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July 31, 2008

it's a three workout kind of day

You know, sometimes I wonder why I can eat so much and still be hungry all the time. And then I think about the fact that I am doing three workouts a day sometimes and it all makes sense. Today has been a pretty good day so far in spite of the fact that our heat wave continues. I got my hour long easy ride and my 30 minute easy run out of the way this morning, and somehow got to work at 8:00. I'm really not sure how it happened, although I guess I am just really efficient when I need to be! And really not efficient when I am not in a huge hurry.

I've been working all day and trying to stay hydrated. I am heading to the pool as soon as I'm done for a 3000 meter speed swim workout. There is no kicking involved (I will kick when I swim, but no kicking with the kick board), I am so excited!! I think it should only take an hour or so which is awesome. I could not fall asleep last night, and I got up at 5:45 to start my workout, so I can't wait to go home and lay on my couch. Ah, the exciting and glamorous life of a hard core age group triathlete :)

Posted by barb at 2:52 PM | Comments (0)

July 30, 2008

kicking takes forever!

OMG I had the most interminable swim yesterday. It was only 3000 meters total, but 900 of those meters were on the kick board. And kicking takes forever! I thought I might not make it towards the end there, but I am pretty sure I swam the entire workout. So I feel pretty good about that. I am feeling so awesome about my swimming, I can't wait until my next race to see how much I have improved.

I guess we are now making the national news because of our heat wave, which is weird to me because I thought last year was much worse. However, by the time I get on my bicycle later on today for my 1:40 ride, it should be pretty warm. On the bike it really isn't that bad as long as you make sure to drink enough water and sports drink. Hopefully it should be a fun ride! I am curious if I'll have to go a lot slower to keep my heart rate in the right place what with the heat, I know I would if I were running. Luckily, since we are at altitude, the mornings are still pretty nice. I had a great easy run with Laura this morning. Realistically I feel like my program is very manageable as long as I'm smart with my time and get up early every day to do one of my workouts.

That is about all, I'm going to drink a bunch of water so I don't get too parched in a few hours!

Posted by barb at 2:10 PM | Comments (0)

July 29, 2008

maybe running 26 mpw agrees with me!

I have been totally paranoid about my running mileage pretty much all year, as I have always been convinced that the only reason I am a halfway decent runner is due to the fact that I run more than most people. Thus moving down to running 4-5 days a week, and running 30 miles a week or less, totally freaked me out. Of course running 8:00 pace in a race did not really help my mental state but I am bound and determined to get faster using my awesome new heart rate training program.

And this morning I felt awesome!! I did my workout and there were basically no HR restrictions except that I should be over 157. Um, no problem!! I was running 6:15-6:45 pace for the entire workout, at varying distances/time intervals. Usually in the mornings I feel sluggish and I do remember my last morning workout I ran 7:15-7:30 pace the entire time, so this was a huge improvement. I also felt like I could have kept going which is unusual for me. Now I still feel that I need to get faster but this was a huge step in the right direction.

Since I have pulled a switch with my swim workouts, I have a 3000 meter workout later on today that is going to take forever - it has a ton of kicking and although I have definitely improved my freestyle, breast stroke, and backstroke times, I am still really slow at kicking. However I think it will be fun! Tomorrow I have an easy run and a long-ish ride, which should also be great. I do think it will be about 96 degress when I ride, but at least I'll be generating some wind. This is shaping up to be a pretty big training week, and I am feeling good!

Posted by barb at 9:54 AM | Comments (0)

July 28, 2008

the week of the switcheroo

I think I have confused myself so much today. I had a 1:40 ride, a 3000m swim, and a lifting workout on my schedule today and I just couldn't fit that in, given that I had to show up at work. And given that if I wake up at 5:00 am I am a zombie, which is not my most productive self. Therefore I moved my Wednesday bike to today, moved today's bike to Wednesday, and then I may mess with it further still by switching my swims between today and tomorrow. Today I have a pretty long 3000 (600 kicking takes forever), but tomorrow I have a relatively quick 2500. I guess I will just see how things go.

I had a killer bike workout this morning, several longer intervals than I had done before. It was actually really fun although by the last interval I thought my legs might fall off. I am trying to brainstorm with myself and find another location for interval workouts on the bike. I've been doing them in Washington Park, which has a 2.2 mile road around it with few cars. However, there are a lot of other bikes, pedestrians, roller bladers, etc., etc. There is also a 15 MPH speed limit which I regularly blow out of the water when I am just riding easy. I could go to a local reservoir, which doesn't have the speed limit, but it is a bit more hilly and prone to being windy. I guess I'll give it a try one of these days. I am just afraid I will run someone over or get a speeding ticket, both of which would be bad.

I am excited to get back in the pool later on today, I have not swam since Friday. I am supposed to go to a lifting session with my friend Michelle but I am not sure that is going to work out, I do not think swimming after lifting would be particularly beneficial and I don't have time to swim before the end of the day. It's shaping up to be a very busy week, hopefully I can fit everything in!

Posted by barb at 9:50 AM | Comments (1)

July 27, 2008

hot!!

It is so hot here, it is just not even fun. It has been over 90 degrees for 15 days straight, and at this point I think it is making everyone a little loopy. I'm going to use it as an excuse for my loopiness at least! I have been having a great time with my new program. It is keeping me really busy, it is amazing what happens to your schedule when your swims are as long as your workouts in the other disciplines for the most part. I also think that my increased swimming volume has somehow given me a tapeworm as I am pretty much constantly hungry. I am kind of afraid about what might happen this coming week as last week I only had three swims and this week I have four. I might eat my house.

This weekend has been nice although it's tough to do much outside of training due to the heat. I had a great long-ish brick yesterday morning. I got a pretty early start and it stayed cloudy through my workout which was absolutely shocking but awesome. I had done my longest swim to date the day before - 3500 meters - so my arms were a little tired but luckily they got a lot of rest while I was on the bike. Today I ran 90 minutes which was fun. It got pretty hot near the end but it could have been much, much worse. Then I went to the pool with some friends and did not swim, that is kind of nice sometimes! I still have a really intense sports bra/swimsuit/bike shorts tan, but I guess it got a little better. I did ride to and from the pool, just so I wouldn't have to take my car, and that was very hot so as soon as I got home I hibernated in my basement.

Now I am just relaxing and doing laundry. My brother and a few friends are coming over in a bit so we can head out for an early dinner. I have moved a few workouts around for this coming week, hopefully that will not mess me up but I figure if I can do my workouts, just on a different day from what was intended, I should be just fine. I hope everyone is keeping cool and having a great weekend!

Posted by barb at 4:51 PM | Comments (0)

July 22, 2008

peak recovery, day two

So I sure have a lot of free time around races. When I am tapering or recovering, the workouts just are not that long. I cannot lie, it is kind of nice! Yesterday was day one after Boulder Peak and I just had a nice recovery swim. It was just what I needed, swimming is a workout for the upper body but I feel that it stretches out my lower body very nicely. I also did a bit more walking than usual as I walked to lunch and back, that felt awesome too. Then I went to the bank and the library after work, because I did not have to rush home for another workout. That was a fun little adventure - not so much the bank but the library. I never go to the library, which is really stupid since I love to read and I do not really care to own most of the books I do read. Also, libraries have magazines and movies to borrow which is great! I highly recommend stopping by your local library if you have some time to spare.

This morning I actually felt like smashing my alarm but resisted the urge. It has been really hot lately so it is hard to fall asleep at my normal time because it's still over 80 degrees in my house. I cannot wait until it starts cooling off just a bit. Anyway I did get up at 6:00 which was a good thing because I could not get myself together on time today at all. I rode an easy hour which was also very nice, it felt really good on my legs. I started off just riding around the park I always ride around in the morning, but after I almost ran over 20 geese and thought I might die of boredom if I had to ride at the park today and tomorrow I headed to the bike path. It was great, usually the path is so crowded it is impossible to ride but that early there were not too many people out at all. I rode a nice easy hour using my awesome new HRM to make sure the effort was correct.

I am heading to the car dealer to get my name on the Prius waiting list, even though I am still not 100% sure that I am going to buy one, and then after work tonight I will be working on my ridiculously bad hot weather running by going for an easy 30 minute run. After that there is a chance I am heading to the mall with friends as I ony have one pair of work pants that fit right now. However, I am kind of sleepy so I am crossing my fingers that they bail! Tomorrow I am back to hard training which is exciting, now that my life is back in order I am ready to lose all my free time and to go about the important task of getting faster!

Posted by barb at 10:46 AM | Comments (0)

July 20, 2008

Good news, bad news

Well, today was a good news/bad news kind of race (Boulder Peak) for me, and you know I guess we're all bound to have these every now and again.

Here's the good news:
- I beat my time last year by 20 minutes (2:33:13 I believe)
- I got 12th out of 101 in a very competitive age group
- I swam under 27 minutes for 1500 meters
- I rode the bike course, including Old Stage, at 20.9 MPH which was a tie for the fastest split in my age group

And the bad news:
- My run was awful. It was so bad. I got passed by six girls who are in my age group during the run. I ran 8:00 pace.
- There was a delay so everyone started 15 minutes later. This means that I started at 7:40 am on a day when the high temperature was 100 degrees. It was so hot! I have the worst dehydration headache right now.

Overall it was a good day. I cannot be unhappy with my time. However, I can be unhappy with my ability to run in the heat. I am so bad at it! Granted I do think the run course at Peak is really slow - the surface is dirt but it is extremely rocky and the footing is bad. I have run 10k's there lots of times and I have never run a good one. But still. I feel like I am becoming competitive in the swim, I can bike with the best girls in my age group, so I just need to get my run to a competitive place.

I may write a more detailed race report later. Then again I may not, I am too annoyed with myself! For now, I am going to lay on my couch and enjoy my air conditioning.

Posted by barb at 3:57 PM | Comments (1)

July 19, 2008

it's going to be a hot one!

So, all week the forecast for tomorrow has been climbing. It used to be a high of 86, so we were really excited, and then it was in the low 90's, and then it was 96, then 98, and now we have broken into the triple digits with a forecast high temperature for tomorrow of 100 degrees. Holy blazing cats! While I am somewhat annoyed with the universe for moving the temperature in the wrong direction, at least everyone in my age group has to deal with the same conditions. I am jealous of the people who get to start 55 minutes earlier and will thus finish around 9:00 instead of 10:00, but you know such is life.

I took my nice off day yesterday, but today I had a little workout of all three disciplines to take care of - about a 10 minute swim, 45 minute bike, and 20 minute run. I was nervous about doing so much the day before a race but I actually think it will make me feel fresh and sharp. My frame of mind right now is all about trusting my fitness, trusting my mental toughness, and trusting my coach(es). It is also about positive thinking, visualization, and of course drinking lots of water.

My friend Michelle and I went up to the race expo this morning and got our packets and listened to the pre-race meeting. I also bought a new pair of racing flats as mine are really old. I just cannot resist buying shoes at race expos apparently. It is kind of a problem. Bodie and I have been hibernating in the air conditioned house and now that I have packed up half of my earthly belongings, or so it seems, we are going to go over to Michelle's so Bodie can play with Michelle's dog, and so Michelle and I can clean our bikes and have dinner. We will be leaving Michelle's house around 4:15 am tomorrow, so I'm just staying over so that I can avoid getting up before 4:00, which is just inhumane.

Best of luck to all the triathletes and runners racing tomorrow, it's a big weekend for a lot of people!

Posted by barb at 4:41 PM | Comments (0)

July 18, 2008

This must be what people who don't train do all day!

I always wonder what people who are not obsessed with sports and working out do with all of their free time. Today, which is an off day for me, allowed me to explore the world outside of training, and actually it has been pretty fun so far! Here is what I've been up to:
- Slept in to 6:30 - Wow, I could get used to this!!
- Took the light rail (public transportation) to work. Read the New Yorker. Very relaxing, and cost efficient.
- Got into work at 7:25 am!
- Did not have to do a lunchtime workout; went to the Toyota dealership and drove a Prius (which has a 4-6 month waiting list, holy cats!) and the Corolla.

However, I did do a few tri-related activities, such as:
- Staring at the forecast, which is now up to a 98 degree high for Sunday, and willed it to change.
- Stared at my start waved, willed it to change.
- Thought awesome thoughts about my race.
- Drank lots of water.

Overall it has been pretty fun, but I don't think I want to get used to it! Tomorrow I am back to my normal sports-obsessed life as I will be doing very short workouts of each discipline I am racing, going to the race expo and picking up my packet, attending the pre-race meeting, etc., etc. I'm looking forward to it!

Posted by barb at 12:14 PM | Comments (0)

July 17, 2008

there may be something to this coaching thing

I am four days into my new program. I have a cute little red heart rate monitor. I must say that in my experience the Polar HRM products are far superior to the Timex ones, even though for a regular watch I love my Timex. I had a Timex HRM several years ago which was super large, bulky, had a small screen, and worked very erratically, to the point that I didn't trust anything it said so I stopped using it and lost half of it. Whoops! My new Polar is cute, red, has a nice big screen with cute graphics, and seems to be quite accurate so far (or at least does not seem crazy). How fun is that!! I used it for a tempo ride last night and it was great knowing exactly when I should back off, hit it harder, etc., etc. I was also relieved to see that I did not have to revert to riding 14 MPH to stay in my zone, that was definitely a pleasant surprise.

So far even though this week is a taper I have already swum 6000 meters. Holy cats!! I am surprised to say that my arms have not even fallen off yet, which is great. It is amazing to me that serious swimmers probably swim that much in one workout. They are my heros, what can I say. And I think this volume is really helping me out - I had a short (1500m) speed swim this morning and on my set of 4 x 100 descending, each 100 was a PR for a 25 meter pool. That means that I had swum faster, but in a 25 yard pool, which is shorter, so really those times don't count. I was so excited and proud after the workout! We'll see how it translates into racing (if at all) this weekend. In my last Olympic I was out of the water in 27:14 so hopefully I can match or possibly slightly beat that time. That would rock!

That was this morning's workout. At lunch I did a pretty short speed workout. I feel that today is all about short workouts that will sharpen me for Sunday, which is great. I rode easy for 20 minutes, then did 8 x 1:00 pushing hard with :30 rest between them. Oh my they were hard. I never did stuff like this on the bike before, because I don't like pain! I could tell it was a great thing to do and it will make me stronger. After work I have a very short (like 25 minutes short) run with a few strides thrown in, and then it is all rest until Sunday. I have very short, easy workouts of each sport Saturday but they are so short they don't really even count. I do not know what to do tomorrow, with absolutely nothing on my schedule. I may bounce off the walls!! But I will try to do so in a calm manner so as not to take up too much energy :)

Posted by barb at 1:20 PM | Comments (0)

July 15, 2008

Day Two

Well I am just feeling like a machine these days, holy cats! Yesterday I completed all three workouts for my new program and I really did not feel that bad. I was a little tired on the bike, but I attribute that to heat and wind. It was so stinkin' hot and dry!! I swear I am amazed that I can stay as hydrated as I do, with this climate. The other day the humidity was only 7%. Which probably sounds nice to everyone who lives in a really humid climate but it is not good for the hair and skin, and you really do have to drink about 17 million gallons of water. And then every morning you wake up completely dehydrated and parched. I think I need to come up with an overnight IV system. It would work really well for athletes!

So this morning I busted out a tempo run. It was so nice and cool - I've been doing all my speed workouts after work and it was such a nice break. I like to know how far I go in a tempo run so I just ran around Wash Park a few times. I did run a nice negative split which I mostly attribute to some chick who is clearly as competitive as me who did not want me to pass her. It was kind of hilarious! I was coming up on her and she kept looking around and speeding up. I did pass her somewhat decisively and then almost immediately she was right on my tail. She did pass me back in the end, and you know I think it was all good fun and definitely gave me a nice end to my workout. I am sure I was out of my heart rate zone but hey, I won't know until my monitor arrives tomorrow, so until then I say ignorance is bliss.

I have had a solid day at work and soon I am off to the pool for a 2500 meter swim. Luckily, compared to yesterday's swim it will seem so short! After today my taper for Peak will start so it should be a pretty mellow end to the week, including a rest day. That will be so strange! I anticipate having so much free time that I will take public transportation to work and back, and I may even go look at new cars. How fun!! Who knows, I may even look forward to the next rest day :)

Posted by barb at 3:58 PM | Comments (0)

July 14, 2008

3000 meters down...

Well, I did it. My first day of my new program had me swimming a beefy 3000 meters this morning, and hoo boy, was it tough! I can see how this whole online coaching thing will really help my mental toughness. I wanted to quit so much. Of course if I had a coach standing on the side of the pool, it would be really hard to quit, but with my coach all the way on the internet no one but me would know if I cut it short. Luckily I used my mental toughness and fear of being a pansy to make myself finish. And now that it's done I feel pretty awesome about myself and my swimming. Yeah, I think I can handle it.

I have been a busy little training bee the last few days although I took it somewhat easy in my last few days of being self-coached. Today was a three workout kind of day, those are always challenging but they're not that bad if I have one short workout that I can do at lunch. Luckily today I had a lifting session so I used my new program's lifting exercises and I really liked it. It was efficient but gave me a good full body lifting workout. The best thing was that I was in and out of the gym in 30 minutes. No, I did not shower. No matter what I do not shower three times in one day.

Tonight I have a moderate bike ride so that should be a fun way to round out the day, although it is a bit hot today so I may wait for the weather to cool off a little.

This past weekend I did two rides (one ride was the Boulder Peak course, which is my race this coming Sunday), and one long run of 9ish miles. I felt great on the Saturday ride and the Sunday run. The Sunday ride was really junk miles but you know I am okay with that.

I did get final race information for Sunday today which was somewhat annoying. Out of 12 non-pro waves (the pros start much later than anyone else), I am in the 11th. This means that there will be a ton of people I have to pass in the water, on the bike, and on the run. This can be nice mentally but it does slow me down, especially in the water where I am not that awesome at maneuvering around people. And in the sprint tri where I had to pass a ton of people on the bike it got really old, especially when they did not know they needed to stay to the right. Luckily all the girls I am really competing against will face the same situation. But still, this is my blog and I reserve the right to whine about whatever I want! :) Regardless I am very excited for Sunday. The forecast does not look nearly as hot as last year, I have improved a bunch, I cannot wait to eat up that hilly first 10 miles. Anyway that is all the scoop for now. I am off to finish a bunch of stuff and then ride!!

Posted by barb at 2:27 PM | Comments (1)

July 11, 2008

Welcome to the big time, Self

Well, Coach Search 2008 has been concluded, and I am following in the awesome Beth's footsteps to Mark Allen Online. I kind of figured it this way - it is less expensive than any coach I could find in Denver, and I know someone who really likes the program. Also, they have a tri camp in Boulder that I can attend next year, which is pretty awesome. So it just seemed like a good idea. Also, the coaches are so responsive, and gave me some great advice off the bat and made a nice custom program for me so that I will be ready to be awesome at Age Group Nationals. One piece of advice that I was pretty excited about was that I should not race the 5430 Long Course. I am so excited. The race was so miserable last year, and I finished but the run was a 95 degree death march. Luckily now I have a good reason not to race! It does make me wonder if I should possibly do a sprint the week after just for fun/racing experience/beefing up my ranking. I guess I can ask my coach!! How exciting.

I am a bit apprehensive as taking an initial look at my program reveals that I can no longer swim my cute little 1500-1800 meter workouts. It's looking like 2500-3500 meters, wow!! I do think I can do it, and I think it will make me WAY stronger in the water, but I am scared!

In my last week of self-coaching, I have been having a good time although my calves are killing me. My friend Michelle and I do strength training together on Mondays with a trainer at Michelle's doctor's office (it's like a big sports medicine mecca, so they have trainers and everything). Somehow we tweaked our calves and they are STILL really sore even though it is Friday and realistically we should be fully recovered. Hopefully whatever we did on Monday, we will not do next week as we are racing next weekend, and it would suck to race with painful calves. Last night I powered through my calf pain and 95 degree temperatures for a 27 mile bike/3 mile run brick. It actually did not feel that bad, I drank a ton of sports drink and water on the bike and run. And then I was able to go out for awesome Mexican food with my little brother and a few friends, which is great for rehydrating - they give you HUGE glasses of water and salty chips. Perfect!

This morning I chose to sleep in and hang out with Bodie before I had to leave for work. I am going to run from here at lunch time and then do a nice easy ride with Matt after work/errands. Tomorrow, Michelle and I are heading to Boulder to ride the course for next weekend, which should be fun. And then we are throwing a wedding shower, very exciting. Then my only other critical task is purchasing a heart rate monitor as there are all these heart rate guidelines on my new training plan, so it would be beneficial to know my heart rate. That is all for today, keep it real this weekend folks!

Posted by barb at 8:17 AM | Comments (1)

July 9, 2008

coach search 2008, i love my bike, and swimming is fun

So there you have it, the three items I feel like blogging about today. I have been making great progress in Coach Quest 2008 or whatever the heck you want to call it. I have two viable options right now, Beth's coach and this other chick who lives in Denver and just went pro. And let me just say that coaching is not cheap! But you know realistically if I stop buying clothes I don't need it shouldn't be that bad. And if I start to be really awesome, it will definitely be worth it.

I was composing an ode to my bike while I was riding this morning. Sadly, that has vanished into the ether of my brain matter. Anyway, my bike rocks. It is so pretty and fast. When it gets nice Zipp wheels next year it is going to be so happy, it will go even faster. I just ordered a new white helmet for myself from Rudy Project, as they are actually sponsoring me these days which is really awesome. My bike is black and white, so the white helmet is going to look pretty sweet. As you may be able to tell, this triathlon business has turned me into a total gear head. I swear, it is contagious. Once you start doing triathlons you see everyone's awesome gear at all the races and you just want it! Anyway I had such a nice ride this morning, that I just thought I would write a little bit about my bike. I rode 20 miles, in about an hour. The park where I normally ride before work was a lot less crazy than usual which was really pleasant, the weather was good, etc., etc.

And my last topic for the day is my swimming. Holy cats, I have really improved this year. It is very exciting for me as last year I just assumed I would always be a below average swimmer. Most really good swimmers are about a foot taller than me, so I felt daunted by my height, and my general skills. I definitely never thought I could swim under 15:00 for 750m, 30:00 for 1500m, etc. And yet this year I'm doing it, and today I had a very encouraging workout that leads me to believe I may even get faster than I am now. I didn't have a ton of time as I swam at lunchtime but I did a warmup and then a ladder, which is my favorite kind of swimming workout. All my times were faster than I normally swim, so that was very encouraging. I felt good and strong and awesome, which is great too! Part of the reason for this is that I was outside and it is a beautiful, sunny day. It doesn't get much better than that.

I think that is all for my workouts today although I may go for a quick run when I get home as Bodie has been in her crate all day and she may need to burn off some energy. I kind of hope not though, this was such a good workout day already!

Posted by barb at 3:10 PM | Comments (0)

July 8, 2008

Awesome Training Weekend

When everyone you know is out of town for July 4th, what is there to do but train? Kind of a rhetorical question, but anyway, I had a great weekend of training this past weekend. It was a little bit boring but not really as I did have Bodie and my friend Laura's dog Henry for social interaction. Yes, you may have a problem if you talk to your dogs like they are people.

Anyway here is a quick run-down of my training over the 4th of July weekend...

Friday (7/4) -
28 mile ride/8 mile run brick. I felt good on the ride and the run so that was exciting. This was probably the hottest day of the weekend and it did not feel that bad until it was 82 degrees in my house late in the afternoon and I thought I might expire. I just rode and ran from my house, so that felt very fuel-efficient.

Saturday (7/5) -
1800 meter open water swim/8 mile run brick in the morning, 3 mile run in the evening. I was going to run 10 miles in the morning and be done with it but I chickened out as I thought I was going to have a heat stroke. My swim was awesome though. I went down to Chatfield to swim across the Gravel Pond where I always do my open water swims. Clearly a lot of tri geeks (they call us that for a reason) did not have big exciting July 4th evenings as the pond was packed at 7:30 am. It was an absolutely gorgeous morning, with the only issue being that it was already pretty warm so I started to sweat the minute I put my wetsuit on. However I felt great and did the swim in under 40 minutes which is really good for me. I felt strong and smooth. After my swim I drove to the Highline Canal (probably Denver's longest dirt trail system), and ran as far as I could without passing out. It was so hot, it was truly miserable. I planned to run 8, drink some water at my car, and run 2 more miles but I literally could not make myself do it. Later in the day it cooled down a ton so I ran 3 miles with Bodie. It was probably not the best way to get my long run in but sometimes we do what we can with the conditions we are dealt.

Sunday (7/6) -
Awesome, awesome ride. Wow, I cannot say enough good things about this ride. I tried a new route because I wanted to ride uphill a lot but I didn't want to drive my bike anywhere, so I rode out to Golden and up Lookout Mountain and back. The total distance was 48 miles, which I covered in 3 hours. It is my longest non-race ride to date. It was a beautiful morning and the ride had a great balance of flats and hills. Lookout is a pretty gnarly climb, so that made me feel pretty hard core. In the afternoon I did an easy 30 minute swim at the gym, just so I could say I swam four times for the week, and it actually felt great on my legs. I pulled for a while to give my legs a nice rest.

Overall, last week was probably the most I've ever biked in one week - 125 miles. I am pretty proud of that, and I am especially proud that I biked almost 50 miles by myself.

This week has gotten off to a nice start with a 7 mile run yesterday morning with my friend Laura, and a lifting session with my friend Michelle. Our trainer had us doing a circuit which I think is fun as I probably have some mild adult ADD. This morning I pulled myself out of bed against my own will and swam for 30 minutes. I so did not want to leave my bed but I ended up having a great swim so I'm glad I did!

That is about all for today. I am talking with a coach in the next day or two, some Australian lady who seems pretty cool. And Beth is going to send me some information about her coach, so that is moving forward nicely. How exciting!!

Posted by barb at 8:55 AM | Comments (0)

July 1, 2008

getting to the next level

Now that I have reached the podium in my age group, I have found a new pinnacle of frustration. All my friends think I should get a coach. I do not necessarily disagree with them as I basically just do whatever seems to be a good idea at the time when I train. There is not a whole lot of method to my madness except that I think I should bike, run, and swim about 4 times per week. And I think I should strength train once or twice a week. And I like to do intervals with my club, and ride uphill, and swim in open water, about once a week. As you can see this is not very scientific, so my friends feel that if someone with method to his/her madness told me what to do, perhaps I could go a little higher on the age group podium or even approach the overall podium.

Clearly it does seem like a good idea. However, the world of finding a tri coach is a scary, confusing, and expensive place. Ideally I would like to be on a team of some kind so I had some people to do workouts with, I would like a schedule, and I would like a single person that I could email with occasionally. And I would not like to spend a thousand dollars a month for this service. Holy cats, is this hard to find! Especially for someone who wants to get on the podium. It seems like there are some very reasonable programs out there, but they are designed for beginners and casual athletes, and I do not think I really qualify for that type of program any longer. I do have a normal job and I understand the limits of my talent, so I don't want to go pro either, but I would like to find a happy medium. What a pain! Anyway, I feel better now, so thank you for listening to me vent about my Quixotic quest.

Now that my race was a few days ago and I am in a whole new month, I am feeling good and I am ready to bump my volume back up. Yesterday I ran easy in the morning and then went to a lifting session with my friend Michelle and our strength trainer. It was a fun, pretty light workout. However, my arms did feel it a bit in the pool this morning - Tuesday mornings are usually kind of rough (and slow) for that reason. I did a few 500's and some shorter stuff this morning for a total of what I believe is 1800 meters.

Once I bust out of here, I will be riding for maybe an hour and a half or so. I cannot wait for this weekend when I will have a lot of time for a long ride or two. I will also be able to bust out my first real long run in a few weeks as my races and trips have precluded a real long run for the past several weeks. That should be fun and hopefully it won't be too hard!

Posted by barb at 2:23 PM | Comments (1)