Tempo Run

Last night's tempo run was confusing. 6 miles total= warmup, 4 miles at 9:27 and cool down.

First mile (W/U) I did in 10 minutes.. No problem
Second mile (first of tempo) I did in 9 minutes 5 seconds..again, no problem.
Third mile (second of tempo) I did in ???
Fourth mile (third of tempo) I did in 9:15
Fifth mile (fourth of tempo) I looked at my watch and it said 49 minutes, which means probably 11 minutes?

I finished in 55 minutes, so if I do the math, that means I ran my cool down mile in like 6 minutes.?? That doesn't make any sense to me. I think that I really looked at Mile 5 (fourth mile of tempo) at the wrong time--I don't think it was 11 minutes, I think it was really probably closer to 9 and that I did the last cool down in near 8 minutes. Isn't that lame, that I do my cool down faster than the actual tempo work? that tells me that my brain is totally affecting my performance because I distinctly remember being really excited that I was close to the end and picking up my pace so I could get home for dinner. Next time I'll harness that excitement for the tempo portion of the run instead of the end. Apparently, Speggetti dinner and a glass of wine is a good motivator for me.


Tonight is a 2 miler and maybe a swim if I can get motivated. It is so dark by the time I get home from work that there is no way I can do a bike ride unless it is on the trainer (blah)so that will have to wait until the weekend.

Maybe I'll do a little yoga on friday morning too. Get my legs nice and stretched out for Saturday's 8 miler. I love this dvd --I can customize the workout to my liking --40 minutes is usually good for me, personally. Happy day everyone!

Floyd--EC extrodinaire

Ran 3 last night on the treadmill even though I had a horrific cold.

Feeling better today so I'm doing 6 tonight--1 mile w/u, 4 mile tempo at 9:27/mile and 1 mile c/d.


I have done 40 miles so far this month running and I need to make it up to 60 by saturday. So I'll do 6 tonight and 8 saturday which leaves 6 more to do between thursday and friday.. I'm going to try to make it--finger's crossed!

Just read velonews and saw that Floyd Landis and Ivan Basso are back racing --there's this other guy too--I think his name is Lance something? In any case, Picture of floyd is--well, perfect EC for me.

Weekend Willies

Watched rugrat #2 do a duathlon on saturday. Out of 56 kids, she placed 6th. She is awesome! We also got to meet Shana Powless--just in case you don't know, Shana is like the big 14 year-old triathlon champion of the century. Shayna was at the kids du, not as a competitor (thank god) but rather as someone helping the all the little kids finish the race. She was encouraging all the kids and riding in the back to usher all the kids to the end. I took RugRat #2 over to meet her and they chitchatted a little bit.

Saturday late afternoon I ran 8 miles on the american river bike trail in 1:15-1:20. So that is around 10 minute miles the whole way. I'm pretty happy with that pace and If I am able to push it just a bit I might be able to break 2 hours for my next half marathon in March. That would be really great for me. I signed up for BeginnerTriathlete's "Bronze" level and have noticed that my run paces have started to get a little faster---Not a lot, but the Route history is showing me that my usual 3 miler in the a.m. is getting progressively quicker. That makes me feel AWESOME!

Today both RugRat#2 and I awoke with stuffy noses and headaches so yet another cold has crawled into our home. Of course hubby exhibits none of the lovely symptoms,due, in part (he says) to his "superior breeding." Whatever. Jerk, you can make dinner then.

Other than that just sitting and working on finishing touches to my thesis. I am trying to make sure I get all my citations JUST RIGHT--in the Chicago style. I've been through so many drafts that some of my stuff is messy or the citations are missing altogether. So doing a little digging to try to find them again. I hope to turn it in "FINALIZED" the first week of February.

Anyway, that's it for now. So proud of the rugrat for her accomplishment in the du. She told us that she definately wants a wetsuit and openwater swim lessons for her birthday so perhaps the triathlon bug has bitten her too! There are also several trial run/Races I am considering but part of me so enjoys just running on my own on the american river bike trail, that I am reluctant to trade that in for an anxiety filled morning racing people. We'll see. Tonight I will either hit the pool or ride the mountain bike on the super muddy dirt trails!!!

hasta.

de-Motivators

Why do I suck a*s?

So I made my second attempt on the runnervals dvd. I got about 25-30 minutes into it before I had to quit. This time, the problem was not my family bugging--it was me. I sucked. I could not keep up with coach troy. Damn you coach troy!!! It was too difficult. I did the first set fine and went half way through the second set (+4mph & 3% incline). Holy Cr*p! I stepped off the treadmill and hung my head in defeat as Coach Troy continued, "You're doing great! Just another minute left to go before we reduce the incline. Keep goin!" Yeah. F-U Coach Troy. I tried my hardest but couldn't do it. So I was feeling really sucky last night and today. I want to run tonight to redeem myself, but I've got a dinner date instead. So maybe Friday a.m. I'll do my usual 3 miles. 8 mile long run on Saturday a.m. and then watchin' the rugrat do a kid's duathlon (2 mile bike, 1 mile run).

Speakin of Rugrat, after I got off the treadmill and started puttering around the kitchen in my run/bra top and shorts, RR said something, well, uhm, mean. She looked at me and said, "Oh my god you have a huge stomach! And it is hanging over your shorts --i'm going to call you 'muffin top'". So I'm already feeling kind of bad after failing in my workout goal and then SFBs tells me that my gut is hanging over my shorts.
I tried the excuse, "Well I took 3 courses of high dose prednisone last year."
She said, "But that was a long time ago."
I countered, "Oh, but I drink a lot of beer too, so the beer gut is a real thing. So don't drink." (I know hypocrite, but I was trying to be parental.)
She looked really skeptical and said, "uhm, yeah sure."

I just glared at her and said, "I remember when I was 13 and how much it sucked. How sucky do you want to make your life? Keep talking and you'll be surprised how sucky your life will get."

Blah. Muffin top.


In any case, I needed a laugh and Marci provided this morning. Thanks Marci!

Running at night

I'm not used to running at night. I like to wake up early and get my run over with in the a.m. But yesterday, I ended up doing a 3-miler in 28:24. Funny thing is--I felt really good even though my time wasn't so great. I felt relaxed and practiced the pose method a bit. I get a good rhythm going when I hear DM's It's No Good. So I listened to that song 3 times during the run.


I decided to postpone my 5 mile tempo run to tonight on the treadmill. I'll use the runnervals DVD I got for christmas (thanks mom & bro)! I need to get back on my bike and back in the pool too so maybe that will be on the agenda for friday. I'm pretty relaxed about this whole training thing--not to say I am uninterested. I just want to focus on my running for the time being and try to fit in whatever else I can.

I also need to be sure to hit the library for the final edits to my thesis! Hurray! I keep thinking, once that is off my back there is going to be a party in my backyard the likes of which nobody has ever seen! You are all invited!

Oh here's some more good news! I achieved a milestone with Nike Plus!

Fun on the run!

This long weekend was full of FUN workouts. I made up for all of last week---Karen got her groove back.

Friday--SWIM. I hit the pool for a 750-800 yards. It was difficult. I had a hard time getting into the rhythm of swimming. I figured I can do 50 meters in about 1 minute. The fastest I did it was 54 seconds for 50 meters.

Saturday--RUN. 7 miles in 1 hour 16 minutes. I felt really great on the run. Really strong and the male eye candy (EC) kept me inspired the whole way.

Sunday--Scheduled bike, but really did nothing. I ate and slept.

Monday--BIKE and SWIM. I got on my bike--the first time since it was fixed a few weeks ago. I averaged 15.4 miles per hour. I biked about 19 miles and it took me 1 hour 14 minutes. I felt really strong up until the very end. Again, the plethora of EC on the bike trail helped keep me motivated. I swam in the evening. I tried Gale Bernhardt's Endurance 3 workout from Workouts in a Binder--2300-3000 yards. I did the 500 yard warm up and then two of the 4 mainsets of 200 yards (150 swim+50 kick). So that came out to 500+400=900 yards on about 20 minutes. I felt a lot better on this swim than the one on friday. I am determined to do that full workout soon.

Tuesday AM--RUN. Scheduled but workout partner bailed at 4:30 a.m. so I crawled back into bed for some additional ZZZsss.. Will hit the treadmill tonight for 5 mile tempo.

Incidentally--BIG LOVE finally began season 3 on HBO again. Finally. OOOhhh... so good. What an indulgence. Bill and family are shopping for wife #4.

Have a great week!

Answer to Pic

New Order--Technique (1989)

Nothing. Nada. Zip. Nyente.

Nothing today.
No training yesterday.
Nothing Monday.
Yes I know I suck.
So here's a question--what is the name of the album pictured above???

Weekend Events

Friday Night--Beer and feeling depressed about my beer gut.
Saturday--6 mile long run. 1:10. I was pretty dehydrated so the run felt hellish. However, I finished strong so that was good. I did a little dance at the end--the Roger Rabbit Dance. It was great to see so many people out running and riding on the American River Bike Trail.

Sunday I got up early and went to visit my brother in SF. He's lived there for a year and i've been a lame sister and never visited. His place is right on the Pacific Ocean about a mile from Golden Gate Bridge. We walked about 6 or 7 miles--get coffee, walk along the Marina green and Crissy Field and back to get brunch on Chestnut Street then walked some more. It was a perfect 70 degree day--the sun was out. Cute guys were running with their tops off in skin tight shorts. You get the idea.

Before I left SF I stopped at Sports Basement. Coolest place to shop but I was a good little recession girl and did not buy anything. I did leave drool marks on their $40 zoot trisuit though. Sorry, Sports Basement people.

In any case I'm dragging. I intended to sign up for Vineman 70.3 but just found out that it is sold out. BOOO! 3 of my friends just flaked on Shamrock'n Half Marathon in March. So I'm just not feelin' the love these days. Hopefully I'll snap out of this funk soon.

Run like a hamster

I have always had trouble with running on a treadmill. For some reason I feel like a hamster on a wheel--going round and round. Yesterday, since my half marathon schedule called for tempo training, I decided to break out my new Runervals DVD titled, "Tempo Training".. Perfect, right? 45 minutes of tempo training was exactly what the schedule called for and that was the length of the DVD workout.

I started off with a base pace of 3.5 mph as Coach Troy suggested (using a recent 5k time).. All was good. But then, Coach Troy started on the actual workout.. Increasing the run by 3mph and increasing incline 2%. My treadmill has incline, but no way to measure it, so I just guessed.

It was hard. Really Hard.
It didn't help that RugRat#2 and hubby kept coming into the room and asking me questions which required long answers. Like, "What are we having for dinner?" Or "When are we going to eat?" or my favorite, "What happens to an isotope when a beta particle is removed?" Really? REALLY??? I'm kind of busy right now. Trying to breathe.

So after 20 minutes of the 45 minute DVD I quit. I was getting too many distractions, and my water bottle kept threatening to jump out of the holder on the top of the machine. With a vision of what would happen to me as I slipped off the back of a water-soaked treadmill, belly down (a la Brady Bunch Movie)--I quit.


Dejectedly, I started figuring out dinner for my aparently helpless and ravenous family only to find out that they had just ordered Chinese take out.
Great.

In any case running 3 tomorrow per schedule then heading to San Francisco to visit family members and do a long run there.

This made me giggle today.

Butt Pain

This morning's run was good. Well, it was better than last week. Laced up the laces and I was off at 4:45 a.m. Did the usual 3 mile loop and headed home. 29 minutes or so which is a bit faster than the 32 minutes it took me last week. Workoutpartner and I sprinted the last 200 yards too. That was awesome.

But now I have Butt Pain.
Right Butt Pain.
I think it is my piriformis muscle. I rolled on my "trigger point therapy" ball after the run and stretched but I'm ready for a little vicodin right now. I guess Ibuprofen will have to do.

Here's where it hurts!





And this is how I am walking!



I'm going to hit the ibuprofen now. Tonight is weights followed by a swim in the pool. I'm going to try to do a mile in the pool and just legs on the weights.

3 of my friends are doing Vineman 70.3 this year. They keep bugging me to sign up and do it too. Not really sure. I've been nursing so many injuries lately i'm afraid to increase my mileage too much. I just got Matt Fitzgerald's new training book (well, I guess it isn't that new) and see if I can find a good training plan to follow. What do you think? Should I or shouldn't I?

New Year Duathlon

The weekend was great fun--I managed my first duathlon ever. 2 mile run--7 mile bike--2 mile run. I had a ball--this duathlon was to raise money for Jaime Whitmore --the professional triathlete who's been fighting cancer for a couple of years. Everyone was encouraged to donate, so I did.

It was freezing in the a.m. Actual temp was low 30s but the "feels like" temp was in low 20s. My high school XC coach was set up in the transition area right next to me so we chatted for a little while before the start.

My workout buddy and I managed to start the run together. I was wearing 4 layers on top and a hat and fleece lined running tights and gloves. First mile was hard. The air was soooo cold. I had the snotty nose that would not quit and by the time I hit the first transition I was a sweaty mess. So I was leaking from my pores and leaking from my nose. Great. 20 minutes to do 2 miles.

Bike. Sucked ass. Really. 7 miles took me 40 minutes.
I huffed.
I puffed.
I bleeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwwwww my nose.
There were several crashes since the road was wet and sandy. I managed to remain upright so that's good. However I have lost a lot of fitness in the past few months. I now I know i've got to get back on it.

Run, part deux. Not bad, I shuffled along for the first couple of minutes and then settled into a nice rhythm. 2 miles took me about 17 minutes.

Total time was 1:17 for 4 mile run and 7 mile bike plus transitions.

PostRace shindig. Jamie Whitmore was there so I hung around to listen to her speak. She is an amazing person. She's had two different tumors removed from her spine and wasn't expected to walk again; and yet she was walking with the assistance of a cane. I wasn't more than 10 feet from her but was too shy to actually talk to her. I know i'm a dork. I should have said hi.

RedBullcrap.
I tried this stuff for the first time after the race. For some reason I thought it would taste like a mocha or coffee. Instead it was like rancid strawberry koolaid. eww. never again. I spit it out. Never AGAIN!

After my dismal bike performance saturday, I decided to do another bike ride on sunday. My usual 12 mile loop usually takes 43-46 minutes. Sunday it took 56 minutes. Granted my bike gears were acting up; never the less, I am glad I got the spinervals party pack for XMAS so I can start working on my bike. I am taking the bike to the shop today for a tuneup and I am getting a pro bike fitting this week as well.

If all else fails, I can always purchase a new Specialized Ruby Expert... :)

New Year Excercising and Resolutions

HURRAY

I completed my first workout of the year. A 2 mile trail run followed by a 6 mile bike ride.

It was a COLD 40 degrees at 2pm so we bundled up and headed to folsom lake to workout. I took rugrat #2 (RR#2) with me (13 years old) since she has been wanting to do some duathlons.

We headed out on the dirt trails and ran about a mile out and then came back. It was great. I LOVE trail running. RR#2 had some trouble keeping up so I stayed with her and we walked for a bit. She finished nice and strong though. We changedinto bikeing helmets and shoes and then headed out for six mile bike ride. I forgot to pump up my roadbike tires so they were pretty flat actually and I had a hard time keeping up. But RR#2 kicked butt on her mountain bike.

Toward then end she wanted to switch onto the single track from the road so she did that. I watched as she sped down the dirt & mud course and full speed. She is going to be an awesome triathlete!

Resting today and tomorrow is the free duathlon to raise money for Jamie Whitmore. Hopefully I'll finish strong.

I am working on some new years'resolutions but it is so hard. I make the same ones every year.

1. Eat healthier.
2. Excercise more.
3. Be happier with my lot in life.
4. Relax.
5. Do something new every week.

Maybe modify them to read:

1. Eat more vegan food. More veggies, less meat.
2. Do 3 sprint tris, 1 olympic distance tri, 1 marathon, 2 half marathons this year.
3. Find one thing to be grateful for every day.
4. Do yoga and meditation twice every week.
5. Try a new recipe every week.