Getting Ready to Ride...

So, tomorrow I will be riding the Total 200.

Not the full 200 mile option, but the 200k option which is 125 miles. Why not the 200 miles you ask? Well to be honest I have desire to ride that far in one day and will be just as happy riding 125. This ride will be the longest ride I do before IM Lousiville and the longest ride I have ever done. Hopefully it will make the handful of 100 mile rides I still have left feel shorter. Wishful thinking I know.

Anyhow, it's going to be hot tomorrow. Which worries me, but it could also be this hot on race day, which also worries me. Also not a fan of seeing thunder storms in the forecast.

Luckily the tour starts early and we should be rolling at 6am. But, I guess the early start time really doesn't make a difference when I will be riding for at least 7 1/2 hours. But really longer than that with rest breaks, etc. I am going to be as smart as I can and drink lots of water / my Gu Brew mix along with talking salt tabs every hour. I really do not want to end up dehydrated on the side of the road.

With that said, I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Happy Friday All :)

Wordless Thurs ~

I went to a track party yesterday and ran lots of 400s

Then I rode the metro home and ate ice cream for dinner. 

It was a perfect night :0 

Happy Thursday All :) 

Same Old

Well it's Wednesday and I think I have finally caught up on my sleep from the weekend.

 

Nothing to exciting going, just the same old same old: swim, bike, run, eat, sleep, pet kiwi

 

Yesterday, I gave myself a break from getting in the car and driving to VA to do the fresh bikes hill ride. I love the ride, but honestly hate the hassle. So I have decided to go every other week. Which left me riding at Haines as soon as I got off work. I was very unmotivated and thoughts of skipping the workout all together entered my head through-out the day. But I couldn't skip it. People would know. More importantly I would know. And honestly I didn't have anything better to do in the evening. Although Jason says I could have cleaned. Whatever. Anyhow, I went to Haines and struggled with my workout. My miles were slow and the wind was strong down there. On the back side I went a whopping 14pmh. But I did push myself and in the end I was happy to have finished. Although I didn't have the will to run my 20 min brick afterwards. I was too hungry and started cooking dinner right away.

 

Today was the first day I tried swimming in the morning. I was one of the first ones there at 6:30am when they open. The pool is pretty crowded in the mornings though! I did my first 1000 in one lane and ended up getting punched in the face. Fun. So I switched lanes and ended up swimming with Juls and Amanda who coach the DC Tri masters program. It was a blast swimming with them and I loved the workout they came up with. Plus they are fast! So I was really pushing myself. They left earlier than me which meant the last 1000 was on my own and I just did it in sets of 200s. I had 4100 on my schedule today, but only managed to get in 4050. We are suppose to have lap swim open until 8am, but pool management decided to start taking down the lanes at 5 till and then pool was then flooded with old people ready to get there aqua class on. At any rate, it was nice swimming in the morning.

 

Later tonight, I will go to my first track practice with PR running. Should be more good times.

 

Happy Wens All :) 

Week 15 ~ Recovery Week

Last week was recovery week. So I should feel nice and refreshed today and ready to tackle this week, but I'm not. I stayed up way past my bed time watching ironman finishers and am exrta sleepy today. Hoping to re-bank some sleep time the rest of the week if that's possible?

 

Anyhow, here's how last week went:  

 

Monday ~ Rest Day

 

Tues ~

Bike 19.6 miles (1:20)

Fresh Bikes Hill ride with an extra little 4 mile loop thrown in there. I think I may do this little loop 1 more time to get over 20 miles in for the day.

 

Run: 2 miles (:19)

Short little brick run. Nothing special

 

Wed ~

Run 6.6 miles (:57)

Track workout around Lincoln park. It was hard and I really struggle with the last 800m. I def need more speed work in my life

 

Swim: FAIL!!!

Pool was overcrowded and they weren't letting people in. Waited 15 minutes to be let into the pool, just to find out they only have two 20 yard lap lanes for the summer. I sat at the edge of the pool. I was too overwhelmed by the amount of horse play that was going on in said lap lanes and just left.

 

Thurs ~

Bike: 25.2 miles (1:25)

Met up with the DC Tri B group for some pace line work around Haines. I tried my best to keep up, but once you're dropped, you're dropped! I basically got my ass handed to me on a plate. It was a hard workout for me and some of us ended up forming a B- group. ha.

 

Swim: 2500 meters (:45)

Make up swim for missing it on wen. I basically just swam until the pool closed. I ended up swimming 2000 m straight then just did 5 x 100.

 

Friday ~

Run: 2 miles (:18)

I ended up with a crazy commute due to a flat on my road bike. So I walked my road bike into my office, ran home to pick up my hybrid, then road that bike back in. Why all this extra stuff, I wanted to swim as soon as I got off work and needed a bike to get to the pool. The run itself, well I felt good and wished I could have just kept running.

 

Swim: 3200 meters (1:10)

First time swimming at Haines Point 50 meter outdoor pool. 

True there is some weird floaty stuff in the water, but overall I like the pool. I managed to fit in my entire workout before the lifeguards kicked us out for thunder.

 

Saturday~

Bike: 55.5 miles (3:30)

Group ride with the DC Tri to include Rachel, Victoria, Jason, and the other Sarah! Yep I got to see my tri twin! Anyhow, it was a nice little ride out to the T and Back. Once at the T some of us headed back to DC and some went out to ride out to Poolesville. The worst part of the ride as always is biking back through the city to our house. Hate city traffic and stop lights.

 

Run: 2.3 miles (:20)

Hot brick run! Plus I had a bike nutrition fail. I gulped down some water/gatorade and threw some honey stinger chews down the old hatch before starting the run. However I was hungry again by mile 2. If this run would have been any longer it would have turned into a suffer fest.  

 

Sunday~

Run: 9.56 miles (1:24)

PRR group run in which I ended up running with Mia. I had around 9 miles and she had 10 which was perfect. Our paces seemed to work out great as well :)

 

Swim: 3000 meters (1:05)

Swam down at Haines again and guessing on my time here as I didn't really look at my phone before or after I started. Anyhow, I forgot to put sun screen on the back of my legs/butt and guess what? They are bright red today and hurt!!!

 

Totals:

Swim: 8700 meters

Bike: 100.3 miles

Run: 22.46 miles

 

Plus other bike commute stuff that I don't feel like adding up.

 

Add what do I to look forward to this week? Total 200!!!! Well not the total 200 miles but the 200k bike option. I'm sure it will be a blast. And it's not too late if you want in on the fun, I think you can still register.

 

Also congrats to all the IRONMAN who raced over the weekend :)

 

Happy Monday all :)  

Random Friday

1. I am scared to walk through revolving doors. I hate them. If there is not a normal door on a building I have a mini panic attach before having to walk through the revolving one.

 

2. I don't like my contacts, but I'm scared to get eye surgery

 

3. I love shopping but never have a chance to really wear normal clothes anymore.

 

5. Hard Boiled eggs are getting hard for me to eat, but they are a good pre-long ride food.

 

6. Kiwi looks like a bowling ball because she's so fat

 

7. I don't handle stress well and usually cry, throw things, or yell

 

8. I made a grilled cheese sandwich with bacon on it the other day. Heaven!

 

9. I had a mini panic attack because my pool changed to 20 yards (with only 2 lanes) for the summer.

 

10. I am swimming at new pools for the summer

 

11. I'm already trying to pick out a costume to wear during the Marine Corp Marathon

 

12. I am loving recovery week

 

13. I got a flat this morning on my road bike and my repair kit was on my tri bike #fail

 

14. Every time I see a cat on the sidewalks I yell "kitty" out loud and go over and pet it and try to lure it home with me.

 

15. I am excited to get my IM book bag in a couple months. They look sweet!

 

16. I purchased one way tickets to San Fran and haven't bothered buy a ticket home yet.

 

17. I keep on forgetting to take off my wedding rings before swimming. It's annoying because they feel like they are going to fall off the whole time, which just makes me cup my hand extra hard

 

18. I want to organize my closet and give some clothes away.

 

19. I learned to write cursive with my left hand and print with my right hand. I thought this was the cool thing to do in second grade.

 

20. I have not complained about the heat this week. There is nothing I can do about it.

 

Have a great weekend and good luck to everyone racing Ironman CDA

Speed Work

I love running at a real track ...

But getting to a real track is hard for me. Ok it's really not that hard for me, but they just seem inconvenient for me to get to get to...aka I am lazy and hate driving places or taking the metro for that mater.

So today I came up with the bright idea of running circles around Lincoln Park. No, it's not a perfect track, but it's flat and the side walks are nice and even with no stop lights! So, yeah it seems like the perfect track to me, plus did I mention I only live 2 blocks from the park :)

It's not a perfect 400 meters or really even close to 400 meters. One lap around the park is about 800 meters (you have to run a little over a lap to make it 800.) But this still makes it easy to do speed work.

I'm also not sure why my garmin thought I cut across the grass....whatever garmin, your fired.

So my conclusion is: I will try to make it to either Wednesday night or morning track workouts sometimes, but for the most part I will take the track workout given and do it at the Park in the morning. So much easier for me. Plus who likes running in the 90+ degree heat in the evening, not this girl!

Happy Wednesday All :) 

Rambling about nothing Really...

1. We are not even half way through this year and I am researching races for next year. I think I officially have a problem. The big question to myself though is: do I want to do another ironman next year or do I want to do a bunch of 70.3s and work on getting faster? I have a big goal in my head for the 70.3 distance and I would love to see if I could achieve it? But on the other hand, up to this point I have been having fun with IM training. Sure some of the workouts suck in the hot weather, but it's nothing I can't really handle. Yeah, I know I don't have to make up my mind today, but I'm kind of just thinking out loud here or I guess typing.

 

2. Before I get ahead of myself with next year, I opened up my schedule this week to find: Week 15: "Recovery Week". And so far I am loving recovery week. More importantly I am looking forward to less saddle time this weekend and only a 80 minute run! Does that mean I can sleep in?? Ha, no. I actually don't think I can even sleep past 7am anymore.

 

3. I am going to start swimming at Haines Point pool after work on Fridays. This way I will not be rushed to try to finish my workout in an hour. Looking forward to swimming outside even if I hear it's not the prettiest pool.

 

Happy Tues All :)

Weekend Recap - Tri-ing Again ...

As usual my weekend was filled with all things: swim, bike, and run. Which means it was a good weekend :) 

Saturday:

We woke up extra early in an attempt to make it down to General Smallwood Park in Indian Head Maryland by 6am to start our wheels rolling. We needed to start early because DC Tri Clubs Bric-Nic started at 11am ~ well that's when the picnic part was staring and that's when I wanted to be finished with my brick workout by. My training schedule had my doing a 4-5 hour ride with a 35 minute run afterwards. I think I would have been ok with finishing this workout on time if there wasn't all these ifs put into the ride.

We did make it to the park a little before 6am and parked our car by the boat docks. I was pretty much ready to roll from this location but a couple other DC Tri-ers said we were parking else where and well I guess we thought it was better to just move our car to the correct location. Jason drove the car, while I biked over to the correct picnic area. Some of the faster kids were still getting their bikes ready, so Jason and I just started rolling as we weren't doing the same workout as them anyhow and figured they would catch up to us. So by the time this was all said and done it was already 6:30, a whole half hour after I wanted to start.

Just 5 miles into the ride ~ pop~ Jason gets a flat! Now changing a flat is not a quick thing to do, at least for us it's not. So 25 minutes or so later we were rolling again. So yeah now basically it's like we started an hour late and could have just enjoyed ourselves and slept in a little later.

Also, our recon mission of scooping out General Smallwood's oly bike course ended shortly after we missed one of the turns. I originally wanted to do three loops of the course, but yeah I didn't even get one in. Instead we ended up doing some of the Waterman's course and had to pull out goole maps a couple times on the ride to figure out where we were. Not a big deal at all and we ended back at the park with about 55 miles.

Our Route - So not the right route! 

It was already 10:30 at this point and Jason just rode into the park while I just kept riding. I wanted to get at least 70 miles in, so my plan was to do an out and back to get extra miles in. Now I don't mind riding by myself but the last 10 miles were hell. I had ran out of all my water and food. I was so thirsty and hungry. I felt like I was pedaling extra slow and thought I might tip over. As I got closer to the park I saw others running the run course and thought they might be running faster than I was biking. I was bonking bad! For a split second I thought about skipping my brick when I made it back to the park 73 miles later and saw everyone else eating and laughing. I was not a happy camper and just ran up the picnic area, grabbed some water and a honey stinger waffle and started my run. I thought it was going to suck, but the waffle and water made me feel better and I averaged a 9 minute mile off the bike for almost 4 miles. 

Once finished, I was finally able to enjoy myself with the rest of my fellow triathletes. It was a fun day despite not having the best ride.

Sunday:

It was another early wake up call as it was the first day I would be doing a group run with the PRR group in Georgetown. We met at 6:30am and different groups formed depending on what time/distance you wanted to do. I did a fun easy run with Victoria, Rachel, and Jason. Victoria and myself had a little longer to run so we continued once the others got back to the meeting spot. I had a 1:10 minute run on my schedule and ended up doing just a little more than that, and finished with 12 miles. The weather was perfect for this run and I wish I could have bottled it up somehow and saved it for race day.

Once back home, I took a little nap, ate lunch and went to the pool. Ok Kiwi took a nap too! Well wait, she is always taking a nap ... she has the life! 

Anyhow, I always say I will swim at Haines pool on the weekend, but then the convenience factor sets in and I always just go the Eastern Market pool since it's only 5 blocks from my house. The swim itself was a struggle for me but I managed to squeeze in 7 x 500s before I was finished. Jason had been waiting for me outside since his swim workout doesn't take as long as mine. So afterwards, we got fresh squeezed lemonade, fresh peaches, and a hot pretzel. Ahhh... how I love swimming at this pool and having all the treats of eastern market after you finish.

To finish up our day we went to Ruth Chris steak house to celebrate our 2 year wedding anniversary. I love steak and fresh hot bread so it was a great dinner.

 I hope everyone had a great weekend! What was your favorite thing you did?

2 Years Together Already!

Two years ago on June 18th, I was getting married to the most wonderful person ever, Jason, aka my M.

I had so much fun at our wedding and would actually loved to get married every year. I guess, I just like dancing, dressing up, and partying!

Last year to celebrate our one year we went on a wonderful Baltic Sea cruise that went to countries like: Norway, Denmark, Germany, Sweden, Russia, Finland, and Estonia.

This year, what are we doing for our 2 year? Well it looks like we will be riding bikes for a long time on Sunday - 100 miles of fun leg killing togetherness :)

After that I will be greeted by a fun 40 minute brick run and feel like this when I'm finished:

But, I still think we have time to dress up and go to Ruth's Chris steak house for some much needed yummy steaks! I am excited!

Hope everyone has a great weekend and see some of you tomorrow for the Brick Nic :) 

3 Things Thurs.

1. Sometimes you just need a break and I did just that last night. Now I haven't down right skipped very many of my workouts, but I did yesterday and I'm feeling so guilty today. After going to my dentist yesterday for about the 7th time for the same tooth I wanted to cry and just over all feel sorry for myself. For those of you who care, I now have some bling in my mouth with a gold tooth , yes you herd right, gold! But guess what, even my new shinny gold tooth does not fit correctly and I still have to go back on Friday. Hopefully this time my dentist will not take the tooth buffer thingy and buff off part of my lip like yesterday. I have never felt so much pain in my life. So when I got home, instead of swimming or going to the track I relaxed on my back porch, made dinner, and watched TV with Kiwi. It was nice. But yeah not feeling so great about that decision today. I just feel like a big slacker. 

2. With that said, I did my normal morning Haines Point ride today and will try to fit in a swim after coaching tonight as a make up swim. I'm not really a great swimmer and I can't afford to miss swims. Sadly for me, I will only get a half hour of pool time tonight, which will not really cut it for the 3600 I was suppose to swim yesterday. I guess the mile I will get in will be better than nothing. Lesson learned I guess: don't skip your workouts because you feel like crap after going to the dentist.

 

3. Just something random, but Kiwi ran out our front door this morning as we were taking our bikes out. She has gotten so fat that she got herself stuck in-between the railings that are run between me and my neighbors house. It was so funny as she just meowed for help and tried to wiggle herself through. The poor thing is up to 20 pounds I believe. I swear I have her on a diet...

Happy Thurs All :)

Death by Heat

So to bet a dead horse here, I'm going to talk about my terrible terrible long run that went down on Sunday.

I think my first mistake was letting myself sleep in till 7am. After getting up I had a muffin and a banana before leaving my house at around 7:45ish for 14 miles. I was thinking this run would take me a little over 2 hours but it ended taking 2:30 hours and I probably out there longer than that because I stopped my watch a couple of times and just stood there.  

 

It was already hot out, maybe 85, but I was feeling fine for the first two miles and keeping my pace right around the 8:45 range. Miles 3-4 my stomach started feeling not so great but I kept running regardless. I made it Haines Point near the Lincoln and the entrance of the rock creek trail when I stopped and threw up. I felt like crap! I don't know if I was drinking too much water while running, getting dehydrated already, or if I just ate the wrong thing before the run? Either way I felt miserable. I called Jason almost in tears and told him how bad I felt and that I just threw up in the grass. He offered to come get me, and every bone in my body said "yes, please!" But there was this little nagging voice in the back of my head that said: "you can't have someone come pick you up during your IM because your having a bad day." "You are tougher than this, and you are already outside and only have 10 miles left. 90 minutes, this should be a piece of cake." So, I told Jason, no. That I would continue the run on the trail until I made it to P street in Dupont and if I still felt horrible that I would just take the metro home.

 

As I ran along the trail, I was struggling and getting passed by just about everyone. I started letting myself walk for a minute after every mile. Then I didn't even care how long I was walking and would pick a tree or an object and just say to myself I will starting running again when I get to that point. I made it to P street and started to run my G-town loop, then I just stopped and stumbled. I just stood there for about 3 minutes thinking what I wanted to do? I really didn't want to tack on the extra miles away from my house incase I couldn't make it and decided I would rather do a 3 mile loop around my house. So I made my way to my old apartment around mile 8 and called Jason again. I was just as miserable and dry heaving ever so often. By this point my miles were up into the 11 - 12:30 range. When I talked to him, I told him I have 4 miles until I'm home, then another 3 miles left. So Jas offered to run with me for my last 3 and said, "so I should be ready to run in 35 minutes." HA. 35 minutes, yes maybe on a normal day, but I told him to expect me in about 50 minutes or so.

 

As I got closer and closer to my house, my walk breaks got longer and longer. For those who watched the Kona world championships last year, I felt like that little old guy who was running all hunched over and then fell into that road sign. I would catch myself running hunched over from being so tired/hot and try to correct myself. I was also thinking about all my friends who were racing Eagleman and my heart went out to them because I knew they had to be suffering in the 90+ degree heat. I considered myself lucky for only having to run 14 miles without a swim/bike in-front of it.  I ran out of water with about 2 miles to go until my house. Nothing was open near the Capitol and I was so thirsty. My mind was basically mush along with my body by the time I made it back to our house. I know I had to look like death! I only took about a 2 minute break here and re-filled my water bottle, drank a glass of gatorade and popped some grapes in my mouth. I really wanted to just crash, but I only had 2.5 miles left. With Jason is tow we did a short loop around our house and I was so thankful to have him there for mental support. I also think it's the first that he was running too fast for me and I was just dragging behind.

 

I will just say I have never been so happy to finish a run in my life! It was not a pretty run, but it was a run and I finished it! I still felt pretty out of it for a good hour after I finish and actually threw up again 45 minutes after my run. I think I had to have been dehydrated?

 

So at the end of the day I give myself two check marks:

 

1. Mental toughness ~ check!

2. Stupidity ~ check! 

IM Training - Week 13

Last week I had some ups and downs in my training. For the most part my workouts went well with the exception of one run. During this run I questioned my sanity as to why in the world am I doing an ironman in the Kentucky August Heat? But shortly after these feelings I was back to thinking I love IM training.

Anyhow, here's how it went:

 

Monday - Rest Day! Plus a 4 mile commute and coaching for 4 hours :(

 

Tues

* Bike ~ 16.9 miles (1:02): Finally made it out to a Fresh Bikes Hill ride. It was a lot of fun and loved socializing/eating after the ride. Although I skipped my brick run afterward the ride and I am suppose to be riding longer than an hour. Next time I will need to do a loop on my own.

 

Wednesday

* Swim ~ 2700 yards (:50): Ugh, didn't have enough time in the pool to finish my workout before they closed for the swim team.

 

* Run ~ 6.54 miles (:57): Ran at a real track for the first time in a very long time and had fun!

 

Thursday

* Bike ~ 22.1 miles (1:18): Rode at Haines Point with the DC Tri B group. Will have to make this a weekly thing

 

Friday

* Swim ~ 3620 yards (1:07): Pool was reconfigured to 20 yards so I had to do some extra counting, but I was happy to be swimming. Did 7 x 500 with some cool down laps

 

Saturday

* Bike ~ 89.1 miles (5:35): Jason and I met up with Rachel and she rode with us to the T before heading back home. We continued to take a back route up to Poolesville hitting around 45 miles when we made it to the gas station. Originally I had us doing a loop once up there, but mentally that didn't sound like fun, so we just did an out and back.

 

* Brick Run ~ 3.3 miles (:30): Death by brick run by heat! I felt like I was just stumbling along then I saw 91 degrees on the bank sign as I ran past it on Penn. I guess that right there explained why I was struggling so bad!  

 

Sunday

* Run ~ 14 miles (2:30): OMG the worst run in my life! Threw up at mile 4. Called Jason to come pick me up, then I said no. I am tougher than this and I don't have to option of quitting during IM so I continued to run. I called Jason again at mile 9 and ask him if he would run the last 3 miles with me when I made it back to our house. He was ready to go when I made it there and I was so happy to be running with someone those last few miles.

 

* Swim ~ 3200 yards (1:05): crowded summer pool! But still got a good workout in. I also had Jason time me on a 100 because I never time myself and have no clue how fast/slow I am swimming. I finished my mini time trail in 1:32 which was all out for me. Conclusion, I need to do more speed work in the pool and push myself harder.

 

Totals:

Swim: 9520 yards

Bike: 128.1 miles

Run: 23.84 miles

 

Commute miles by bike: 18

 

For this week: I would like to work on staying more positive during my long run. I also will be getting out the door by 5:30 am and not waiting till 7:45ish.

 

Happy Monday All :) 

Stressing....

1. I'm starting to second guess my training plan I am using. I don't know why I have started to do this, but I am. My run days have always been wed (speed work) and Friday (hills) along with a short brick and a longer brick run on tues/sat and Sunday as my long run day. Since switching off the half ironman plan I was using to the full ironman plan, they do not have me running as much. Or, I guess I should say all the run days are the same expect for Friday. A lot of the Friday runs are either optional or they are not there at all. Actually a lot of the workouts say optional by them in this plan and I'm like ahhh... what should I be doing? I understand as the bricks increase in mileage and the long runs get longer and longer my weekly run mileage will still be high. Yet it feels like I am doing less since switching to the IM plan. This morning I decided to listen to the plan and not run. Also my cranky hip/back pain that I had last year seems to be creeping back. So I guess a rest run day was welcomed.

 

2. I am also stressing out about pool time. Currently I swim at the Eastern Market pool. The problem is that they close the pool from 5pm - 6:30 ish for the swim team. I have been swimming right after I get off of work from 4-5, but sometimes I can only get 50 minutes of swimming in. This really isn't enough time for me to fit a 3000 yard and higher workout in. Now, yes one could always tell me to just swim at 6:30pm and that would be the easy solution, but I like having my evenings free like I am a normal person. Plus well I get cranky when the pool is super crowded in the evenings. My current swim days are wen/fri/sun. Sunday was more or less a recovery swim day but I think I'm going to have to switch to this to my long swim day. Haines Point's pool is not open on Wednesday and I'm too lazy to waste the half hour on the metro to/from Wilson's pool. So, Wednesday can be my shorter swim day or whatever I can fit in, in a 45-60 minute time period. Friday, I will either come into work earlier so I can get to the pool earlier or swim at the Haines Point pool and not feel rushed to get my workout in. I think this will work?

 

3. I went to a real track in the first time in a very long time. On Wednesday evening I ran over to Gallaudet University University's track. It's only about 1.7 miles from my house which makes for a nice warm up/cool down. The track was super nice. It was also a nice switch from trying to do speed work on city blocks which usually just turns into a tempo or mile repeats for me. I didn't want to over do it, so I just did 3 x 800s with a recovery 800 in-between each. I also did just 1 x 400. Yeah I know it wasn't a super long workout, but I have to start somewhere. I also need to learn how to set my watch to get my splits. I basically re-set it after every 800 which was pretty annoying. Now the question is: do I attempt to go to the track on Wendeday morning with the DC Tri group from now on? The problem here is that they practice at Banneker track near Howard. This is a little tricky for me to get to and the area is a little sketchy especially when practice starts at 5:45am. Man I guess it already sounds like I am making up excuses not to go. I don't know. Or I continue to go in the evenings by myself and give up my one free week night that I have. Oh the decisions. Or I guess I continue to do what I have been doing and run tempos in the morning and go to the track every so often.

 

I guess overall I am stressing about all my workouts ... ugh... I hate when I get like this.

 

At any rate, I hope everyone has a great weekend and good luck to those racing Eagleman :)

Fresh Bikes Rematch

So, I finally made it to a Fresh Bike's Hill ride. And no the free food at the end of the ride did not help get me there. Ok yes it did. 

Anyhow,  from what I remember from last year it was a hilly ride so I was prepared mentally going into yesterday's ride. Last year I struggled and cried on the side of the road because I thought the ride was so hard. Seriously, I cried!! What was wrong with me?

 

Yesterday, not so much. The ride was fun and I enjoyed myself. Well I mostly enjoyed myself since my aero cap fell off and I basically had my entire bottle filled with GU brew get sprayed on me until I finally stopped to dump the thing out. Boomer and myself were so sticky! But I can't believe how much better shape I am in this year and I can't believe I thought this ride was so hard last year. Plus, well riding in matching jersey's always makes a ride more fun.

At any rate, this makes me happy to know I can some what handle hills now. But, I know I still have a lot of work to go. When I go to another Tuesday ride I think I will go early to do one loop by myself and one loop with the group to get more miles in. Plus no skipping out on my brick next time because I'm too tempted to socialize.

Happy Wednesday All and it was nice seeing everyone last night :) 

  

Bacon/Grilled Cheese Ride

Rachel, Karen, Jason, and myself met up in Potomac, MD on Sunday at 7:30am to ride bikes... 

Karen had set up a wonderful ride with a rest stop at her Aunt's in Frederick, MD. They were so sweet and had all the food anyone could ask for!

Instead of writing a full recap of how our ride went, I will just write a recap by the numbers ....

 

* number of cue sheets forgotten: 2

* number of sun burns from cue sheet stuck in shorts legs: 1

* number of times we missed the road we were supposed to turn on: at least 10 times

* number of people who never made it to Karen's Aunt: 1

* number of bacon strips consumed: 4 (by me)

* number of grilled cheeses eaten: 2 (by me)

* number of people who didn't feel like riding back after our rest stop: 3

* number of people who said they were slow and they are actually fast: 1

* number of chains dropped: 1

* number of people to put chain back on: 2

* number of crashes: 1

* number of times we lost Karen: 1

* number of people who laid on the ground at the BP in Poolesville: 1

* number of bugs eaten: 1

* number of feet climbed: 5,400

* number of hills: way to many!

* number of miles ridden: 78

* number of times I thought my bike might tip over going 4-5 mph up hill: greater than 10

* number of people who were not happy that I tacked on extra miles: 1 

* number of pizza's eaten after ride: 1 

Happy Tues All :) 

Week 12 Bites the Dust

Well, 12 weeks of ironman training has came and gone and it's now time to move onto the next training block....weeks 13 - 18: IM specific training! What does this mean? It means lots of long swims, bike rides, and runs. I just hope the summer heat is kind to me...

 

But, since I'm talking about training, here's how last week went.

 

Monday

* Run (am) ~ 13.2 miles (1:58) - Monday is usually my rest day, but I put off my long run on Sunday which meant I had to do it on Monday. I got up super early at 5am on the holiday and fit these miles in all before 7:30 in the morning :)

 

* Bike (am) ~ 37.1 miles (2:45) - Once again I usually don't bike on Mondays but I couldn't say no to a fun easy bike ride with Victoria and Rachel on Beach Drive. We meet up at 8am and I felt hungry after my run and basically did a reverse brick. I almost bailed on them, but I am glad I went.

Tues

Rest Day! I also had a chance to finally go to the grocery store and cook a decent meal for dinner.

 

Wednesday

* Run (am) attempt #1 - I got completely dressed in the morning to go run, but felt to hungry to actually run, so I ate something and laid back down. #fail

 

* Swim (pm) ~ 4000 yards (1:16)  - I had a dentist apt so I fit this swim in before I went. This is the longest I have swam to date and it felt good. I did a 1000 warm up with a ladder: 100-200-300-400-500-500 and back down. It was also nice swimming during lunch time. Wish I could do this all the time. If only my pool was closer to my office.

 

* Run (pm) attempt #2 ~ 6.1 miles (:54) - Oh the run from hell! Why oh why didn't I do this in the morning? Attempted to do 4 x mile repeats at a 7:45 pace. I did a mile warm up at 8:20 then my first mile I hit at 7:54, but I was breathing hard and thought I might puke. I made it half way through my second mile repeat and started walking for about 2 minutes. I got mad at myself and starting running again, but I just couldn't run fast. For the rest of my run I went into survival mode and just ran what I could without dying. Better luck next time.

 

Thursday

*Bike (pm) ~ 22 miles (1:20) - Interval work with Jason at Haines Point before meeting up with the DC Tri for happy hour at Cantina Marina. I must admit though that happy hour was more fun than riding at Haines.

 

Friday

* Run (am)  ~ 5 miles (:46) - Captiol Hill Repeats. I will never say these are fun, but I met up with my friend Meaghan. Having company and talking to entire run really makes the hill repeats not seem as bad as they really are.  

 

* Swim (pm) ~ FAIL! Thunder storms, tornado warning, etc. My pool was closed :(

 

Saturday

* Run (am) ~ 10.6 (1:31) -  I set no alarms and slept in until 8:30 or so. It was so nice! I managed to get out the door by 9am though. My first three miles sucked and my legs felt like rubber. I wanted to turn around and go back home, but I figured I already made the effort to run so there is no turning back ...I have to finish it. And to my surprise the run did get better and I enjoyed myself for the rest of what I had left of my 90 minute recovery week run. It also helped that it was cooler out and we had no humidity. No humidity actually meant that I could hold a 8:35 pace without feeling like it was the hardest thing in the world.

 

*Swim (pm) ~ 3200 yards (1:05) - Went to the pool with Jason and to our surprise the pool was uncrowded. yippie. I had the lane to myself for most of my swim. I did a 1000 warm up, then 5 x 200 and 10 x 100s with a 200 cool down. I really tried to swim faster on the 200s and 100s and know I need to do speed work in the pool more often if I actually want to swim faster.

 

Sunday

* Bike ~ 78 miles (5:14) - Met up with Karen, Rachel, and Jason in Potomac for a ride up to Karen's Aunt House. It was a hilly ride (5400 feet of climbing) and maybe I should have looked at the elevation beforehand, but never the less it was still a good ride. Karen's aunt was so sweet and had set up a rest stop for us with all kinds of food (bacon!!) It was great. I will tell you guys all about the ride tomorrow.

* Run ~ 2.3 miles (:21) - Short little brick run on an out and back on River road.

 

* The rest of the day .... be lazy, eat pizza, and lay on the couch!

 

Totals:

Swim: 7200 yards (still mad I missed my shorter swim day)

Bike: 137.1 miles

Run: 34.9

 

bike commute miles: 29 (which I don't count towards training)

 

time: I have no clue, that's a lot of adding.

 

Happy Monday All and I hope everyone had a great weekend :)  

3 Things Friday

1. Right now I hate running! Hate, Hate, Hate! And with an attitude like this it's no surprise why it's hard to make myself get out the door every time a run is on my schedule. I'm not one to usually have a negative attitude and I know it pulls you down and makes the workout worse than it actually is. Plus bad attitudes ruin your confidence as well (at least I think they do.) With that said, I need to snap out of this "I hate running" mode sooner than later. This morning I was ready to change my ways and get back to thinking running is fun. So, I sprung right out of bed when my alarm went off and was on my way in no time to met my friend Meaghan for Capitol Hill repeats. And to my surprise, the run was not bad. The repeats were not easy, but I didn't feel like I wanted to throw things like on my run on Wednesday.

 

2. With running being my least favorite (along with 5am alarm clocks), swimming is at the top of my list right now. I don't know when the switch happened, but I am in love with swimming. It just seems so relaxing and I'm not dying of heat while doing so. I guess the only thing I would change about swimming is well, I wish I could think about others things besides what number lap I am on. Can I just hire someone to count laps for me? I also need to start swimming faster and adding more speed work to my make up my own swim workouts list.

 

3. I'm excited that the weekend is coming up even though I am doing the same old same old: swim,bike, run. But I don't have to travel this weekend so that is exciting after going down to Fredericksburg for the past 3 weekends in a row.

 

Happy Friday All :)