August 27, 2008

crazy travel, crazy training!

I have been so busy I do not even have time to think. I know it's a recurring theme these days but really it is at the top of my mind as I am always racing from one workout, event, etc., to the next.

There is that theme and then there is the I love running theme. I had another killer workout this week, I seriously could not believe myself. I ran 2.8 miles at 6:08 - 5:56 pace, and then ran 2 x 200 as fast as I could, which is not that fast as I am more of a long twitch kind of person. I think my faster one was 38 or 39 seconds. But man, it hurt! Now I am just dying to know how fast the 5k in my sprint next weekend will be. I am thinking about starting out around 6:40 pace if I don't feel too bad. That would be crazy, at this rate I'm thinking about trying to find a regular running 5k race to do this weekend just to see if I can break my post-college PR which I think is just under 21:00. In fact maybe this would be a good idea, if I broke 20:00 I think I would probably have a heart attack I would be so excited. Alison probably knows this, but the only time in life I have broken 20:00 for a 5k was back in my sophmore year of college (Alison's senior year), when she, our friend Laurie, and I ran all our races together. That was so much fun. I still have a picture of us after our big race at NESCACs on my bookcase. I had a bit of a breakthrough after a long, awful winter of injury, and ran all my fastest times - my 5k PR of 19:26 and my 10k PR of 40:55. I have never gotten even close to those times in the intervening 11 years, and I really never thought I would again. But now I am becoming hopeful!

So that was the excitement yesterday. I had a pretty bad swim actually, just felt rough and slow in the water, and I was swimming pretty slow. I am not sure what that was about as on Monday I had one of my best swims yet. We'll see how tonight's swim goes, I am hopeful but not optimistic!

This morning I did a speed bike workout and my heavens was it tough. I am staying at my mom's right now and I really wanted to ride from there so I could pick up dry cleaning on the way to work, so I did. My mom lives in a super hilly area, I do not think there was an inch of flat ground to be found. This meant the downhills were nice but the uphills were absolutely brutal. They just hurt! It was probably a really good workout to do as my A race course is rolling, but it kinda freaked me out to be honest. I am not sure how I'll handle those rollers in a race situation. Hopefully I will have enough adrenaline to carry me!

Right now I am heading off to run and swim and then run 5 million errands. I was in Vegas this past weekend which was fun but exhausting and this weekend I am heading to Southern California, which I think will be really really fun and much less exhausting than Vegas, which is great! I cannot wait to run on the beach!!

Posted by barb at 3:52 PM | Comments (0)

August 21, 2008

The Final Stretch

My A race is four weeks and one day away. Oh my goodness, this is so exciting and nerve wracking and everything!! I have never been in a race where I do not feel that I can easily finish in the top 50% of my age group. What if all the awesome people go, and none of the slow ones do? What if I finish last? What if I can't get my wet suit off? What if I flat out? Now that my training is in the final stages and I am two weeks away from taper, I can see that my nerves are beginning to show. Then again, this bout of anxiety could have been caused by the fact that we had about 5 million cookies, candies, and cake in the office today for a project and birthday celebration. Refined Sugar = Anxious Barb apparently.

Anyway, life is crazy right now. Tomorrow I am leaving for Vegas for a bachelorette party. That means crazy training early in the week, as I will not be doing any brick workouts there. Next Friday I am going to Southern California for a weekend. The day after Labor Day I am moving. Two weeks after that I am a bridesmaid in a wedding, and the week after that is race week! I hardly have time to train but I'm getting it all in (although I might skip a swim this week, although it's a cutback week in swimming so I'm not all that concerned). This week I have been feeling somewhat fatigued, but my workouts have not suffered in speed so I'm okay with it. In fact, I have been feeling pretty good.

On Tuesday I had a running workout at the track and ran 8 x 400m all between 89 and 94 seconds. I was so excited!! My legs felt awful, it was windy, and there was a big group of marathon runners jogging around the track for some reason. I was all prepared to have a bad workout but I just focused on form and mechanics, and got it done. Yesterday I had a bike workout and I thought that was going to be somewhat rough, but I just put my head down, focused on my music (I do these workouts in a state park where there are no traffic lights and hardly any cars), and got it done. And this morning I had a swim speed workout which was tough but awesome. I feel like it is a good thing that I'm getting to a point where I feel fatigue in my arms - it means that I'm hopefully improving from a technique perspective. I had some great 100's and 50's and felt really strong and smooth in the water.

Since I won't be doing my long brick on Saturday, I am leaving in a bit to ride for 2 hours and run for 30 minutes. It's not the exact workout I'm supposed to do but it's just not really possible for me to ride for 3 hours on a day when I have to work. So I am making the executive decision that it's close enough. I may take an early flight back here on Sunday, so I can ride more, but we'll see - the DNC is starting here on Monday so it may be impossible to get on a flight.

Overall I am feeling good and I cannot say enough good things about my coach and generally about heart rate training. I was a skeptic for a long time but I have finally started drinking the Kool-Aid, and I can't believe I didn't before! It is amazing to feel fresh all the time, to know I am putting in hard workouts and yet my legs do not feel destroyed. And to see my times as fast as they were in college, at least in workouts. We'll see how it pays off on race day!

Posted by barb at 2:56 PM | Comments (0)

August 14, 2008

Bike Woes

I tell you what, I had some messed up bike karma yesterday. I think I must have unknowingly run over a puppy or something. I had noticed on my front tube that part of the valve had come off, which hadn't been a problem but when I tried to pump it up it made a popping noise and very rapidly deflated. I put a new tube in, got that to about 20 psi, and that one deflated too. So I took that one out, put in a third tube, and it worked for about 15 minutes of riding, but then it deflated! I stopped (luckily I was in the park so there were a lot of people, including my friend Michelle, around) and put in another tube, which deflated about as quickly as I could fill it. Then I took one of Michelle's tubes, borrowed some very nice random guy's portable pump, and filled that one. It worked for the rest of the ride which was pretty awesome.

However, it made me very behind in my schedule as I also had a swim planned. I was able to swim 1300 meters after my biking fiasco and before it got kind of dark and creepy out (the indoor pool at my gym is closed for 3 more weeks, so I had to swim outside). It was not a huge swim but it was enough to make my Friday swim manageable with my schedule. Fridays are long swims and with the pool situation (6 lanes for the whole gym, which are occupied the entire time I don't have to be at work on Fridays), I cannot get 4000 meters in at one stretch. I am sure this is not the best way to handle my swims, but I don't think it's the worst either.

This morning I was back at the pool at 6:20 or so for my speed swim. It was so fun!! I did write down my workout wrong - probably a Freudian slip, as I somehow forgot to write '300 Kick' down, and I absolutely hate long kick sets since they take forever. So I only swam 2700 but I felt that I got the meat of the workout in. I did not feel particularly fast when I was doing my 100's, but my splits were excellent for me, so I was pretty happy.

I should also mention yesterday's speed bike workout, which outside of equipment issues and crazy cars, roller bladers, cruiser bikes, etc., went pretty well. I was kind of distraught when I first started and messed up the order of my intervals a little, but I still got it done. It is a bit easier for me to cruise along in my longer intervals which probably means I should go faster. This means I really need to start doing these workouts in the morning again, as it is much less dangerous. Riding along at 26 MPH at peak usage time in the park is just not safe for me or for others. So I guess it's good when you are fast enough to pose a real danger to others, I don't know?!

I am hoping to leave work at a reasonable time tonight as I have a 1:40 ride and a 30 minute run on my schedule. The weather is cooling off really nicely right now - I guess tomorrow it is going to be 60 degress which will probably seem freezing! Then I am heading to Michelle's so we can have dinner, possibly go to a concert, and watch the Olympics. I have been so busy with training that I haven't had much time to watch, but tonight is women's gymnastics which I love. I can't wait!!

Posted by barb at 12:54 PM | Comments (0)