Tuesday night was the TNT track workout - it was wet and cold, but thankfully we were spared the rain for the duration of the workout. After the requisite standing-around time (which I tried hard to avoid by staying in my nice warm car - but I still stood for about 10 minutes before the workout actually began), we had a ten minute warmup jog (which I am counting as part of the workout). I wore my watch and timed it - I ran a mile in about a 10 minutes and 30 seconds, which felt really fast for me. My legs are not what they were pre-Costa Rica, so I was pretty impressed with that. My goal was to actually run the entire workout, no cheating, and to complete the entire thing.
After the warmup we did some drills: 50 yards of butt-kicks (just what they sound like) and 50 yards slow jog, 50 yards of high knees (I find that one especially hard and the tops of my thighs are screaming after this one) and 50 yards of slow jog, 50 yards of "fast feet" and 50 yards slow jog, and 100 yards of buildup to a sprint (I am a slow distance runner but a fast sprinter for someone who's 5'2", so I have to say I took no small amount of satisfaction from blowing by everyone near the end of that part!). So that's 400 yards (or one full lap, or one-quarter mile) of drills to get the heart rate up.
Then - the main set! We had a ladder set of 400, 800, 1200, 1600, 1200, 800, 400 (or 1 lap, 2 laps, 3 laps, 4 laps, 3 laps, 2 laps, 1 lap) for a total of four miles. In between we walked or slow jogged 1/4 lap as "active recovery," then started the next set. Our goal was to keep our pace pretty constant.
My pace - slow and steady! Every lap was between 2:45 and 2:55, which puts me between an 11-minute and 11:40-minute mile - not too bad! I've been claiming 12-minute miles, so I'm happy with that pacing. And I was consistent.
However, I was determined to do the entire thing - there were people lapping me, but there were also people (walkers, mostly) I was lapping. At 50 minutes, the coach told us we could stop, but I had a lap left. Almost everyone else threw in the proverbial towel at that point and was drinking hot chocolate on the sidelines while a few of us were still running. Because I am stupid about this stuff, I got annoyed that the walkers were finished first. I know, I know - not a competition! It's hard, though, to watch people lap you and finish so early, then to watch the people you've lapped also finish early... But I was proud of myself that I did the entire thing - without cheating or stopping! My legs felt like they were going to fall off, but I did it! It was 5.25 miles total (with warmup). I think I'll get my legs back rather quickly, at least I hope so!
Last night was supposed to be water polo or a TNT swim workout - both of which were cancelled due to electrical storms. At home, feeling motivated (mostly not wanting to cook dinner and looking for other things to do), I hopped on my bike in the garage and put on a Spinervals DVD - it was 50 minutes of a workout designed to help your sprint, which means it was a bunch of quick hard intervals with "lots" of rest in between. For example, you shift to a hard gear and pedal like hell for ten seconds, then shift to an easy gear and spin for 50 seconds. Sounds like a lot of rest, no? After then tenth one 50 seconds feels like nothing and 10 seconds hurts like hell! Near the end of the workout they have you hop off the bike and put on running shoes and do plyometric jumps. Essentially you put your hands behind your head, squat down, and then jump as high as you can, over and over and over, for 3 sets of 30 seconds with two minutes of light pedaling on the bike in between - "to flush the lactic acid out of your legs." How bad can 30 seconds be? I was dying ten seconds into the first one - apparently my leg strength is not great. And as for the lactic acid flush - there is definitely some lactic acid in my legs today. Like so much it hurts to go down stairs so I'm trying to do it stiff-legged. I look very graceful.
I came off the bike (skipping the last two minutes of the cool-down) and hopped right onto the treadmill for a 22-minute (or one episode of Entourage, my new favorite show) run that included some brisk walking when I thought my legs might shatter and fall off. I came inside and as I was stretching Rob said, "Looks like a good workout - look at that sweat!" Made me feel very attractive.
Today it's raining like hell but I was determined to get a swim in, so I called the pool to make sure they were open, set up some reactions, and walked down there in the rain. My pants got soaked and my waterproof jacket's limits were tested, but it's not freezing cold and I actually enjoy swimming in the rain. The pool was extremely empty, and for a while I was the only person in there. It's really meditative to just concentrate on your breathing, listen to the whoosh of the water past your ears, and to feel the plink-plink of water droplets on your arms and head as you swim. Very fun. And, to my extreme surprise, I felt just great in the water! The initial pinching I feel in my shoulders as I warm up took longer to go away, and it was clear that my endurance has suffered, but my pacing was spot on and I did a longer workout much faster than I thought I would be able to. Because I wanted to get yardage under my belt and work on pacing, I did the following workout:
All freestyle:
800 yards
2 x 400 yards, 15 seconds rest between
4 x 200 yards, 15 seconds rest between
8 x 100 yards, 15 seconds rest between
Total yardage: 3200!
I timed each 100 in each set and was pretty impressed with how close my times were, even for the later swims where I was tired. The last 8 100's were tough - I ended up with 100 times of 1:27.30, 1:28.17, 1:28.72, 1:31.15 (I got really tired here!), 1:29.63, 1:30.72, 1:30.03, and 1:26.02 (I gave myself an extra ten seconds of rest before the last one to try and have it be my fastest - and it was!). I was within four seconds on each one, and was just shocked that I was able to do that after three-plus weeks out of the water. Yay swimming!
I'm planning on doubling up my workouts today and getting back on the bike when I get home today for a less-intense for "distance" focused workout. Of course, all of my biking DVDs are sprint ones, so maybe I'll just do those but decrease the intensity a bit.
Feeling good! Back in the swing of things!
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