Week 3+Last week of classes=no sleep

Monday: 7 hours sleep

                Rest Day. I cut the tip of my finger off last night while chopping garlic.  I might get it looked at so it doesn’t end up interfering with swimming.  I really need to be less excited about preparing food.

Tuesday: 5 hours sleep

                So I ended up staying awake until midnight last night (reading the second Hunger Games) and then had to get up at 5 to swim.  I also made to poor choice of having a Costco-sized bag of Kashi cereal next to me while reading, and managed to consume about half of it.  On the plus side I didn’t need to eat anything before swimming, and the downside, my stomach has been feeling weird all morning.  So now for my workouts: 2500 yards of straight swimming and 45 minutes of running in Z2.  The swimming took ~45 minutes, which corresponds to 1:17 for 2.4 miles.  My goal is 1:20, but I made this my goal pretty arbitrarily, so I’m glad to know it isn’t completely unreasonable.  Swimming also felt really good this morning; there were a few laps towards the end when each stroke felt completely natural and powerful.  So far this has only happened for a stroke or two at a time, so I was pretty excited about it.  Also, Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” was playing on the radio when I was driving to swimming, which was great, because it’s the soundtrack to most of the motivational Ironman videos on Youtube.  Oh, and with some Neosporin and water-proof Band-Aids my finger was just fine in the pool.

                Running was uneventful; I did it on the track at the field house.  The amount of people-watching you get to do on an indoor track is great, it kept me really entertained.  Plus I had to avoid all the people who didn’t understand the concept of following arrows, which was fun.

Wednesday: 5 hours sleep

                I was up late last night studying, so I did my short brick (30 min bike to 15 min run) in between classes.  I was freaking out all morning because Stella’s (my car) brakes started scraping and grinding last night.  I’m convinced she knew I had been lusting after the new Outbacks and is trying to get back at me.  Anyway, I was much less stressed out once I finished my workout, and Stella is now on her way to an auto shop.  Hopefully it’s something simple; Ironman is taking all my money so there’s not any room for expensive repairs or car payments.  Given that it’s my last week of classes my stress level isn’t that high.  I’ve got two homework assignments due and a quiz to take on Friday, but have a pretty good start on those already.

                Update: Stella is fine, a bolt on the CV axle that was replaced this summer needed tightening, and luckily I hadn’t driven her enough to damage anything else.

Thursday: 6 hours sleep

                 Went to bed early (10:30) last night but had to get up at 4:30 to start something in lab before going swimming.  Repeated my first swim workout (300 wu, 6 x 50 drill, 12 x 100 yrds and 2 x 50 drill/cd).  I pushed myself more than usual on my main workout, but I find myself slacking on the drills and cool-downs.  I’m supposed to 8 x 50 drill at the beginning, 6 x 50 at the end and a 200 yard cool down, but a) I get bored doing that same drills that many times in a row, b) my calves want to cramp doing the drills with flippers at the end of my workout, c) the drills are essentially a cool-down and d) I usually have to go to the bathroom by that time and it seems pointless to get back in the pool for a few laps.  Maybe I’ll lengthen my main set a little to make up for it.  I also learned that I have much less motivation on the bike in the afternoons.  All I had to do was 45 min of high RPM (100+/min) spinning at a low heart rate and I kept sitting up or pausing pedaling for a few seconds, just because I was bored and couldn’t focus.  I think in general I felt a little unmotivated this week.  I didn’t do any circuit weights, partially because I was so busy with school but I could have made it work if I had really wanted to. My diet was also complete crap this week, mostly because I tend to snack uncontrollably when I’m up late studying.  So overall I felt a little guilty about my behavior.  Oh well, I’m done with classes tomorrow so I’ll have plenty of time to get back on track next week.

Friday: 5.5 hours sleep

                I was up late doing homework and eating chocolate-covered rice crispy treats but at least both homework assignments got done.  I definitely failed the quiz I took since I had no time to study for it after doing the problem sets.  It sounds like everyone else feels about the same though, so my overall grade should still be okay (I have to get a B- in every class and maintain a B average to stay in the program).  I went for a 60 min run in the afternoon.  It was great, the sun was out and it was in the mid-20’s, which felt perfect.  My run was about half on a pretty steep downhill and the other half coming back up.  I had to give up on staying in Z2 for that part, otherwise I would’ve been walking the whole way.  I finally decided that I can’t keep avoiding hills just because it gets my heart rate too high.  I’ll probably do plenty of runs on the track with a consistent HR to ensure that I have a good low-aerobic threshold.   

Saturday: 8 hours sleep

                 I didn’t set an alarm this morning!  I was up until around 1 AM reading the third Hunger Games but still woke up at 9:30.  I did my long bike ride (1:45) during the Kona highlight show, which was great fun.  I don’t think it’s necessarily biking in the afternoons that I have trouble with, its biking on a full stomach and making myself push through the first 10 or 20 minutes until I find a good rhythm.  Once my legs and back are warmed up I really enjoy biking, I just hate every minute before that point.  I guess I used to feel the same way with running, I just find my rhythm a lot sooner now.  I’m guessing this will happen with biking soon enough.  

  

Sunday: 11 hours sleep

                One nice thing about training in winter: you can sleep in and it won’t be too hot to run.  The nice thing about training over winter break: you can completely ignore your alarm and not be stressed out about your run taking away from your study time.  Regardless, my hour-long Z1-Z2 run felt pretty challenging this morning.  I think it was a combination of poor air quality, being around a dog last night  and coming off a couple of hard back to back days; between running pretty fast downhill on Friday and pushing myself on the bike yesterday, the muscles on the front of my shins were pretty sore. 

Week 2

Monday: 7 hours sleep

                Rest Day

Tuesday: 7 hours sleep

                Was supposed to get up at 5 to swim, but my alarm didn’t go off so I ended up doing it between classes (300 wu, 25x16, 1x400, 25x16, 200 cd: 1700 total).  It was kind of nice, the pool was emptier, the sun was shining through the windows, and I had a normal breakfast 2 hours before working out; I might try to swim at this time more often.  I had time for some strength and core work before heading back to class.  Went for a 30 min Z2 run from lab, really had trouble keeping my heart rate in check.  It could have been the return to altitude, the air pollution in the valley or how much dessert I ate over the weekend.  Or maybe trail running in a hilly area isn’t good for keeping your heart rate in a certain zone.  I was feeling pretty stressed from class and lab stuff so it was good to get out in the sunshine for a while.

Wednesday: 6 hours sleep

                Yesterday I discovered that I really only need half an hour to get ready in the mornings, instead of the hour I’ve been giving myself.  So I slept in ‘til 6 this morning, rode my trainer for 30 minutes and ran for in the semi-dawn for 15 minutes.  I feel great, pumped for the day!

Thursday: 5 hours sleep

                I was very thankful this morning that I wasn’t scheduled for an outside run, since we had really high winds (40-60 mph with gusts up to 80).  Instead I swam (300 wu, 8x50 drill, 1x300, 3x200, 1x300, 200 cd) and biked (30 min @ Z1, ~100 rpm).  I finally cut the ends off my flippers last night so they were short enough to use for drills.  It was weird to do a workout without flippers after using them, I felt like I was moving at a snail’s pace!  I felt so fatigued and awkward for most of my workout. I don’t know if it was the lack of sleep (there was a late Gonzaga basketball game) or if it was in my head after using the flippers, but until my last 300 I was struggling.  I had some toast with coconut butter before swimming and my stomach didn’t hurt at all, so I’ll probably start having that regularly. Biking was fine, even using a really easy gear it was difficult to spin over 100 rpm and keep my heart rate in zone 1 (120-137).  Of course I was completely guessing at my cadence, so I could have been going way too fast.  I have a bunch of talks/presentations to go to today; it’ll probably take a small mountain of cookies to keep me awake.  Maybe I’ll go look for a healthier snack now…  

Friday: 6 hours sleep

                I got up early this morning and studied a quiz that afternoon instead of running for 45 minutes.  This was a good choice, because it was cold and dark and I needed to study, but also kind of a bad one, because later in the day I ended up really frustrated and stressed out at things that normally wouldn’t have that great an effect on me.  I ended up going for my run soon after I got to lab (and tried to pour a gel only to have it leak before it set).  It felt good for the first half but my stomach started complaining and I ended up walking a lot of the way back.  I didn’t end up eating a mountain of cookies the night before, but I did have a couple pieces of pizza.  Normally I do okay with pizza, but the cheese on this was really weird and disgusting, so I’m blaming that.  

Saturday: 9 hours sleep

                I meant to get up at 6:30 so I would have time to ride my trainer and then bake something for a brunch I was going to.  Instead I woke up at 8 to a dry, sunny, beautiful day that would’ve been great for an outdoor ride, but I didn’t feel like I had the time to get dressed for outside and still make it to brunch.  So I rode my trainer for 1:30, which was pretty boring and made my butt hurt.  I got to enjoy second helpings at brunch though; there was some really good French toast with berry topping, German pancakes, cheesy hashbrowns (which I really liked even though I don’t like cheese or hashbrowns), quiche, pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and mimosas!  

Sunday: 8 hours sleep

                Went for a 1 hr run in the morning, it was below freezing so I wore a hat and a long-sleeved shirt under my windbreaker. I was way too hot after about 10 minutes though, I think I need a wind-breaker vest sort of thing.  The rest of the day was spent recovering in lab and doing homework.

Week 2 wasn't that bad.  I managed to get all of my homework done with out losing too much sleep.  I even did alright on Friday's quiz, even though I was sure I failed it at the time.  I went Christmas decoration shopping with my friend Sarah on Friday night and went to a hockey game on Saturday.  So it seems that hanging out with friends without drinking too much or staying up too late won't be too much to ask for.

Week 1!

 This week was a little screwed up because of the holiday weekend, but it'll settle down in to a more regular pattern soon (I hope).

Monday: Rest Day

Tuesday: 6 hours of sleep

-  Pre workout snack: Banana and 3 Clif ShotBloks

-   5:30 – 60 min swim (300 yd warm up, 8 x 50 drills, 12 x 100 w/ 20 s rest in between, 200 cool down – 2100 yards total).  First half of workout felt good, it was nice having a set workout rather than trying to come up with my own plan.  About half-way through I started feeling really dizzy, nauseous and disoriented, which has never happened before.  I managed to finish without panicking in the middle of the pool though.

-  Breakfast: Loaded oatmeal and tea. 

-  Class (hopefully didn’t fail a test…)

-  10:00 – 30 min run on track at Field House, HR Z2 (146-165), circuit weights (2 x 12 reps).  The hardest part of running on the track was getting lapped and not being able to run faster because it would’ve made my heart rate too high.  It’s going to be hard to keep my ego in check, although I just figured out that I was calculating my Z2 incorrectly, so I actually could’ve ran a little faster.

-  The rest of the day: Didn’t want to kill anyone after Biophysical Chemistry, which is rare, and only had one cookie out of an entire box someone left in the lab kitchen, which is even more rare. 

Wednesday: 7 hours of sleep

-  6:00 – 30 min ride on trainer, HR Z2 (139- 157), quick transition to 15 min run at Z2.  I forgot to turn down my thermostat before starting, so I got really hot, which at least made running outside in the cold more appealing.

-  Breakfast: Loaded oatmeal

-  Class, homework, class

-  Headed to the airport to fly to Spokane for Thanksgiving!

Thursday: 8 hours sleep

-  Pre run snack: Small bowl of Trader Joe’s Golden Flax Flakes (I love TJ’s, wish there were one in SLC)

-  Turkey Trot at Manito Park with 500+ other Flying Irish members.  It was a 5k, but ran a little extra to get 30 minutes in.  It was nice running at 2000 feet again 

·                   -    Breakfast: Oatmeal and coffee

·                   -      Headed out to my dad and step-mom’s for Thanksgiving dinner with Nate.  Enjoyed my          favorite beer (Bitterroot Brewery’s Nut Brown Ale) and some board games with my step-siblings (and biological sister, I guess she’s important too).

·                          Dinner! Everything Thanksgivingish, included three kinds of pie, all of which I sampled.  There were also two cheesecakes, but since they were store-bought and I was full, I didn’t bother.  Somehow I managed to enjoy everything without feeling like I overate.

Friday: 8 hours of sleep

·         Pre run snack: One of Marcie’s (my stepmom’s) delicious leftover rolls

·         45 min run Z1-Z2 (126-165).  Nice run through the forest on a logging road and down the driveway to the main road.  Didn’t get attacked by any dogs or cougars, or shot by someone hunting.  None of which were likely, but all running through my head as I went.

·         Breakfast: My dad’s pancakes, which I hated when I was a kid, but love now.  I actually ate more of them than he did, and without any maple syrup (this is unheard of, the only way I could be convinced to eat pancakes when I was little was if they were drenched in maple syrup). Oh, and cherry pie for dessert.  Yes, breakfast gets dessert when I’m at home.

Saturday:  8 hours sleep

·                   -   Pre workout snack: 2 more leftover rolls

·                   -      9 AM: 60 min swim (300 wu, 4 x 125 m, 4 x 175 m, 4 x 125 m, 300 cd: 2300 total).  Swam at   fitness center in Plummer.  The workout felt great, my strokes felt strong and automatic.  No disorientation or nausea this time, which was good because the pregnant lifeguard was too busy fighting with her boyfriend to take much notice of me.  Also rode a stationary bike for 30 minutes and did some strength training (2 x 12 reps).

·                 -   Breakfast: More pancakes! 

Sunday:

·                       Was supposed to ride my bike for 1 hour, but between being out late the night before with friends (and drinking not 4% Utah beer) and catching an early flight, it didn’t happen.  This was unfortunate because it was a beautiful day and I could have ridden outside.  I’m trying not to dwell on this, even though I’m a little upset with myself.  As long as it doesn’t happen again...   

            

Motivation:

                I don’t have a picture or video this week, just something I noticed and appreciated for the first time over the week.  There were lots of elderly people at the Wellness Center in Plummer doing aerobic or strength training work.  I feel like I have something to look forward to even when I can’t run marathons or train for Ironmen anymore.