Early long run

Did the long run this morning before work...had to start early and without caffeine or breakfast, but it was fine. Drove down to Greenlake and ran from Jock 'N Jill down Stone Way, around Lk. Union, and back. Took the magic shake, as usual, and it was enough nutrition. Morning was perfect for running, 37 degrees and clear...saw rowers on Greenlake in the dark and rowers on Lake Union as it got light. Nice run, felt good, and was right on pace and HR as assigned by the coach. Now I just have to make sure I get up from my desk regularly so I don't get too stiff all day at work!

11.25 miles
1:51:57 (i.e. 9:57 pace)
Avg HR = 135

Sunday I hosted a household lazy-a-thon. The most active thing all day was grocery shopping, during which we ate scones and strolled through QFC. I thought about going to the gym that day, I thought about doing core that day, and I thought about walking Greenlake that day...but...I did a soduku, read the paper, watched a LOT of bad TV and fell asleep on the couch during a basketball game while (a rare and wonderful occasion) Seujan cooked dinner. In between all of the above activities, I ate to maintain the pace. It's a good thing I took a rest day on Sunday as the training schedule hit hard first thing yesterday...

Monday morning was my first hill repeat workout. I ran around Greenlake and then did 4 repeats of the 5th Street hill from 71st up to 80th (.3 miles). 4 doesn't sound like many, but it was hard. Then I lifted yesterday afternoon at the gym.

Today was back to swim team (which felt hard despite the fact that I swam 3x last week during the spring break from the team) and tonight was intervals on the bike trainer. I'd taken my bike and all my cycling crap to work with the intention of riding outdoors this evening, but of course it rained so I came home and got on the trainer. Seujan had taken her bike to work, too, and ended up driving it home again in the back of her car like I did. I think the Ironman has caught up with her as she went to bed before 8 p.m. tonight, so I'm doing my best to watch all of American Idol before I hit the hay, too.

Anyway, back to the bike workout. This wasn't exactly fun, but I made it through 50 minutes of it and 10 intervals, although they weren't all back to back:

15 minutes warm up
5 x 1 minute hard (HR up to 150-154)/ 1:30 recovery
5 min steady
3 x 1 min hard/1:30 recovery
few minutes steady
2 x 1 minute hard/1:30 recovery

Tomorrow is long run day (11 miles) and I'm happy that it's something SLOW after 3 interval workouts in 2 days...LSD is sounding pretty good. I also get to go see Erik again tomorrow for the continuation of the new bike fit and another hip check (hopefully, more ultrasound)...the new bike is still at the shop and unridden, but now has aerobar-compatible handlebars...by the weekend, it might be ready to GO!

March Madness

Base training has begun. I was supposed to bike 60 miles today...Although Seujan was brave enough to go out in the pouring down rain, I wimped out and hopped on my trainer at 8:00 a.m. for the morning. The rain wasn't too disappointing as my new bike isn't quite ready yet...long story, but basically, I need different handlebars so the aerobars can be mounted. The fancy carbon ones can't take it...Anyway, in 3 hours on the trainer, I watched an hour of morning news and an entire women's basketball game...thank god for March madness or I'd have had to watch cartoons or god forbid, NASCAR. I took a short break at the 90 minute mark to refill a water bottle, but pedalled a full 3 hours and then did a short 15 minute run around the neighborhood for the first brick of the season. I know it would have taken more than 3 hours to get in 60 miles outdoors, but I had to be at Cycle U at noon for a Tour de Cure clinic, so I had to cut it short...wait, let me re-phrase that...I had a credible excuse to limit the ride to 3 hours. My butt was very thankful when the ride was over...youch. Plus, I'm telling myself that 3 solid hours on the trainer at a sustained HR is really equal to 4 hours on the road since there's no coasting or downhills...and I've almost convinced myself. The run part of the brick actually felt fine and my legs weren't noodles...now, a few hours later, I'm feeling them a bit more.

Tonight we're going to the annual benefit auction and dinner for Passages Northwest. Yea! Food and booze for a good cause! Seujan is on their board so she's recruited a group of our friends to occupy at the event. It should be a lot of fun and a little bit fancy---I may even blowdry my hair for this one...and tomorrow is a rest day...Yea!!

Today's workout:
3:00 bike
15 min run
Avg HR = 132

Double digits!

Today was long run day. I'm trying a re-arranged workout schedule where I do the long run midweek and the long bike ride on the weekend...or I guess I should say "WILL" do the long bike ride as I haven't done any yet and the weather forecast is crap, so I'm not sure how it's going to happen this coming weekend. But I digress. I came into work early and this long run on Wednesday idea seems to work pretty well so far. I can't decide whether working is a break from working out or if the run is a break from work...I think it will depend on the day! At the moment, sitting at my desk with an ice pack on my hip is fine with me.

Anyway, the assignment was to do 10 miles and it's the first double-digit mileage in quite a long time. I ran 10.5 miles...from the office, down and around Lake Union with Boyer/Interlakken added on. Coach said I should try to keep my HR down to about 137 for the long runs now, so I tried to slow the pace down. I didn't quite crawl slow enough to avg. 137 (cardiac drift + inclines in the last few miles contributed, I think), but the pace and the HR was slower than the last few long runs.

10.5 miles
1:46:46
Avg. HR = 139

Calendar vs. thermometer

Thinking about New Zealand...here's a shot of Auckland from the little ferry we took back and forth to the B&B in Devonport...

Today is the first day of spring...yeah, RIGHT...it's in the 40's and raining. Oh...I guess that is the definition of spring in Seattle. Perhaps I should minimize my griping and use memories of New Zealand to be grateful that I had more than 10 days of summer when it was snowing in Seattle a few weeks ago!

It's spring break at Seattle Univ., so we don't have swim team in the mornings this week...this is a good news/bad news scenerio. The good news is that I can flex my workout schedule and sleep a little more...the bad news is that I swim at 24-Hr Fitness which is a bit dismal and requires that I make up my own sets and workouts...oh, and deal with a little road rage in the lane from time to time. But I just got done with a pretty good lunchtime swim and no one drowned or was dismembered by my steamroller attitude.

This morning I did a workout on the bike trainer as prescribed by Cheryl. It was the hardest one I've done at home on the trainer and it kicked my butt. I also realized by doing the one-legged drills (that I've thought for a long time I should do but haven't) that there is a big 'ol dead spot in my pedal stroke...information I feared, but preferred not to know. Crap. Anyway, other than that, I did some substantial lactic acid production (illustrating not only bad form, but also minimal current cycling fitness...nothing like a double whammy before breakfast) with some interval sets. Anyway, I survived about an hour on the bike and the intervals were dang hard.

10 min warm up including aforementioned 1-leg drills
5 x 1 min hard/1 min. recovery (HR up to 146 - 153)
8ish min. of steady/aerobic
5 x 1 min hard/2 min recovery (HR up to 150-155 this set, needed the 2 min recovery)
more steady and cool down

Now, back to those happy NZ flashbacks, shall we?

Here's a shot of Lake Taupo from our hotel room, where the IM swim course was...this was taken on the evening of the Ironman. Seujan was still finishing up her run at this time and I was going to pick up her bike from T2 area and meet her at the finish line.

All coached up again...

Forgive me blogger, for I have sinned...it's been 13 days since my last post.

I still have a slightly visible "z" shaped tan on my feet from my favorite Chaco sandals...my favorite shoes which now lie dormant again in my closet. The tan is fading and peeling...and I'm trying not to let my happy vacation attitude do the same. At least my favorite chacos in the closet are near some new bike shoes purchased yesterday with my REI dividend--woo-hoo! It will be fun to try new shoes and a new type of pedals soon...oh yeah, on my NEW BIKE!! Yeah, baby...new wheels.

I met with Cheryl last Thursday and got my Iron Plan officially started...it will be in 5-week chunks starting today. It's nice to be planned up again...I tend to do well with assignments! I will probably do a half marathon on May 13, some form of early season short tri, then the half-iron in July and the big Kahuna in late August. In the meantime, I'm hoping the weather will improve so I can train for some of this and can test out the new bike soon.

My long runs are still around 9-10 miles at the moment...the hip that was almost symptom free in New Zealand (funny how vacation cures all), has been making itself known again the last few days...so I may need to watch it a bit. I'm going back to Erik, the PT guru, this Thursday to get an assessment. I've done more abduction leg raises in the last month than can be counted (ok, maybe I COULD count them as I keep the O.C.D. schedule of all training, but it'd be a damn lot is my point)...so hopefully, getting the hip area stronger will help.

Not much else to report except that Seujan has accepted a new job at Starbucks starting next week! I'm already mentally brewing up the free java...a pound a week! Bring it on.

I still need to get some of those great NZ photos posted on the blog...will get on that soon.

Party's almost over...

We're at the Auckland Airport waiting for the flight home that I'd be more than happy to miss...of course, we're 9 zillion hours too early for the flight because of the way the bike storage was set up (see last post under moronic Tour guy for the reason...). Augh. We found out yesterday that we'd need to pick up our bikes at "airport freight" today by 5:00 when it closes...our flight is at 11 p.m. Yeah, convenient. Nobody told us that we'd have to hoof it from the terminal a good distance (let's say about a half mile) in the RAIN with all our other crap (which got soaked) to even FIND the air freight place...augh...I was so pissed. However, the stressful, angry hour didn't wreck another fabulous day in paradise...it did rain this morning, but most of the day was great. We had a nice day of sightseeing and last minute support of the local economy before we had to go on the bike box hunt.

We had the last 3 nights in a wonderful B&B hosted by 2 charming women who've been together for 22 years...gorgeous house and great energy. Anyway...it's been an amazing fun trip and Seujan has had to (very nicely) deal with me getting increasingly more depressed over the last day as I know we have to go home...I'm not ready yet!!!

We'll come back to New Zealand...and hopefully, I won't be too much of a behaviour problem on the LONG dreadful flight home.

I hate it when vacation is over and the chacos and cargo shorts go back into the closet :(

Ironthing does it again...

Who else pulls in 2 Ironman races and a Boston qualifying marathon time in 7 months' time? Seujan did GREAT yesterday!! It was a perfect day and I'll let her just blog the race report and have all the glory on her blog.

In the meantime, I'll bitch about the organizer of our travel group who is so lacking in organizational and communicational skills, it's appalling. Thank god we're now away from the group and safely in a cozy wonderful B&B in a part of Auckland called Devonport. So anyway...before the happy ending part...the moron leader guy has been pissing me off all week...just not communicating what's going on and creating plans by the seat of his pants. And charging a lot of money for it. Last night after we had to hear about HIS race for way too long, he said we'd be leaving Taupo today at about 1:30...great. Then this morning, I went for a swim, we were having coffee...and he comes to our hotel at 8:30 and says we're leaving in ONE hour because he forgot about some crap....this meant one hour to miss breakfast, take apart our bikes, and pack all our crap. Mind you, SJ is barely mobile and sore, too. I was SO damn mad. Then, we get in the van with him and he backs it right into the hotel owners' car....Augh!!!

Anyway, rest of the day was fine and mroe about the trip later!

Iron Mate...

I have a bracelet for tomorrow that says, "Ironmate." I couldn't help but think, "Always an ironmate, not yet an iron..." But my day will come (6 months and counting...) I think the purpose of this bracelet is to get me into a section of the grandstand at the finish area, but I'm not quite sure yet. Seujan is #644 and she and over 1000 of her fellow racers have checked in their bikes, bags, and miscellaneous crap for tomorrow and we're almost in count-down mode. As the twitchy triathletes around town are doing little mini workouts and trying to calm down, I've been taking over their course to play on today...woke up and hopped into the lake again where I was alone...then later had a nice 30 mile bike ride on the course where there were very few triathletes once I got out of town (however, lots of wind and lots of sheep!).

Happy hour with the accountants soon...race reports tomorrow or the day after!

I think she can be tracked tomorrow on www.ironmanlive.com.

Send good energy!