(Not at all related to triathlon transitions)
This week I've been gearing up to really start training again. I've been having some odd aches and pains so after two weeks of on and off running and traveling, I wanted to be very careful this week and ease back in with low volume workouts.
Monday AM: 2 mile run, followed by lots of stretching (which I'm not usually good about)
Tuesday AM: 3 mile run
Tuesday PM: 1300 swim (400 w/u, 100kick, 5X100 mod w/ 5-10 sec rest, 100K, 200c/d)
Wednesday AM: 3 mile run
Thursday AM: 30 minute ride on the trainer
Friday: rest
3.27.2009
3.24.2009
More traveling
The last week has been a mess of traveling back from the East coast, traveling up to Portland and back on business, and just trying to catch up on sleep. A couple jogs in there, and lots of walking at the National Gallery of Art, but literally nothing worth enumerating here.
Finally, today is Day 1 of back to training, more on that later!
Finally, today is Day 1 of back to training, more on that later!
3.18.2009
Race Report: St. Patty's Day 8K
Kyle was selected to present his research at a conference in Baltimore, so we decided to add on a little vacation in DC to visit friends and our old stomping grounds. As luck would have it, it happened to be the weekend of the St. Patty's Day 8K, so Kyle, our friend Kelly M, and I all decided to run it.
Pre-race: Kyle and I had some espresso and shared a little breakfast sandwich at Starbucks in Dupont and then jumped on the Metro to downtown. The race had more than 5,000 runners so most of the people on the Metro were runners, too. It was fun to see that everyone was geared up for the same thing on a cold Sunday morning.
Since this race was just for fun and I hadn't been training for the distance at all, I decided to take the opportunity to do something I've always wanted to do but never been willing to take the risk -- I decided I'd just go out hard for the first half, as hard as I felt like I could, and then if I wanted to quit and walk the rest of the way at that point, I'd let myself. Usually I have training invested in a race, so I wouldn't risk a total blow up like that. So that was my goal, see how long I could last at a fast pace, which to me meant about 7:20 pace. I thought I'd do the first few miles around 7:20-7:30 and then the last couple around 8s or so.
Race: Since I was planning this blow up strategy, I parted ways with Kyle and Kelly M just before the start and got up close to the front with some speedy people. The race was a bit delayed, but finally the gun went off and away we went. I got into what I thought was a slightly beyond comfortable fast pace, assuming it was right around 7:20. At the first mile marker, checked my watch -- 6:59. Crap. (I gave up swearing for Lent, so "crap" is a pretty serious word). I knew that 6:59 was definitely going to screw me up, even though I was planning to go out fast, I didn't think I could go that fast and I was sure I couldn not keep that up for 2.5 miles. Sure enough, major slow down, mile 2: 7:21.
At that point I figured I'd just try to get through the next half mile or so to the halfway point and then slow to a jog for the remainder. I came through mile 3 much slower: 7:44. Now with just two miles left, I figured I'd just keep plodding along but that when I could see where Kyle and Kelly M were, I'd give them the signal that I was going to slow down and wait for them to catch up to me. (The course had several turnarounds, so you could see people frequently and I had already seen them twice). I had already planned that I would run my finger across my throat and they would understand that meant it was over for me. Of course though, I kept on running and running and didn't see them! Mile 4: 7:38.
Well, at that point, I decided to just finish it off because coming in under 37:30 was still within reach. I think all of these pictures are from the last half mile where I was just trying to tough it out. Managed to finish in 37:02 (last mile: 7:17), good enough for 71st woman, ahead of 2,303 other women. I can confidently say, however, that it would have been much easier to run 5 miles evenly at 7:27 pace than do the fun little experiment I did going out in 6:59.
Post-race: After finishing, I jogged out to the course and watched for Kyle and Kelly M to finish. They both expected to run around 9s and surprised themselves with faster times! Huge props to Kyle who had barely run at all in the months preceding. We all agreed it was a great race and patted ourselves on the backs for getting out there, then headed out for bloody marys and brunch.
Me 37:02 (7:27 pace: 6:59, 7:21, 7:44, 7:38, 7:17)
Kelly M 39:58 (8:03 pace)
Kyle 41:31 (8:21 pace)
Pre-race: Kyle and I had some espresso and shared a little breakfast sandwich at Starbucks in Dupont and then jumped on the Metro to downtown. The race had more than 5,000 runners so most of the people on the Metro were runners, too. It was fun to see that everyone was geared up for the same thing on a cold Sunday morning.
Since this race was just for fun and I hadn't been training for the distance at all, I decided to take the opportunity to do something I've always wanted to do but never been willing to take the risk -- I decided I'd just go out hard for the first half, as hard as I felt like I could, and then if I wanted to quit and walk the rest of the way at that point, I'd let myself. Usually I have training invested in a race, so I wouldn't risk a total blow up like that. So that was my goal, see how long I could last at a fast pace, which to me meant about 7:20 pace. I thought I'd do the first few miles around 7:20-7:30 and then the last couple around 8s or so.
Race: Since I was planning this blow up strategy, I parted ways with Kyle and Kelly M just before the start and got up close to the front with some speedy people. The race was a bit delayed, but finally the gun went off and away we went. I got into what I thought was a slightly beyond comfortable fast pace, assuming it was right around 7:20. At the first mile marker, checked my watch -- 6:59. Crap. (I gave up swearing for Lent, so "crap" is a pretty serious word). I knew that 6:59 was definitely going to screw me up, even though I was planning to go out fast, I didn't think I could go that fast and I was sure I couldn not keep that up for 2.5 miles. Sure enough, major slow down, mile 2: 7:21.
At that point I figured I'd just try to get through the next half mile or so to the halfway point and then slow to a jog for the remainder. I came through mile 3 much slower: 7:44. Now with just two miles left, I figured I'd just keep plodding along but that when I could see where Kyle and Kelly M were, I'd give them the signal that I was going to slow down and wait for them to catch up to me. (The course had several turnarounds, so you could see people frequently and I had already seen them twice). I had already planned that I would run my finger across my throat and they would understand that meant it was over for me. Of course though, I kept on running and running and didn't see them! Mile 4: 7:38.
Well, at that point, I decided to just finish it off because coming in under 37:30 was still within reach. I think all of these pictures are from the last half mile where I was just trying to tough it out. Managed to finish in 37:02 (last mile: 7:17), good enough for 71st woman, ahead of 2,303 other women. I can confidently say, however, that it would have been much easier to run 5 miles evenly at 7:27 pace than do the fun little experiment I did going out in 6:59.
Post-race: After finishing, I jogged out to the course and watched for Kyle and Kelly M to finish. They both expected to run around 9s and surprised themselves with faster times! Huge props to Kyle who had barely run at all in the months preceding. We all agreed it was a great race and patted ourselves on the backs for getting out there, then headed out for bloody marys and brunch.
Me 37:02 (7:27 pace: 6:59, 7:21, 7:44, 7:38, 7:17)
Kelly M 39:58 (8:03 pace)
Kyle 41:31 (8:21 pace)
3.17.2009
Traveling
Though I'd like to say HIM training is underway, instead I'm just doing my best to stay active since I was traveling last week and am traveling this week, which usually means lots of great (bad for you) food, plenty of drinking, and not much working out.
After the triathlon on Saturday, I took Sunday and Monday off.
Tuesday and Wednesday I got out for a 3-mile run each morning.
On Thursday, Kyle and I spent all day flying to the East Coast (left the house at 4am and arrived at our hotel in Baltimore around 7pm).
Friday morning I jumped on the treadmill at the hotel (not a Woodway) for some quick speed work. My work out was:
800 at 6.5mph
400 at 8.0
400 at 6.0
400 at 8.5
400 at 6.0
800 at 8.0
800 at 6.5
Friday afternoon, we headed down to DC, and I took Saturday off to rest up for the St. Patty's Day 8K.
After the triathlon on Saturday, I took Sunday and Monday off.
Tuesday and Wednesday I got out for a 3-mile run each morning.
On Thursday, Kyle and I spent all day flying to the East Coast (left the house at 4am and arrived at our hotel in Baltimore around 7pm).
Friday morning I jumped on the treadmill at the hotel (not a Woodway) for some quick speed work. My work out was:
800 at 6.5mph
400 at 8.0
400 at 6.0
400 at 8.5
400 at 6.0
800 at 8.0
800 at 6.5
Friday afternoon, we headed down to DC, and I took Saturday off to rest up for the St. Patty's Day 8K.
3.09.2009
Race Report: Stanford Treeathlon
Pre-Race:
The week before the triathlon, Stanford posted that there would be no race day packet pick up – the only packet pick up time would be Friday evening from 4pm to 10pm. This was not good news. I emailed the race director to double-check, but he said race day only and you had to be there in person to sign a waiver. Since I had to work on Friday, by the time I would get home and drive down to Stanford, it would be at least 8pm, so it made no sense to turn around and go home and then wake up super early the next morning to get back down there, so Kyle and I decided to just get a hotel. Even though we had to drop an extra $100, it was worth it not to have to drive down there twice and to be able to be close to the race site in the morning -- or so I thought! When we picked up my actual chip in the morning, it sure looked like it would have been ok to pick up my packet on race day... grr.
Though I was sad that Kyle decided not to do this one, it was awesome having him there to help carry my gear and get set up. My swim wave wasn’t scheduled to start until 8:20 but the transition area was closing at 7:15 so we had to get there early anyway. The transition area was a total disappointment. First, anyone could go in and out, which didn’t make me feel great about leaving all my gear. Second, there weren’t nearly enough racks. Third, there was no organization to the area. So when we arrived, the racks were totally packed and we had to hunt to find a place for me to squeeze in (and there were still more athletes arriving).
It was pretty cold outside for a triathlon, but lucky for me I had Kyle there so I was able to keep my warm clothes on and wait to put on my wetsuit until just before my start. It was about a half mile walk from the transition area to swim start so most people had to ditch their warm clothes a lot earlier. We spent at least 30 minutes in line for the porta-potty which there were not nearly enough of and then arrived at the start about 15 minutes before my wave. Changed into my gear and headed toward the water.
Swim: 500m in the Bay
The swim started in the water, which I’ve never done before – I’ve only done the run from the beach start. I was glad though because the water was FREEZING and it was good to get in and do our best to get used to it before starting. I got in a couple minutes before the start, swam around a bit, did some bobs to get my face and head wet and then aggressive treading water to try to stay warm.
The swim started on one end of the slough and finished on the other, which was nice because there was only one buoy to watch for to turn. Compared to sighting for buoys in the choppy ocean, this was piece of cake. I started near the front of the group hoping not to have to fight with other swimmers but there were a lot of people around me in the first 250. I was diligent with sighting though and the whole pack veered off too far from the buoy, so I was alone for a little while but was swimming the straightest and shortest path to the buoy. By the time we got around it, the pack had started to thin out and I was able to swim hard. The only thing that I remember thinking during the swim was that it felt like I had my face in a snowbank. I really couldn't feel anything except for my freezing face. I couldn't even feel if my arms were getting tired.
The end of the swim was a buoy on a dock that was probably a foot and a half higher than the water. By the time my wave came along, they had figured out that it was hard for people to get out of the water, so they started pulling people up. When I got to the end I just reached up and two people pulled me out onto my feet.
Swim split: 11:32 (includes the long run to transition, too)
Swim rank: 20/84 women overall, 15/33 women 34 and under wave, 7/13 women 25-29
T1:
The swim out was about 400m from the transition area and the ground was mostly rock and gravel, so they had laid out a strip of carpeting to run along. As I was running, I had a hard time grabbing the zipper pull for my wetsuit, I had to try 3 or 4 times before I finally got it, probably because my hands were so cold. I was feeling good because I couldn’t see too many women in front of me, but then when I got to the transition area, it hit me – I had no idea where my gear was.
In the chaos of finding a spot to squeeze into, I had completely forgotten to look for a landmark of some sort to find it again later. I was used to racks that were organized in some way that made it easy for me to find (age groups, letters, numbers, something!). I ran down the racks to the middle-ish area and ran back and forth for probably 30 seconds (which felt like an eternity) before I could find it. So, big lesson learned there – know where your stuff is! Other than that, the transition went pretty well.
Transition time: 2:18
Bike: 20K, 3 lollipop loops, flat
Coming out of the transition area, I knew there were probably women that came out of the water behind me but left ahead of me because of my blunder and I didn’t see them again on the bike course. As I’ve posted before, the bike is my weakest link, but I’ve been working on it, so I decided to just try not to let anyone in my age group pass me. The course was stupid and boring. We did 3 loops in an industrial park, it was all flat, and there were several sharp turns you had to slow down for. I did feel stronger on the bike that I have in the past and I think only one person from my age group passed me right at the end.
Bike split: 38:35 (~19 mph)
Bike rank: 20/84 women overall, 15/33 women 34 and under wave, 7/13 women 25-29
T2:
I was nervous coming off the bike because I knew I wasn’t going to be able to find my spot in the transition area again. I had a better idea than the last transition but still had to run back and forth a bit to find it. Had a tough time getting my bike back on the rack because it was so crowded, but the rest of the transition went well.
Transition time: 1:24
Run: 5K, asphalt path, flat
The run route was almost as stupid and boring as the bike route. It was basically a little loop on one end of the industrial park followed by an out and back on the other end of the park. The woman who passed me coming into the transition area must have taken longer than me there, because she passed me again about a half mile into the run. I tried to hang onto her for a while, but she was really going for it. With about a mile to go, just after the turnaround, a girl in black passed to me and I decided to hang on to her.
With 400m left, I was doing pretty well and was about to kick into another gear to try to catch her. The asphalt path was raised a probably an inch or two above the ground on either side of it and there were a couple areas where it would shift slightly to go around a fire hydrant or utility box. As I came around one of these, I must have cut the edge too short or something and I stepped off the path and did a total face plant on the asphalt. This was not a stumble, stumble, tuck and roll fall. No, this was a flat out skidding face plant, right in front of 2 guys handing out water. No stranger to falling while running though, I jumped right back up and started running again, but catching the girl in black was no longer a possibility. Alas, I finished strong and with humility.
Run split: 23:50 (7:40 mile pace)
Run rank: 20/84 women overall, 17/33 women 34 and under wave, 6/13 women 25-29
Post-race:
Kyle was at the finish and we went over to the first aid people so that I could get cleaned up. One guy guessed that I took a fall on my bike. Nope, I was running. They thought that was pretty funny.
Overall, it was great to get a triathlon in as a kick off to the season and it fit well with my training and was good for motivation. I managed to hold people off on the bike and hold my 20th place rank the whole race. It's hard to compare swim and bike times to the other triathlons that I've done, but I cut about 1:20 off my 5K triathlon time for run, so I am improving! As for the course and set up though, I wouldn’t do this one again. Big thanks to Kyle for being my assistant and photographer, but he'll be joining me as a racer in the next one, yay!
Total time: 1:17:41
Final rank: 20/84 women overall, 14/33 women 34 and under wave, 7/13 women 25-29
The week before the triathlon, Stanford posted that there would be no race day packet pick up – the only packet pick up time would be Friday evening from 4pm to 10pm. This was not good news. I emailed the race director to double-check, but he said race day only and you had to be there in person to sign a waiver. Since I had to work on Friday, by the time I would get home and drive down to Stanford, it would be at least 8pm, so it made no sense to turn around and go home and then wake up super early the next morning to get back down there, so Kyle and I decided to just get a hotel. Even though we had to drop an extra $100, it was worth it not to have to drive down there twice and to be able to be close to the race site in the morning -- or so I thought! When we picked up my actual chip in the morning, it sure looked like it would have been ok to pick up my packet on race day... grr.
Though I was sad that Kyle decided not to do this one, it was awesome having him there to help carry my gear and get set up. My swim wave wasn’t scheduled to start until 8:20 but the transition area was closing at 7:15 so we had to get there early anyway. The transition area was a total disappointment. First, anyone could go in and out, which didn’t make me feel great about leaving all my gear. Second, there weren’t nearly enough racks. Third, there was no organization to the area. So when we arrived, the racks were totally packed and we had to hunt to find a place for me to squeeze in (and there were still more athletes arriving).
It was pretty cold outside for a triathlon, but lucky for me I had Kyle there so I was able to keep my warm clothes on and wait to put on my wetsuit until just before my start. It was about a half mile walk from the transition area to swim start so most people had to ditch their warm clothes a lot earlier. We spent at least 30 minutes in line for the porta-potty which there were not nearly enough of and then arrived at the start about 15 minutes before my wave. Changed into my gear and headed toward the water.
Swim: 500m in the Bay
The swim started in the water, which I’ve never done before – I’ve only done the run from the beach start. I was glad though because the water was FREEZING and it was good to get in and do our best to get used to it before starting. I got in a couple minutes before the start, swam around a bit, did some bobs to get my face and head wet and then aggressive treading water to try to stay warm.
The swim started on one end of the slough and finished on the other, which was nice because there was only one buoy to watch for to turn. Compared to sighting for buoys in the choppy ocean, this was piece of cake. I started near the front of the group hoping not to have to fight with other swimmers but there were a lot of people around me in the first 250. I was diligent with sighting though and the whole pack veered off too far from the buoy, so I was alone for a little while but was swimming the straightest and shortest path to the buoy. By the time we got around it, the pack had started to thin out and I was able to swim hard. The only thing that I remember thinking during the swim was that it felt like I had my face in a snowbank. I really couldn't feel anything except for my freezing face. I couldn't even feel if my arms were getting tired.
The end of the swim was a buoy on a dock that was probably a foot and a half higher than the water. By the time my wave came along, they had figured out that it was hard for people to get out of the water, so they started pulling people up. When I got to the end I just reached up and two people pulled me out onto my feet.
Swim split: 11:32 (includes the long run to transition, too)
Swim rank: 20/84 women overall, 15/33 women 34 and under wave, 7/13 women 25-29
T1:
The swim out was about 400m from the transition area and the ground was mostly rock and gravel, so they had laid out a strip of carpeting to run along. As I was running, I had a hard time grabbing the zipper pull for my wetsuit, I had to try 3 or 4 times before I finally got it, probably because my hands were so cold. I was feeling good because I couldn’t see too many women in front of me, but then when I got to the transition area, it hit me – I had no idea where my gear was.
In the chaos of finding a spot to squeeze into, I had completely forgotten to look for a landmark of some sort to find it again later. I was used to racks that were organized in some way that made it easy for me to find (age groups, letters, numbers, something!). I ran down the racks to the middle-ish area and ran back and forth for probably 30 seconds (which felt like an eternity) before I could find it. So, big lesson learned there – know where your stuff is! Other than that, the transition went pretty well.
Transition time: 2:18
Bike: 20K, 3 lollipop loops, flat
Coming out of the transition area, I knew there were probably women that came out of the water behind me but left ahead of me because of my blunder and I didn’t see them again on the bike course. As I’ve posted before, the bike is my weakest link, but I’ve been working on it, so I decided to just try not to let anyone in my age group pass me. The course was stupid and boring. We did 3 loops in an industrial park, it was all flat, and there were several sharp turns you had to slow down for. I did feel stronger on the bike that I have in the past and I think only one person from my age group passed me right at the end.
Bike split: 38:35 (~19 mph)
Bike rank: 20/84 women overall, 15/33 women 34 and under wave, 7/13 women 25-29
T2:
I was nervous coming off the bike because I knew I wasn’t going to be able to find my spot in the transition area again. I had a better idea than the last transition but still had to run back and forth a bit to find it. Had a tough time getting my bike back on the rack because it was so crowded, but the rest of the transition went well.
Transition time: 1:24
Run: 5K, asphalt path, flat
The run route was almost as stupid and boring as the bike route. It was basically a little loop on one end of the industrial park followed by an out and back on the other end of the park. The woman who passed me coming into the transition area must have taken longer than me there, because she passed me again about a half mile into the run. I tried to hang onto her for a while, but she was really going for it. With about a mile to go, just after the turnaround, a girl in black passed to me and I decided to hang on to her.
With 400m left, I was doing pretty well and was about to kick into another gear to try to catch her. The asphalt path was raised a probably an inch or two above the ground on either side of it and there were a couple areas where it would shift slightly to go around a fire hydrant or utility box. As I came around one of these, I must have cut the edge too short or something and I stepped off the path and did a total face plant on the asphalt. This was not a stumble, stumble, tuck and roll fall. No, this was a flat out skidding face plant, right in front of 2 guys handing out water. No stranger to falling while running though, I jumped right back up and started running again, but catching the girl in black was no longer a possibility. Alas, I finished strong and with humility.
Run split: 23:50 (7:40 mile pace)
Run rank: 20/84 women overall, 17/33 women 34 and under wave, 6/13 women 25-29
Post-race:
Kyle was at the finish and we went over to the first aid people so that I could get cleaned up. One guy guessed that I took a fall on my bike. Nope, I was running. They thought that was pretty funny.
Overall, it was great to get a triathlon in as a kick off to the season and it fit well with my training and was good for motivation. I managed to hold people off on the bike and hold my 20th place rank the whole race. It's hard to compare swim and bike times to the other triathlons that I've done, but I cut about 1:20 off my 5K triathlon time for run, so I am improving! As for the course and set up though, I wouldn’t do this one again. Big thanks to Kyle for being my assistant and photographer, but he'll be joining me as a racer in the next one, yay!
Total time: 1:17:41
Final rank: 20/84 women overall, 14/33 women 34 and under wave, 7/13 women 25-29
3.06.2009
Tapering?
This week I tapered sort of intentionally and sort of unintentionally. It was the last week before I officially start training for the HIM and I'm doing my first triathlon of the season this weekend so a taper could be justified, but also my mom was in town and we're househunting so workouts were easily put on the back burner without any physiological justification. Nonetheless, I did get a couple good things in here and there.
Sunday: Awesome 1800 swim in the rain (600 swim, 100kick, 600 swim, 100kick, 4x50 w/20 sec rest, 200c/d)
Monday: PUC#4, SUC#4
Tuesday: 30 min ride on the trainer (10 minute warm-up, 15 minutes hard, 5 minute cool down)
Wednesday, Thursday: nada
Friday: 15 minute jog plus good stretching
OK, yeah, that was a pretty pathetic week.
Oh well, now it's off to the south bay for the Stanford Treeathlon!
Sunday: Awesome 1800 swim in the rain (600 swim, 100kick, 600 swim, 100kick, 4x50 w/20 sec rest, 200c/d)
Monday: PUC#4, SUC#4
Tuesday: 30 min ride on the trainer (10 minute warm-up, 15 minutes hard, 5 minute cool down)
Wednesday, Thursday: nada
Friday: 15 minute jog plus good stretching
OK, yeah, that was a pretty pathetic week.
Oh well, now it's off to the south bay for the Stanford Treeathlon!
3.02.2009
February fizzled out...
Wednesday I woke up late again, so I had to do an abridged version of my bike workout. It still kicked my butt though: 12 min w/u, 7 min hard, 5 min easy, 7 min hard, 6 min c/d.
Thursday and Friday I ended up taking off. I had no less than six significant events happen among family and friends over the past week and a half and I think the emotional exhaustion finally took a physical toll - I just needed to sleep.
Saturday I ran for an hour in some pretty humid weather. I realized as running that most of my running lately has been less than 5 miles, so increasing to an hour was harder than I expected it to be and I was a little sore on Sunday.
Overall, February was a tough month. I felt like things kept coming up to derail my training. My goal for March is to end the month as close to on plan as possible, which maybe doesn't sound that ambitious but with a trip to DC scheduled in the middle of the month that will throw off swimming and biking, I'll be happy to be close at the end of March. I'm also hoping to start dropping some weight in March -- can you believe I haven't lost a single pound in the last two months?! And one last hope is that it stops raining so much here! In a week, I'll start the season with the Stanford Treeathlon and then begin 19 weeks of training for the Half Ironman.
Thursday and Friday I ended up taking off. I had no less than six significant events happen among family and friends over the past week and a half and I think the emotional exhaustion finally took a physical toll - I just needed to sleep.
Saturday I ran for an hour in some pretty humid weather. I realized as running that most of my running lately has been less than 5 miles, so increasing to an hour was harder than I expected it to be and I was a little sore on Sunday.
Overall, February was a tough month. I felt like things kept coming up to derail my training. My goal for March is to end the month as close to on plan as possible, which maybe doesn't sound that ambitious but with a trip to DC scheduled in the middle of the month that will throw off swimming and biking, I'll be happy to be close at the end of March. I'm also hoping to start dropping some weight in March -- can you believe I haven't lost a single pound in the last two months?! And one last hope is that it stops raining so much here! In a week, I'll start the season with the Stanford Treeathlon and then begin 19 weeks of training for the Half Ironman.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)