Today makes six days since my last triathlon... It's a strange place to be, but I am already to begin training for my next race. I think. I have another race in mid July and after being successful in Ramblin' Rose Raleigh, I was tempted to sign up for another triathlon in between now and then, but I ultimately decided against it in order to give myself a break.
Here is a brief summary of the past week... Keep in mind it was planned as a recovery week, but I still wanted to do my Master Swim class.
Here is a brief summary of the past week... Keep in mind it was planned as a recovery week, but I still wanted to do my Master Swim class.
Monday - Off day and well deserved! After getting a major PR yesterday, I am giving myself a break....
Tuesday - Day two of a break. As long as I get in my swims this week I will be happy.
Tuesday - Day two of a break. As long as I get in my swims this week I will be happy.
Wednesday - Master Swim - Agh.... not a great workout. My kick sets were incredibly slow and I'm not sure what's going on. Maybe I'm tired from the race?? The effort was there and I didn't feel like I was doing anything crazy, but my times were 5-10 seconds slower than normal. Everything that could go wrong was going wrong. I tried the new swim cap that I got from Ramblin' Rose and it sucked. It was latex and I had a feeling I wouldn't like it because I am used to wearing silicon swim caps. I forgot to pack a backup cap and when my ear plugs started popping out I had enough and went to change my cap. Upon realizing I did not BRING a back up (for the first time EVER!) I threw the ear plugs in my bag because I didnt want to lose them in the pool. My ears were filling up with water and then my goggles were filling up with water. It really took everything I had not to pack my bag and leave, but I knew it wouldn't fix anything. I had to deal with the water in my ears and that was painful. When I got home I put in Auro Ear Drops in my ears to help relieve the pain. My ears must have been really water logged because the drops took a while to start working. Next time I'm packing a back up cap.... I still cant beleive I didnt have one... I was tempted to cut the workout short and go home and ride the stationary bike but I decided to stick it out and do my best to finish the workout. I cut the main set in half after telling the coach that I just wasn't feeling it. I finished the workout with a 250 in 6:08.... Yeah, it's not a good workout.
Thursday - No workout today. After yesterday's fiasco I am giving myself another off day, in hopes that it will pay off so I can do well in my swim tomorrow. In preparation for tomorrow's workout I watched some swim drills from the Total Immersion swim program DVD. I am hooked on the Total Immersion book and just got the video companion in the mail today so I watched the first few lessons. Tomorrow I am planning to try "superman" and "torpedo" drills. Both help with balance and so I am looking forward to seeing how I do tomorrow.
Friday - Happy Memorial Day Weekend! Everyone is headed to the beach, so I didnt have to share the pool with many other swimmers. (I have no social life. Obviously.) For the first time on a Friday, I didnt have to share a lane for even a minute. Superman drill was fun! It was different from what I am used to. When I take off from the poolside, I usually clasp my hands in front of me and make a "point" with my hands in order to slide through the water. With Total Immersion, your arms are separated and you quite literary look like superman flying in the sky. It was a strange feeling, but it was neat. Overall the workout went well but those darn kick sets were still sub-par. I am happy that I did not time my sets, but rather just let the timer go until I stopped swimming. I ended with about 43 minutes, so I could live with that. Tomorrow I have a long workout planned, so I will be in bed early for sure!
Saturday - My alarm went off at 5:20am and first action (like always) was to set it for 10 more minutes. At 5:30am I realized that I had a BRICK planned for today and had to be to Tony's by 6am. Oh yeah, and I was riding to his house. He lives 1.5 miles away so I only had to average a 3:45ish mile to get there in time. I grabbed a mini bagel, slapped some honey pecan cream cheese on it, and ran down the stairs with my bike. Surprisingly, my downstairs neighbors were outside and laughed as I tore off with a bagel in my mouth and a bike in my hands. (I dont think they had been to bed yet) I got to Tony's were we waited for Stephanie and then we all rode to Bicycle Post to meet the rest of the group. It was nice to be able to ride with a group.... It's always more fun, but usually my schedule (and personal preferences of sleep times) doesn't match up.
The group, minus 2. After some short conversation, we took off and rode the Fiesta Biathlon course which is 15 miles. I socialized some, but knew that in order to get an effective workout, I would have to start some speed intervals soon. Once we hit the turnaround, I rode back to Town Common by myself. My miles were all sub 4 minutes, with some considerably faster. Once I met back up with the group, we all rode back to Bicycle Post, took some pictures, and then me, Stephanie, and Tony were back on the road to head back to Tony's house. I started thinking about the upcoming run I was planning to do so I focused on faster spinning in order to flush out the lactic acid in my legs. When we arrived at Tony's house, I changed my shoes and Tony joined me on a short run. The first quarter mile always feels funny on the legs and Tony, who has never attempted a BRICK workout, laughed at how weird it was. Sure enough after a quarter mile things were falling into place. We ran the first mile in about 10 minutes, and then picked it up for another .22 miles in a pace of 9:01. I could not have done that solo so I was happy to have the company. I got back on my bike and rode the 1.5 miles back home. My neighbors who I saw at 6am were outside again and immediately said "How far did you go????" Something about saying "I rode almost 30 and ran 1.2" makes people question your sanity. I simply said that I earned Starbucks! I feel like I am back on track!
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