TDC wrap and brick...

Well, I seem to have survived another successful Tour de Cure...kind of hard to screw it up when there's sunshine and record breaking temperatures, but there WERE a lot of moving pieces. Those pieces actually moved in synch for the most part and about 575 cyclists seemed to have a good day out there, although a few looked like they might wilt in the 90ish degree heat. "Evening Magazine" shot some of a show out there and we'll get to see how it all looks when edited professionally on Tuesday night's show. Pretty cool.

So...after a few 13 hour workdays (including yesterday which started with waking up at 3:30 a.m.) in the heat and a lot of lifting cases of water (incorrectly, of course, and thus getting a sore back), and carting various things in and out of trucks, the coach seemed to think that my celebratory reward should be a 5-hour workout today. And, of course, if it's on my color coded schedule, I follow the marching orders, even if reading the paper and laying in the sun sounded like a much better idea. I did get a cold beer, a good dinner (thanks, Seujan) and some good sleep after yesterday's event, so the idea of getting on my bike today wasn't toooooo bad. Plus, it was sunny again and in the 70s which is my favorite weather.

I went out to Marymoor (since my car almost drives there by itself at this point) and did chunks of the Tour de Cure routes with some other stuff thrown in. Today's brick was a 70 mile ride with 2x 5 mile TTs and then a 20 minute run. I took off with a nice tailwind and headed up to Snohomish where I did the 2x 5 miles on the Lowell-Larimer Rd., a totally flat 6 mile road with a big shoulder---perfect. Well, perfect except for the wind. My second TT was about 2 minutes slower than the first, but I figured that might be good practice for Hawaii. My legs didn't have enough to get my HR as high as usual on these, but my pace was OK.

After the Lowell-Larimer Rd., I went through Snohomish where there was a huge motorcycle rally happening....the whole downtown was closed off and the place looked like Sturgis. Since my 2 wheels had much less horsepower than the others in town, I went a few blocks around the downtown and then headed down the Old Sno-Monroe Rd. to Monroe, then picked up the TDC routes again there. I happened to notice 3 TDC signs that our crew must've missed when the sign pick up happened yesterday, but couldn't do anything about it on my bike...one more wrap-up task for work this week. By the time I got to about 40ish miles, I really lost enthusiasm (wait, did I have enthusiasm in the first place?), but hung in there...there were more windy spurts and more hills in the 2nd half of the ride. By mile 60 I decided I was buying myself sushi for dinner and that there must be a massage very soon...

The combo route I made up ended up being exactly 70 miles. I got back to Marymoor, did a quick transition, and headed out on the run. It was pretty tough at first (hamstring really hurting), but I settled in OK. A few minutes in, I looked at my watch to see if it was time to turn around soon and realized I hadn't started it...crap. So I guesstimated, hit the lap at my turnaround, and just doubled the second half to get the stats.

When I got home, I started googling and calling...and in just over an hour, I will be on a massage table at Massage Envy. I wonder how much they'll charge me if I sleep on the table until Wednesday. I still haven't unwrapped the newspaper...

70 mile ride:

26 miles
5 mile TT: 14:12, avg. pace = 21 mph, avg HR = 142
1 mile recovery
5 mile TT: 16:16, avg pace = 18.4, avg HR = 143
32ish miles

Total ride:
4:24
Avg pace: 15.8
Avg HR = 122

Run:
22 minutes
2.5 miles
Avg HR = 145

Here comes the sun...

Whew, busy week and 2 days to TDC...but it appears to be coming together and the weather forecast is fantastically accurate. It was beautiful today and the next 2 days could be record high temps in the 80s with sun, sun, sun!

In between week of event stuff like "truck gymnastics" and picking up thousands of bottles of water, boxes of fruit, donated hard boiled eggs and the like, I've managed to get in the training on my "recovery week" schedule with a little extra credit thrown in. I swam yesterday and today I got in a run, a quick weights session, and a short bike ride in the sun...not bad for crunchtime.

Wednesday:
Swam 3,100

Today:
5 mile run
43:09
Avg HR = 145

19 mile bike
1:14
Avg pace = 15.5
didn't wear HR monitor

Another indoor bike ride

I slept in a little this morning and turned on the coffee and the news about 6:00...to hear that today was to be a rainfest. DANGIT. I'd planned to do my last "route development" on the TDC 45 mile route this afternoon...instead I went to work at 7:00 a.m. and pretty much sat there till 4:00 when I got restless leg syndrome and HAD to move. I was still thinking about biking outdoors, but when the rain hit the windshield on the way home, I knew it was a trainer day.

Got on the bike trainer with Oprah and survived through part of the news. I was shooting for 2 hours, but lost enthusiasm at 1:45...while watching the forecast for 80+ degrees and sunny on Friday and Saturday. Didn't help much today, but if that forecast actually happens, I could be quite the happy event manager in a few days!!

Bike Trainer:
1:45
Avg HR = 128
Max HR = 136

Monday recovery day

OK, I'm sore. Nothing like the day after IMC or anything, but I'm feelin' the legs a little. Must mean I did it right yesterday.

Today is not the usual killer double Monday, but a nice recovery day...had a good swim this morning and did not kill myself. Then I did weights at lunchtime. That'll be it for today in workout-land...hoping my legs will be up for a bike ride tomorrow.

Swim: 3,050 yards

Kirkland Race Report

I got the PR! I had a good run today in Kirkland, although I had a stomach ache most of the race...I had some restaurant food yesterday for both lunch and dinner and didn't think any of it was that odd, but it must have been. My stomach was just not happy this morning. Fortunately, my legs and other things were OK and by the time I was running, I had made enough trips to the bathroom and portos that I know it was just uncomfortable and I wouldn't have to stop...let's just say there probably couldn't have been any reason to by the time I was running...

Anyway, got to the race a good 40 minutes before the start, leaving plenty of time for several trips between the portos and the car where I could stay warm and read a little of the newspaper. My stupid GPS never "found the sateillite" so I ditched it and used my old watch with no HR monitor. Oh, well...good that I had the back up watch.

I tried not to go out too fast, but my split for the first mile was 8:10. Oops. I slowed down what I thought was a little, but my next split was my slowest of the day at 10:23...I was really wishing I had the GPS to see if the mile markers were accurate--there were a few that seemed too far or not far enough. But whatever, I just went on RPE and kept a steady pace without trying to push too hard. My new cue word for myself up the hills was, "float." The climbs weren't exactly easy (esp. the ones in miles 11-12), but I had the confidence of hill training behind me and tried to convince myself that I was floating up the hills. I did pass a few people and could hear some of them breathing harder than I was, so that was nice. In the middle, my stomach thing was really annoying and I thought I might not make my goal time...but tried to keep the steady pace going and hoped it would be enough. Miles 8 and 9 were a LOT of downhill (as I'd remembered from last year) and I tried to take advantage of it and let it go as much as possible on the descents. I got a nice complement around mile 9 when a woman said to the guy she was running with, "There's another one who makes it look easy..." I was glad it looked like that to her, at least...I wasn't pushing out of my mind, but easy it was not. I also had a nice chat with a guy who started talking to me about mile 10...he didn't know how many hills were going to be on the course, so I got to inform him that guess what, they aren't over yet. As soon as we hit the one coming up Market St., he told me to "have a good finish...." I wished him the same and said, "Go ahead and drop me, I know you're going to..." Well, he kept running right next to me and then I dropped HIM (aw, yeah, the float was working), and I didn't see him again.

I pushed last mile/fast mile and my 13th mile was a 7:44. Felt good about that.

In the middle of this race, I remember thinking, "I don't think I ever want to run a marathon...I need to remember that I'm thinking this later..."

It was a good hilly race and I'm really happy I hit the PR I wanted...it was about 1:30 faster than Tucson, my prior fastest (and Tucson was an all downhill course, btw) half and about 12 minutes (!) faster than my time on this course one year ago. Yea!

It took a while for my stomach to be interested in food...I certainly did NOT go for the Pizza Hut booth at the finish...but by the time I got home and showered, I was ready for a good mountain of food and will happily continue feeding throughout the rest of the day today.

Total time: 1:52:02

Mile Splits: 8:10
10:23 (don't think this was marked correctly)
9:20
8:46
17:44 (missed a mile marker, so this was 2 together)
7:37 (no way was that distance marked correctly, either)
8:07
8:27
8:11
8:32
8:07
7:44 :45ish seconds for the last .1

Race Plan

I haven't put too much thought into my race plan for tomorrow (until this morning)...this is partly due to the busy-factor lately and I also, I must admit, it's probably because I didn't want to freak myself out. My running has been faster and stronger in the last couple of months than it has been in years, so I'm half excited to get out there... and half feeling a bit of internal pressure to get out show some good numbers. I'm also 3 weeks out to the Hawaii Half Iron, so I want this to be a confidence-builder.

I just re-read my half marathon archives from the last couple of years (5 of them) and my race report from this race one year ago. Looking at my race times, and my last few long runs, I should PR this race tomorrow. There, I said it. I'm still really trying to figure out how to wrap my head around the idea of "racing" a half marathon as it still feels like the kind of distance one must simply "survive" more than race, so this race can be an experiment in mentally re-framing this whole idea and pushing a little more. It's also my first race in a few years that is totally solo without anyone else on the course or in support.

OK, the race plan. The course is hilly and starts with a bit of a climb in mile 1 and just after mile 3. I want to go out a little conservatively and think "confidence" on the hills, but start and maintain a pretty consistent pace...I've trained on hills and they don't scare me like they used to. The fastest miles are 8 and 9 where there is a lot of downhill where I want to relax and re-charge without putting on the brakes...who cares if I'm sore on Monday, I want the help of the descent. There's another uphill at about mile 11/12 where I want to try to push a little before the last descent to the finish. I will go through every aid station and hydrate...not planning to carry anything and I've practiced drinking a lot of different sports drinks, so whatever they serve up will be fine. The plan is to negative split which should be possible with the hills at the beginning and the descent in the last mile.

I want to average an 8:30 - 8:40 pace and finish in 1:54 or better.

Now I just have to make it through the taper day...can't I go NOW, please???

Friday

Today I did the usual Friday swim and weights. I would have liked a bit more sleep this morning, but I definitely was not dragging as much as I am on some Fridays...the slight taper is kind of nice. Tomorrow is a rest day before the half marathon race on Sunday and tonight appears to be a mellow night at home...the activities planned for my evening in the Shoebox include a netflix DVD and another attempt at a self-pedicure.

I picked up my packet and shirt today for Sunday while I was running around on another errand-fest to the east side for work. I haven't pinnned on a race number for anything since the Seattle Half...holy cow, that means it's been 6 months without a timing chip! It's definitely time to get back out there...will have to think more about the race plan tomorrow.

Swim: 3,000 yards.

Taper-esque run

I got in yesterday's swim today...nice to be back in the pool. It was just Anna and me in the lane this morning and a fairly no-nonsense workout...good start to the morning.

Since it's a taper-ish week, the "long" run today was supposed to be only 3 miles...nice. I went out at lunch and did 4 since that's my regular route at work. I figured a 4 miler with a few hills wouldn't kill me, especially since I'll be off my legs now until the race on Sunday. I haven't exactly had time to create a race plan for Sunday, but will try to make that happen by Saturday...

Swim: 3,200 yards

4 mile run:
35:23
Avg HR = 142

Wed. hill repeats

I didn't swim this morning...Cascade's bike-to-work breakfast was this morning and I didn't want to cut a swim short, so I moved today's swim to tomorrow. I must admit that I was totally lame and drove down the hill with my bike in my car (!) and then walked a few blocks over to the breakfast. It was a fun event, as usual.

I went out on my bike at lunch to do my prescribed hill repeats. Since it was the only exercise of the day and I knew I'd be at work late, I added some extra miles after I did 5x hills up and down Interlaken and got in about 22 miles. I had been feeling sluggish all morning (let's see, pizza for dinner last night at book club and then the heavy breakfast this morning, plus a bit of work stress...no wonder), so I really needed to get some fresh air and pedal for a while. I felt much better after getting out for a while and moving and ended up staying at work until almost 7:00 p.m. (a workday length usually against my religion) and was really glad I took the long lunch ride earlier.

22.5 mile bike:

3ish mile warm up

5 x Interlaken Hill (.6 mile)
All were between 3:02-3:07 and avg HR of about 146 (157 max)
2ish minute recovery

14 mile ride

Total
22.5 miles
1:38
Avg pace 13.8

Busy Tuesday

Just the facts...crazy busy work day...11 days till TDC and getting slammed.

Did an hour on the trainer when I got up today...smooshed a quick weights workout at the gym in between things.

Bike trainer:

1:00:00
Avg HR = 128
Max HR = 136

Half Marathon week

Had a good rest day yesterday...and a few extra helpings of wine last night, oops. But I was up before the alarm and ready to start sweating it off in the pool...I had a good swim and, apparently, Savingnon Blanc can be converted to fuel (who knew?).

I was out buying first aid supplies for the Tour de Cure rest stops this morning and had the opportunity to swing by Greenlake to do my interval run on the way back to the office. It's kind of a taper week since I have the Kirkland Half Marathon this coming Sunday, so the coach (aka "No Mercy Marek") backed off a little and didn't assign a super killer workout this week...just garden variety hard. It was 5 x 2 minutes hard/2 minutes recovery and I did them around the outer loop of Greenlake. It was perfect out, about 60 degrees and sunny...and I did my lunges and planks in the grass afterwards. I hit each interval really consistently and jogged (didn't walk at all) each recovery.

Good Monday!

Swim: 3,100 yards

Interval Run:

1 mile warm up: 8:30

5 x 2 minutes hard/ 2 minutes jogging recovery

Each interval was .29 or .30 with Avg HR of 156-160 and max of about 165
Each recovery was .21 with Avg HR of 146-149

.7 mile cool down: 6:21

Total: 4 miles
32:52
Overall Avg HR = 142

Brick day

Ah, Sunday...I'm leisurely drinking coffee and thinking about the people (Cheryl, Nancy, Julie, Ann, etc.) who are running the Eugene Half/Full marathon right now...and I'm on a rest day!! But I definitely feel that earned and need it.

Yesterday was a long ride/brick day. We had a Tour de Cure training ride scheduled at the Issaquah Chipotle, so I went out there to do the first part of my ride with the group. It was raining when I left the Shoebox, but Issaquah was dry with dry pavement...for a little while. We had about 20 people and Ed and I took them on an out-and-back to Marymoor via East Lake Sammamish...I got about 8 miles down the road before the consistent pattern of showers/dry/cool/warm/repeat started (and continued the whole day) There were a lot of stops for lights, re-grouping, Saturday strip mall traffic, helping a dude put his chain back on, and sheep-dogging the strung-out group, but it was OK. We got back to Chipotle where the group got their free burritos and were happy with their 25ish mile ride...I had one of my brief longings to be a "normal" person and throw my bike in the car, but practiced thought stoppage, ate a banana, topped off my bottles, and took off for more miles. I did the Rte. 900-May Valley-Issaquah Hobart loop and then went around Lake Sammamish through Marymoor again. With all the repeats of East Lake Samm and the sheep dogging the first round, I know I passed the same dead smooshed racoon at least 3 times. Not very creative on the route, but who cares, I got the miles.

I was supposed to do 70 miles and had to add a short out-and-back near the car to get to 65, but my legs were really done, so I figured I could round up from 65. I was never miserable, but it was a hard ride and with the off and on showers all day, it wasn't exactly a ride I'll remember as "fun," either. I got back to the car for a quick transition and ran toward the back of the strip mall...right away I found a cool little running trail (who knew there was a scenic trail behind Target?) and I had a nice little 20 minute run. In the middle of the run, I felt really good (much better than I'd felt on the bike) and considered running longer, but then my body reminded me that I was hungry and had to pee so I promptly bagged that idea and stuck to the original agenda. It was a bit of a long day and close to 4:00 p.m. by the time I got done.

When I got back to my car in the strip mall, I inhaled the usual V8 recovery drink and went into the Panera Bread store for a snack...wow, walking into that place after a 4+ hour workout is a little overwhelming...mountains of bread, muffins, bagels...a regular wheat/carb festival. I managed to choose a bagel from the mountain of options available and it held me over until a BIG guac cheeseburger a couple hours later...and a lot of chips...and some chocolate chip cookies...

I got in about 13.5 hours of training this week...good week and I was really body-tired by last night, for sure.

Brick:

65 mile ride:
4:05
Avg HR = 122
Avg pace = 15.9

20 min run
2.3 miles
Avg HR = 135

The $10 loaf of bread

My mom used to have a saying about "The $10 loaf of bread," which was basically the experience of going to the grocery store for a loaf of bread, but ending up with a whole bag of stuff...obviously, the $10 figure is a little outdated as now the loaf itself would be almost that much, but you get the idea. Anyway, I think I've one-upped the $10 loaf of bread with an $1,100 oil change at the Toyota dealer. I took my car in yesterday for an oil change and got it back today with a new timing belt, water pump, radiator hoses...and a list of several more things that should eventually get done, too, but were not mission critical. Holy crap! Then, of course, the car was almost empty and I had to go right to the Chevron to throw $45 more at gas to feed it. Fortunately, I have another TDC/Chipotle thing for dinner tonight and will eat free burritos for the 3rd night in a row!

Clearly, the pain that Toyota inflicted on my cash reserves was far greater than the swim workout this morning, although Emily did throw out a set of 10 x 125's that kicked our butts. We had 4 people in the lane today and it was a really good swim. I also got in a walk to work and the usual Friday weights. Feels like Friday and I'm hoping to rally for tomorrow's long ride/brick if the weather is decent.

May Day

It says May on the calendar...and they are giving free tulips away in our office building for May Day...but I ran this morning with gloves, tights, and long sleeves which does not exactly scream "May," in my opinion. Oh, well...at least there is daylight early now and it wasn't snowing. I had to take my car into the shop this morning on Lake City Way by 8:00, so I was up at 5:00 to get in a 10-mile run first. I trotted away from the Shoebox at about 5:20 a.m. and was happy to have daylight from the get-go this time...did the capitol hill downhill weave to Broadway, down the Howe St. stairs...down to Eastlake, over Boyer, down through the arboretum and back, finishing UP Interlakken and that nice (not) long hill toward the end. My legs were a bit tired, but I felt fine...didn't push, didn't slack, just steady and kept about a 9:30 avg. mile pace.

Today's beverage of choice was good old Gatorade, although I chose a new Tiger Woods' flavor called "Quiet Storm." I suppose the Gatorade marketing dept. thought Tiger's face and "quiet storm" would sell better than a more accurate description like "synthetic purple somewhat resembling fake grape." It wasn't bad...much better than the junk I used last week.

I also test drove some new running socks that my buddy, Joel, gave me for my birthday. He swears by these "Injinji" toe socks and I must say I liked them and understand the appeal, especially for blister prevention. Comfy. Not sure I'd want to deal with the toe sock format in transition during a triathlon, but I'll very likely use them for the Kirkland Half next weekend...they're pretty cool.

10 mile run:
1:34:38
Avg HR = 140

Spinnin' Wednesday

I would have liked to sleep longer again today, but it wasn't happening. Swam with Anna this morning and had a good workout...the usual 3,000 yards. Last day of the month, so we'll rotate and be off the wall lane on Friday--yea!

It's also a bike/intervals day and the weather is improving out there...however, due to meetings and work stuff, I just went to spin class at noon to economize the time/effort/coordination of gear. Even minimizing the gear, I forgot a sports bra (again)...I swear, it's always something. Anyway, it was a decent class and I did get in a few 30-40 second sprints. It wasn't nearly as good as being on the real bike woulda been, but it'll do for today. Speaking of spinning, the details of the to-do lists are spinning around in my head...

spin class:
50 minutes
Avg HR = 142
Max HR = 157

Basic Tuesday...

Just a basic Tuesday today...did an hour on the bike trainer with the morning news when I got up...and hit the weight room midday. I'm a little sore from the hills yesterday, but not bad and not in my quads, so that's good. I hadn't lifted since last Tuesday...good to be back in the gym.

Bike trainer:
1:00:00
Avg HR = 128
Max HR = 137

Return of the killer Mondays...

Again this morning, I was not done sleeping when the alarm went off...8 hours really isn't a big enough helping of sleep lately. Once I got moving and pushed myself to the pool, though, swimming was good as always...just Sue and me in the lane this morning and I got in 3,200 yards.

The other thing on today's schedule was running hill repeats...10 of them, 90 seconds each...and I can't say I was exactly looking forward to this one. I was out and about for a meeting, so I went to Greenlake to run. I started by Peet's Coffee and ran over to the the hill behind the tennis courts/track at Lower Woodland...and it just so happened that the paved hill by the dog park is exactly a 90-second hill for me; how painfully fortuitous. I did 5 hills, then did a half mile loop run to try to re-install the lung I felt I'd lost on the first set (and to settle the peanut butter burps I was experiencing from the sandwich 2 hours prior)...then did 5 more. After #9, I had to say out loud, "one F-ing more..." I felt like I was falling apart, but the distance covered and HR was pretty consistent for all 10. It was sunny and about 60 degrees--quite a nice day--so I did my planks and lunges in the grass by the ball fields, got myself a soy latte for recovery, and came back to work blasting my radio with the windows open. This workout was not fun, but I kept thinking that it should pay off in the Kirkland Half Marathon since it's a hilly course.

RUN:
9 min warm up (just over a mile)
5 x 90 second hills (all .17 - .18 mile and 152-159 Avg HR, hit upper 160s on each)
.6 mile
5x 90 second hills (all .17 - .18 mile and 154 - 160 Avg HR, hit upper 160s on each)
9:30 cool down (1.1 mile)

Total: 6 miles
50:33
Avg HR = 149
Max HR - 170

Back home...

Well, the California vacation was a bit different than anticipated...Malia's partner, Sandra, had surgery on Friday (during my little side trip to San Diego). Fortunately, she got to come home yesterday and some of their friends hung out and made dinner for all of us in between Sandra's doses of vicodin and assorted other drugs...yikes. It was a bit stressful in their household, but I still had a good time and it was good to see them and also to have a change of scenery. In between everything yesterday, I took a short solo trip into San Fran. It was about 80 degrees and sunny and I was psyched. I spent a few hours walking around the Castro (saw a naked guy walking down the street at Castro & 18th) and hung out a bit in Delores Park with a zillion other people---it was like the beach without the water. It was great to lay in the park for a while and charge my solar panels.

Today I returned to Seattle...another flawless flight on Virgin Air (I'm now brand loyal, no question) and I was home before noon. Not exactly sunny and 80 here today, but it was pretty balmy in the 60s and I dropped all my stuff without unpacking and got out on the bike. It was a good thing I took off ASAP as the rain was just beginning when I got done. My training plan said 25 miles on the bike with a 10 mile TT, but I changed it a bit...I ended up doing a 42 mile ride with 2x 5 mile TT's on Lake Washington Blvd. and then bricked it with a 20 minute run. I did not feel particularly inspired on the bike, but it was OK...the run was a little tough at first, but felt fine. I don't know why, but running is more fun than biking these days. Anyway, I felt good about the workout and am quite happy to be going out for a belated birthday dinner and some beers shortly!

Brick:

42 mile ride:
5 mile TT: 14:51 Avg HR = 156
5 mile TT: 15:05, Avg HR = 157

Total ride:
2:38:55
Avg pace: 15.9
Avg HR = 133

Run:
20 minutes
2.37 miles
Avg HR = 140

Trip within a trip

I'm in the San Diego airport about to fly back up to San Fran...I had a little half day trip to SD for a professional fact-finding mission. I liked the facts I found and am calling the day a likely success...will know more soon.

I started the day today with a good swim at the Albany High School pool in Malia's neighborhood...I'd intended to sleep in, but woke up about 6:00 and decided to walk over to lap swim. The pool was really old with a pretty dang cold locker room...but the place had character and not a lot of swimmers, so lap swim road rage was avoided and I had a good swim. The pool seemed long, though, and after I timed myself on what I thought was a 200 and it was about a minute slower than it should have been, I asked the lifeguard if the pool was meters or what. She said it was 100 feet long, or 33.3 yards. How the hell are you supposed to figure out your yardage on THAT base? I think I figured out that I did about the usual yardage and called it good...definitely a little more intersting than usual :)

I forgot to report the other day that Virgin Airlines is my new favorite airline...way cool entertainment features and the flight crews have been really cool.

It's supposed to be 83 degrees in San Fran tomorrow...whoop!

California Dreamin!

My 2nd day as a 42-year old has been great! I am in sunny California at Malia & Sandra's place in the East Bay area. I slept in this morning and woke up to blue sky and sunshine...and the only thing on my agenda for the entire day was to get in my long run...after coffee, breakfast, and a short walk with their cute dog, Dallas. Unfortunately, Sandra is having some major health issues (like in the ER yesterday type of serious) and they had to go to the doc this morning. However, they are wonderful hosts and gave me the spare vehicle, a cute VW beetle, and directions to a great running/biking trail just a few miles away. I was quite happy to put on shorts, a light short-sleeved running shirt, and not even have a thought about gloves...ah. The trail where I ran went to an area called Richmond and a marina. Within 3 minutes from the car, I could see the Golden Gate bridge and San Fran across the water in the distance...so nice. There were lots of flowers and parks along the way and the Marina was really cool. Unfortunately, the trail only went about 4 miles out and I had to make up a lot of loopy and zig-zaggy things to get in my miles...but in warm weather with nice views of NEW, dry scenery, I cannot complain.

The one thing I can complain about, however, was today's choice of beverage/fuel from the "I'm trying new fuel every week" project. I love the Hammer Perpetuem stuff on the bike, so I decided to try "HEED" in the same flavor, the orange creamsickle (now to be said with the emphasis on the SICK syllable). This is the most plastic aftertasting crap I've ever used...ew. I was really glad I'd had breakfast today before running, so I didn't need the calories as much...but I did need some hydration and the one water fountain I tried by a park wasn't on. I managed to choke down about 3/4 of my bottle, but each time I took a sip, I had to get mentally prepared for how gross it was going to be. Serious BLECH!!


Anyway, 13 miles felt long...as usual, 8 miles was about where the threshold of "fun" was passed, but it wasn't bad and I did fine...kept about a 9:15 average pace and felt good about it. Had plenty of time to walk a cool down and do some lunges...damn, I love vacation! On the way back, I found a Jamba Juice and had a great recovery protein smoothie...then got back for a long shower, lunch with Malia, and a nap on the couch. Ah. The only other potential activity for the day might be another stroll with Dallas...

13.1 mile run
2:01:13
Avg HR = 140

Earth day + Birthday

Yesterday was earth day...and other than the tatoo of the earth on the back of my left shoulder, I didn't really do much to honor our nice planet...had to drive to work and carbon footprint my way out to Redmond for some meetings, so I didn't even do no-car Tuesday. Yesterday was a non stop long day, but I did get in an hour on the bike trainer in the a.m....threw in a few 1-min intervals to break monotony, but nothing fancy. Also managed to wedge my weights workout into the afternoon.

Today is my 42nd birthday...holy crap, that's 21 twice and I swear I negative split the second one as it has kind of flown by! To celebrate my birthday, I am flying to San Fransisco in a few hours to see one of my BFFs, Malia until Sunday. My colleagues at work now know me pretty well and, instead of the obligatory cake, they gave me a bag of Luna Bars and a bike route book yesterday! This was GREAT as I chose to spend those extra non-cake calories on 2 Black Butte Porters at Smith Tavern later in the evening...Whoop!! My pal, Nancy, at work also gave me a gift certificate for a massage from Mish and I can't wait to use it when I'm back from San Fran. I also had a fun package to unwrap this morning from my friends, Brenda & Megan and a nice present from my parents...nice to be spoiled :)

I went to swim team this morning and announced to our coach, Emily, that it was my 42nd birthday and that I wanted a set of 4 x 200's to celebrate...and that I wanted as much freestyle as possible--no stroke crap-- in the workout. She obliged and people were quite nice to me at the pool.

I also got in a bike ride today...I would like to report that I rode 42 miles in honor of my 42nd birthday....or that I did 42 hill repeats....but both of those would be big fat lies. I did have a nice 30 mile ride around Mercer Island and back, however...overdressed and sweated like crazy, but too hot is always better than too cold. It wasn't the balmy sunny day I'd hoped for, but dry pavement and no rain is a good enough birthday present for me! My legs were a little tired and I realized I've biked 3 times in 4 days and did that tempo run on the other day...so 30 miles was plenty and I felt I did a pretty good push. I'm planning to do my long run at Malia's tomorrow...a change of route will be good!

Yesterday:
1:00 bike trainer
Avg HR = 127

Today:
3100 yard swim

30 mile bike
1:58:53
Avg HR = 126
Max HR = 159
Avg pace = 15.1

Lake Union Tempo Run

I went to bed at 8:30 last night...the regular Sunday cleaning of the Shoebox and folding of the small mountain of laundry was postponed until tonight because I was just too wiped out from the weekend. This proved to be a really good decision and I was back in action today with the usual Monday double.

Julie, Sue, and I had a good swim at Seattle U. this morning...the usual 3,000 yards and we got to move out of the wall lane to an open lane in the middle...nice.

I kept track of Seujan's splits at the Boston Marathon online all morning and after I saw that she was done, I went out for my tempo run. I figured that if several thousand people could dig deep for 4 hours including heartbreak hill, I could push it on a flat route for 4 miles. The strategy worked pretty well if I say so myself. I ran at Lake Union...started on the south end with a half mile warm up and then went out-and-back up almost to Fremont on the Westlake side. I'm happy to report this was my fastest tempo run ever and I averaged a 7:27 mile pace!! Whoop!!

Swim: 3,000 yards

Tempo Run:
.5 mile warm up: 4:26

4 miles hard: 29:47
Avg HR = 162
Max HR = ?? (gadget said 206, but there's no way...more like 167, I think)

.75 mile cool down: 6:39

Total: 5.25
40:42

April is the new December

I'm a little off my game training-wise this weekend...I had to work all day yesterday which meant a mandatory rest day and a one-day weekend (today) to do a lot of things that are not exactly done yet...added to that have been 2 (really fun but really late) nights out and not the usual amount or quality of sleep. Oh, and for one final excuse, the weather has been crazy cold the last few days and there were mentions of snow/rain in today's forecast. Apparently, April is the new December. ANYWAY...I should have done a brick today with a long outdoor ride, but I settled for 2 hours on the bike trainer with a bad movie I've seen before ("Girlfight")and am calling it good. I think I might be able to make up the longer ride during the week this week and I just need to get some stuff done around the Shoebox today...and am planning to go to bed super early tonight.

Bike trainer
2:00
Avg HR = 126

TGIF

TGIF. I can still see the taillights of that truck I mentioned yesterday, but I don't think they are coming back toward me...and I might actually be up off the figurative pavement by tomorrow. At the moment, I'm still pretty wiped. Did the usual swim team (3000 yards) this morning and weights at lunch, and am committed to getting a nap before going out with Stacey, Shane, Duncan, and Julie tonight...It's a pre-birthday thing for both Duncan and me and should be fun, but I may need a little extra caffeine to rally since the show we're going to see starts at about the time I usually go to sleep...!

I can tell that I'm 4 weeks out now from the Tour de Cure and closing...I slept like crap last night and at 4:45 a.m. was thinking about the changes that need to be made to the Porto Potty order...yup, I can tell I'm within a month of the event.

If you lived here, you'd be home now...

So here's how the last 3 days have felt: Tuesday I was hit by a truck. Wednesday the same truck backed up and hit me again. This morning, just to make sure I was flattened, the same truck ran over me again. I'd like to think that the truck is now driving out of town so I can pick myself up off the pavement. OK, OK, a little over-dramatic, but hey, this is my blog and part of its purpose is for me to whine.

Today was long run day...I went to bed (on a full stomach, oof) at 9:00, woke up before the alarm, and felt OK. I didn't really know what my route was going to be, but I did know I was NOT going to run from the Shoebox and do that damn hill at the end, a decision I was very happy to have made 2 hours later. I drove down to Boyer/23rd and started by running about 5:35 a.m. I started down Boyer with no traffic and a lot of very enthusiastic birds chirping...over the bridge, toward UW on the BG trail, up into UW for a quick tour of the quad, back to the trail...then I realized how close I was to Ravenna Park. Cool. So I went up the Ravenna Park trails to Cown Park...and then realized how close I was to Greenlake and started calculating mileage in my head. I thought if I did the long side of Greenlake and down Stone Way, it'd be about right (oops, shoulda done the short side). By the time I got to Greenlake (6ish miles), I was thinking that maybe I should re-consider doing Olympic Distance races instead of Half Ironmans...this was just seeming really long already. Kind of like those signs on new buildings that say, "If you lived here, you'd be home now!" a 6-mile run would've been just fine today. But, too late, entry fees have been paid and I know I will not feel this tired ALL the time...plus, I was out there with no other way to get back, so of course, I kept on going. Turns out I under-estimated the distance and hit the 12 mile mark about 1.25 miles away from my car giving me an opportunity (well, necessity) for extra credit...exactly what I did not want this morning. Oh, well. I decided to practice the run/walk thing and did 1 minute run/1 minute walk that last 1.25 miles and that was much better.

Today's beverage selection was Clif Electolyte Cran-Raspberry flavor. Not bad...less syrupy than the Cytomax I tried a couple of weeks ago...might use it again.

Tomorrow will be swim-only and I have to work all day Saturday...something I am completely dreading, but will force a rest day that may be a gift from the universe and give me a little more recovery before Sunday's bike workout.

Long Run:

12 miles: 1:54:16
Avg HR = 136

1.25 walk/run: 14:00
Avg HR = 121

Total:
13.25 miles
2:08:15

Still draggin' Wednesday...

Swimming was fine this morning...but the rest of the day, I was really dragging again/still. I got to bed at 9:15 last night, but when the alarm woke me up this morning, I was not done sleeping.

A couple hours before bike group this evening all I wanted was to sleep...and eat. So I ate a Clif Bar and got myself down to Madrona to do the workout. We did some speed/cadence/power stuff down to Seward Park...or, well, we were supposed to. I kind of kept with the program on the way to the park...and in the park we alternated hard/easy laps of the top of the park. I had time to get in 8 loops and I did really push it on the 4 hard ones...HR hit 162 on one of them. Coming back to Madrona, I must admit I basically cheated and went 1 min hard/1 min easy and didn't do the prescribed cadence/gear ladder we were supposed to do. When we got done, the evening and the temperature were quite nice and I almost wanted to do a few more flat miles, but then I remembered how damn tired I've been for 2 days...went directly home to shower, eat and very soon will tuck myself in for some needed recovery sleep.

Swim: 3050 yards

Bike:
55 minutes
15 miles with intervals/speed

Low energy Tuesday

I slept in a little today...I did NOT want to get up and did NOT want to get on the bike trainer. But auto-pilot took over and I did both, though neither with much gusto. Fortunately, the bike workout was just an hour aerobic with no bells & whistles and I could just watch TV...and look across the Shoebox at the coffee maker which served as the finish line. Didn't have the time or the enthusiasm for walking to work/no-car Tuesday today and kept daydreaming all morning about where I might be able to wedge a nap into the day...still thinking that maybe it could happen in the dentist chair when I get my teeth cleaned later this afternoon. I lifted weights at lunch and started feeling a little more energy after that (and lunch), but am glad there are no more workouts today. I have a Bikeworks board meeting tonight and am hoping it ends on time so I can be in bed early.

Bike trainer:
1:00
Avg HR = 124

Regular Monday

Here we are back at Monday again...that whole Dalai Lama compassion theme happening in Seattle these days doesn't really apply to triathlon training, at least not today. It was the usual Monday swim/run double.

Swim team was really good...just Karen W. and me in the lane and the workout was pretty no-nonsense...3,200 yards.

The run today was intervals on a pyramid of 1, 2, 3, 4, 3, 2, 1 minutes with a minute recovery between each. When I got to work this morning, I discovered that today's forgotten object was the GPS/HR monitor and I really didn't want to do this workout without the gadget (OK, I never want to do workouts without the stat read-out, I admit it). I had to do an errand for work anyway, so I went home and did my run/shower there...ran down the hill to Interlakken and ran back and forth in Interlakken for the intervals...then UP the hill back home. I'd have preferred a nice flat warm up/cool down, but I'm not nearly as scared or annoyed by hills as I used to be, so it was fine. I tried to work on stride length and the lean on the speed work...I was noticing my tendency to try to stride out long, especially at the beginning of an interval (visual of a triple jumper)...but I kept thinking about that "Chi Running" stuff and keeping my steps smaller (which was NO problem on that hill home, btw). I was not getting my lean on very well, but did try to shorten the strides. I wasn't quite as fast today, but maybe the varied terrain had something to do with it...yeah, that's it. Anyway, good healthy butt-kicker and off to another week.

Swim: 3,200 yards

Run:
9:30 warm up (1.1 miles)
Pyramid with 1 minute walk/run recovery:
1:00: .16 mile, Avg HR 165
2:00: .29, 158
3:00: .41, 158
4:00: .54, 162
3:00: .41, 160
2:00: .28, 157
1:00: .13, 154
12 minute moderate run 1.25 miles)

Total:
5.1 miles
44:05
Avg HR = 155
Max HR = 170

Summer preview!

Tough day on the bike today...weather was the best day of the year and I got to ride with Karin G...or well, I got to intermittently ride with her in between chasing her. I got a bit of a butt-kicking, but the times she let me catch up we enjoyed the sun and had some really good conversation. It was totally sunny, smelled like summer, and I think everyone in Seattle who has a bike was riding it today, with the possible exception of people who have a bike AND a boat who were floating around on Lake Washington...I doubt anyone in this city was indoors today. 72 degrees and perfect!! Can I have another????

We took off from Magnuson and Robin rode with us to Logboom...then she turned back and we continued over Juanita and Kirkland out to Marymoor on the path by 520...then we went to Lake Sammamish State Park and took a break. We decided then to return over Newport and the short side of Mercer Island and up the trail to Magnuson. Karin would've gone the hilliest route possible home, but I was already falling apart and asked for the Mercer Island route which she charitably agreed to. She weighs nothing (i.e. scampers up hills) and is a more accomplished athlete than I am, but I'd hoped to stay a little closer to her on the bike. Not to be. For whatever reasons, my legs didn't have it...my avg. pace was a little slower than usual today, but my avg. HR was higher and I was pretty whipped by the end. At about 40 miles, my legs felt a little like hamburger, which made me THINK about hamburgers...which provided a guacamole burger fantasy that was in my head for the rest of the ride. Karin peeled off for home near Magnuson and I went back to my car and bricked around Magnuson Park with a 20 minute run.

This was another good hard training week and I'm more than happy to have a rest/recovery day tomorrow...and am still shooting for that burger tonight after a much-needed shower.

58 mile ride
3:50
Avg HR = 130
Avg Pace = 15.2

20 minute run
2.3 miles
Avg HR = 153

Sun!!

Workout-wise, the usual Friday: swam 'n lifted...also walked downtown 'n back while making a little vitamin D...because...

Weather-wise: drastic and welcome improvements...spring sprung and it appears more to come tomorrow!! Bring it!

Happy hour wise: Liberty sushi again...I think I'm hooked :)

Heavy legs Thursday...

Slept in till 6:30 today...legs were a bit cob-webby from the bike hills last night and this week's long run was only 8 miles and I knew I could get it done during the day. So I declared a "no car Thursday," had the usual lots of coffee with the Today show and walked in to work to wake up my legs more slowly. Unfortunately, the cobwebs weren't totally gone from the legs by the time I set out for my run a few hours later...at 2 miles they were pretty heavy and not excited about the excursion AT ALL, despite the opportunity to run through Interlakken. Things improved a little by about miles 4-5 and I got it all done with minimal internal whining...Glad tomorrow is swim/weights and a day off the legs.

8 mile run
1:12:32
Avg HR = 137
Max HR = 154

Hunger trumps warmth

Today started out well with a good swim. It was only Tatyana and me in the lane and she came over to the Shoebox after swimming for coffee. We solved all the world's problems by 8:00 a.m. and then I had a nice walk to work...I didn't do "no car Tuesday" yesterday, so I wanted to get in at least one walk to/from work this week. I didn't work out at lunch (but did hike to the Licensing Office to renew my driver's license where there was NO line, wow) because Cheryl asked me to help out with her Wednesday evening bike group. Tonight was the first night for the group and several of us dressed for the weather/temperature that was in effect about 2 hours before bike group...we were cold and slightly cranky about it and anxious to get going. Fortunately, it was a hill workout and for a decent amount of time in the middle, I could almost feel my fingers and toes. We did some great hill stuff over on 45th by Metropolitan Market.

By the time I got back to the Shoebox, I was really cold...the only reason I got out of the shower before I tested the outer limits of the building's hot water heater (and turned an even brighter shade of pink than the shrimplike one I already had going) was that I'd have eaten a shampoo bottle if I stayed in there any longer...hunger trumps warmth. Overall, it was a good day...I also managed to chop down my inbox at work from 150+ to about 22...sweet.

Swim:
3000 yards

Bike:
1:00
Hill repeats
Avg HR = 109
Max HR = 159

Hellooooo legs

OK, so that stair workout yesterday blew up my quads a bit...I could tell they were starting to get progressively more sore overnight. But I guess I can call it good sore, not debilitatingly sore. Fortunately, today wasn't a hard day...did an hour of steady spin on the trainer this morning and lifted weights later. My HR monitor also seems to have had a blowout, so I had to guesstimate a bit on HR on the bike, but I didn't care since there were no intervals.

Tonight will be watching the Women's NCAA basketball final on TV and being quite happy to watch others run around!

Bike trainer:
1:00
Avg HR = 125ish (?)

Stairs 'n hills

Off to another power Monday, though I was not quite as on fire as the last few... I'm, um, almost done sweating off a few extra beers from the weekend...

Had a good swim this morning despite the fact that Anna suggested to Julie and me in her innocent little voice, "Maybe we could do 100s on the 1:25 and push it a little today?" Julie and I looked at each other in apprehension, but figured we should buck up and not be wussy...and we held the first 5 of them. Then, fortunately, Anna went over a lane before the second set so I could come back down to a humane send off.

The midday run was to be 4-5 miles including hill repeats...10x 1 minute + 5x 30 seconds. I decided to change the 1-minute hills to stairs because that sounded more fun. Ran over to the Howe St. stairs and hammered my legs up 'n down as prescribed. I did 5 in a row (1 min up/1 min down), then ran about a quarter mile to get my legs back...then did 5 more...ran a quarter mile...then did 5 x hills up the steep street right next to the stairs. Oof. They were all hard, but a good workout and my quads didn't totally blow up...felt good, especially afterwards.

Swim:
3000 yards

Run:

1.4 mile warm up
5 x 1 minute up stairs (8 flights)/ 1 minute recover/down
.25 mile run
5x 1 minute up stairs/ 1 min. down
.25 mile run
5x 30 second hill/ 35 sec. recover
1.4 mile back

Total:
4.66 miles
54:30
Avg HR = 145bpm
Max HR = 166bpm (Hit 160+ on each set of stairs)

Good brick!

Today was a brick day...and a really good tough one, yowsa. I drove my bike out to Cycle U this morning to help get the first TDC training clinic off the ground. Once Ed and the other uber-competent coaches got my peeps going (10 showed up, yea!), I made an exit and took off from there on my ride.

I needed to do 50 miles with a 10 mile TT in the middle + run 20 minutes. It seemed cold, so I took off on the trail wearing my whole arctic-ready ensemble (lobster gloves, beanie hat, booties, "teflon" jacket) and went out to Marymoor to do the TT on East Lake Sammamish Pkwy. I was toasty by the time I got to the park and downgraded to normal-person gloves. The 21 mile warm up getting out there felt OK, but not great and I wasn't quite sure how well my legs had recovered from the week and how this one was going to go...I hit E. Lk. Samm pretty hard and it was apparent pretty soon by my HR that it would be a tough one...but actually not as awful as I'd thought it might be. Well, except that damn little hill at about mile 5. I tried to attack the hill. It attacked back. I didn't give up, but my HR hit 163. I kept at it, hammered on up and down and into Issaquah. In the last half mile I got a little jacked up by the traffic and had to unclip and hop up to the sidewalk, but I don't think it messed up my time much. I was happy with how hard I pushed this 10 miler...just under 31 minutes.

After the TT part, I was surprised that I felt better for the rest of the ride than I had warming up...it was a little odd and I kept wondering when the bottom was going to fall out, but I felt OK all the way in-- never fell apart (kept on the nutrition, so maybe that was it?). I came up Newport, over Mercer Island the short way, back through the arboretum, the UW, and back up the trail to Magnuson. Despite having a gazillion clothes on, I still had a pretty quick transition to the run and looped Magnuson Park. My legs piped up immediately when I started running...still feeling my hamstrings from Thursday. But the run was OK, too and 20 minutes is nothing. I really like doing bricks because they make me feel like a real triathlete! I ended the run loop by coming up through the off-leash dog park. I love going through there and looking at all the cool dogs...it was a typical crowded Saturday there today and it turned into a bit of an agility test as I had to dodge a lot of 4-legged moving targets, puddles, and dog parents throwing sticks and herding their pets. Not the smartest thing to do at the end of a long workout probably, but it was fun scenery!

This was a really good, strong training week--quality (tempo run and tempo bike) and volume were both up there --got in 14 hours this week.

I'm going to "Hot Flash" later and I hope I can get a bar stool as I'm not sure how well or how long I'll be able to stand up or dance. Glad tomorrow is my rest day.

Brick:
55 mile Ride:

21 miles warm up/moderate

10 Mile TT:
30:51
Avg HR = 149
Max HR = 163
Avg pace = 19.4

24 miles

Total:
55 miles
3:30
Avg HR = 126
Avg pace = 15.7

Run:
2.3 miles
20:05
Avg HR = 144

Concise summary

Swimteam workout, good.
Body, tired.
Coffee, essential.
Weights, later.
Nap, I wish.
Friday, shew.

Back-to-back butt kicking

Long run day this morning. I woke up a few times during the night slightly anxious about the fact that I could still feel yesterday's bike ride in my legs and had to run 11 miles when I got up. But...whatever, good to run on tired legs, right? And I'm still pretty happy that I CAN run, so off we go. I was up early and started running by about 5:30. I had some ideas, but not an exact route, so I kind of made it up along the way...ziz-zagged capitol hill, down the Howe St. stairs, a little of Eastlake and the bridge (sunrise starting, sliver of moon, very cool view there of the mountains), Portage Bay, UW, and out-and-back in the arboretum, and back up through Boyer/19th/Interlakken. It didn't seem that cold when I started, but by the time I was in the arboretum, I was fantasizing about having my hands around a warm cup of coffee...my fingers felt frozen and really hurt, despite the smartwool gloves. My ears were even cold and that almost never happens. I was not setting any speed records, for sure, and the last mile or so was ALL uphill (and took about 11+ minutes)...my legs and I know each other quite well at this point and they have informed me that they will be sore tomorrow and that they will be taking a personal day. Do not expect to be called up on until Saturday or you will get the voicemail...the arms will be handling the swim/weights tomorrow. My hamstring hurts now and my hip could use a little WD-40, but all things considered, I actually felt pretty good this morning.

I have a new project of sampling different brands and flavors of sports drinks on my long runs. Since I hate carrying the bottle, I decided it might make things more interesting to have a new drink to try each week. Today's beverage was Cytomax, pink lemonade flavor. After the first sip contrasted yuckily with the residual toothpaste in my mouth, it wasn't TOO bad. Really sweet and kind of syrupy, but I needed the calories and it certainly wasn't as bad as anything fruit punch-flavored. Not sure I'll use it again, but I did drink most of it and I'll give it a "decent" rating...

11.25 mile run
1:48:37 (Avg mile pace of 9:39)
Avg HR = 141

Humbled on the bike

Today was one of the days when I appreciate the best perk about my job: route development. I had a meeting in Tacoma this morning and then drove to Marymoor to meet one of the great volunteers on my committee, Rebecca, to ride the 45 mile Tour de Cure route. We started out about 11:00 a.m. and it was pretty cool, but sunny... we agreed that sunshine makes pretty much everything in the whole world better and happier. Rebecca is a really strong athlete (i.e. placed in Fat Salmon last summer) and has been on her bike a LOT in the last few months, so I sort of expected to be humbled...that expectation was quickly met. Fortunately, on the several occasions when she dropped me, I could at least keep her in sight. I'm going to choose to believe that me being able to stay within range was due to my cycling ability, but if I'm honest, I should probably admit it was because she is nice and because I knew the route so she needed me to keep up and tell her where we were going. I kept thinking that I really need to get my butt out on the bike on the ROAD more and not on the trainer so much...I can really tell that I need it. Anyway, I was humbled, but not demoralized, and had a great ride in the long overdue sun. It was really nice to ride with someone who made me push a little harder and also have some nice conversation along the way. We also actually did do some work I needed to do on the route related to the rest stops, etc.

Then I got to come home to the Shoebox which was toasty from the sun and smelled great because I'd left some really good barley/corn/tomato/Mexican seasoned stuff in the crockpot...ah, beer and burritos. A good day NOT in the office!

46.8 mile ride
3:03
Avg HR = 126
Avg pace: 15.3

Urban hiking

Didn't get a lot of sleep or very good sleep last night, but was up and off to swim this morning anyway...today it was Mackenzie, Anna, and me in the lane and I got a little more than the usual yardage...good 3,250 yard swim. It was an "optional" bike today and I opted for NOT...I walked to work and back, and to a meeting over at the Columbia Tower in the middle of the day, so I'm sure I got in at least 5 miles of miscellaneous urban hiking throughout the day...and lifted weights...so it's not like I didn't get in a little supplemental movement. Had 2 social things after work, so there was no more time in the day to bike anyway. All the walking was nice...it was a bit cool today, but there were now snowstorms, rain, or ice pellets and seeing some blue sky in our fair city was a very welcomed change! This spring thing might actually happen...

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

'Nother lap around Lake Union

Run day today...it was a really nice no-wind morning, warm enough for shorts, and there was daylight by 6:30 a.m...every week is a little closer to getting out of the winter tunnel. Did the usual Lake Union + part of Boyer and felt good.

No other workouts today...just several "round the block with the beagle" strolls.

7.4 mile run
1:06
Avg HR = 141

Beagle blog!

I'm hosting my first 4-legged guest in the Shoebox...Rosie, my favorite beagle, is in my care (or maybe more accurately, I'm in hers?) until Monday. YEA!! I even cleared her presence with the apt. manager who said he'd be able to "look the other way..." for a weekend, despite the fact that doggies really aren't allowed in the building (making this a double gift from the universe). It's definitely time for some unconditional love on 4 feet and I'm very happy to have her around.

Today was a swim/bike day...swim team was the regular good workout (although there was some breath control crap and I actually tried to do a little of it, blech). I got in an hour on the bike trainer later in the day at basic aerobic pace, nothing fancy. I tried to keep the cadence up and was at about 100 for much of the workout...hoping some of this indoor stuff will transfer to the real riding.

I also had to deal with a technical difficulty with my computer today...I couldn't get online and had to call Comcast (who, despite the fact that the company IS the devil, employs some really nice and decent tech support staff...). It turned out my splitter had spontaneously bitten the dust and, for a few hours, I had to choose between the TV or being online. It made me realize how dependent I am on having them both simultaneously to keep me company...Anyway, a $2 splitter at Bartell's has brought me back to the usual connections and I am good to go with the TV on as I type...thank god, as it's time for American Idol! Poor Rosie had to listen to my singing in the car and it might get worse now if I like their song choices!

Swim: 3150 yards

Bike trainer:
1:00
Avg HR = 130