Turkey Weekend Training

Thursday RUN 10 miles in 1:50
Friday SWIM 2000y in :50
Saturday RUN 6.5 miles in 60 mins
Sunday RUN 1.5 miles in 13 mins

Geez you'd think I was really training for something with those numbers...!!!

The Thursday run was a surprise, I had some mental low moments but overall the run get better over time. I felt like I keep going and going for more! Refreshing in the end, didn't hurt or wear me out. I was concerned about the slick fresh but frozen over snow, but it was minimal and melting by finish time. This was just an out-n-back into TGP.

Friday's swim was another surprise--there were 9 other Club members at the pool! The BHB was there too, she has a job! :) In the end this was therapeutic, I had a pretty bad morning. RM and I had planned to meet for this swim and in the end it was exactly what I needed. He picked 5 sets of 400's, varied drills or intervals and we flew through them. In an out of habit move, I plunked my gear at the shallow end of the pool.

Saturday I was up in Illinois, this was a run in the late morning up to the school road then over the hill and back. As usual, there was a steady wind, this one out of the south. So I froze the right side of my face on the outbound, tailwinded then headwinded, then the left side of my face received the attention. It wasn't cold, to be honest, but a strong and steady wind that doesn't let up does hurt after awhile. The surprise here? I ran with my phones music to my 2013 soundtrack. I haven't run with music since I started running in 2004 or 2005. Did I like it? I could go either way, but it kept my mind from wandering and I liked that.

Sunday was just to round up to my goal distance of 25 miles. Up to the yellow house road and back in a few minutes. Barely broke a sweat.

NUMERICS total of 6hrs and 48 mins (as usual doesn't count my bike commute time)
SWIM 3950 y in just under 2hrs
BIKE 17.5 mi indoors in 1 hour
RUN 25.1 miles in 4hrs 8 mins

Next up: look at how to schedule running this month, and think of a winter swim goal?

It's been a month! Now what!?

Monday SWIM 1950y with Evolve, COMMUTE 6 miles
Tuesday RUN 6.8 miles in about 70 mins, COMMUTE 6 miles
Wednesday BIKE 17.5 miles in 60 mins indoors

On Monday my B2B FINISHER jacket arrived in the mail!! IT'S AWESOME! Been wearing it all day since :)

The Monday swim was 2x 4x75 with a mix of moderate and fast 25's, then 8x50 on 60s, then 6x25 sprint. Felt great, some back spasming again in midset but nothing to stop for.

Tuesday was the 25th, so the one month mark since B2B. I have a self-imposed "month off" that I guess ends today? Or round it up to this weekend? Nah, this is a pre-season run :)  Guess I could call it the first real training run for the 100-miler?

Am I doing the 100-miler? The date was announced: June 5-6th. I have a lot to work on between now and registration, start there.

Rest both training and logging

Monday RUN 3 mile commute home
Tuesday RUN 2.2 mile commute from Chevy, RUN 3 mile commute home
Wednesday COMMUTE 5.2 mile
Thursday RUN 6.6 miles with BillS
Friday and Saturday OFF
Sunday BIKE 20 miles in about 70 mins indoors

Not much to say, except I'm enjoying the 'off' time. Still really stressed, very up and down.

On Mon saw the Dr, he seems happy with everything, not worried about weight or diet, and is running some micronutrient tests to see about my intense salt cravings. Are they in my head? Or are they physiological? (I tend to think the former!).

NUMERICS haha!
3 hrs and 25 mins
SWIM none
BIKE 20 miles
RUN14.8 miles
COMMUTE 5.2 miles

Another weekend off

Friday, nothing, missed my swim
Saturday BIKE 18 miles in just under an hour indoors
Sunday SWIM 2500y in just under an hour, 10x150y

For a grand total of 4.5-5hrs of training last week! I was going to run over the weekend but found excuses to not run. My back might hurt...I'm tired...I'm resting...I've too much to do otherwise...

But the best excuse won out: I don't need to! Rest!

And I'm terribly distracted. A run would help it, but it just wasn't there this weekend.

MORE COLD!

RUN 6.6 miles in about 56 mins, 8:30m/m pace
COMMUTE no way, uh uh, too cold. 25F!

Oh dang this cold snap sux. This supposed polar vortex from a storm in Alaska is really bringing it, but I can't complain too much because they have snow up north. We were spared that.

Since I wasn't going to bike into work, I needed to be home ASAP to ride in with DH. Our run group now has 2 new members -- welcome James and awesome to EW for coming back :)
The BillS shows up! He doesn't recognize me at first, until I 'buzz' him -- LOL!

I ran with DT this morning, super happy to be able to keep up with him even though he was most certainly holding back. The wind out of the west made it somewhat miserable to run the last 1.5 miles and I would have loved to run faster to warm up faster, but I didn't have much more in me. DT says he's planning to do MiTi Full in 2015!

Once done, my back started with some spasms. I was sitting on the patio behind the FP VC not so much in pain but lots of worry and discomfort. It went away after a few mins, but hopefully it was just from running stiff in the cold, not another problem I need to deal with this winter.

COLD!!

COMMUTE: 6 miles

Oh DAMN it was a cold ride in today! I felt not only terribly pain in my fingertips but also almost physically SICK afterwards. My body just didn't handle it very well. I huddled at my little heater at my work desk waiting for it to pass, and it took about an hour before I felt warm. Then another hour before I felt normal.

Slept in until almost 5:30, but didn't leave to walk the dog until 8:30am. It sounds like it should be a wonderful thing, but I really hate not having something to do in the mornings. It will pass, soon enough I'll be looking for an excuse to not do anything again.

Had lunch with TV today, we strategized on our plans for a 2015 100-miler. Whoop! Even though I'm not supposed to be thinking about this stuff until November :)

Not looking forward to the ride home tonight...

I ran because I could!

RUN 6.3 miles in 57 mins

As per habit, I ran on Tuesday morning. I didn't need to. But I wanted to. So I did. :)

I realized only later in the morning that running 11 miles on 11-11-14 would be cool, but ah well.

Maybe at another level, I wanted a run to help with some stress I was feeling about today's appointment. I won't discuss that here, suffice it to say that it's another challenge and life is all about challenges and how we deal with them.

3 lbs and $14

SWIM 2000y in ~50 mins, rotation and kick drill sets
COMMUTE 6 miles

Some IronHumor to remember.

The other morning I awoke in the middle of the night needing to use the bathroom. I futzed with my watch to get the time -- 12:50. NUTS, I think, that's it?! Later on in the morning I realize that wasn't the chronological time, rather it was my stopwatch time for B2B! I haven't erased it yet!

At my swim on Friday I again marveled at how heavy my swim gear bag was. How could swimming weigh so much?! So I brought the bag in the house as a prompt to get it cleaned up and see why it was so heavy. Last night I got to that errand. It started out weighing 10 pounds. I found numerous swim caps (SavageMan, Swim The Sun, B2B, and Tri Club), uncounted baggies to keep my workout cards dry on the deck, and $14 in the front pocket. Those bills were from my days at Master's swims back in early 2012!

I managed to remove 3 lbs of gear and garbage from the bag, and although doing so really didn't clear up usable space it was needed! And profitable!

Today's swim was 8x50 drills then 4x50 swimming the drill. The first drill was for rotation: hold a kickboard between your thighs and rotate until you feel the 'slap' of the board against the surface of the water. (This was hard to do given my thigh gap!). The second drill was with an ankle band, still kicking so not like my other ankle band. I'm not sure I understood this drill.

After that, 4x100 on 2 mins (I managed 1:50, 1:55, 1:56, 1:57) and 8x50 consistent. I was consistently tired by that point!

Great warm day outside, 71F last I checked but a polar vortex is due to arrive and chill things off. Booo!

Does Billie Van Josef make sense?

This resting is fun, but boring sometimes!

Saturday NOTHING
Sunday RUN 6.6 miles in 56 mins with TH

Saturday was an errands day, lots of little things I've been putting off until I had more time. Well, I have lots of time right now it seems! Trader Joe's, Target (they had clothes that fit me!?), Vitamin Shoppe, Aldi, Jay, home around 1pm.

I woke up to an aura, then at the end of the day GI upset. Not sure exactly what set my tummy off, but maybe the plantain chips or the protein powder set off a painful gas and cramp attack. Need to figure that out, ugh, very unpleasant...

Sunday was an early run with TH. I miss running with her and would have loved another hour but she and I both knew only 1 hour was my goal. I'm glad I stopped when I did. It felt refreshing, easy, fast, and FUN.

We went out for lobster tonight. Oh NOM NOM!

How was my week off? 3hours and 59 minutes!
SWIM 3600 y in about 90 mins?
BIKE None!! Haha!
RUN 16.3 miles
COMMUTE 24 miles

Weds, Thurs, Fri...

Weds COMMUTE 6 miles
Thurs RUN 6.6 miles in just over an hour
          COMMUTE 6 miles
Fri SWIM 2000y in ~45 mins, 500 y TT in 9:36
          COMMUTE 6 miles

My second week of recovery continues, and finally about mid-week I really started to perk up. My commutes started feeling easy and fast, no more tired legs. The Thursday run was a bit weak and I had a headache, but enjoyed it still.

On Thursday's commute home I came across another cyclist, the first I've encountered that takes cycling safety more seriously than I do. I seem to ride on a street with many many casual riders that blow off stop signs and act nuts. This guy had awesome lights and gear, fully stopped, took the lane when safer to do so, and pointed me to Cycling Savy -- a local safety course for cyclists. Before leaving work I put extra lights and reflectives on, thought I was all set and covered until I came up upon him!

Thursday was a full moon day. Went to bed Weds and Thurs with the moon in the east. Woke up Thurs and Friday to a beautiful moon setting in the west. :)

Friday's swim was a 500y TT effort, did it in 9:36 for a 100y ave of 1:55. Ooooof, I slowed down! Not unexpectedly though, given the long distance effort training, the race, and the recovery. Might as well set the baseline low! Then I did a 5x100 (10s) in 10:08. Once you subtract the 40 seconds of rest it calculates out to a 100 y ave time of 1:54.

SM recommended some fast 50 and 100 y efforts in my upcoming swims. LOL, anything to get faster than this!

It's cold on my commutes, cold in the lab, cold at home. Sometimes I can't seem to get warm! It's no mystery to me as to why, I'm lacking insulation. But it's so crazy that this morning the lifeguard A asked we what I changed in my diet this year. Heh, there's a long answer and a short answer...I gave him the latter.

Ugh...it's only been 10 days!

RUN 3.1 miles in about 30 mins, commute to work

Woke up the Whisper of Rain. And it's been raining aaaalllll day:) My run to work was in the rain. Sure it's cold and wet and gray, but I can't help but Appreciate it.

I keep thinking forward to my 2015 goals. Dammit it's only been 10 days since B2B, and I'd kinda put a moratorium on thinking like this until November was done and gone!

Getting back into the groove: setting some goals

SWIM 45 mins and 1600 yards
COMMUTE 6 miles

I'm feeling great, I think the biggest aspect of my recovery will be overcoming the burnout and mental fatigue I was feeling. Don't want that to carry over into 2015.

1600 seems short, but that's what my math came up with. I didn't start right away, stood on the deck and lolly-gagged until 6:16. Once I started I was OK though, felt like a great swim and didn't focus on much else than the workout.

Speaking of which, the goal was counting strokes. WU 300 then 4x50 counting with paddles- I averaged 12 right arm strokes/25y. Then do 4x50 without paddles and keep the number the same. Mine was, so SM said go for faster. I did a few 50's in 50 seconds in what was about an 80% effort. Then 4x50 fist, then 2x150 paddles and pull buoy, then 2x150 pull buoy with fists. For everything but this last 150, my strokes were the same number, this last set it was 16! CD 100.

I talked to SM and NK about keeping motivated this winter for the pool, and asked for some goals or benchmarks to work for by the end of the year. I was happy to have SM give me some 500TT work to do this week :)

I have ideas for next year's goals, but it's only 9 or so days after B2B and only the 3rd day of November. I was going to take November "off", so no goal setting just yet! But I'm thinking of a 100-mile trail race in June and the LC Nationals at Redman in September as the major goals. Just thinking!

B2B Post Race and Recovery Week

Sunday through Wednesday: Sight-seeing in Wilmington and driving back to STL.
Thursday: RUN 5 miles in ?? about 45 mins
Friday: RUN 3 miles in ?? abotu 28 mins, run commute to work
Saturday and Sunday, nothing but a long walk with the family on Sunday.

I felt great after the race, no soreness! No injuries except the neck chafing. I was just having a lot of muscle fatigue and tiredness. I had energy and I was walking around OK, but I couldn't motivate for much  more than that.

The Thursday and Friday runs felt surprisingly good, the only thing I wasn't happy with was the cold. It was 70-80F in North Carolina, but only 40-50 here!

Great race and great recovery. The goal for November is to do only what I feel like doing.