Progress

Tuesday night I went to an extra track workout run by one of the mentors for Team in Training. We warmed up with a 3/4 mile jog (well, I warmed up with a 3/4 mile jog, others did en entire mile) and some stretching, then some core work. Lots of crunches and "plank" (holding a push-up position), then "side plank," which seemed like it should be described in the infamous memos as torture along with waterboarding, some push-ups, you get the idea.

Then, the main set. Here was the plan: run one lap at race speed, then run one lap at "recovery" speed. Two laps at race speed, one lap recovery. Three laps race speed, one lap recovery, four laps race speed, one lap recovery. Then back down the ladder (3:1, 2:1, 1:1), or until 45 minutes was up. I voiced my concern as we were in the "plank" position: What if your recovery speed is your race speed? Well, it seemed that meant 45 minutes of straight running!

45 minutes of running is fine, but 45 minutes of going in circles is really hard for me. Yes, I understand this is ironic given my penchant for swimming, where you're stuck staring at a black line underwater for an hour or more. But there is something about the track that is just hard for me - I am constantly thinking about how much further, when I can stop, how much this hurts. Not so on the trails - on the trails I can get totally lost and then the next thing I know I'm finished and feel great.

Somewhat surprisingly, perhaps given the broken-up nature of the workout, I ran the 45 minutes without too much internal arguing about when I could next walk. I forgot my watch, so I relied on the guy running the workout, and when he said 45 minutes was up I stopped. Fortuitously I was at the part of the track where we started, so I got a pretty exact distance to figure out my pace.

Wanna know my pace?

10 minute and 35 second miles! For 4.25 miles! WOO HOO!

Yesterday I was delinquint and skipped water polo, but I was SO tired. And Rob and I accidentally killed a bottle of wine after that track workout the night before so I was moving a little slowly anyway and needed the rest.

Today I hopped in the pool to get some yards under my belt. I went 2700 yards (it was supposed to be 3000 yards but I just realized I screwed up and didn't do one of the 300s. Stupid.) broken up into 300 yard increments as follows:

300 warmup
300; 50 drill, 50 swim
300 pull (I hate pulling)
6 x 50 yards with 10 seconds rest (my pace was ~40 seconds per 50)
3 x 100 yards with 15 seconds rest (my pace was 1:20! YEAH! But there were only 3 of them so...)
2 x 150 yards with 20 seconds rest (I cheated and rested 30 seconds, but my pace was between 2:00 and 2:05, right on target!)
(THIS is where the other 300 was supposed to be, at the pace of the 150s. Oops, this was the most important one too.)
3 x 100 IM
300 kick (free, breaststroke, backstroke)
300 warmdown

I am thrilled that I held a very constant pace for that middle part, and that my pace has increased by ten seconds. I wonder if that's fitness or stroke technique? Let's call it fitness.

I am also wearing my size 8 jeans. They're tight, but they're on, and that counts. I treated myself to another size 8 pair of pants from The Gap that are my new favorite pants (but I won't wear them to work because they'll get ruined). Lovely side effect of training for a tri is that you just start dropping weight. I actually am looking forward to getting on the scale, if you can believe that.

There is no great plan for workouts tomorrow or this weekend yet, but I'm sure something will pop up. A run tomorrow probably and a bike/run Saturday morning, followed by a nap. Woo!