The End of March

(I'm sitting on the phone with the insurance company right now trying to pay my bill for the next 2 months.)

My week of very necessary super, super rest is over. I did about 5 hours of training last week and slept alot. And managed to get a little sick. Whenever I get sick it follows a specific pattern: sore throat, congestion, bad cough. I have practically no immune or respitory system.

Saturday i went up to Lake Natoma, which is right by the Aquatic Center and a high school crew race was going on, and did some open water practice. Snow-melt is always great to swim in and it was the kind of cold where your calves freeze up as you walk into the water. But I needed to practice, because open-water swimming makes me sick to my stomach. I'm always worried I'll have another asthma/panic attack and this time no one will be there to stop me from drowning.



Sunday, Steve and I did a 'mock race' on the Davis Mad Cows Time Trial course. It's a 10-mile (usually windy), classic time trial course around here, with people like Peter Allen and Steve Larsen on the results page.

I did it in 27:00. Which isn't great and I really should be capable of better. But it also isn't terrible. Especially considering that I suck at 'mock races' and am capable of alot more in real races. I went too hard for the first 4 minutes (was hoping I could hold it) and blew up some, but not completely. So. We'll see.

Now, it's time for build and serious workouts.

New Shoes!

Back at Bearathlon I won a gift certificate for a free pair of Saucony shoes. (Triathlons pay off soooo much better than cycling races.)

And I really wanted a pair of racing flats. SO I thought and discussed and thought and consulted and then I ordered the Saucony Type A2.

And yesterday they showed up!!!



But first I had to wait. And wait and wait. I had a UPS sticker on my door on Tuesday. So yesterday when we got back a little before noon I figured I do some work on my computer and wait so I didn't have to go all the way to the UPS store later. So finally at 1:30 the UPS truck pulls up in front. And I wait. And wait. And no one comes in. So I walk out with my sticker and am all (super nice) 'excuse me' and the guy says, 'oh yeah, I think you're my next delivery after lunch. will you be home?' well, i geuss i will now.

So I waited. And waited. And just sat and fucking waited some more. Finally at 2:40 he comes and hands me my shoes. Sigh

But they are wonderful, wonderful. So light and soft and it feels like htere's nothing on my feet but in a good way. I wore them around the house, then I carefully took them off and put them back in the box. I'm going to be sad when they get dirty from racing.

This Week's Training Problem Is....

Should I do Icebreaker or not??

I was planning on it. Pros: It's fun, good open water practice this early, and it's close. Cons: (besides the super sketchy 2nd lap of the bike where I spent 20 minutes yelling, 'on your left, move' over and over and over) It's farther now that we'll be living in Marin. But, more importantly, Steve will be going to Madera and as much fun as being a groupie in 100 degree heat is, I wasn't going to go BUT, BUT he has to take the car to get down there. Which, despite me getting my license finally today doesn't mean we'll have a car.

So, I could hope to find a ride, figure out another way to get there, or go down and do Madera Stage Race. I mean why not, I've never done a crit before.

Also, the Physical Therapist is worried I might have a stress fracture in my hip. So that would be great.

Taking Care of Business

Went for a nice, short, 3 mile run this morning (still having hip problems....) and my abs revolted. I know I did some core work last week, but they were so sore I thought I was going to throw up. It's probably good I'm on a rest week.

Heading to Masters tonight before my gym membership runs out on Monday. Then I'll have to find somewhere new in Marin.

No one Likes Base

This weekend finished up my three months of base. It's been fun. Kinda. Not.

Looking back over my calendar for March, it was a pretty stupid month. I didn't take enough rest days (one), there are way too many notes about being tired (I haven't been sleeping well a few nights this month; just stupid tossing and turning and laying there staring at the ceiling. Saturday night was another one of those nights), and as a result there was way too many kinda useless workouts, like 2000y of easy swimming where I was so exhausted I thought I was going to fall asleep in the pool. Now that didn't really serve a purpose did it?

It hasn't been a great month in general, what with the no good, looking for jobs, accepting a job, having them rescind the offer, looking for jobs more and general craziness of the last 3 or 4 weeks. It wasn't good for training either. Sure I had lots of time, but I was cranky and tired and stressed out and not having a whole lot of fun.

Now, I have a new job. Yay! I'm moving to Marin (which will also be a little stressful) and I'm hoping to get focused with my workouts.

I just need to find the good biking and running routes around San Rafael and a good Masters program to swim with. And then everything will be set.

More About Running

I came into triathlon as a runner. Sure I lied and said I swam because I didn't want to be put in the lane with the people that needed floaties, but I was a runner.

Now, I can't finish 6 miles without having to stop and strecth my hip.

After the wonderfulness that was the 5K this past weekend, I went for my long run on Tuesday. And no, no it just wasn't happening. My hip started to hurt around 4 miles, I stopped and stretched and decided to turn around. I geuss it's more important right now not to hurt myself.

But I'm mad. Very mad. Being able to run 6 miles is key to this whole triathlon thing.

And this really is not going to be another season of 54 minute 10Ks or finishes where it takes me 10 minutes to do the last 1.2 miles. Here is a picture of me from Nationals last year, where 30 people passed me on the run. Do I look happy?



Not, not happy about this whole running thing.

On another note, I'm moving to Marin. I got a new job working for the California First Amendment Coalition. Also, there has been some talk (yes, I also read lots of triathlon blogs but don't comment. I geuss I'm kinda a stalker) about how just training focused blogs kind of suck. Too bad, this is my training-focused blog. My fun blog is on my website: KellyDunleavy.com. Go there!

Ah, remember cross country

So, I did the 5K yesterday and it went pretty well. Turns out I won my age group. But I'm not really sure how.

I did the 5K in 20:33 and passed the 3 mile mark at 19:40. Not only is that a pretty good pace, and as good as I could have expected, but it's also pretty close to as fast as I ran in high school We did the 3 mile in cross country and I tried to link to an article from the local paper about one of our races, but you have to buy the article so :P

What was really amazing is that all my memories of cross-country are of it being SOOOO long, you just had so much time to think about how horrible it was. And it hurt SOOO much. I'm pretty sure nearly every race I kinda fell over, threw up some.

But yesterday, it was just so short. I didn't even really have time to register that shit hurt and then it was done and I was like 'oh, oops'. I kind of crossed the finish line and was like, umm, i geuss I could run another 3 miles at that pace. I probably should have gone faster then.

To 5K or Not to 5K

I'm suppose to do the Sham rock'n 5K tomorrow. To start building speed again and all that.

But the hip is still a little tender.

I don't know. I don't know.

Even if I can do it, it probably won't go well. I don't know

Oh no!

I did my long run Tuesday. And it was bad. Not good.

My hip started hurting, started doing the feeling like the bones were rubbing together thing. I kept running and it kept hurting. It started in my right knee and just moved up my leg.

I cut the run a little short and then walked the last little bit that would have been on cement so I wouldn't hurt myself anymore. But it was still more painful than it's been in a year. The one point where I had to run down the levee and then back up, tiny little uphill/downhill, was awful. I was practically limping, dragging my leg.

So, this isn't good.

It was still sore and difficult to walk yesterday, but I biked the last two days and it feels a little better. I'm hoping this was just one of those things. Because if it wasn't, well, it's going to be hard to do triathlon if I can't run again.

Very not happy about this.

Team Time Trial

I have no immune system. It's true. I had mono for a year and since then....Now, every sniffle turns into tuberculosis. I've had bronchitis twice. And I'm pretty much the most tired person you'll ever meet, despite the fact that I sleep about 9 hours/night.

You would think a doctor might be concerned about this. But they all tell me 'oh, it's just a cold, rest up and it'll go away'. (yes, i'm not really a hospital/doctor fan. We don't talk about it.) I'm pretty sure I have some immuno defiency disorder or chronic fatigue or something.

The point is: a sore throat a week ago turned into horrible congestion turned into an awful cough and I couldn't bring myself to move most of this week. Did almost NO training. But I had already promised and signed up for the Berkeley Team Time Trial with Steve, in the coed division.

This is a picture of the race from last year: (I don't know if you can tell how much I'm grimacing)



Last year, we got third with a a 50:07 effort. This year we got 10th with 49:49. Little bit tougher competition. Little bit.

It was hard. I dropped my chain on one of the uphill-downhills and had to get off my bike. I hit Steve's wheel a couple times, but one time it nearly knocked me off my bike. By halfway through I was having a horrible time breathing again, my lungs have been burning what with the coughing, and I was gasping and hacking. (Spent 10 minutes after the finish coughing so hard I threw up a little in my mouth.)

But most annoying: My threshold is 200W, that's pretty much what I can hold for an hour. But the whole race it said I was doing 230, 240.

I thought I was doing GREAT. I was amazed; I was so excited; I thought we were going SOOOOO fast and I was going SOOO hard. SO even when I started to die a little, down to 200-210W I thought that was still good. Then it was only after the race that I realized when I was coasting at 0W, it was reading from 40 to 100. So my whole powermeter was off and I wasn't really going SO hard. Damn. Damn. Damn.

But I'm not sure I could have gone much harder. I was getting a little wobbly/dizzy and having a bad time breathing. At one point the pieces of glass on the side of the road were glistening in the sun, but I though I was seeing spots.

Isn't biking fun.

Also, Levi was there. He did the team time trial by himself. And won. By 3 minutes.

NyQuil

I took alot of Nyquil last night and passed out. Which was good.

So I slept more than I have recently. But I still don't feel great today. Went to go on a long run, but made it 1.5 miles and then just couldn't stop sneezing and wheezing.

What to do when you're not feeling well? And last week was a rest week. sigh. i don't think I'm really getting the base I should be.

So Stuffed Up

I'm very very congested today.

I haven't been able to sleep well in a few days. There were some nights of just restlessness and then the past two nights and being really stuffed up.

Now, I just feel pretty compressed, like my head is being smooshed in. So I'm thinking the 8.5 mile run I had on the schedule may not happen today.

Night Swimming

In less than a week, there will be no more having to swim in the dark. Yay!

To celebrate, I went and swam in the dark last night. Just so I can remember how horrible it really is biking home on the pitch-black bike path, wet and cold, when a skunk runs in front of your bike and a strange guy starts talking to you in Spanish.

It looks like this:


Daylight Savings will be awesome.

Resting

I didn't sleep well again last night. Something about rest weeks and not training and thinking too much.

Last week, my boss asked if racing got easier with training and didn't even hurt eventually. That reminded me of the summer my friend and I trained so hard for cross-country. I was convinced that if I trained this hard then the races wouldn't hurt, I'd be able to do the same times without hurting.

It didn't really work that way, though.