Disappointing

I have been choppin’ at the bit, wanting to run but following my training plan. So today my plan finally had a run. I got up at 5:45 and was out the door at 5:55. It was a little colder then I had expected but it didn’t take long to be comfortable, well a little cold. I wish I had covered my ears. Anyway, the 10 minute warm up was slow and I had a hard time picking up the pace for the 5 x 6 minute tempo efforts. The 2 minute recovery jogs were more of a shuffle and by the 10 minute cool down, I was glad to be done. I am very disappointed in my run today, especially since I signed up for the Tom King half marathon last night, it is March 17th and now I am not so sure I am ready.

No Running???

Why is it last week during the swim focused week I had to swim everyday, but today (the first day of the run focused week) there was no running???

The kids were out of school again today. They closed the county school due to illness for today AND tomorrow. So I got up at 5:20 and went to the pool before Ronnie had to leave for work, first day on his new job.
The schedule called for:
warm up: 100 swim, 100 pull, 100 kick, 100 swim
main: 8 x 100 (25 easy, 25 build, 25 easy, 25 hard) I did them on 2:15
cool down: 3 x 50
total 1350 in 28:49

I got home and changed back into my PJ’s. I got another 2 hours of sleep before the kids woke up. They have been staying up really late and have been sleeping in. Usually it doesn’t work that way but I have been lucky this time.

When I woke up, I ate a bowl of cereal then got on my trainer for 75 minutes. My computer was out of alignment so I don’t have any numbers other then time.

My boss called and said he had a job I could work on at home so the kids and I went to my office and picked it up. We went to lunch and a movie then I came home and got to work.

My diet was better today, still not great but I am making steps in the right direction. Hope the scale agrees.

Base 2- Week 1 DONE!

I enjoyed my rest day Friday and even carried it into Saturday morning by sleeping until 8:30!!!

My babysitter came over at 11:45 on Saturday and I went to the Rec center to meet Joe. We had a reverse tri on the schedule (30 minute run, 60 minute bike, and 30 minute swim).

It has rained for about 10 minutes right before we started and it was WINDY!!!!! We ran through town. On a short out and back on 41 we ran into Lana, she was getting a run in before going mountain biking with her husband. Joe and I ended up with 3.79 miles in 33:11, 8:45 pace. We stopped by my van to get our bikes and some additional clothing. It was really weird for me to be back on my bike outside. The last road ride I did was in November. It took a while for me to feel comfortable. We did the Normandy loop. The wind was brutal. Whenever we turned into the wind, it was like hitting a wall. Joe has been sick and really started to struggle on the bike. We slowed down and just tried to finish. We ended up with 18.09 miles in 1:13:15. Joe decided he better call it quits and called his wife to come pick him up while I headed to the pool. I swam 1550 yards in 29:58. Overall, I am happy with how I felt. I hate that Joe was sick, he is usually so strong on the bike and I was really hoping that with his help I could finish the Normandy loop in an hour. Maybe next time!

Today was my last swim for this swim focused week and it was a long one.
Warm up: 4 x 75, last 25 in each backstroke 6:15
Main: 4 x 750 15:01, 15:08, 14:54, and 14:49
Cool down: 3 x 50 easy 3:00
Total 3450 yards in 1:09 (time does not include the one minute rest I took between sets)

My diet has been HORRIBLE lately. Ronnie’s last day at his job was Friday and one of the girls made him a Sundrop cake that he tried to hide from me. My junk food sensors found it and so I had to eat a piece. Another girl gave him a box of chocolates; I had to help him eat them too. Then he bought some more Girl Scout cookies, I polished off an entire box already. No more!!! It is time to get off the junk and get the scale moving back in the right direction.

A-Ha Moment

Despite the face that I didn't get to bed until midnight Tuesday after spending all afternoon trying to fix our computer, I still got up Wednesday morning at 5:00 for toning class. The teacher was running late so we only got in about 50 minutes but she more then made up for those lost 10 minutes.
Then that evening, Lana and I made the drive to Nashville again for the swimming class. I had an a-ha moment. Coach Ashley has been telling me that I need to glide more and I just didn't get it. Well last night it finally happened. A-ha!!! We swam 2900 yards at class. The 9 x 100 (4 on 2:05, 2 on 2:15, 2 on 2:05 and 1 on 2:15) really kicked my butt and I thought I would drown during the side swimming. Hey, a good class.

Today I went to the rec center for my long swim.
warm up 300 swim, 300 kick (oh how a hate that boring old kick)
main 1750 yards
cool down 4 x 50
I really tried to focus on gliding, not pulling right as my hand hit the water. My stroke count was down with no effect on my time. Progress, love it.
After the swim, I realized that I forgot both my towel and my running bra. Great!!! Good thing it was much warmer here today. Sunny and about 55. I dried off with my sweat pants best that I could and pulled my long sleeve running top on over my swim suit top. It was soaked instantly. I ran the greenway and through town for 30 minutes with 30 second strides every four and a half minutes. I ran a total of 3.4 miles, 8:49 pace.
Tomorrow is a rest day and I am SO looking forward to it, last rest day that I took was February 4th!!!

They can't all be good

This morning after dropping the kids at school, I went to the pool. The schedule called for a speed day.

warm up 400 continuous, last 50 in each 100 kick
main: 9 x 100 (25 easy, 25 build, 25 easy, 25 hard) I did them on 2:15
cool down: 6 x 25 I did touch and pull

I was feeling good in the water today, rock no more. The 1450 yards took a total of 31:09 to swim. The kick and touch and pull both slowed me down, but I felt great about the swim.
I got home, changed, and got on my trainer. Not so good. I started out doing a interval training DVD. After about 15 minutes, I dropped my chain. I got off my bike, fixed my chain, and turned off the DVD. I watched E! instead. I finished up the hour but not with great stats. Oh, well. It is a swim focused week and my swim went great.
By the way, I looked back at my race swim times and compared them to my time trial that I did last week. My time trial was FASTER then all my race swim except Waterfront where I swam in the river WITH the current and Music City where I wore a wetsuit. All this time in the water must be doing some good.

Always Wear Clean Underwear

Yesterday I waited until the snow was melting and it was a littler warmer out to run. So at about noon, I suited up and hit the streets. It was sunny and 31 with a wind chill of 22. The streets were just about completely clear and I only had to deal with one patch of ice. I ran 6.32 miles in 60 minutes.
That put a wrap on recovery week and it is a good thing because I have gained back 3 pounds.

This morning kicked off Base 2. Each week in this phase has a “theme”, this week is swimming. I got up at 5:30 and went to the pool. On tap for today, a long swim.
Warm up: 4 x 150 swim, kick, pull, swim
Main: 1650 ladder, starting with 275, 250, 225…until 25
Cool down: 200 easy
The only thing good about today’s swim is that it is over. I felt like a rock the whole time and could never get my stroke to feel right. I was slow too, 55:43 total swim time.

The kids are out of school today for President’s Day and we are waiting for the satellite guy to show up. We have not had TV since Tuesday night and we are all going crazy.

Embarrassing story:
Saturday afternoon was the awards ceremony for basketball/cheerleading. After swimming, I showered and dressed. I put on a pair of my old favorite Levi’s that are well worn and have two tiny holes where the pocket is sewn to the pants. At the ceremony, they called each team one at a time to the front of the gym and gave each child a trophy. The coaches all had to go up front with their team too. After collecting our trophies, we stood in the circle at center court and had our pictures taken. As we walked back to the sideline, one of the mother’s of one of my cheerleaders as me “Do you know you have a hole in your pants?” I said “Yes”. She just looked at me and walked off. When I got home I walked by the mirror and saw that I did not just have a hole, the back of my jeans were ripped from the top of the pocket down past the bottom of the pocket. My pretty plaid panties were hanging out for everyone to see. I had to call the mother who told me about the hole and let her know that I knew about a small hole by the pocket not the fact that my whole rear end was hanging out. She laughed and said she wonder why I was so casual about it.

Running in the Snow

Figured I better use that title while I can because you won’t see it often from me.

Thursday morning I dropped the kids off at school and went to the Rec Center. It was snowing (actually just flurries) with a temp of 19 and a wind chill of 9. The schedule called for a short 30 minute run with strides every 5 minutes. Since it was a short run I decided to brave the snow and cold and run the greenway. The snow kept blowing in my eyes and was very annoying. I don’t know how you people up north stand running in the snow all winter. I ran 3.22 miles in 30 minutes.

After the run, I went inside and changed into my swimsuit. The water felt really warm after the bitter cold of outside. I swam 4 x 300 (300 easy, 300 kick, 300 easy, 300 pull) in 29:04. That slow kick really kills my time.

Friday I waited until 1:00 to do my ride. The schedule called for 60 minutes mixture of big ring and small. I decided to do the Spinervals No Slackers Allowed DVD then an additional 15 minutes on big and small to get the whole hour in. That was the first time I did that DVD, I liked it.

Today the schedule said “swim: 1000 time trail. Do a short warm up then record TT time.” The pool doesn’t open until noon on Saturdays so I was there as soon as they opened. I did a 200 yard warm up, took a short rest, and then stated my 1000 yards. The 1000 took 18:46. Total swim time for all 1200 yards was 22:37, rest time not included.

The trip to the Gulf Coast Tri has turned into a girl’s trip. I am the only one of the 6 of us going that is doing the race. I canceled my hotel room today and booked a condo.

It is snowing again. I hope it gets it all out of the system today. I have a 60 minute run on tap tomorrow and don’t want to run in the snow again.

Happy Valentine's Day

Last night our satellite dish got struck by lightening. So we are without TV until sometime Thursday afternoon/evening. Good thing my Netflix movies arrived today.

This morning I got up and went to the 5:30 toning class before work. She did lots of squats and lungs. I will be paying for it on my run tomorrow.

I got to the kids to school and myself to work. Since it is Valentine’s Day, I only worked until 1:00 so that I could attend the kid’s parties.

At the party, I dropped my camera and broke it. It was already limping along after the bike crash but now I HAVE to buy a new one.

After school, we came home and got changed into our swimsuits. The Rec center pool opens at 3:30 and we were there as soon as the doors were open. I swam 5 x 200 on 4:14 and a 150 cool down while the kids played in the kiddie pool. Then we all hung out in the therapy pool for about 30 minutes. Man, those jets felt GREAT on my back. I should join the blue haired crowd in that pool more often.

When we left the Rec Center, I called my husband to see where he was. He asked did I get any presents today. I didn’t know what he was talking about and he told me to swing by my office. I have a wonderful husband who sent me flowers and told the man to have them there by 2:00 (too bad he didn’t know I was leaving at 1:00). I would post a picture but I no longer have a camera.

Next we drove through both Burger King (for my daughter) and McDonald’s (for my son), it is Valentine’s Day.

Once home, I got on my trainer for another easy 30 minute ride. I think I rode about 7 miles but I am too lazy to go check for sure.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Again?!?!?!

This morning I worked on a project with the second grade class for the student teacher (or vice teacher as my son calls her) for an hour. It was pouring down rain when I left the school so I decided to go ahead and get my Wal-mart shopping done.
By the time I got home and put everything away the rain had pretty much stopped. I still did my 30 minute ride inside on the trainer. After the easy 6.82 mile ride, I changed and headed out for my run. I tried to turn my Garmin on and nothing. Not again. I took it back inside and put it on the charger. No charging message again, so I just borrowed my husband’s Garmin and did my 30 minute run. I ran 3.27 miles for a 9:10 pace. The wind was terrible, flag whipping kind of strong. I had to finish the run into the wind and I felt like I was standing still.
When I got home, I looked for the email from Garmin support from the last time I had Garmin trouble. I found it and followed their reset instructions. Garmin is back in business. So if anyone everyone ever has this problem push and hold the mode and reset buttons at the same time for 5 seconds then push the power button. Worked for me!!!

Rest Day

That is what my schedule says anyway. But since Wednesday is Valentine’s Day, Lana and I decided to go to swim class tonight. No rest for me.

Apparently there is something about having 5 people in a lane that causes me to swim into the lane rope. 2 weeks ago, I thought for sure I would be bruised on my right side from hitting the rope so many times. But last week we only had 3 people in our lane and I only hit the rope a couple of times. Well tonight we had 5 people again and I hit that rope more times then I can count. Guess it is good practice for those mass start races.

I had a lot of trouble when she had us swimming on our sides but it was only for 75 yards and with fins so I made it through it. Since Lana and I were a little late and cut the warm up short we stayed late and added 300 yards to the cool down for a total of 2000 yards for the class.

Blogiversary

One year ago I started this blog after completing my first ever 18 mile run. That run was the final run of week 9 on the 20 week training program to run my first marathon. If you would have told me then that I would be training for my first half iron now, I would have laughed my butt off.

So about that training…

Friday was a swim only day, 1950 yards in 41:31. I really tried to work on my glide. I was taking 22-24 strokes to get across the pool, so my glide wasn’t going so good.

Saturday was a 2 hour ride on the trainer, 27.24 miles, followed by a 30 minute run, 3.37 miles (8:54 pace). My husband and son had gone to Nashville to run errands and my daughter was at a slumber party and was getting dropped off at about 11:00. I started the ride at 8:30 and knew I was going to be cutting it close on the run. So I stayed in my neighborhood. I saw the people pull into my driveway so I had to sprint to my house across some yards. I took my daughter inside and told her I was going to be right outside. I ran the last 4.5 minutes back and forth in front of my house.

This morning was a 30 minute run, 3.1 miles 9:41 pace, followed by a one hour ride in the small ring, 10.88 miles. My legs were tired. I could not make them move any faster.

Improving The Plan

Yesterday The Plan called for a rest day but I HAD to go to the 5:30 am toning class, it is the only time all week where I lift any kind of weights or do any ab work. Class was good.
Then last night Lana and I went up to the Williamson County Rec center for the triathletes swim class again. It went like this:
500 warm up
6 x 100 (25 under water no breath, 25 easy touch and pull, 25 hard, 25 easy touch and pull) with fins
6 x 200 pull
200 cool down
I did not make it even one time all the way across the pool without a breath; I always came up just short.
On the pulls, Coach Ashley put me on stroke counts and told me to get across the pool in 22 or less strokes. I was able to do it every time, but I did take a BIG push off the wall. My glide needs work.

Today the plan said
Today we’ll do swimming and running together for a super endurance day. Keep the run at easy pace.
Swim: Speed day.
Warm up 400 continuous, last 50 in each 100 is kick.
Main: 10 x 100 (25 easy, 25 build, 25 easy, 25 hard)
Cool down 6x 25, each slower than the last
Run:
90 minute long run. Keep RPE at 2-3, no harder! Stretch well afterwards and have a good recovery meal.
So I dropped the kids at school and went to the Rec Center. The swim was uneventful. It took 33:08. I tried to work on my glide and rolling my shoulder and hip together. Maybe I can make an improvement before the next swim class.
I got dried off, into my cold weather running clothes, and hit the Greenway. I was worried about the run because I didn’t rest yesterday. But all was well and I ran 9.76 miles in 1:30:06 for a 9:19 pace.
My stretching was cleaning the carpet (my dog threw up 5 times Tuesday night) and my recovery meal was 3 shrimp egg rolls and 3 chips ahoy.

Brick

Today the plan called for a 1 hour bike done in the small chain ring followed by a 30 minute run.
I dropped the kids at school and was on the trainer at 8:00. I am still really struggling with keep the cadence up on the small chain ring.
After I finished the hour, I changed into my cold gear pants and pulled a fleece top on. My legs felt like, well…bricks, but I managed to hold a good pace and knocked out 3.46 miles in the 30 minutes, 8:40 pace.
Then it was a shower and off to work to make up for leaving early yesterday.

Rest and Swim

Yesterday my training plan said “Rest Day, do as little as possible”. Boy did I take that one to heart. I laid around in my PJ’s all day.
But this morning it was time to get back to work. I got up at 5:20 and drove over to the pool. The plan had a long swim scheduled.
4 x 75 warm up
500 swim, 500 kick, 500 pull, and 500 swim for the main set
100 swim and 100 back stroke for cool down.
The kick didn’t go much better today then it did Friday. I was still very slow and I almost quit after 200 yards. It didn’t help that I saw Tracy looking down at me from the weight room laughing. The rest of the swim went fine until the back stroke. I am glad Tracy was gone by then otherwise she would have really had something to laugh at.

I rushed home after the swim and got myself and the kids ready for work/school. I dropped them off and was at work one hour and 15 minutes when my son’s teacher called to tell me he was sick. Great, I haven’t worked since Wednesday and now I have to tell my boss I have to leave. I packed up some work to do at home and promised that if my son was able to go to school tomorrow I would come to work (after I get my ride/run in). :)

Ten Toes…

And nine toe nails. Yep, I lost a toe nail last night. I have bruised my toes several times and had loose nails but none have actually fallen off until now. I still have a loose one on the other foot too.
A couple years ago my daughter slammed her finger in the van door and ended up loosing her finger nail a few months later. It just happened to fall off right after my son had gotten a visit from the tooth fairy and she was upset about not having any loose teeth. Well turns out the tooth fairy also leaves a dollar for any lost fingernails. So When I showed my kids my toe, my son told me to put it under my pillow so the tooth fairy would bring me some money. I was hoping for new tri clothes. :)

Well on to my training…
The plan called for a 2 hour ride and a 30 minute run NOT back to back. We had out last basketball game to cheer at this morning so I waited until we got home at 10:00 to get changed and on my trainer. I did my 2 hours while watching the end of one movie then all of another. Either I didn’t get the second movie or it was just plain stupid, but at least my 2 hours went by pretty quickly. I was proud of myself for pushing harder today and I ended up with just over 30 miles. It still isn’t great but sure beats the easy rides I have been doing.
I made the kids lunch, did some laundry, and ate Fig Newtons while waiting for Ronnie to get home. Once he got home I headed out for my 30 minute run. I felt GREAT. It was suppose to be an easy run. Sub 9 felt easy. I ran 3.49 miles in 30 minutes, 8:35 pace.

Another Snow Day

Ok, so the weatherman was right and we got some more snow last night. When I left the house at 5:45 this morning to go to the pool, it was still snowing.


The plan today was for a long swim. A warm up of 200 swim, 200 kick, 200 pull, and 200 swim, a main set of 1 x 1500, and a cool down of 4 x 50.
I have never done kick before and boy was I slow!!! I can’t figure out how to get the splits off my watch but I remember that my 200 swims and pull were all done around 4 minutes but the kick took 6:40. The total time for all 2500 yards was 55:52.
I got home and showered, feed the kids breakfast, and then took them out to play in the snow before it melted. There wasn’t enough snow for a snowman so they made snow angles


and played on the trampoline.


I got great news from Team Magic today. They have made some changes to the Waterfront Tri. The bike route is now going to be a single loop (they had problems with people not doing both loops last year) and they are changing the run so that the glass bridge (that scared me so bad last year) is no longer on the route. I am doing this race for sure now. It is a real boost to your swimming self confidence because it is a river swim with the current.

Closed Again

How can they know already that schools have to be closed tomorrow??? The roads are clear. So there is more snow in the forecast but the weatherman has been wrong before.

Not Following the Plan

Yesterday my schedule called for a rest day but I got up and went to toning class anyway. Then last night Lana and I went to the swimming class at the Williamson County Rec Center. I left my house a 4:50 and didn’t get home until 9:20. I really don’t know how feasible this class is going to be. The class itself was good. Coach Ashley put Lana and I in the same lane with 3 other people that were suppose to be about the same speed as us. I am not use to sharing a lane and I can’t even tell you how many times I swam into the lane rope. I didn’t keep up with how far we swam but best I can estimate it was 2400 meters. Coach Ashley told me I need to work on my glide.

The weather man was calling for snow but when I got home last night it still was not snowing. Leave it to the Coffee County School system to call off school based on the forecast. At 9:50 something last night it was on the local news website that we were closed. We did end up getting some snow and the kids got out in it a little before it completely melted.

The snow day messed up my training for the day. The plan was to drop the kids at school, do a 75 minute tempo run outside, and a speed session at the pool. Since I knew the kids would be home for the day, I got up at 5:45 this morning to get my 75 minute tempo run in before my husband had to leave for work, but the swim still hasn’t happened and it is looking less and less promising. Oh well, I got speed work in last night at the swim class on my rest day.