9/18-9/25

Workouts:

Saturday: Rest.

Sunday: 14.8 mile (2:22) run.  First run with new heart rate monitor (Timex Ironman Road Trainer).  It worked well and the run felt good, even though it included some hills.

Monday: Rest.  Hip adductors sore from the run.

Tuesday: 3.3 mile (0:30) AM run.  Some guy walking tells me I’m doing great and to keep it up (I’ve seen him before, always puts a smile on my face).  Bike to lab (2 miles uphill).

Wednesday: Slept 10+ hours, felt great the next morning (still didn’t go an early morning workout…)  Ran 40 min (~4.7 miles) between classes.  Biked to class, lab (sorta) and home.

Thursday: Ran 3.22 miles (0:30), biked to lab.

Friday: Rest day!

Saturday: 16.75 mile (2:40) run, 5:30 AM start.  Breathing felt labored even though not that hilly of a run, ran a slower pace than normal so didn’t do 18 miles as planned.  Last 20 minutes were pretty rough (knees started to hurt) but otherwise it felt good.

Sunday: Rest

Feelings/emotions, etc…

I’ve been struggling recently getting up in the mornings to work out.  I don’t know if I’m still recovering from being sick last week or just generally fatigued.  I have some flexibility with swimming and biking right now, so I’m not stressing about it too much. 

Stansbury Olympic Tri

So last Saturday I completed my first open-water triathlon; at the last minute I decided to enter the Olympic length race, rather than the Sprint length, as I had originally planned.  My goal for the race was to not to panic during the swim.  Perhaps a better goal would've been: don't let panicking stop you from completing the race.  I wasn't completely successful with my original goal, but I did finish the race, and even enjoyed the majority of it, so overall it was a success.

I rented a wetsuit for the race, mostly for the peace-of-mind the buoyancy would give me.  I didn't practice with it before the race; I really should have.  I didn't get in the water to warm up before the start of the race, so my first strokes in a wetsuit were as the race started.  I don't know if the wetsuit was too small, or if I hadn't pulled it up enough, but the arms felt more constricting than they had in the store, and I soon felt claustrophobic, and started to freak out. I started to doggy-paddle, and a life-guard on a surfboard quickly paddled over to make sure I was okay.  I hung on to the board for a minute until I calmed down.  She told me I was doing fine and to just backstroke if I needed to, which I really appreciated.  At that point I was less than 200 meters into a 1500 meter swim, wondering how the hell I was going to finish one loop, much less complete a second one.  I had to hold on to two more surfboards during the next 200 meters; I was kicking myself the whole way for biting off so much at once.  Eventually I settled into a comfortable rhythm of free-styling for 10 breaths, then backstroking until my breathing settled down again.  It took awhile (43 minutes), but I finished the swim (surprisingly I wasn't the last one out of the water). 

Because I was so far behind, the bike ride was pretty boring.  I really need to start biking more, my legs get fatigued pretty quickly.  The run was a lot of fun though.  I ran the first two miles at a 7:30 pace without feeling like I was pushing myself at all.  Last time I ran that pace I felt like the whole thing was a struggle, so that was surprising.  I finished the run in 48:08 (overall pace of 7:44) and the whole race in 2:51.  My other goal had been under 3 hours, so I was happy with that.  I'm excited for when I get more comfortable with the swim, it will improve my time significantly but also my energy levels for the rest of the race (you use your legs more in backstroke than free style). 

I felt surprisingly good during the rest of the weekend.  I went to McDonald's after the race with some of my grad school friends who shook their hangovers long enough to come watch me.  Probably not the best recovery food, but delicious none the less. After a nap, I went to the Greek festival and enjoyed some amazing gyros, desserts and coffee.  Then it was off to a surprise birthday party, where I replenished my glycogen stores with plenty of beer.  Not surprisingly, I started feeling sick yesterday, so I'll probably choose a different way to recover from my next race.

Its been a great week.  On Wednesday I ran in the dark for the first time, and it was actually pretty fun.  I had a couple lights on me, so I wasn't worried about being hit by a car and I could see breaks in the sidewalk pretty easily.  Thursday morning I used my roof-top bike rack for the first time, which was exciting.  I then did my first brick (a bike ride followed by a short run to get your legs used to the transition).  I was also able to stay on my aero bars for all of the 45 minute ride without too much discomfort.  My first Olympic distance race (which will also be my first open-water swim race) is tomorrow morning.  My bag is packed, my wetsuit is rented and I've been eating a lot for the past couple days.  I've also got my first grad school level test this evening (who schedules a test from 6 to 8 on a Friday evening???).  Between the test and the race its been a stressful couple of days, but I'm feeling ready and excited for both!

Lessons from the long weekend

Well its been a pretty good week/long weekend.  I discovered that I am capable of drinking two beers, (followed by a liter of water) staying up past midnight, and getting up at 5 AM for a 12 mile run (and feel great doing it).  I am not capable of drinking about twice that amount the following night, getting 5 hours of sleep and then getting up for a 6 AM bike ride.  Choosing sleep in that situation will probably always happen.  Funny how my definition of a crazy night out has changed since college, or even in the past couple months. 

I'm still working on finding a healthy balance between guilt as motivation and guilt as pushing myself too hard.  I meant to do a long bike ride on Monday morning, but hitting the snooze button a few times meant I didn't have time before I met one of my friends to play tennis.  I meant to do it later in the day, but it looked stormy and I hadn't started studying for my first test yet, so it didn't happen then either.  I meant to ride my bike to lab this morning, but after swimming for 75 minutes and doing abs, the bus looked really appealing.  I don't necessarily feel lazy, because I'm doing plenty of other things.  I think I'm scared of getting hit by a car, or falling over again or just struggling in general with the details of riding.  The only place I feel motivated to ride is a flat, multi-use trail in North Salt Lake.  Its good for getting used to being in the aero position, and I don't have to worry about cars or stop lights.  But its a 25 minute drive away, so it tends to get pushed aside first.  So I guess I feel guilty for not getting over my fear of riding near my house.  As one of the friends put it, I "need to just nut up and ride up Emigration Canyon." So maybe that will be my goal for after my first open-water tri (this weekend!): get comfortable on the roads that are near me, so I have fewer excuses for skipping rides.