering the huge training load on top of VERY little sleep for the past week!

Friday night, after flying in from Denver (see post below) I raced home for a quick dinner before jumping into my car for the 2.5 hour drive to the lake. Thank goodness I'd had the foresight to pack all my gear in the car before heading to Colorado.

I got to the campground about midnight for a quick nap (too much caffeine on the road) before being up and ready in time for an 8am swim in the lake. Immediately following the swim, we were all to head out on the ride, so I had to have all my gear down at the shore to transition to the bike. Got up at about 6, cooked up a quick breakfast of camp coffee, quinoa cereal, and a tangelo. Then headed down to the lake.

My swim was AWESOME. I think the pros went about 1.5 miles. It felt great--the water was up to 61 degrees, compared to 49 degrees for last year's practice weekend. I was able to get into my glide and sight pretty well, despite the glare from the sun and all the newbies pitching left and right all over the makeshift course.

Headed up the boat ramp to transition to the bike. I discovered that my neck was chafed pretty badly from my wetsuit, despite the application of copious amounts of Body Glide. Spraying sunblock onto it stung a lot!!! I got ready pretty fast, but most other people took quite a while, so I had some time to cool my heels before we all headed out on the ride together.

At about 1030, we regrouped and Coach Steve gave us the rundown on the bike course. Long coursers headed out first, with our group out in front. Other than an initial steep 1 mile climb right at the beginning and lots of rolling hills along Interlake road, the first 20 miles of the course are relatively easy. Too easy--I was able to get a spin on to 18-22mph for most of this section (when I wasn't climbing). I know now to hold back a little bit more. Miles 20-34 are out on Jolon Road, headed south. Lots of big, gradual rolling hills and a rather yucky headwind. I dropped my chain on the top of a long gradual climb, but no prob getting set back up. At mile 34, we hit the last aid station before the the dreaded Nasty Grade. We hung a right and had an easy rolling spin through farmland and vineyards from mile 34-41. At mile 41, we turned left and headed up Nacimiento Road. Coach Steve was there, cheering us on, telling us all "you can do this, you've got this, you're up to it, no problem!!!"

He was right--we all made it. It was crazy hard, though. It wasn't hard because it was a tough, long climb. It was tough because my legs were already nice and toasted from going 41 miles of rolling hills before hitting it. Most of all, it was tough because there is no shade, and it was HOT. I'm glad I got to feel it, because it can only get hotter from here. In 7 weeks it will be sizzling!

At the top of Nasty (which, by the way, is a false summit), the coaches and mentors had set up an aid station. I stopped and refueled, and did my best to move around and restore some feeling to my nether region. Then I hopped back in the saddle to grind my way up Heartbreak Hill (not so bad after a little rest). A quick descent, up and over another steep hill, and then into a long, screaming 2-mile descent.

Except....

About 1/3 of the way down at mile 46, I flatted. I was probably going about 30mph. Thank goodness it was my rear tire, or I might be in pretty bad shape today. There is nothing quite a discouraging as hearing that sudden "fssshhhhhhhht!" I managed to stop safely, and actually, since I was out in front with the speedsters, get the tube changed before everyone had even passed me. A coach from Santa Cruz on SAG stopped to give me a quick pump--and while he was doing it--FSSSSSHT! Another tube blown. To make a long story short, between me, Coach Steve, Jeremiah, and Scott, we went through 4 tubes and blew them all.

Defeated, I agreed to SAG back in with Scott. I'm so sad and mad that I missed out on the last 10 miles of the course, but grateful that I was okay, and that I had done so well up to that point with such an empty tank to begin with.

I grabbed a shower and spent the rest of the day hydrating, socializing, and licking my wounds.

Sunday I woke up and packed up my gear so I could leave right after the run. I'd never run 13.1 miles before, and I was feeling a bit discouraged after my experience on the bike the day before. It was cool and cloudy, perfect running weather, and I put my best face on. It turned out to be great! I really needed that. The hardest parts of the run are definitely within the first 5 miles. Even the Pit, a mile-long downhill followed by turning around and heading back up the same hil for miles 9 and 10, wasn't too bad. I think I finished up in about 2 hours and 15-20 minutes. Calves and quads were tight and the pounding was relentless, but overall, felt okay.

Overall...I have to say, this is going to be one of the toughest things I ever do. I knew that it would be, intellectually, before I experienced the whole course... but now I have a whole new respect for it. I need to do some hill repeats. I need to nail my nutrition and hydration. I need some Kevlar tires. Most of all, I need to mentally prepare myself. I'm glad I've gotten the heads up!!!

whirlwind OTC trip!

Where to start? It's been almost TWO weeks since my last post. Unbelievable.

It's been a whirlwind, I tell you!

The past two weeks of training have had their ups and downs, due to time constraints and traveling to and from the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. I was there for 3 days last week to take USAT's Level I Coaching Clinic, hands down the best clinic/continuing education I've ever attended. It was really exciting; I went with Liz Elliott (owner of Happy Fish and soon to be co-coach) so we can get legit for starting a kids' triathlon club in the East Bay this summer.

We got to stay in the athlete resident halls and eat all our meals in the cafeteria. This was a cafeteria like no other; everything whole grain or produce based, all lean meats, and pretty much open all the time! They had some really creative dishes out--butternut squash au gratin, a barley-corn-provolone bake, stuffed flank steak, orange chicken, quinoa salad, broccoli and penne with chick peas, all the steamed veggies you can imagine, a salad bar...it was amazing. And all I needed to get in was my handprint! :-)

The clinic was top notch. Huge names in the field were presenting to us--Bobby McGee, Bob Seebohar, and a whole host of people from Carmichael Training Systems (Chris Carmichael is Lance Armstrong's trainer).

I left feeling inspired. This could be a whole new world for me.

another rest day!

Sigh. I should've spun today, but there was no workout posted on the wiki.

That's a pathetic excuse for a pretty qualified fitness professional. I could darn well make up my own workout pretty easily.

I took it as a serendipitous chance to give my body one more day to recover and fight off whatever is causing the throat scratchiness and vague sniffles.

It's also a chance to get home a bit earlier, flip on a little Everything But the Girl, and do some things around the house.

Coolness: my package from Boure came today. Supposedly some of the best cycling shorts ever. We'll see how I feel after a couple hours in the saddle with them on...

weekend of building!

Wow, am I ever wiped out today...so much so that I'm skipping my swim and heading to bed early tonight.

I had a great weekend of training.

Saturday I went to practice with the team. All us long coursers swam first so we could squeeze in a longer ride afterward. Coach Steve had us do the requisite warmup and drill sets. Then he called another 20 minute marker set! It was a bit of a surprise. It felt great, even after my sluggish training week. I made it 1200m--100m farther than the first marker set 3 weeks ago!

Sandy had instructed us to transition quickly to the bike, which I did...only to have to sit through a tire changing clinic before heading out. Sigh. It gave me a chance to munch a bit and to have Coach Barney check out my DIY brake adjustments and make sure they weren't lethal. ;-) The ride was great. We went a bit more than 30 miles. Headed up Foothill to El Monte, skirted around Foothill College and over to Arastradero. Took that to Alpine, went left and did the Portola Loop. Once we were on Arastradero and I knew where I was headed, I was able to cut loose. By the time we turned left onto Alpine, three of us (Lynn and a new girl named Bene) stuck close together out in front for the rest of the ride.

I'm much better at climbing than I used to be, but I'm still adjusting to the triple crank. I have a psychological roadblock against the smallest chainring that I need to drop, or I'll never make it up Nasty. The coolest thing is how much better I've gotten at powering through the flats. Cadence training has made a ton of difference!

Sunday I ran farther than I've ever run in a single shot--8 miles! The morning started off rough in the aftermath of Saturday evening spent watching UFC--while drinking beer and eating pizza. I don't have to put much of that stuff in my body before it takes a toll! I woke up with puffy eyes and a headache. After a leisurely breakfast and little time hydrating, I headed out to Los Gatos Creek Park. Not my favorite park, but easy to measure mileage. It all felt pretty good. I didn't really have to dig until the last mile, and that was only because I didn't take in any calories while I was running. DUH. Immediately swung by the Sports Basement and picked up a gel flask.

So, that brings me to today. 2400m swim is scheduled, but I hardly slept last night and my sinuses are bugging me. Scratch that! Instead today it will be stretching, Wellness Formula, Zicam, and early to bed. :-)

comment away!

Okay, I finally figured out how to enable comments on this thing.

Sheesh, I wondered why no one was saying anything. Could I be that dull? ;-)

Friday off; week 5 in review

Ahhh, the recovery day. I love having Fridays as an off-day. I should probably stretch, but i'm far too busy with back door work stuff in all my spare time between clients.

Anyway, here's the training week in review.

I'm feeling pretty good about everything. This week wasn't as strong a training week for me as I would have hoped, but if I take a step back and look at how far I've come in the past year, I can see it wasn't so bad. Again, I'm still more nervous about the bike than anything and have been driving myself a bit crazy doing Google and Youtube searches of the WF course. Rain has been a heavy factor and I haven't gotten in the saddle time I would have liked. Also, I need to spend a little more time developing a nutrition/hydration strategy. This race is a lot longer than the others I've done. I'm either going to have to put more cages on my bike, geek around with a Camelback, or (gulp) get proficient at whizzing past aid stations with my arm outstretched to grab a water bottle from a volunteer. Or, I suppose I could stop and dismount... Horrors!

Swim:
Volume this week will probably top out between 7500 and 8000 meters. My fatigue resistance is steadily increasing, and if I concentrate, so is my glide. Can make it across the pool in 13-15 strokes if I stay focused. Should be a cinch to glide once I'm back in the wetsuit.

Bike:
Have only managed the scheduled spin session this week. Picked the Long Course Pro session and went 70' with 5x6' intervals at L3, out of the saddle. I know it's good for developing my power, but 1 hour on a spin bike always feels like 3 or 4. BORING. Thank goodness for the hammer-inspiring sounds of Tool and Nine Inch Nails!

Run:
A bit out of commission this week. Sunday I went out for a 5 mile trail run. It turned into an extremely muddy, slippity-slidey hike through the rain. I kept up as brisk a pace as felt safe and ran up all the hills. Right calf has been tweaking again in the cold weather, right at the musculotendonous junction of the Achilles. Don't want to mess with that, so I had an hour session with Kristi on Tuesday. I gave it a little test last night at track with a little running, but mostly we did circuit training. I will try it out for sure this coming Sunday with an 8 miler.

Question of the week...Sport Beans vs. Accelerade vs. Nuun vs. Shot Bloks? Too many choices.

An era on hiatus

So Christine, my ever-faithful tri-buddy, officially announced her intent to sit out spring season on the TNT website today. Poor C...she has been having major GI issues for about 2+ months, and just last week was finally diagnosed, definitively, with Crohn's disease. No doubt she'll be back into the mix before long--there's no keeping that girl down. In the meantime, I'm bummed she won't be around the next couple months. More than anything, I feel bad that she has to sit out so many things that are important to her. Gotta do what you gotta do for your health, though!

Otherwise, training is going pretty well. It's kicking up quick, though--Wildflower is such a tough course that the training is already pretty challenging early in the season.

This past weekend we started hill training on the bike. Eesh...I felt a bit humbled by my performance. I'll have to work in some hill repeats on my own on Valparaiso, and maybe a ride or two up Bernal. My speed on the flats is pretty encouraging, though--I had no problem keeping it up to 19-20mph on Foothill...when I didn't have to stop. Darn those red lights!

Swimming is no problem and never has been. Long Course (the race I'm doing) Pro (more experienced level) workouts are up to about 2400-2500m three days per week.

Running is also going pretty well. I'm glad I spent a little time in the off-season building my fatigue resistance with nice, long, slow runs. Now at the track I'm smokin' it. I think Coach Harold my make me move up to the Pro group soon. Last week we did 3 mile repeats in a row and each one was faster than the one before it! :-) The only problem with running...it tears up my calves, big-time. I need to stretch more, but a little body work from Kristi tomorrow won't hurt either!

Overall...I'm a little nervous at this point...mostly about the bike. The Wildflower course is notorious. It's hilly and exposed...and the worst hill on the ride comes at mile 41! It's called Nasty Grade, and I will get my first introduction to it at Wildflower practice weekend in a bit less than 3 weeks. In the meantime, I'm trying to think good thoughts--and making definite plans to get in a ride up Page Mill to test my mettle...

can't get enough of that spinning...

Literally.

Every time I hop on that bike for a spin workout, I never have enough time to get the whole shebang done. Tuesday is spinning day, and my Tuesday is scheduled tight enough to make workouts pretty hard to fit in.

Still, I make it work--yesterday I managed to get all the intervals (4x6' @ L2) done, even if I didn't get all the easy spinning done. 50 minutes overall when it should have been 65.

Monday was great--I squeezed in a 40 minute leg strength-endurance session before my swim.
SL squat w/ 5# DB rotation 15/2x3
Side lunge w/ 15# DB 15/2x3
45# Bar squat 20x3
SL bridge 10/2x3

Swim was:
400 warmup
10x50 drill (15")
10x50 L2
1x300
200 cool down

Now, off to do today's swim!

Oh yeah, happy Valentine's day. :-)

Escape from Alcatraz!

I found out I won a slot in Escape from Alcatraz!

So on June 3rd, I will be competing in the most poular triathlon in the world. It'll actually be televised! Exciting. Plus, my mom and dad will be here for it. I can't wait!

training weekend

Saturday:

I got up at 6am and it was POURING in the south bay. I debated whether I should even take my bike with me to practice! I went ahead and put it IN my car, instead of on it. That way it wouldn't be out in the rain.

Headed out to MVHS for team practice. Luckily it wasn't really raining up in Los Altos, just sort of misting heavily. The coaches debated for awhile and then opted to send us out for an easy ride on Foothill instead of our planned marker set. I chose to go with the elite group and sped along pretty fast, catching up to some of the pros. We went out to Alpine and then headed back--maybe 20 miles in all?

Even though it wasn't raining and Foothill is pretty clear of debris, my bike got GRIMY. By the end of the ride, the most awful noises were coming from my rims whenever I braked. I shuddered at the thought of all the junk that must've been getting caught up in my drivetrain.

Anyway, once back at MVHS, I downed some sport beans (yum!) and transitioned into my swim gear. The pool hadn't completely heated up yet, so...brrrrr!!!! Jumped into a pro lane and warmed up for 300. Then we did 8 x 50 drills. After that, 1 more 100 to get blood flowing and then our swim marker set. Last season our swim marker set was always a timed 500, but this year, Alfredo had us do 20 minutes of constant swimming, counting how many laps we could do in the alloted time. I ended up with 44 on the nose--exactly 1100. I was pretty happy with that. As long as my sighting is good, that puts me on track for a much faster swim pace this year.

**Note to self--my leg warmers DO NOT work with tri-shorts on the bike...only with real bike shorts. Either that, or my tri-shorts are just to big and stretched out to do any good helping hold them up any more! My leg warmers kept falling down on the bike, and it was so annoying I eventually had to just stuff them in a jersey pocket.

Sunday:

Opted to skip the buddy run and sleep late. I went out for my own run later on the Los Alamitos Creek Trail, which has usurped the Los Gatos Creek Trail as my favorite site for endurance runs. Mostly flat and not at all crowded. That makes it quiet enough for the occasional sighting of some nifty birds: egrets, herons, mergansers, and of course, mallards and coots. Anyway, kept it up for an hour at L1, so pretty comfy. Endurance steadily building. :-)

Once home, I set about the task of cleaning up my bike. While cleaning the rims and hubs, I discovered that my rear tire had no air at all...and upon further inspection, found a rock lodged through the tire and into the tube. DOH! Headed to the bike shop for a couple new tires (might as well replace them both).

First 2-mile marker set

Just got home from track practice. It was good to see everyone after having missed Saturday practice for a weekend of volunteering for the Girl Scouts. My non-profits are starting to conflict with one another!

Christine managed to make it by, which was awesome. I've missed her a lot. We got into this whole Team in Training/triathlon thing together, after all. Hopefully she'll be able to get things straightened out and hang with the team for Wildflower. I'm crossing my fingers for her tummy problems to get resolved quickly and smoothly.

Anyway, at track tonight we did our first marker set of the season: a timed 2 mile run. I was pretty happy with my performance. I finished in 17 minutes flat, with splits of 8:20 and 8:40. For comparison, my first marker set last spring was 19:35. So, overall, some pretty significant gains. Hopefully the next one will be under 17 minutes.

Earlier today, I managed to squeeze in an upper body workout. My old power 3 pull-up set. Here's how it goes:

3 max pull-ups
12 DB chest press 60%
rest 1 min.
repeat 3x

3 max pull-ups
12 reverse flies 60%
rest 1 min.
repeat 3x

3 max pull-ups
12 incline press 60%
rest 1 min.
repeat 3x

...and then finish with one last set of 3 pull-ups for a total of 30 max pull-ups.

Oh, yeah, and Wednesday I did the long course pro swim workout--totalled 1700m. Was fairly easy, but had good intervals.

Tuesday, I spun for 45 min with 2x6 and L2 thrown in. Would have done an hour, but had a client, so I did the best I could.

It's time to train for Wildflower!

Long time without blogging... So i'll just jump right in. The first ten or so weeks of my off-season training plan went off without a hitch. Then a 3 week bout of bronchitis, followed closely by the death of a dear family member, pretty much foiled the last 2 weeks of my power phase. I was barely able to hang on to a decent fitness level with about 2 workouts a week, if that, during my sickest days and the days with my gran in the hospital.

Now spring TNT season has officially started. I'm feeling good and ready to roll. I've signed up for long course at Wildflower this year. I know, crazy, right? That would be a 1/2 Ironman, and just about one of the toughest courses out there! For those of you unclear on the distances, a 1/2 Ironman consists of a 1.2 mile swim, a 56 mile bike ride, and a 13.1 mile run.

Today I went for my first swim in about 8 weeks. Phew... swim efficiency goes downhill in a HURRY when you take a little time away! But I managed to make it through the long course pro workout pretty comfortably.

warmup 500m
drill 8x50m (15")
8x50m @ L2 (10")
cool down 200m

Triceps felt a little tight, and gliding got a little harder as a got winded and felt my buoyancy dropping as I had a harder time relaxing and keeping my lungs fulls of air. Shouldn't be a problem to bring it right back together again, though. This weekend at practice we've got a 500m marker set. I'm anxious to see how I do with it--hopefully not too slow!

Might try to fit in a quick strength session in later today--low intensity, high reps. Just enough to wake up a few more muscle fibers that have only been firing sporadically for about a month!

day off/soon to be credentialed?

I think I'm going to slack it today. I've done well all week and I'd like to fit something long in on Saturday AND Sunday this weekend.

Wednesday I finished strong with a 45 minute spin session and some prone planks. I don't know if I was having an off day or if my abs were fatigued from Tuesday, but I couldn't a plank as long as I remember being able to in the past. So, I just did 5x30seconds.

Thursday--my last hypertrophy workout! Whoopee! No more crazy-boring gym workouts. Changed it up a bit, as we were a bit crowded last night (but gotta love it when business is good).
6x10 body-rows SS w/:
6x10 pushups
6x10 standing cable lat pulls (60#) SS w/:
6x10 DB chest press on SB (20#)
6x10 standing cobra tricep kickbacks (10#) SS w/:
6x5 bicep feeders (20# BB)

And as you can see, even when it's a boring workout, I can't help but spice it up. Hey, I've been doing this for a long time, okay?

Today....I am slacking. I don't really want to, but I've reasoned that I need a day off somewhere. It's not likely to be this weekend, and sure as heck won't be Monday. Tomorrow...maybe a long bike ride if I can get a couple of the TNT peeps out. Sunday, hopefully some surfing...if not, another bike ride or maybe a long run.

In other tri-related/career-related news: I've applied to take a Level I coaching clinic through USAT. That's right...APPLIED. Most of the time, your money is good enough to get you into a class. Not in this case. They wanted a resume and written coaching goals. The clinics fill up in 24-48 hours, so we'll see what happens. I won't find out until December 13 (two days before I might find out about Alcatraz). It's up in Bellevue, which is cool--I'd get to see my old roomie and her hubbie. This is all for a potential (and highly likely) opportunity I have to coach a new tri club starting up in the east bay. It's all in the incipient stages, and I cannot say more... Exciting, though. A new chapter my life as a superhero. ;-)

Great gym sesh, cruddy swim

Tuesday felt pretty good. Late in the afternoon, I hopped on the spin bike to warm up a bit before a bit of work on my rotator cuff and a lot of stretching.

I spun for 10 minutes and threw in 3x30" pickups--pretty intense, but not so much that I had to mash the pedals. After that, I grabbed some tubing and did a bunch of quick RC work on both shoulders, probably about 100-120 reps on each side. Then I did about 15 minutes of dynamic lower body stretching. Lunges focused on hip flexors and quads, side lunges focused on adductors and hamstrings, front walking hamstring stretch, dynamic calf stretch on an incline, etc.

At about 7, Christine came in and joined me for my last LE strength/hypertrophy session.
warmup: 1' pushing on treadmill, lunging, 2x10 bridges
6x8 (each) SL squat w/ 25#
6x10 leg raise
6x8 bar squat w/ 105#
3x10 GH abs
3x10 ab-bench punch-ups

That's the third and last time I'll do that workout for offseason strengthening. I felt pretty good about it; there was obvious improvement in that it felt much easier, I could do a lot more weight, and I haven't been very sore at all today. Next gym phase--power development.

Today (Wednesday) I swam in the afternoon. Gotta say...I've done better. I felt kinda crappy out there today--a little more out of breath than usual, and a little sloppier. I think I've got a little relaxin in my system right now, so that could be effecting things. Also, last night's strength session may be hitting me in ways that aren't too obvious to me. Anyway, instead of doing between 2500 and 3000m as I'd planned, I ended up limping along to only 2000m. 200m warmup, 200m drills, 3x500 with 1-2 minute rests, and 100m cool down. The upside? It's crazy cold out, which means the pool is deserted. It's all the same to me--the pool is heated to 80 degrees, so once I'm in it feels just fine!

Christine is supposed to come by again this evening at 6, for a spin session. Not sure what to focus on--if it should just be pure cadence at low effort, or if I should throw in a drill or two. I'll have to think on it.

Begin Turkey Day De-tox

Sigh. I'm back.

The past 5 days have included roughly 34 hours or driving/riding in a car, so my back and hips are a bit tight.

This is to say nothing of all the crap I've eaten and the havoc it has wreaked on my digestive tract, blood sugar, energy levels, and overall sense of well-being.

Anyway, since my last post, I've trained twice. Well, maybe 1.5 times. Last Tuesday, I squeezed in two more of last week's workouts: another upper body hypertrophy session focusing more on closed-chain movement, and a 45 minute spin, focusing on single leg drills (3x3' on each side).

Then, on Friday, we hiked to the top of Multnomah Falls. Barely broke a sweat, but at least got my HR up.

That was it for the week.

Thanksgiving was good--could have gone more crazy, but didn't. Becki was gracious enough NOT to have chocolate and crap laying around in candy dishes this year. Still had the requisite staples, and of course, no trip to Portland is complete without a stop at Moonstruck, the best place to get hot chocolate ANYWHERE.

So...today...what? I've got to plan my workouts for the week. It'll be hypertrophy. Upper? Lower? Whatever....we'll see.

YAWN.

Edit @ 930pm: I actually just ended up spinning for 40 minutes. Easy and fast. It was about right--I'm not sure I could have handled much more today. Fortified myself with a protein shake, and tonight I'll take some wellness formula before bed, just as insurance in case today's fatigue is the first glimmer of a cold or flu bug. Now...time for some homemade split-pea soup...mmmmm!

off-season week 2: thanksgiving

Kicking off week 2 of the off-season macrocycle...

Saturday night, after my long bike ride, I ended up going for a long walk down Blossom Hill Road...5 or 6 miles, maybe. That concrete is punishingly hard on the feet and hips!

Yesterday ended up being a rest day--unless you count 2 hours of wandering around the mall while I waited for new tires to be put on my car. Grrr.

That brings me to today...Monday. Mondays are hard enough as it is. First of all, I'm usually running late. This is mostly because I ignore my alarm clock on Monday mornings; my psyche can't quite grasp that I've got to get my ass back to work after 2 days to do my own thing. Second of all (and probably another reason I'm running late) is the fact that I'm usually tired at the end of the weekend, from running around getting too much done (as is often the case) or from running around having too much fun (seems to be less and less frequent).

Anyway, I digress. Today is a hard training day not only because it's Monday, but because it's Monday of a holiday week. 5 days of this week will be spent out of town...2 of those days almost entirely in the car. So, if I don't want my program to get too far off track, that means I have to fit in 3 or 4 key workouts in two days, before we leave on Wednesday morning.

Thankfully, I'm done with training for today. I repeated the LE hypertrophy workout that I did last Wednesday. My right hamstring feels like death...so tight it's on the verge of cramping right now as I sit on my ass...but I made it through. The single-leg squats were the hardest. The rack squats were a bit better. I still felt it, but it wasn't as bad if I concentrated on abduction and keeping my abs tight. The weights felt lighter and I was able to move up to quarters, thankfully. Ugh...hate lookin' like a sissy. ;-) All told I was able to finish it, abs and all, in about 40 minutes. How's that for efficiency?

Then, a couple hours later, I went for a light swim, mostly working on form. I only went about 1000m, but I got a lot done. Gliding, pressing the T, Fingertip drag, and lots of rolling drills.

Tomorrow, my plan is to do last Monday's UE hypertrophy workout, and get a 45' spin in. Christine may join me for one of those workouts, which will be fun.

Now I'm wolfing down some food before I get back to work. 5 more clients today--that could get a bit draining.

Oh, yeah! I finally got my mp3 player to work today! It was awesome! Maybe that's why I finished the weight sets so fast...

to morgan hill and back

I met up with Jeff and Irfan this morning for a little base training ride to Morgan Hill and back on Santa Teresa--not too fast, not many hills, just as steady as we could at a comfy, conversational pace.

I tried to keep my cadence up to 90+, but it's hard when you're on a group ride and none of the group is very experienced at riding with groups--or has superior bike handling skills. It was fun, though. We all enjoyed ourselves and agreed to try to meet up every Saturday for a ride until training starts up for Wildflower.

I think it was about 30 miles, give or take a mile or two. Gonna have to research some other routes around here; the pavement on Santa Teresa sucks!

Yesterday I managed a nice swim, went for 4x500 at L1-2, with 50m of breast stroke thrown in for recovery here and there. I spent a lot of time working on getting my head down a bit more, and gliding longer between strokes.

I'm feeling very confident and strong after this week. I'm glad I sat down and set up the next 12 weeks worth of training; just having a structured plan has given me a great boost in motivation. I'd like to start the season with more strength and power than last year--strength and power built specifically for biking and running up hills.

I would also love to start off a bit leaner. I know I'm not built much like a triathlete; to experience any measure of great success at this sport you pretty much have to be whippet thin AND have nothing to do but train. I don't fit the bill on either of those counts. I feel, however, that if I can optimize my training and my food intake, I'll be able to lose a few pounds of dead weight and move up the ranks a bit. Sigh...the offseason just HAS to include the holidays, doesn't it?

I didn't start triathlon off last January expecting to get so into it. Now, here I am--I've dropped more cash than I should have on a road bike, when I used to spit out "spandex" like it was a dirty word. I've designed the best training program that I've ever designed for myself so I can go longer and stronger. I haven't felt this much like an athlete in years...and I've never been able to do so much of it on my own--I've always needed an external force, like a coach, to help drive me in the past. Now I feel like I can find the drive within--at least, more than ever before. Don't get me wrong, I still like gettting coaching and the occasional team workout.

I'll admit, I dream of picking up some age-group hardware someday. It could happen, too-probably not at a big race like Wildflower or anything--but maybe somewhere else...

a good run

Wednesday's swim ended up being fairly short--only 1200m. It was all i could tolerate with the residual soreness in my lats and tris from monday's weight session! i guess i'd better get pretty religious about the protein shakes...

Anyway, i warmed up for about 200m and then spent the rest of the time alternating 100m of a drill with 100m of swimming with the drill's "muscle memory" fresh in my system. Stomach kicking, 6 kick switch, side swimming, thumb to thigh, and pressing the T. I realized that I need to get my head down a lot more if I want to glide better! Also, I need to experiment with different hand positions. Maybe I should ante up for a stroke analysis one of these days...now is the time to do it, after all.

It's funny; after years of experience swimming in a pool as a somewhat accomplished swimmer, it's humbling to switch to long-distance, open water swimming and discover that it's an entirely different way of swimming. I've had to adjust my mindset considerably.

Oh, yeah, and mere moments after I enter the Alcatraz lottery, a huge story about some rogue sea lion biting people in Aquatic Park comes out! Eeeesh.

Anyway, yesterday all I could really fit in was a run. I timed myself for about 45 minutes, throwing in 4x20second pickups every 10 minutes or so. The run felt really good--I'd estimate that I covered about 4.5, maybe close to 5 miles. It's amazing how satisfying a run can be--and how relaxing. I need to figure out my damned mp3 player, though--the radio reception in and around Palo Alto is sucky...to say nothing of the commercials!

Today, I'll try to fit in a longer swim...probably be there with Menlo Masters, but whatever...it's Friday, it'll be less crowded.

off-season week 1--midweek update

i don't usually post midweek, but i'll never remember what i did in my weight sessions this week if i don't!

Monday: UE hypertrophy
Superset 1:
Pull ups 6x10 (60-75% intensity)
Pushups 6x10 (BW)
1' rest interval
Superset 2:
Compound Row 6x10 (80#)
DB Press 6x10 (15x2)
1'rest interval
Superset 3:
Skullcrushers on ball 6x10 (1x20#DB)
Bicep feeders (20# BB)
1'rest interval

Tuesday: Spin
Meant to do 60-90 minutes. Felt crappy, cough coming on, so I only did 30 focusing on high cadence.

Wednesday: LE Hypertrophy & swim
Warmup
3' jumping rope
3' pushing on treadmill
2 rounds BW lunging + 2x10 bridges
Set 1 (superset):
SL squat 6x8 (25#)
Leg raise 6x10
1' rest interval
Set 2:
Squat 6x8 (85#)
1' rest interval
Set 3 (superset):
Abs on GH raise 3x10
Leg punch-ups on incline bench 3x10
no rest interval

Grabbed a protein shake, and headed over to Burgess for about 1 hour of drils and form work.

Of note: I entered the lottery for Escape from Alcatraz this morning. I managed to talk Christine into entering it too. Swimming from Alcatraz to the pier? EEK! $300 for a triathlon! EEK again!

developing off-season plan

The past week has truly been a recovery week. I barely even did any stretching, let alone a workout...unless you count a 2 hour sesh at 26th with James--which didn't result in me surfing so much as me taking a few lumps and learning to read the waves in a tricky spot.

I headed to Cafe Borrone on Thursday, grabbed a cup of their delectable brew, and put some serious thought into the next 12 weeks. An hour later, Steph joined me and was more than happy to throw in her 2 cents at my request.

So, in the off-season, my main focus needs to be building a stronger base. Sustained running, biking, and swimming (and surfing and hiking) below lactate threshold to enhance peripheral capillarization and tissue integrity. That's easy--it just takes time.

The other focus, requiring more thought, is my strengthening program. 12 weeks allows enough time for 3 microcycles of 3 weeks up, 1 down.

Microcycle 1 (starting today): Strength and hypertrophy. Dullsville! But important. I'll include lots of rotator cuff strengthening so I can avoid any issues in the future.
Microcycle 2: Strength and power. Back to powerlifting followed by strength sets, ala Harry and Sean back in the day.
Microcycle 3: Speed and neuromuscular enhancement. Mostly Olympic Lifts and plyometrics with accessory work through complex movement patterns.

Also, can't forget a [near]daily serving of evil core work followed by a little high quality whey protein.

Treasure Island Race Report (LONG)

This is a couple days late for a race report, and I realized I'd better get on it before the details begin to fade from my memory.

Friday afternoon, Christine and Mark met me at my work and we grabbed a quick bite to eat before heading up to the island to pick up our race packets. After a little maneuvering through traffic and contruction heading onto the Bay bridge, we made it by about 2pm. We arrived in the midst of Tri California staff and volunteers setting up the bike course partitions, finishing chute, transition area, and announcer's stands.

We picked up the packets from Becky and verified our timing chips. I promptly strapped mine onto my ankle; it would be just like me to forget on race morning! Then we strolled around the Expo a bit, marvelling at how much smaller it was than the one at Wildflower. Still, there were a few goodies to drool over--custom made bikes, Italian cycling glasses, spendy Louis Garneau tri clothes...the standard fare.

What was the most fun was running into all kinds of people we knew. It's amazing how quickly you get dialed in to the tri community!

We left the island at about 430 to go and find our hotel near Union Square. It was a cute and quirky place with ceilings painted like the sky dotted with little seagulls. The manager upgraded our room to a suite when he found out we were in town for the race and had a couple of bikes with us! After a little while getting settled in, we headed over to the TNT hotel for the pasta party and accompanying pomp and circumstance.

Friday night I got almost no sleep at all. Between a raging headache that I doctored with a bit of Motrin and Christine too keyed up to sleep either, it was about 11 before I made an honest attempt at resting.

The alarm went off at 415 Saturday morning. Since I hadn't really slept anyway, I had a pretty easy time getting up. I put in my contacts, pulled on my tri shorts, tri top and singlet, and over that some cozy comfort clothes and a beanie. Ate some greek yogurt with honey and a pear-cranberry bar I'd brought with me. After about 30 minutes of jockeying gear out the door, down the street, and into Christine's car, not to mention trying to find cash to pay the valet at 515 am, we were ready to head over to T.I.

We made a quick pit stop for coffee and got onto the island by about 550. Stayed in the car waiting for the sun to come up a bit before heading to transition to set up our gear. My phone rang, and it was my dad calling from his ready-mix truck to wish me luck and a good race. :-)

As we walked into transition, the sun was up enough for us to see that Clipper Cove was shrouded in thick fog. The bridge was barely visible above the swim course! I'm sure it was cold, but I was too amped to notice.

My rack number was 699 and most of the TNT girls were in the 900's, so I was able to set up my T1 and T2 in relative peace and quiet. Made a quick pit stop at the port-a-potties--nerves were setting in and I had a major case of the bubble guts. Got bodymarked and checked my watch. 715. My wave wasn't going to go off until 930, so I grabbed my goggles, cap, and bodyglide, slung my wetsuit over my shoulder, and went off in search of Marla, Adam, and James.

I found them quickly, and hanging out with them made the time pass quickly and easily until it was time to pull on my wetsuit and wait for my wave to start. Around 845, I jogged back to transition to grab an Accel Gel--my hope was that it would kick in just in time to fuel a powerful swim start.

925 am. TNT women from all over California and Seattle are lined up at the swim stairs, waiting for the gate to open so we can jump in and splash around a bit before the start. We're all pretty pumped, dancing around and happy--we've worked hard and our day is here! The gate opens and we cautiously pick our way down the wide, carpeted stairs into the water. I immediately head for the staging area, diving under a couple of times to get used to the cold water and opening the neck of my wetsuit so I can get a layer inside to warm up a bit. The announcer whipped the crowd into a frenzied countdown, and then--the horn.

SWIM--I stayed ahead and to the left of everyone at the start. The start was rather spread out, and our wave only had 50 or 60 people, so there wasn't that "blender full of humans" feeling I'd had at the Wildflower start. I focused on rolling and gliding, and kept my breathing bilateral, every 3 strokes. My sighting was pretty good--I don't think I veered off course too much, thanks to the new contacts and the new Aqua Spheres! As I completed the first loop of the swim and rounded the buoy, I heard the sound I'd been dreading: the horn going off again! I had to blend in with the next wave as they churned away from the staging area in a furious mob. One dude swam over me and got a swift kick in the stomach (not on purpose) for his crappy sighting. I'm pretty sure I socked someone in the eye as I finished a pretty powerful stroke. I'm starting to sound like an actual triathlete here... Anyway, I felt bad, but I had to pour on the gas to pull away from all the thrashing nonsense! In a few minutes, it was all peace and quiet and the sound of the water rushing and my own breathing again. I finished loop 2 and cut away from the buoy toward the swim stairs--where three or four volunteers were waiting to pull me out of the water! I climbed the stairs, pulling off my cap and goggles, and pulled off the top half of my wetsuit as I ran to transition.

I passed Coach Chris on the way, and he said my swim had been pretty fast. James told me later I was 3rd TNT girl out of the water--pretty cool.

T1--I reached my bike and peeled off the wetsuit. First order of business was to grab another gel and wash it down with fresh water. Then into the bike gear. The socks were the hardest, and I think I'm going to try to toughen my feet up enough to ride without them in the next race. All in all, T1 was about 4.5 minutes compared to almost 6 at WF--so it was a bit better...I can't believe pros do it in less than 1 minute!

BIKE--I started the bike feeling very loose, strong, and ready for a good hard spin. The bike course on Treasure Island kinda sucks--I mean, there's no way to fit a 40k bike ride on T.I. without having to do lots of loops (6) and make a lot of 90 degree turns. It's largely flat, except for one mild hill with a U-turn at the top. I took the first loop pretty easy, since I'd heard the course was riddled with potholes and rough pavement. An understatement! About halfway through my first loop, I spotted the first wipeout. Some poor chick was laid out in the middle of the road, moaning and lolling her head back and forth. Sad day! I finished my first loop and then cranked it up. I kept the cadence up above 85-90 rpms and stayed in my biggest chainring up front, shifting the rear as needed to maintain pedal speed. There are 130 corners on the TI course. They suck because they slow you down, but they're also FUN! By the end of the bike leg, I was a demon (in my own mind) on the corners. I could keep it up around 18-19mph as I rounded them. I made a conscious effort to eat and drink on the bike (1 gel and 24 ounces of Accelerade on laps 2 and 4) to see if it would help my run go any better than the last time. As I finished lap 6 and rolled into the bike-in chute, I passed my personal cheerleading crew one more time and got a high five from Adam.

T2--I hopped off at the dismount line and ran my bike in with no problems running on the bike shoes. Racked my bike and pulled off my bike shoes and helmet. Bummer! My socks were still wet from after the swim! I sighed. A blister or two was going to be inevitable. I stepped into my shoes, laced them up, clipped on my race number, grabbed my hat and water bottle, and wolfed down one more gel before running out. All told, slightly more than 2 minutes in T2.

RUN--The run course at TI is a flat, fast out-and-back on asphalt. 2 5k loops. I wasn't sure how I would feel--I went out on the bike with the intent to hammer a lot more than usual, run be damned. The first loop started a bit ragged as per usual, but it didn't take long for my legs to find the groove. I tried to focus on step cadence but I was having a bit of trouble concentrating. Luckily, the strategy of eating more than felt comfortable on the bike seemed to be paying off; my legs felt strong and solid. On my second loop around, I passed Christine on her first loop--in tears and racked with leg cramps! I passed her an enduralyte and gave her some words of encouragement; eveidently they helped because the next time I saw her she was running again. :-) I caught up to Brittany (The only TNTer from our team ahead of me) and we ran in together. Run time ended up being a bit over 56 minutes. Grrr. I could have easily done better. Next year.

Overall time was 3:05:11
Age group rank: 37
Swim time: 31:40 (grrr)
Bike time: 1:29:29 :-)
Run time: 56:30? (grr)

Now, to finish designing my off-season strength training plan for a full-scale attack on that Wildflower course in May... :-)

Only 5 days left to T.I...and there's RAIN in the forecast!

Rain? Rain!? Sigh. It's no use worrying about things I can't control. Still...RAIN?

How did this season fly by? I guess I've had a lot going on this time around, so that's probably why time has seemed to elapse a little faster than the norm.

Anyway, here's the past week in training:

Tuesday, October 24, was track night. Kinda of a mixed bag of activities--a couple laps to warm up, then run a mile, then do some field drills, then some core, then some Indian running with our Mentor groups. Pretty easy night, but fun...I guess it was geared sort of halfway between the SOMA athletes who were tapering in earnest at that point, and the T.I. athletes who were not quite tapering, but about to start.

Wednesday, October 25, I made it over to Burgess for a nice little swim in the middle of the day. Instead of super over-achieving, I only went over the pro workout by about 100m. I swam 1700m straight, stopping quickly at 1500m to check my time...about 27'!! And I was only swimming at about a L2 intensity. Not too shabby!

Thursday, October 26, I had very little time to fit in a spin, let alone a bike. I spun for about 45' with 4x7' hills thrown in. Then I immediately hopped on the treadmill for 2' at about 6mph. Just enough to get that rubbery feeling out of my legs.

Friday, October 27, I decided to take a rest day. I felt some suspicious cold-like symptoms in my sinuses and the back of my throat Thursday night. I picked up some Zicam and doubled up on the Wellness Formula from Whole Foods. *As of today, 10/30, it all seems to have worked--I am without symptoms, but I'm still taking one dose of WF per day, not taking any chances* Man, does that Zicam spray leave a seriously NASTY taste in your mouth!

Saturday, October 28, was the last swim/bike workout with the rest of the team. Started off queasy from the aforementioned Zicam, but quickly got into it. Swim was 2', 4', 6', 8', 10' nonstop with 1' rests in between. Pretty comfy. The bike--well, I ended up sweeping at sat on the side of Sand Hill Road with a participant for about an hour before we realized that SAG couldn't see us. Turns out he kept blowing flat after flat after flat--we figured out that it was because his wheels were 650's and his tires were 700's. OOPS... So not too much of a ride for me that day. :-P

Sunday, October 29, I took a break from errand running long enough to take my very first ride directly from home. I know, shameful! Anyway, I spun down Santa Teresa 45' minutes out before turning around and heading home. Nice level spin with one little hill and what felt like a few false flats. Lots of cyclists, at least for the south bay. Crap all over the bike lanes, though--broken glass and chunks of cars--I keep checking my tires now to make sure I didn't get a slow leak riding out there!

Anyway, now I'm focused on tapering for the next few days. Getting hydrated, working out just enough to keep me fresh in all 3 disciplines, and stretching, stretching, stretching. Oh, and packing!

avoiding super-taper

Wow. If the week before was wimpy, workouts this past week have felt practically non-existent. I decided to take the week off running and let my tissues repair themselves. Meant to do a few more light swims, but truth be told, my rotator cuff is starting to feel a bit crappy, so I'm laying off a bit. I'll have to focus more on base strength for next season.

Tuesday: After the Happy Fish 10K, I was feeling pretty beat up--but not so beat up that I didn't want to run at track on Tuesday night. We did a 30 minute marker set--basically, run for 30 minutes and see how far you can get. I wanted to make 3.5 miles, but I fell about 175m short of it. Darn.

Wednesday: Cycled out to Canada road. I felt pretty good, but I wanted to make sure I made it back in time for my 4pm client, so I cut it short just after Edgewood. Tood bad--It would have been a nice day to just ride and ride. The weather has been so beautiful. Anyway, It was an okay ride, probably a bit over 20 miles, but I didn't push it hard enough. It's hard for me to really push when I'm out by myself...or maybe, it's hard for me to tell when I am and when I'm not. I did make an effort to climb in a slightly higher gear than I found comfortable for spinning. Kept it up to 70rpm instead of 80+, which I prefer.

Thursday: Lazy, lazy. Did nothing but a bit of stretching.

Friday: Again, Lazy, lazy. I don't even think I stretched. What was my excuse?

Saturday: Practice tri out at Stevens Canyon reservoir. The swim was colder than last week's T.I. swim! Anyway, we set up a sprint distance course for the participants to do a "dress rehearsal" of their upcoming events. The swim was about a 1/2 mile loop. I agreed to be a "buddy swimmer" and hang back with the participants who are less confident in the water. This is a lot of fun; while it isn't much of a workout for me, it's very satisfying to see how far everyone has come and to offer them encouragement and let them know they can do it.

After I finished up a loop behind the slowest swimmers, Christine, Jane, Holly and I decided to sneak in a second loop while everybody headed out on the bike course. We started out as a pack, drafting off one another. I stuck to Holly's feet for a while, then decided to cut a bit to the left haflway to the first buoy. I hit my stride and just stroked out. I got past the buoy and snuck a look back to see how far ahead I had gotten. I was way out! So I decided to just put my head down and hammer. I was pretty winded--I was probably swimming in ZN4 for most of the swim, and my suit was feeling tighter and tighter around my neck, but I made up my mind not to let the other girls catch me. I knew I wasn't going to get much of a workout supporting participants for the rest of the day. I got out of the wanter a good 100+ yards ahead of everyone else and staggered up the ramp. I just can't get over that lightheaded post-swim feeling.

Back up at our makeshift T1, I took my time and waited for the others to catch up. It wouldn't be any fun heading out on the road alone. Once everyone was ready to ride, we headed north toward Foothill. Too bad the usual course was unrideable because of construction--it's really a lot more fun when you don't have traffic lights and cars to contend with.

Anyway, I turned back only about halfway out to the turnaround, because I wanted to get back to T2 in time to support runners coming in from the bike--and they'd already gotten pretty far ahead during the mentors' swim foray. I was feeling good--nice spin, down on the drops, solid spinning descents on the little bitty hills, and so it was wistfully that I turned around at Grant Road. Probably only covered about 7 miles. :-(

I got back to the park in time to get set up on a trail cheering folks on and running them up and down a nice little stretch covered with prickly weeds! As Christine came back from the bike, I went ahead and ran a little half mile loop with her, for probably no more than a total of 1-1.5 miles of running. Bummer.

As much as this season has been a good experience, I do not think I would like to be a mentor again. I don't thinkI am cut out for it, for one, and for another, I don't want to sacrifice my workouts when I'm actually training for an event. If I were to volunteer for the society again, I would probably be a training captain instead.

Sunday: Open water swim at Coyote Point. Shoulder really kicked this mornnging , so I only went about 1/2-3/4 of a mile, focusing on gliding. Then a light, light run for 20 minutes.

Anyway, on to...

Monday (Today, 10/23)--I considered a nice long spin, but in the end, I stuck with some light upper body endurance work with Tien. It was good for my core, and hopefully it will increase the intermuscular coordination in and around my right shoulder. I don't want to feel it hurting me anymore, especially next spring for WF 2007.

This week's goals:
No erroneous rest days! Spin for speed! Swim for technique! Light running focused on tempo/volume!

recovering from happy fish

Ah, the arrival of Monday, again a much needed rest day from training.

I'm feeling a bit of guilt for resting, because I think the past week of training has been a bit wimpy for my norm. Heavy on the running, mediocre on the swimming, and the Bianchi banshee is gathering DUST!!!

Last Monday, 10/9, was a rest day.

Tuesday, 10/10, was track night--I had a fantastic workout that night!
1/2 mile warmup
Hill repeats
Pyramid Intervals:
4x400
2x800
1x1600
2x800
4x400
a lap to cool down
...and about a zillion crunches.
The way I figure, with all the recovery thrown in between sets, I probably maintained an 8 minute mile pace for the whole interval set. Kickass!

Wednesday, 10/11, I did a light/moderate swim workout. We were meant to do 1700, but after 200 warmup and 200 of drills, I decided to do my own mini time trial of 1500m. I didn't go all out, but pretty much kept it to L2. I was pretty happy with the results--I finished in 31-32 minutes. For perspective, I finished my Wildflower swim (adrenaline and all) in about 29-30 minutes. So I'm pretty well on track.

Thursday, 10/12, I woke up and lamented the trials of being female. Not good foreshadowing for a great training day. Meant to do a straight brick: spinning for 55' with 11x2' hills, followed by a 20' run. Instead: Spun 25' with 5x2' hills, then ran 10' at 8' pace. An hour later, hopped back on for another 30' spin focusing on high cadance, no intervals. Sometimes you just have to listen to your body, especially when you're cramping like mad and super fatigued. At least I got the proper volume in.

Friday, 10/13. Still felt pretty wiped out, so I resolved to take a light swim. We were supposed to do 1600, but I didn't keep track--I just swam until Menlo Masters came and took over the pool. I think I did maybe 1300-1400?

Saturday, 10/14. Open water swim at Treasure Island! I was a bit apprehensive, as I'm not a fan of cold water swims where I can't see more than 2 inches in front of my face under water. Ick. That being said, the swim in the cove at TI wasn't half bad. The water was actually quite tolerable after a 5-10' warmup. As for visibility...well, hopefully Tri-California will have their big giant orange buoys out, because I SUCK at sighting. I suck at sighting so much, I can't even DRAFT properly--it's even hard for me to keep someone's feet in front of me. :-P Following the swim, we trekked back over to the parking lot for a quick transition to run. We did the whole run loop (5k) which is flat and fast. A note about Treasure Island--it's WEIRD there. Gray, abandoned military structures mixed with Section 8 housing. I kept expecting zombies to walk out of the run-down, boarded up buildings. Juxtapose this scene with the fact that a LOT of athletes use Treasure Island--runners, cyclists, and a few others no doubt tuning up for November 4th, but there were also a number of lovely, green manicured softball fields and soccer pitches among the remnants of urban blight. Surreal.

Sunday, 10/15. Happy Fish Swim School run for education. I signed up for the 10k. The morning dawned cloudy and icky and drizzly. I kicked myself for signing up on Active.com; that meant they already had my money, so I HAD to go. All in all, it was fun--another flat, fast course, which enabled me to reach my goal of finishing in less than 1 hour. I was pretty happy, actually; I finished in 56:07. Certainly not lightning fast, but not too shabby. Ruined me for the rest of the day, I'm afraid--all I wanted to do was laze around and watch my Netflix, so that's pretty much what I did.

Recent gear changes:
New running shoes. Switched from Asics Gel GT-2110 to Mizuno Wave 2 Nirvana. Pretty nice ride; not quite as cushy as the Asics, but better motion control for my little overpronation issue.

New goggles. Ditched the Aqua Sphere mask a couple months back because it wouldn;t seal properly anymore. The TYR's are great for low light conditions, but they give me a headache when I wear them for more than 30 minutes or so. Decided to give Aqua Sphere one more chance, and picked up a pair of Kaiman goggles. They are awesome! Super comfy, super watertight, nice wide field of vision, and they are black and sleek and make me look like a total badass. The one drawback--they sit very lightly on my face and pushing off kick-turns in the pool causes them to push really hard onto my face, in fact, right up against my eyeball every 400m or so. Truly a product intended for multisport use, not for the pool--perfect for racing!

Coming up this week...hopefully a little more cycling to tune up my spin, more swimming, and less running. I need to let my tissues recuperate from the increased volume over the past week. Also, I'm adding L-glutamine to the post workout regimen--we'll see how that changes my energy levels.

Regaining momentum

For the past two weeks, I've had a harder time making room in my life for workouts--not because the time wasn't there; it's the motivation that's been a bit low.

I'm trying to be a bit more proactive--I managed to get my tail away from work today for a much needed swim.

Warmup:
200 swim
200 kick
200 pull

Set:
6x50 @ L5 (10 second rests)
4x75 @L4 (15 second rests)
3x100 @ L3 (20 second rests)
1x800 @ L1-2

Cool down.

This proved to be more of a butt-kicker than I thought it should be. The speed work at the beginning really wore me out, and I had to take the 800 rather slow. I finished in about 16-17 minutes. With plenty of rest I can consistently swim 1000 to 1100 in that range, so I was a bit spent. Good practice for gliding out of a start, though.

Track practice was great last night. A couple hill repeats (I would have liked more, honestly) and 6 2/1 intervals on the track. Then a lot of lunging and abdominal work. Not sore today, but the legs were definitely a bit heavy this morning.

Tomorrow, I am going to have to make a real effort to get a nice, solid spin with some hill intervals in. I don't have a big enough chunk of time to take my bike out--and besides, it started raining today. Bluck. Guess the party's over.

Last weekend's team workout was pretty good--not much of a swim, just open water drills with no lane lines. Bike ride was nice, though--40 minutes out, as far as we could go, and then turn around and head back. I made it about 1/4 of the way down Canada Road from Burgess. I think 25 miles all told?

I'm able to pretty consistently get the bike up to 30mph on the descents now before I am stricken with the heebie-jeebies and have to start tapping the brake. Also, my cornering has gotten much better--Steph and I descended Kings Mountain Road last week. I actually thought it was fun! Way more technical than 84, but much less scary to me, because there are so few cars.

After the bike ride, I hurried home to grab my gear and make the drive out to Yosemite for a few days. I had intended to substitute a nice, brisk hike out to North Dome and back for my Sunday run, but the weather has different plans. A storm blew in from the eastern Sierra and foiled those plans. I suppose I could have donned my raingear and gone ahead with it, but it seemed a bad idea at the time, as large granite domes make excellent lightning rods!

On another note,I read an article that gave a few tests to do to see how responsive your bike is; i.e. how advanced a rider it is suitable for. I had always assumed that my bike was built for more stability than others I'd seen/tried. Not so! Turns out mine is very responsive and requires pretty decent bike handling skills. I'm not worried; I've been pretty comfy on it thus far because it's a good fit for my body.

Still...probably wouldn't hurt to invest in a set of rollers someday. *shudder* Better move into a place with a nice hallway to catch me when I fall!

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.

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.

test run

The past week+ has been a build, meaning the workouts are harder and focused on making specific strength and speed gains--i.e. tempo running, spinning with badass hill intervals, and swimming for distance.

Today is a double-header--bike and then swim with Christine--I just finished a quick spin down Foothill to Mountain View and back, working on cadence and testing out a few modifications to the trusty little steed.

1. New saddle. I replaced the stock Bianchi saddle with a Terry Butterfly--bonus that the titanium model was on sale! The reason for this? The stock saddle was a men's saddle that left my nether region quite torn up after any sizeable ride. The Butterfly has been recommended to me by pretty much every serious female cyclist I've asked about saddles. It has a lovely, strategically place hole in it to relieve pressure. The verdict--not too shabby!

2. Raised the seat by about 0.5 inch. Knees have been bugging me uphill for awhile, now--thought when I bought the bike, the professional fitting by Los Altos Bicycle Outfitters was perfect. This is exciting because it means my pedal stroke has evolved and I'm getting more efficient. Woohoo!

3. Removed the visor from my helmet. I did this because my trapezius has been bothering a me a LOT after rides lately. Removing the visor will hopefully increase my field of vision enough so that I don't have to keep my neck too extended while I'm down over the handlebar.

4. Replaced stock inserts in bike shoes with gel inserts. Hopefully this will absorb impact on the downstroke and help keep me toes from getting numb--though the occasional deep tissue sesh on my calves with Kristi does the trick quite well, also!

5. Increased pedal tension. Tension on the pedals is what makes it harder (or easier) to clip in and out. This is especially important at red lights (see my last entry). Contrary to what my recent spill might indicate, I actually needed to increase mine--My tension was previously so low that I would clip out and my cleat would immediately "slip" back into the pedal!

So that's a LOT of modifications to test out on one little ride--but they were all very minor.

Now, off to Burgess for a swim!

cycling follies

70 minutes on a spin bike feels like a very, very long time--especially in your nether regions. I'd much rather ride my bike. The scenery is just so much better.

I fell off my bike on Monday, in fact.

It was my first good-sized solo ride, though I'll admit I picked a kinda wimpy route--hey, I'm chicken about cars, okay? I did the Portola Loop from work and then swung down Junipero Serra to Foothill Expressway. Turned around in Los Altos and came back. About 30 miles or so, I think.

Anyway, as I was headed back on Foothill (roughly 2/3 of the way through my ride) I rolled up on a red light and forgot that my hand was on the horn instead of down on the drop where it usually is when I stop. So, the bike was a bit unbalanced. Normally not a big deal.

Except this time, it was...because I was a DUMBASS and didn't clip out of my pedal to put my foot down in time.

CRASH. Onto my right side.

Now, let me add that it was about 515pm, so there were plenty of people sitting at the intersection in their cars who, no doubt, got a good laugh out of me eating shit into the right turn lane. Hey, I'll admit I would have chuckled. If you're a cyclist for any length of time, you'll fall over at a red light or two.

I was so mad. Since I was on my right side, my right foot was pinned under the bike and got stuck in the drivetrain. I had to kick like a motherfucker to get my right foot clipped out so I could get my damn bike off me and get up.

With bloody knee and shin and bruised palm, I saddled up again and sped back to work. On the way back, I got stuck in the wake of a street sweeper for about 1/2 mile. Fucking-A. I had to brush like crazy to get all the grit out of my teeth. Some of it even got under my contacts!

The worst part of it all: I got blood all over one of my hula girl socks! *sniffle*

Also, of note: Foothill Expressway is covered with roadkill. I could not go a mile without having to swerve to avoid some sort of bloated, rotting corpse of a squirrel, skunk, or possum. Nasty stinky eeeeeewwwww!!!

swamp thing!!!

yikes.

yesterday evening was the first time i've gone for a swim since wildflower on may 7th!

i only went for the 1200 meter option--i wanted to see how my should would feel, and it seems okay today.

i forgot how much it wipes you out, though--i went to pick up my cousins adam and katie from SFO last night, and i DID NOT think i would make it.

anyway, during the swim i did not hit my lactate threshold, but my stroke went straight to hell from muscle fatigue! it felt like i was swimming through a dumpster full of old spaghetti. odd...it's always been the other way around--usually i'm out of breath before my stroke integrity breaks down. either it was a freak thing or my cardio base has exceeded my strength base!

today i did a spin workout--55 minutes at L2 with 5x4' intervals at L3 thrown in. Then, a bit of core work--about 120 reps or so--just to stay on top of it.

i think my attentiveness to nutrient timing is paying off. i've been recovering from hard workouts much faster than usual.

it really pays to take advantage of that 3o minutes post exercise to suck down some high quality protein--your muscles are like sponges!

tomorrow--pretty easy. run with rolling hills for about 30-40'. not too shabby, easy to fit in on a friday.

back from MN/first track practice

sigh....

we got back from our three week vacation yesterday morning at about 3am--so after a day of recuperating and restocking food supplies, i went off to MY first (not the team's first) track practice at Foothill College.

it was great fun--chris, ken, liz, and meggen did a good job mixing things up--we started with the requisite stretching session, a presentation from a physical therapist, and then we hit 3 separate stations for circuit style training: calisthenics with ken, stadiums intermixed with body weight strength exercises with meggen, and speed and power drills with liz.

then we did a brief ladder workout, 3 laps, 2 laps, 1 lap, trying to make each set up laps have splits 5 seconds faster than the one before it.

should not have had dinner before the workout, though--thought i was gonna puke at the end!

anyway, it was a bit humbling--it seems i've let myself go a bit this summer. i would have thought that 8 days in the wilderness with a 40# pack would have helped prepare me a bit, but evidently i had a bit too much of mom's good cookin' in the interim since. yeesh.

i shudder to think of this evening's impending pool workout--especially since my right shoulder keeps subluxing. sigh...one of these days i'll go to an orthopedist.