FIVE, Four, Three, Two ...

Only five days left; can you believe it?

... I can't believe I'm the only one posting in this thing, that's what I can't believe. :-p

Anyway, I'm very unsure as to how I feel about this. Gen and I did an open water swim on Sunday at the Cherry Creek swim beach. While getting the open water experience was good, there were some downsides. Basic things learned:

- Swimming in really shallow water sucks, especially when you're kinda tall.
- I. Hate. Seaweed. I know I'm going to swim into some and have to stop and rip it all away from my head/face before I continue on Sunday ...
- Murky water is really a little scary at first, but not so bad after a while.
- Swimming through boat wakes sucks also since for a few seconds, it feels like you're not moving anywhere.

The tri will be in a different part of the park, but I'm thinking that the water will probably be much of the same, just deeper.

We missed Amber that day, but she did a bit of the same swimming, plus the bike course. Apparently it's a little hilly, but doable. A trainer at work who is also doing the tri has done the bike and running course and said the same thing. Luckily all I do is bike and run hills since that's all there is around here.

I heard from Gen yesterday she did a mock-tri at (i'm guessing) the hospital gym, just to know she could finish. I had been thinking of doing something similar, but a.) I'd want to do it outside, since biking and running inside is SO much different than outside for me and b.) I'd heard that doing a full mock wasn't a good idea. However, at this point, I kinda figure, "whatever works," so yeah.

Today I did my first mini brick workout (a little late in the game, i know). Biked for 11.5 mi and then did a quick jog around the block (.4 mi). The jog was a lot shorter than I'd have liked it to have been, but all I really wanted to do was get a feel for it ... because it's really actually kinda weird.

The schedule for the rest of the week is tentatively looking like so: swim tomorrow morning, run tomorrow night, small bike and probably yoga on Thursday, hockey Friday night and only a nice walk on Saturday. I figure that should be good enough. My original thought was to take Friday completely off, but really, I like my hockey and have been trying to get back into that as well.





Still, I'm a little apprehensive since my body isn't particularly built (well, muscles still aren't trained) for endurance and a triathlon is all about endurance. My legs really wanted to crap out on me at several points on the bike today and that was all by itself - no swim beforehand and only a miniscule run after. I'm also hoping the sports asthma won't be a problem since I had some slight issues with that on the bike as well. I guess we'll see, but I know myself well enough to know that I won't be able to definitively say for sure how I'm going to do until I wake up Sunday morning and see how I feel. If I feel good, I know I'll be fine (see: race around the rez). If I don't feel good, or wake up late and get a bad start (not-blogged about race on the fourth because it was CRAP), I may be in for a long day.

The Countdown Continues ...

Only 12 days left until the Tri for the Cure and I'm feeling okay about it. I don't think I'm going to end up being as competitive as I'd like to be or as one of the trainers at work (also doing the tri) thinks I'm going to be (she thinks i'm going to finish in 1:45 ... yeah whatever), but I think I'm okay with it. Sure, my competitive nature is struggling with this somewhat-acceptance, but I've made enough strides along the way to say, "Quiet, you!"

My swimming, which was total crap four months ago, has picked up fairly well. Each time I'm in the pool I can do my laps quicker. Granted, I still can't do many consecutively (or really, any), but I've always had issues with endurance. I haven't yet done an open water swim (this weekend! a little late, but one is better than none, right?), but I've been logging pool time when I can manage ... which means waking up over an hour earlier than normal to swim before work.

While I've never considered myself much of a runner and have claimed to hate the mere activity for years, the more I run, the more I'm okay with it. Though it's not much, I've been logging around 6-8 miles a week for the past month. True, that's about one-fourth of what I should be logging, but for someone who can't stand to run and whose lungs feel like exploding half the time when she does run? That's not bad .... especially considering that I've done the Glendale Farm loop twice in just about 30 minutes (so doing just a tad longer than a 5k faster than i've ever officially raced a 5k) WITH a small stretch break in the middle. How I'll do after swimming and biking is another story, but in general, I'm starting to actually enjoy running, if only a little.

My one main issue now is the cycling part. While I never focused on it much, thinking it would be my strong point, I'm now thinking I may have screwed myself over (go figure; this is a typical t trait). When I did my somewhat-crazy long bike ride a week and a half ago (so the last time i posted), I did have quite a bit of leg burn that wasn't happy at all. I do just fine on a stationary, but put me outside and really, what I'm doing isn't quite as nice as I'd like it to be. I'm sure actual hills and wind and other such factors help with the added pain, but y'know. Still, I think I need to somehow try to squish in a few long rides this week.

So, for the most part, everything seems to be coming together. There's a few key things I haven't quite gotten to yet (open water swim, brick workouts, scout the course, learning general bike maintenance (next monday)), but compared to where I was a few months ago? Light years away.



Of course, that tells me that if I was doing what I'm doing now back four months ago, I'd be totally awesome right now, but I think I'd also be more bored with doing the same three things than I am now. As much as I was apathetic about the elliptical before this training, I'm really looking forward to hopping on one again because it will be something DIFFERENT. This boredom is also another reason why I'm playing hockey again, even though it's probably not typical triathlon cross-training.

Amping It Up

So with the looming Tri "deadline" in front of me, I decided it's time to get super serious with training (yeah, a little late, I know, but better late than never, right?). As a result, I woke up at 4:30 this morning so I could swim before my shift. The original plan was to wake up at 4 so I could bike to work, swim and then take a detour to another club to drop something off before going home. However, bed was a bit too nice and Mom didn't want me riding in the dark.

Anyway. I got into the pool and really didn't feel like swimming. I did one fairly strong lap and was like, "I'm done now." However, my brain wasn't having any of that and I ended up staying in the pool for 20 minutes and 600 meters.

After work, I got home, unwound for a bit, then hopped on the bike and headed over to the Highlands Ranch 24 Hour to drop off this stupid member's Kid's Club card (I walked in with my bike and the guy at the desk just stared: "you biked all this way to drop off one card?" "... yes."). My legs still suck (boo!) and the stupid C-470 trail has an assload of hills, so the (around) 15.6 mile trip took me 90 minutes. My legs were about ready to give out on the last long trail climb back up toward Yosemite so I had to drop to a gear lower than I usually do for that hill and for the last stupid hill in my neighborhood (drawbacks to where I live: 99% of ride routes end with some sort of miserable hill).

Since I'm crazy (or determined, take your pick), I think I may go do the Glendale Farm loop as well today (so run 1.6 miles).





Of course, I also fully admit that one reason I want to do a lot today is I plan on drinking tonight and therefore want to burn a crapload of calories so I can drink some and still have a deficit. I do realize this is somewhat counterproductive, but hey. I'm finally starting to get some weekends free from work so I gotta take what I can get.

!

Including today, we have 24 days before the Tri. Under a month and just over two weeks.

You scared?

On Second Thought ...

... my 5K time last Wednesday was pretty good. 33:49 in 90-degree heat with walking is only 1:15 more than the 32:33 i did that was entirely running in May ... which was in much more ideal conditions. So really, I am improving - the conditions just didn't show it. Sweet!

In other news, I did a mini-brick yesterday at the gym (nothing like a real one, i know) - stationary bike for 20 minutes and then treadmill for 10 (7.1 mi/.9 mi). I didn't feel all that bad during it, though that, tonight (story soon) and then that 5K are making me realize that I either a.) need thinner socks to train in or b.) need some super blister balm since the bottoms of my feet are starting to bug me. It's a bit annoying.

ANYWAY. I've been trying to find running trails that a.) aren't pavement, b.) aren't ridiculously hilly and c.) close to the house (that is, 5 compared to 20 minutes away). One of the trainers suggested the Glendale Farm Trail that's about 5 miles away from home (25 south to surrey ridge; go under freeway and turn on gravel road before forced to get back on 25). Since it was a relatively cool day today (70sish), I decided to go check it out.

Verdict: I like it. It doesn't fulfill point b.) above, though it's pretty hard to find ANYTHING around here that does. The loop is 1.6 miles, though I don't know if that includes this little dead-end part of the trail. Anyway, there's an uphill portion (a bit twisty if you head left at the trailhead) that flattens out, though has a slight uphill incline continuing north-ish. The trail then forks at either the 2/3 or 3/4 point - either to the dead-end part or continuing on - and then winds its way down hill. I didn't feel all that good until about halfway through the flat part and had to walk some, but near the end I felt good (except for this stupid foot thing). Not good enough to try a second loop, mind you, but perhaps later this week if it stays cool. I did the loop in about 16 minutes, which is my basic running average right now.

As a footnote, I also biked to work today (3.4 miles one way) as part of Bike to Work Day 2007, so go me!

Results: In

So apparently all I had to do was search online for the results for that stupid 5K I did last week. Well, the good news is I did better than I thought, though not by much. I had estimated between 34 and 36 minutes - official time: 33:49, 290/652 runners. It's not great, but really, it's still better than my first ever 5K time so I think I'm good with that.

Speaking of 5Ks, the Lone Tree Firecracker 5K is coming up on the 4th. I still intend on running it, but that may require me taking a long lunch break at work (didn't get the time off i requested - not happy about that. i need battery recharging time and i'm not getting it ... assholes.) that day since I'm scheduled. Peachy, I know.

Small Victories

Still don't know my 5K time (grrr), but good news on the swimming front!

When I do end up swimming, I usually split my laps between freestyle (i think that's what you call the regular "swim" stroke) and the breaststroke. Lately I've been doing around nine laps ... though not consecutively and usually stopping at the halfway point of every lap (shut up, i'm working on it). However, tonight I did 14 laps ... including a few laps that were a consecutive 50 meters (well consecutive with a mini jerk in the middle since i can't do the underwater kick turn thingy)! That's only one lap off of what I'll need to be able to do for the tri, so it looks like that's slowly coming along - plus! :)

Once July hits I'll start trying training "bricks" as well as a few open water swims and hopefully I'll be good ...