Yep, a day early - 'cuz I finished all my swim/run/bike workouts for the week. I decided to get the trainer ride out of the way after the group run this morning, so tomorrow I can take a bit of a break from the cardio. I don't feel like I really got a rest day this past week - Thursday was, kinda, but I still did pilates class. I was supposed to do my weekly brick on Thursday night but got home from work two hours late. Blech. Thursday night would be the best possible time to do a brick, with Friday as a rest day, but so far since I made that decision I've had to work late every Thursday. Next week I *should* get home early enough to actually try it out!
So that brick workout actually happened Friday evening. Not the best idea. I felt its effects this morning during the group run, but I was still able to bust out 9 miles at my usual long run pace. It just felt a wee bit less easy than usual. At least today's route was relatively flat or it might've been more painful.
I really need that day off tomorrow. My BFF and I are getting together for brunch, which will definitely include some form of alcohol. She wants the place with the bloody mary bar; I want the place with bottomless mimosas. We'll see what happens. :) I will most likely do yin yoga tomorrow, too, but since I practically fall asleep in that class, I believe I can still count it as a rest day and not really a workout!
My calves still like to tie themselves in knots. Hence the yin. I also have two groupons for massages. I need to get on scheduling one, stat. Zensah sleeves have saved me this week, though.
I'm proud of myself because this is the first week that I've completely followed the IM training plan. I haven't even started it yet - I will in two weeks - but the past month has been me trying to figure out how to fit in the multiple workouts (4 runs, 3 bikes, 2 swims to start), and what days are best for what exercise without burning myself out. And I think I've got it. I even worked overtime this week (don't even get me started on how crazy work is right now), had a doctor's appointment (routine), fit in all the workouts, and I don't feel tired or overtrained or burned out. On the contrary, I'm surprised at how much energy I have. I feel like I could do more. I'm NOT, because I WILL end up tired/overtrained/burned out, but that gives me real confidence in my training plan. Heck, I'm even taking the run part of the IM plan up a notch with the Pig training. It's still alllll good.
And everyone at my OB/GYN's office wished me luck on the Ironman. :)
So here are the numbers:
Monday: ran 6.5 miles in 1:04:02, swam some randomish intervals (50's and 400's) for a total of 2000 yd in 51:36
Tuesday: 45 minute spin class, swam 2450 straight in 1:00:38 (wanted to see how far I could swim in an hour)
Wednesday: group run - fartleks - 1.5 mile w/u and c/d with 10x.25 intervals. Total of 6.64 miles in 1:02:47.
Thursday: 1 hour pilates class
Friday: brick: 30 minutes on the trainer, 3.84 mile run in 39:46
Saturday: 9.17 mile group run in 1:30:09, 1:00 on the trainer (easy effort with a few hard intervals and some high rpm/low resistance efforts thrown in)
Tomorrow: yin yoga class, 1:30
Totals:
Swim: 4450 yd in 1:52:14
Bike: 2:15
Run: 26.15 miles in 4:16:44 (Hey, I'd be thrilled with that as a marathon time!!)
Yoga/Pilates: 2:30
Total time: 10:53:58 woohoo!
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Sunday, January 22, 2012
week in review, 1/16-1/22
Blech. I hate 4-day work weeks. It's basically all of the mental effort of 5 days but crammed into 4. I had longer hours than usual so it was harder to find time for workouts, and way harder than usual to find energy for them. So I cut myself a little slack all week. I ended up working out on my rest day because I felt guilty about skipping a brick workout (due to working later than planned). The next morning (yesterday) was a group run day but we got hit by an overnight ice storm. Let me make it perfectly clear that I still would've been up for running - and I was wide awake, watching the news reports and then walking outside to check out my street - but after I discovered that my street was a skating rink and realized that I wasn't sure if they had de-iced my neighborhood (with its narrow streets that people love to park on), I decided it wasn't worth the risk of driving that morning. Nor was it worth the risk of running solo in my 'hood on the iciness. And I decided it would be a fantastic pajama/do-nothing day.
And my long trainer ride this weekend? It got lost in the shuffle. And I didn't do yoga today. I'm feeling a little crotchety about working out in general, and I think it's because I'm tired (not only due to work, but because I did two HARD runs this week) and because my routine got totally effed up. My OCD does not do well when my routine is effed up.
Next week will be better, and this week wasn't even bad, just lower on the swim/bike than I would like. I can't wait until I can do both outside, but in the meantime, I need to motivate myself to do the repetitive boring stuff.
On the run front, though, I rocked. Monday's run was a group run in honor of MLK day. It was a cool route, downtown where we got to see some of the MLK festivities and hear his speech being played in fountain square while we ran. It was also a fast group, where only one person ran my pace, and I had to try pretty hard to keep up. In the process, I realized that I can run faster than I think. I mean, I ran faster than my 10k pace, even though the route was hilly and we hit some high winds and rain for part of it. And it wasn't awful!! And then I again rocked a hilly run when we did bridge repeats in the Wednesday group. I didn't watch the Garmin (it was dark anyway), just held a good, hard tempo pace, and I was happy with the results.
M - ran 6.87 miles in 1:05:05, 1:30 yin yoga/philosophy class (good stuff!)
T - 30 minutes on the bike trainer, low resistance, 100+ RPM
W - ran 6 miles including bridge repeats in...wait for it....56:41. Yes, I crossed the Ohio River 6 times (the hills on the bridges are nothing to sneeze at) and still held a sub-9:30 pace!
Thurs - swam 2000 yd in 46:30, 1 hour pilates class
F - brick, 30 minutes easy on the trainer, 30 minute easy run (2.93 miles)
Sat - ice storm, lazy day
Sun - group make-up run, 8.09 miles in 1:20:10
Totals:
swim: 2000 yd in 46:30
bike: 1:00
run: 23.89 miles in 3:51:56
yoga/pilates: 2:30
Total time: 8:08:26
And my long trainer ride this weekend? It got lost in the shuffle. And I didn't do yoga today. I'm feeling a little crotchety about working out in general, and I think it's because I'm tired (not only due to work, but because I did two HARD runs this week) and because my routine got totally effed up. My OCD does not do well when my routine is effed up.
Next week will be better, and this week wasn't even bad, just lower on the swim/bike than I would like. I can't wait until I can do both outside, but in the meantime, I need to motivate myself to do the repetitive boring stuff.
On the run front, though, I rocked. Monday's run was a group run in honor of MLK day. It was a cool route, downtown where we got to see some of the MLK festivities and hear his speech being played in fountain square while we ran. It was also a fast group, where only one person ran my pace, and I had to try pretty hard to keep up. In the process, I realized that I can run faster than I think. I mean, I ran faster than my 10k pace, even though the route was hilly and we hit some high winds and rain for part of it. And it wasn't awful!! And then I again rocked a hilly run when we did bridge repeats in the Wednesday group. I didn't watch the Garmin (it was dark anyway), just held a good, hard tempo pace, and I was happy with the results.
M - ran 6.87 miles in 1:05:05, 1:30 yin yoga/philosophy class (good stuff!)
T - 30 minutes on the bike trainer, low resistance, 100+ RPM
W - ran 6 miles including bridge repeats in...wait for it....56:41. Yes, I crossed the Ohio River 6 times (the hills on the bridges are nothing to sneeze at) and still held a sub-9:30 pace!
Thurs - swam 2000 yd in 46:30, 1 hour pilates class
F - brick, 30 minutes easy on the trainer, 30 minute easy run (2.93 miles)
Sat - ice storm, lazy day
Sun - group make-up run, 8.09 miles in 1:20:10
Totals:
swim: 2000 yd in 46:30
bike: 1:00
run: 23.89 miles in 3:51:56
yoga/pilates: 2:30
Total time: 8:08:26
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
week in review, 1/08-1/15
I'm going to attempt to at least keep these posts going - a review of the past week's training, along with any interesting info or words of wisdom that I've got (or not!)
This past week's goal was to try to get used to the number/frequency of workouts on the ironman training plan, trying to figure out how to best schedule them, what works, what doesn't. And even more difficult than the actual working out is the TIME MANAGEMENT. Fortunately, I've honed my skills in this area quite a bit - I have a job that demands it - but I'm getting used to managing my time better, in all areas of my life, so that nothing suffers.
I had a really good week as far as that goes. A few things I've started doing:
-prepare as much as possible in advance. That means packing my lunch, packing my gym bag, programming the coffee maker, etc. the night before.
-overestimate the amount of time things will take. I'm VERY good at planning as if I have about 10 more minutes than I really do. The end result is that by default, I'm 10 minutes off from the rest of the world, and then as more and more things make me later and later, then I'm pretty much a spazz by the end of the day.
So last week was pretty much the perfect balance of work, working out, relaxing, social time, etc. I had lots of energy without being really tired (except when I squeezed a swim, a hilly tempo run, and a brick into a 24-hour period....hello, dead legs!) Hopefully in the near future I can quit working late on Thursday nights so that I can do the brick workout then. Thursday morning is too close to the Wednesday night group run (which is usually a butt-kicker) and Friday evening is a bit close to the Saturday AM long run.
This week may be a bit harder to get as much in....four day workweeks are evil for me. It's basically like taking 5 days and cramming them into 4, but I'll do my best with it.
Last week:
M - AM - 5.25 mile run in 52:24. PM - 1600 yd swim in 38:15
T - 45 minute spin class
W - AM - swim speedwork, 1200 yd in 33:17 (but all my 50 yd intervals were under a minute) PM - hilly 5.95 mile run in 58:56
Th - evil brick - 20 minutes on the trainer, 2.95 mile run in 30:44 (my legs were SHOT!)
F- REST!
Sat - 7.58 mile group run in 1:15:27
Sun - 1:15 on the trainer, moderate effort. I got aerobars so I did some intervals in aero position to try to get used to them a bit.
Totals:
swim - 2800 yd in 1:11:32
bike - 2:20
run - 21.73 miles in 3:37:31
Total time: 8:09:03
(PS - I'm trying to log my workouts on beginnertriathlete.com too. It gives me a cool little graph; only issue is a week, on BT, starts on Sunday and in my mind, a training week starts on Monday.)
Anyway, if you're interested, here's my BT training log:
http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/training/index-weekly.asp?type=week&year=2012&month=1&memberid=253153
This past week's goal was to try to get used to the number/frequency of workouts on the ironman training plan, trying to figure out how to best schedule them, what works, what doesn't. And even more difficult than the actual working out is the TIME MANAGEMENT. Fortunately, I've honed my skills in this area quite a bit - I have a job that demands it - but I'm getting used to managing my time better, in all areas of my life, so that nothing suffers.
I had a really good week as far as that goes. A few things I've started doing:
-prepare as much as possible in advance. That means packing my lunch, packing my gym bag, programming the coffee maker, etc. the night before.
-overestimate the amount of time things will take. I'm VERY good at planning as if I have about 10 more minutes than I really do. The end result is that by default, I'm 10 minutes off from the rest of the world, and then as more and more things make me later and later, then I'm pretty much a spazz by the end of the day.
So last week was pretty much the perfect balance of work, working out, relaxing, social time, etc. I had lots of energy without being really tired (except when I squeezed a swim, a hilly tempo run, and a brick into a 24-hour period....hello, dead legs!) Hopefully in the near future I can quit working late on Thursday nights so that I can do the brick workout then. Thursday morning is too close to the Wednesday night group run (which is usually a butt-kicker) and Friday evening is a bit close to the Saturday AM long run.
This week may be a bit harder to get as much in....four day workweeks are evil for me. It's basically like taking 5 days and cramming them into 4, but I'll do my best with it.
Last week:
M - AM - 5.25 mile run in 52:24. PM - 1600 yd swim in 38:15
T - 45 minute spin class
W - AM - swim speedwork, 1200 yd in 33:17 (but all my 50 yd intervals were under a minute) PM - hilly 5.95 mile run in 58:56
Th - evil brick - 20 minutes on the trainer, 2.95 mile run in 30:44 (my legs were SHOT!)
F- REST!
Sat - 7.58 mile group run in 1:15:27
Sun - 1:15 on the trainer, moderate effort. I got aerobars so I did some intervals in aero position to try to get used to them a bit.
Totals:
swim - 2800 yd in 1:11:32
bike - 2:20
run - 21.73 miles in 3:37:31
Total time: 8:09:03
(PS - I'm trying to log my workouts on beginnertriathlete.com too. It gives me a cool little graph; only issue is a week, on BT, starts on Sunday and in my mind, a training week starts on Monday.)
Anyway, if you're interested, here's my BT training log:
http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/training/index-weekly.asp?type=week&year=2012&month=1&memberid=253153
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Happy new year, ironman training, and week in review!
Phew. The holidays got a little busy for a minute there. I wasn't super healthy about eating (but who is around that time??) and I took a break from holding myself to any sort of training expectations. As it turns out, what happens when I do that is that I run a lot and pretty much do nothing else - although part of that was the unseasonably warm weather we had (shorts less than a week before Christmas - for a night run??) and some lovely off-season group runs that were going on. I had totally forgotten how awesome it is running with a group, and I've made some new friends now who run my pace. Oh, and right before Christmas I did my first ever pub run, which included drinks and a giant hill. Yes, drinking during the run. It's not as crazy as it sounds. It's crazier.
My pace, by the way, has now pretty consistently landed in the sub-10 category, even over hills (just not insane ones), and that IS my conversational pace, which I now know for sure because I've been holding actual conversations. This makes me happy. Running lately has felt great (with the exception of one bad run) and I know it won't ALWAYS be this way, but I'm trying to enjoy the strong, born-to-run feeling.
So the first week of 2012 brought me back into the game. Well, the first day was an off day because I may have been a little hungover to exercise. (I tried to get on the trainer, but lifting my head made me too woozy.) BUT I rallied hardcore for the first week of the year. I brought back biking this week. Next week, I need to reintroduce myself to the pool.
I'm working on getting with a swim coach for a little extra help in that area. I don't care so much that I'm a slow swimmer, but I'd like to be more efficient at least. And, ok, maybe not dead last anymore.
I have new year's resolutions that relate to exercise. I think I've mentioned it before, but I'm a bit opposite of a lot of people. I don't need motivation to exercise. I need motivation to calm the eff down. So my resolution is to go easy on myself, NOT keep trying to add on to exercise plans, and not try to deplete every ounce of energy I have. So this past week I didn't do everything I wanted, and I had the energy to channel into some other things I needed to do. (I have another new year's resolution to get more organized. Yeesh.)
I found an IM training plan - there are a few in Don Fink's book "Be Iron Fit" that are quite doable. I'm going to try for the competitive plan. It's not too bad - it starts out at 6 hours a week of training and tops out at 20, but only for one week. The heaviest training is during the summer when I'm least busy at work and have the most daylight to train in. However, I also have the option of dropping down to the Intermediate program if that turns out to be too much. There's also a a "Just Finish" plan but it tops out at 10 hours a week and I can't imagine feeling ready to tackle 140.6 on that.
They're all 30 week programs, which means I'll start sometime in February. I'm thinking of tweaking it so that I have a week off after the Pig and maybe a week off after the 70.3, even though a half ironman is actually built into the training (but it's like a week or two off if I do Muncie.)
In the meantime, I'm easing myself into the schedule. It's pretty easy to follow: 3 runs, 2 bikes, 1 brick (bike/run) and 2 swims a week (with a third weekly swim added in week 11.) I'm following the pig group training plan for the 3 runs, which will put me a bit over for the running part of the IM plan, but I'm going to try to follow the rest of it as exactly as I can, and stick with what the plan says for running in the aftermath of the Pig (right about when the workouts start getting looooong!) So working with the group runs and my work schedule, here's what looks like the best way to do it:
M - run AM/swim PM
T - bike AM (spin class) <--this is my long work day, so no PM workout
W - swim AM/run PM
Th - brick
F - off
Sat - long run
Sun - long bike
It gets tweaked weekly as my work schedule changes, but for the most part I can stick pretty closely to it.
And here's how my first week went - like I said, I didn't get back in the pool yet, but that's part of the "easing into it" thing. Plus, I was on call all week and that never works well with swimming.
M - AM 45 minutes on the bike trainer, moderate effort. PM 5.25 mile run.
T - :50 spin class
W - 6.11 mile run
Th - off (crazy work day)
F - brick: :30 on the trainer, 3.06 mile run (:30)
Sat - 6 mile run, first run of the Pig training group!
Sun - 1:00 on the trainer (moderate effort with some climbs and sprints thrown in after I figured out it was gonna get boring) and 1:30 yin yoga class. <---needed that. I've gotten some random twinges from the right calf lately. They feel like muscle or tendon. Interestingly enough, they predominately come NOT when I'm running or even walking on it, but sitting there doing nothing. Running is still fine, and they seem to be better the more I run. Not concerned yet.
Totals:
Bike: 3:05
Run: 20.42 miles (arrgh, my OCD hates that)
Yoga: 1:30
Total time: appx 8 hours
My pace, by the way, has now pretty consistently landed in the sub-10 category, even over hills (just not insane ones), and that IS my conversational pace, which I now know for sure because I've been holding actual conversations. This makes me happy. Running lately has felt great (with the exception of one bad run) and I know it won't ALWAYS be this way, but I'm trying to enjoy the strong, born-to-run feeling.
So the first week of 2012 brought me back into the game. Well, the first day was an off day because I may have been a little hungover to exercise. (I tried to get on the trainer, but lifting my head made me too woozy.) BUT I rallied hardcore for the first week of the year. I brought back biking this week. Next week, I need to reintroduce myself to the pool.
I'm working on getting with a swim coach for a little extra help in that area. I don't care so much that I'm a slow swimmer, but I'd like to be more efficient at least. And, ok, maybe not dead last anymore.
I have new year's resolutions that relate to exercise. I think I've mentioned it before, but I'm a bit opposite of a lot of people. I don't need motivation to exercise. I need motivation to calm the eff down. So my resolution is to go easy on myself, NOT keep trying to add on to exercise plans, and not try to deplete every ounce of energy I have. So this past week I didn't do everything I wanted, and I had the energy to channel into some other things I needed to do. (I have another new year's resolution to get more organized. Yeesh.)
I found an IM training plan - there are a few in Don Fink's book "Be Iron Fit" that are quite doable. I'm going to try for the competitive plan. It's not too bad - it starts out at 6 hours a week of training and tops out at 20, but only for one week. The heaviest training is during the summer when I'm least busy at work and have the most daylight to train in. However, I also have the option of dropping down to the Intermediate program if that turns out to be too much. There's also a a "Just Finish" plan but it tops out at 10 hours a week and I can't imagine feeling ready to tackle 140.6 on that.
They're all 30 week programs, which means I'll start sometime in February. I'm thinking of tweaking it so that I have a week off after the Pig and maybe a week off after the 70.3, even though a half ironman is actually built into the training (but it's like a week or two off if I do Muncie.)
In the meantime, I'm easing myself into the schedule. It's pretty easy to follow: 3 runs, 2 bikes, 1 brick (bike/run) and 2 swims a week (with a third weekly swim added in week 11.) I'm following the pig group training plan for the 3 runs, which will put me a bit over for the running part of the IM plan, but I'm going to try to follow the rest of it as exactly as I can, and stick with what the plan says for running in the aftermath of the Pig (right about when the workouts start getting looooong!) So working with the group runs and my work schedule, here's what looks like the best way to do it:
M - run AM/swim PM
T - bike AM (spin class) <--this is my long work day, so no PM workout
W - swim AM/run PM
Th - brick
F - off
Sat - long run
Sun - long bike
It gets tweaked weekly as my work schedule changes, but for the most part I can stick pretty closely to it.
And here's how my first week went - like I said, I didn't get back in the pool yet, but that's part of the "easing into it" thing. Plus, I was on call all week and that never works well with swimming.
M - AM 45 minutes on the bike trainer, moderate effort. PM 5.25 mile run.
T - :50 spin class
W - 6.11 mile run
Th - off (crazy work day)
F - brick: :30 on the trainer, 3.06 mile run (:30)
Sat - 6 mile run, first run of the Pig training group!
Sun - 1:00 on the trainer (moderate effort with some climbs and sprints thrown in after I figured out it was gonna get boring) and 1:30 yin yoga class. <---needed that. I've gotten some random twinges from the right calf lately. They feel like muscle or tendon. Interestingly enough, they predominately come NOT when I'm running or even walking on it, but sitting there doing nothing. Running is still fine, and they seem to be better the more I run. Not concerned yet.
Totals:
Bike: 3:05
Run: 20.42 miles (arrgh, my OCD hates that)
Yoga: 1:30
Total time: appx 8 hours
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