Monday: Ran less than a mile. Found out this knee isn't in working order yet.
Tuesday: Swam half a mile with the pull buoy.
Wednesday: Rest
Thursday: Swam half a mile with the pull buoy. Had Tracy look at my knee, she thinks its ITBS and has me doing a lot of work to fix it up.
Friday: Swam a mile with the pull buoy, more below. Ab workout in the evening.
Saturday: Swam a mile with the pull buoy.
Sunday: Rest day, pool is closed for Easter. Boo!
Total run: 0.77 miles
Total bike: 0 miles
Total swim: 3 miles
------------------------------------------
Despite the disappointment early in the week when I found out my knee wasn't better, my attitude has really taken a turn for the better these past couple days. Why? Its the swimming.
This injury is from biking or running, or some combination of the two. Which leaves me right where I should be anyways: in the pool. With regards to triathlons, I have no worries about the running. Thats what I do. It's what I'm good at. My biking has some room for improvement, but I can tough through a bike ride. I've done it in the past and I can do it again.
Swimming is where I need the work. I haven't even completed the race distance yet in the pool, but I've done so several times with the bike and run. The pool is where progress is going to be made. Not just in terms of time, but in terms of being able to finish a race.
So I hit the pool. I swam with TNT using that damn pull buoy for a half a mile two days. I hated it. Each time, though, my knee felt better afterwards. It was like a 30 minute ice bath.
Then I mixed things up: I swam on my own, without the team. I swam when I had no obligation to do so. I swam for me, and it was amazing! I actually enjoyed it. I got in the pool with an intent of pulling 300 yards non-stop, which would have been tied for my longest yet, but after a several week break. Bam! 300 yards. Then I kept going: 350, 400, 450, 500.
I stopped at 500, but was starting to "get it." I started to see what it meant to be in the zone while swimming. If I swam too fast, I could simply slow down to recover, rather than needing to stop. I was able to fade out, but have my body do what I've taught it these past several months.
Next week? Lots of swimming. I'm going to focus all my energy on it. Once I can swim without the pull buoy, I'll think about giving running a shot again. Until then, I got a date with the foam roller!
Showing posts with label Progress. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Progress. Show all posts
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Monday, February 25, 2008
Conquering my Fears, Pushing my Limits
This morning my alarm decided to go off right in the middle of a REM cycle. The result? I woke up feeling groggy and slow. I checked the weather, since yesterday it was forecast to be about 40 degrees and sunny. Not so much. Try 31 degrees and cloudy. Now, normally I draw the line at 35 degrees for riding outside, but I decided to suck it up. What's four degrees?
I was loading the bike up on my car to head out to the country to ride, when a prissy looking sorority girl walked by me. She gave me a look that distinctly said "Oh my god, don't you know its totally like the arctic out here like?!"
Once I got out there, the ride started out like any other. The game plan was 21 miles, as usual. I had a strong focus on cadence, I worked a little bit on riding with one hand to learn better balance to make nutrition easier, I tried to keep my heart rate below 160. You know, the usual stuff.
Right when I was finishing up, though, something happened. The parking lot was to my left, but there was all this road ahead of me.
Forget it. I'm not done yet. Not today. I have unfinished business out here today. I have fears to conquer. I have limits to beat into the ground. I'm not turning in yet.
That decision was huge. Why? Let's recall the last time I rode 30+ miles. I bonked. Hard. At points I was debating calling someone to give me directions back to town, because my group had dropped me ages ago. After somehow finishing, I was demolished for the rest of the weekend. My legs were dead, my ass hurt like nobody's ass should ever hurt, my energy was completely drained miles before I even finished that ride.
I've had every reason to fear the distance. It left me raw and exposed to the elements, and left my limits laying all over the road. I knew the moment I decided to keep going, I might be in for the exact same mess all over again.
I was ready for it.
It never happened. I stayed strong the entire time. Not once did I feel like I was in over my head. Not once did I consider stopping.
Afterwards, my legs feel fine. My ass doesn't hurt. I've been completely functional all day; it had no effect whatsoever on my energy level. If this isn't progress, I don't know what is.
Here are the numbers for the day:
Distance: 30.99 miles
Time: 1:49:29
Speed: 17.0 MPH
Cadence: 96 rpm
HR: 157 bpm
Garmin Data
It's good to be back to my healthy self.
I was loading the bike up on my car to head out to the country to ride, when a prissy looking sorority girl walked by me. She gave me a look that distinctly said "Oh my god, don't you know its totally like the arctic out here like?!"
Once I got out there, the ride started out like any other. The game plan was 21 miles, as usual. I had a strong focus on cadence, I worked a little bit on riding with one hand to learn better balance to make nutrition easier, I tried to keep my heart rate below 160. You know, the usual stuff.
Right when I was finishing up, though, something happened. The parking lot was to my left, but there was all this road ahead of me.
Forget it. I'm not done yet. Not today. I have unfinished business out here today. I have fears to conquer. I have limits to beat into the ground. I'm not turning in yet.
That decision was huge. Why? Let's recall the last time I rode 30+ miles. I bonked. Hard. At points I was debating calling someone to give me directions back to town, because my group had dropped me ages ago. After somehow finishing, I was demolished for the rest of the weekend. My legs were dead, my ass hurt like nobody's ass should ever hurt, my energy was completely drained miles before I even finished that ride.
I've had every reason to fear the distance. It left me raw and exposed to the elements, and left my limits laying all over the road. I knew the moment I decided to keep going, I might be in for the exact same mess all over again.
I was ready for it.
It never happened. I stayed strong the entire time. Not once did I feel like I was in over my head. Not once did I consider stopping.
Afterwards, my legs feel fine. My ass doesn't hurt. I've been completely functional all day; it had no effect whatsoever on my energy level. If this isn't progress, I don't know what is.
Here are the numbers for the day:
Distance: 30.99 miles
Time: 1:49:29
Speed: 17.0 MPH
Cadence: 96 rpm
HR: 157 bpm
Garmin Data
It's good to be back to my healthy self.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Snow Day, Swimming, & Progress
Okay, so its not an official snow day with the university, but its close. This morning class was canceled, and the corresponding exam was postponed due to the insane amounts of sleet/ice we got last night.
The snow started around 6 last night, but then close to 11 it switched over to ice. All. Night. Long. It is still spitting ice right now, but it should be switching over to rain fairly soon according to the radar and temperature.
My run this morning is going to get postponed a little bit, as well. Rather than slipping, falling, and breaking my hip I thought I'd wait a few hours and let the rain melt some of this stuff off. Sounds like a good idea, right? I think so! Although even if it doesn't switch to rain, you'll find me out there running in a little bit. I am NOT going to be a gerbil for 6 miles today!
In other news, my swim on Sunday was absolutely amazing. It started out so-so, with my coach telling me to work on the usual things: Don't turn so much to breathe, arms at 11 and 1, smaller breathes, relax your arms, etc, etc.
Then, it clicked. I don't know why or how, but I stopped turning so much to breathe; I didn't have to turn so far, it felt natural, I wasn't worried about swallowing water. My arms were relaxed, I was relaxed. I was finally confident enough to start an interval even when I was out of breathe. I was able to push myself in the pool, just like when I'm running.
Then, my swim coach said five words to me, "You look like a swimmer." I thought nothing of it. I'm in the water. Swimming back and forth. Of course I'm a swimmer.
Not so fast.
The two people in the lane next to me heard it too. They told me thats one of the biggest complements she gives. Both Ruth and Treacy can recall the first time Coach ever said those words to them. Pretty huge, huh?
Progress.
You know what progress does.
The snow started around 6 last night, but then close to 11 it switched over to ice. All. Night. Long. It is still spitting ice right now, but it should be switching over to rain fairly soon according to the radar and temperature.
My run this morning is going to get postponed a little bit, as well. Rather than slipping, falling, and breaking my hip I thought I'd wait a few hours and let the rain melt some of this stuff off. Sounds like a good idea, right? I think so! Although even if it doesn't switch to rain, you'll find me out there running in a little bit. I am NOT going to be a gerbil for 6 miles today!
In other news, my swim on Sunday was absolutely amazing. It started out so-so, with my coach telling me to work on the usual things: Don't turn so much to breathe, arms at 11 and 1, smaller breathes, relax your arms, etc, etc.
Then, it clicked. I don't know why or how, but I stopped turning so much to breathe; I didn't have to turn so far, it felt natural, I wasn't worried about swallowing water. My arms were relaxed, I was relaxed. I was finally confident enough to start an interval even when I was out of breathe. I was able to push myself in the pool, just like when I'm running.
Then, my swim coach said five words to me, "You look like a swimmer." I thought nothing of it. I'm in the water. Swimming back and forth. Of course I'm a swimmer.
Not so fast.
The two people in the lane next to me heard it too. They told me thats one of the biggest complements she gives. Both Ruth and Treacy can recall the first time Coach ever said those words to them. Pretty huge, huh?
Progress.
You know what progress does.
Friday, February 8, 2008
Staying Positive & Nutrition
Its amazing what 10 hours of sleep can do! I'm feeling quite a bit better today, although I still have a lingering headache, and I usually never get headaches. Hopefully it goes away sometime soon.
Last night I left out anything positive in my post, because, well, I was grouchy. So now, let me tell you about my ride that came before my hideous swim!
As usual on Thursday, TNT does a back to back bike-swim workout. It can really kick you in the face if you're not careful (I suppose I wasn't)! The ride (although on trainers) was outstanding. I was just in the zone. Jimbo, the guy leading the spin class, is a very experienced cyclist. I don't think theres many people who can keep up with this guy. He's full of tips that really, really pay off.
Last week he told us to take some time to spin with just one foot on the trainer, just to see where our 'dead spots' are. I started my workout this way so I knew what aspect of my spinning to focus on. It helped a lot. Then he told me to stay 'light on my feet.' Again, it helped me out big time. Another tip: 'drive your knees towards the handlebars,' again, my pedaling got smoother.
Towards the end I was pushing a cadence of 110 while staying completely smooth. A few people even commented on it, including Jimbo and my friend George who has completed several Ironmans. I'm hoping these skills will carry out onto the road when it really matters!
On a completely different note, I'm getting ready to send out letters & donation forms for Team in Training. Nancy, Bill, & Nic are already on my list. Does anybody else want to join the cool gang that gets letters? If you do, send me an email: TheRelentlessRunner at gmail dot com
Thanks everyone for your encouraging words last night and this morning! It definitely helped kick my funk!
Update: Rather than making a new post and continuing my posting frenzy, I thought I'd just append some nutrition stuff.
Friday is my shopping today, which means its my day to decide on new foods to add to my diet! From last week, I'm liking everything new I mixed in: raisins, tuna, eggs, and almonds. This week I went all out on new foods. Here's the list:
Last night I left out anything positive in my post, because, well, I was grouchy. So now, let me tell you about my ride that came before my hideous swim!
As usual on Thursday, TNT does a back to back bike-swim workout. It can really kick you in the face if you're not careful (I suppose I wasn't)! The ride (although on trainers) was outstanding. I was just in the zone. Jimbo, the guy leading the spin class, is a very experienced cyclist. I don't think theres many people who can keep up with this guy. He's full of tips that really, really pay off.
Last week he told us to take some time to spin with just one foot on the trainer, just to see where our 'dead spots' are. I started my workout this way so I knew what aspect of my spinning to focus on. It helped a lot. Then he told me to stay 'light on my feet.' Again, it helped me out big time. Another tip: 'drive your knees towards the handlebars,' again, my pedaling got smoother.
Towards the end I was pushing a cadence of 110 while staying completely smooth. A few people even commented on it, including Jimbo and my friend George who has completed several Ironmans. I'm hoping these skills will carry out onto the road when it really matters!
On a completely different note, I'm getting ready to send out letters & donation forms for Team in Training. Nancy, Bill, & Nic are already on my list. Does anybody else want to join the cool gang that gets letters? If you do, send me an email: TheRelentlessRunner at gmail dot com
Thanks everyone for your encouraging words last night and this morning! It definitely helped kick my funk!
Update: Rather than making a new post and continuing my posting frenzy, I thought I'd just append some nutrition stuff.
Friday is my shopping today, which means its my day to decide on new foods to add to my diet! From last week, I'm liking everything new I mixed in: raisins, tuna, eggs, and almonds. This week I went all out on new foods. Here's the list:
- Plain Yogurt
- Luna bars - Chuck has been talking about these lately. They're completely natural health bars. I noticed after I got home that they say "for women," but I ate one and everything is still in tact. Nothing new has sprouted either.
- Apples - I ate apples a lot last year, but I got a few bad batches in a row and stopped. Time to start again.
- Carrots - Needed veggies of some sort, I'm not a huge fan of carrots but I should be able to acquire a taste for them
- Real chicken breasts - As opposed to the pre-cooked crap I was getting before
- Taco stuff - Had to look everywhere to find tortillas without hydrogenated crap in them
- Organic eggs - Suggested by someone, thought I'd give them a shot. They're brown.
- Peanut butter and Jelly - Picked up some without high fructose corn syrup, that stuff is Satan's spawn. It's everywhere.
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Staying Honest
Yesterday I posted that I'm scratching my ultra-fast tempo runs. I'm replacing them with 'honest effort' runs where I run relatively hard, but still far from being an all out effort.
I know everybody is still going to call this "ultra fast," but I swear its not! The difference? Heart rate. On my previous tempo runs my heart rate would be 180-185 bpm; indicating I'm past my lactic threshold. Today, however, I kept my heart rate lower, 170-175 bpm. As a result, I still felt surprisingly fresh at the end, as opposed to wanting to keel over!
Call that my disclaimer. Call these the numbers:
7:37 (152 bpm, warmup)
6:43 (170 bpm, lets rock!)
6:28 (173 bpm)
6:23 (170 bpm)
6:11 (174 bpm)
6:58 (170 bpm, cooldown... sort of)
'Honest' HR: 172 bpm
'Honest' pace: 6:26/mile
Things I noticed:
I know everybody is still going to call this "ultra fast," but I swear its not! The difference? Heart rate. On my previous tempo runs my heart rate would be 180-185 bpm; indicating I'm past my lactic threshold. Today, however, I kept my heart rate lower, 170-175 bpm. As a result, I still felt surprisingly fresh at the end, as opposed to wanting to keel over!
Call that my disclaimer. Call these the numbers:
7:37 (152 bpm, warmup)
6:43 (170 bpm, lets rock!)
6:28 (173 bpm)
6:23 (170 bpm)
6:11 (174 bpm)
6:58 (170 bpm, cooldown... sort of)
'Honest' HR: 172 bpm
'Honest' pace: 6:26/mile
Things I noticed:
- Perfect negative splits. Every mile got faster. Right on!
- Very similar to my tempo run a few weeks ago, but I didn't have to work as hard!
- Running fast is fun!
- I always get 'velocitized' on quick runs, unless I go 100% all out. Its like getting off the express way and accidentally speeding through town. I tend to do that on cool downs. And when I get off the express way.
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Progress Across the Board!
Yeah, thats right! I used an exclamation point in the subject line, you know you're in for it today!
These past few days have spelled progress in all three sports. All of them! Remember the Driven post I had a few days ago? Yeah, the engine is going full steam! Here's the breakdown:
Swimming
Thursday night we did a bike-swim session with TNT. I rode my ass off on the trainer for about an hour, then headed straight for the pool (don't worry, I rinsed off!). I got in. It was just another day. Then my coach said five extremely obvious words that completely made things click: "relax your arms on recovery." Duh. Perfectly obvious, right?
Relax when you recover, so you can recover. As soon as I started doing this, it knocked my stroke count down to 14-15 per lap, even when I was swimming hard! The real kicker? Swimming got a lot easier. Its amazing how 5 words can change your life!
Running
This morning I headed out to Todd's Road to run with everybody. Once again, a new post-injury milestone: 8 miles, 100% pain free. I finished feeling completely fresh. I could have kept going, easily! However, I'm increasing nice and steady just to make sure I don't have a relapse, or cause some new injury. This was also my first run that lasted more than an hour (barely). Here's the numbers for today's run:
8:22
8:02
7:57
7:24
7:27
7:12
6:57
6:57
Avg HR: 163
Garmin data
Biking
I also had a new high average speed for biking! The kicker? I did it just a few hours after an 8 mile run. I set out with the intention of just riding really easy. The result? I paced myself better because I was focusing on high cadence rather than high speed! The wind was killer on the way back in, too, but I managed! Here's the stats:
Time: 1:12:24
Distance: 21.23 miles
Speed: 17.6 mph
Cadence: 93 rpm
HR: 160 bpm
Garmin Data
Needless to say. I'm revved up. Progress feeds the engine, right?
These past few days have spelled progress in all three sports. All of them! Remember the Driven post I had a few days ago? Yeah, the engine is going full steam! Here's the breakdown:
Swimming
Thursday night we did a bike-swim session with TNT. I rode my ass off on the trainer for about an hour, then headed straight for the pool (don't worry, I rinsed off!). I got in. It was just another day. Then my coach said five extremely obvious words that completely made things click: "relax your arms on recovery." Duh. Perfectly obvious, right?
Relax when you recover, so you can recover. As soon as I started doing this, it knocked my stroke count down to 14-15 per lap, even when I was swimming hard! The real kicker? Swimming got a lot easier. Its amazing how 5 words can change your life!
Running
This morning I headed out to Todd's Road to run with everybody. Once again, a new post-injury milestone: 8 miles, 100% pain free. I finished feeling completely fresh. I could have kept going, easily! However, I'm increasing nice and steady just to make sure I don't have a relapse, or cause some new injury. This was also my first run that lasted more than an hour (barely). Here's the numbers for today's run:
8:22
8:02
7:57
7:24
7:27
7:12
6:57
6:57
Avg HR: 163
Garmin data
Biking
I also had a new high average speed for biking! The kicker? I did it just a few hours after an 8 mile run. I set out with the intention of just riding really easy. The result? I paced myself better because I was focusing on high cadence rather than high speed! The wind was killer on the way back in, too, but I managed! Here's the stats:
Time: 1:12:24
Distance: 21.23 miles
Speed: 17.6 mph
Cadence: 93 rpm
HR: 160 bpm
Garmin Data
Needless to say. I'm revved up. Progress feeds the engine, right?
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