BIKE 1:30 and 26 miles, 3x18 mins at 75% (2 mins rest)
RUN 16x400 (100) hard, then run to work
The bike was indoors so I could get the ride done. Puppy's tire was still flat so biking outdoors hard to do anyway.
The run was going to be shorter, but I just kept running. "Hard" probably wasn't hard enough, but it's done. Then I ran to work. Not sure yet if I'm running home or not.
Tuesday, September 30, 2014
Monday, September 29, 2014
Evolve hard 100's
SWIM 50 mins and 2200 y
COMMUTE 5 miles bike and 1 mile walk
Another low attendance swim, then SM put only me an CT (the people who still have races coming up) together in a lane and gave us non-drill swimming.
I focused the best I could. "Hard" probably wasn't hard enough, but I did it.
I got a flat on Puppy while getting ready to turn from TGA under the overpass. Another flat! This time a pothole. I wasn't mentally up to fixing it there, so I walked home.
COMMUTE 5 miles bike and 1 mile walk
Another low attendance swim, then SM put only me an CT (the people who still have races coming up) together in a lane and gave us non-drill swimming.
I focused the best I could. "Hard" probably wasn't hard enough, but I did it.
I got a flat on Puppy while getting ready to turn from TGA under the overpass. Another flat! This time a pothole. I wasn't mentally up to fixing it there, so I walked home.
Sunday, September 28, 2014
Long run with TH
RUN 2:15 and 14.5 miles in FoPa
I woke up with bad nausea again, that OMG imminent get-to-a-bathroom feeling. What the heck is causing that?! So I didn't eat much, and didn't think I'd be able to run much.
I otherwise felt OK, so I went to the run thinking I could stop at one loop if needed. TH's goal was 2:15 and I had doubts for me on that. Wrong! I downed a few gels in the run, kept it easy, and really enjoyed catching up with TH. So much to talk about!
Felt better after the run, tummy settled.
My 10 day Peak Week is OVER!
17:52 hours
8200 yards swimming
159 miles biking
32.9 miles running
18 miles bike commute
I woke up with bad nausea again, that OMG imminent get-to-a-bathroom feeling. What the heck is causing that?! So I didn't eat much, and didn't think I'd be able to run much.
I otherwise felt OK, so I went to the run thinking I could stop at one loop if needed. TH's goal was 2:15 and I had doubts for me on that. Wrong! I downed a few gels in the run, kept it easy, and really enjoyed catching up with TH. So much to talk about!
Felt better after the run, tummy settled.
My 10 day Peak Week is OVER!
17:52 hours
8200 yards swimming
159 miles biking
32.9 miles running
18 miles bike commute
Saturday, September 27, 2014
2nd century post MiTi
BIKE 6:02 and 103 miles
My goal for this ride was to hit the 100 mile mark under 6 hours. Last week I had to scramble hard to hit that mark, and missed it. Today I wanted to hold a better pace overall and be more steady.
I wrote a new route to Marissa IL, some familiar roads but mostly new. New cities, parks, roads, corn fields...yay! But I was riding alone today, still no takers even though I posted a 40 mile and 70 mile option. And don't forget that I posted that "I'm selfishly holding to my pace". No wonder I ride alone.
Another perfect day for weather. If only I could be so lucky for B2B! I wanted to test my new PI Shrug but it was too warm. I got a late start to the ride, my 8am goal turned into a 9am actual since I didn't charge the Garmin and hung around with DH while he had breakfast. That's time better spent!
I had my usual 'why am I so weak' warmup period, I've learned to ignore it but it still worries me. I sometimes blame the bike, maybe the hub is tight or a brake is dragging. But it's me. Takes time to get into it. Once I did, all was well. I stuck to my schedule of eating every 30 mins and for the most part alternating EFS and a bite of powerbar. I was getting hungry towards the 4hr mark. I had those rice cakes but they were too dry and unpleasant to eat on the bike. Had to eat them another time.
Last week I started to crack around mile 65, of course the headwinds and rough roads had a lot to do with that, but I should know how to push past that. Today I did, helped by much smoother roads and more favorable headwinds that were at the start of the ride and not the way home.
My first stop was 50 miles in Marissa where a local Tootin' Marissa ride was happening! By luck I stopped in the same park the ride staged out of and was able to meet a cyclist who filled me in on the ride. I got lost briefly in a little town called Lenzburg, could NOT find a road I was supposed to take. Didn't matter in the end. Stopped in Freeeeeeburg at 76 miles, noted the heat and fatigue. Passed through Smithton again and was faced with a choice: take the usual ride home on the "PS" route or turn north and ride the Freeeeeeburg route backwards. I wanted to take the northern route for a different scene, but at the same time wanted to forced myself to stick to the plan. I skipped the turn at Lunch, but changed my mind at High Prairie. Took the northern route and added maybe 2 miles to the route.
I happily hit the 100 mark before getting to Cherry Hill! I did a cool-down through Columbia, and no ride for me. Get home!
This ride was great, and probably my last century before B2B.
My goal for this ride was to hit the 100 mile mark under 6 hours. Last week I had to scramble hard to hit that mark, and missed it. Today I wanted to hold a better pace overall and be more steady.
I wrote a new route to Marissa IL, some familiar roads but mostly new. New cities, parks, roads, corn fields...yay! But I was riding alone today, still no takers even though I posted a 40 mile and 70 mile option. And don't forget that I posted that "I'm selfishly holding to my pace". No wonder I ride alone.
Another perfect day for weather. If only I could be so lucky for B2B! I wanted to test my new PI Shrug but it was too warm. I got a late start to the ride, my 8am goal turned into a 9am actual since I didn't charge the Garmin and hung around with DH while he had breakfast. That's time better spent!
I had my usual 'why am I so weak' warmup period, I've learned to ignore it but it still worries me. I sometimes blame the bike, maybe the hub is tight or a brake is dragging. But it's me. Takes time to get into it. Once I did, all was well. I stuck to my schedule of eating every 30 mins and for the most part alternating EFS and a bite of powerbar. I was getting hungry towards the 4hr mark. I had those rice cakes but they were too dry and unpleasant to eat on the bike. Had to eat them another time.
Last week I started to crack around mile 65, of course the headwinds and rough roads had a lot to do with that, but I should know how to push past that. Today I did, helped by much smoother roads and more favorable headwinds that were at the start of the ride and not the way home.
My first stop was 50 miles in Marissa where a local Tootin' Marissa ride was happening! By luck I stopped in the same park the ride staged out of and was able to meet a cyclist who filled me in on the ride. I got lost briefly in a little town called Lenzburg, could NOT find a road I was supposed to take. Didn't matter in the end. Stopped in Freeeeeeburg at 76 miles, noted the heat and fatigue. Passed through Smithton again and was faced with a choice: take the usual ride home on the "PS" route or turn north and ride the Freeeeeeburg route backwards. I wanted to take the northern route for a different scene, but at the same time wanted to forced myself to stick to the plan. I skipped the turn at Lunch, but changed my mind at High Prairie. Took the northern route and added maybe 2 miles to the route.
I happily hit the 100 mark before getting to Cherry Hill! I did a cool-down through Columbia, and no ride for me. Get home!
This ride was great, and probably my last century before B2B.
Friday, September 26, 2014
Second swim of the day: 4.5K loco
SWIM 1:52 and 4500 yard loco, see picture for details
This morning over my coffee and PreWO I lamented my lack of swimming so far this week. I'd missed my Thursday swim completely, and only did 30 mins of the Wednesday swim. With swimming being my weakness, and the B2B swim being a potentially crazy challenge, you'd think I'd put more effort into it.
Well, today I did! I had the option to do this swim right after the lesson, but wanted to keep them separate so I didn't cut the 4.5K short by adding in the lesson yardage. So all day long I was looking and planning ahead to this swim. I worked on the loco layout above over brekkie and lunch, rewriting it 2-3 times before settling on what I ended up doing.
A few tricks worked in -- like putting the kick on each side of the 500's to give me some rest, and leaving the last 500 as easy breezy small intervals that would be too hard to put aside. If I'd had stopped at the last 200, I'd still have a 4.5K for today working under the assumption that this morning's lesson had at least 500y in it.
I took a gel right before the swim, I usually don't do that. And had another gel for the halfway point in the 500's. I admit to having a little of that second gel, a salted caramel, before I even started ;)
I mentally broke the swim into 3 parts: a 1500 WU, a 1500 main set, and a 1500 CD. Once I realized that's all I had to do, it seemed less of a challenge. The first 1500 flew by. The set of 3 500's did too, but it was in those 500's that my attention started to wane. Yay for salted caramel!
My lane was mostly empty until the halfway point when I woman joined me, asking if I could share because the guy next to me wouldn't. Serious? Or a joke? I looked at him and realized I might know him! Sure, whatever, share, I'm not getting involved in this. She took his lane when he was done, but she was replaced by an older guy who had a disaster of a swim. (Finally I was faster than someone in the pool this afternoon!). The woman asked me at one point if I'd been clobbered yet, no, "he's a really nice guy, but he swims the middle of the lane." Not yet, but again I didn't want to get involved. But sure enough, I got mildly clobbered shortly thereafter -- OUCH! Then a 3rd swimmer joined the lane, no asking or anything. Thankfully by this point I was in the 90th lap --DONE!!
My "continuous" swimming form felt great, the muscles might complain tomorrow but they'll be resting on the aerobars, no complaining if you're not working! Unlike the 5-1-5-0 swim I did for Michigan, I didn't fall apart in this round. No cramps, no mental cheerleading, no lack of motivation at the end. I did it! Next up a real 5K! Next weekend maybe.
DrND swim lesson, a breakthrough?
SWIM 1hr lesson, maybe 500-600 yards? More? Probably more on the order of 700-800.
My concerns going into this morning included the discomfort I'm feeling in my left shoulder in extension, and the feeling that I'm going so slow.
First off the shoulder. It's not so much pain but more of an "I'm aware" of something I feel when the left arm is fully forward in extension and starting the catch. Turns out I'm sweeping my left arm out too far, it's drifting out with a big elbow bend. It's happening because the hand is pausing in front of me, giving the hand/arm time to drift out. The drill fix for this is continuous motion, don't stop moving. Every time I pause, I need to kick or get restarted somehow, he pointed out how much this happens over 2.4 miles and how much energy it takes.
This was harder than expected! It felt windmill-ish, like I had many many extra strokes, and I was short of breath. One thing at a time here...I counted my strokes and it was exactly that same! I would have bet $ otherwise! As for the breathing, he thinks (no doubt rightly) that I'm not stomach breathing. I'm rib breathing. Some discussion about how I swallow air in fast sprint sets has him thinking I might be upper throat breathing then! But that's another problem. I need to think (but not over think) "stomach or diaphragm" breathing, still get a nice HOOOP of air but not the HIC that I usually do? Hard to explain, but when I practice it I can feel a difference.
Doing that drill was amazing -- aside from the lack of breath -- I could finally feel the figure-8-ish roll side to side, the feeling of getting my weight to shift such that it works with my arms to propel me! I only feel it for brief bursts though.
Second, my right arm is swinging wide over the water. So the fix drill is high elbow fingertip drag. Ah, this settled my weight on my side and helped that figure-8 feeling even more.
Next up, fist drill. Don't worry about stroke count, in fact add more strokes. Don't kick to compensate. Oooh, out of breath, but it requires good rotation in order to work and it really forces the issue. I've always heard the fist drill as a way to learn to catch water, not as a way to encourage rotation! New to me!
In my final 100's I was feeling more and more of that synchony, the figure-8, the roll side-to-side-to-side fluidity I'm so unfamiliar with. He liked it, said keep doing it! So even if I feel it only 30% of the time right now, that'll get better!
Off to work, so I can get out early. Because I have a 4.5K loco later today?! Should I subtract out this morning's yardage?! Think about it. Better yet, make the call later today. And rewrite the 4.5K loco plan to incorporate the new drills.
My concerns going into this morning included the discomfort I'm feeling in my left shoulder in extension, and the feeling that I'm going so slow.
First off the shoulder. It's not so much pain but more of an "I'm aware" of something I feel when the left arm is fully forward in extension and starting the catch. Turns out I'm sweeping my left arm out too far, it's drifting out with a big elbow bend. It's happening because the hand is pausing in front of me, giving the hand/arm time to drift out. The drill fix for this is continuous motion, don't stop moving. Every time I pause, I need to kick or get restarted somehow, he pointed out how much this happens over 2.4 miles and how much energy it takes.
This was harder than expected! It felt windmill-ish, like I had many many extra strokes, and I was short of breath. One thing at a time here...I counted my strokes and it was exactly that same! I would have bet $ otherwise! As for the breathing, he thinks (no doubt rightly) that I'm not stomach breathing. I'm rib breathing. Some discussion about how I swallow air in fast sprint sets has him thinking I might be upper throat breathing then! But that's another problem. I need to think (but not over think) "stomach or diaphragm" breathing, still get a nice HOOOP of air but not the HIC that I usually do? Hard to explain, but when I practice it I can feel a difference.
Doing that drill was amazing -- aside from the lack of breath -- I could finally feel the figure-8-ish roll side to side, the feeling of getting my weight to shift such that it works with my arms to propel me! I only feel it for brief bursts though.
Second, my right arm is swinging wide over the water. So the fix drill is high elbow fingertip drag. Ah, this settled my weight on my side and helped that figure-8 feeling even more.
Next up, fist drill. Don't worry about stroke count, in fact add more strokes. Don't kick to compensate. Oooh, out of breath, but it requires good rotation in order to work and it really forces the issue. I've always heard the fist drill as a way to learn to catch water, not as a way to encourage rotation! New to me!
In my final 100's I was feeling more and more of that synchony, the figure-8, the roll side-to-side-to-side fluidity I'm so unfamiliar with. He liked it, said keep doing it! So even if I feel it only 30% of the time right now, that'll get better!
Off to work, so I can get out early. Because I have a 4.5K loco later today?! Should I subtract out this morning's yardage?! Think about it. Better yet, make the call later today. And rewrite the 4.5K loco plan to incorporate the new drills.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)