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May 31, 2009

Weekend Update

This has been such a fun weekend so far, and I actually have a few minutes to write in my blog which is surprising yet awesome! I am usually just running from place to place on the weekends so this is really nice and relaxing. The reason for my free time is that I only had a three hour ride yesterday so I rode before work, and today all I have to do is run and swim. It is awesome getting my ride out of the way on Saturday! It's getting nice and warm so I started the ride at 7:30 am and I didn't need arm or knee warmers. That is great for me because I hate wearing extra clothes and stuffing them in my jersey, I like my jersey to stay pretty empty so I look streamlined and FAST. Yeah I know, it's weird.

I had such a nice ride yesterday. Sometimes I love doing long rides on my own, I can go at my perfect pace and I hate stopping so I don't ever have to stop. In fact on the entire three hours (and six minutes, I can never time rides perfectly) I only clipped out twice! That was sweet. For some reason I never get bored riding on my own, I just think about random stuff. My brick run went really well too, I am starting to feel pretty normal running off the bike. It was probably 80 degrees when I ran which was hot! I am not really used to the summer heat yet, but in a few weeks 80 will seem cool. My bike computer is still annoying me by not working but I am going to replace another battery today and see if that works. If not I'll just get a new one, they aren't too expensive. I am so obsessed with speed and distance that it drove me nuts not to be able to see it yesterday.

This morning I ran for 1:55 (this was a timing issue, I was supposed to do 1:45 but I was about a mile away from home at that point, whoops!), which was really nice. It has been raining a ton so it's so green right now. I know it will only last a few weeks so I am trying to appreciate it while it lasts! After my run Matt made waffles (OMG they were so good!!) and I tried to figure out my swimming situation. I love my gym but on the weekends unless it's super early in the morning swimming outside is really annoying because there are so many kids playing in the pool. There's a whole other pool for them but they seem to like the lap pool, which drives me kind of crazy! I looked up the DU (University of Denver) pool and they had open swim all day and, the most exciting part, the pool was set up for Long Course! Oh boy. I have only swum in a 50 meter pool once since I started swimming. I had a 2000 straight swim main set so this could really help me today, 20 laps just seems way less crazy (and less hard to count) than 40! So I decided to give it a try. And let me tell you, it blew my mind!! I had a lane to myself the entire time. They gave me a free five-time pass to use. The pool was only 80 degrees which felt amazing. And long course is just the way to go! I think I may be in love. It was such a painless way to swim a 4000 - 40 laps instead of 80, way less flip turns, I did not exacerbate my wacky tan lines, overall it was just amazing! I am definitely going to have to figure out a way to go to the DU pool every once in a while.

The rest of the day has just flown by with teaching my brother's girlfriend to ride my old bike (I sold it to her so now I only own three bicycles which is really not that ridiculous), grocery shopping, hanging out with Bodie and her BFF Blizzard, and chatting with my BFF Betsy. It has been a great weekend and I know next weekend will be at least this awesome if not slightly more so, because next weekend is CAMP! Take it from me, you're never too old for summer camp :)

Posted by barb at 10:45 AM | Comments (1)

May 29, 2009

Gaugin

There is a cool quite from Paul Gaugin that I have hanging in my cube thanks to a co-worker who brought quote magnets back from a vacation. The quote is as follows:
'Go on working, freely and furiously, you will make progress.'

This quote is so me, I just love it and I look to it for inspiration at least once a day now. It kind of fits in with the tag line for my blog, which is something about hard work being awesome. I never really see my blog so I don't remember, and Alison set it up for me so long ago that it's pretty fuzzy! So long ago that when I read my 'about this blog' section, it is so funny. I was training for a marathon when I started the blog, working at the big five (consulting), traveling 100 percent, just in a very different place. Now I am an old hide (not really, but I think that's a funny expression), way more established career-wise, and obsessed with triathlon! Anyway, that was a bit of a digression, but I think what I have found is that though my external circumstances and even my sport of focus have changed quite a bit, the overall theme of my life in sport remains the same. It just has a fancy new quote from an artist!

I always say (and maybe I'm selling myself short here) that my talent isn't speed, it's the ability (and the durability in my body) to work really hard. I can focus and I can see really small gains and know that over time I'll get better and I'll push myself to the next level. This ties in with something I learned in college (almost 10 years ago, wow, that is weird), about freedom. I took a lot of philosophy and government classes and what we learned was that freedom isn't just 'negative', i.e. no one is telling me what to do, it's 'positive', meaning that freedom allows us to choose the right thing. That is a pretty basic explanation but it makes sense to me, and it's my blog, so there! I guess essentially what it means to me is that I am free to do what I want. This doesn't mean I can do whatever I want, it means I can rationally look at the options and pick what will make me better (and not make anyone else's life worse). Like doing tris, which is awesome!

And of course it's always good to have a cool new quote to motivate myself to work really hard.

So this week has been busy but not crazy. I have been swimming a lot - 5000 last night. I didn't think I would do the whole workout but I just got in the zone and spaced out and did it. In fact yesterday I did a backwards tri - I ran in the morning (speed workout, brutal but fun), rode at lunch (one hour easy, nice and mellow), and then did my long swim after work. Today I have had a really mellow day, all I've done is lifted. I will probably swim a bit after work just so I don't have to do it on Sunday.

I am having some bicycle drama, one of my bicycles has a flat. I do not think my new car stays too cool, every time it's over 70 degrees I get a flat from my wheel being in the car. I guess I'll have to start bringing my front wheel into the office when I have my bicycle here, although that is not terribly professional! The other bicycle has a dead computer, and I am obsessive about tracking speed and distance so I really need to fix it before I ride tomorrow. Luckily I have the battery I think I need, but I have not tested this theory so it is a bit nerve wracking! Ah, the wonderful life of a Type A personality. I am very much looking forward to riding without getting caught in a downpour tomorrow, hopefully Mother Nature will cooperate with me on that. Then it is off to the bike shop, then to my brother's for his birthday/graduation party (happy birthday bear!!!), and then out to dinner. It is going to be a busy but fun weekend, I cannot wait!!

Posted by barb at 8:35 AM | Comments (2)

May 25, 2009

busy long weekend, riding in the rain

There are probably two big themes for the Memorial Day weekend for me - busy and rainy! I could have sworn that my house (and the entire front range) was somehow moved to Seattle overnight on Friday night. I think I trained a pretty good amount, although today I probably did a bit less than I had planned to do. But I'm okay with it. I guess I'll just run through all the big activities, hopefully recapping everything won't make me too tired!

Saturday I got up and swam 850 meters. I had a little make-up swim to do from Friday morning, I was waiting for the Masters group to get out of the pool so I didn't have time to finish Friday's swim. Notably the 6 x 100 kicking, I am so slow at kicking! It is so weird. I feel like I have really strong legs but kick sets just make them ACHE! After my swim I headed up to Boulder and ran for 90 minutes at Teller Farms. It is a great trail just East of Boulder. It's really hilly and scenic. I had a great run! It was very humid so I got way more sweaty than normal. After the run I worked at the bike shop for about six hours. It was super busy and I sold a ton of wetsuits. I also bought a pair of tri shoes. Oh I am so excited to practice my flying mounts and dismounts now with my velcro shoes! They are so cool. Saturday night we had Mexican food and ice cream cones from McDonald's (random I know!).

Sunday I woke up around 7:00 and headed up to Boulder for a 9:00 am ride with some ladies from my cycling club. We rode from North Boulder to Allenspark, which is about 32 miles from Boulder (and up a canyon for about 20 of the 32 miles). It was so beautiful going up the canyon and it was really warm at first. However, when we got about seven miles from our turnaround spot in Allenspark, it started to rain and the temperature dropped probably 10 degrees. It was so humid that we would get sweaty and then the sweat would cool every time we stopped to regroup for the slower girls. I do like group rides but sometimes they are annoying because of the variety in speeds and the need to regroup a lot. But I am kind of insensitive to others' needs :) It rained a bunch while we were up in the hills but luckily on the descent it was pretty dry. I actually felt really good on the ride back US-36 back to Boulder, which was weird because it's really hilly (and mostly uphill) so it can be mentally demoralizing and annoying! My bike computer stopped working about 25 minutes into the ride - I think I need a new battery for the sensor - so I don't have an accurate ride time but I think I was out for about 4:20, which is just a little more than I was supposed to do. Oddly I felt fine on my brick run so I guess either I was totally out of it from the really long ride, or I fueled really well and I am getting fit! We are going to assume the latter because it is more awesome.

After the ride, I took a very long, very hot shower (I was freezing!) and went to a barbeque. Then we watched Forgetting Sarah Marshall. I think that movie is so funny! It is even better the second time.

Today I woke up at 6:30 and headed to the gym for an early swim. I wanted to get 4000 meters in but ran out of time before meeting friends for a ride so I just did 3500 meters. I figure I'll make up the extra 500 at some point this week (or possibly on Saturday in open water which would be fun). The swim was fun, it wasn't as crowded as it generally has been lately which was great. I headed to my friend Michelle's afterwards and we rode with our friend Sharon and a new lady we hadn't met. The ride was a little under two hours (I haven't gotten my bike computer fixed yet so I'm not sure what the distance was). I think between 32 and 35 miles. It did start raining about 1:20 into the ride, which was not too awesome. My shoes got soaked again and my butt really hurt! Rain and riding always lead me to chafing. After the ride I showered for a long time - sound familiar? - and headed out for lunch and errands with Matt and Michelle. I planned on running later today but I was just really tired and I knew I could fit it in later in the week so I decided there's no reason to push it.

And that was the long weekend! Tomorrow I am swimming, lifting, and doing my running speed workout (or my long run depending when I get done at work. Should be a good week, I love working four days! Hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend. Make sure to thank the veterans you know! Scott, Glenn, and Dad, thanks for serving our country!

Posted by barb at 7:01 PM | Comments (0)

May 21, 2009

Crazy Goals and Swimming with Sharks

I am totally fired up today so I thought it might be a good day to blog it out. And let me tell you why....

Yesterday the only time I could swim was after work. I hate swimming after work because the swim team at my gym (the Tiger Sharks, hence half of my post title) practices after work and although all the kids are at least 13 years younger than me and many of them are very small they make a lot of waves! I have also noticed generally that the side lanes in the pool are much more turbulent than the inner lanes, and the only lanes that are open during swim team practice are the two side lanes. Also, I have this fear and insecurity that the swim team coaches think I am a weirdo because they always see me in the pool swimming absurd distances at my not-awesome pace. However, yesterday I had no other time to swim so I did it. The kids actually all seem nice and they do not seem to mind me so I am always glad about that. I figure I am enough older than them for them to think I am an old person but not old enough to be creepy. Anyway I am digressing from the point of my story, so I am going to start a new paragraph and get back on track.

So I am swimming along just after my warmup and things are going well which is a huge relief. I took my friend Jen's advice (she is an amazing swimmer) and worked on my hip roll which made a big difference, I did not feel like a lumbering spaz and I was hitting some decent times. I was resting between sets (100's I believe) and I heard the head coach call out to the kids (these are the fast kids I think), 'Okay, 5 by 100 on the 1:30, all out. Go!!' I started my set as well and thought to myself, you know that sounds positively crazy to me. My all-time 100 meter PR is a 1:37. However, if you don't have crazy goals, how would you ever learn that you can do more than you thought you could? So I decided that someday I want to be able to swim 5 by 100 meters on the 1:30. This might not happen for years but now it is out there in my mind and more importantly on my blog which should keep me accountable! After I decided this of course I swam my 16 by 200 meters on the 4:00 but whatever man, I am working it out. I feel good. I was hungry during the swim which was a weird feeling. Basically right now I am hungry all the time, even when I have just had a meal! It's a good thing I have a huge food stash at work.

I am getting super excited for this weekend. It is going to be awesome on several levels. First of all it is a three day weekend which is totally cool. Secondly, I am having dinner with my high school BFF on Friday night. I have not seen her in almost 10 years! Crazy! Thirdly, I will be at the bike shop, I have not been in three weeks! I need to order wheels so that should be pretty exciting. My sweet new bicycle is going to look so awesome with its fancy race wheels. I also need shoes with only velcro so I can get my flying dismount going. On Sunday I think I'm going to ride to Allenspark which is a small town in the mountains northwest of Boulder. It should be really beautiful and different from my long ride standby of Carter Lake. I absolutely love Carter Lake but on Sunday I will have a change of scenery as well as girls to ride with, that will make the time go by fast! Then Monday I will swim, run, lift, and hopefully go to the park to practice flying mounts/dismounts.

Also, after this weekend that means two weeks till tri camp!!! Oh this is so exciting. I have been online friends with Beth for so long, I cannot wait to meet her in person. I also cannot wait for Luis to look at my stroke and to give me 500 things to work on so I can get that much closer to 5 by 100 on the 1:30. I know I can do it!

Posted by barb at 9:16 AM | Comments (1)

May 19, 2009

busy weekend, and i do not love swimming today

I swear, I do not know if it's having my whole family living in town or what but I seem to be way too busy and I do not understand why. Every weekend I am running from one thing to the next, waking up at 6:00 am, etc., etc. It is not really fun! Now that I am done whining, this past weekend was insanely busy but it was really fun as my BFF Betsy was in town, and it was my birthday weekend, which is the BEST! I absolutely love my birthday because I get to dictate exactly what happens and everyone gives me special treatment. Also, for the first time in a month or so, the weather did not turn crappy just because it was a weekend. So that was awesome, my brother's graduation ceremony was outside and it could have been pretty rough!

Due to birthday festivities and having Betsy in town I actually didn't train that much this weekend. Luckily I took Thursday off for my long ride, which I did with my MAO teammate Jen. She is great for me to ride with, she's just that much faster that it's a very good effort for me. We had a great day for our ride. I am definitely getting more comfortable with longer rides, which is great since I will be racing 56 miles later this year! This coming weekend I will have a four hour ride again, I am hoping to get over 70 miles. Wow, that is really far when I think about it! I was talking to Jen who is doing Kona because she is a totally awesome triathlete, and I really have no desire to do an Ironman. Especially doing MAO because that means 7 hour rides! That sounds so boring. The only cool thing about it is that if you started far enough north you could ride to another state and back!

This weekend's training, such as it was, included my running speed workout which was fun. It was somewhat strange because I ran at a high school by my house in Wash Park and there were all these pee-wee football kids staring at me the whole time. Nothing like an audience! I tried to not puke in front of them. I also ran 30 minutes easy and swam 4000 meters. The pool was so crazy, I went Sunday afternoon and had to share a lane the entire time because so many people were playing in the pool. There was a lot to look at which was nice!

Yesterday I ran 30 minutes easy, lifted, and rode for 2:15. It was really warm and really windy when I rode but I had a great time. I rode by a pond where we usually do open water swimming and kind of got the itch to start going, although I think the water will be pretty chilly for a few more weeks and my open water swimming buddy has an injured shoulder. I am planning to upgrade my wetsuit this year so I am stoked to get out there with a sweet new wetsuit. Oh it is so exciting that summer and racing season are upon us! I am definitely getting the itch to race a tri.

This morning caused me to not love swimming for the day, hence the second part of my entry title. I do not know what is up with my swimming but I am so slow the last few weeks! I think it may be the volume, so I am pretty excited that this week is a cutback week. The volume in MAO for swimming is pretty insane for a non-swimmer, it is tough not to get burnt out. However, after today I am going to re-focus and use this week to work on my form and technique since I don't have to worry about being in the pool for hours and hours. If I still feel awful in a week or two, I will probably either go up to the Masters group my coach does on Thursdays or I will suck it up until tri camp which is in just over two weeks. Hopefully my coach will not be too horrified by my rookie technique!

Later on today I have a speed bike workout and then I am going downtown to pick up Betsy (she's still here as she has a conference) and we are going to have sushi. Oh I am so excited! Sushi is the best. That is about all that's going on now, I will try to update more frequently this week!

Posted by barb at 8:36 AM | Comments (0)

May 13, 2009

Expectations

I have thought a lot about last weekend's race (you might use the term 'obsessed', but what can I say, that is just the joy of my personality), and I have decided it all comes down to expectations. Last year was really my first year of triathlon (after dabbling while marathon training in 2007), and it was an amazing year. I PRed in every race I competed in. I was improving so much, and I think I got used to it and decided somewhere in my mind that every race should lead to a PR. I am also on an incredible team this year with a bunch of great athletes, and for a lot of my teammates overall placing is par for the course. In general I think in sports and in life having high expectations can lead to great results. However, sometimes I get carried away and start to have expectations that are too high - in the end, this should be fun, and I should leave races feeling good, not disappointed. So therefore after the race I am taking a step back and re-evaluating my expectations a bit. I am not going to shoot for middle of the pack or anything crazy, but I am going to take the pressure off a bit and have more fun.

So what has 'have more fun' meant so far this week? Well, I will break it down.

Monday - 4000m moderate swim, 2 hour long run, lifting. This was a lot of training (for some reason 2 hours running is so much more draining than 2 hours on the bike), but it was fun and it was a beautiful day!
Tuesday - 3500m speed swim, speed bike workout (about 20 miles). The bike workout was crazy! It was SO WINDY and HOT. I was going 16 MPH with my heart rate at 180 because of the wind. It was a good, challenging workout though! The wind did not piss me off until I was riding my cooldown 100% into the wind and I was so tired!
Today - I have not done any training yet, I opted for more sleep rather than a morning workout (I have to get into work really early this week, I would have had to get up around 5:30 which I do not love). However, my plan is a moderate run at lunch and a moderate 2 hour ride after work. It's not supposed to be as hot or as windy as it was yesterday so that should be awesome!

All in all I think my positive, upbeat attitude is back, so with that I say have an awesome day!!

Posted by barb at 8:00 AM | Comments (2)

May 11, 2009

Barking Dog Duathlon - The Race Report

I am kind of annoyed with this race but I thought it would be a good exercise to write a full race report, if only so that I can reflect on the race and hopefully do better next time. Luckily this was a C- race at best so I am not too fussed about it. And it was fun and a good experience and I met some nice girls which is always good. So here is the report, enjoy!

I woke up at 5:00 am - brutal! Luckily there was no traffic and there was an open Starbucks on the way to the race which was sweet. I love having a big strong cup of coffee before a race. I got to the race really early, maybe like 5:35, which was good because I got a nice spot in transition right by the bike in/out. Since I don't do the flying mount/dismount I like to lessen the amount of time/distance I spend running around in bike shoes. I got everything set up and then went to the bathroom and met my mom and stepdad, who came to my race. They took pictures so I will make Beth help me post them here in a few weeks :) I chatted with them for a bit and then ran about 10:00 as a warmup. The weather was WAY better than forecasted so I debated clothes and decided to wear my race kit (which is AWESOME by the way, thank you Kiwami!!) with arm warmers. I think that was a good call. I made my way to the starting line and off we went.

Run 1 - 5k, 20:21 (6:34 pace)
Oh no, this was bad. I went out way too fast, my first mile was 6:15. This is where obsessing over last year's results is a very bad idea. I thought I would easily win my age group because last year the winner finished in 1:44. So when two girls went out ahead of me I decided I had to chase them down and pass them. I felt decent throughout but this pace is way too fast for me right now at the beginning of a reasonably long race. However, as I suspected this was a post-college 5k PR so that is sweet! I really want to enter an open 5k and try to go under 20:00 for the first time since I was 19.

T1 - 1:03
My transitions were not good in this race. I could have gotten third in my age group had they been closer to the times of the other girls who finished right around me. I think I was just nervous and out of practice. So I am glad I practiced at an unimportant race!

The Bike - 18 miles, 49:07 (22 MPH)
I am actually pretty happy about this split. 22 MPH does not blow my mind after last year but it is early in the year and this is definitely a harder course than the course for the sprint I always do in June. There are two pretty sizable hills and it was also pretty windy in spots. I traded first in the age group with two other girls for the majority of the time until Katie (who is very nice!) passed me for good around mile 16. She is looking very strong so far this year.

T2 - 1:01
I guess at least I'm consistent!

Run 2 - 5k, 23:14 (7:30 pace)
As you can see this is where the wheels really came off. I felt positively busted and when I was passed at mile 2.9 I could not react at all which was really frustrating. However, I have learned that my coach was absolutely right when he said I should go out controlled in the first 5k because that made my legs hurt a lot, and it definitely slowed me down here.

Total time - 1:34:44, 4th F30-34
I think after last year I have higher expectations and fourth in my age group does not make me feel great. However, I cannot expect every race to be perfect and this race was a good experience and a good way to practice transitions and to get my feet wet with racing for this year. I haven't decided if I want to compete in any more duathlons this year (or ever right now!), but I definitely feel like I am more fit than I expected to be at this time in the year, and I think I am headed towards a solid year of competition. I know I have a lot of room to improve on the bike and the run but I feel really good about where I'm starting out this year. So it is onwards and upwards from here!

Posted by barb at 2:01 PM | Comments (2)

May 9, 2009

my first duathlon - in the pain zone

OMG duathlons are so hard. I do not think I like them! There were some good and bad things about this morning's race, though - it was not all bad stuff. Here is a short race report, I will add final splits when they are posted in a day or two.

Overall I finished in 1:34:something. So that is not that bad - my first 5k was just over 20:00 (I may have busted out my fastest 5k since sophomore year of college, so that is good); my bike was just under 50:00 I believe for around 22 MPH on a hilly, windy course; my second 5k was just plain busted at around 23:00. Basically my legs felt awful after the first 5k which, given the speed of the run and my overall lack of sharpness, is to be expected. I think I got fourth in my age group which was pretty disappointing. However, I think I learned a lot about how to race a duathlon (if I choose to do one again!). So that is awesome. And it was a great workout so that's cool too.

After the race I was positively shattered and had to call in sick at the bike shop and take to my bed for several hours. I think my electrolytes may have gotten out of whack or something because I was a mess and I could barely walk, much less take a shower and drive to Boulder. I did get out of bed and go buy a cute new running outfit to drown my sorrows about the race and feeling like crap in the fact that I finally had time to buy more running shorts, of which I was in desperate need.

Overall it was a fun race and I met some really nice girls with whom I battled for quite a while. I may even get together with one of them for a ride which would be super fun. I am really glad I got the experience even though I don't feel totally awesome about my performance. And now I am PUMPED UP for the season!! I can't wait to go into a race feeling fit, sharp, and fast. Watch out, 30-34s, I'm fired up now! :)

Posted by barb at 6:48 PM | Comments (1)

May 6, 2009

race jitters!!

OMG I am so nervous for this weekend! I emailed my coach saying all kinds of stuff like 'blah blah, just started speed workouts, not sharp, etc., etc.,' hoping he would say 'oh I agree, you should focus on building your speed and bail on the race'. Sadly (or not I guess, depending on your opinion) that is not what he said! He said DO IT! And he said I don't care if it's a D race for you, you must taper! Oh yuck. I was so annoyed by myself for asking and for knowing that I will do what my coach says because I am a first child and we like to follow rules and listen to authority figures. I did make one compromise however. Early this year in a fit of pique I signed up for the elite division because I thought it would be cool to win some money. I am so not ready for that right now, and there were only five girls in that division two of which I knew would destroy me and one of which I knew would give me a run for my money. I think I should be able to easily win my age group unless there is someone really awesome in it so I did switch from the elite division to the F30-34 age group. I figure if it goes really well I can always switch back for the next one in the series, but right now I do not want the added pressure of starting out with a bunch of fast women (and with the elite men, yikes!) for my first race of the year.

So now I am in a fit of nerves and I wish I had learned my flying mount/dismount sooner, whoops! I am excited to see what I can do on my new bicycle though! I am also somewhat relieved, due to my three day taper I have dodged the bullet on doing my first 5000 meter swim. Hooray!

The only other exciting things I have had going this week are paddles and my long run. The first thing is that I had never used paddles until I got some for free from my team. I love being sponsored by TYR, they are my favorite! It always seemed like only 'real' swimmers used paddles and I was somewhat nervous to use mine because I know one person who used paddles once and tore something in her shoulder. However, I tried mine out on Monday and they were super cool and fun to use! They do make you feel weird though once you take them off, like how in the heck am I even making it down the length of the pool with my TINY hands!! I do think they will help me develop shoulder strength which is great.

Also, I busted out my long run Monday evening and I can definitely see the gains from starting my speed workouts and from all this heart rate training. I was very relieved to see my miles ranging from 9:00 pace to 9:45 instead of my old 11:00 pace very early this season. It felt good to know my heart rate was under control and I was running a reasonable pace!

I did have my second speed bike workout of the year yesterday as well, I guess that is somewhat noteworthy. It was SO HARD but SO FUN! My friend Chris is now my speed workout coach, he is totally awesome. He times me and encourages me but he does not let me draft so that is perfect. I am getting way more comfortable in the aero bars on my tri bike which is great too! In spite of the wind I stayed in the aero bars for the entirety of each interval so I was totally psyched.

That is all for today, I am off to a meeting!

Posted by barb at 9:33 AM | Comments (2)

May 4, 2009

Bicycle Mileage PR, and some sick April totals

What can I say, I am in a braggy mood today. I hope it is not too annoying! Anyway I had a totally awesome April and I tracked my totals of everything for once so I thought I would share them. I also busted out a bicycle mileage PR yesterday which I will write about in a minute.

Here is the April damage:
Running - 132 Miles
Cycling - 561.5 Miles (this is kind of an estimate because of some trainer time. I think I estimated 15 MPH for trainer mileage)
Swimming - 59,500 meters (37.18 miles)
Lifting - 9 sessions

Holy cats, man. That is a lot of training! No wonder I am finally dropping my winter weight like it's my job. Which is great except I bought some really cute jeans this winter and now they are kind of baggy! I did find this an interesting exercise, although it was time consuming so I don't think I'll do it again for a while. I was surprised by how low my running mileage really is - but it seems like cycling and running are so complimentary that I don't really need to spend a ton of time running to maintain and even gain fitness. The whole triathlete thing makes me reconsider how I would train for a marathon if I ever did that again (yeah, right! I hate marathons!). I definitely think I would run less and cross-train more. However, now that I have invested many thousands of dollars in triathlon I do not think I'll be giving it up any time soon anyway!

So April was very busy and tiring. It is rough having two jobs. However, the bike shop is super fun so I am working it out, and the benefits are great. One thing I still really need to learn is flying mounts and dismounts. If I am going to be on the elite team I need to get on that! No fancy P3 and fancy team racing kit with ghetto old transitions, man. My bike shop boss is going to teach me, hopefully I can convince him to do it this weekend so I have time to practice! Oh I am excited. For some reason I have always thought the flying mount/dismount looked so cool. Now if I can just learn it without crashing!

So back to yesterday. I had a 4 hour ride/30 minute run brick on the schedule so I knew I would set a distance PR. I was super excited and also nervous about the weather. We have had Seattle-like conditions almost every weekend day for a month - cold and rainy. That is very bad weather for cycling! Take it from me, you do not want to ride for a really long time in that kind of weather. Luckily the Saturday weather has been consistently worse than the Sunday weather. I totally lucked out yesterday, it was windy but in the high 50s and fairly sunny. I rode from downtown Boulder to Carter Lake and back which was 67 miles! Hooray!! I was pretty excited although I cannot lie, the last 30 minutes were a bit of a death march. Considering that you would think my run totally sucked but actually it was fine. I think I was going really slow but I don't care about speed, I just needed to get the time on my legs. After the run it was pretty warm in Boulder which was awesome, so I drank a million gallons of water and soaked my legs in Boulder Creek for a natural ice bath. It felt amazing! I did get pretty cold when I got in up to my shorts but I stayed in for ten minutes. I think it was a really good idea because my legs feel fine today.

In other news I just looked at this duathlon series web site and realized I am supposed to race a duathlon this Saturday! Um, whoops! I am going to email my coach about it. I kind of want to do it but I am a weather weenie so if it's freezing again I probably won't. That will be a good chance to practice my sweet new skills!

Posted by barb at 8:22 AM | Comments (0)

May 1, 2009

Three down...

I am happy to say that it is Friday morning and I have done all three of my speed workouts (run, bike, swim) for the week. And my whole body hurts! Right now I would say the worst of it is in my butt and my calves. I am not used to running hard at all! Yesterday evening I had a 2:15 ride and it was pretty rough getting started, I was just sore and tired. And it was windy. Of course that is nothing new, spring is the season of allergies and wind in Colorado! It is also apparently the buggy season on the Platte River Trail, which is the main trail I can ride to from my house. I keep narrowly avoiding swallowing them. But at least I haven't accidentally had a buggy snack yet! Once things got moving I actually had a pretty nice ride and I was very glad I got out there, the weather is going to deteriorate over the day today so I wouldn't want to do it tomorrow.

I had my first speed swim workout yesterday and oh my word it was hard. I was so not used to swimming hard, so I had a snack right before I got in and I kept worrying that I would be that girl who puked in the pool and caused them to close it for a day. That would be so mortifying that I was able to keep everything down! I had been feeling pretty slow in the water recently so I was worried but it ended up being a good workout - tying my PRs in the 50s and managing some pretty solid 100 splits as well. It is funny, this whole week has taught me to trust my coaches. Not that I didn't trust them before, but I would wonder, is all this crappy tempo training really going to help me? Am I going to be really slow this year because I never run/ride/swim fast? Um, I think they tell me to do it this way for a reason! I feel fresh because I didn't beat my body up all winter, and I am just as fast as I was last June. If not faster on the bike and in the pool. So take it from me, people - trust your coach!

It is drizzly and cold today, which is not great weather for a ride but it's nice for running, so I will be getting out for my long run later on. It is short today - only 80 minutes - so it should be a nice way to decompress from the week! With that I am back to the grind.

Posted by barb at 8:37 AM | Comments (1)