600s

I can't remember the last time I did 600m repeats. Actually, I can -- it was yesterday. And it went a little something like this:

1.2 mile warm-up
3 x 1.6 mile reservoir loop (7 lamposts recovery, 600m hard, three times each loop, for a grand total of nine 600s)
1 mile cooldown

It was painful. After the first 600 I told my coach my left hamstring was sore, which was true, and which I also intended to use as my excuse to loaf through the rest of the workout. After the first interval! I got back on my game after the third 600 and actually cranked out some fast ones. I heard a lot of grumbling about how strange it felt to run so fast, and then I realized I'm the only one on my team who ran track. Funny. Oh, and I actually ended up doing 10 of them because I doubled back after I finished and ran in with the stragglers.

So yeah, it was a good workout. I just have some mental issues to work out, which should come as no surprise to most of you.

Today I sat on my couch and ate Krispy Kremes.

Cross Country

Yesterday I ran a 15k cross country race at Van Cortland Park, and it was truly an awful experience. Not only was the race poorly run (started an hour late, mean volunteers, etc.), but the course was hard! I spent much of the race whining to myself. In retrospect it wasn't that bad, and I was kind of a baby about it, but I had no idea what I was in for so the roller coaster hills kind of caught me off guard. I need to prepare myself for these things. Also, my legs were very fatigued from the ride on Saturday which I'm sure contributed to my pain. Anyway, I finished in just under 1:31, which is about 9:45 pace. Not great, but it could have been so much worse. Clearly I am not the cross country superstar I once was.

After the race I went out to eat with two of my teammates. We ate, and ate, and ate. I had told myself I need to start watching what I eat, not to cut back or anything but more to make sure I'm eating well. My nutritional philosophy seems to be eat whatever I want and train to make up for it. Yeah, I guess I'll start working on that....tomorrow. Oh, so after our feast we went to B&N and I bought myself a cookbook of Rachel Ray's 30-minute meals. I'm going to force myself to cook something once a week....starting next week, of course.

Home Sweet Home (Part 2)

I'm back in NYC, and very happy to be here. I had a great trip to see my parents, but I think I left at the right time. I have no details to share, except for my father repeatedly calling me a "porker" for how much I ate. It seems the man does not understand/accept the increased appetite that comes with a high volume of training.

I biked 40 miles this morning. It was COLD, and hilly, but I did it. I spent the rest of the day lounging on my couch. I'm moving toward accepting the fact that I will soon have no life. As it is, the majority of my free time I spend recovering from workouts. Workouts are only going to get harder, recovery will take longer, I will develop an unhealthily intimate relationship with my couch.

Home Sweet Home

I'm in Iowa City for the week, and it has been ridiculously relaxing. A brief recap:

Sunday -- I slept my entire flight, still exhausted from Saturday. I slept for most of the day once I arrived. My mom and I did a yoga DVD Sunday night, which was very entertaining. She's not very flexible. And she has gas.

Monday -- I swam for an hour in the morning, got a facial in the afternoon.

Tuesday -- I swam for an hour in the morning, got a massage in the afternoon (there is a pattern here).

Wednesday -- I swam for an hour in the morning, ran for an hour in the afternoon. My left knee was sore after the ride on Saturday. I can't explain how it felt, but there was something funky going on in the back. The woman who did my massage said my hamstrings were really tight, so I thought that might have something to do with it. Anyway, I ran today and was 90% pain-free.

Tomorrow I have to get up early to bake pies. I'm hoping to sneak in a run before Thanksgiving dinner so I can indulge to my little belly's content.

Total Exhaustion

Today was a long day.

First I swam, from 6-7am with my team. We did a lot of drills. One big thing we're working on is learning to breathe on the alternate side. I breathe to the right but in Lake Placid the buoys will be on the left, so if I want to see any of them I need to breathe to the other side. That's a lot harder than it sounds. I swallowed a lot of pool water this morning. We also spent a good portion of the hour treading water, but with a flutter kick (as opposed to egg beater style) and with our arms over our heads. Again, not easy.

After the swim we had a fitting for our team apparel, which was uneventful. We actually have sponsors, so we're expected to wear team clothing whenever we're training as a group.

Then we had a strength training clinic from 8-9:30. For the next six weeks we're focusing on body weight exercises (squats, lunges, etc.). Right, so by 9:30 this morning my hip flexers and quads were shot.

Unfortunately, I still had to bike. I met up with some teammates at 12:30 and biked over the George Washington Bridge to NJ where we met the rest of our team. We did four hours of solid hills. Some hills we road down just so we could turn around and ride back up. Then we'd repeat the same hill until some coach got tired of it and picked a new hill. This lasted for 40 miles. I was a mess. Not only were my legs on fire to begin with, but my rear derailleur had a mind of it's own and kept switching gears on me at the most inopportune moments -- like I'm struggling up this hill, so let's switch her into a higher gear. Great, thanks. I was also a little low on fuel. I had had 1/2 a peanut butter & honey sandwich before the swim and the other 1/2 after but that's it, so by the middle of the ride I was in bad shape. I had a gu a little late, but it helped.

I had a very bad attitude about the ride when I got home. Most of it was due to exhaustion, but I was also a little annoyed with myself for falling apart. I think I'll be fine. I know what I need to working on (sticking to the workout plan, nutrition) and I think if I make some little changes to get those things in line it will make a huge difference in my training. Oh, I forgot to mention that I ran 5 miles on the treadmill yesterday. It was supposed to be my day off. So I would have had fresh(er) legs coming into the ride if I actually followed directions. Live and learn.

I'm going "home" tomorrow. It will be nice to have a change of scenery to train in, and I've actually been told to take it easy all week so it should be very relaxing. My mom and I have big plans to swim every morning, and I already have a massage lined up for Tuesday. It should be a great week!

So Relieved

Tonight I took a quick spin around the park to test out my rear tire and am relieved to report that it was fine. I was having such anxiety after my two flats last week. I overslept and missed the group ride this morning, which (besides the guilt) I was okay with because I was worried about having yet another mishap. Now I feel like I have my confidence back and I'll be ready to go for the group ride on Saturday.

I need to invest in some more winter riding clothes. I got new gloves and booties, which I tried out tonight. The booties are great (though a little funny looking), but I'm afraid the gloves were a rip-off. My fingers are numb and it's only going to get colder. I should also get a blacalava, probably before Saturday.

Head Case

Sometimes, I am a mental weakling. I totally talked myself out of the workout tonight, which sucks because I know I could have done really well. But I didn't.

We warmed up for a mile and then ran 4 x 1 mile hard with .5 mile recovery. The hard effort started on the path parallel to West Drive, under the overpass. Right, so we ran hard past the SW corner of the resevoir, continued through the bowl to the NW corner, and then back to the SW corner (all hard), recovering back to the overpass. This "hard" effort was supposed to be 10k pace. I don't know what my 10k pace is, so I started with the group that was feeling "sparkly, but not quite glowing" tonight. I stayed with them for the 1st repeat and most of the 2nd, and then I fell apart. It was such a conscious decision, like "I'm tired, so I think I'll stop pushing." Why? Why?? I finished the workout, but I know I sold myself short.

Mark My Words

I just spend TWO HOURS changing a flat tire. And I have no confidence that it won't blow again when I get on my bike on Thursday. I will not finish the IM if I get a flat. You heard it here first.

No Yo Ga

I didn't do the yoga DVD last night. Monday is my day of active rest, so I was actually supposed to do yoga tonday, but I didn't. So that's two straight days of inactive rest. At least I didn't go to the gym and run! I'm going to take a pilates class on Monday nights starting in January, so then my active rest will be much more structured.

My shins are starting to worry me. They've been bothering me since my long run last Saturday. I don't run every day, so they get to recover a little, but then whenever I do run it's on a hard surface so they flare up again. A trainer at the gym suggested I look into getting orthotics, but I'm not so sure.

On the Wagon

Thursday -- 3 miles on treadmill, lifted

Friday -- 2 miles on treadmill (supposed to take the day off from running but as I said, I have a PROBLEM)

I had practice Saturday afternoon which was great because I got some much needed sleep. We did 1.5 hours of running form drills which somehow really tired me out, and then ran 6 miles. I was going to bail after about 3 since we were on our own and very close to my apartment, but somehow I got guilted into doing the whole run. One of my teammates claimed to have something very important to talk to me about, something about the meaning of life, but he never came through so I'm guessing it was just a ploy to keep me running. It worked, and I'm glad I did the whole thing.

Today I am very sore, and not entirely sure why. I was supposed to bike this morning but I haven't fixed my tire yet and I think I could use the rest, so I'm going to do my yoga DVD tonight instead.

I'm thinking at some point in my training I will give up the bottle. I've learned my lesson about showing up for practice drunk, but I had a lot of wine on Friday night and it made me sluggish yesterday afternoon. It will be much easier if drinking just isn't an option.

Today = Not My Day

After my disaster on the bike, I came into work and got breakfast in the cafeteria. Somehow I managed to trip over myself, nearly sending my bagel and bacon flying, only to look up and see my old friend from the gym standing right there. Right on.

2 Flats Before 6

Every Thursday I (try to) get up at 5 to bike with my team. This morning I found a nail in my back tire about ten minutes into the ride. Fine, I can change a flat. There must have been something else in there because I got another flat not five minutes later. So sorry, but I try to limit myself to one flat before the sun comes up. Fortunately we were on the east side of the park so I had a short walk home. I'll try to get to the gym later so today isn't a total wash. And I guess I should take my bike in to have someone look at it since I, apparently, do not know what I'm doing.

The Christmas tree has arrived at Rockefeller Center. What happened to Thanksgiving?

Monday & Tuesday

My effort to follow my workout plan this week hasn't exactly gone according to, well, plan.

I have a serious problem. It seems I am incapable of going to the gym and not getting on the treadmill. I went yesterday with every intention of just stretching and lifting, but then I got there and I couldn't help myself! I only ran a mile before I forced myself off, but still. This is ridiculous. So I think from now on I just can't go to the gym on Mondays. Anyway, I lifted a bit with my arms (bench, triceps, biceps) and then tried to lift with my legs, but I couldn't figure out how to work the machine and I felt like a spectacle, so I left.

Today there was a great workout on the resevoir, but I was at work. I'll try to replicate it on the treadmill tomorrow.

Catching Up

I took my exam last Wednesday. Then I reclaimed my life.

Thursday I biked in the morning with my team. I don't remember what exactly we did, but it was 20-25 miles and it was so great to be back!

Friday I met my friend K. and her boyfriend (who were visiting for the weekend) out for a few drinks. Eight hours and more than a few drinks later, we went home. That probably wasn't the most advisable way to spend the night, as I had to get up very early on Saturday for my team's Tip 2 Tip run (northern to southern tip of Manhattan ~14 miles).

Fortunately, I didn't wake up hungover! But I did wake up drunk. On the subway up to Harlem I started chatting with a nice man who suggested that I not talk to or look at any of my teammates if I wanted to keep my blood alcohol level a secret. My friend E. said I looked "fragile" as soon as I saw him, and at about mile 6 someone else commented that I smelled like alcohol, but other than that I think I managed to avoid detection. Anyway, I've learned my lesson. I have never felt so completely awful on a run. I ran with the lead group the entire way so I assume some of the pain was due to the unreasonable pace, but at the time I figured the pace was probably comfortable and I was just a dehydrated mess (which I clearly was).

Yesterday morning I biked 30 miles in NJ. Then I went to watch the NYC marathon at mile 20 in the Bronx with two of my teammates. We waited for our friend M. and then ran the last 6.2 with her. It was so great and I totally want to run NYC! We escaped the bandit catchers at the entrance to the park and actually made it to within about 100m of the finish line before we were pulled out. M. ran an awesome race, which was really inspiring.

This week I'm going to try to follow my workout plan. I know I've said that before, but I really feel it's important for me to buy into the program at this point in my training. So today I'm going to the gym and I am not going to run. This will be interesting.