Biking to work

I biked to work today - in my attempt to get in two workouts of each type each week... I was reminded again of how timid a road biker I am, and also how out of biking shape I am!

The beginning of my ride starts with going down Queen Anne Ave, a super steep, long, busy road ... And I end up braking the whole way down, while worrying a car is going to turn into me any minute, or that I'll hit a hole/bump in the road (of which there are many), and go flying. Then I navigated across mercer, and finally made it to 2nd ave. I then take 2nd ave all the way through down town, till I can hop onto 90, and cross the water. Half way down 2nd ave, I realized there was a bike lane... on the left hand side of the street. I've biked here a lot, and always forget about it. There was an accident on the road today, so I got to whiz by all the stopped cars, backed up for blocks - that was pretty fun.

I then made it into the bridge, to find a delightful strong headwind pushing against me. Luckily I made it across w/o getting blown off the bridge, or into the cement barrier. I found the small hills on mercer island harder than I remembered them from last year - my poor legs. I finally made it to bellevue, and was sorta relieved to get off my bike... and Eat break fast! (because I wasn't smart enough to eat before heading out on a 15 mile bike ride).

So, hopefully by march, my bike to work will be much more enjoyable and less painful. Oh, and hopefully I'll do it more than twice a year also :).


Miles since kickoff:
run: 11.5 miles
swim: ~800 m
bike: 25.5 miles

Running

We had running practice again yesterday, and again, the weather was beautiful. well, I knew it was, cause at 4pm when the sun was still out, the sky was blue. By 7pm, it was pretty dark, and got even darker when the lights on the track turned off, but there was no rain, and I thought it was perfect running temperature. Cool enough that you don't get too hot, and not cold enough for my feet and hands to go numb.

We did a mile at a moderate pace - to get our times at 75% of our max heart rate. Near the end of training in February, we will do the same exercise, and hope that at that heart rate, our running speed has gone up... Then we did strides - down the straight part of the track, you speed up faster and faster, till max speed, while trying to keep up good running form. Then we get to recoup on the ends of the track.

It was a somewhat light workout, as we are still discussing form, and base building, but I think after thanksgiving they will begin getting more intense.

Miles since kickoff:
run: 11.5 miles
swim: ~800 m
bike: 11.5 miles

First rx crossfit!

I managed to fit in a crossfit workout before running today. And I did my first prescribed one! The workout was :

AMR in 20 min (as many rounds as possible)
5 pullups
10 pushups
15 squats

Usually I would do pullups in a rubber band, and pushups on my knees... But I had just learned the kipping pullup, and figured 5 was a small enough number I could suffer through it. I ended up doing 10 rounds. The pushups were not as hard as i had expected, though half way through I had to switch to break it up to 6 and 4...

At the end i looked down at my hands and saw I had totally ripped open both of them! I now have lovely flaps of skin hanging where I used to have calluses. wohoo!

first bike practice

Saturday was our first team bike practice. The team had a decent turn out, though almost half our tribe was missing. The weather was beautiful though - we woke up to a mostly blue sky, and all the leaves are still changing colors and glowing, and it was even warm through the ride. It couldn't have been nicer. A small group stayed with Cathy and worked on bike skills, like how to get your waterbottle while biking (I didn't know we should always use our left hand..), and the rest of us went out and back on the Burke Gilman trail. So it was a fairly easy practice - given that the trail is nice and flat :).

It was my first real bike ride on my new bike, and it felt good and smooth. So yay! Now I need to go out and buy a water bottle cage for it... and maybe some lights... Oh the tri shopping never ends.

According to my moms bike computer, we did about 11.5 miles.

Miles since kickoff:
run: 9 miles
swim: ~800 m
bike: 11.5 miles

Crossfit was hard today!

I've been going to NW crossfit, to get in my strength and core workouts. I'm going to go twice a week, while keeping up the triathlon training. Today, I was already sore from Tuesdays crossfit (my poor quads), and swimming yesterday... And todays workout was HARD:

row 1000m
50 db slams
50 knees to elbows
50 kb sumo deadlife high pulls (w/ a heavier weight than usual!)
50 pushups
800 m run.

Somehow the run was the hardest, I didn't want to walk at all. Halfway through it, as I turned around I saw kyle was just a second behind me, and that made me push myself the rest of the way. But I think my breathing sounded like a dying animal. Ugh!

I decided I deserve a rest day tomorrow.

I bought a bike!

Yay, I'm excited. As usual it was more than I had intended to pay, but I think its worth it, since I'll keep it for a while. Saturday I'll hopefully get a good long ride out on it, and still like it.

practice has begun!

Monday was our first running practice. We did esentially 3 miles. The first mile very slow, the 2nd moderate (a pace you could still keep a conversation at), and the 3rd mile at a fast past, and recorded our average heart beats and times at each. I was a bit slower than last year in my last two miles, and I probably should have pushed myself more for the 3rd, but overall it was good. And it was fun seeing so many people at practice! I think almost our entire tribe was there.

I did have a slight problem with my heart rate monitor - it apparently put it self on a setting where it beeped whenever I was not in my zone. every second. annoyingly. As I was running my first mile I was assuming that by the 2nd or 3rd mile I'd surly hit my zone.. But it never stopped beeping! Finally after practice I played w/ the settings and figured it out - apparently my "zone" is between 220-250 bpm.... Yeah right. Guess I need to actually set up my heart rate monitor :) At least it doesn't beep anymore.


I just came home from our first swim practice right now. Cathy spent about 20 minutes telling us about the stroke etc, and how we should be swimming, and what to aim for. Then we did some drills. I temporarily moved up to the 3rd lane (last year I was in the 2nd slowest), cause the first two lanes where getting comfortable in the water, and swimming less. Though I don't know if I'll stay in this lane, we'll see. But it makes me feel fast, to pretend I can move up a lane each year. All I have to do is come back three more years and I'll be one of the fastest swimmers I'm sure! :)

Oh, and I bought a bike today! yipee.

(On a side note, not sure right now if I'll maintain two blogs or not. For now I'm cross posting on weSwimBikeRun.blogspot.com as well...)

Miles since Kick Off -
Running - 9 miles
Swimming - 800 m ish...

Running...

through some pain.

Boomer and I did another run tonight - though a pretty short one. Lately I've had random parts of me hurt a little when I run or excersize, which is a bit disconcerting... First my knees hurt a little, then the arch of my foot, then my shoulder... today it was light enough though that I just ignored it. Maybe I'm just old (:) j/k). I'm suspicious it had something to do with the fact that I basically took the summer off, then went to crossfit 3 times a week right away, w/o easing into it. Oh well, hopefully it will go away.

Boomer on the other hand felt awesome tonight he reports. He even trotted fast up some hills, which is rare for him. (He points out and demonstrates that he is very speedy at going down hills).

I tried bikes again today, I'm closer to making a decision! Though i find it hard to tell the difference between lots of them. I will hopefully purchase it this weekend, and post some pictures.

Official first training is monday, yipee!

distance since kickoff
Run: 5miles
Bike: 0! - though I did try out a few bikes up and down the burke gilman
swim: 0!

Running in the rain

Boomer and I went running in the rain this morning, and we both actually liked it! While I had been caught in the rain while running in the past, this is probably the first time I started a run, during a full seattle drizzle. And it was nice! The air is still pretty warm in seattle, and the rain keeps you cool. So while I ended up soaking wet, I was a pleasant temperature the whole time. And there is just something about it, I'm not sure what, that I liked. You sorta feel more alone out there, and into the running, as the rain comes down all around you. Or something.

I had been worried about Boomer because two weeks ago when we tried to run around greenlake, he started limping a mile into the run. However he was great today - stayed ahead of me, at a good pace, the whole run. AND he showed off his handsome rain coat that his aunt got him last year. It was the first time he'd tried it out, and it kept his back dry, and his tummy dry, AND he looked good. We'll try to get a picture of it at some point.

Miles since kickoff! (11/6/08)
run:3miles

Lavaman 2009!

The triathlon season (for me at least, I guess for most this is the off season) is about to kick off for the 2009 season, I'm very excited for training to start!

My mom and I are once again doing the Lavaman Triathlon in Kona Hawaii, with Team in Training. This year I am mentoring for tnt - which means I help a group of people (mostly new to tnt/tris) and answer questions about fundraising, training, etc. There are a lot of people back from the last two years, which is fun. Obviously lavaman is the best event, and keeps people coming back year after year.

I decided that since this is my 3rd year doing lavaman, and I hope to do victoria (a half ironman) hopefully this year, or maybe next, its finally might be time to invest in a bike of my own. I've been using my moms 30 yo road bike the last few years, and its worked well, but apparently technology in the last few decades has progressed, and bikes are way lighter now. So I did some bike shopping sunday, and found a pretty bike I like. I'm going back to Speedy Reedy thursday hopefully, and will walk away with a new bike. Yay!

Our first real training is running on monday, and then hopefully this blog will kick back into action. Go team!