4000 Meters, Baby!

Tonight was a 90-minute long course (50 meter lane set-up instead of 25 yards) all-you-can-swim swim. A swim buffet, if you will.

I hopped in, first one in the pool, which I just love - the whole pool in front of you and you're the only one making waves - it's awesome. The 50-meter set-up makes keeping track of distance so much easier for me, as I get to count in 100's instead of by 50's. For some reason I can actually remember where I am in the set when it's long course and we're going distance.

Anyway, I got a strong start, finished the first 1500 meters (Lavaman race distance, the Olympic tri distance) feeling pretty strong, then cranked out the next 500 no problem. My arms started to get a little tired and I could feel my form falling apart around, so instead of focusing on pace I focused on trying to keep my form together. It was still hard.

I paused at 3000 meters to grab some water, then counted out my next 10 x 100 meters, and was so thankful to finish. I was tired, my legs were starting to cramp (weird), and I was hungry - the hungry part is scary since after workouts I'm usually not interested in food right away.

And in fact, after I got home and showered and put on warm clothes, I turned into the crazy hungry person who hates everybody. When I came home with my burrito and Rob's mahi mahi tacos I had to tell him to not talk to me until my blood sugar was properly elevated. For his own safety.

Now I'm fine - we've opened the first round of Christmas gifts, are packing the car, and I'm trying to figure out how early I can go to bed and still be considered a grown up...

My 10 Minute Mile Barrier

And how I broke it tonight! Woo!

We had a coached track workout tonight, in the rain, and there was a surprisingly large turnout. The warmup consisted of 4 x 100 meters of drills, including lunges, butt-kicks, high knees, and a slow jog. Then we got to the main set. Oh, the main set.

4 sets of 10 minutes of running, with 5-ish minutes of core work in between. I was determined to break 10 minutes on my first mile, then just try to keep it close to a mile in each of the remaining three 10 minute running periods. I purposely didn't look at my watch, I just ran, and I ran hard. I did try to get splits at each lap, and stopped the timer after my first mile.

So yeah, I broke ten minutes! By more than I thought possible!

My first lap was 2:10.55, the second lap was 2:19.26, the third lap was 2:23.33, and the last now-I'm-getting-desperate lap was 2:22.99, for a total mile time of...

9:16.13!

HOLY CRAP!

Of course, even though the ten minute period wasn't over, I had to walk - I was dying. Like thought my legs were going to shatter and my lungs were going to spontaneously combust kind of dying. Whoo.

I walked about a half lap before we stopped to do core work, which involved a lot of squats and lunges and not a ton of actual core, but whatever!

My second 10 minute period I nearly made it a mile - I was about 1/8th of a lap short, so I'd guess my mile time would be about 10 minutes and 10 seconds, or something close to it.

The third 10 minute period I made it a bit less than that - about 1/4 of a lap short.

The last 10 minute mile period was less stellar - I was about 1/2 lap short. That would still be under an 11-minute mile, and I held THAT pace for 4 miles. Even though they weren't continuous, I'm absolutely thrilled with that performance.

Of course now I feel not so great, and getting off the couch is rather challenging, but that's how you improve...

Swimming

Quick post - the pool is set up for long course, which means less flip turns, which means more swimming, which  means it's harder. Plus, there were like 100 people in each lane, so it's hard to get a good interval workout in. At any rate, here's what we did with our 90 minutes (we got 90 instead of 60 today - awesome!):

300 warm-up
10 x 50 meter kick with fins
8 x 50 drill/swim
100 easy free
300 free
6 x 50 free
3 x 100 free
6 x 50 free
100 easy free
10 x 50 pull
2 x 50, 25 hard 25 easy
100 warm down 3300

Christina was there tonight, and I'm keeping up with her more easily, which is nice to see. I like visible, measurable progress...

Blah

Two nights with my sister plus one holiday party = not feeling the workouts. I had to miss yesterday morning's run, but got on the bike in the garage today for a quick workout. I chose the IronGirl DVD because it's efficient - 30 minutes and you can select either the beginner, intermediate, or advanced workout. I chose advanced, mostly out of guilt. Advanced, apparently, means there is little to no recovery in between sets, and man was I sweating at the end of it. I'm happy I did it, but am very glad it's over, and now I feel a little ill...

Treadmill

I spent Thursday and Friday nights in SF with my sister, eating and drinking too much. But, we brought our gym clothes so Friday morning we hit the gym - I hopped on the treadmill and ran a quick 3 miles, the middle mile at a 9:50 minutes per mile pace, which for me was speedy.

Today I'm pretty wiped out, so am going to take a quick nap, then Rob and I have to go to a holiday party this evening.

Tomorrow I'd love to get in a longer bike and run in, but of course hate going by myself so am trying to find a brave soul to go with me... I might just end up on my bike trainer/treadmill in the garage...

...and then I saw a man with no feet.

I was a bit tired and mopey last night, but got in the water anyway knowing that I have a couple days in front of me where it will be hard to get a good workout in. I was feeling whiny and sluggish and didn't want to be in the water...

...and then a man with one leg got in the lane next to me for an independent workout.

I sucked it up and swum hard after that. It's hard to remember what I'm doing this for sometimes, but every now and then there's a little reminder that this is for a good cause. And as a secondary benefit to the raising money for cancer research part of it, we all are improving our fitness and overall health as well. I need to remind myself of those things every now and then to keep my motivation high.

The swim last night was as follows:

200 warmup
5 x 50 kick
8 x 50 drill/swim
1 x 100 IM (I added this one on my own)
4 x 300 free (officially the workout was to do 3 but I got an extra one in)
4 x 150 free
50 warmdown
Total: 2800 yards!

Most yards I've put in all season so far. Next step is to add more sprinting, a la water polo workouts...

Running in the Rain

Tonight was an extra Captain's track workout - led by one of the workout "captains." It was raining, so there weren't very many people there - six of us, not counting the coach. The workout was short and sweet - I did a 1-mile warmup (11:18 pace), then we did a ladder set consisting of 2 laps (1/2 mile) of a 100 meter sprint/100 meter recovery/100 meter sprint/100 meter recovery (400 meters in one lap), 2 laps of a 50 meter sprint/150 meter recovery/50 meter sprint/150 meter recovery. Then we did 20 lunges (whoo, that was fun after my spinning workout and sprinting), then back "up" the ladder - so repeat the set in reverse. "Only" 2 miles of main set, but it still felt pretty darn hard. My overall pace was just under 11 minutes per mile for the main set (my fastest lap was about 2:27 and my slowest, I think, was around 2:45), so I'm happy with that, especially given that there was a bit of walking during the recovery part.

Now the Christmas tree lights are on and I'm in flannel pajamas and about to put my feet up and dive into a good book...

Spinning!

My goal this year is go sub-3 hours, and now that I have a specific time goal I am totally obsessed with it. I find it much more motivating to be aiming for a faster time than the more nebulous "I just want to finish," and it makes the training a LOT more fun/interesting/pointed/intense. Add to that my HRM/GPS and I'm a total freak about this now. I'm reading books, talking to coaches, logging my workouts, and just generally working harder than I was last year. It's totally fun.

I just finished a spinning workout in the garage on my bike trainer. I have four cycling DVDs, and this one focuses on sprinting. It works on a 1:5 sprint:recovery ratio, which supposedly works some specific system over another that cyclists supposedly neglect blah blah blah...

It was hard, that's all you need to know.

After the warmup, there were 5 sets of 10 seconds of all-out sprinting followed by 50 seconds of recovery. We went through that twice with a 2 minute recovery spin in between, then a third set where we do a 5-second "lead-up" to the sprint, building our pace gradually over the 5 seconds to the all-out sprint. I seem to have blocked out the middle part of the workout and can't remember it at the moment.

What I do remember is the set of plyometric jumps. Ho-ly crap were those hard. We got off the bike and spent 30 seconds crouching down and exploding up off the ground. 30 seconds doesn't sound like a lot until you're 15 seconds in and want to cut your legs off because it would feel better. After one last triplet set that involved actually standing up to sprint for 15 seconds with 45 seconds of recovery, we hit the cool down part - my favorite!

I love the feeling of being done with a challenging workout. It's so satisfying.

Also, I find it entertaining that I keep using "we" when it was really just me in the empty garage with a DVD. At least I didn't curse at this one.

Double Day

I just got back from a swim tonight - what a difference a weekend makes! I felt great in the water and was holding a pretty fast pace. At least I think I was - the lanes were crowded tonight and speedy Christina wasn't there to kick my butt.

The set was pretty straightforward:

300 warm-up
8 x 75 kick-drill-swim
150, 250, 350, 250, 150, first and last 50's hard, the rest easy
6 x 50 pull
200 warmdown
Total yards:
2550

Not bad for an hour's swim. The first hard 50 I did I swam in about 35 seconds, which is pretty darn good. Don't know if I could hold that pace, but it was nice to pop up and see the clock after the first one!

Now, something to eat and then to bed!

Improvement

You know, I just looked at a run I did one month ago, on November 16th. The GPS software stores all of my workouts and information, which is great fun and apparently very motivational. The run I did one month ago? I ran 3.99 miles at an average pace of 13:36 minute miles.

In the span of one month I've improved my running pace over 2 minutes per mile. I just have to happy about that and stop being so hard on myself. 11:25 minute miles for me are great, period.

5.91

I just ran 5.91 miles. I am tired. This will be a short post as I have to go soak in a tub and maybe take a nap.

I wore my GPS and tried to stay very conscious of my pace, stride length, and shoulder/head position, but I could feel myself get tired and start to fall apart. I ran my usual ~5.7 mile route, and I felt pretty strong so I decided to extend it by just a bit at the end, and instead of cutting into the neighborhood where I usually do I went around the block and added another 0.1-0.2 miles, which is better than nothing! Baby steps, right?

Anyway, I'm encouraged that my average pace was ~11.26 minute miles - for that distance that's a season best for me, and hopefully I'll only get faster as I work more on speed. Today I mostly wanted distance and form, so I'm happy with that performance.

There's a swim tonight that I'll go to as well - that should kick my butt for sure.

It's time for me to officially recommit to TNT, which means I have to give credit card information in case I don't reach my fundraising minimum. I really, really need to get on the fundraising and get over my mental block.

Now I am icing my knees - it feels like heaven. The bath I take next will be even better. :-)

Ride-N-Tie

I have no idea why this workout is named the "Ride-N-Tie," but there you go. We were partnered with another person about our height, and shared a mountain bike. One team member began running while the other began riding, eventually leaving the bike at the side of the trail for the runner to come upon and pick up and start riding while team member number 1 runs. We leapfrog like that for three 2.2-mile loops for a total of 6.6 miles - not too bad! There is a lot more running than you might think, and I purposely kept my bike rides short so I could do more running since that's where I need the most help. Coach Keith was riding next to me for a while as I ran, giving me pointers and telling me to step it up and get some intervals in there. I mentioned my issues with heart rate - that as soon as I start running it's through the rood - and he said he used to be the same way (and he's a swimmer first and foremost so understands my issues with running!) but that after ~5 years (5 years? Really?) he's gotten better so now when he jogs his HR is in the 130's. It gives me hope. Long term hope, but hope nonetheless.

Anyway, my partner and I completed three laps in good time, although I forgot to start my watch so I don't have an actual time, but I did feel strong and felt like I was running faster than I usually do. Actually, I was a little amazed - I tried running "harder" (which probably doesn't look like much, but feels like a lot to me) and was able to hold that pace for much longer than I thought I could. Progress is good.

It's been wet outside, and we were on fire roads, and the roads were muddy. I came home covered - mud on my face, on my legs, my pants were filthy, it was great!

Now, I'm showered and wearing fleece and considering a nap... :-)

Sluggish Friday Night Swimming

My only goal was to get in the water today, but the only time I could go was in the evening. The Campbell pool is open for lap swimming at 7 Monday through Friday, and I figured there wouldn't be very many people in the pool.

It gets dark so early and it's Friday night - let's just say my motivation was low. Like really, really low. I really had to force myself to just go and get in, figuring my worst case scenario was that I'd just swim 2000 yards in smaller easy sets and call it a day. My hunch was right - there weren't many people there and I had my own lane, which is always lovely. My sad little workout was as follows:

500 warm-up
4 x 100 IM
100 (75 drill 25 swim)
400, every 4th lap hard
300, every 3rd lap hard
200, every 2nd lap hard
100 all hard
100 warm-down

I felt like I was dragging a sack of sand as I was swimming - I was so tired and sluggish, and for no good reason. Maybe I didn't eat enough today, but I suspect that I was a bit dehydrated. I had a fair bit of Diet Coke and not enough water and have been doing some reading about hydration; apparently "studies have shown" (in quotes because I haven't read the primary studies) 2% dehydration translates into a 10% decrease in performance. I need to pay closer attention to that, apparently.

Tomorrow is the "ride-n-tie." I have no idea why it's named that, but essentially I'm paired with another TNT athlete and we alternate between running and riding a mountain bike around a fire road/trail. So say my partner starts running and I start riding - I pick a distance, then dump the bike and start running. When she gets to the bike she picks it up and starts riding, passes me, and picks a distance then dumps the bike, etc etc until we go about 4 miles (I think). It's pretty fun, most people dress up in costume but my partner and I aren't feeling it so we're going as "triathletes" and calling it a day.

I'm drinking tons of water now and going to bed soon.

The rest of tomorrow is all about being a lazy bum. And maybe a nap. Sunday we are going Christmas tree hunting with friends who have kids - should be a riot and we'll get lots of pictures to post I'm sure. In the meantime, here's a really flattering one of me swimming last weekend:

And one of the team at our "color war" track night (can you find me?):

I'm Training for an Ironman

Okay, so I'm "only" training for a 1/4 Ironman, but the sentiment is the same. I laughed my ass off at this.

Dear Chris Carmichael...

...Your cycling DVDs are killer!

It's rainy and gross outside today, but I needed to cram in some kind of bike workout, so I popped in one of my spinning DVDs and set up my trainer in the garage and off I went. I figured I'd do about 30 minutes of intense spinning then call it a day. The DVD I put in contained a 65-minute workout. Okay, I'll just go for 30-40 minutes (notice the time already creeping up?) and then hop off.

Right.

I totally did the whole thing, and I cycled hard!

The DVD, called "Cycling for Cadence," focuses on your pedal speed (or cadence) and increasing your power output while maintaining a certain rpm. I don't have a bike computer that tells me any of those data points, but I watch the people on the screen and try to match their pedaling. When that fails, I put my head down and just pedal as fast as I can. There are a number of sets, where you pedal really fast at a low resistance for 2 minutes, 3 minutes, and 4 minutes with 1 minute breaks in between. Then you get a ~4 minute break, then you do two sets of 5 speed intervals of 30 seconds on/30 seconds off. The "on" means high cadence and high power - so increase the resistance but keep your cadence up - for 30 seconds, then recover at a low resistance/high cadence for 30 seconds. Five times through, ~3 minutes rest, then do it again. THEN you get to the good stuff.

At this point I'd finished my water bottle, so I hopped off my bike to refill it during the break. I have clipless pedals, which means my shoes clip directly to the pedals of the bike, and to exit you spin your toes inward and the clip unlatches and you can step out. I, being a bit tired, leaned to get off the bike before properly unclipping, and over I went, bike, trainer, and all, onto the garage floor.

Awesome.

No injuries except bruised pride, which really isn't so bad when you're the only one there.

The last set was killer - three sets of 3 minutes on/3 minutes off, where the 3 minutes "on" was high cadence/high resistance, and the "off" was moderate cadence/low resistance. "High" resistance for me is only a cog or two up the chain ring, not much but I can really feel the difference, and for the very last set I spent all 3 minutes in a higher cog than I had before, and really focused on keeping my cadence up. Three minutes is a long time, and to get through it I can't watch the clock so I just put my head down and close my eyes and listen to the awful music they have playing on the DVD. When the idiot on the screen opened his mouth and said "You only have..." I figured that was going to the 30-seconds-left mark, but then he said "one minute..." - and I thought, okay, I can do one more minute of this, but then clearly he'd read his stopwatch incorrectly, because he added "...and a half left!"

I actually cursed out loud at him.

Again, glad I was by myself.

After that, there was a ~7 minute cool down, which was just spinning at a low resistance to loosen up your legs again.

Oh, I almost forgot - of course I started the set chewing gum, and guess what happened? It fell out of my mouth! I really need to rethink this gum chewing habit, but I don't know how else to not end up with a really dry mouth...

I STILL can't run and chew gum.

Last year I posted a similar theme. Last year, while running, I looked down and my gum, which I chew to avoid dry mouth, flew out of my mouth and promptly froze on the track. You would think I'd learned my lesson, but nooooo, I still try to be extra-advanced on the track and chew gum and run.

I also couldn't help but notice that there are huge signs at the track specifically prohibiting gum chewing. I wonder if that was because of me.

Anyway, we opened with some drills - 400 or 500 meters worth - including butt kicks, fast feet, building to a sprint, lunges, and side-steps. Then it was a ten-minute warm-up, of which I only did ~8:30 (and three laps) because our next run was two times miles. Oh, my favorite. Coach Keith was there, and I've asked him for some extra help getting me under 3 hours this year, so I was especially conscious of my pace. And kind of embarrassed because I'm so damn slow.

I felt pretty strong, and for the first few laps ran a good pace. I wasn't looking at my watch because I didn't want to get taken out of the moment and concentrate too hard on what lap I was on; I was trying to concentrate on my pace and pushing myself just a bit harder than I usually run. I mean really, it was only two miles, right?

About two laps in I started pushing a bit harder, and - now remember I am chewing gum - and I'm working on relaxing my shoulders and keeping my head up (apparently it's a more efficient way to run), and I take a big breath in...

... and my gum gets stuck in my throat.

I kept running, feeling rather calm (realizing I could still breathe helped), but noticing that the gum was pretty well lodged. I figured the worst case scenario was that it shifted and went down the wrong pipe, at which point I stop one of the thousand other runners out there and have them give me the heimlich, but as it turned out I took one big breath, swallowed, and the gum went right down. Whew. Of course, then I felt ill, but that might have been the big bowl of cereal I ate about an hour before the workout. I was hungry, so what?!

At mile 1 I hit the lap button on my watch, but didn't look at it as I didn't want to get discouraged or excited, I just wanted to keep running and finish strong.

Keith yelled at me - "Go Megan! Make it hurt!" Which seemed a bit unnecessary as I felt like I might die at any moment, but I appreciate the thought. Also, it helps to know I'm being watched - I certainly picked up my pace when I was running in front of the coaches!

My last lap was strong - there was a woman who passed me and I made it my personal mission in life to keep up with her and pass her at the end. I think she could hear me sticking with her, because she kept picking up her pace as I would get closer, but with about 1/8 of a lap left I turned it on and sprinted to the finish and passed her. Victory! (Every little thing helps.)

My total time: 20:24! I checked my watch - mile 1 was a 10:07 and mile two was a 10:17 mile. I am rather impressed with myself, even though I had to spend a good amount of time bent over nearly puking and catching my breath.

Tonight's workout gave me hope that I might actually break three hours this year - if I keep it up hopefully I'll get there! Fingers crossed.

Swimming!

Tonight was a swim workout at Santa Clara, with a swim seminar before to discuss technique. I attended mostly because I'm interested in the differences between these guys' recommended technique and everything I have ever learned as a swimmer...

Their recommended technique is to "catch" the water by cocking your wrist, then pulling with a straight-ish arm in a straight line. I was always taught to catch the water by bending your elbow to ~90° and keeping it high, then pull using an hourglass shape. This way, you pull more water per stroke and are actually pushing at the end instead of pulling, which is more powerful. I'm bothered by this discrepancy, enough to have sent an e-mail to another one of the coaches who has a swimming background to try and clear it up. Maybe my technique is outdated, but all the videos I can find online recommend the way I was taught, not this straight-line-pull technique. Anyway, I'm mostly worried that people are getting misinformation, and swimming is all about technique, and I want them to go faster. Either that or I want to fix my stroke so I can go faster.

I was not motivated tonight - but am glad I went. My interview kind of took it out of me today (but I think it went well - hard to say but I'll keep you posted!) so I was feeling a bit tired. Christina was in my lane and that's motivating for me since she's so much faster, and it actually turned into a nice little workout. Swim went as follows:

300 warm-up
8 x 50 kick free
3 sets of 4 x 50, drill/swim
3 x 50, 25 hard, 25 easy
3 x 100, 50 hard, 50 easy
3 x 150, 100 hard, 50 easy
6 x 50 drill/whatever (I did breathing drills since I'm an air hog)
200 warmdown

For a total of 2500 yards. Not bad for an hour! We timed our hard 100s in the 3 x 150 part, and I was really surprised to find my first two were 1:17 and my second was 1:18 - for me that's spectacular to hold in a workout. Granted, we had lots of rest, but still. I'm getting stronger.

I'm about to head off to bed - I'm exhausted!

Interview...

...on Monday morning. Please cross fingers and toes for me. Spending the rest of today and all day tomorrow preparing (although how on earth do you prepare when they can ask you anything in the world about science?!)...

Daily Mile tells me...

...that I burned 1269 calories today.

That just can't be right (but I hope it is)!

Check out my progress to the right - so far I've gone 80 miles total of swimming, biking, and running - not too bad for a month, where I hardly cycled at all!

Whew!

Today was an official TNT workout at Burgess Pool in Menlo Park. The calendar said 8AM, so of course I rolled in at 7:40 and sat in my warm car for 20 minutes waiting for people to show up. I need to remember that the workouts actually start 30 minutes after the time posted on the calendar...

The workout was to be a swim and a bike, but I brought run stuff just in case. Also, it is wet outside - not raining, but the roads are still wet from some previous rain, so I packed many layers. My bag was overstuffed and not organized well. In fact, I desperately need a new tri bag. Mine is one big compartment with some pockets that have all ripped so nothing stays where it's supposed to, and I can never find anything. My wet stuff gets the rest of my gear soaked, my dirty shoes are jammed in with my clean clothes, and my keys go floating into the main compartment - especially annoying when you are soaking wet and covered in mud and trying to get into your car to go home and get warm!

We began this morning with an injury-prevention seminar from a physical therapist, which was great. My hamstring has been bothering me, but just a twinge here and there - nothing major, but I'm going to keep a close eye on it to make sure it doesn't blow up into a bigger deal. I would be extremely disappointed to ruin the season at this point!

Aside: I hit a tipping point today and am absolutely excited about this event. My workouts have been great, the people are awesome, I feel fantastic. Now, just have to raise some money...

Anyway, post-injury prevention seminar we hopped into the pool. Christina wasn't there today, so I didn't have her speedy feet to follow (seriously, she is so fast), and as people hopped in no one joined my lane. The lane adjacent to mine had three people, and I invited someone to hop over but had no takers, because they "didn't want to get lapped right away."

It's funny, because I'm really not that much faster than any of them, and Christina is 100 times faster than I am. I think I might have better stamina, so can hold faster speeds for longer, and that's how I end up lapping them? I don't know.

Michelle hopped in a few minutes late, after we'd all finished our warm-ups, and the lanes were all so crowded that she glanced down at me in my very own lane and her face fell. I joked that I was going to start taking this personally! Do I have cooties? Anyway, I talked her into joining my lane and we split the lane, meaning instead of swimming circle pattern we each took half the lane and swam it straight. That way we could each go at our own pace without running into each other. Less frustrating for both of us.

The workout was fun - ~200 warm up follows by a pyramid set:
50, 100, 150, 200, 200, 150, 100, 50 for a total of 1000 yards of main set.
I finished a little early, so the coach for the day had me jump right into the next set, which was 5 x 100 yards on an interval that gave me between 5 and 10 seconds rest. I figured a 1:50 would probably be a good pace for me, thinking I would be swimming about a 1:40 100, but when I hit the wall after the first one I realized that was way too conservative - I'd come in at about 1:27, so I made 1:35 my interval and was able to hold it for all 5 swims.

Next we played "swim golf," where you count your strokes and add that to your time in seconds. You want the lowest number possible. I predicted 17 strokes per lap and was right on for my first 50, then I was at 18 or 19 for the rest of them. My "golf scores" were 75 (35 strokes + 40 seconds), 74, 74, 73, and 74. At least I'm consistent.

I had a 100 warm down after that, but one of the women watching asked me to do a lap of fly, which I always love (for a lap, at least), so really it was a 25 fly sprint and a 75 warm down.

After the workout was over, the entire pool gathered in the shallow end for a "gauntlet swim." Essentially people lined one lane on both sides, and then people swam the "gauntlet" while we all splashed the hell out of them. It was crazy and fun and great for people who aren't that familiar with the craziness that is an open water swim start. Seriously, it can get violent.

We then crammed ourselves into bike gear for a ride, and I was so concerned with getting a good spot in the way-too-small locker room that I ran in with my bag, stripped off my suit, and only then realized I'd left my towel outside.

Oops.

I "dried" off with an extra shirt I brought, then crammed myself into my cycling gear: sports bra, cycling jersey (both of which got stuck and took some serious maneuvering to get into), cycling shorts, leg warmers, jacket, socks, and cycling shoes. I have never felt more like a sausage in my life.

The ride was a simple out-and-back, but of course it started to rain as we were rolling out and the roads were soaked. All of us had that attractive stripe of water and dirt and mud up our backs - mine going all the way into my hair! I felt very strong on this ride, and my pace was a little over 14 mph, which for me is really quite good. I ran into a couple of people on the ride and as we were introducing ourselves the guy (Dave?) asked if I was the Megan that people were talking about in the pool.

This is getting ridiculous. I was a bit embarrassed and tried to play it off by laughing about how slow I am at everything else, but it kind of makes me not want to get in with the group. I just want to put my head down and do my workouts and leave it at that!

Anyway, the ride was lovely, and I didn't even realize my toes were numb until I took my bike shoes off afterwards. I rode for just over an hour and hit a little over 15 miles (last year, for Thanksgiving, I got lost in the Paso Robles hills and rode under 15 miles but in like 2 hours. Granted, there were LOTS of hills, but I think I'm in better shape now than I was last year at this time! YAY!), and I feel very good about that.

My overall time last year was 3:04:34, and this year I'd love to get under 3 hours. Coach Keith has kindly agreed to help me with my speed (or lack thereof) - he's known within the group as someone who'll spend extra time helping, looking at your form, and giving extra workouts and tips to help you get faster, and he's super nice about it and seems excited to do it. There's one woman he's helping who's a great runner but needs help swimming, so she and I are going to hook up to help each other out, although I fear I'm a lost cause in the running department...

I'm finally excited about this thing. It took me a month of reluctant workouts to get back in the groove, but today I finally got over the wall and think it's going to be a great season!

WTF Blogger?

The ads change often on this blog based on the content. I tried to get a screen shot of the ad that was just at the top right side, but for some reason my screen shot camera screwed it up so I can't post it here.

It was an AARP ad.

Really?

Rest Assurance

Yesterday was a lovely off day, and although I ate too much I felt very rested, albeit unmotivated, today. I finally dragged myself out of the house, thinking I'd just get in a couple of miles of running and call it a victory, but in the back of my mind I was hoping I'd feel so good I'd keep going.

Indeed, not only did I feel great and keep going, I even felt strong at the end of my run! My pace is still abysmally slow, but at least I am feeling a tad bit better while running so slowly. I broke the 12-minute-mile pace today, running 5.77 miles in 1:08.40, for a pace of about 11:50-something. The run was fantastic - about 50 degrees and cloudy, which I think is perfect since I overheat so easily (why, then, am I doing another tri in Hawaii of all places? Not sure on that one...), but I actually overestimated how cold it would be and ended up with too many layers on. I wore my fancy-schmancy winter run pants that are super thick (and, I think, more flattering as they hold everything in and prevent jiggling - let's call them my Spanx running pants), a long-sleeve tech top with neck-zip, and a hot pink windbreaker over that. I forgot my HeadSweats visor, which was unfortunate (partially because I sweat a lot and it keeps the sweat from running into my eyes and partially because it says "Lavaman 2010" on it and I like to show off while running slowly - maybe I should wear it backwards so people can see it as they are passing me), but about 15 minutes into the run I was overheating. I decided to call it "faux hot weather training" and left all the layers on and mostly zipped to get the feel for running while a tad overheated. Last year that was the hardest part - running in the heat and humidity - and it makes a huge difference in performance I think. If I can get some practice in heated conditions I think I might be better off this year..

Anyway, I think it's fun to have a familiar route, especially through neighborhoods. Maybe I'm nosy, but I like to see what people are doing to their front yards and which houses are being renovated and who's out walking their dog and whether the vultures are hanging out near San Tomas Aquino Creek again waiting for me to keel over. Not today, vultures! Today I found a black squirrel on one of the streets in our neighborhood, which is something fun to keep my eye out for the next time I run that route.

I finished my run strong - actually consciously picking up my pace as I got closer to home, feeling strong. Well, feeling strong until I stopped running - once I opened the garage door and came inside I just about fell over. I spent a good amount of time stretching and using the foam roller to get some tight spots in my legs, and now I can just feel my hamstrings tighten up as I sit here...

Also, there's something about the right side of my body that makes it more injury-prone. My right hamstring is the one that was bothering me last year, and I've been extremely careful to treat it gently this year but I can still feel it twinge and pull and tighten up. My right hand and wrist is bruised from whacking the lane line while swimming (clearly I need more practice swimming in a straight line), and today the bottom of my right foot felt like it was pulling while I was running. The pain went away but I think I need to stretch out the bottoms of my feet with tennis balls. I wonder if we have any? Add it to the list of crap triatheletes need. Sometimes I think this whole event is one big racket to get us to buy gear...

Now, since dailymile.com tells me I burned about 650 calories, I get to start thinking about my late lunch.

A burrito, perhaps?!

Donations and Days Off

So Rob's company matches donations - so FYI to my three readers, if there is a donation in your future, send it to me (I promise to not spend it on burritos, although it's tempting as I've found a great burrito place around the corner!) and I'll give it to Rob and he'll donate through Cisco to get the matching! Then I only have to raise half as much! Woo!

Today is an off day for me, and I'm feeling guilty about it already. I think that's bad. I need to allow myself the rest days, especially at the beginning of the season when my endurance isn't so great. I have a couple hours of time right now that could be used running or biking, but rest is also an important part of the training regimen, and I have workouts through next Wednesday so I'd better just take today off and get over myself.

The other hard part of days off is that I have the mindset that an off day means I can eat whatever I want (like burritos, my current obsession). Not true! I'd better go eat an apple before I get into the candy that Rob brought home last night...

Holy Great Swim Batman!

Tonight was a Team in Training official workout at Burgess Pool in Menlo Park - the site of the dreaded bubble-covered pool. There weren't too many people tonight, so we all got to swim at the same time and cut out the core workout so we could cram in more yards. We also scored some outside lanes, so there was no bubble swimming for me! Woo!

We initially had one lane, then expanded to two lanes, then Coach Mike pulled me and the faster girl, Christina, into a third lane so he could abuse us specifically. Awesome!

We got our own longer workout that consisted of the following:

250 warm-up
6 x 50 yards drill/swim
Ladder set: 150, 250, 350, 250, 150 (first and last 50s easy, middle part hard)
8 x 50 with fins, as long as you can go underwater, then backstroke
8 x 25s, descending 1-4 and 5-8
100 yards for time (with fins) - I hit 1.04-something, humiliating.
100 warm down

Total yards: 2250

Christina is super fast, and it's very humbling to swim with her - but she's only 22 so I don't feel that bad about getting smoked!

I'm wired and exhausted at the same time, if that's even possible.

Strides

Tonight was an extra run workout at Foothill College. I carpooled with my awesome mentor Erin and her husband George, who was running the show (so to speak!). We were early, so Erin and I walked a mile around the track to stay warm while people showed up. We then jumped into the official warm-up - a 15-minute run/jog/walk at intensity level ~5. I started my watch and somewhat surprisingly ran an 11-minute mile, then because I had 4 minutes left in the warm-up I went one more lap.

So far: 2.25 miles, feeling pretty good.

Except then, as we were stretching, George described the "main set." There were two options, one for more seasoned runners who'd already been doing speed work, and one for the less experienced runners who were new to speed work.

Guess which workout I did?! That's right! The one for the less experienced runners! Actually, even with experience I am still slow, so whatever.

The main set included a one lap run at intensity level ~5 (steady, easy pace), then each subsequent lap included a 100-meter (1/4 lap) dash at intensity level ~8 followed by a 300 meter (3/4 lap) recovery run/jog/walk. No stopping, go for 30 minutes. Sounds easy, right?

I took my splits, for a good laugh, and whoa are they bad.

The first lap, the easy run part, was fine, and my split was 2.48.77. Then I hit the 100-meter dash at the beginning of the second lap, and started strong, felt fast, legs moving quickly, form was good...

Then I hit about 50 meters into the dash and thought I might die. My form fell apart, I slowed down. I made it through that first dash and jogged the remaining 3/4 lap to recover, breathing so heavy I thought my lungs might explode. Split for lap two: 2.43.47 - not bad! Faster!

The second sprint I started strong, but not as strong - a slower start so I wouldn't fall apart at the end, but it didn't help much - I finished the sprint heaving and feeling sloppy. Frustrating, but I jogged the rest of that lap as well, which I considered a major victory. Split for lap three: 3.00.69. Significantly slower.

Third sprint (and fourth lap) - my sprint felt fantastic until I hit the 100 meter mark and my legs wanted to explode. I had to walk after that sprint. For about 1/4 lap. Then, back to jogging. Split for lap four: 3.01.44. Clearly my sprint was faster, but the walking averaged out the total lap time.

Fourth sprint/fifth lap: 3.20.63. Clearly getting tired at this point.

Fifth sprint/sixth lap: 3.18.54. Thinking I might die at any moment by this point.

Sixth sprint/seventh lap: 3.11.74. Here I think I hit a pace, and finally figured out how much I should be walking after the sprint. Still, considered lying down in the middle of the track and crying. My legs were falling off at this point.

Seventh sprint/eighth lap: 3.10.46. On pace, but pace is crappy. Think jogging into traffic might be less painful than more running.

Eight sprint/ninth lap: 3.23.25. Here, I am falling apart. I can't feel my legs, even though I am walking a significant amount of the lap after the sprint, and it takes me a long time to catch my breath after the sprint. I could swear someone ran up next to me and stabbed me in the ribs, but no. It's just a side cramp. Walk with my arms over my head like an idiot, trying to take slow, deep breaths.

Ninth sprint/tenth lap: 3.31.16. Struggling to stay upright. As I rounded the last corner, George tells us we should start the cool down. He means slow down and recover. I want to lie down and cry. I keep running.

I got in two extra laps at the end, one jogging and one walking, to cool down. My total time for the ten laps (or 2.5 miles) was 31.30.15, which averages out to a ~12 minute and 36 second mile. Slow.

But, my total mileage included a 2.25 mile warmup, a 2.5 mile speed workout, and a 0.5 mile cool down, for a grand total of 5.25 miles on the track. For me, that's good.

Afterwards, George, Erin and I went to Rojo's Wraps for dinner and I had a spectacular veggie wrap, then came home for a long hot shower. The thermometer on my car said 45 degrees when I came home, and I couldn't stop shivering.

Tomorrow night is a swim workout that I will call my recovery workout - it'll be in "the bubble," an enclosed pool that is hot, steamy, and crowded. It will be slow and it will feel like someone is sitting on my chest and I will probably hate it, but the warm water will be good for my legs.

Because my legs, tomorrow, will be screaming at me. I can already feel it.

Thanksgiving

This post will be quick because I just want to get in the workouts and move on to tonight's debacle of a run.

We went to Placerville for Thanksgiving to spend some time with Rob's parents. I'd packed my running gear, it was weighed and ready for loading...and accidentally left at home. I freaked out, as missing five days of workouts is like starting over. Rob, my hero, had a friend pick up the bag and meet him at a little airfield to pass it off so I could get a run in while we were out.

So in Placerville I dragged Rob out with me on Friday morning for a little 2.26-mile run that consisted entirely of hills. That was rough. The elevation profile is extremely entertaining, as is my speed, which is inversely proportional to the incline. Oh, I am slow. But - at least I got a run in. I felt good about that.

The swim last night was spectacular! There was a woman in my lane who was way faster than me, which was amazing - we were pushing each other and it was a nice change to the regular slow pace I usually get stuck in during those workouts. We crammed in a lot of yardage last night as well - about 2600 yards total:

300 yard warm-up
8 x 50 yards kicking
3 sets of 4 x 50 yards drill/swim
3 x 25 (fly back breast)
3 x 50 free
3 x 100 free
3 x 50 free
3 x 25 fly
6 x 50 yards pull
200 warm down

The evening workouts are hard for me - I am wired when I get home and find it hard to sleep, and last night was up until almost midnight (late for my morning personality). Tonight is no different... But that's for the next post!

Changes

You may notice there are ads on the blog. I know, I know. Ads are annoying. However, for each click on an ad, money will be added to a little account for me, and when it hits a threshold that money will arrive in the form of a check, and that check will go straight to my Team in Training fundraising efforts! So click away, people!

(P.S. I've been totally delinquent on the fundraising. I know this. For some reason I just have a mental block about it this year. I'll get on it after Thanksgiving, really.)

Seasonality and Fiberglass

Last night was an extra TNT swim at the Santa Clara Swim Center. We crammed in 2300 yards, which is pretty good - nearly 2 miles - for an early-season swim. I'm craving more actual intervals (like do 4 x 100 yards on 1:45 kind of a thing) instead of the nebulous 4 x 100 yards with ten seconds rest thing. I think it makes people push harder. Of course, that's hard to do when you've got such varying abilities sharing lanes, so I guess I'll save the intervals for when I swim on my own!

I need to shift my exercise focus from a seasonal one to a more constant one. I'm so used to having a swim season, where you swim your arse off for four months or so and then relax through the summer and fall, then jump back into full force again in the winter/spring. That won't work as a real life approach. I think the CrossFit I was doing in my "off season" over the summer was helpful - my fitness is coming back pretty quickly - but I need to make a concerted effort to keep the workouts/activities constant instead of giving myself such a long break after events.

As for the "fiberglass" part of this post, I went swimming today over lunch. Knowing I won't be in the pool until next week scares me, so I wanted to cram one last swim in before heading out for Thanksgiving. I swam at the Campbell Community Center, which has an open lap swim from 11:30 - 1 every day. I designed a 2100 yard workout for myself that was pretty good:

300 warm-up
4 x 100 IM
4 x 50 yards free
2 x 100 yards free
1 x 200 yards free
2 x 100 yards free
4 x 50 yards free
6 x 75 yards, kick, drill, swim
100 warm down

Not too bad, except that I can feel my form fall apart as I get tired. I know that will get better as I improve but it's frustrating to feel myself get sloppy in the water. Form makes such a difference!

The pool is pretty nice - big locker room, suit dryer (the best invention ever, like a salad spinner for bathing suits), big lockers, and eight lanes of pool space. The water was cooler than normal, as it's been raining and the pool isn't covered, but I enjoy a cooler pool (once I'm warmed up of course! The initial shock is never fun!) so I was happy about that. The body of the pool, however, is fiberglass. Fiberglass pools either leave little invisible splinters in your skin that itch like crazy, or they run your skin raw where you have lots of contact. The bottoms of my feet have lots of contact, as I'm flip-turning and pushing off the wall with every lap.

Now, the bottoms of my feet feel raw and achy. I assume this is from the fiberglass. I'm tempted to get water socks and wear them in that pool to prevent the fiberglass issues.

I suppose it's a small price to pay for increased fitness, but I'd like to know who the genius was that decided fiberglass was the material of choice for pools, where people are constantly rubbing their feet on it?!

The Quest for a Shoe

My feet are short, wide, and high volume. I have never once had "the perfect running shoe," and shopping for shoes has always been an exercise in frustration. I've taken to buying running shoes online, since I need a double-wide and the running stores almost never carry those sizes, and while I've been finding shoes that fit, there's always some minor issue that drives me crazy. Maybe the toe box is low so my toes push up against the top of the shoe and get sore, maybe there's a seam that hits a funny spot on my foot, maybe the heel slips a bit. I don't have the luxury of being as picky as other runners, and I almost always sacrifice something for the width I need.

I'm a New Balance devotee. They make a variety of shoes in double-wide and they're not all horrendous looking, which I appreciate. They also use different shoe "lasts," or molds, for their models, and there are descriptions of how the lasts differ from one another. My favorite last, the CL-2, has a standard heel, a high instep height (my shoes are almost always tight across the top of my foot so this extra room is amazing), deep toebox, and wide forefoot width - perfect for my freaky feet. Of course, they almost never make shoes with this last. My second choice has all the width but a narrow heel, and my heel pops out of those shoes. As I'm in the market for new shoes, I've been reading product reviews and poking around the New Balance web site to see how my old model has changed and whether there's another shoe I might like. The pair I have now have a seam that squeezes the inside of my foot and bugs me, so I was thinking of switching models.

Enter Zappos - they has some double-wide shoes from different manufacturers that I didnt' know existed. Because their return policy is so spectacular, I figured maybe I should branch out. I bought a brand new pair of Brooks Adrenaline GTS 10 in 7.5 2E. Not cheap, but I liked the seaming up the side of the shoe since it appeared to flow with the foot and not cut across it. Here they are:

They arrived today, and I just put them on.

I think I heard angels singing.

The width is perfect. My heel isn't slipping. I don't feel like the top of the shoe is going to burst because my instep is too high. There are no seams cutting down over the sides of my feet. They feel springy and well-cushioned but not too heavy.

I cannot wait to take them out on the road. I'm seriously tempted to buy another 1 or 2 pairs, but they're like $100 and, well, with the holidays coming up and other things to take care of that doesn't seem reasonable.

I think I'm defecting. Brooks might be my new brand. It's seriously ridiculous how happy I am to have these shoes!

My Fiancee is the Best!

The TNT bike rides are usually in the morning on Saturdays. As it's winter, and winter is cold, the rides are quite chilly - add in a (somewhat small as I am slow) wind chill and it can get pretty frosty. My major issue last year was frozen feet; there were mornings where my feet went numb, and I couldn't feel them until about 30 minutes after the ride. Clearly that is problematic, especially when there's a run right after the ride. The issue might be resolved with a new pair of non-porous bike shoes, but the shoes I would need don't go with the pedals I have, so it would require a good chunk of change to upgrade. There are also neoprene-esque toe covers that you can buy to keep the wind out of your shoes, but the only work with the other kind of shoes that I don't have yet. I needed (and still need) a cheaper option.

So last year I started putting those little hard and feet warmers that skiiers use in my bike shoes to keep my toes warm. Brilliant! Warm and toasty toes for most of the rides. This year I'm out of those little portable heaters, and haven't had a chance to pick up any more yet.

Enter Rob. He loves Costco, and spends an inordinate amount of time there. The last time he went he came home with an econo-pack of hand-and-feet warmers for my winter season of training! I'm so excited to get out in the cold and ride now that I have warmers - unfortunately I have to miss tomorrow's workout, but post-Thanksgiving I'll have toasty toes!

It's Magic When it Happens

I ran almost 6 miles today.

I felt slow this morning, didn't want to get out of bed, didn't want to do much of anything, but as I have to teach a course this entire weekend (9 - 6 both days, ugh) I figured I'd better at least so something active today while I have the time. So running it was. I donned my running gear and felt slightly more motivated, but then I looked outside. Gray, cold, windy. Really, I wanted to go back to bed. I stood in the garage and stared at the treadmill for a few minutes, but just couldn't stomach the thought of getting on that "dreadmill" today. So, outside I went.

I had on my trusty GPS with HRM, and of course immediately my HR is through the roof. I wonder if that matters? Anyway, the batteries were also low, but as I didn't trust myself to get back outside if I went in to charge them I figured I'd risk the low batteries and run anyway. My legs felt pretty good - I think that day off yesterday treated me right. When I hit the halfway point from my last run, I just kept going. I felt pretty good, and I told myself that if I added distance I could walk parts of it. The stubborn part of me told that part of me to shut the heck up and keep running.

So I did.

I ran, and I ended up doing my favorite old ~5.8 mile loop that has a really big set of hills in the middle. The only place I walked (besides when I got stuck at the occasional stoplight) was at the top of the steepest hill, where I had to rest doubled over with my hands on my knees because I felt like I couldn't catch my breath. You know it's a good workout when...

The last 1/2 mile or so of the run was hard. I mean really hard. But I kept my legs moving and ended up running the entire distance. Of course, when I got into the garage I almost fell over, and had to sit on the treadmill for a few minutes to recover. When I looked at my GPS (I do love my statistics) I found that the batteries dies at some point during my run, so I don't have any record of the workout. Bummer.

Now, I'm back inside in a fuzzy robe, I've had my post-workout glass of milk and banana, I'm going to have Rubio's chicken tacos for lunch, and then I'm going to try and find a new pair of running shoes that I desperately need.

Shoe shopping for me is always an adventure. Have I mentioned I have freakishly wide, very short feet? And an extra toe? Should be fun. My last pair I special-ordered off the internet to get the right width...

The Politics of Swimming

Last night was a TNT group swim at an outdoor pool in Menlo Park. We met at 6:30 and spent some time on the deck doing core work, which was less core and more jumping jacks and push-ups. It was a fun group, perhaps not as focused on the workout as they could have been and more focused on the socializing; it reminded me of book clubs I've participated in that degenerate into gossip sessions. We got some "work" in at the beginning, but also a lot of laughing. But I guess that counts as core, no?

There are two pools at Burgess, both outdoors, both heated, but in the winter they cover one pool with a "bubble." The bubble is a large, inflatable plastic "tent" that rests on top of the pool. There are two doors, an inner and an outer door, and an "air-lock," so with both doors open the air rushes out of the bubble and the tent collapses (eventually, it's not dangerous). Anyway, if you've ever swum in an indoor pool you know that the water temperature is higher, the air is warmer, and the humidity is higher, and those are in climate-controlled buildings. The bubbles are not climate controlled, and as such are very much like chlorinated steam rooms. I prefer colder water (77-78 degrees is ideal, I think), and the pool under the bubble is in the mid-80's. It's hard to breathe, and I feel like somebody is sitting on my chest when I try to swim in there. Forget getting an actual workout in! We were all going to be in that pool which was going to mean about ten people per lane, which means it's really impossible to swim. I figured I got a gold star for showing up and would suffer through as much as I could, then hop out and call it a night.

Until - until! They announced that the speediest two lanes would be swimming in the outdoor pool! Brilliant! NOW I would get a workout!

Until.

We had eight people in each lane. Four is about the right amount of people, six is really pushing it, and eight is too many. I know there wasn't much of a choice, so I just let go of all thoughts of getting a real workout in and figured I'd just be happy to get the yards under my belt.

I know I've mentioned that there are some politics involved in swimming, and I'm very sensitive to them. I think that makes me assume other people are equally sensitive to the "rules," but I see that that's not the case. There were some swimmers who probably should have been in the inside pool, and because I don't ever assume I am going to be the fastest I always offer to let someone else lead the lane. Last night someone took me up on my offer, which was fine, until I realized I was a bit faster, but with so many people in the lane it was impossible to do anything but hang back and just be zen about the yardage.

The workout was actually fun:

250 warm-up
6 x 50 yards stroke drill
8 x 25 yards, starting in threes to mimic the crazy start of a triathlon (FUN!)
400 yards toes-to-fingers (so RIGHT on the feet of the person in front of you, and after 25 yards the first person gets over and lets the second person lead, then picks up the rear, and we rotated for 16 lengths - also fun albeit a bit frustrating)
8 x 50 yards, descending 1-4 and 5-8
250 yards warm-down

For a total of 1800 yards. Not too bad. I showered and headed home, where Rob and I lounged on the couch and watched Cops, our new favorite show. We've "purchased" a bunch through my amazon.com shopping link (up to $5 donated to TNT through the site! Woo!), and when they pull people over we play a game we call "Guns, Drugs, or Running?"

Clearly we need hobbies.

Today is an off day for me, which is actually pretty nice. Tomorrow, I run. I feel the dread already.

A Mote in Your Eye

I went running this morning! Like real running, on the road and everything! I was ridiculously slow, but at least I did it.

I ran south on Quito until I hit about 2 miles, then turned around and came back. It was simple route, but I know the distances so I'm not focused on how much longer; instead I can zone out. This morning the weather is gorgeous - sunny, warm, clear, and a breath of wind. I made the mistake of running during rush hour traffic, and there were a couple of distracted drivers that made me nervous enough to hop into the bushes and wait for them to pass. I think getting hit in a crosswalk has made me extra aware when dealing with traffic, which I suppose is a good thing.

For the first ~1.8 miles I felt pretty good, my legs felt strong, my lungs weren't burning, and I didn't feel "floppy" as I was running. I thought maybe I would try to go my 6-mile loop, allowing for lots of walking, but when I hit the 2 mile mark I had to turn around. I'd already been out about 30 minutes, and a 6-mile loop would put me at 1.5 hours. I didn't have water and was starting to get hungry. I also don't want to push myself too hard and get injured.

It's hard for me to not be able to go as far as I want to, and I have to keep telling myself that I am still in the early stages of training, that I'm not expected to be able to run the whole 6 miles yet, but it's still frustrating to feel that urge to walk and give in to it. I have to remind myself that my victory is to just be outside running, and not focus on my pace.

Of course, the GPS on my wrist makes not focusing on my pace hard! I might have to take pace and speed off the screen and just display time and heart rate.

Anyway, after I turned around to head back, I ran into a lovely breeze that stirred up a cloud of pollen, and something sharp landed in my right eye. It was excruciatingly painful, and I immediately stopped and doubled over, hand cupping my eye, trying not to move the eyeball. It took me a good minute or so to get whatever it was out, and even then my eye ached a bit. It feels better now, but I'm trying not to use that as a "see, I told you I shouldn't be running" moment. (Any excuse to not run...)

I walked a bit on the way back, mostly when I saw a sketchy-looking guy walking my direction stop and crouch down - I couldn't tell if he was tying his shoes or something, and I paused to consider crossing the street, but he beat me to it. The last leg of the journey I ran, and when I arrived back at the house I had to sit in the garage for a few minutes to recover. My running is really bad right now, and I am glad I didn't try to go the full 6 miles today. I need to build up some endurance first.

I loaded my GPS workout onto my computer and these are the somewhat pathetic stats:

Total Distance: 3.99 miles
Total Time: 54:19.66
Average Pace: 13:30 minutes per mile
Average Speed: 4.4 mph

So slow. It's hard to not get discouraged. Also, my heart rate is through the roof when I'm running. Even walking to warm up at the beginning of my run my HR gets up into the 120's-130's, and the actual running puts me upwards of 170. I don't know enough about HR training to know if that's bad or if it even matters, but it seems awfully high.

My recovery snack was a banana and a cup of milk, and that healed me - I feel full even an hour later, and I read somewhere that milk is one of the best recovery drinks out there because it's got sugars and protein. So far I have to agree.

Good day so far. First real distance run on the road is under my belt!

First Captain's Swim

One of the captains this year set up extra swim sessions for us at the Santa Clara International Swim Center. Tonight was the first workout, and it was a big, friendly group! Well, at least until no one wanted to get in the lane with me - as I hit the wall on my first warm-up lap I heard "but that's Megan's lane!" Finally I got a couple of brave souls to join me and we were off! I squeezed in about a 200 yard warm-up, and then we got into the set:

400 yards (25 yard swim, 25 yard drill)
100 yard kick
100 IM (I added this because I finished early)
Main Set: 25, 50, 75, 100, 200, 100, 75, 50, 25
5 x 50 yards easy free
100 yard warm-down

...for a grand total of 1650 yards. That's already longer than the swim leg of the race, and I feel pretty good about this part of the season. Again, it's my running that is in bad shape. Tomorrow, I run. Really.

Food

Today I started writing down everything I'm eating, not because I'm overly concerned with calories or losing weight, but mostly because I've never tried it and think it will be enlightening. I probably eat more than I think I do, and I'm curious as to how much (and what!) I'm eating.

Last night, for example, my dessert craving got the better of me, and as I just tossed out the Halloween candy I ended up eating a couple of marshmallows that I mashed between Costa Rican shortbread/chocolate cookies and called Smores. So things like that perhaps might be more glaring when recorded. I do like to be held accountable.

So today, food diary! Of course I'm on good behavior on day 1, and so far have had my Kashi GoLean breakfast cereal, chicken-and-black-bean-with-guacamole tacos for lunch (on corn tortillas, not flour), carrots as a snack, and for dinner baked steelhead trout with tomato/caper/green olive topping (just a little bit) and a side of sauteed zucchini and mushrooms. Lots of water, too, which seems to help the appetite. So far, on paper, today looks pretty good! I have a swim tonight at 7:30 though, and I am usually starving after a good swim, so I might break down and end the evening with a small bowl of mini-wheats (my favorite cereal and kind of a splurge)... We'll see.

I think the biggest battle will be staying honest and writing it all down - it's easy to lie to my chart about what I eat, but I think since this is more out of curiosity than weight loss obsession (and also because I want to see how my eating changes on workout days versus non-workout days) that I should be able to keep it real, so to speak...

(F)Unemployment?

I don't have a ton of time to update right now, but I just got a call inviting me to a second interview for a very exciting job opportunity in San Francisco! I'm extremely excited.

First Road Ride of the Season

One of the TNT staff hosted an extra ride this morning that I attended, as I need to practice my road riding. I woke up way before my alarm (this time change is killing me) to 45 degree weather, which made me a bit nervous. I checked the forecast, and as it was supposed to warm up I decided to don my cycling shorts with leg warmers, a long-sleeved shirt and a warm cycling jacket for the morning.

Cycling shorts are just not attractive. You have the sausage effect of the spandex, but you add the padding in the seat region and the result is rather unflattering profile. However, I discovered that leg warmers are the best thing ever. These are not the 1980's-era knit leg warmers you see in movies like Flashdance; these are black spandex with a very soft interior that hug your legs up to the thighs - sort of thigh-high cycling stockings but all black. You tuck the tops under your cycling shorts, and it's a great way to keep your legs warm in the cool morning without committing to long pants. You can take them off and stow them in a pockets once your legs or the temperature warm up. Anyway, I got them last year and never wore them, but I'm a total convert.

I also lost my tri-sunglasses at some point this summer, and I don't like to cycle without sunglasses, so I had to wear my regular old fashion sunglasses.  I was worried they would fog up or be really uncomfortable, but they worked pretty well as long as I was moving, but fogged up really badly every time I stopped. I need to pick up another pair of the tri-glasses, but might have to wait until next month for that splurge. I love not having a job (<--sarcasm).

Anyway, there were about ten of us this morning, and we all rolled out at the same time. I immediately got passed, of course, but kept up with the lead "pack" pretty well. I was initially only committed to the 12-mile route, but at the turn-off for the 18-mile route I decided I felt pretty good and I'd feel better about myself if I went the longer distance.

I turned off with two other people, and I rode in the back of our "pack" as I'm not really fast enough to lead. I was pedaling hard, and my GPS/heart rate monitor showed it. My heart rate got up to 179 and I was huffing and puffing on the uphills! We rode a gorgeous windy road through Woodside/Portola Valley, passing some gorgeous houses and about a million other riders. The sun was out, it was warm but not hot, my outfit was perfect for the temperature (I ditched the jacket and leg warmers before the ride), and I felt pretty good.

The downhills were ridiculously fun - I mounted my GPS/heart rate monitor on my handlebars so I could peek at it as I was riding, and I started a game with myself to see how fast I could get going on the downhills. This involved me squeezing the top tube with my knees, tucking in my elbows, and crouching down as far as I could go to make myself aerodynamic on the big downhills - ridiculous fun, except for the one time a tree dropped something and it whacked me in the face. That's not fun when you're speeding along at about 30mph! The max speed I saw was 30.7mph, but when I uploaded the workout I saw that I'd in fact hit 35.4 mph - next time you're driving check out how fast that is. It was ridiculous fun, and at one point I found myself braking behind a car that was driving in front of me!

We finished the ride in about 1 hour and 17 minutes. My average speen was ~13.5 mph, which is pretty good considering that on the uphills I would drop to about 6-8 mph. My GPS tells me I burned about 1000 calories, but I just can't believe that's right (although I hope it is, as it would cancel out the big burrito I just had for lunch!). My average heart rate was 161 and my max heart rate was 179, and it tells me I ascended ~1500 feet. Here's a shot of my speed (blue) versus elevation (gray):

 

I think this shot is interesting - it's speed (blue) versus heart rate (red). You can really see how my HR elevates when I'm stuggling up those hills and my speed is really low!

Fun toy. Makes riding/running much more interesting. I'll have to go back and do that loop again and use the feature that allows you to race yourself. I do love a little competition!

My afternoon now consists of laundry and watching football, and maybe a nap. I haven't decided yet.

Update

That workout kicked my butt. I'm exhausted, headachy, and just want to sleep.

I'm totally going for a bike ride tomorrow! Lavaman, I'm coming for you!

Swim and Run!

Today was the first Saturday workout for the winter season Team. We met at Burgess pool for a swim followed by a run. The first big swim workout of the season - of course I was nervous about where to self-seed, so I hopped into the second-to-fastest lane and led the lane, until the coach yanked me out and put me in the fast lane where I was bullied into leading the lane by the other two guys already there! (Okay, bullied might be a strong word - they didn't want to lead, so I led.) It was a great workout and I was glad to lead - it keeps me focused on the workout so I don't forget where we are in the set, and pushes me a bit harder. The workout was as follows:

200 yard warm-up
4 sets of 150 yards easy/long stroke free, 50 yards hard free
4 sets of 100 yards (75 easy/long stroke/free + 25 yards backstroke), 25 yards hard free
~150 warm down

It kind of kicked my butt. We were all huffing and puffing pretty hard, laughing about how out of shape we are.

I might be a strong swimmer, but I might be the worst runner in the world. I abhor running. I am awful at it. I am slow, lumbering, and find it completely frustrating to get passed by just about everyone at every workout. Honestly, it's pretty challenging for me to keep my running as an internal battle and not focus on other people's paces, but I think it's a good exercise for me.

After the swim, we jumped into our running clothes.

Actually, allow me to rephrase that. We wrestle ourselves into our running clothes; wet bodies + spandex + sports bras = a workout in itself. Once dressed, we chose one of three run routes: a ~2 mile, ~3 mile, or ~4 mile route. I was on a bit of a schedule and needed to leave a bit early, so I chose the 2-mile run.

Somewhat surprisingly, I ran most of the 2 miles; the loop course was flat, and after the first couple of hundred yards I found I felt pretty good, only stopping a couple of times when I started to get a side stitch. The stitch went away quickly so I was able to run most of the ~2.1 miles. I know it's not a huge distance, but I'm excited that I was able to run most of it and not feel like I was going to die.

I'm hoping that my running comes back quickly, as I am extremely nervous about it.

Now, I am home and fed (a Rubio's opened just around the corner from our house. Danger!), and about to take a too-long shower and maybe take a nap before I tackle my weekend to-do list...

Inaugural Swim

I am officially back in the pool.

*sigh of relief*

The first of my getting back into the swing of things workouts are always the hardest, not because they are physically challenging (which they are), but because I don't like not knowing the routine at a new place, or having a route mapped out, or knowing the people/protocol/procedures.

My mentor, Erin (who is awesome), met me today at the Campbell Community Center pool for a midday swim. She is writing her dissertation for a PhD in electrical engineering at Stanford (I think she might be kinda smart) so has some time midday, like the myriad un- and semi-employed people in the area. We met outside the pool and paid our $7 to hop in. Four of the lanes in the 8-lane pool were marked, the center two lanes were marked "fast," the two immediately outside of those were marked "medium." The rest, I assume, were for the slow people, but to avoid offending them those lanes were left ummarked. Of course, as Erin and I readied ourselves for the hop in the water, the slow and medium lanes filled up, and one person hopped into one of the fast lanes.

If you know anything about my swimming history, you know I am a stickler for the unspoken "rules" of swimming. These include accurately estimating your speed so you don't hop into a lane and disrupt the faster swimmers. As one of the usually faster swimmers, I can vouch for how annoying that is. Since I was new to this pool, and out of shape!, I wasn't sure if I "qualified" for the fast lane.

My other issue is that (a) I have gained a little weight, and it appears to have settled into my hips, so with a swimsuit on the top half of me looks kind of sleek and healthy, and then there's this awesome explosion of hip out the bottom of my suit. It's kind of like a little hip shelf. Sexy. And (b) I have this awesome rash. I had a job interview last week (don't get too excited, it is super competitive and I'm not sure I did so well, but there was no feedback at all so it's hard to tell - I should know within a week or so whether I make it to the next round of interviews. Yes, there are two rounds of interviews! Ugh!), and the pants I wore apparently caused this nasty allergic reaction, and everywhere the pants were creased against my skin while I was sitting (back of my knees, hip creases) turned purple and blistered. It's been a week and I just now have smooth, albeit discolored, skin. So I had to warn Erin that what looked like burn marks were really just a bad reaction to some weird rayon blend. I'm throwing those pants away (or getting them re-lined, I haven't decided yet). Anyway...

We hopped in the fast lane and decided to just deal with attitude if presented. I decided to go 1000 yards, a nice easy distance to get back into the swing of things. Thankfully, we weren't too outmatched for the fast lane. The only issue was another woman asking me "where you girls usually swim," to which I replied "I don't." The woman then told us she thought maybe we swam at the Camden pool, and that there was a rumor the pool was closing, so they didn't know it would affect the midday swims at the Campbell pool.

After she pushed off the wall, Erin and I tried to decide whether she was being friendly or whether that was a "get the f! out of our pool" comment. Then we swam away and passed her, so I didn't worry about it too much.

My workout was simple: 400 warm-up, 200 yards, 100 yards, and 4 x 50 yards, and 100 warm down. Then into the showers and to the new Rubio's that opened up around the corner for some "street tacos." Yum! A good day so far!

Ah, the garage.

I hit the treadmill this morning, as I am petrified of not having my run in shape in time for the event. I know, there are like 140 days of training left, but I feel like I'm starting at a deficit. Plus, there are so many people from the team from last year who are still in great shape and I feel like I'm playing catch up! (My mantra: it's not a competition, it's not a competition...)

I warmed up with a brisk walk (brisk for me is between 3.6 - 4 mph, but I have really short legs), then jogged between 4.0 - 4.5 mph for about 35 minutes, then started walking again. It averaged out to about a 15.5 minute per mile pace, which is fine by me as I'm just getting back into it. My goal this weekend is to get out on the road. For some reason I have a mental block about running in front of other people.

Later this morning I'll be hopping back in the pool. I'm scared of how bad this is going to feel, but I have to start somewhere!

Back in the Saddle...

...but only in the garage.

Today I hopped on my bike, but since I seem to be intimidated by riding in traffic, and the activation energy of packing up my bike and driving to a safer route was too high, I set myself up in the garage on my trainer with a movie. Because my legs are out of shape, I wanted to mostly just get them moving again, so I set it to an easy gear (are those high or low? I can never remember. I think high?) and just spun for about an hour. I kept to three gears, alternating to get a little bit more intensity a few times. I felt pretty good, although I can tell me legs are weak!

Tonight is the first coached track workout, which I have to miss, but the first workout is just a scavenger hunt that's mostly screwing around and not much running, so I'm not too concerned. Tomorrow I have a date to go swimming with my mentor, Erin, which will be completely humiliating. I can't wait.

Oh Lordy.

A bunch of Team in Training women have registered for Barb's Race, a half-Ironman distance triathlon in July of 2011. Half-Ironman is twice Olympic Distance, and includes a ~1.2 mile swim, a 56 mile bike, and a 13.1 mile run.

That would be a half marathon at the end of the race. AFTER that long swim and bike ride. I've run a half marathon twice: once in Buffalo, where I didn't train properly and thought I was going to die, and once in Death Valley (in December, don't worry), where I trained really well but still thought I was going to die.

Why, oh why, would I ever consider trying to do a half marathon at the end of two other really challenging events?

I suppose that might be the question of the day, because I appear to have committed to the group of ladies as a new member of their training group.

That event scares the pants off of me, but it also might just scare me into training consistently for the next 8 months until the race. The group is working with (I think) one of the TNT coaches to come up with a proper training schedule, and they are planning a lot of group workouts, and I think that's the only way this would work for me.

Until then, I will worry about one little step at a time. My step this week involves getting back in the pool, and I have a midday swim date with one of the TNT ladies this week. Hopefully I won't drown. Or be mistaken for a whale and harpooned.

Operation Jack

I just came across a web page and blog from someone I went to high school with - Sam Felsenfeld. His middle child, Jack, was diagnosed with severe autism, and in an effort to raise money for Train 4 Autism (a Team in Training-esque organization to raise awareness and money for Autism research and treatment) he launched Operation Jack.

Operation Jack is Sam's effort to run 61 marathons in 2010 to bring awareness to the Train 4 Autism mission and to help his son. Marathon number 61 is the Operation Jack marathon in Los Angeles, California on December 26th, and if I was going to be in town I might just sign up and at least walk the thing. Please check out his page, his story, and if you can help, contribute to his cause.

When I am feeling unmotivated, I'm going to read his blog, or his webpage, and get my butt back outside for a workout to support the cause I am racing (albeit much more slowly than Sam!) for. What an inspiration.

My Nemesis...

...the treadmill.

It's raining today, but in honor of my resumed workout schedule, I figured I'd better do something, so the treadmill it was. Plus my running is really quite awful, so most of my time needs to be spent building that back up. I put a movie on in the garage and cleared the junk of the thing, and away we went. The movie was "Frozen," a cheesy and somewhat predictable suspense flick about three college kids who get stuck on a ski lift for days - pretty cheesy but entertaining (there are gruesome broken limbs and wolves, and of course the chair starts to spontaneously come apart), but it got my mind of the horror of the treadmill. I was going to stay on there for 45 minutes, but I got so engrossed in the movie I ended up spending about an hour on there. It was mostly walking, but fast walking, with a little jogging every now and then.

Today I am throwing away the leftover Halloween candy. My workout clothes are awfully tight...

Day One: It Begins

This morning was the first official workout for the winter Lavaman season with Team in Training. Each participant is assigned to a mentor, who helps you throughout the season with issues and questions, and then there are captains, who are sort of above the mentors, and then there are the coaches. We have an amazing group of coaches this year, many of the captains are mentors from last year, and almost all of the mentors were participants last year. I am assigned to Erin, a Lavaman participant from last year that I didn't get to know that well but am excited to be spending more time with.

I also ran into a bunch of the old Lavaman crew from last year - Whitney, Arin (who heard something pop in her neck this morning while doing some of the exercises, I am concerned), Anthony, and a few more. The ~110 participants (huge group!) were broken up into smaller groups and traveled to four stations: cycling how-to and general knowledge, how to change a flat (my biggest fear - so far so good, knock on wood), core work, and a ~1.3 mile run.

Now, you may know I was doing CrossFit for a while over the summer, after the triathlon season was over, to try and stay in some sort of shape before starting this all over again. I decided to take a few weeks off to give myself a break so I didn't burn out physically or mentally, and that "few weeks" morphed into 6 weeks. It also morphed into me eating like crap, and now my pants are tight, I feel awful, and I'm petrified of anything active as I know how badly it's going to hurt. I'm especially petrified of running. I am the worst runner in the world on my best days, and a good pace for me is between 10 and 11 minutes per mile when I am in shape. Running 1.3 miles sounded hard.

Indeed, that 1.3 mile run was p-a-i-n-f-u-l! But, I "ran" most of it (what one person calls "running," another might call "shuffling," but whatever), stopping to walk two times (once stepping out of the way of everyone who was behind me and wanted to pass!). My competetive side tried to take over but I told her to shut it, this was not a race, it's my first day back, there are five months to get me into shape, blah blah blah.

Then my competetive voice pipes up with: "But last year you were in better shape when you started, and this year you have a time to beat! Step it up!"

That's hard to argue with. Last year I finished in just over 3 hours. It's always been in the back of my mind that I'd love to break 3 hours this year, but to do that I'm going to have to play catch-up on my fitness asap.

For now, I am happy with day 1. Tomorrow I'll get outside and do something active - a run or a hike or a quick bike ride, but something to get my heart rate up and get me back into the swing of things. Today, my reward was a chicken burrito from the newly opened Rubio's around the corner, and a nap.

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Here we go again!

It's that time of year again - kickoff for the winter Team in Training season to get us ready for the 2011 Lavaman Olympic Distance triathlon is tomorrow, and official workouts start Saturday morning! That's a good thing, as my self-imposed "break" from working out resulted in too much time off and too much weight gain. Time to get back into it.

So, check out my fundraising page, contribute to a great cause, and make me feel guilty for not working out!

Back in the Saddle

Did the same sadist who invented high heels invent bike seats? Just curious.

I got up early today and went for a labor day ride. I took one of the routes I learned through Team in Training - a 19.4-ish mile loop with a lovely little hill right in the middle:

You can see from the elevation profile at the bottom of the screenshot that hill - it's only about a mile long but it's pretty tough, especially given that I haven't been riding since ~May. I was surprised at hoe great I felt on the bike though, saddle notwithstanding. I think there's really something to this CrossFit craze - my legs felt strong on the climb and I never once felt overly tired or in pain. I also felt like I could have kept going had I known a good way to extend the route...

Hopefully I'll keep it up - it's hard to do CrossFit in the morning and then feel like I have energy to do longer, slower workouts afterwards. We'll see. This was a nice re-intro to my bike though. I think it's been feeling neglected.

Contrary to Popular Belief...

...crosswalks are not safe.

Last month I got hit by a car while in a crosswalk. Today I went running (after a CrossFit workout that involved squats with 115 pounds on my back - suffice it to say it was more shuffling than running), and twice I was almost hit by cars while in a crosswalk.

You have got to be kidding me.

The first time, while running along a slightly major street I was crossing - in the crosswalk - a minor street, and a car made a hard and fast left turn from the major street (going my direction) and almost hit me. He had to slam on his brakes and I hopped out the way, fast. Then I shouted at him. He would have hit the same spot as the other guy.

The second time, heading the same direction but at a more major crossing, someone was turning right from my left in front of me. He had a very red light, I had a green light and the little green guy telling me to walk, and as I stepped into the intersection to cross this guy came up and pulled completely through the crosswalk before stopping. He wasn't even looking my direction, he was checking traffic coming from the other direction. I smacked the trunk of his car and shouted at him too. He looked shocked and raised his hand in apology but if I hadn't seen him coming and waited he would have smacked right into me. At least it would have been the other hip.

So, today we learned that crosswalks are not safe, and people are idiots.

My workouts were great though - CrossFit this morning was awesome and although it didn't feel too hard at the time I am feeling it now (and clearly I was weak as running was extremely difficult). The workout was as follows:

For Strength:
3 x 3 hanging snatch (I used 65 pounds) with 3 minutes rest between

Metabolic Conditioning:
3 rounds of As Many Rounds As Possible (AMRAP) in 5 minutes with 5 minutes rest between sets:
3 back squats (squats with a weighted bar on your back, I used 115 pounds)
4 pull-ups (I did them "kipping," which is a modified version for those of us who can't do real pullups)
5 hand-stand push ups (I modified by resting my knees on a box)

First round I got through three plus the pull-ups
Second round I got through 4 plus the squats
Third round I got through 5! My arms feel like they might fall off now and my hands nearly ripped on the bar (I need to start taping them), but I'm excited about the pull-ups! And the squat weight, that was pretty good for me!

Heart Rate Monitor Fun

I've been playing with my new Garmin Forerunner 305 GPS/heart rate monitor/all around ridiculous new toy. So far I've only taken it on a couple of short ~2.6 mile runs, as I haven't been running and don't want to boost my mileage too quickly for fear that I'll get hurt.

Even on these short runs, I'm learning quite a bit about my heart rate. If you read any of the triathlon training texts, they recommend getting blood work done to determine all this stuff about your fitness and training and VO2 Max and anaerobic threshold and all this other stuff that I find a bit excessive for my level of involvement. However, they very strongly recommend training with a heart rate monitor. Hence my purchase.

Training with a HRM essentially breaks your training into intervals based on percentage of your maximum heart rate. There's a bunch of ways to determine your max HR (and I still need to go the track and actually test mine empirically), or you can use a little equation. There are like ten of those too, depending on who you talk to.

Turns out my calculated max HR, based on age and gender, is around 185 beats per minute. My resting heart rate is about 60 (taken lying down in the morning), which is kind of high. There are five "training zones" used that are broken down (based on my max HR) as follows:

HR Zone 1: 93 - 111 bpm
HR Zone 2: 111 - 130 bpm
HR Zone 3: 130 - 148 bpm
HR Zone 4: 148 - 167 bpm
HR Zone 5: 167 - 185 bpm

When I ran my little 2.6-mile route over the weekend, I found that my heart rate hovered between 155 and 165, maxing out at 175. Apparently that's a bit high for an extended workout, but it didn't feel like I was exerting myself that much. Maybe my HR is off a bit.

This GPS thingy also has pre-loaded workouts for running and cycling based on either pace or heart rate, so this morning I did one of the running workouts. It was broken up as follows:

2:00 minutes, HR Zone 1
2:00 minutes, HR Zone 2
2:00 minutes, HR Zone 3
(note: all of these heart rate zones are walking. Zone 3 was walking quickly, but I couldn't believe how fast my heart rate came up. What that means I have no idea but I was annoyed that Zone 3 was walking. Seemed ridiculous.)
Repeat the steps below 4 times:
     Go 0.5 miles in HR Zone 4
     4:00 minutes in HR Zone 2
2:00 minutes, HR Zone 2
2:00 minutes, HR Zone 1

I also found it nearly impossible to get my HR down quickly enough to keep the thing from beeping at me. It turned into a little game - it would beep angrily at me when my HR was either too high or too low, then give a satisfied little chirp when I got it into the target.

Zone 4 was a very, very slow jog for me. It felt too slow, in fact, and I felt like I didn't really get much of a workout. I don't know if that means my HR is off or if I've been going too hard (I can't really believe I've been going too hard! That's ridiculous!). But I went 3.3 miles (with a LOT of walking - every 4:00 minute rest to get my HR back into zone 2 I had to essentially walk as slowly as I possible could, which was totally frustrating) and I feel like I could use another workout.

Anyway, I'll play around with this thing some more to try and figure out my max HR and go from there. It's a very fun new toy and was a great way to spend my REI dividend!


My next project is to figure out how much training (running/biking/swimming - each of which will have a different max heart rate that I have to figure out empirically) I am supposed to do in each zone to get faster and stronger, and then figure out a schedule to fit it all in.

Of course, this does not count the CrossFit stuff I've already been doing - I would guess CrossFit has us in Zone 5 for 10-25 minutes, it's that intense. But I'm getting stronger already!

This toy is so cool though - it uploads my workouts to my computer, where I can view graphs of my heart rate, distance, pace, and I can see my route on a little map (that is surprisingly accurate).

Motivation

I've been doing CrossFit, a sort of masochistic workout that includes high intensity, short duration exercises. It incorporates Olympic style weightlifting moves (yes, clean and jerk, snatch, split jerk, it's very entertaining) and other fun things like "burpees" (jump in the air and clap hands overhead, drop to your stomach on the ground, push up into a frog position, jump into the air and clap your hands overhead. That's one.), squats (stand with feet shoulder-width apart, squat as far down as you can go, stand back up. Can be done without weight, with dumbells resting on your shoulders, with a loaded barbell resting on your chest or back, or - the most fun version - holding a loaded barbell overhead), kettlebell swings (literally swinging a round handled weight from between your legs to over your head), wall ball (face the wall, throw a weighted ball - sort of a medicine ball - as high as you can and catch it on your chest. Repeat until your arms fall off.), box jumps (there is a box. Jump on it. Repeat until your legs fall off.), running (no explanation needed), pull-ups (and if you can't do a pull-up, you can do jumping pull-ups where you stand on a box so you can reach the bar and literally jump into a pull-up. These are worse, trust me. I wish I could do a pull-up.), toes-to-bar (hang from the bar. Raise your toes until they touch the bar.), and other fun forms of torture.

Usually the workouts begin with some strength, like doing only a few reps at a very high weight until you fail, with lots of rest. Then we get into the fun part, where I usually feel like my heart is going to explode and sometimes I have to lie on the floor to recover when I'm done. It'll be some combination of the above exercises, broken up so we get in a lot of reps but not all at the same time, and keep our heart rate up. Today's workout, for example, began with a single-arm kettlebell swing:

So you do one single-arm kettlebell swing, then eight squats with your arm in the air like that holding the weight. Repeat with the other arm. Then you move to a set of parallel bars and do dips until you fail (I could do two without cheating and was the only woman who could do any full dips at all), then you rest for three minutes. Three total sets of that. Then we got into the fun part: five timed rounds of a 400 meter run followed by 15 kettlebell swings (using both hands). I was the last one to finish, and it took me ~16 minutes, and I was huffing and puffing the entire time. There's a bit of competitive edge to it as well - we write our times or max reps on a white board when we're finished. I am usually last, and there are a few people who have taken it upon themselves to "cheer me on" as I finish my sets. This is both awesome and humiliating at the same time, but what I lack in speed I make up for in strength (at least compared to the women), so I don't feel all that badly about always being last.

I've been hitting the 6AM workouts because it's so much cooler, and I love getting the workout done first thing in the morning. The group of people at the 6AM class is really fun, too, but there aren't a lot of women that go. I guess weights are intimidating.

Anyway, after this triathlon this weekend I realized I needed to also be doing longer, lower intensity workouts. I've been wanting to get more involved in the mechanisms of training, and all the reading I've done mentions heart rate monitors as an essential piece of equipment.

So today I blew my REI dividend a bought this:

It's a Garmin Forerunner 305, and it has a heart rate monitor (not super excited about the heart rate band, but it can't be worse than a sports bra), timer, stopwatch (and all associated timing things), pace and lap clock, target heart rates, it stores workouts, it has a GPS, will store routes for you, will let you "race" against your old workouts (VERY excited about that!), it connects to your computer and will store your workouts on your computer where you can mess with the data, and you can even purchase workout plans (including an Olympic Distance Tri workout for $100 - tempting! Now I just need to find another race!) that you can download to the device and it'll "train" you.

Oh my gosh I'm so excited I want to go running right now! Gadgets are so motivating! I will keep you posted...