Tempo run...bring it!

OK, I'm starting to really like Mondays...I'm not sure why (well, I have a few theories, none of which can really be proven), but they've been great training days for the last few weeks.

This morning we were, thankfully, back in the pool at Seattle U for swim team...a little variety last week was good, but it was nice to be back in the usual routine. Shared a lane with Julie and Karen and altered the workout written on the board as we pleased, like usual. Good swim.

I had to go to Nuun to pick up some product for a TDC promotion thing later tonight, so I had the perfect window of opportunity to go to Greenlake at lunchtime while I was out to do my tempo run. I haven't done a tempo run in a long time and I was a little nervous about it, but thought/hoped I might be able to crank out some decent speed. Fortunately I was right. I did a warm up mile then hit it hard for 3 miles...and was very happily surprised to see that my time for the 3 miles was 23 minutes flat...holy smokes, that's a 7:40 pace!! WHOOP!! Floated through a mile of cooldown on happy fumes and kept looking back at the splits on the Garmin to be sure I wasn't hallucinating when I got done. I had to call Cheryl when I hopped in the car because I was so psyched...then went to Nuun and got some samples of a not-yet-released flavor coming soon to a plastic tube near you!

Swim:
3000 yards

Run:
1 mile warm up: 9:05
3 miles tempo: 23:00 (Avg HR = 161)
1 mile cool down: 9:02 (Avg HR = 147)

Total:
5 miles
41:07

I'm a triathlete enabler!

Today was my usual Sunday rest day...with the usual not-even-aerobic grocery shop, laundry-a-thon, and Shoebox cleaning. I also took Ja'Narah to the Family Fun Center where we went in some crazy 4-D (the 4th "D" being "Damn nausea-producing," I think, whoa) movie/ride thing and played a lot of completely mindless games that she loved. Of course, the batting cages (which were the only thing I wanted to do) got closed and I had to settle for a distant second Skee Ball, but the kid had a blast.

Anyway, on the way to meet the kid, I had the privilege of enabling a future triathlete. I went to Speedy Reedy to re-stock the Perpetuem, get some laces for the new running shoes, and hit the sale rack (holy crap, shorts for $14 and a sports bra for $9...I'm broke, but had to do it--total steals). As I was lingering around, I heard a newbie triathlete grilling the worker-bee about all things triathlon in the back of the store...I had to smile as I heard her say "Danskin" and then smiled even more as she asked him a continuous stream of classic questions like, "so when you get out of the water and go to your bike, do they let you wear shoes?" She had a very un-engaged husband in tow who was aimlessly wandering around and unable to offer any assistance whatsoever. The adorable newbie, Maggie, a woman in her mid 50's I'd guess, went into the changing room unassisted with a wetsuit and was soon barking out questions audible to the whole store. As she continued wriggling into the wetsuit, I had flashbacks of my first wetsuit fitting in that very same changing room and had to enter the conversation by yelling toward the back of the store, "If you feel like a sausage, you're doing it right!" and continued to smile as she kept asking questions to all of us while I rifled through the sale rack. A few minutes later, the voice from the changing room called out again, "I heard a woman's voice out there...can you help me?" and I was beckoned into the changing room to help Maggie. She had way too much of the rubber around her ankles and I explained to her how to pull things up, that you can't have the crotch too low, and demonstrated with my sweat pants how you must pull up the slack in the legs. I also discussed with her the importance of body glide and she had clearly done some research as she said, "I've heard you can also use PAM spray..." She struggled around a bit more and told me, "that guy told me it's like pulling up pantyhose and this is nothing like pantyhose!" a statement with which I agreed although it's been YEARS, thank god, since I was anywhere near a pair of pantyhose. I gave as much advice as I could, but she gave up and never got the suit all the way on (though I'm pretty she bought it). We seemed to have bonded and she referred to me as "my new best friend, Ruth, as she continued to wander around the store with her nice non-triathlete husband holding the growing number of expensive items she was accumulating. The whole thing made my day...almost as much as Ja'Narah hitting the "200 tickets" jackpot 4 times on one of the games at Family Fun Center, rendering a small mountain of tickets that were redeemed for a small basketball and a very valuable basketball-shaped gumball machine. Sundays still really suck, but this one had a couple of bright spots.

March madness

What's that saying about March..."In like a lion, out like a...." I'm gonna say polar bear this year. After several hours of snow/rain yesterday, it was still dang cold again this morning and the forecast included things like "ice pellets and scattered snow/rain showers..." For whatever reason, I slept 10 hours last night and woke up with a few cobwebs and not a lot of energy, so it was just fine with me to sit around in the shoebox for a while. It looked wet and cold, but nothing was falling from the sky so I sat around for a while longer deciding what to do. Karin and I had wanted to ride together today and we exchanged a few waffling/procrastinating emails (see, I'm not the only one!) before she decided to get on her trainer and just before 10:00 I followed suit. Fortunately, it's March madness time and there was a women's basketball game on TV, so ESPN got me through the morning. I got some new running shoes yesterday (REI dividend + coupon = FREE running shoes!), so I decided to do a brick and give them a short test drive. By the time I got out for the run --which was much more interesting than the trainer had been---the pavement was mostly dry and there were a couple of sunbreaks...and now that I'm done with both, of course, it's much more sunny. Perhaps I should've bucked up and biked outside. But...my toes were numb for the whole 20 minute run, so perhaps I made the right call to ride indoors anyway.

Anyway, got it done and am looking forward to some real spring weather that might actually happen next week...I hope!

Bike trainer:
2:00
Avg HR = 129

Run:
20 minutes
Avg HR = 140

Life in the fast lane

Swam again this morning at Greenlake...We had 8 in the lane again for a while before various participants started defecting into other lanes. That turbo guy, Brett, was leading and directing the pack again and it started out fairly civil, then ramped up a bit...I managed to sort-of hang through his set of 8 x 150's ("Just stretch it out a bit," he said...yeah, whatever, dude, as Robin and I were chasing like hell and savoring the rests while he looked a bit bored, but waiting patiently for us each time...). As he was creating the next set of IM something-or-other, I saw that Julie had already gone over to the wall lane and was there alone with lots of real estate, so I bailed and finished up with a nice moderate 500. It was a good workout (with the traditional Friday coffee with Julie after, making it especially worthwhile) and the guys were nice and accomodating, but I'll be quite happy to go back to Seattle U on Monday for the new quarter (and I have a feeling that Brett and Jason will be happy to have their lane back to normal as well).

I'm planning to do the regular Friday weights at the gym later today. Watching the weather reports for the latest forecasts for tomorrow...the possibility of "spring snow" indicates there could be another long Saturday morning on the bike trainer, but I'm hoping an outdoor ride is not totally out of the question...TBD.

Double digits!

Today's long run was 10 miles...my first double-digit run of 2008!! The hip is good...only feeling it slightly and much less than the perma-hamstring thing, so I'm calling it good. Since I was going up to 10 miles today, I decided it was probably time to start sherpa-ing some liquid fuel again...I haven't had to carry the water bottle in months and it's a bit of a drag. But the fact that I drank almost all of it indicates that it was probably the right decision. I test drove a free sample of Luna's version of gatorade mixed with Nuun and it wasn't too bad...might actually buy some and use it again. My legs were tired by the end and it felt like a long run, but it wasn't awful by any means.

Anyway, I did my creature-of-habit route of Boyer + Lake Union and added an up-and-down of Stone Way to 41st to get the extra mileage and a little hill action. I'm getting a bit tired/bored of this route and am hoping there will be enough daylight by my next long run to go somewhere else...I will definitely muster some creativity for new scenery next time, even if it means getting the headlamp that Tatyana has been recommending for weeks...

10 mile run
1:31:43 (Avg pace = 9:10 per mile)
Avg HR = 143

Rush hour swimming

Swimming was a bit of a contact sport this morning. I went to the Greenlake pool at 6:00 to work out with Karin G. and Tatyana at the "do-it-yourself" masters workout during lap swim. We had 5 guys in the lane with us (I guess I should say I visited the lane of the 5 guys), and I took a couple of good arm-smacks that I swear were not my fault...one really clocked me. I haven't been in a lane with 8 people in...I can't remember how long, but not long enough. Seattle U has been more of a luxury than I realized--I thought 5 women in our lane was the definition of packed! But all things considered, it actually worked pretty well today...some dude named Brett made things up and didn't make the send offs nearly as hard as he could have--I was way slower than these guys and they could have buried me, for sure. I'll probably give it another go on Friday before the SU masters spring quarter starts back up on Monday.

After swimming I met Cheryl to discuss my next chunk of training until the May 31 race...I'm planning to do the Kirkland Half Marathon on May 11 and maybe a few organized rides...and the rest of the regular build up stuff. At this point, I'm on track for Hawaii and it'll be great to get the next training calendar from her that will have the word "race" on it! Alooooohhhhaaaaa!

I had an easy bike on today's schedule, too, so I went to spin class at lunch... I did intervals yesterday, so I kept it aerobic and steady the whole time and never went over AT. I'm getting a little smarter with my morning nutrition plans...had a second breakfast mid-morning today that prevented the bonk that can happen during my lunchtime workouts.

Swim:
3,000 yards

Spin class:
47 min
Avg HR = 135 (max = 143)

Another no-car Tuesday

I wasn't overly excited to get up and hit the bike trainer this morning, but it was OK once I got going...I did a ladder of intervals with the morning news, hung out with my coffee and breakfast for a while, then walked down the hill to work since I'm having another no-car Tuesday (yea! Love the walk-to-work thing!). I walked past Martha & Amy's condo in the hopes I might run into them and sure enough, they were out walking the pugs...it's pretty cool to have more and more run-into-able friends in the 'hood, especially some with cute pups!

Going to the gym later for weights...and tomorrow is the next meeting with the coach to plan the calendar and my marching orders for the next few weeks.

1 Hour Bike trainer workout:

15 min warm up
Intervals (HR up to 150 bpm on each one)
1 min hard/1 min recovery
2 min hard/1 min recovery
3 min hard/2 min recovery
4 min hard/ 2 min recovery
3 min hard/ 2 min recovery
2 min hard/1 min recovery
1 min hard/ 1 min recovery
19 min moderate

Avg HR overall = 131

Bring on Monday...

Monday isn't usually anyone's favorite day...not sure it's mine, either, but lately I've been quite thankful for Mondays simply because they indicate that Sunday is over. Yesterday was fortunately salvaged at the end by a triple episode viewing of the "L Word," but still...time for that day to be over and to get on to a new week.

This week there's no swim team because Seattle U. is on spring break...kind of a bummer, but changing things around a little is OK for a week. I did my hill repeat run this morning and swam at the gym later...nice to run at home first thing in the morning as I'm a bit tired of my running route at work.

The hills run assignment was 5 x 2 minute hills...there are lots of hills in my 'hood, but finding one that was the right distance and visible in the dark took a little while and some figuring out. I ended up doing a combo of 18th Street, around the corner onto Galer and up toward Volunteer Park. On the first one, I figured out it was the right distance, but then I screwed up and went down 17th for #2 (oops)...then got it right and did 3 more like the first one. They were all steep and tough...legs were good and heavy by the last one, for sure.

Even though I like swim team best, a solo swim was OK today. After the hills this morning, I didn't feel like doing lots of intervals, so I did more LSD and kick with just one set of 10 x 50's in the middle of the workout. 200 meters into my warm up, I felt a wierd suction on my goggles and then saw the strap floating past my head in my peripheral vision...another victory for chlorine as the strap had broken. Fortunately, the goggles stayed on for a minute, no contacts were lost, and I hopped out and grabbed the 2 spare pair of goggles I had in my bag in the locker room (again, I say they should've let me be a boy scout when I was a kid and asked to be one...I mean, really, show me any of those dorks in their blue uniforms who are more "always prepared" than me!).

2 good workouts and hopefully off to a good week.

5 mile run:

1.75 mile warm up
5 x hills (HR up to low 160s on all)
.24 mile, 2:11
.21 mile, 1:47
.23 mile, 2:04
.24 mile, 2:03
.24 mile, 2:04
1.2 mile moderate/cool down

46:36
Avg HR = 136
Max HR = 166
--------------------------------------
3000 meter swim

TDC + Flying Wheels

Today was long ride day and it was my longest ride of 2008--woo-hoo! Ann S. asked me for the Tour de Cure routes the other day for her ride and despite a very loosely organized "If I see you, I see you" non-plan, we both ended up getting out to Marymoor to start our rides at the same time. We did about 22 miles together and then I peeled off to add miles and she stayed on the TDC route to go back to Redmond and hop in the pool at Golds Gym (not a workout plan I envied, I must say). I realized that it has been at least 5 months since I biked with anyone and it's kind of fun to chat! I'm not sure Ann will say the same as I pretty much complained about being cold for at least the first 10 miles...it was quite brisk there at the beginning. Fortunately for her, she missed the last 10 miles when I was, of course, too hot (welcome to spring in Seattle where bike clothing is an inexact science).

Anyway, we started on the TDC 45 mile route and then I went north up to Snohomish (where some kind of parade had taken place and there were pirates and Easter candy on the street) when Ann went down High Bridge. I made up a hybrid route of Tour de Cure and Flying Wheels with a little extra out-and-back on Lowell Larimer. I wasn't sure how the mileage would shake down exactly, so the Lowell-Larimer thing ended up being extra credit, but I was pretty accurate in my route creation...I was shooting for 50-60 and ended up with 66 miles. I did not push super hard...took leisurely breaks at 18 and 42 miles...and it was a good ride and a very welcomed sunny day. I had a 5 mile stretch (45-50ish) where I totally felt like crap (I think my legs were thinking, ""We know that Ann is done after this many miles, why are we still pedalling??"), but then I felt OK (not great, but OK) again until the end. I was definitely smelling the barn at the end (or maybe the contents of the frig in the barn...), but wasn't totally limping home like I do on some rides. Chugged a recovery V8 back at the park and drove home where I will happily be laying on the floor with the TV remote for several hours to finish out my Saturday. Good training week...I'm whipped. 10 weeks from today is HoNu.

66 mile bike ride:
4:17
Avg pace: 15.3 mph
Avg HR = 116bpm

Friday impromptu tempo run

Today's assignment was a 6ish mile run...since this week's "long" run was shorter and I've been feeling a little speedier, I decided to push the pace a bit...I wanted to see how hard it would be to average a sub-9 minute mile pace for the regular loop around Lake Union (and whether I'd fall apart at the end if I started a bit faster than usual). I'm happy to report that I averaged about an 8:28 pace (according to the gadget) and I was pleasantly surprised to see that I was barely over 50 minutes at the 6 mile mark. I still have this mental standard in my head that my "usual" should still be the 8 minute mile pace it was in college (yes, I know, that was 20 years ago and during soccer season) and wouldn't it be cool to get that back and race that fast. Anyway, lofty goals aside, it was dark, cold, and a bit windy again this morning...but at least it was dry and working on pace and form took some of my thoughts away from "Isn't it supposed to be spring?" and "Damn, it's windy out here..." and it was a really good run. Whatever works, right? I'll do weights later, but that's it for today in workout-land. Glad it's Friday.

6.3 mile run
53:19
Avg HR = 146

Triple double

March madness is kicking up, so I thought I'd document that this week has been a triple double (too bad I'm a lousy basketball player, but I'll steal the jargon for tri training anyway!).

Seems I'm behind a day again in the blogosphere...it's been a crazy-busy week before, during, and after work every day...all good stuff, just hopping from one thing to another all the time and glad tomorrow is Friday. Today was the 3rd double workout in 4 days...they haven't been killer long ones, but I'm starting to feel like it should be weekend and re-charge time soon.

Yesterday was a swim/run day...I had a good swim with Tatyana (we got to make it up and had excellent ideas, of course) and then I managed to get in a really nice short run in the arboretum in the afternoon. Fortunately, it was during the few hours of sunshine and I was thinking it was the perfect intro to spring...a little sun and lots of things blooming and smelling floral-ish. Then, of course, winter wasn't giving in easy and it got totally rainy, windy, and crappy cold later in the evening...but at least I had a short fun run...nice to be on the trails.

Today was swim/bike...the regular good swim followed by another busy day which included the necessity of getting to the Bottleneck to meet Brenda & Megan (hadn't been to B'neck since last Friday!)...I wasn't feeling particularly inspired to ride, but did a short pre-beer spin on the trainer just to get the aforementioned "triple double."

Since tomorrow is Good Friday, Seattle U is closed and there's no swim team (making it very much NOT such a good Friday in my opininon, but whatever, kind of like daylight savings, nobody asked me)...so I swam today instead and will run tomorrow morning. Next week is SU's spring break (another thing I was not consulted on) which will mean no swim team all of next week...I'm working on a plan to deal with this crisis...have some ideas.

Yesterday:
3000 yard swim

3.5 mile run
32:02
Avg HR: 138

Today:
3000 yard swim

35 minute spin on trainer
Avg HR = 130

No Car Tuesday

Today was a bike day and I did some intervals on the trainer early this morning...a good workout and I'd taped "Black Magic"on ESPN (documentary about the history of African Americans in basketball), so I had something interesting to watch. Afterwards, I realized that I didn't have any meetings out of the office today and had enough time to walk to work...yea! I do realize that many (more) responsible (than me) citizens walk or bus to work daily, but it still feels like a cool and uncommon thing to me. It was a nice morning and a good walk downtown with the ipod. Looking forward to walking home, too, unless it starts dumping rain and planning to walk to a meeting tonight, too, making for an entire day without starting the car. Got in the weights at lunchtime.

Bike intervals (up to about 147-150 HR on each hard interval):

2o minute warm up

5x 2 minutes hard/1 minute recovery

2x 4 minutes hard/2 minutes recovery

3x 1 minute hard/1 minute recovery

Total: 1:00

Go Ovaltine!

Ended the weekend last night with a nice hike to a movie at Pacific Place with Cara & Robin...we saw "Bank Job" and it was great. It was also pretty cool to walk to the movies downtown from the Shoebox (subtle reminder that I should/could be walking to work more often...).

Started the week today with a good swimteam workout followed by coffee with Tatyana at the Shoebox...in addition to the usual good company, Tatyana shared with me some of her rare imported Canadian Ovaltine -- excellent in coffee as a recovery drink. Ovaltine from Canada is far superior to American Ovaltine (surprise, surprise)---the first ingredient isn't sugar (although it's in there, of course...don't want to be ridiculous), it's some kind of good whey stuff. Anyway, it's great stuff and perhaps my new turbo athlete fuel. Time to start an import business.

I'm taking a day off today for some errands and appointments and in between some of them, I went to Greenlake to do intervals on the track-- and ran the fastest 800s I've ever done. Go Ovaltine!! I haven't done 800s in quite a while and I was happily surprised each time I hit one and looked at my watch...sweet...and even sweeter was that I descended the last 2! And wait, there's more...each 800 was very slightly longer due to running around 3 big mud puddles on the track.

Interval run:

1.1 mile warm up: 9:30

.53 mile 3:29 Avg HR = 157
.12 mile recovery: 1:50 (120)
.53 mile: 3:29 (155)
.12 recovery 1:50 (123)
.53 mile: 3:27 (157)
.12 recovery 1:50 (126)
.53 mile 3:26 (158)

1.77 mile moderate/cool down: 15:11 (143)

5.5 miles total
46:16

Ironman-inspired trainer ride

Yesterday was the usual swim 'n weights Friday...and this week, I was definitely less beat up by end of week than usual...the lower intensity training this week was really helpful.

I celebrated the end of week and Stacey's birthday with happy hour at Atlas yesterday afternoon...then went to the Bottleneck where my pal, Brenda, made it her mission to buy me (more) beers. There's a new beer at the Bottleneck, a Wisconsin beer called Leinenkugel's, and I'm digging it. I think I probably had at least one "extra" last night and it took some strong coffee to clear the cobwebs this morning, shew. However, I bounced back and did my Leinenkugel's pennance on the trainer and, I'm sure, sweated it all out. I'd planned to bike with Tatyana and Karin this morning, but we all bailed when we saw that it was 40 degrees and raining...I was bummed because I was looking forward to riding with them, but it turned out to be a good indoor ride. I lasted 2 hours and 30 minutes and watched my tape of '07 Ironman Hawaii which was totally inspiring. I managed not to fall off the bike the several times I got all choked up and only took one small break at the 1:50 mark. The last few minutes I was pretty well toast, but felt good that I lasted that long...kept the HR moderate and the cadence at 90+ the whole time.

Trying to recover a bit now...then the cycling themed day will continue with our Tour de Cure Kick Off this afternoon and the Bikeworks auction tonight. Rest day tomorrow!

Trainer ride:
2:30
Avg HR = 126

Still cranky about daylight savings

I will try to make this my last rant about the stupid time change...but I was a little cranky heading out in the damn dark again this morning for my long run. I drove down to Boyer again and did the Boyer + Lake Union combo to get the mileage in. It was drizzly, but not too bad and there actually was a little daylight by the last couple of miles. The birds also woke up partway through and I noticed some of the trees and flowers are starting to smell like spring...it's gonna happen. I went 9 miles today and the hip felt good (hamstring still doesn't, but I think that's just going to be a permanent thing...). I kept a decent, but not killer pace and I averaged something like a 9:04 mile which is pretty good for me on a run of that distance...I was happy with it. No other workouts on the schedule today, but will try to walk around a bit when I can as the legs are a little stiff...

9 mile run
1:21:49
Avg HR = 137

Wednesday

Catching up again here...yesterday was an hour on the bike trainer in the a.m. (whoo-hoo, still no neighbor complaints!) that was just aerobic (continuing on the aerobic/no speedwork theme of the week, which I've relaxed into quite nicely thankyewverymuch) and weights later in the day. Nothing to blog home about....thus the lack of entry.

Today was slightly more interesting...went to swim team this morning and biked to a meeting this afternoon. It was an "optional" bike day, so a short easy urban ride with a few little hills was fine. I didn't even wear my HR monitor which was good because even though I ran at least 2 traffic lights that were, um, pink, there were a lot of other red lights, stop signs, and construction zone stops...plus the university bridge was up. I had to meet someone near Greenlake and then added a little jaunt through the Arboretum afterwards to get a few more miles. Today's forgotten item was gloves again and my hands were pretty cold...and my toes got numb. Still a good little ride, though, and I was glad to get out on a non-rainy day on some dry pavement.

Tuesday:
Bike trainer, 1 hour
Avg HR = 128

Wednesday ride:
16.6 miles
1:15
Avg pace 14.5

Who cares about saving daylight?

I'm ALMOST done being cranky about daylight saving time...but not quite yet. What a stupid deal...give up an hour of sleep and return to dark mornings...oh, and jack up your VCR and miscellaneous other appliances. How can anyone think any of these are good ideas?? Augh. Well, the good news is that I read in yesterday's paper that the sunrise will be back to about 6:30 a.m. by the first weekend in April. I suppose I'll live till then.

Anyway...it took me a while to recover from the over-tired I felt after Saturday's long ride...I was still pretty wiped out a lot of yesterday. Cheryl and I reevaluated this week's training schedule, scaling down some of the speed work and next Saturday's long ride to give me a little bit of a recovery week....I do think I need it. I was back in action today, though, and feeling pretty good...swam this morning and did a run (aerobic, nice) at lunchtime. Today's forgotten item was the sports bra...discovered in the locker room. But I was yet again saved by the emergency pack in my car (though it did require a detour and a little public nudity in the parking garage on my way out of the gym to go for my run...).

Run:
4.4 miles
37:47
Avg HR = 145ish

Saturday slog...

Yesterday was the usual swim team + weights Friday...both were fine, but the last few weeks, I've been pretty body-tired by Friday and very thankful that Fridays aren't doubles. This was a really busy week on all fronts and I was feeling pretty dragged out again yesterday. I slept more than 9 hours, but the dragged-out feeling carried over into this morning's long bike ride. I was supposed to do 60 miles today and had a possible route in mind when I took off, but I truncated it because for most of the 3+ hours I was out there, I just kept thinking to myself that I haven't just didn't have the legs or the enthusiasm to make it to 60---and I've felt this way on my longer rides for about 3 weeks...this should not be happening this early in the year. Looking at my numbers from today and the week, I think I might be on the edge of over-training (i.e. only about 11 hours of training this week, yet my legs are thrashed and my avg. HR and pace for this ride were a little low, although I now feel like I want to lay on the floor with the remote until tomorrow!).

Anyway, today's ride was in some drizzle and breeze...and a lot of wet pavement...which also didn't do too much for my enthusiasm...but it wasn't cold and I was comfortably over-dressed and warm. I did the long side of Mercer Island and the north end of the lake...felt pretty good climbing Juanita, but the last few miles on the trail were a limp...50 miles total.

I'm now off to work a few hours at the Bike Expo (so much for my laying on the floor fantasy...), and am happy happy happy that tomorrow is my rest day!

50 mile ride:

3:27

Avg HR = 114

Avg pace = 14.5

Run 'n spin day

So far, so good...no "you're a bad neighbor" notes have (yet?) appeared this week as a result of my squeaky bike trainer...shew.

Yesterday turned out to be a swim-only day...too many things going on this week and it seemed the best use of my time to go grocery shopping at lunchtime instead of biking. I made up for it today, though...

It was long run morning and I got in 8 miles (first 8 of '08!). I noticed today that re-building the running endurance means re-learning patience. Last summer, my long runs were SO long, that an 8 miler would've seemed really short. After being down in the 4-5 mile zone for a few months, though, anything over an hour seems long again. Just a mental adjustment that I'm having to make again...don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled to almost be back up to double digit miles.

Anyway, stupid daylight savings time will be happening this weekend (I'd boycott, but I don't think it'd be successful), so I decided to take advantage of this week's morning light and run through Interlakken and the Arboretum...I ran from home and made up the route as I went. The bummer about this lack of route planning was when I popped out of the Arboretum at the bottom of 24th and still had a little more than a half a mile to run...ending an 8 mile run straight UP 24th is not something I'll be doing again if I can help it. I hit the 8 mile mark at Aloha and walked up the last bit of hill to the Shoebox.

I was also invited to be a guest for a certain someone's birthday spin class at Seattle Fitness today at 12:30...another thing I'm not sure I'll be repeating on the same day as one of my longer runs. It was really fun, though...great music and instructor, and a really really nice gym...I kept it pretty aerobic and barely went to AT.

8 mile run:
1:14:07
Avg HR = 140

50 minute spin class
Avg HR = 135
Max HR = 145

Return of the bad neighbor

That'd be me. Based on the last under-the-door note from my (hopefully former) downstairs neighbor a few weeks ago, she should have moved out of my building over the weekend. I have maintained legal noise behavior for several weeks, so I figured I better stake my territory and get my squatter's rights ASAP in case someone new has moved in down there...so I did a workout on the bike trainer yesterday morning at about 6:15. When I got home last night, there were no notes under the door and no visible crankiness via any other medium, so I'm hoping the coast is clear...might be too soon to tell, though. Anyway, it was an interval bike day. I wasn't at 100% on the enthusiasm scale (legs felt a bit tired from the hills on Monday), but I got in a bunch of 1 minute and 2-minute intervals, all with 1-minute recovery in between. By the end of the hour, I was bored and done, so I cut it about 4 minutes short of an hour. Got in the regular weights later in the day.

Yesterday afternoon I got to schmooze with Greg LeMond and John Curley for a while...we (OK, they...but I got to be there) did a story for tonight's Evening Magazine TV show about the event I manage, the Tour de Cure, and featured LeMond and Curley on some LeMond spin bikes. It was cool to hang out with them and talk about training, triathlons, etc....and listen to them talk about gear, bikes, geometry, and aero position....Curley has some custom bike shoes he is very excited about... when I heard how much they are worth, I was thinking, "Holy crap, I know people who don't pay that much for their BIKE, much less the shoes..." Anyway, a great afternoon and the segment on the show tonight should be a good pitch for us.

Swimming kicked my ass this morning...Mackenzie and Anna took turns leading us into oxygen debt and I think that workout might be all for me today...I'm debating on doing an outdoor ride at lunchtime, but might bag it since I've been invited to a spin class tomorrow at Seattle Fitness.

Yesterday's bike intervals:

15 min warm up

Intervals: Got HR up to 150 bpm on all of these

1 min hard/1 min recovery
1 min hard/easy
2 min hard/1 min easy
2 min hard/1 min easy
1 min hard/1 min easy
2 min hard/1 min easy
2 min hard/1 min easy
1 min hard/1 min easy

27 minutes moderate

56 minutes total
Avg HR = 131

Back to beagle-less

The beagle's family has returned from their trip to Tucson and I took her home this morning before work...It was great to have her around for a few days and I miss her already. However, my current living situation/schedule works great for temporary dog care, but not so much for real dog parenting...it's on the someday list, and perhaps I'll get to host the beagle again.

Got in the Monday swim this morning and then went out at lunchtime to run hill repeats. Today's forgotten items were a shower towel (remedied by the emergency ziplock in my car for exactly these occasions, who shoulda been a boy scout, huh?) and a running hat...being hatless was a bummer because it was rainy/misty and windy.

Anyway, I ran the usual route from work...up Lakeview over the freeway to the Howe St. stairs. The task was 10 x 1 minute hill repeats...I counted one set of stairs as the first one and then turned left and did the other 9 on the street that crosses the stairs about 2/3 up (Broadway). Running 1-minute hills sounds easy, but it's actually pretty freakin' hard. The hills kicked my butt, but I hit them all consistently and didn't fall apart...felt OK afterwards (hip seems fine) ate lunch, and was completely starving again by 4:30...eventually had a big 'ol Chipotle carnitas burrito for dinner. YUM.

Hills run:

12 min warm up
1 stairs: 1:12
3:30 down to the hill

9 hills, all .12 mile and :58-:59 and avg HR = 145-147 (hit 160 on each one
1:15 recovery on every hill

14:53 moderate run back to the gym

Total:
5.6 miles
50:36
135 avg HR
163 max HR

3 months till HoNu

Let's see...catching up here. Yesterday was the regular a.m. swim team workout and weights later...the usual Friday routine. I also had my last PT appt. with Wolf for a while...The hip is doing pretty well and I told him I think it's time for us to break up, at least for a while or until the next injury (which my right hamstring keeps applying for). The hip isn't totally done being an issue, but I'm hoping to just manage it on my own from here on out.

After some late afternoon coffee yesterday, I rallied and went to a fun burlesque show in Columbia City with Stacey & Shane and Julie & Duncan. It was really fun and I was out till 10:30 p.m.! Impressive, no?

Today was long bike ride day. The beagle and I went out about 7:00 a.m. to assess the weather scenerio....then we watched the morning news for their opinion....then we went out again about 9:30 a.m....and discussed it further. My ability to waffle for hours on whether to ride indoors or outdoors is unsurpassed, but the beagle seemed less annoyed than any human would have been (and ultimately, I'm quite happy with having made the right decision). Rosie thought I should just get on the trainer and spend the morning with she and Denzel Washington (Neflix on site at the moment is "American Gangster"). I started to agree and put the bike on the trainer, then looked outside again and decided that since the pavement was dry and it wasn't actually raining, I shouldn't be a pansy...just buck up and go. I left the gray bike on the trainer in case I had to abort the outdoor mission partway through and headed out about 10:00. My legs were tired within the first half hour which is how it seems to be every Saturday...I guess I'm just getting used to biking on tired legs. It was windy in a few places, but fortunately, I got the tailwind in the 2nd half of the ride...and it never rained. I went over Mercer Island the long way, around the south end, and did an extra back-and-forth down on Lake Washington Blvd. between Mt. Baker beach and Seward Park to get closer to the 50 miles I was supposed to do. I got just over 48 and am going to "Hot Flash" later, so I figure I'll dance enough to equal that last 1.6 miles! I'm beat. The regular Saturday crap TV (and Denzel) is still here for the recovery... a few hours of laying on the floor before going out to dance sounds pretty great at this point!

3 months from today is the HoNu Half Ironman!

Bike:
48.3 miles
3:08
Avg HR = 121
Max HR = 160