a lot of biking

We had our first long bike ride today. We met at gasworks, so I just biked down there...

I usually complain a lot about gettin up in time for an 8am practice - but when I woke up Saturday morning to blue skies, I got excited :). We started off down the burke gilman a few miles, then across montlake, and down to seward park. Which meant we got to bike along lake Washington, in the sun, and it was pretty great. I even felt warm from the sun (sometimes).

Though Coach Cathy kept mentioning how we were going on the flat route - there were definitely a few yucky hills, like the switchbacks, down to the lake. On the way back, it was so nice out, we then did a extra out and back down the burke gilman - making for a total of a 28 mile ride. Then I biked home - so I ended up doing just over 30 miles. Before today my longest ride of the season was a pathetic 13..

So we did more than the race distance, and we still have 8 (only??) more weeks of training.

Pictures to come soon.

x-fit today

btw, this is post number 101 for me. whoop whoop.

Todays workout was long...

3 rounds
25 squats
200 m run
25 pushups
200 m run
25 situps
200 m run
25 pullups
200 m run

I read through it thinking, hmm not so bad, I can't do that... till I see the 25 pullups. times 3! eek.

I used the lightest band - as I didn't think I could make it through that many totally on my own. Somehow the 2nd round, I flew through the first 15 pullups in a row.. as soon as I take a break though, then my hands hurt when I start again.

but I wore my new running shoes, and my feet didn't hurt, so fingers crossed - they are good :)

Last night was swim practice - and for the first time in a few weeks I actually felt ok at swimming. which was a bit of a relief

a slow week

Its been a somewhat slow week for me - been very busy with other stuff, and didn't fit in as many workouts as I'd like.

This week I will pick it back up hopefully, and get in a full week of workouts. Although at the moment, its 29 degrees outside, and I'm sick.

Monday - Xfit
Thursday - run 3 miles
Friday - Swim , and a little bike (only 4 miles).
Saturday - 5ish mile trail run

getting lost while running

I have lots of athletic friends, who used to always tell me they where going on a short run, then 1.5 hours later, come back, and claim they'd gotten lost, so they'd done like 7 miles instead of 3. And I thought to myself wow, they are dumb, and that would never happen to me. I would often go for a short run, and think I'd done longer than expected, then find I'd only run like 1.5 miles. woo hoo.

But Sunday I went running in San Francisco, and almost had a moment like that! I managed to get myself lost running around a park, and went the wrong direction, got lost, and didn't even know the address of where I was trying to get to. Eventually I figured out I'd come into the park from a different direction than I'd thought, and found my way home. Though I didn't end up doing a crazy 8 miles, like you stupid athletic people (Abby... Hannah... ) I did do 4.5 miles instead of 3. Which is good enough for me :)

Miles since Kickoff:
Bike: 72 miles
Swim: 13800 yds
Run: 67.2 miles

xfit yesterday

Tabata:
box jumps
pushups
pullups
squats
situps

In a tabata workout, you do 20 seconds of an exercise, rest 10 seconds, and repeat 8 times. With a one minute break between types of exercises. (ie, do 20 seconds of box jumps, 8 times, rest a minute, then move onto pushups). The lowest rep of each one adds to your score. So if doing pushups you do 8,8,8,8,7,6,7,7 - you would get a 6 for pushups.

Anyways, I tried to guess how many I could do of each one, and hold the number steady. I only did 5 pushups, and probably should have done a few more. I did two pullups, and was thinking it was too easy, so the last round, I tried to do a third - and it got messy. Probably next time I'll be able to do more.

I'm a bit sore today. And I went swimming with the team last night... blegh. 1700 yds. not bad. But my form felt yucky again.

Miles since Kickoff:
Bike: 65 miles
Swim: 1200 yds
Run: 59.7 miles

I hate my hill

That's all. I know I can bike all the way up it, so now I have no excuse. But that doesn't mean its not painful. Hmph. I need to move somewhere flat.

Miles since Kickoff:
Bike: 65 miles
Swim: 10300 yds
Run: 59.7 miles

First brick of the season

Bike - Run - Ick!

Today we had our first brick of the season. We did a 10 mile bike ride down lake sammamish park way, followed by a 4 mile run... It went well!

As we drove across the bridge it started pouring on us, and we (bex and I) got a little unhappy. Made worse when I realized I forgot my coat! So I biked in just a long sleeve bike jersey, and luckily it was only sprinkling when we started. It then actually cleared up (ie, the grey sky went from dark grey to light grey... but still grey), for the rest of the bike ride. The bike went pretty smoothly - on the way out, I kept thinking it as mostly downhill, and was worried about the return trip. But somehow the return trip felt like a lot of downhill as well - the joys of gradual rolling hills :).

I switched into running shoes, grabbed Boomer, and headed out on a 3 or 4 mile run. I got to the turnaround for the 3 mile route (1.5 miles in) and figured I should do the longer one. That .5 mile to the next turn around felt sooo long though. But I managed to run the entire way, without walking at all - even though my legs felt heavy for the first mile or so (some might say... they felt like bricks?). Boomer in fact tried to ditch me for Ande, cause he was running faster than me. I guess Boomers paws did not feel heavy...

So overall training is going well. The last two years, I definitely walked part of the runs after the bike rides, and struggled a little more on the bikes. I'm pretty sure this is the strongest I've been, hopefully my time this year will reflect that :).

Miles since Kickoff:
Bike: 59 miles
Swim: 10300 yds
Run: 59.7 miles

** I need to bike more! I am running too much apparently...

Xfit today

I hadn't been to crossfit in a few weeks - thanks to the lovely weather we've had... and busy holiday schedules. But I still did the full workout...

5 rounds of:
400 m run
30 box jumps *
30 wall ball **

* box jumps - you jump up on a box, then step down... over and over
** Wall ball is my least favorite exercise (behind only burpees). You squat down, then on the way up, throw a (12 lb) medicine ball at a target about 10 feet up, on a wall. Then catch the ball as your squating down again. Here's a video, if you're curious.

sinking....

We had a coached swim last night and ugh - I did not feel good. For some reason I just felt like my form was terrible, and I could barely swim.

At one point we were doing a drill - 6 kicks on one side, then 3 strokes, and repeat. Cathy mentioned we should push our heads down against our shoulders, and that will elevate our hips/legs. Which sounded like some logical physics. So I tried that, and just felt like my entire body was underwater. I don't think that's supposed to happen. It was the worst on my left side, I was so low in the water, it was hard to breathe!

Ugh, I know I've had some bad swim workouts in the past... So I'm presuming next time I get in the water I'll be fine. But it wasn't fun.

a Minor breakthrough

Sunday Boomer and I hit greenlake again, and did two laps! While I've done plenty of 5/6ish mile runs in the past, I have this mental block with starting a 2nd lap at places like greenlake. Usually my longer runs are out and backs.

When finishing the first 3 mile loop, even if I'm not feeling tired, the idea of starting a second loop, and locking myself into a another full 3 mile loop intimidates me, and I make up excuses (like Boomer looks tired, right?) and generally call it a day. But Sunday I started off telling myself I was doing it twice, and then just kept running, and it was good :).

The best part of the run was in the 2nd lap - there were a few people sitting on a bench feeding a giant group of birds. And they had a crowd of like 10 people around the bench, watching the birds. Well, when Boomer and I trotted through, he got so excited by the birds, and did his prancy/crouch downy/bolty thing, and scared off the whole flock. Then he just kept trotting, back into his running pace, leaving behind a crowd of people and no birds :).

He did indeed slow down the 2nd lap, and got a bit tired, but he kept trotting on, so I think the Boomer is tired excuse can't keep working for me.

And my running total miles just passed my biking ones again, oops! Better get biking more.

Miles since Kickoff:
Bike: 51 miles
Swim: 8700 yds
Run: 53 miles

Back to the grind.

With the snow gone, and the holidays over, I think I've finally made it back to the grind, and the regular excersize. (finally!). my workouts for the week:

Saturday: team run - 4 miles (should have done more...)
Monday: coached running - 3 miles, and some drills
Tuesday: biked to/from work (via bus).
Thursday: running - 3 miles around greenlake
Friday: Swimming - 1600 yards - lots of drills
Saturday: coached Biking - mercer island, 13 miles.

Tuesday was a big day for me, it was the first time I've ever biked all the way up our Queen anne Hill! I had a goal of just going one block farther than last time. but when I got there, I just kept going! At the top I was super tired, and happy to be home, and had shaky legs. But so far I've had this humongous fear of the hill, so getting to the top was very exciting for me. And like overcoming some big challenge.

Today we biked around Mercer Island, and in the past I've remembered that as long and hilly. But it was way easier than I remembered, even the last/biggest hill wasn't that hard today. So apparently I've gotten into better shape than last year/like my new bike. Yay! Tomorrow I'm going to try to get in a strength workout, and to force Bex to bike more.

Miles since Kickoff:
Bike: 51 miles
Swim: 8700 yds
Run: 42.25 miles