Another rest day.

Went to Masters last night. I hadn't been in nearly 2 weeks, and I think I have a tendency to swim a little bit too slowly/easily when I swim by myself.

So it felt good to get moving in the pool, again, but it also made my arms feel like jello. And I'm not good at butterfly (and we're still in butterfly month, ugh), so I struggled some.

Biked out there in the wonderful weather, yesterday, really early.

Lifted: Did 3 reps of 10 of leg press at 80 lbs, seated row at 50 lbs, hamstring curl at 50 lbs and lat pull down at 55 lbs and 3 reps of 20 situps.

Maybe that's why I was tired swimming...

550 EZ Warm-up on my own
400 Swim, every 3rd lap drill fly
300 Kick, half dolphin kick
300 Pull
3 x (4 x 75) Hawaiin IM, Swim-Kick-Swim on 1:30
2 x 150 (50 Fly, 100 Free) on 2:30
50 Warm Down

This weekend I'm hoping to get a ride in with ZteaM and meet some of the women and triathlon people. I'm also hoping to ride the Bearathlon course, because there's no way I'm doing the race without riding it first. But it all depends on the weather in Marin and Berkeley.

Sun!

It's sunny today!

Biking

I was going to ride my trainer again this morning, but I hadn't been on the road in over a week. SO I decided to ride anyway, even with the drizzling.

Then, of course, it started to rain. Alot. It was like this picture, only I didn't look that happy. And my hands froze.

Only did an hour ride and then spent maybe half an hour in the warm shower. Then I didn't want to go outside at all, so I worked from home. Which would have been fine, except I forgot my computer power cable at my office, so I had to walk over there anyway.

And wouldn't you know it, it wasn't raining the whole rest of the day.

Sun?

This is the weather today:




It's finally sunny and I have a rest day. So I took a nice walk home for lunch instead, even if that's only like 7 blocks.

I was writing this post yesterday and my internet quit, and then, lo and behold, today my half-written entry was in blogger. It saved it!

So this is my post from Sunday:

Yesterday, Steve left for his race around 5:30 (in the morning) and I was so not even waking up for that. I intended to get up around 8 and go to Masters and then lift some.

BUT, when my alarm went off at 8 I was like, ok time to get up, I closed my eyes and woke up at 8:45. Which wasn't totally awful, because it actually stopped raining yesterday and was suppose to clear up more as the day went on. So I took my time and biked (the 5 miles) on the 'speed machine' to the gym and lifted then swam.

It seems like sleeping in has become a theme for me. But my figuring is 1. if I'm that tired I probably need the sleep, too many people try to get all hard-core and forgoe sleep for training, but aren't going to get the benefit of that training if they don't sleep, 2. i've still got a little bit of a sore throat, which finally started feeling better the last two days, but it's worth staying rested and 3. it's not like I lose anything by working out later

I lifted, in the muscle transition phase, which is suppose to be more wieght, fewer reps, slower, etc. And I finally figured out how to actually use the leg press!! (yay!). SO, I did some leg press, some hamstring curl, some pull-ups, some lat pull-downs, etc. And it was maybe a little too much weight, because my legs were shaking on the leg press and hurt like a mother now.

I swam an easy 2500y, kicking, pulling, drills. My legs and abs hurt quite a bit from running the day before (since running is still rough) and from all that lifting.

This is my pool, at the Natomas Racquet Club:



I like my pool. The capitol athletic club is good, and you might see the Governator, but the pool isn't as good and the program isn't as good. The Natomas pool isn't over-heated and doesn't get cramped when 5 people try to swim.

Swam again, easy 1500y, today. My soccer game was cancelled because of the rain all week. They don't want to waste the fields on us. So I wanted to do similar running to substitute, but it started raining again.

Ran 3 miles on the treadmill at 8 minute pace, picked up the middle mile and half down to just sub 7 minute pace. Turned bright red and everyone was looking at me. Then I swam nice and easy. I like swimming easy after running, because my legs just feel like jello.

Now, going to take this Monday-Friday easy(ish) and then be in the Bay Area on the weekend for a Z-team ride maybe and a test ride of the bearathlon course. Bearathlon is a great, if not little sadistic, race. I'm just not sure if I'm in a racing place right now. Going to give the course a test ride and then wait and see how the weather is, cause of course it's suppose to start raining again.

Aching Legs

Spinning Boris was the second movie I watched on the trainer last night.

Not a bad movie, with a few good lines, though it did have Jeff Goldblum. The second trainer session was rougher than the first. My legs were pretty tired to start with and I didn't do any drills. So an hour seemed kind of long and my legs were a little slow, exhausted. And then my power meter kept going in and out, so it was hard to do a nice, good workout.

I think it was around 370kJ, 15 miles, averaging 108W.

And then today I did a long run. Was planning on getting up and doing it before I had to go to the dentist, but I didn't wake up until 8:45, so oh well.

7.5 miles, around 8 minute pace. Except it was probably a tiny bit slower (like 8-8:15) and, since I don't really know distances and was judging by time, maybe a little shorter.

But I think that's probably ok, especially in base and especially since I'm trying to rehab back into running. It's hard building back up, without hurting my hip again or anything else, and keeping some speed. Right now, I just kinda shuffle through runs. And my hip hasn't been too bad, but my left knee has been acting up alot. I went to the physical therapist and he did a bunch of stuff and said it was twisted and i needed to stretch and stuff. But it's still hurting. When I bike, it's like a sharp pain under. And after running today (and towards the end of the run) my whole left knee and lef just ached. Sitting in a meeting this afternoon, my whole left leg just ached, like I had run much much longer.

I don't know if I'm ready to race anytime really soon.

Minority Report

I was planning on 3-4 hours this morning. I was planning on toughing it out if it was drizzling and just doing it. Cause I need to get some longer rides in.

But Steve pointed out that I'm still trying to get over whatever I had. Still coughing, still have a sore throat. 4 hours in the cold rain might not just be tough, it might be stupid. He said I should split it up into two trainer sessions.

So, this morning I did 2 hours (2 hours!) on the trainer. This is crazy, since 30 minutes use to seem like forever. And yes, I watched Minority Report. I should keep track of all the movies I watch, at least as long as it keeps freezing and raining. I did NOT move to california for this crap.

And this afternoon/evening I'm going to do another hour, hour and half.

Whoooo.

It wasn't too bad though, put out 707kJ, covered 30.05 miles and averaged 100W. A little on the low side, but acceptable for easy base and for the trainer.

Yesterday, left the Governor's office and did 2000y easy at Capitol Athletic Club. Even in the shitty cold rain, that pool is still too warm. I can't imagine really trying to do a hard workout there.

Rain, Rain Go Away

Last night I went to Capitol Athletic Club to try out their Masters program, again. And, again, no one showed up. So I ended up swimming 2500y, relatively easy, with some drill work, some kicking and pulling and some IMs to mix it up.

I'm not good at swimming by myself, I go crazy and get slow and am positive that I'm messing up my stroke. When I swim with a team or other people, I feel like I get more out of it.

So, since the Masters program at Capitol seems to be mostly me swimming by myself, I'm probably going to keep going to Natomas Racquet Club. They have a good swim program and the coach was helping me with my technique and I definitely was getting faster. It's just that it's a 30 minute bike ride away and I hate having to bike all the way there in the rain. Especially if I just want to swim for 30 minutes.

This morning I thought it would be raining hard, so I did 1:20 on my trainer. I also hate the trainer. Again, by myself, nothing to look at, I go crazy. But this wasn't too bad. I did drills, one-leg, cadence, jumps and I watched When Harry Met Sally. funny movie.

Of course, I didn't get out of bed til too late, so then it was 11:15 by the time I finished push-ups and sit-ups and stretched after. So I had to rush to get to the Governor's Office by noon.

Now I'm here and there's nothing to do.

Going to leave in about an hour and go swim by myself again at Capitol and maybe do some weight training work. I'm bad at actually doing weight work, because I get confused by the different machines. And bleh.

And, worse, it's not raining now. But tomorrow, when I was planning on doing a four hour ride and it was suppose to be clear, it's going to rain. When it insists on raining for like 10 days straight, is when I start to hate the fact that I don't drive. I keep having to change clothes everytime I get somewhere.

Start Again

I decided to start posting again. Maybe I'll actually do more with this blog now.

It's raining, even if weather.com says it's not. And I hate the rain. I'm not a very motivated person. I know like all these triathletes are into getting up at 5 and working out in the snow or whatever other stupid shit they can come up with. But I hate waking up. And I hate the rain.

This was the first night I've slept good in awhile, what with the coughing and having to sleep sitting up. I was so exhausted last week, since I went ahead and started my first week of base (after an illness-cased delay) but I wasn't sleeping. So this morning, it just felt so good to actually be able to lie in bed and I could hear it pouring out. Steve got up and went for a ride and I just stayed in bed until 9:30. Sigh. I do enjoy being able to work from home when I want.

I worked for about 2 or 3 hours. Then I went for a run in the pouring, cold rain. It was, um, cold. Only did 3 miles, with a couple 1 and 2 minute pick-ups just to work on some speed, since you know I have none. The pickups were harder than I would have liked, but at least they're done. Got home and steam came off my legs.

Going to go to my possibly new gym and try out the swimming program again. Maybe this time there will actually be other people and a coach. Maybe.

I just have to get through a staff meeting first. God I hate staff meetings.