Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Training
I read this awesome post today. Check it out. And it totally hit home with me. I started heart rate training in the fall and am now finally starting to possibly see some effects of it and it's totally awesome. I used to be the person she describes in here, ran every run hard. I wore a heart rate monitor but didn't really understand what all those stats meant. Then I talked to Brian and asked him how he could make me a better runner. He introduced Lactic Thresold testing and training to me and my mind went in circles. I had a book about running in zones, running at 75% of your lactic threshold (LT) and building your aerobic base but to me that meant running slower and that I would get slower as a result of that. That just shows how much I had to learn. I am a firm believer in this method plus it gives you good variety in your schedule. Whether you are a back of the packer like me who does it because I enjoy it, or a front runner going for first place, this training can pertain to you and help you, even just from a fitness perspective to achieve your goals. I've heard so many people say I can't get faster, or I'm slow, or I'm always last and my response to them is you are out there doing something most people are afraid to even try and if you love it at the end of the day that's all that matters. Give this type of training some thought.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Training Feb 14-20, 2010
Sunday:
am) Bike: 61 miles 3:05:23 Long Ride
Monday:
am) Run: 6 miles 55:45 Aerobic run
Bike: 6 miles 20:14 After run
Tuesday:
am) Run: 7 miles 1:00:30 Intervals
Bike: 7 miles 25:16 After run
Wednesday:
am) Run: 6 miles 55:21 Tempo
Bike: 10 miles 35:15 After run
pm) Swim: 4000 yards 1 hour
Thursday:
am) Elliptical: 1:16:30 8 miles (I wrote down 8 miles of running for this effort. Really good workout.)
Weights: 45 minutes
pm) Bike: 30 miles 1:31:23 Recovery ride
Friday:
am) Run: 6 miles 51:24 Recovery run
Saturday:
am) Run: 22.3 miles 3:19:19 Long Run
Totals:
Swim: 4000 yards 1 hour
Bike: 114 miles 5:57:31
Run: 55.3 miles 8:18:49
Weights: 45 minutes
Total of 16 hours for the week. I was traveling for most of the week in Buffalo, NY and was super busy while I was there so not a lot of two-a-days happening. I flew out on Sunday and back on Thursday. Sunday I got up early and did my long ride. Monday ran and biked a little on the hotel fitness center bike. Tuesday I got my speed session in on the treadmill and biked a little afterwards. Wednesday ran again on the treadmill, did more of a tempo run and rode on the bike after. At night, in a snowstorm, I went to the Y closest to work to swim. Nice place. They have lap swimming all the time which is awesome! One strange thing, they don't have towels. Not in the fitness center and not that you can rent to shower with or use at the pool. That was odd. They did have a large fitness center though and it looked very nice. Thursday I did the elliptical at the hotel fitness center. This was a much better workout. Tough stuff. I really got my heart rate up. I enjoyed this. Something different and good. Not sure it really rested my foot but it was something different at least. Then I flew home and biked once I got home. I missed riding my own bike. And of course everything at home, especially Asher and my friends. It was good to be home. Friday I worked from home and Asher and I did a easy recovery run. He was so happy to go. We ran a little faster than recovery pace but it felt good. I was really dehydrated from the long day before so I drank tea like it was going out of style to get ready for my long run on Saturday. Saturday's long run was good as well. 22 miles. 1 month and 1 day out from LA. Mark and I ran the whole 22 together. We also ran parts with Steve, Mike, Chris and Erik. We also picked Asher up and he ran 14 with us. I had the same problem that I have been having about getting light headed miles 10-14 so I really need to work on that. But the Gatorade and honey stingers worked awesome. After I got through the light headed part I felt strong to the end. I was tired but not toast like the last 20 miler we did. Hopefully I can remember this for race day.....even though I'm just treating that like a training run anyway (gotta sight-see, what better way to sight-see than to run a marathon through a major US city....gotta love it!). So the week turned out pretty good even though I was gone for a big part of it and was super busy.
am) Bike: 61 miles 3:05:23 Long Ride
Monday:
am) Run: 6 miles 55:45 Aerobic run
Bike: 6 miles 20:14 After run
Tuesday:
am) Run: 7 miles 1:00:30 Intervals
Bike: 7 miles 25:16 After run
Wednesday:
am) Run: 6 miles 55:21 Tempo
Bike: 10 miles 35:15 After run
pm) Swim: 4000 yards 1 hour
Thursday:
am) Elliptical: 1:16:30 8 miles (I wrote down 8 miles of running for this effort. Really good workout.)
Weights: 45 minutes
pm) Bike: 30 miles 1:31:23 Recovery ride
Friday:
am) Run: 6 miles 51:24 Recovery run
Saturday:
am) Run: 22.3 miles 3:19:19 Long Run
Totals:
Swim: 4000 yards 1 hour
Bike: 114 miles 5:57:31
Run: 55.3 miles 8:18:49
Weights: 45 minutes
Total of 16 hours for the week. I was traveling for most of the week in Buffalo, NY and was super busy while I was there so not a lot of two-a-days happening. I flew out on Sunday and back on Thursday. Sunday I got up early and did my long ride. Monday ran and biked a little on the hotel fitness center bike. Tuesday I got my speed session in on the treadmill and biked a little afterwards. Wednesday ran again on the treadmill, did more of a tempo run and rode on the bike after. At night, in a snowstorm, I went to the Y closest to work to swim. Nice place. They have lap swimming all the time which is awesome! One strange thing, they don't have towels. Not in the fitness center and not that you can rent to shower with or use at the pool. That was odd. They did have a large fitness center though and it looked very nice. Thursday I did the elliptical at the hotel fitness center. This was a much better workout. Tough stuff. I really got my heart rate up. I enjoyed this. Something different and good. Not sure it really rested my foot but it was something different at least. Then I flew home and biked once I got home. I missed riding my own bike. And of course everything at home, especially Asher and my friends. It was good to be home. Friday I worked from home and Asher and I did a easy recovery run. He was so happy to go. We ran a little faster than recovery pace but it felt good. I was really dehydrated from the long day before so I drank tea like it was going out of style to get ready for my long run on Saturday. Saturday's long run was good as well. 22 miles. 1 month and 1 day out from LA. Mark and I ran the whole 22 together. We also ran parts with Steve, Mike, Chris and Erik. We also picked Asher up and he ran 14 with us. I had the same problem that I have been having about getting light headed miles 10-14 so I really need to work on that. But the Gatorade and honey stingers worked awesome. After I got through the light headed part I felt strong to the end. I was tired but not toast like the last 20 miler we did. Hopefully I can remember this for race day.....even though I'm just treating that like a training run anyway (gotta sight-see, what better way to sight-see than to run a marathon through a major US city....gotta love it!). So the week turned out pretty good even though I was gone for a big part of it and was super busy.
Training February 7-13, 2010
Sunday:
am) Bike: 80 miles 4:02:13 Long Ride
Run: 5 miles 46:00 (run after the bike ride) Brick
Monday:
am) Swim: 3300 yards 1 hour
pm) Bike: 33 miles 1:41:12 Tempo
Tuesday:
am) Run: 6.5 miles 53:03 Intervals
pm) Bike: 27 miles 1:22:19 Intervals
Weights: 45 minutes
Wednesday:
am) Bike: 32 miles 1:35:22
pm) Elliptical: 1 hour (wrote down about 6 miles running as the equivalent to this)
Thursday:
am) Swim: 3100 yards 1 hour
pm) Bike: 30 miles 1:32:17 Recovery
Friday:
am) Run: 5.5 miles 48:11 Recovery
Saturday:
am) Run: 18 miles 2:38:48 Long Run
Totals:
Swim: 6400 yards 2 hours
Bike: 202 miles 10:13:23
Run: 41 miles 6:06:02
Weights: 45 minutes
Good solid week again. About 19 hours for the week. Felt really solid on the bike and pretty good on the run. Ran 4 days and did the elliptical 1 day. I'm not sure I'm totally sold on the elliptical but it was good to rest my foot a little and do something different.
Sunday did a nice long ride with a brick after. I wanted to a shorter run to rest my foot a little and the bike felt good so I cranked out a 4 hour ride. Monday was a good swim and Monday night I did a nice tempo ride every 30 minutes bumping up the gear. Felt good. Tuesday I ran inside on the treadmill and did my speed work. My schedule had a complicated speed session on it so I thought it would be easier to do inside. I definitely pushed hard. Kind of cool that I can run 7's with my heart rate getting lower each time. Doesn't mean it's easy though. :) Tuesday night I did my interval bike ride and then a good weight session after the bike ride. I actually like doing both my interval run and interval bike on the same day as well as my full body weight session. My legs still feel good for the bike so I think it's okay. I do both to the point of being tired but my legs rebound well. I definitely dread Tuesday's though because they are tough front to back. Wednesday morning I rode my bike so that I could elliptical at night. Morning bike rides are tough for me. I don't eat before I ride and my calories get really low by the end, my fluids usually get low too so I have been bringing a water bottle down but the calories are still a problem. Night is much better for me on this. I did the elliptical at night at work. I didn't really care for the elliptical at work. I'll give it a try again next week when I'm in New York on a different machine. My legs felt like Jello-O after but I couldn't get my heart rate up. Odd. Thursday was a good swim in the morning and I did a nice recovery ride at night. I like this ride on Thursday's. I'm usually tired by then, either mentally or physically so a nice easy ride and then a easy run on Friday fits really good in the schedule. Friday Asher and I did our normal recovery run. The temp was -3 with wind chills of -13 but it was okay. Didn't feel that bad. (I'm scared to think I might be getting used to this crap! AH!!) My heart rate was higher than it was supposed to be but it still felt easy so it was okay. Saturday we did our long run, 18 miles. Asher did the whole run with us. He did great. Mark and I ran 18, we did a 4 mile loop and then picked Erik up and did the remaining 14 with him. That works out well. The long runs are going okay, I carry my water bottle with Gatorade in it and suck on honey stingers for most of the run. I have been getting light headed about miles 10-14 so I might not be taking enough calories in early and trying to make up for it later. I need to be more consistent with my calories throughout the whole run and see if that helps. We had a really good pace today and my heart rate stayed down really nicely. I feel like I'm able to pick up my pace a little more now while keeping the same heart rate. I like that. I really hope all this beeping of the heart rate monitor is helping.
am) Bike: 80 miles 4:02:13 Long Ride
Run: 5 miles 46:00 (run after the bike ride) Brick
Monday:
am) Swim: 3300 yards 1 hour
pm) Bike: 33 miles 1:41:12 Tempo
Tuesday:
am) Run: 6.5 miles 53:03 Intervals
pm) Bike: 27 miles 1:22:19 Intervals
Weights: 45 minutes
Wednesday:
am) Bike: 32 miles 1:35:22
pm) Elliptical: 1 hour (wrote down about 6 miles running as the equivalent to this)
Thursday:
am) Swim: 3100 yards 1 hour
pm) Bike: 30 miles 1:32:17 Recovery
Friday:
am) Run: 5.5 miles 48:11 Recovery
Saturday:
am) Run: 18 miles 2:38:48 Long Run
Totals:
Swim: 6400 yards 2 hours
Bike: 202 miles 10:13:23
Run: 41 miles 6:06:02
Weights: 45 minutes
Good solid week again. About 19 hours for the week. Felt really solid on the bike and pretty good on the run. Ran 4 days and did the elliptical 1 day. I'm not sure I'm totally sold on the elliptical but it was good to rest my foot a little and do something different.
Sunday did a nice long ride with a brick after. I wanted to a shorter run to rest my foot a little and the bike felt good so I cranked out a 4 hour ride. Monday was a good swim and Monday night I did a nice tempo ride every 30 minutes bumping up the gear. Felt good. Tuesday I ran inside on the treadmill and did my speed work. My schedule had a complicated speed session on it so I thought it would be easier to do inside. I definitely pushed hard. Kind of cool that I can run 7's with my heart rate getting lower each time. Doesn't mean it's easy though. :) Tuesday night I did my interval bike ride and then a good weight session after the bike ride. I actually like doing both my interval run and interval bike on the same day as well as my full body weight session. My legs still feel good for the bike so I think it's okay. I do both to the point of being tired but my legs rebound well. I definitely dread Tuesday's though because they are tough front to back. Wednesday morning I rode my bike so that I could elliptical at night. Morning bike rides are tough for me. I don't eat before I ride and my calories get really low by the end, my fluids usually get low too so I have been bringing a water bottle down but the calories are still a problem. Night is much better for me on this. I did the elliptical at night at work. I didn't really care for the elliptical at work. I'll give it a try again next week when I'm in New York on a different machine. My legs felt like Jello-O after but I couldn't get my heart rate up. Odd. Thursday was a good swim in the morning and I did a nice recovery ride at night. I like this ride on Thursday's. I'm usually tired by then, either mentally or physically so a nice easy ride and then a easy run on Friday fits really good in the schedule. Friday Asher and I did our normal recovery run. The temp was -3 with wind chills of -13 but it was okay. Didn't feel that bad. (I'm scared to think I might be getting used to this crap! AH!!) My heart rate was higher than it was supposed to be but it still felt easy so it was okay. Saturday we did our long run, 18 miles. Asher did the whole run with us. He did great. Mark and I ran 18, we did a 4 mile loop and then picked Erik up and did the remaining 14 with him. That works out well. The long runs are going okay, I carry my water bottle with Gatorade in it and suck on honey stingers for most of the run. I have been getting light headed about miles 10-14 so I might not be taking enough calories in early and trying to make up for it later. I need to be more consistent with my calories throughout the whole run and see if that helps. We had a really good pace today and my heart rate stayed down really nicely. I feel like I'm able to pick up my pace a little more now while keeping the same heart rate. I like that. I really hope all this beeping of the heart rate monitor is helping.
Quick Update
Sorry, I haven't posted much lately. Life has been crazy, to say the least. I was traveling last week to NY and now I'm trying to get caught up from being gone, training all week here in Green Bay and getting ready to go to NY again next week. Plus two of my friends are out of town so Asher and I are house sitting. I got a new position that happens to be based out of Buffalo, NY and have been training on this new position with my new co-workers. I got to tour Buffalo a little last week, go to a fancy dancy sales meeting/dinner and got to get to know my new co-workers better. I took just a couple pictures and will post them in the next few days.....hopefully.
Yesterday I went to the doctor for my heel. It was a good thing, I made the appointment a month ago but with my crazy schedule and the doctor being super booked this was the first I could get in, and my heel is killing me!! I changed my shoes last week to only run in my Saucony ProGrid Guide 2's and not at all in my Brooks Adrenaline. I also stopped wearing my orthotics to try and pin point where this heel problem is coming from and why it's not getting better. My foot was pretty good last week and I ran three days in a row while in NY. I haven't run three days in a row with minimal pain in a long time. It's usually extremely painful while walking into work after running that morning but the pain subsides during the day and was pretty good by the end of the day. So it does seem to be improving but not a ton. So yesterday I finally got to go see Dr. Ebben. This guy is awesome. He is a sports medicine doctor for Bellin. I saw him back in Nov 08 when my feet were bothering me and I needed orthotics. We talked for a long time, about my running, my feet, my shoes and my orthotics. My orthotics are terrible, it took us a year to get them to a point where I could actually run on them and I'm not convinced they aren't the cause of my heel problem. He was not happy that it took so long to get my orthotics right and also thinks they could be the source of my heel pain. The guy that made my orthotics is frustrated and has told me my feet just aren't made to run, so I should give up the idea of ever running pain free. Well Dr. Ebben totally disagreed with that. I was pain free before, I can be pain free again. I was very happy to hear that. So we got an X-Ray of my heel, just to make sure there wasn't a stress fracture or a bone spur (which there wasn't) and came up with a plan to get this better. I am going to go to a new PT and get reset for orthotics. We are going to start from scratch. (I was so excited to hear this, I don't like my current ones, and they aren't comfortable at all.) He also gave me an anti-inflammatory for my heel and said I just have a deep tissue bruise and this should help heal it. We also talked about next steps if the new orthotics don't help my feet, which included a trip to see a foot specialist in Milwaukee. He doesn't think it will come to that but he wanted to prove to me that we will get this better and that I don't have to give up something I love. I was very relieved to hear that. It was a good trip.
And this morning I ran my speed day virtually pain free. It was the best feeling in the world. Something I've been waiting for since 2008 when my feet started bothering me. Now for a long term solution where I don't need drugs to help me run pain free and life will be great.
P.S. I will also try and post my last two weekly recaps today. I know they are really late.
Yesterday I went to the doctor for my heel. It was a good thing, I made the appointment a month ago but with my crazy schedule and the doctor being super booked this was the first I could get in, and my heel is killing me!! I changed my shoes last week to only run in my Saucony ProGrid Guide 2's and not at all in my Brooks Adrenaline. I also stopped wearing my orthotics to try and pin point where this heel problem is coming from and why it's not getting better. My foot was pretty good last week and I ran three days in a row while in NY. I haven't run three days in a row with minimal pain in a long time. It's usually extremely painful while walking into work after running that morning but the pain subsides during the day and was pretty good by the end of the day. So it does seem to be improving but not a ton. So yesterday I finally got to go see Dr. Ebben. This guy is awesome. He is a sports medicine doctor for Bellin. I saw him back in Nov 08 when my feet were bothering me and I needed orthotics. We talked for a long time, about my running, my feet, my shoes and my orthotics. My orthotics are terrible, it took us a year to get them to a point where I could actually run on them and I'm not convinced they aren't the cause of my heel problem. He was not happy that it took so long to get my orthotics right and also thinks they could be the source of my heel pain. The guy that made my orthotics is frustrated and has told me my feet just aren't made to run, so I should give up the idea of ever running pain free. Well Dr. Ebben totally disagreed with that. I was pain free before, I can be pain free again. I was very happy to hear that. So we got an X-Ray of my heel, just to make sure there wasn't a stress fracture or a bone spur (which there wasn't) and came up with a plan to get this better. I am going to go to a new PT and get reset for orthotics. We are going to start from scratch. (I was so excited to hear this, I don't like my current ones, and they aren't comfortable at all.) He also gave me an anti-inflammatory for my heel and said I just have a deep tissue bruise and this should help heal it. We also talked about next steps if the new orthotics don't help my feet, which included a trip to see a foot specialist in Milwaukee. He doesn't think it will come to that but he wanted to prove to me that we will get this better and that I don't have to give up something I love. I was very relieved to hear that. It was a good trip.
And this morning I ran my speed day virtually pain free. It was the best feeling in the world. Something I've been waiting for since 2008 when my feet started bothering me. Now for a long term solution where I don't need drugs to help me run pain free and life will be great.
P.S. I will also try and post my last two weekly recaps today. I know they are really late.
Friday, February 12, 2010
Eco-Planet Instant Hot Cereal
I eat Gluten free, have since the fall of 2004. I found through some self diagnosis, because it is very hard to detect in a blood test, that I have a gluten intolerance. Since I cut out gluten from my diet I have felt so much better. There are things I miss that I haven't found a good substitute for but it is 100% worth it, no question. I'll post more on being gluten free another time as this post is for a new product I tried that I wanted to tell you about.
I'm always up for trying new things, especially if it's something I miss being gluten free, so when I was at the local health food store perusing I found something I had never seen before. Gluten free oatmeal. It was a variety pack and I didn't like all the kinds but got me thinking that I've never really been an oatmeal eater and I can't eat the commercial kind because there is cross contamination that occurs (like with Quaker oats) and it bothers me because of the contact with gluten. I then went to Festival and was looking in their natural foods section and found this new product. Eco-Planet Instant Hot Cereal. Three flavors. Original, Apples & Cinnamon and Maple & Brown Sugar. I figured I'd give it a try. This hot cereal is made mostly of whole oats but also has buckwheat, sorghum, brown rice, puffed rice, quinoa and millet. Lots of awesome stuff with great nutrition and fiber. I have tried the original (and added a touch of brown sugar with it) and the apples & cinnamon. Both were awesome. And at 150 calories per serving it is a great snack. I highly recommend you try this product. Enjoy!!
I'm always up for trying new things, especially if it's something I miss being gluten free, so when I was at the local health food store perusing I found something I had never seen before. Gluten free oatmeal. It was a variety pack and I didn't like all the kinds but got me thinking that I've never really been an oatmeal eater and I can't eat the commercial kind because there is cross contamination that occurs (like with Quaker oats) and it bothers me because of the contact with gluten. I then went to Festival and was looking in their natural foods section and found this new product. Eco-Planet Instant Hot Cereal. Three flavors. Original, Apples & Cinnamon and Maple & Brown Sugar. I figured I'd give it a try. This hot cereal is made mostly of whole oats but also has buckwheat, sorghum, brown rice, puffed rice, quinoa and millet. Lots of awesome stuff with great nutrition and fiber. I have tried the original (and added a touch of brown sugar with it) and the apples & cinnamon. Both were awesome. And at 150 calories per serving it is a great snack. I highly recommend you try this product. Enjoy!!
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Coffee Cake Muffins
Last night I tried something very new. I found a recipe on the web for Cinnamon Roll Muffins so I thought I would give them a try. This recipe calls for almond flour which I don't have so I went in search of a replacement and found that coconut flour can easily replace almond flour. I just bought some coconut flour last week so I was in business. I first mixed up the recipe but they seemed dry and I remember reading on the coconut flour label that you need to add water because coconut flour is very fiberous so it absorbs lots of water. So I added a cup and a half water to thin it out a bit. I want to try these again using almond flour and I'll post how those differ from these. Also another cool thing is I used applesauce instead of oil to make them healthier and there isn't any refined sugar in these. Instead I got to use the agave nectar I just bought. Very cool! Anyway, they turned out very good. Very moist. But I thought they tasted more like Coffee Cake Muffins than the homemade cinnamon rolls I make so I'll call mine coffee cake muffins instead (that way I don't infringe on any copy right laws). :) Here are some pictures of the finished result with the recipe below the pictures. Enjoy!!
Muffin Ingredients:
1 c coconut flour2 tbsp sorghum flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 c applesause
1/4 c agave nectar
3 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups water (use because of the coconut flour)
Topping Ingredients:
2 tbsp sugar (approx.)
1 tbsp cinnamon
Mix together the muffin ingredients in a bowl. Spray a muffin tin with non-stick spray. Scoop in the muffin mix. Mix together the sugar and cinnamon in a different bowl. Using a spoon sprinkle the topping mixture over each muffin mixture covering the top, or as much as you want.
Bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 mintes or until golden brown. Makes 9 muffins.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Necklace Holder
This probably surprises a lot of you but I love to be crafty. I don't have a lot of time for this stuff anymore so when I do I get really excited. I used to make things out of seed beads and clay and I like to wood work. I was one of two girls in tech-ed in high school and the other girl in the class was only in it because we were friends and I talked her into it. I took a jewelry class in high school three times I loved it so much. I made things out of metal, soldered stuff, made a bag out of beads on a loom, made a table which is still in my basement (it's in sad shape now but has been through a lot). This stuff is what I love to do. So when I was at Wal-Mart a couple month's ago in the craft department I got an idea. I had all of my necklaces hanging on the back of my bedroom door handle and they were just a tangled noisy mess. So I saw a wood hanger that would work perfectly to hang these so they could instead be an organized mess. Then I thought I could paint something on it, something cool, something that was special to me....ah the M-Dot. The Ironman symbol. Something I don't flash around a lot but something that means a lot to me. (I'll save "what the Ironman means to me" for a different post.) I was just going to paint it in red paint but then Jeff suggested wood burning it. His dad has a wood burner and I could do the M-Dot with that. So one Saturday afternoon, I got the burner out and went to town. It was great. I finally got around to hanging it up and cleaning up the necklaces. Here is how it turned out.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Training January 31 - February 6, 2010
Sunday:
am) Bike: 67 miles 3:22:28 Long Ride
Run: 7 miles 1:04:05 after the bike ride
Monday:
am) Swim: 3200 yards 1 hour
pm) Bike: 34 miles 1:43:20 Tempo
Tuesday:
am) Run: 6.1 miles 0:50:00 Intervals
pm) Bike: 25 miles 1:16:30 Recovery Ride
Weights: 45 minutes
Wednesday:
am) Run: 8 miles 1:09:46 Tempo
pm) Bike: 43 miles 2:11:32
Run: 3 miles 25:30 after the bike ride
Endurance ride with a brick
Thursday:
am) Swim: 3200 yards 1 hour
pm) Bike: 33 miles 1:40:38 Intervals
Friday:
am) Run: 5.5 miles 49:30 Recovery
Saturday:
am) 16 miles 2:22:21 Long Run
Totals:
Swim: 6400 yards 2 hours
Bike: 202 miles 10:14:28
Run: 45.6 miles 6:41:12
Weight Lifting: 45 minutes
About 20 minutes shy of 20 hours for the week. Good training week. Did a nice brick on Sunday and Wednesday. Felt good on the ride and the run. I got a little tired towards the end of the run so I need to tweak the nutrition on the bike a little bit more. Monday was a nice swim, the water was freezing, 79 degrees when it's usually 84 so we swam extra fast to stay warm. Did a tempo bike ride at night. Tuesday was half mile repeats for my interval run. 4 of them. It snowed a bit the night before so the roads were a little slippery but we pushed hard and got the heart rate up there. I did a recovery ride at night followed by a good weight session again. Jeff came back for more and improved a ton from last week. (Glad I didn't scare him too much last week.) Wednesday Asher and I met Mark and Tammy and did a nice run. It snowed a couple inches the night before so I wore my Yak Trak's which helped a ton. At night did a nice mid-week distance ride followed up by a 3 mile run. Got a little tired by the end of the run but my nutrition was pretty good. Thursday was another good swim and the water was much warmer today, back to 84 degrees. I did intervals on the bike at night. I did a couple ladders and pushed hard. My legs were tired at the end from a long week of training. Friday was my normal Zone 1 recovery run. I did a better job keeping my heart rate down. I didn't have to coach the night before so I got more than 5 1/2 hours of sleep and Asher had to stop every 20 feet it seemed so that kept my heart rate from getting too high. Some days he runs me into the ground, others he likes to putz with the best of them. Saturday was kind of a crazy day. Mark and Erik came over early and we did a 4 mile easy run with Asher. Then we changed clothes and went and ran the Seroogy's 15K. Then Mark and I ran back and got Jeff who was in the process of smashing his time from last year by 20 minutes. It was crazy awesome!! Way to go Jeff!! The 15K was fun. We ran it easy and just had fun. My favorite way to race. It was crazy windy from the north, like 20 mph windy. But wow did we get a nice tail wind on the way back though. There was a great turnout for the event and we got chocolate and cheese afterwards. Chocolate and a run with friends, couldn't ask for anything better. Saturday was meant to be a bit of a back down week for our long runs and then the next couple weeks we'll build again. LA is coming soon. I can't wait to run in shorts and a tank top!!
I did a little test this past week. I didn't eat any foods with artificial sweeteners in them. No candy, no cookies, no nothing. I get a lot of flack because I have a serious obsession with Mike & Ike's. What can I say, they are the perfect candy. Gluten free, no high fructose corn syrup, fruity, just plain perfect. So I gave them up, for a week. Took all my will power too. But I eventually had to go back. I was eating fruit like I had a personal fruit stand in my cube and it wasn't cutting it. I was light headed, had a head ache every day and was like a zombie walking around. My workouts were terrible, it was just not good. So I tried it and it didn't work. I guess you gotta stick with what works. In doing this test I would record everything I ate and how many servings. My phone has a great app that calculates calories so I recorded everything. Taught me a lot about when I eat the most calories, what I eat, that I need to get more protein in my diet, all sorts of good stuff. It also told me some things I couldn't possibly do without. If you ever want to clean up your eating record everything you eat. I guarantee you will pass on things because you don't want to write them down for others to see and you will improve your eating. No question. And I'm still recording everything now, I like data so this gives me something to look at and study. I'm a dork....I know. :)
am) Bike: 67 miles 3:22:28 Long Ride
Run: 7 miles 1:04:05 after the bike ride
Monday:
am) Swim: 3200 yards 1 hour
pm) Bike: 34 miles 1:43:20 Tempo
Tuesday:
am) Run: 6.1 miles 0:50:00 Intervals
pm) Bike: 25 miles 1:16:30 Recovery Ride
Weights: 45 minutes
Wednesday:
am) Run: 8 miles 1:09:46 Tempo
pm) Bike: 43 miles 2:11:32
Run: 3 miles 25:30 after the bike ride
Endurance ride with a brick
Thursday:
am) Swim: 3200 yards 1 hour
pm) Bike: 33 miles 1:40:38 Intervals
Friday:
am) Run: 5.5 miles 49:30 Recovery
Saturday:
am) 16 miles 2:22:21 Long Run
Totals:
Swim: 6400 yards 2 hours
Bike: 202 miles 10:14:28
Run: 45.6 miles 6:41:12
Weight Lifting: 45 minutes
About 20 minutes shy of 20 hours for the week. Good training week. Did a nice brick on Sunday and Wednesday. Felt good on the ride and the run. I got a little tired towards the end of the run so I need to tweak the nutrition on the bike a little bit more. Monday was a nice swim, the water was freezing, 79 degrees when it's usually 84 so we swam extra fast to stay warm. Did a tempo bike ride at night. Tuesday was half mile repeats for my interval run. 4 of them. It snowed a bit the night before so the roads were a little slippery but we pushed hard and got the heart rate up there. I did a recovery ride at night followed by a good weight session again. Jeff came back for more and improved a ton from last week. (Glad I didn't scare him too much last week.) Wednesday Asher and I met Mark and Tammy and did a nice run. It snowed a couple inches the night before so I wore my Yak Trak's which helped a ton. At night did a nice mid-week distance ride followed up by a 3 mile run. Got a little tired by the end of the run but my nutrition was pretty good. Thursday was another good swim and the water was much warmer today, back to 84 degrees. I did intervals on the bike at night. I did a couple ladders and pushed hard. My legs were tired at the end from a long week of training. Friday was my normal Zone 1 recovery run. I did a better job keeping my heart rate down. I didn't have to coach the night before so I got more than 5 1/2 hours of sleep and Asher had to stop every 20 feet it seemed so that kept my heart rate from getting too high. Some days he runs me into the ground, others he likes to putz with the best of them. Saturday was kind of a crazy day. Mark and Erik came over early and we did a 4 mile easy run with Asher. Then we changed clothes and went and ran the Seroogy's 15K. Then Mark and I ran back and got Jeff who was in the process of smashing his time from last year by 20 minutes. It was crazy awesome!! Way to go Jeff!! The 15K was fun. We ran it easy and just had fun. My favorite way to race. It was crazy windy from the north, like 20 mph windy. But wow did we get a nice tail wind on the way back though. There was a great turnout for the event and we got chocolate and cheese afterwards. Chocolate and a run with friends, couldn't ask for anything better. Saturday was meant to be a bit of a back down week for our long runs and then the next couple weeks we'll build again. LA is coming soon. I can't wait to run in shorts and a tank top!!
I did a little test this past week. I didn't eat any foods with artificial sweeteners in them. No candy, no cookies, no nothing. I get a lot of flack because I have a serious obsession with Mike & Ike's. What can I say, they are the perfect candy. Gluten free, no high fructose corn syrup, fruity, just plain perfect. So I gave them up, for a week. Took all my will power too. But I eventually had to go back. I was eating fruit like I had a personal fruit stand in my cube and it wasn't cutting it. I was light headed, had a head ache every day and was like a zombie walking around. My workouts were terrible, it was just not good. So I tried it and it didn't work. I guess you gotta stick with what works. In doing this test I would record everything I ate and how many servings. My phone has a great app that calculates calories so I recorded everything. Taught me a lot about when I eat the most calories, what I eat, that I need to get more protein in my diet, all sorts of good stuff. It also told me some things I couldn't possibly do without. If you ever want to clean up your eating record everything you eat. I guarantee you will pass on things because you don't want to write them down for others to see and you will improve your eating. No question. And I'm still recording everything now, I like data so this gives me something to look at and study. I'm a dork....I know. :)
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Blue Line Saga
I have been swimming, either in a pool or in a lake just messing around, pretty much my whole life. I grew up going up north to Bemidji, MN every summer for a week, staying in a cabin on a lake and pretty much growing gills that week I was in the water so much. I like swimming, being on the water either in my kayak or in a boat or just being around water playing with Asher.
I also swam in high school competitively. And boy was that an experience. In high school swimming starts before school actually starts, in early August. I remember I was a REALLY raw freshman showing up for what I thought was going to be a total cake walk and I was just there because my friends wanted to do it. Little did I know that I was going to have to work my butt off. I show up in my Alonzo Mourning Charlotte Hornets jersey, baggy shorts, all thinking I'm tough and I got my butt handed to me. When the coach (who was also in the Army reserves and a substitute teacher....in his spare time) told us we had practices twice a day I thought that meant we could pick which one we wanted to go to. Wow, I thought, that's really nice of him to be so accommodating to a teenagers need to sleep in in the morning. Well after I missed the first night practice to go to a Brewer's game with my family and got yelled at by the coach I realized those two a day practices were mandatory and the coach wasn't nearly as accommodating as I once though, especially after I tried to quit and he wouldn't let me until I "gave it a fair chance". Well, needless to say, I stuck it out for 4 years and wound up really liking it. Not always day-to-day liking it but it has allowed me to do things in my adult life that made my time in the pool, following that blue line, all worthwhile.
So now that I am in triathlons my lifetime of swimming has really come in handy. My coach in high school was really tough and made us work really hard but it made us better swimmers. I use that same logic in my coaching and training, even though the kids all complain when I am the coach because they know they are going to work and work hard. I never give them anything I can't do, and I tell them that, but that doesn't seem to ease the pain in the arms at the end of the night.
I am a person that has to consistently be challenged, especially mentally, so following that blue line 2 hours a week, every week, gets a little taxing on the brain and I dread it some days. I have a great swimming partner which keeps me coming back for more but it still wears on you, especially in the winter when it's dark and cold and snowy. Well the last couple weeks I feel like I'm getting my excitement back about swimming, getting my groove back. My shoulder is feeling pretty good again (I fell nasty on the ice running outside before Christmas and it's taken a long time for my shoulder to feel good in the pool again) and I am enjoying swimming a little more again. We did a couple good sets this week. I'll try and post when we do some good sets in case you need some ideas for the pool. A couple notes first, I like long warm ups, gets me moving and ready to go and I like to pull using the pull buoy. Wearing a wetsuit you don't have to kick much and my mind can't seem to kick and move my arms at the same time so I don't kick much naturally. So because of this we are trying to incorporate more kicking into our sets, hoping that it gets me to kick more in a race, at least to keep the blood flowing to my legs if for no other purpose.
Monday:
Warm Up: 1200 S, 600 P
Main Set:
2 x
(200 P,
2 x 100 IM, Free,
4 x 50 IM Order Swim down, kick back)
Cool Down: 200 S
Total Yards: 3200
Thursday:
Warm Up: 1200 S, 600 P
Main Set:
4 x 300 P with every 4th length kick on back IM order
Cool Down: 200 S
Nothing real complicated but I'm learning to make my time count in the pool. I need this advantage to come out of the water near the front so that people don't catch me on the bike and run. Plus if I'm going to be there following that blue line, why do it half @ssed. This I wish I would have learned in high school. I would have been a better athlete and person if I had.
The blue line saga will continue next week, Monday morning 5am sharp, so get your mind right and get your game on!!
I also swam in high school competitively. And boy was that an experience. In high school swimming starts before school actually starts, in early August. I remember I was a REALLY raw freshman showing up for what I thought was going to be a total cake walk and I was just there because my friends wanted to do it. Little did I know that I was going to have to work my butt off. I show up in my Alonzo Mourning Charlotte Hornets jersey, baggy shorts, all thinking I'm tough and I got my butt handed to me. When the coach (who was also in the Army reserves and a substitute teacher....in his spare time) told us we had practices twice a day I thought that meant we could pick which one we wanted to go to. Wow, I thought, that's really nice of him to be so accommodating to a teenagers need to sleep in in the morning. Well after I missed the first night practice to go to a Brewer's game with my family and got yelled at by the coach I realized those two a day practices were mandatory and the coach wasn't nearly as accommodating as I once though, especially after I tried to quit and he wouldn't let me until I "gave it a fair chance". Well, needless to say, I stuck it out for 4 years and wound up really liking it. Not always day-to-day liking it but it has allowed me to do things in my adult life that made my time in the pool, following that blue line, all worthwhile.
So now that I am in triathlons my lifetime of swimming has really come in handy. My coach in high school was really tough and made us work really hard but it made us better swimmers. I use that same logic in my coaching and training, even though the kids all complain when I am the coach because they know they are going to work and work hard. I never give them anything I can't do, and I tell them that, but that doesn't seem to ease the pain in the arms at the end of the night.
I am a person that has to consistently be challenged, especially mentally, so following that blue line 2 hours a week, every week, gets a little taxing on the brain and I dread it some days. I have a great swimming partner which keeps me coming back for more but it still wears on you, especially in the winter when it's dark and cold and snowy. Well the last couple weeks I feel like I'm getting my excitement back about swimming, getting my groove back. My shoulder is feeling pretty good again (I fell nasty on the ice running outside before Christmas and it's taken a long time for my shoulder to feel good in the pool again) and I am enjoying swimming a little more again. We did a couple good sets this week. I'll try and post when we do some good sets in case you need some ideas for the pool. A couple notes first, I like long warm ups, gets me moving and ready to go and I like to pull using the pull buoy. Wearing a wetsuit you don't have to kick much and my mind can't seem to kick and move my arms at the same time so I don't kick much naturally. So because of this we are trying to incorporate more kicking into our sets, hoping that it gets me to kick more in a race, at least to keep the blood flowing to my legs if for no other purpose.
Monday:
Warm Up: 1200 S, 600 P
Main Set:
2 x
(200 P,
2 x 100 IM, Free,
4 x 50 IM Order Swim down, kick back)
Cool Down: 200 S
Total Yards: 3200
Thursday:
Warm Up: 1200 S, 600 P
Main Set:
4 x 300 P with every 4th length kick on back IM order
Cool Down: 200 S
Nothing real complicated but I'm learning to make my time count in the pool. I need this advantage to come out of the water near the front so that people don't catch me on the bike and run. Plus if I'm going to be there following that blue line, why do it half @ssed. This I wish I would have learned in high school. I would have been a better athlete and person if I had.
The blue line saga will continue next week, Monday morning 5am sharp, so get your mind right and get your game on!!
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Stellar Kart
On Friday night I went to a concert at the Cup O' Joy. This place is awesome. It's a super small place in downtown Green Bay that exclusively hosts Christian bands on Friday and Saturday nights. The place is run totally by volunteers and it there is no cover charge or admission to get in. Everything is taken care of through a good-will offering, both the band's cover charge and the money raised to keep the "Cup" running. It's a small intimate setting but has really good acoustics. They get very well known Christian bands as well as local talent and even have open mic night so you can wail with the best of them. Friday night Stellar Kart came to the Cup. They are a favorite band of mine. Check them out here. Give their stuff a listen. It's upbeat, rocky, punky and has a great message. Here are a couple pictures from the show and some video.
Innocent by Stellar Kart
Monday, February 1, 2010
Training January 24-30, 2010
Sunday:
am) Bike: 81 miles 4:06:34 Long Ride
Monday:
am) Swim: 3200 yards 1 hour
pm) Bike: 33 miles 1:41:19 Moderate
Tuesday:
am) Bike: 30 miles 1:31:36 Moderate
pm) Bike: 25 miles 1:16:28 Recovery Weight Lift: 45 minutes
Wednesday:
am) Bike: 30 miles 1:31:36 Moderate
pm) Pool Run: 1:20:00
Thursday:
am) Swim: 3100 yards 1 hour
pm) Bike: 30 miles 1:31:15 Long Intervals
Friday:
am) Run: 5.5 miles 49:09 Recovery
Saturday:
am) Run: 20 miles 3:04:54 Long Run
Totals:
Swim: 6300 yards 2 hours
Bike: 229 miles 11:38:48
Run: 33.5 miles 5:14:03
Weight Lifting: 45 minutes
The theme this week was the bike. I was trying to rest my heels to see if they could heal up a bit. After a week of no running I didn't get any reprieve which was a bit frustrating but I tried and now I'm not going to worry about them anymore. As long as they don't get worse I should be able to survive. The gels cups have made a huge difference to the point of them being tolerable and I'm able to walk after running so no more complaining from me.
So instead of running I biked more. Did a long ride on Sunday, 4 hours on the trainer. That is a dang long time, let me tell you. I enjoy the trainer and feel like I get a good workout but that's long. Did a double bike day on Tuesday with a recovery ride before lifting weights. Jeff lifted with me and did pretty well for his first time. Wednesday I did a good solid moderate ride in the morning and then pool ran at night. Wow, is that a good workout. In the water you don't feel like you did anything and then you get out of the pool and your legs feel like they weight 1,000 pounds and you can hardly walk. I really make sure I focus on my form, keeping my posture straight up and running with high knees. This is probably something I should do every couple weeks to give the joints a rest from the pounding. Thursday did some longer intervals on the bike and felt really strong. Friday's recovery run was cold. Temps were -3 with wind chills at -13. Asher was totally pumped to get out though, first time for him this week. I had a really hard time keeping my heart rate down for this run. It was almost 10 beats higher than it should have been so I was disappointed about that. It was a tough week of training and I was tired so I'm sure that contributed to it. Saturday was the long run.....I hate to even re-live that 3 hours but I need to fess up and deal with the bad run. I felt bad, really bad. My heart rate was high almost from the start and I was low on calories and light headed for a big majority of the run. Not sure why either. I ate about the same as I always do on Friday so I'm not sure what happened. It was about 0 for the whole run so my handheld water bottle that I carry was frozen and slushy so I didn't drink as much as I should have. I pretty much had a honey stinger chew in my mouth the whole run too but that didn't even help. A couple times I had to stop and drink and eat because I was so light headed. Not good. But we got through it and made it for our first 20 miler of the year. Asher did 16 with us and did great. Mark and I ran the first 6 miles (picked Asher up 4 miles in) and then came back to Voyager and picked up Steve, Mike and Erik. It was a good group for it being so cold out. The trouble with that cold is how to dress. I brought enough clothes to change part way through and that saved me big time. It's awesome to put dry clothes on half way through.
Overall, even though I didn't get my heel figured out this was a pretty solid week of training. I missed running but supplemented the time in ways that gave me the same aerobic benefit so I was pleased with that. Also the weight training seems to be going better too. I added some more weight this week to a couple exercises so I feel like I'm making some progress. I would like to get one more day in so I might try that this week.
Also as a side note, Happy Birthday to my dad today. The big 59!!!!
am) Bike: 81 miles 4:06:34 Long Ride
Monday:
am) Swim: 3200 yards 1 hour
pm) Bike: 33 miles 1:41:19 Moderate
Tuesday:
am) Bike: 30 miles 1:31:36 Moderate
pm) Bike: 25 miles 1:16:28 Recovery Weight Lift: 45 minutes
Wednesday:
am) Bike: 30 miles 1:31:36 Moderate
pm) Pool Run: 1:20:00
Thursday:
am) Swim: 3100 yards 1 hour
pm) Bike: 30 miles 1:31:15 Long Intervals
Friday:
am) Run: 5.5 miles 49:09 Recovery
Saturday:
am) Run: 20 miles 3:04:54 Long Run
Totals:
Swim: 6300 yards 2 hours
Bike: 229 miles 11:38:48
Run: 33.5 miles 5:14:03
Weight Lifting: 45 minutes
The theme this week was the bike. I was trying to rest my heels to see if they could heal up a bit. After a week of no running I didn't get any reprieve which was a bit frustrating but I tried and now I'm not going to worry about them anymore. As long as they don't get worse I should be able to survive. The gels cups have made a huge difference to the point of them being tolerable and I'm able to walk after running so no more complaining from me.
So instead of running I biked more. Did a long ride on Sunday, 4 hours on the trainer. That is a dang long time, let me tell you. I enjoy the trainer and feel like I get a good workout but that's long. Did a double bike day on Tuesday with a recovery ride before lifting weights. Jeff lifted with me and did pretty well for his first time. Wednesday I did a good solid moderate ride in the morning and then pool ran at night. Wow, is that a good workout. In the water you don't feel like you did anything and then you get out of the pool and your legs feel like they weight 1,000 pounds and you can hardly walk. I really make sure I focus on my form, keeping my posture straight up and running with high knees. This is probably something I should do every couple weeks to give the joints a rest from the pounding. Thursday did some longer intervals on the bike and felt really strong. Friday's recovery run was cold. Temps were -3 with wind chills at -13. Asher was totally pumped to get out though, first time for him this week. I had a really hard time keeping my heart rate down for this run. It was almost 10 beats higher than it should have been so I was disappointed about that. It was a tough week of training and I was tired so I'm sure that contributed to it. Saturday was the long run.....I hate to even re-live that 3 hours but I need to fess up and deal with the bad run. I felt bad, really bad. My heart rate was high almost from the start and I was low on calories and light headed for a big majority of the run. Not sure why either. I ate about the same as I always do on Friday so I'm not sure what happened. It was about 0 for the whole run so my handheld water bottle that I carry was frozen and slushy so I didn't drink as much as I should have. I pretty much had a honey stinger chew in my mouth the whole run too but that didn't even help. A couple times I had to stop and drink and eat because I was so light headed. Not good. But we got through it and made it for our first 20 miler of the year. Asher did 16 with us and did great. Mark and I ran the first 6 miles (picked Asher up 4 miles in) and then came back to Voyager and picked up Steve, Mike and Erik. It was a good group for it being so cold out. The trouble with that cold is how to dress. I brought enough clothes to change part way through and that saved me big time. It's awesome to put dry clothes on half way through.
Overall, even though I didn't get my heel figured out this was a pretty solid week of training. I missed running but supplemented the time in ways that gave me the same aerobic benefit so I was pleased with that. Also the weight training seems to be going better too. I added some more weight this week to a couple exercises so I feel like I'm making some progress. I would like to get one more day in so I might try that this week.
Also as a side note, Happy Birthday to my dad today. The big 59!!!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)