So far so good

Well, day 2 of the official training plan has arrived and my first two workouts were great. I was always good at doing my homework growing up, and having a training plan is kinda like doing homework. If you tell me that I'm supposed to do it and that I'll be able to pass the "test" because of doing it, then sign me up. I'll do it. I follow the rules. Basically, I'm a nerd. But once again, being a nerd is helping me get where I want to go.

Yesterday I hit the pool for my first official workout. These workouts are definitely longer than the ones I've been doing, but I think I have enough base work to keep up with them. Before hitting the pool, I did some strength training: 1 set of 12 reps of leg press (160 lbs), leg curls (50 lbs), leg extensions (50 lbs), and single-leg calf raises. I was supposed to do planks, but I forgot. Opps!! Then I jumped in the pool and I did a 10 minute warm-up alternating between 100 yd freestyle and 100 yd breastroke. I did about 300 yd total (remember I can't keep count of laps, which means they are always going to be approximate). Then I did 10 minutes of kick, alternating again between 100 yd freestyle and 100 yd about 100 yd breastroke. Total it was about 250 yd of kick. Then I was supposed to do 20 minutes of freestyle, stopping as needed. Although I technically could have have swam for 20 minutes straight without needing to stop, I took a 30 sec break every 5 minutes. I was able to squeeze in about 750 yds into the 20 minutes. Then I did a 5 min cool down of random stuff (ie: no specific stroke). Total duration: 45 minutes.

Today was a running day. Definitely a more intense running workout than I've done in a very long time. I'm tired now, and definitely ticked that the new kind of instant oatmeal that I brought to work with me is so disgusting that I wouldn't feed it to my dog, if I had one. So hungry. Total duration of active time 46 minutes. First I did a 5 minute walk/jog. I was supposed to incorporate pylometrics into this, but 1) not really sure what they are, 2) pretty sure I would looking like a super big dork doing them, 3) do not think it is possible on the treadmill without risking life or limb. I ended the jog around a 4.7. Then I climbed off and stretched the legs for just a few minutes. Then back on the treadmill. I was supposed to do 30-45 minutes of fartleks. Definitely not ready for 45 minutes, so I stuck with the 30 minute session, plus I didn't have time for 45 minutes. I picked 4.7 as a base running pace. This is was lower than a pace that I would pick for steady state running, but I figured it would be a good recovery rate. Then I kept upping the speed until I was huffing and puffing. Usually I would get up to about a 6.5 or 6.7 over about 5 to 7 minutes and then I would head back down to the 4.7 to recover. Overall I was pleased with how it went, and how well my knee held up. Oh - I have been trying to do all my treadmill running at a 1.0 incline, b/c I've read that 0 incline is actually easier than running outside, and that 1.0 incline is more like outside conditions.

Note on knee: I think that my knee hurts more when I am not adequately warmed up or when my knee gets cold during a workout, especially if it is rainy. Not sure if this is true, but I am positive the cold doesn't help it.

UPDATE - I just looked at the training schedule. Today's running workout was supposed to be "low" intensity. Running is never a low intensity workout for me - at least not in years. Power walking is low intensity. Maybe by the time the triathlon arrives I'll be able to run (not just walk) for 30 min and call it low intensity, but I doubt it.

Getting back in a routine

It is unbelievable how going out of town or changing up a day's normal activities can really screw with a routine. The other thing that is unbelievable is how much I depend on having a routine, especially in the morning. I am trying to settle back into my morning motions, which include working out, but I'll be honest, it is a struggle. Hopefully after a couple more days I'll be back into it.

This morning I arrived at the gym later than I had been going, but early enough to do a 30 minute workout. I figure that it is about time to stop the second lifting workout each week, so instead, I jumped on the treadmill. I guess that I need to reassign activities to new days so that they are appropriately spaced.

Today's workout was ok. Nothing special, but at least I went, which is super important to the whole routine thing. I give it a 5 out of 10. I felt out of shape. I didn't push too hard, and I was only half-way engaged.

Total duration: 33 minutes
All at 1.0 incline

5 min at 3.0
5 min at 5.0
5 min at 3.5
5 min at 5.2
5 min at 3.7
5 min at 5.4
3 min cool-down.

Yawn - it was just as boring typing as it was doing it.

I need to get re-excited about about this triathlon. I had been so excited about the bike and my workouts, and then my knee happened (which is still annoying me). And now the house stuff is going on. It's not that I'm giving myself excuses, but I'm just not feeling the enthusiasm at the moment. Hopefully, it will reappear when I get back into my routine and start seeing some fitness gains again.

Ready for the Weekend

I don't know what is going on, but I have been exhausted all week. I have lots of theories - the time change, going to bed too late, the new earlier bedtime, the longer, more intense workouts, or a food/vitamin deficiency. In all likelihood, I suspect that it is a combination thereof. No matter what the cause is, I am tired. Very tired. So tired that I should be in bed rather than sitting here writing this. I'm definitely looking forward to swimming in the morning. I think I will try to take it fairly easy and stretch out the body. Hopefully the water is not too hot tomorrow. I can't handle that.

All the tiredness aside, I got in a great workout this morning. The early mornings (aided by my awesome dawn simulator http://www.fullspectrumsolutions.com/led_dawn_simulator_543_prd1.htm that I got for Christmas) have been paying off with getting to the gym earlier. This morning I had plenty of time to get in a long workout so I decided to take advantage. I purposely decided to go at a slower pace so that I could sustain a longer workout. I am proud of myself for going over the 30 minute mark - it is always hard for me mentally on cardio workouts.

Overall I give it an 8.5 out of 10. My knee felt good. My heart rate and breathing was steady. I am pretty happy. I am just trying to be patient and not push too hard on the pace side so that I don't cause any over-use injuries. Only big problem was that I definitely got dehydrated and felt crappy for the rest of the day. So even though I am giving the workout itself a high rating, it deserves a 2 out 10 for managing my body's needs.

Workout - Total Duration: 55 minutes

This description is not going to be very descriptive because between being tired and getting fuzzy-headed due to dehydration, I don't really remember specifics at this point in time.

Minutes 1 to 6: warm-up walking
Minutes 7 to 10: 5.0
Minutes 10 to 15: 5.1
Minutes 15 to 20: 5.2
Minutes 20 to 30: 5.3
Minutes 30 to 40: 5.4
Minutes 40 to 45: cool down

Then 10 minutes of stretching and ab exercises.

Negative Splits

Wow - it has been a busy week at work. Thursday morning I had to come into work early, which meant that there was no time for a pre-work workout unless it was at an ungodly hour. I packed my clothes and thought that I might go after work, because I was planning to leave an hour early if possible. I don't enjoy going to the gym in the evenings nearly as much as I enjoy in the mornings. By the end of my day at work, I am ready to go home and relax. So all day long yesterday I struggled with the idea of going to the gym. I kept saying to myself that I could just do my run outside on Saturday because it would be nice out because was have had a nice warm streak. Well, in the long run, even after I didn't really get off work early, I convinced myself to not to give myself excuses and I went yesterday. I am so proud of myself for just doing it. Now, I have my Saturday free and it is supposed to pour rain and be colder, which means I wouldn't have been able to run outside anyway.

The gym was really warm yesterday - I think the building was having trouble adjusting to the warmer temperatures outside. It was pretty uncomfortable but not unbearable. Because I had all the time in the world last night, I decided to do 3 miles yesterday, so that I could establish my base rate. I am super happy with how it went - I give it a 9 out of 10. I pushed myself hard and had a decent time for not having completed 3 miles since last spring.

I did my 3 mile run with the goal of producing negative splits. Normally, I like negative split training because I think that it is easier mentally and that at times you are able to push yourself harder and it can lead to strong results. In this case, I think that this method of training could be really important for my triathlon. My thought is that after the swim and bike my legs are going to be dead. I can't imagine that the beginning portion of my run will be very fast. But I figure that if I am used to doing negative splits both physically and mentally, then on the day of the triathlon by the time I find my running legs at a lower pace and warm them up I will be ready to get moving faster towards the finish line.

Workout:

5 min warm-up - 3.5 speed, 2.5 incline.

3 miles - total time 32:49. (including the treadmill warm-up to run lag of about 20 seconds).

first 10 minutes at 5.1 (11:45 mile)

Then up 1 beat every 2 minutes until 5.7.

Stayed at 5.7 for 4 minutes, then at 5.8 for 4 minutes.

Then up 1 beat every 2 minutes until 30 minutes.

After that I kept pushing harder until the 3 mile mark. Ended at a 6.2 (9:50 mile).

A few minutes of cool down and then leg stretches.

Huff and Puff

Thursdays currently are my running day. Hopefully, there won't be too many more Thursday posts that can aptly be named Huff and Puff. As I've mentioned before, I hate treadmills. I actually don't mind running outside, though I've never been fast or had much endurance. But treadmills seem so much harder. I definitely have a much harder time finding a comfortable stride - I don't know if seasoned pros have a trick to this, or if it just comes with practice. I do find though that if I put the pace up higher than I think I want it, then the stride is easier. Maybe running on a treadmill will become easier when I develop the cardio ability to run at a faster pace on the treadmill and therefore am able to lengthen my stride a bit. I suppose I can hope.

The other reason that I think running on a treadmill is harder is because I don't naturally slow down when I get tired, as I would if I were running outside. Instead, the treadmill keeps moving at the same pace, causing me to keep moving at that pace even though I'm tired.

The good news from my workout today is that my knee brace seems to be the key to happier running. Last week, I had residual pain in my leg after running, but I think it was just my leg getting used to the brace. This morning it felt good the whole time I was running and even after I was done. Oh! and the other "good" knee felt fine while running today - so I guess I just tweeked it or something yesterday.

So, after getting a late start this morning - I always try to do too much in the mornings - I ended up squeezing in a 30 min workout anyway. I worked really hard and for that I give the workout a 8 out of 10. I wish the workout was easier given what I did, but I worked hard and stuck with the whole 30 minutes even though I was running late.

By May, when my training program starts, I want to be running 3 miles at a 10 min pace, or faster. I have easily done this in the past, but it is going to take a while to build back up to it. I do think my lifting is helping though, my legs weren't as tired this week as they were last week.

Workout:

approx. 5 min warm-up at 3.5 -- walked .2 miles

Brought up speed to a 5.0 (over an 11 min mile). I sorta forget now, but after about 10 minutes (after one mile), I had brought the speed up to 5.5 (around 10:50 mile). Then, during the second mile, I took it up one beat every .2 miles, and I finished out the last .2 at a 6.1 (a 9:50 mile).

Then I did around a 4 min cool-down.

total time - 30 min
total running distance - 2.0 miles
total running time - 21:06 min.

I want a new car

It's been relatively warm recently and yesterday it spent the day raining. Then it turned to snow, and that froze over-night. Well, my 17-yr-old car doors have a lovely habit of freezing during the winter, particularly under circumstances like these. This morning I went out to my car when I was on my way to the gym and work, and of course the doors were frozen shut. Because I have become accustomed to this lovely habit, it only took me a couple minutes to pry the door open, even with my arms full of gyms bags, work clothes and briefcase. I was on my way. I stopped at Walgreens when it opened at 7am on my way to pick up a new knee brace for running (more on that in a minute). Then I was really on my way, but I arrived at the gym a little later than normal - only to be harassed for being late by Dave the bike guy and Bruce the beefy lifter.

I jump on the treadmill with my awesome new knee brace and felt great, until I remembered that I hate running on a treadmill. It always stinks. Oh, and that awesome new knee brace, well I'm not so sure. I am trying the knee brace because after a long (well long for me) bike ride last spring my knee started hurting. I think I probably slightly tore something, and it took forever to feel better. In October when I started working out again, I went slowly to rebuild strength and it has felt pretty good, but it still gets sore and arthritic feeling while/after I run. I thought the knee brace would give stability to my knee and protect it while I run, thereby, preventing pain. Well, that's sort of what happened. I felt better and more confident while I was running, though there was definitely some soreness. But all day long my lower quad muscle, near my knee (or whatever muscle that is) has been super sore - not limping sore - but sore. Luckily though, the joint itself feels ok - I think that's luckily!

So I managed to squeeze in 2 miles in a little over 20 minutes before I had to go get ready so that I wouldn't be late for work. The run itself felt really good, surprisingly. I did the first 15 minutes at a 5.0 on the treadmill, which is a little under a 12 minute mile. Then I decided to take it up one beat per minute (except I forgot a couple times because I was watching the Today Show). I finished my two miles at a 5.7. All in all, except for the fact that it was a short workout and my knee is sore, I'd give it a 6.5 out of 10 rating.

Now here is where my day got fun, and why I want a new car. I get ready, out to my car and I have just enough time to get to work and be on time. Except that my lovely 17 yr-old-car driver's side door decided that it didn't feel like closing. After trying to be McGyver with a screwdriver, I called AAA because Hubs was working and phone-less (its broken) and Hubs' Dad (our go-to guy for mechanical issues) was probably at work and not answering his phone, and my Dad (also a go-to guy for mechanical issues) was probably asleep because he works night-shift. So AAA it was. Then I waited over 2 hours (instead of the 1 hour that I was quoted) for the tow truck. Only to have the tow truck guy tease me, and then fix the door with a screwdriver in 30 seconds. At least he taught me how to do it, so that next time I should be able to do it myself.

Off to work (three hours late) I went. Only to get an email from Hubs saying that his car needs to be jumped b/c the lights on our 13 yr-old car didn't turn off like they are supposed to when you turn off the car.

So need lots of new tires - some on a new car and some on a new bike!

The good news is that I talked to a girl at the gym today that said the pool is visually deceptive and actually a lot closer to Olympic-standard than it looks. I think I'll try to get in a swim tomorrow.