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October 31, 2006

Riding Outside

It was 60 degrees this afternoon! Yipppeeeee! It also happened to be raining but I couldn't squander the warm weather so coach and I rode outside today. It was delightful. Makes me miss summer and summer is so far away!

We only rode for about 1:15, hard at times, easy at others. He just got a new bike (a BMC just like mine!) so he was testing it out. It was spitting at first, raining harder in the middle and then spitting again at the end. I was cold when it was all said and done but only because I was wet. Great ride. Probably the best I've felt cycling since my last race. The trainer just isn't the same thing (much like how the treadmill sucks)!

Afterwards I took a shower and then hung out in the shop until my pilates class (which is right down the road). The shop is a good place to hang out. Cool triathlete people come in all the time. This evening a guy doing IM Florida was in to get some Zipp wheels on his bike and get things all packed up for him to fly out tomorrow. It's his first IM and only his 2nd triathlon ever. Talk about guts! And then some guy came in and bought a pimped out 5 grand Orbea tri bike! Kind of crazy how people just do that. Although I'm sure he put some thought into it beforehand.

Anyway, my pilates class was good tonight. There was a different instructor and she made things harder but she said I had nice abductors (or something like that) so I like her. :) I really hope putting the time into pilates will make a difference for my core and keep me healthier overall.

Hope everyone has a great night! :)

Posted by beth at 8:16 PM | Comments (0)

October 30, 2006

Confessions

So I have a bit of a confession to make. I was cranky last night. (no pun intended kranky!) Along with being fed up with school (and being a big baby about it), feeling overwhelmed with all the "stuff" I have to do, etc... I got my workouts and the cloud of doubt rolled in. You see for the first time I think I realized that I may work really, really hard and still not be able to get my pro card. And I started to wonder if I really could do the training and whether I had what it took. I wondered just who exactly I thought I was, thinking I could compete at a high enough level to accomplish the goals I set out to accomplish. Frustrated for sure.

But now with a clearer mind I talked myself out of the tree today. During my swim and then during my run this evening I reassured myself that yes, this is going to be hard. Yes, O and I are going to have to make sacrificies to make this dream come true. Yes, it may be that I work really, really, really hard - harder than I ever have - and I still might not be able to get my pro card. BUT that doesn't mean I shouldn't try anyway. None of that means anything in fact. What I need to do is take one day at a time, one swim, one run, one ride at a time. I need to RELAX and enjoy the ride. I need to trust in my coach, in the training, in myself and my abilities and most of all in the plan God has for me.

I'm sure this won't be the last time I get all high strung and wigged out. I have that tendency. But then I'll remind myself of all the things I need to remind myself of and it will be okay.

One thing's for sure though - Corrado knows just what a gal needs! I appreciate the encouragement for sure (and no, I'm not fishing for more... :)

As for today, well, it was a much better day. I started things off with a swim. I can honestly say that I really like Monday masters swim practices. Yes, it's freezing cold outside, yes it's 5:45 in the morning, yes it's long intervals but it's a great way to start the week off.

AM swim workout:
3600 meters total (900 meters warmup, 300 meters cooldown)

400 meters moderate on 7:30
4x100 on 1:50
400 meters moderate on 7:30
2x200 on 3:30
400 meters moderate on 7:30
1x400

The idea was to pick a "tough" pace to swim for the 100s, 200s and the last 400 and to keep that pace constant. I decided upon 1:30. I knew I'd be able to do the 100s and 200s at 1:30 pace but the 400 was going to be rough. I lead my group which I don't mind other than the fact that that's a lot of serious addition and subtraction at early morning hours. :)

Anyway my 100s were all in 1:28-1:30 and my 200s were in 2:55 and 3 min even. So far so good. My strategy for the 400 was to go through the 200 in a little faster pace so that I had some cushion, the exact strategy I sometimes employ during mile repeats on the track. All was working according to plan until I apparently fell asleep during the next 100 and ended up needing to swim a 1:28 last 100 to finish in 6 minutes even. What's up with that? It was fine though. I'm not saying I didn't have to work hard but I finished in 6 minutes flat. Whew. :)

I rushed home after work to try and get to my favorite trail early enough so that I could get my 10 mile run in before it got pitch dark. I somewhat succeeded - my last mile was moonlit but otherwise all was good. It was a great run. Just me and my iPod and my thoughts. Very theraputic. I ran out to the 5 mile marker in 37:30 and back in 36:30 but because I'm anal and wanted the full 1:15 that I was supposed to do, I added on. :)

And that's that. Such is the life of the rich and famous. :)

Posted by beth at 7:44 PM | Comments (1)

October 29, 2006

Sadness is...

...realizing that it gets dark at 5:45 pm now and it will only get worse.
...realizing that my runs are going to be in the dark for some time to come.
...realizing that I better study now for my exam this week or I'm screwed, but REALLY not wanting to study.

I got my workouts for the week. I'm scared. It's a big running week which is hard because we all know how running beats you up. I'm guessing it will be >30 MPW which sounds really weak but add in 100 miles of cycling and 10K of swimming, pilates, plyos, etc... Nevertheless this is what I wanted and these are the goals I've set for myself - I can't get all wimpy now. Nobody told me it would be easy, nobody said they were going to hold my hand, and nobody can do the work for me, including my coach. When I questioned him about my swim workouts Wednesday and Friday he replied something to the effect of "no you don't have to do them that way but if you want to be a pro you do." Ouch. But point well taken. To that I say - bring it on!

Did you ever realize that the Red Hot Chili Peppers sing an amazing amount of songs that are very good to run/cycle to? When I was working in the shop today the XM was on some sort of rock/alternative station and I kept hearing their songs and I've decided their beat is just perfect. Something to keep me occupied on my iPod while I'm running my cold, dark miles and cycling my trainer into the ground. If only I could swim with my iPod too... :)

Hope everyone has a great start to their week!

Posted by beth at 6:29 PM | Comments (3)

Happiness is...

...an extra hour of sleep! I vote that we do that EVERY night. There may be far fewer days in the year and it may be pitch dark at 1 pm in the afternoon but we'd all be so much more rested and happier! Who's with me on this one?!?!

Posted by beth at 7:34 AM | Comments (0)

October 28, 2006

Nasty Stuff

I could really do without the 36 degrees and raining type weather. If you ask me that's about the worst it can get. I would much rather have 30 degrees and snowing. Did I mention the 50 MPH gusts of wind? Yeah - nice stuff.

Regardless it was a good day; although the nasty weather did force us inside for the team ride this morning. There was only about 5 of us and we all rode around the big tv and did a Spinervals workout for 70 minutes. I (along with a couple of the other guys) added on 50 minutes afterwards to get to 2 hours total. The extra 50 minutes was all high cadence spinning but I did manage to keep my HR up in the 160s. That's hard to do on the trainer. After that I tried riding on the new rollers. In case you don't already know, rollers are another training tool (similar to trainers) that allow you to ride your bike inside, but the big difference is that on rollers only your own balance keeps you upright. Much more difficult than a normal trainer and so therefore the idea is that it helps to build your core strength in addition to getting a ride in. Anyway, they were fun and not as hard to do as I thought they would be, although I was only on there for about 5 minutes. I'll have to try a full workout on the rollers next week and see how "easy" I think it is. :)

I also did another plyometric workout tonight - more skipping and jumping and hopping. One legged hopping for height is extremely hard and very fatiguing!

And that's my boring report on the day. :) In other news I found two (yes, that's right TWO) pair of jeans that fit me today! I wasn't really jean shopping per se but in our travels throughout the day I spotted some good deals. Good fitting jeans are very hard to find. Big quads, small waist, short legs. It's a bad combination my friends, a very bad, bad combination.

Alas, the summary for the week:

Sunday - off
Monday - 4000 meter swim w/100,200,300,400,500,400,300,200,100 in AM, 10 mile run w/3 miles hard in PM, 2x25 pushups, 2x100 crunchers
Tuesday - 1:15 ride on the trainer, 1 hour pilates class
Wednesday - 2000 yd swim w/1000 yd TT in AM, 11 mile run w/30 min tempo at end in PM
Thursday - 3300 meter swim w/16x150 in AM, 45 min plyo workout at lunch time
Friday - 5 mile run in AM, core and feet exercises
Saturday - 2 hour trainer ride in AM, 40 min core/plyo workout in PM
Sunday - OFF!

Posted by beth at 9:49 PM | Comments (2)

October 27, 2006

Happy Friday

Oh yeah - it's Friday. I cannot tell you how relieved I am!

38 minute run this morning with 6x20 second striders thrown in, in the dark of the night. I felt like I was on a morning run at Penn State. Fall leaves and cool, crisp air. Feeling good running. The only thing missing was the people wondering home from a drunken Thursday night of partying. Saw a lot of those at PSU and I did my morning runs at like 6 AM. :)

And that's it for the day. I hope everyone has a wonderful day and a wonderful weekend!

Posted by beth at 10:26 AM | Comments (0)

October 26, 2006

Done for the Day!

I'm happy to report that it's not yet 2 pm and I'm done with my workouts for the day. Good thing since I have class tonight and doing a workout after class is just no fun.

This morning I went to the masters swim practice and was delighted to see that the pool was still set up long course. I love the 50 meter pool so much more than the 25 yarder. I thought the pool was only long course on Mondays in the fall but apparently that is not the case! Good stuff!

AM swim workout:
3300 meters total (600 meters warmup, 300 meters cooldown)
16x150 meters done as 4 sets of 4

How the 150s were done is hard to explain but I'll try anyway. Not that anyone cares but it's a good reminder to me if I'm looking for a workout to do on my own at some later date. The first 50 of each 150 was done as distance for stroke. The 100s in each set were done progressively faster such that the last one was pretty much all out (meaning there were 4 "all-out" 100s). For the first 150 there was no rest between the 50 and the 100, for the 2nd there was a 10 sec rest, for the 3rd a 20 sec rest and for the 4th a 30 sec rest. Yeah - none of that really makes sense but in a nutshell the workout was 150s were you progressively got more rest but had to swim harder. Or something like that...

Regardless it was a good workout and on my last 100 meter "all-out" I swam a 1:22 which is good for me, especially with tired arms.

Moving on - I also had a plyometric type workout to do which I believe is serving as a precursor to some weight lifting. Because I had class tonight I was hoping it would work out so that I could go during my lunch hour and NOT have to do it tonight at 8 pm after class. It was my lucky day because I did indeed have time to get it done.

20 minute easy warmup on elliptical
jumping rope - 3x50 jumps quickly w/45 sec rests
skipping - 5x50 skips quickly w/45 sec rests
hopping for height - 4x30 hops w/45 sec rests
10 minute easy cooldown on bike

I haven't done plyo stuff like that for quite a while - since college I guess. I'm wondering if that hopping is going to make me sore. It may. The standing long jump in the President's physical fitness test ALWAYS made my quads very sore...

And now it's time to get back to work, go to class, go home and go to sleep! :)

Posted by beth at 1:47 PM | Comments (0)

October 25, 2006

Time Trial + Tempo = Tired Triathlete

How about that math?!

I'm beat. This usually happens on Wednesdays. The weekend seems long ago but there are still 2 more days of work, class and lots of training to go before the new weekend begins. But this is my last full week of work and for that I am VERY excited. I have actually been working at the shop every Sunday for the past several months so by working 4 days at the hospital and 1 day at the shop I'll be back to normal in terms of working hours. CAN. NOT. WAIT.

This morning I had a little time trial action at the pool - 1000 yds to be exact. I've done two other 1000 time trials but they were both in 50 meter pools so I can't really compare the times. Just from estimating, I'd say this morning was faster, but you know how those types of things go...

AM swim workout:
2000 yds total at YMCA (400 yds warmup, 600 yds cooldown)
1000 yd time trial - GOAL = 14:10 (1:25/100 yd), ACTUAL = 13:51 - (1:23/100 yd)

I think my swimming is getting there. Coach told me next time the goal is 13:30. I may have to learn how to do flip turns to get down to 1:20/100 yd pace. :)

Work was good although there was more than one occasion when I'm fairly certain I fell asleep mid chart review. Luckily I wasn't busy and I had time to do my homework that is due in class tomorrow. Yeah, yeah, I know I promised I would do my homework on the weekend so I didn't leave it to the last minute but that promise didn't last very long. I swear I used to be a good student and have all my assignments done far in advance... :)

PM run workout:

I've been looking forward to all my runs since I've been feeling so good. Tonight was no exception. And it was even warm enough to wear shorts (kind of). I actually questioned the shorts decision for about 3 miles before I warmed up.

1:20 total run with the first 50 minutes easy in zone 1 and 2 (about 7:20-7:40 pace) and the last 30 minutes "up-tempo" in zone 3. During that last 30 minutes I timed 4 different miles at 6:46, 6:47, 6:45 and 6:45. How about that for consistency?! I'm pleased with the effort, mostly because it wasn't too hard and my average HR was right in the middle of zone 3. My running has come a long way since the spring and even the summer, I'll say that much.

Regardless, the run was 11+ miles, putting my run mileage higher than my cycling mileage for the week. Real weak.

Alas, the laundry is calling, as is my bed. Good night all!

Posted by beth at 8:25 PM | Comments (1)

October 24, 2006

Meet My Friend - Mr. Trainer

Mr. Trainer and I will likely be spending lots of time together this winter. Why? I'm a big baby when it comes to riding outside when it's cold. And I haven't even been riding that long when it's actually cold outside - but I can tell already cycling in sub 40 degree weather = lots of complaining on my end. Consider yourself warned. :)

So yeah - today it was windy and cold and gray and I choose to ride inside at the shop while watching 48 Hours Mystery and then Around the Horn. This isn't that bad of an option of course, except for the fact that riding on the trainer isn't nearly as hard as a good training ride outside. Or perhaps I should say, it's very difficult to push yourself that hard on the trainer. Case in point - today's ride. I was to ride 1:15 with 50% of the ride in HR zone 2. And let me tell you - I had a very hard time staying up in zone 2! Imagine if I had to ride in zone 3 or 4 or (gasp!) zone 5! Meanwhile, if I were riding outside I could easily sustain zone 3 and get myself all jacked up in zone 4 or 5 on a hill. Sigh. I guess I either have to toughen up or...well...okay, my only option is to toughen up. Double sigh. :)

Either way, it was a good ride. I rode 25 minutes easy in my small chain ring and then 45 minutes in my big chain ring trying desperately to hold onto a zone 2 HR. I managed to average a HR of 149 during those 45 minutes - the very lowest HR in my zone 2. Whew! I finished with 5 minutes easy in my small chain ring (1:15 total) and then called it a day.

Then I went to my pilates class. I really like pilates. I'm talking some serious core work. And judging by how hard some of these exercises are, I'd have to say my core is very weak!

Tomorrow some swimming and more running. Also up this week - the start of some lifting. It's actually just plyometric type stuff at first but I think it will eventually become lifting. All in good time I suppose, all in good time...

Posted by beth at 9:09 PM | Comments (0)

October 23, 2006

New PR

Alison inspired me to PR in something since she's been doing so much PRing herself. This morning was my morning - a new PR in total distance swam in a workout: 4000 meters.

It almost didn't happen. Why you might ask? I was so cold this morning I was convinced I'd never be able to jump into the pool. When I finally did jump in it felt like ice. I'm still cold. Talk to me in June - I might be warm by then. :)

AM swim workout:

4000 meters total (1000 meters warmup, 500 meters cooldown)
100 (on 1:50), 200 (on 4), 300 (on 5:15), 400 (on 8), 500 (on 8:20), 400 (on 8), 300 (on 5:15), 200 (on 4) and 100 (on 1:50).

The 200s and 400s were obviously just on an easy interval. The 100s, 300s and 500 were on a 1:50, 1:45 and 1:40 base respectively. I was kind of caught in between groups this morning. The lane faster than me was working off a 1:35, 1:30 and 1:25 base for the hard ones and I was pretty sure that would kill me. I never would have made the 500 on 1:25/100 meter pace. But the group I was in was probably a little on the slow side. I altered the workout some though so it all worked out.

Work was work. Mondays are rough. This is my last full week as a full time employee - next week will be my first as "casual" which basically means I make my schedule how I want it. That will mean 4 days/week of working for now, maybe more like 3 days/week in the summer. I CANNOT wait. Big happy hour planned on Friday to celebrate where indeed I will be extremely happy. :)

PM running workout:

10 miles total as:
2 miles easy (15:22)
1 mile hard (6:31)
2 miles easy (15:08)
1 mile hard (6:21)
2 miles easy (14:42)
1 mile hard (6:16)
1 mile easy cooldown (7:45)

I ran out and back on my favorite trail. It was a great run. It's amazing how much easier 7:15-7:30 pace feels when you just ran a 6:20 mile. Hmm...that may just be the point. Regardless it was FREEZING outside today! I'm talking windchill of 30 and flurries in the air. I had to break down and wear tights. Yes, that's right Barb, tights. I also wore a short sleeve, long sleeve and windbreaker AND gloves and a winter hat. What. The. Heck. No good for this type of thing to happen in October?!?! What's going to happen in January then? Humpf!

So yeah, pretty big day for me - 4000 meters in the pool, 10 miles on the roads. Notice there is no mention of cycling. Still trying to recover from the beat down I took on Saturday. :)

Good night all!

Posted by beth at 9:19 PM | Comments (2)

October 21, 2006

Beat Down

So um yeah...I just got back from a beat down. A severe beat down. Ouch.

This morning I went to our team ride and although I expected to be in a world of hurt since I haven't actually ridden my bike hard in a while, I didn't expect to get absolutely killed.

We started with a very easy 5 miles as a memorial ride for our teammate Russ that was killed last month. It was very nice. Lots of other riders from other teams in the area came in addition to Russ's family. Very touching and sad. Death is painful no matter what but it seems so much worse when someone is taken prematurely. It was nice to talk with his family again though and great for them to see so many people out to honor him. Such a testament to the kind of guy he was.

After the easy 5 miles we regrouped at the shop and the hammerfest began. Because some riders from other teams were there the egos were all out and from the get go I knew I was going to be in trouble. I just haven't riden hard enough lately to be able to sustain that kind of pace! Nevertheless I hung on for about 15 miles or so and then got dropped with a capital D. And the problem was I wasn't entirely sure where this particular course went. I turned around in hopes of finding someone to ride with who knew where they were going but a lot of other people had already turned around too. Humpf.

At that point I just rode by myself, added on a loop, didn't ride too hard or too easy, etc... My legs were kind of toast from what I had just done to them for the first 15 miles so I was not riding too fast, but I got 'er done and finished up the day with about 42 miles. I'll take it. I'm hoping next week's Saturday ride won't be as brutal which I'm sure it won't because there will be less testosterone and more reason (I pray).

As painful as it was it was kind of nice to do something hard again on the bike. My running and swimming have been going great but I knew the cycling was taking a hit by me just doing easy trainer rides. I really don't mind though. At this point last year I didn't really even know how to ride a bike let alone be able to ride it 40+ miles!

And so now I'm at home and am supposed to be doing homework. Surprise, surprise, I'm blogging instead! O and I are going to a wedding tonight. Better rest up - I have some serious dancing to do!! Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Summary for the week:

Sunday - off
Monday - 3500 meter swim w/6x400 in AM, 9 mile run in PM, 2x25 pushups/2x100 crunchers
Tuesday - 1:45 easy spinning on the trainer, 1 hour pilates class
Wednesday - 3200 yds swim w/20x100 in AM, 1:35 easy spinning on the trainer in PM
Thursday - 6.5 mile run, core/feet exercises
Friday - 3200 yds swim w/ladder up and back in AM, 10.7 mile run in PM, 2x25 pushups/2x100 crunchers
Saturday - 42 mile ride (aka hammerfest), core/feet exercises

Pretty big week for me - about 13 hours total, over 100 miles riding, 26 miles running and 10K yds of swimming in 6 days. And (other than today) I feel great. I just need to keep up the good work, stay healthy and eat more than I can imagine, and come spring time I think I will have myself quite a base!

Posted by beth at 2:14 PM | Comments (2)

October 20, 2006

Two More Workouts

I know, I know, my creativity in writing blog titles is unparalleled. :)

AM swim workout - YMCA

When my alarm went off this morning I was not a happy camper. Tired from a long week. Pouring down rain. Darker than dark could be. Freezing cold in our house. 4:45 AM. I heart none of the above. No, not one. But it is what it is so I got up anyway and let Roxy outside. Then I put on my bathing suit. Then I got in my car and turned up the music so loud I think I still have Red Hot Chili Peppers reverberating in my head. It did the trick.

3200 yds total (300 yds warmup, 400 yds cooldown)

100 - 1:27 (10 sec rest)
200 - 2:57 (15 sec rest)
300 - 4:23 (15 sec rest)
400 - 5:46 (30 sec rest)
500 - 7:10 (40 sec rest)
400 - 5:41 (30 sec rest)
300 - 4:15 (15 sec rest)
200 - 2:49 (15 sec rest)
100 - 1:23

Shoulder feels fine. 1:25/100 yd pace is slowly but surely getting more comfortable.

Work was rough. Just tired that's all. Keeping the eyes open was brutal.

I was very much looking forward to my run this evening, although it was cold, raining and I didn't get started until 6 pm (longer commute than usual!). The good news was O was going to run with me. That was very good motivation indeed.

We went to the trail and ran 80 minutes and I felt great. O and I don't see each other too much with all that we have going on so we had lots to chat about. I was to stay in zone 1 so I had to hold back some but we still ran about 7:15-7:30 pace. I'm calling it 10.7 miles. It was pretty dark by the time we finished but just a great night to run. Good stuff folks, good stuff.

Now it's time for dinner. I'm more hungry than you could imagine...

Posted by beth at 7:42 PM | Comments (0)

October 19, 2006

Early Morning Running

I used to run in the early am all the time and loved it. Haven't done it for a while until this morning. Here are a few things about early morning running that I forgot:

1) running in the dark makes you feel like you are running faster than you probably really are - not such a bad thing if you know what I mean

2) it's annoying to press the light on your watch all the time to see what your HR is doing or how long you've been running and my HR monitor watch doesn't have a function where the light will just stay on

3) best of all - I forgot how peaceful it is to run before everyone else is even up. Running at it's best, where you can truly be alone with your thoughts and the day isn't old enough yet to have it's new worries. Helps me to remember why I fell in love with running in the first place.

It was a great morning to run. Luckily it didn't get that cold last night so I could still wear shorts. I cannot wear tights yet. Just can't do it. I was supposed to run 45 minutes on a hilly course easy, but I was allowed to let my HR rise up into zone 3 on the uphills. I did just that but in an effort to get one more big hill in I had to extend the run to 50 minutes. Good stuff.

That's it for me for the day. I have class tonight. Tomorrow a swim and another run. Saturday the team ride which is also serving as a memorial ride for our teammate that passed away about a month ago. His family and friends will be there. A great way to honor a great guy.

Posted by beth at 11:05 AM | Comments (0)

October 18, 2006

Two More in the Book

Two workouts today:

AM swim workout: at YMCA
3200 yds total (600 yds warmup, 600 yds cooldown)
20x100 as:
5x100 on 1:40
5x100 on 1:35
5x100 on 1:30
5x100 on 1:25

These are the hardest types of workouts for me. Why, I wonder, do I always pick to do them by myself then? :) I haven't figured that one out yet but I'll get back to you when I do. The last 5 were hard, I won't lie. I got about 5 seconds rest on the first 2 but it slowly became 3 seconds, then 2 seconds... I made them all though, by the skin of my teeth or otherwise!

PM cycling workout: movie nite at the shop
We watched The Game (Michael Douglas, Sean Penn) tonight - which I liked a lot. I vaguely remember seeing this movie before but I certainly didn't remember all the little details. Either way I just spun easy in my small chain ring, high cadence, just like yesterday only I only rode for 1:35 vs 1:45. Such a slacker.

Now time for bed (soon) and then some running early tomorrow AM. It's a viscious cycle I tell you - viscious! :)

Posted by beth at 9:15 PM | Comments (2)

October 17, 2006

Pilates is Money!

Today on the training schedule? 1:45 worth of cycling and an hour of pilates. I knew the cycling would more than likely be on the trainer inside. It was supposed to rain all day long and indeed, it rained all day long. All stupid day long. Oh well. Worse things have happened.

Because I no longer own a bike of my very own (my Fuji sold on eBay to someone in Canada!) I have to go to the shop to ride all the time. "My" bikes stay there - the BMC road bike and then the BMC time machine tri bike. I heart BMCs if you can't tell. Me and Floyd Landis. :)

ANYWAY - I don't mind riding the trainer at the shop because there is a big screen tv at the shop. Much better than riding the trainer at home in front of our little tv. So I did my 1:45 ride on the trainer while I watched re-runs of Home Improvement and then ESPN. I was just supposed to ride in my small chain, spinning at a high cadence which is exactly what I did. I don't have a cadence meter thing but I tried to make sure I kept the turnover high. Afterwards my butt was really sore so I bought my very first pair of cycling shorts. Up until this point I always just wore tri shorts which have a much smaller padding. Riding on the trainer is brutal though - not as much standing up and getting out of the saddle like when you are riding on the roads. No stopping at traffic lights and whatnot. That and the weight I've lost from training has left me with what feels like the boniest butt ever. I might have to get one of those huge banana seat saddles for my BMC. Now that would be sweet. :)

After my ride and a hot shower I headed over to this gym (that is incidentally owned by my coach's wife) that is basically next to the shop for my first pilates class. I really didn't know what to expect but pilates was *really* cool. I highly recommend it for runners or triathletes or any kind of endurance athlete. Major core building my friends. Major. As in my abs are already sore. It's exactly what I need because I know my weak core has contributed to more than one of the many injuries I've suffered through. That and it was kind of relaxing - not hard core, all out exercise like we are all used to. The instructor was all soothing and stuff. :)

Regardless I have homework to do and my swimming wake up call is going to be coming real soon. One of these days I'm actually going to do my homework ahead of time so I don't have to stress the day before it's due. I swear. :)

Posted by beth at 8:41 PM | Comments (1)

October 16, 2006

Back on the Wagon

After falling off the wagon this weekend I'm back on today...and for the rest of the week...I hope. :)

I won't lie though. My 4:45 am wake up call was rough this morning. Ugh. I'm a morning person no doubt but as it gets colder and darker the bed seems like a much better option than getting up. Better step up though - it's only going to get worse.

Anyway, I got my lazy butt up and to the pool for the masters swim practice this morning. When I let Roxy out before I left I saw on our thermometer that it was 26 degrees. Fun times. I blasted my heat the whole drive down to Pitt but I was still freezing when I showed up in the locker room. I knew getting in the pool was going to be bad juju so I literally put my junk down and ran across the pool deck straight into the pool. From now until about June this is probably going to be my preferred method of pool entry. No more slinking down the side of the pool one inch at a time.

AM Pool Workout:
3500 meters total (900 meters warmup, 200 meters cooldown)
6x400 meters on 7:30 w/the odd repeats as 100 distance for stroke, 100 breathe on 3, 100 distance for stroke and 100 breathe on 3 and the even repeats hard. I swam my 3 hard ones in 6:29, 6:19 and 6:14. I felt good. I love long course pool, long repeat Mondays, although I think I may be the only one. :)

Work was work. Three people called off today. That equals lots more work for me. I survived though. Better to be busy than unemployed.

Next up my run. I was looking forward to it all day. It was about 55 degrees when I finally got to the trail at about 6 pm, which we all know it just about the perfect running temperature. I was supposed to run 65 minutes in zones 1-3 which is my favorite type of run because it's not running hard but you can go a little and not worry about the heart rate monitor throwing a fit for getting the heart rate up too high.

I don't know what to say about my running. I've had two of the best runs I've had in years (literally) this past Thursday and then today. I just felt so dang good and fit and smooth and wow - it's hard to describe. I think my running fitness is finally starting to turn around a little and because I'm not running a lot I don't feel overly tired. I started around 7:30 pace but was running 6:50-7 minute pace after about 4 miles and just felt like a million bucks. And my HR was in the high 160s, low 170s which is just fine. I haven't been able to do this type of running since college and in college I was so tired all the time from high mileage that I rarely felt this good. The weather definitely has something to do with it and I had some seriously good tunes playing on my iPod which never hurts. Either it feels so good to feel so good and alive and well.

Anyway, I'm eating ice cream now even though it's seriously about 10 degrees in our house and I have close to 4 layers of clothing on. Old house = poor insulation = one cold triathlete wishing the dog would make herself useful and lay on my feet to warm them up. Humpf. :)

Hope everyone has a great night!

Posted by beth at 8:11 PM | Comments (2)

October 15, 2006

New CD

Instead of doing anything remotely useful (laundry, unpacking, homework, sleeping, running, sleeping, stretching, sleeping, sleeping, sleeping...) I decided I needed to create a new CD for my driving this week. Hey, I need something to survive and we all know it's sometimes the small things in life that do it....

As I was putting it together I thought to myself - "what an interesting collection of artists". I don't know a lot about music but I apparently don't like one specific genre. My new CD includes:

Natasha Bedingfield
her brother David
Peter Gabriel
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Justin McRoberts
Audio Adrenaline
Chamillionaire and his buddy Krayzie Bone (who apparentely doesn't have his own website)
Bonnie Raitt
Linkin Park
Sanctus Real
Joy Williams
Kutless
and Jeremy Camp

Now that's what I call a mix. Rap, rock, Christian, pop, techno. All I need is some country and I'm good to go.

Posted by beth at 4:22 PM | Comments (1)

I'm Back

I'm real bitter right now because I had a nice long blog entry just about ready for publication when my internet browser decided to call it quits. What the heck?! I actually had much stronger words for it at the time but I'll spare you all right now. I will say though - I DO NOT heart my computer at this point in time.

Regardless - the Columbus Marathon expo was a big success...from a business standpoint that is. Trizilla sold a lot of stuff and the 3 of us that went to work it all had a lot of fun (usually) and safely returned without killing each other. When you spend 3 days straight - 24 hours/day - with anyone (even someone you love dearly) you can get real annoyed real easy. You all know what I mean.

From a training perspective I was not so successful. I spent 3 days of taking the worse care of myself I possibly could. I ate all the wrong things, I drank all the wrong things, I didn't work out once. I slept about 5 hours/night. I stood on my feet on concrete for about 12 hours/day. I didn't stretch at all. I lifted things that were way to heavy to lift. In general I was one big slacker. And now I'm a big slacker with a sore back. But that's probably a good thing for me. Every once in a while we all need to let go a little and not take care of ourselves so that when we feel like crap for the whole next week we realize how important it is to take care of ourselves. I think that makes sense. Forgive me if it doesn't. I'm still in need of some sleep. :)

Either way when I got home today around 11 I thought I might go for a run to clense the system but in the end I decided not to. It's October. I won't race again until April. It's okay to not train for 3 days in a row right now. In a couple weeks that won't be okay. Best to do it now and not then.

The good news is my shoulder is feeling much better and I haven't taken any Celebrex for 2 days! I also haven't swam on it but I did lots of lifting with no ill effects. Perhaps it's on the mend. I guess I'll find out tomorrow morning when I'm back in the pool.

Finally, the summary for the week... started off pretty good... finished with some major slacking. :)

Sunday - off
Monday - 3500 meter swim w/4x(300,2x150) in am, 30 mile ride in pm, core/feet exercises
Tuesday - 55 minute easy run, 2x25 pushups, 2x100 crunchers
Wednesday - 3300 yd swim w/10x200 in am, 1:30 spinning on the trainer (movie nite) in pm, core/feet exercises
Thursday - 60 minute run, core/feet exercises
Friday - off
Saturday - off
Sunday - off again!

Posted by beth at 3:36 PM | Comments (0)

October 13, 2006

Now batting for Beth....

Hello all,

Beth is in Columbus working at the Columbus marathon expo for Trizilla. So this is O "pinch hitting" for her this weekend. Beth will be back Sunday with lots of great stories of people she's meeting at the expo.

So, here it goes.....It's definitely getting colder here in Pittsburgh, although no snow here like the TWO FEET in Buffalo or the flurries before the MLB playoff game in Detroit.

Anyway, with Beth away I have to entertain myself. My day entailed teaching at school and refereeing an intramural flag football game after school. Then I got home and took Roxy out on a short run.

As you may have read earlier this week, I just ran a marathon last weekend. I was somewhat sore on Monday, EXTREMELY SORE (as in I feared walking down steps without holding onto the hand rail) on Tuesday, a little sore on Wednesday, and pretty good on Thursday. So, I figured I had recovered enough to go out on a short run with Roxy today. The first mile I felt like a million bucks. But, by about 15 minutes into the run my calves were screaming and reminding me that I just ran a marathon. So much for feeling great....but at least I had Roxy pulling me home.

With Beth not around, I got a take-out hoagie and pepperoni roll from this local italian restaurant. The rest of my night is going to involve watching baseball playoffs, (stupid) Pitt football, and a high school football game all while listening on the internet (msasports.net) to two high school football games (my current high school and my previous high school). This is the epitome of multi-tasking!!!!!

Tomorrow involves preparing all day for the Penn State-Michigan game in Happy Valley. It's going to be a white-out in Beaver Stadium, but not because of snow. All of the student section will be wearing white t-shirts and screaming their heads off. They're an underdog against the Wolverines, but maybe some of the "white out" magic will rub off like it did against Ohio State last year.

Well, time to get back to all of my sports. I think the Cardinals may be trying to get back into the game against the Mets. Jim Edmonds just hit a home run to tie the game at 4-4.

Ah, the life of a bachelor for the weekend....

Posted by beth at 8:48 PM | Comments (3)

October 12, 2006

And Away We Go

Off to the Columbus Marathon expo and I'm already running late but I just cannot NOT write a blog entry about my run this morning. Nothing crazy happened, nothing out of the ordinary but it was one of those runs where everything was right in the world and you remember why exactly it was you started running in the first place. I felt so good, so strong, so fit, so smooth. I felt like I never wanted to stop. It was cool and crisp and I started at 7:45 pace but was running 7 minute pace by the time I finished the 8 miler and it felt effortless. That doesn't happen too often for me.

May you all have runs as good as mine was this morning. Happy running!

Posted by beth at 10:58 AM | Comments (0)

October 11, 2006

Movie Nite

Tonight was movie night at the shop. Everyone brings their bikes and their trainers, sets up and we all watch a movie on the big screen tv while we ride. Fun stuff. Tonight's showing was Reservoir Dogs. I can't say I'm a huge Quentin Tarantino fan - I don't think I've ever watched Pulp Fiction the whole way through - but I didn't mind watching this one tonight. Given the crew of cyclists on the team and the fact that I'm one of about 2 women, I'm guessing we won't be watching any "chick flicks" during movie nite any time soon. I'm thinking a lot of violence or stupid humor will fill my Wednesday nights for a long time to come...

Regardless, I rode for 1:30 total. Lots of easy spinning - I only spent about 25 minutes in my big chain! That was the goal tonight, keep the heart rate low.

Backing up some to this morning, I did a swim workout at the YMCA before work. It was a tough one. I made it up myself which tends to be a bad thing. I write it down on paper and I think "that won't be that hard" and then I start the workout and think "who the heck wrote this workout?!?!" :) I survived though.

3200 yds total (500 yds warmup, 700 yds cooldown)
10x200 alternating them on 3:15 and 3:00.

Now, I swam the first 300 in 2:56 at which point I realized that I was really going to need to step it up. It's no fun to only get 4 seconds rest on hard intervals. I settled into a nice rhythm though and pretty consistently did the rest of the 200s in 2:45 and therefore got more like 15-30 seconds rest. Much better. It was a hard workout but I felt strong throughout.

Unfortunately my little experiment in which I didn't take my Celebrex didn't work so well. I shouldn't have really tried that on a day when I swam. I'm not sure if it was the hard swimming, the lack of Celebrex or the pushups that I did last night but my shoulder was none too pleased with me this afternoon. It didn't hurt when I swam this morning but starting aching again around lunch time. I took some more Celebrex before movie nite and now my shoulder feels good again. That stuff is more powerful that I thought. (and let me clarify, I asked my doc about taking it because I vaguely remember the controversy surrounding Vioxx some time ago - Celebrex is in the same class of drugs)

Regardless I'm not sure what I'm going to do about my swim tomorrow. I guess we'll see how it feels in the morning. Actually, it will probably be good because I took the wonder drug. Maybe I should swim and then it will have a 3 day break (Fri-Sun). Maybe I shouldn't swim and give it an even longer break? Such a conundrum! I'm sure I'll figure it out - and probably still do the wrong thing anyway. I wouldn't be an athlete otherwise right?! :) Good night everyone!

Posted by beth at 9:19 PM | Comments (3)

October 10, 2006

Zone 1 Running

Up on the docket today - 55 minutes of easy zone 1 running. I cheated a little and ran 55 minutes and 30 seconds. I know - such a sneak. I was also feeling good so it was hard to keep myself in zone 1. It was a great fall day - sunny and in the low 70s. But now it's raining and a cold front is moving in and it's supposed to be in the 30s on Friday. I got no nice words for that. And my mom taught me when you don't have anything nice to say - don't say anything at all. I will say one thing though. I DO NOT heart cold weather. I was so sad to see all the cold weather riding gear in the shop today. I'm talking some serious gear too - crazy gloves and hats and hats that fit over your helmet and crazy boot things that fit over your cycling shoes and some tights that scare me with their thickness. I was thinking I might as well just wear my wetsuit. I did think of one good thing though; if you fall off your bike with all that crap on you're likely to suffer much less road rash. See, there is always a positive to every situation. :)

After my run I was all primed and ready for my first pilates class. I was pretty excited. But when I showed up at the gym they told me the class had been cancelled. What the heck? They had called to tell me but called my work number long after I left work. Oh well. What can you do? I guess I'll try again next week. :)

My shoulder is feeling much better. Celebrex is the bomb. I do heart Celebrex. I actually asked my attending physician today at work if it's okay for me to take Celebrex. He asked where I got it. I said never mind that. He told me it would be fine for me to take it, just not for too long. I think I'm going to not take it tomorrow and see how my shoulder feels without it.

Alas, I must do homework. I DO NOT heart homework. But you've all already heard me complain about that before...so I won't go there again... Good night everyone!

Posted by beth at 8:31 PM | Comments (2)

October 9, 2006

A Great Day to be Alive

What. The. Heck. Our weather? Yeah - it's the bomb right now. 70 degrees. Sunny. Light breeze. Big blue sky. No humidity. And the leaves are changing and beautiful and when I was riding my favoritest bike in the whole wide world this afternoon I felt so lucky to be breathing and taking it all in and just to be alive. Life rocks my friends.

Backing up a little to this morning, I pulled my lazy butt out of bed and headed to the masters swim practice. Long course pool. Long intervals. Mondays are my favorites for those very reasons. I usually get elected to lead Monday workouts just because longer stuff is my forte and then I don't feel so bad bringing up the rear on Thursdays when we do fast short stuff and I'm sucking some serious wind.

Backing up a little more to Sunday - I think I may have forgotten to mention that my arm (my left one) felt like it was going to fall off at the shoulder. Actually to be more specific I felt like I wanted to cut the dang thing off it hurt so badly. I have no clue what I did to it but I seriously couldn't do simple tasks like pulling up my pants or turning the steering wheel in the car without my left shoulder protesting so badly I thought I was going to throw up. Seriously - we can't be having that. I called my coach in fear and he calmed me - probably just slept on it wrong. His answer to all woes in life is Celebrex so I took some of that.

This morning when I woke up the shoulder definitely felt better but it still hurt like something nasty when I was warming up for the swim workout. I decided to start the workout and see how things went and sure enough I didn't really notice it that much. Either it got warmed up, the Celebrex started to kick in, or I got so used to the pain I didn't even feel it. Whatever the reason, it was fine and I finished without any major complications. It's still a little sore now but I'm hoping whatever the problem is solves itself real quick before my Celebrex supply runs out.

Nonetheless I digress -

3500 meters total - 900 meters warmup, 200 meters cooldown
4 sets of (300, 2x150) w/all the 300s on 6 minutes and the 2x150s on 3 (for the first set), 2:50 (for the 2nd set), 2:40 and 2:30.

The only time I felt like I really had to push was on the last set of 150s on 2:30. I felt good in the water this morning!

Okay so technically that was all I was supposed to do today on the schedule. But seriously - how can you just go home and do homework when it's 70 and sunny outside? Instead I stopped at the shop, changed and had the tires of the BMC pumped before coach knew what happened. When I asked him what he thought I should do he suggested about 30 miles. Big smiles my friends, big smiles. He then told me to ride on the Green Belt, a ride from the shop I had never done.

Well let me tell you - "Green Belt" is secretly code for "ride every (*^Y#%(R*$HR# big hill north of the city, then turn around after 15 miles and ride every other )(#*%Y#HHN hill back to the shop." Dude - I think coach was trying to kill me! But truthfully I *really* enjoyed my ride. I just felt like hammering and so hammer I did. I didn't go down into my small chain ring once even though there were some big huge hills - I just stood up and turned the pedals as hard as I could. It felt so freaking good. I know it's not good to do that all the time but I just really, really needed to do that today. I know you all understand. I know you've all been there yourselves. And so 30 miles later I was back at the shop and wishing I was still out riding. Nonetheless, life must go on.

Tomorrow I'm running and going to my first pilates class. Should be interesting. I'm kind of scared for the pilates. The little machine things you are in look like big booby traps. Make a wrong move and you are a goner! :)

Smile - life is great!!

Posted by beth at 7:46 PM | Comments (1)

October 8, 2006

3:22:34

O had an awesome race today! His time (as you may have guessed) was 3:22:34 - a 15 minute PR and 8 minutes faster than his goal time. Can't argue with that! He ran 7:30 pace through 21 miles and then started to hurt. Hurt big time. He had a rough 22nd and 23rd mile but rallied hard to finish strong. I could tell when I saw him at about 26.1 miles that he was in the hurt box but that's the way to run them right? Make sure you left everything out there on the course. I was so proud of him! Next up? A marathon next fall to try and qualify for Boston. He'll need a 3:15. I know he has it in him.

I gotta tell you - being an equipment manager is a highly underrated position! You can eat all the crap you want to eat. You can roll out of bed at the last minute. You only have to pack a clean pair of underwear. It really is the way to go. This morning at the free breakfast bar that included just about anything you could possibly imagine eating for breakfast, I was one happy puppy. Really happy puppy. O on the other hand pouted like a little kid who just got their pony stolen. He got stuck eating a dry bagel while I went to town. Not to be outdone however he actually (I kid you not) took my used cereal box and put bacon in it to take up to the room to eat AFTER the race?! What the heck? He was probably thinking of that bacon during mile 25. Hey - whatever gets you through right? :)

Anyway, it was a great weekend. We're home now and O is laying on the couch enjoying his well deserved success.

Summary for last week:
Sunday - off
Monday - 3500 meter swim w/600,500,400,300,200,100
Tuesday - 45 minutes easy on CompuTrainer
Wednesday - 45 minutes easy riding outside
Thursday - 1750 yds swimming w/400,300,200,100 and 10x50 interspersed in there
Friday - 1650 yds swimming w/2x500 in am, 45 minute run w/8x20 second hill skips in pm
Saturday - off
Sunday - off

This week back to some training. Nothing very hard but about 10 hours worth of work what is just what I'm looking for. At the end of the week I'll be going with Trizilla to help at the Columbus Marathon expo. Should be fun and interesting to get another perspective (watching races, volunteering at races, working at expos - lots of new stuff for me!). Regardless while O was running (not a very spectator friendly course, I only saw him once) I was reading the latest Triathlete Magazine which was mostly about the upcoming Ironman World Championships and I was getting totally pyched about the possibility of one day competing at Kona myself! Doesn't take much to get me going but wow was I pumped!!

Hope everyone has a great start to their week...

Posted by beth at 5:14 PM | Comments (6)

October 6, 2006

Random Thoughts and Two Workouts

Random thought #1:
I think the lifeguard at the YMCA pool thinks that I'm (a) single, (b) 21 and (c) looking for a date. I don't wear my wedding band when I swim because it's already too big and getting it wet and slippery doesn't help matters. No wedding band complicates things though. At first I thought he was just being nice but he's now asked me to (a) go to the local bar with him and his friends, (b) go to a Halloween party with him and (c) go to a tattoo convention. Yes folks, a tattoo convention. I've tried to remain nice but not too nice but today I got real rude real fast when he started talking to me about his Halloween costume BETWEEN HARD SWIM SETS?!?!?! Um HELLO? I'm trying to work out here. Don't mess with that dude. And quit asking me to tattoo conventions while you're at it.

Random Thought #2:
I think I'm going blind. I've forgotten to put my contacts in the last TWO mornings I went swimming and let me tell you - I just don't see too good any more! Not as bad as O though - he can't even see his own hand in front of his face unless he has the contacts in or the glasses on. Our kids will be doomed!

Random Thought #3:
O might be more anal than me when it comes to "knowing" the race course. Wow. He's studied it and studied it and studied it some more. I like to know my race course as well but I usually don't have it memorized like the back of my hand. Needless to say, the man is ready to run his marathon! (and he's already packed! :)

As for workouts today, I started with another short and sweet swim and then ran after work today.

AM swim - 1650 yds total (300 warmup, 350 cooldown), 2x500 at threshold pace w/45 seconds rest in between (7:26, 7:12)

PM run - 21 minutes warmup, 8x20 seconds skipping/bounding uphill, 24 minutes cooldown (45 minutes total running)

It was a beautiful fall afternoon when I ran. And I suddenly remembered why I love fall so much. You run fast, you feel great and your heart rate isn't immediately 185 upon initiating a run!

I'm taking tomorrow and Sunday completely off - marathon time for O and rest time for me - and then come Monday I will probably start "training" a little. Pilates and restarting weight lifting will be back on the schedule. I can feel the soreness already! Tomorrow morning I am helping at a 5K race that Trizilla directs and then O and I will be on our merry way to Akron. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Posted by beth at 10:51 PM | Comments (1)

October 5, 2006

Short and Sweet

I'm getting anxious to get going again with some training. I'm not nearly tired enough during the day or at night and I have entirely too much time on my hands to do things like clean the house, study and iron, all chores that I would rather NOT be doing! :)

This morning I did a quick pool workout at the YMCA.

1750 yds total (300 yds warmup, 200 yds cooldown)
400 yds w/40 sec rest (5:56)
4x25 yds fast
300 yds w/30 sec rest (4:19)
3x25 yds fast
200 yds w/20 secs rest (2:50)
2x25 yds fast
100 yds w/10 secs rest (1:20)
1x25 yds fast

The 400, 300, 200 and 100 were supposed to be at "threshold pace" of which I have no clue what mine is. So I basically swam not too hard and not too easy. The 25s were all on the order of :37-:40 w/20 seconds rest.

I was thinking this morning how far I've come with swimming. I remember swimming faster than 1:30 for a 100 yd repeat for the first time in the YMCA pool not so long ago. Now I can do a whole workout in under 1:30 pace and be fine. It gives me hope that I will still be able to improve in the water although I sometimes wonder. Of course we all know there is lots of room for improvement at first and then those last few seconds may take forever to get off!

And now I must study. Seriously. My exam is soon and I'm such a slacker I can't even take it!

Posted by beth at 3:27 PM | Comments (2)

October 4, 2006

I Hate School and Other Various Topics

I have an exam tomorrow that I of course did not yet study for and it's at times like these that I really hate school. One of these days I'll be done with my masters and I won't ever go to school again. One of these days.... :)

In other news, O's marathon is this Sunday! He just went out for a little 3 mile run. Sunday he'll be doing the Towpath Marathon near Akron, Ohio. His goal is to run under 3:30 (previous marathon PR 3:37) and I'm very confident he can do it. I'm very excited for him, and I have to admit, pretty proud of him. For someone who doesn't particulary love to run long he's remained quite committed to his training even though he's done every single workout and every single long run BY HIMSELF. That's hard to do. Not sure I could have done it myself. Not to mention the fact that he often had to squeeze his long runs in at weird times - on a hot Friday afternoon, early on a Sunday before church, and I remember a particularly wet and nasty Saturday morning long run as well. Through it all though he kept pushing forward, getting in the miles and growing stronger. I'm really looking forward to finally being able to support him at a race instead of vice versa. I know I won't be as good of an equipment manager as he is for me but I'm going to try! And most of all I can't wait to see his smiling face when he achieves his goal on Sunday morning! Go O go! :)

In other other news (and much more boring), I did another little ride today, this time outside but again for just 45 minutes. Let me tell you how much energy I have now that I'm not training 2-3 hours/day! It's insane! My co-workers are really wondering when I'm going to start training hard again because they're sick of me already. Bouncing. Off. The. Walls! That and for the past two days I've suddenly taken to drinking coffee again. Not sure why. I drank coffee like a fiend for the whole year I did my clinical internship after graduating from college. And then one day I just didn't drink it anymore. I already drink Diet Pepsi like it's going out of style so I really don't need to add coffee too as my caffeine load would be astronomical. If there's one thing about me it's the fact that when I do something I do it with full force. Moderation seems to be a curse word in my vocabulary... :)

Time for dinner!

Posted by beth at 5:34 PM | Comments (4)

October 3, 2006

CompuTrainer

Today I rode easy on the CompuTrainer at the shop. I'm not even sure I would call it riding. It was more like active sitting. :) Anyway, in case you don't know the CompuTrainer allows you to ride different courses that you might find at bigger races throughout the country. For instance today I was riding on the EagleMan half IM course, a ride that I will hopefully be doing in real life come June 2007. And so besides doing that the program gives you ALLLLLLL kind of data like power output, ave MPH, HR, and you kind of race this little guy (if you want) to see who wins. There is also this stroke (that's pedal stroke of course) analysis thing that helps you to understand where all your power is in your stroke and how you really should be pushing and pulling on the pedals, etc...

Anyway, it was good to get used to the thing while I was just riding easy and messing around. Coach asked if I was having fun. And before I could reply he said "good - you'll be in that saddle a lot over the next few months." It may just be a very longgggggg winter. :)

Posted by beth at 8:38 PM | Comments (0)

October 2, 2006

Almost Forgot

My tri bike is for sale on Ebay! We are selling it and next season I will ride this baby. It's lighter. It's faster. It's components are better. And best of all? It's a BMC. I need not say more.

Posted by beth at 8:11 PM | Comments (1)

Back to the Long Course

I haven't swam with the masters group on a Monday for quite a while. Monday was either my day off or a running day as of late. So I kind of forgot that the pool is set up long course on Mondays. What a pleasant surprise! I much prefer the 50 meter pool vs the 25 yarder. Good stuff.

There were two options for the workout this morning. They were either (1) 700, 600, 500, 400, 300, 200, 100 or (2) 600, 500, 400, 300, 200, 100. I was in a lane with 3 other triathletes coming off long seasons. We all took a look at each other and without saying a word knew were were starting with a 600. :)

The workout was to be done as a ________. Now, there is a word to describe this type of workout that would fill in that blank but I don't know what that word is. Maybe someone who actually knows something about swimming might help me out here. Basically how it's done is while you are swimming the 600 you look at your 500 split and then swim the 500 faster than that split and then while you are swimming the 500 you look at your 400 split and swim the 400 faster than that and so on and so forth. Basically it all adds up to starting out at a moderate pace and then swimming progressively harder. Progressively harder on tired arms. Swimming workouts are tricky like that.

Anyway, my group did the workout just right - started out swimming probably 1:40/100 meter for the 600 and progressively getting down to about 1:23/100 meter for the last 100. I love swimming with the people I was swimming with this morning. They are better than me (especially on the fast days) but not so much that I have to KILL myself to keep up. This means I never have to lead the workout. That, my friends, is key. Plus, they are all triathletes so we can talk shop in between intervals. Much better than fraternizing with pure swimmers. :)

So yeah, that was my morning. I actually got in 3500 meters total with my warmup and cooldown. It doesn't happen every time I swim but I can usually get pretty into my swim workouts and just not want to get out. I love to race but what has probably been the thing that has helped me achieve any success that I've enjoyed is that I love to train too. I really love to train. I really, really love to train. :)

Good night all!

Posted by beth at 7:46 PM | Comments (0)

October 1, 2006

I Am NOT a Cheater!

So the official results of the race yesterday were up this morning and I was very pleased to see my splits but NOT so pleased to see I had garnered myself a 2 minute penalty!! What the ?!?!?!?!?!!! Although I can't be sure I think it has to do with the fact that when I was coming into T2 one of my cycling shoes fell off the pedal (my foot was already out of the shoe) and that is apparently grounds for a penalty per USA Triathlon. Of course my sarcastic coach keeps telling me they caught me drafting on the bike (which is also a penalty) but I know I wasn't drafting and even if I was there weren't any officials out on the course to see me. What's up with that?! :)

Anyway, my splits:

swim 23:21
T1 3:12 (there was a long run up to the transition area thus the long transition time)
bike 1:06:38
T2 :54
run 38:52

And so of course the first thing I thought (before I saw I got a penalty) was that the 10K course was short. 38:52?! I mean I felt good but I don't know if I felt that good. Definitely seems a little fishy but after some more thought I decided to believe that it really was the full distance because I know I am capable of running that and that's just how I'm gonna look at it. If I'm going to be good at this sport I need to be able to kick some butt in "my" sport. 38:52 isn't kicking butt but it's getting there. Then I'll worry less about taking 5 minutes off my swim time. :)

So the good news for the day is that I can swim this week during my "off" week. I really don't feel like taking the whole week off and so swimming 3 days was the compromise. It's kind of hard to explain - the sport of triathlon is a very tough sport, the training is hard and time consuming, the races are just as tough. Triathletes are a different breed - even different than their close relative the distance runner. Triathletes are very tough birds (not that runners aren't of course!). BUT the training just doesn't seem to beat you up as much as full time running (and that's why you can do so much more of it). I might change my tune in a couple years but for now my body feels better than it ever has after a tough season of training and competing. After a cross country or track season I would have so many aches and pains I could not WAIT for that week or two off to let my body heal. And I would be really tired. But now I'm feeling pretty good. And so a little swimming this week and then add in the other stuff next week and then we'll be good to go. I'm looking forward to the pool tomorrow morning. I haven't been to the masters swim for almost 2 weeks!

Summary for last week:
Sunday - Great Race 10K (39:15)
Monday - 22 miles easy cycling
Tuesday - 2500 yd swim w/5x(200,100) in am, 16 miles cycling/4 miles running brick in pm, 2x25 pushups, 2x100 crunchers
Wednesday - 16 miles cycling w/4x1:30 race pace effort, core/feet exercises
Thursday - 2600 yd swim w/2x(400,300,200,100) in am, 45 minute run w/4x1:30 up-tempo in pm, 2x25 pushups, 2x100 crunchers
Friday - 1000 yd swim in am w/5x25 yd accelerations, about 8 miles cycling/1 mile running at race site
Saturday - Smallwood Olympic Distance Triathlon - 1500 m swim, 40K bike, 10K run (2:12:56 or 2:14:56 if you choose to acknowledge my 2 minute penalty :)

Posted by beth at 7:12 PM | Comments (6)