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January 29, 2009
bad blogger; good athlete
I seem to find that the less I blog, the more I train. Or maybe I just make excuses like 'oh I can't possibly blog about my training, I am too busy training!' That excuse may be weak but I am going with it for now. So what is up with me? Well, I've been training a good amount! It has finally become winter here after several weeks of awesome weather so I have been becoming very familiar with my trainer and thus I have been becoming obsessed with several new TV shows. There is nothing particularly embarrassing that I've been watching on the bicycle except perhaps the Real Housewives of Orange County. That is kind of mortifying. But what can I say, I am not interested in home improvement, little people in a big world, or families with astounding numbers of children! That is not entirely true as my little sister is a little person so I do like that show occasionally but certain shows are better for the trainer and that is not one of them. For some reason TV shows are much better for me on the trainer than movies, I'm not sure why that is. I do know that at the end of watching a movie on the trainer I am about ready to throw myself off the bicycle to put an end to my misery.
So the trainer and I have been spending lots of quality time together. I have also been running on the treadmill quite a bit. Even though I consider myself a true runner (I've been a runner since I was 15, I always think of it as my first sports love), with my ankle issues I am not taking any chances going running when it's dark or snowy or slippery out. And the treadmill gives me even more chances to watch TV shows! For some reason on the treadmill I prefer the food network. Um, weird, I know. There is nothing like watching Rachel Ray cook a big delicious looking pizza while I burn calories. Or something. Running has been going well though. When I first started running again I was pretty discouraged about my pace in my heart rate zones. I was literally running 11:00 pace to stay in my zones. However, after less than two weeks I am down to 10:30 pace and sometimes even 9:45 pace so I feel that I am improving rapidly. Awesome! I am just so glad I had the luck to get injured during the off-season.
Swimming has been good too. I just love swimming. As you can see from the paragraphs above sometimes swimming is the only outdoor exercise I do for weeks! The indoor pool has been super crowded due most likely to weather so I've been swimming outside. It is so nice and peaceful and the way the steam rises from the pool when it's really cold is so cool! And I swear once you swim about a 100 you aren't even cold. Today I had a fun little tempo swim (I'm on a cutback week for swimming right now, it was so short!). I have been trying to focus really hard on my form recently, I think it is definitely paying dividends - I just feel so much more smooth and efficient in the water. I am not faster right now but I think it will come over time.
I am out of here in a few for an easy bike and run, should be a pretty easy little workout. I'm staying at my old house watching my dog Bodie for a week and a half while Matt is in Asia, I am so jealous! He is in Vietnam right now and he will also be going to Cambodia and Thailand. Talk about a sweet vacation. It has been a ton of fun to hang out in my old neighborhood and with my awesome dog Bodie. She is so cute and she is super cuddly, like a little teddy bear. Sadly due to the cold weather she has not been going on as many walks as I am sure she would like, but this weekend we'll get out there.
And that is about all for now, keep it real everyone! If you are curious about Matt's travels in Asia you can read about them in his blog.
Posted by barb at 3:53 PM | Comments (1)
January 19, 2009
awesome day off
I had such a good day off today. I love working for a bank, we get so many holidays! It looked like a lot of people had the day off today, which is really nice. It seems like as a country we really should celebrate Martin Luther King day, and not treat it just like any other day.
Today was absolutely gorgeous although it was a bit windy. The highest temperature I saw was about 66 degrees, which is fabulous! Almost all the snow has melted from our snow storm last week. It was a great day for an outdoor swim and a ride. I swam 2500m this morning and had a great time. The workout was kind of different, it had a lot of descending sets which I always enjoy. The pool was really quiet which was nice too. After the swim I headed up to Boulder (I seem to drive up there a LOT these days), for a PT appointment with my awesome PT Mark. He is a former world champion marathoner and in my opinion he is the only PT worth seeing. He adjusted my left ankle - apparently my Talus was out - and then did some of what he calls 'manual therapy'. You might call it very very deep tissue massage that hurts a whole bunch. Oh sweet heavens it hurt! I haven't been injured for quite a while so apparently I was out of practice taking the massage, I was a big wimp about it! Luckily the other PT in the office was there so she chatted with me to distract me which was very nice. He gave me some exercises to do so I can re-build both my ankles now that they have been weakened from the sprains. I also left my orthotics with him as they were a complete disaster. I think he was kind of horrified! I will be picking them up on Saturday so that's another fun trip to Boulder right there!
After the PT appointment I rode for 90 minutes. I did the Boulder Peak course because I knew it would be about the right amount of time, and this was a rare day when it wouldn't be too cold descending Olde Stage. I saw a lot of the fire damage from last week's fires (I think they were last week), it was pretty amazing. There were several houses that had completely scorched earth all around them. It looks like the fire fighters did an amazing job. The ride was a lot of fun although at one point I was fighting a pretty intense cross wind, which was kind of scary!
After that I hung out with some friends, then had dinner with my brother, mom, and stepdad, and then did a bit of work. Now it is about time to get ready for my week so I am off, but it has been a great day!
Posted by barb at 8:44 PM | Comments (1)
January 18, 2009
Best Day Ever
I think I may have had the best day ever yesterday. And let me tell you why:
1. Awesome 3000M swim to start things off
2. Picked up my bike, tuned up and with its incredibly comfortable road fit at Sports Garage, the best bike store in Boulder
3. Had a great ride - did the 'Fruit Loops' ride, which I had never done before, in amazing weather! It was 60 degrees and I almost didn't need arm & knee warmers. The ride was so pretty too! I love riding in Boulder. 42 miles of awesome!
4. Talked to the guys at Colorado Multisport, the best tri bike store in Boulder, about a part time job there this summer. So exciting! I am hoping to start my move out of the world of IT someday, hopefully this will help me get there.
5. Got a delicious sandwich from Salvaggio's after my ride.
6. Came over to take care of Bodie and found out that I was selected to be on the MAO Elite Team!! I am so excited, this is a huge step for my triathlon dreams!
7. Went to a really fun party for my old tri club and met lots of cool people who are as obsessed with tris as I am.
I do not see how today could be any better, but I am going to get going for some breakfast and a run (going to try for 30 minutes and see how I feel). Then I will be aqua jogging, hopefully for close to the last time, and then doing a short swim. I love weekend workouts!
Posted by barb at 8:09 AM | Comments (0)
January 11, 2009
cat on my lap, off to the pool
I have a black cat on my lap right now. It is so strange, I always thought cats didn't really like people! The reason for this is that I moved in with my brother last weekend and he and his cats are back from their respective vacations (Scott was in Phoenix visiting his girlfriend and the cats were at my mom's). One of the cats seems to be obsessed with me. He is actually pretty cute even though generally I do not love cats! He likes to sit on my lap and bat me in the hands when I stop petting him. Right now I feel that he is giving me some blogging ideas, he is staring very intently at the screen. I think what he's trying to say is that you can learn a lot about approaching sports from cats.... yeah, I don't know what, though! Cats are not terribly sporty.
Anyway I have been having a great weekend overall, and a great trainig weekend, so far. My ankle still looks horrifying but it feels really good! I am not going to try running for several more days yet but I think my running days are not too far in the future - by next Sunday I think I'll be running 30 minutes. Yesterday I rode my trainer for 1:45 while watching America's Next Top Model and Scrubs, so that went by pretty quickly although my butt was sore when it was all over. Then I went to the gym and swam my 2000m workout for the week. That was really nice too, the outdoor pool was very quiet and I had it almost all to myself. My times are getting back in the realm of not being totally jacked up so that is a great feeling! It is the most frustrating to me to mess up my ankle, not be able to run, and have my swimming be back where it was last March when I started up again after a three month layoff. Luckily now I am mostly back to where I was before this sprain.
Today I am heading out to get a light pre-workout snack, and then I am off to the pool again for a long run/aqua jog. Luckily this week my long run's only an hour, that is totally doable! I might swim a bit also if I have time before I have to go to my mom's for our belated Hannukah celebration. I am very excited, I am getting an electric toothbrush which is going to make my life so much better!! Sometimes it is the simpler things in life that make us very excited. Have an awesome Sunday all!
Posted by barb at 7:53 AM | Comments (0)
January 8, 2009
Aqua Jogging Fun
Well I must have some somewhat rotten luck these days as I have sprained my second ankle in two months! I really should figure out how to put photos on my blog (or I guess I should get a digital camera and post photos on facebook), the bruising on my feet in the last two months has been pretty awesome! And by awesome I mean pretty gross.
I have lucked out this time as the last time I sprained an ankle I had to go on vacation (I know, poor me) and could not bike, aqua jog in a pool, or ice. At home I have many bicycles at my disposal and I can aqua jog to my heart's content! I was still super bummed when it happened as it did not seem fair to get two sprains in two months, and I will not lie - I did have a good cry over it! Sprained ankles can be very frustrating as I always seem to mess up the tendons on the inside of my ankle and that makes running difficult for a while. Even though I have always been a runner, it is actually not my strongest sport - for some reason I am a better cyclist than a runner! - so I get super worried about losing running fitness since I am not awesome at running to begin with. Luckily I have been aqua jogging for every run and it has not been too bad so far. I sprained it last Saturday and I think I'll be running again by next Saturday so that is not awful.
The weirdest thing about an ankle situation is how much it slows down my swimming! I did a tempo swim this morning and usually I can consistently swim 50's (meters) in about 50 seconds. Today I was struggling to hit 58 seconds! I do feel that my arms are getting stronger since I'm only kicking and pushing off with one leg. Ultimately maybe it will make me a faster swimmer!
I have not been up for updating my blog much since my latest injury since I am so annoyed but I am going to try to be better, what with the near year and all. I have some pretty exciting goals for this year, so hopefully I will be writing about some fun races!
One thing I did want to write about is that I did my first tempo ride on my very own trainer last night. I was so excited!! Not that a trainer is the most exciting purchase but I was pretty happy to have one of my very own. I put my heart rate monitor on my handle bars and cranked out a good amount of time at very close to my target heart rate which was a fun challenge. It made the time go by pretty quickly so that was nice!
And now I am off to get back on the trainer for an easy ride and to catch up on Cycle 11 of America's Next Top Model, how fun!
Posted by barb at 2:44 PM | Comments (1)