Saturday, June 20, 2009

TNT - wk 3


Mon - rest

Tues - masters swim class pushed hard 1.5 hrs 1700 yds

Weds - team track/ hill repeats - did not puke.

Thurs - master swim class - i was tired took it easy swam 1.0 hr. 800 yds

Fri - rest

Sat - opted to sleep in and skip team workout, attended stroke clinic at MLK pool instead, i really benefited from this today, was introduced to butterfly for the first time...ugh!....breast but mostly freestyle...the subtler aspects of this stroke are making more sense...love my team mates but i appreciated the smaller class and more attention.

me at wed track....before the evil hill portion of the workout...

Sun - could run w/team or do a ride/run brick on my own.

T and M arrive back late tonight from NYC. I still need to get T something for Father's day and I'd like to swing by the grocery store for a few of his favorite things. That man just spent 4 days with our 13 y.o. daughter and all her fabulousity....I think a bottle Glenn Levitt is in order.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

swimming at sunset

tonight i swam with the masters group at my local pool....finally.

my pool has been closed for renovations and i had to go to one 2 towns over. the coach was very nice and while the tone was low key it was a very challenging workout. 8 easy 50s, 100, 50, 200, 50, 300, 50, easy 100. i felt my heart rate climbing and was a bit nauseous at the end.

i don't suppose the grilled chicken sandwich i ate an hour before had anything to do with it. normally i wouldn't of ate so much before working out but T and M were leaving tonight for New York and we wanted to have dinner together before they had to leave.

i started sneezing again and the headache kicked in shortly after but i pushed along. i'm sure the fact that i paid an extra buck for a structured workout help keep me on task. not sure what the headaches are about most likely a combination of dehydration and poor breathing.

on the way to the pool you could seen the fog hovering. as i worked my way up and down my lane the sun began to drop below the marine layer and rays of light pierced the waters surface. it's funny how light can transform a modest community pool into a sanctuary.

Monday, June 15, 2009

TNT PHOTOS

i would never do this it it weren't for charity!

Our first training ride out near Moraga Intervals at DVC Track....very nice and cushy i might add.

Sunday, June 14, 2009

kinda crazy


after yesterdays swim/run work out all i had gumption to do when i got home was shower, eat and take up residence on the couch ....the remainder of the day. i watched 3 movies and ate half a pan of brownies. they were thin!

as i mentioned , i showered but i was too tired to deal with my hair. if i don't blow dry or flat iron my hair it turns into an afro. this needless to say has caused many a revision in my swim schedule. i don't swim before work because of the time required to allow it to air dry for an hour first then blow dry with a comb attachment and then flat iron. women of color (i'm puerto rican) who opt for the straight look but want to swim understand the dilemma here.

yesterday i was too tired to deal with my hair and by 7pm i was looking pretty poofy. and i mean really poofy. in order to fit the bike helmet on i had to finally deal with it this morning. the irony here being, here i am drying and flattening and straightening my hair only to acquire the dreaded helmet hair.

kinda crazy, no?

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

bad swim

every so often a workout can suck monumentally.

i was actually looking forward to my swim practice lastnight. my usual pool was too crowded, the one closest to home was closed for maintenance so i had to go across town for a third option.

from start to finish everything was off and the fact that my allergies chose to kick in did not help at all. i sneezed pretty much the entire work out. i'm guessing the pool was extra chlorinated and i'm just sensitive to it. swimming is tiring enough without the added exertion of rapid fire sneezing every other lap.

seriously

needless to say i couldn't really keep track of my intervals. shit i can barely count laps when i'm not distracted.

i work half day and then have a team track work out tonight in pleasant hill. after last nights horrible swim i'm really wishing i hadn't agreed to carpool to tonight's training because i could go in early and swim at my most favorite pool in concord before track, oh well, hopefuly tonight's workout will go better.

Sunday, June 07, 2009

Time Trials


after being on the fence about wednesday night's track workout i finally decided to go despite the fact that i HATE to run late in the day especially when i happen to not work on said day and the idea of working out at the end of said day is not so appealing. however, NOT having to be on my feet all day at work NOR having to rush from Kentfield to Pleasant Hill turned out to be prety good reasons NOT to skip it, besides I needed the push myself out of the old comfort zone.

coach seth had us warm-up, one of the other trainers ran us through a few goofy looking drills and then coach seth's evil plan for us was revealed. we were going to do a 2 mile time trial. 2 miles in 20 minutes being the goal. i immediately regretted not having my Garmin, i distinctly recall choosing not to bring it because i was afraid it would appear showy. now faced with a time trial, i wasn't so sure of my pacing skills to pull things off.

we were told to keep track of our laps while coach would call out our times . the 3/4 mile warm-up i did prior apparently did me some good cause i felt loose and connected with my stride. i did my best to keep things slow and even , i really was regretting not having my garmin because i can't recall any of my lap times but with coach calling them out each time i passed i was able to adjust my pace. as i passed a couple of women one of them was nancy, my new mentor and she called out, " you look like a runner!" that felt nice to hear. even after such a long break in consistent training, compared to the other two disciplines i feel more like a runner than a swimmer or cyclists.

i haven't pushed for a sub ten minute mile in a while and by lap 7 i was really working hard to keep focused , my breathing was labored but by no means out of control, my form may have shifted a bit because it was right around that time that my old mentor pulled up and started yacking away about coordinating steps with breathing and how a smile on ones face wouldn't hurt. at which point i flashed him a fakey grin and spewed out something to tune of "yeah, maybe i'll smile when this isn't so hard" he kept yacking away, about form or whatever the hell and well needless to say i found him to be more distracting then helpful and i let know it.

as i passed coach on lap 7, i knew i had a good shot at sub 20 if i cranked it up. i completed 2 miles in 19:25. as i cooled down i was really glad i timed all my eating well that day BECAUSE I ALMOST HURLED. i took a few minutes to compose myself before reporting to another trainer the # of laps and my time. i think not knowing that we were doing time trials probably was an advantage because i tend to have performance anxiety. for someone who normally doesn't like surprises it turned out to be a good thing, . i should also add how NICE DVC's track is, spong-o-liscious.

on saturday, meeting up at Miramonte HS for a swim and a ride. we did a bunch of drills. i have a tendency to lift my head too high during a breath which causes my hips to sink...coach actually called on me to demonstrate this to other swimmers in my group, it was embarrassing but effective because my form was better after that..... and then coach seth surprised us again with another time trial. the goal was 16 laps in 8 minutes. i completed 10:16 in 8 minutes. slow but with improved form. yay me!

we broke up into 3 groups for the ride, i rode with the intermediate grp. from the school we rode out to canyon through moraga, only 15 minutes out and back but a few good hills to remind me that i need to work on the bike more, as lately i've been focusing on my swim the most.

last night T and i went for a walk and we noticed our brother in-law Neil and a couple of his friends standing outside of T-Rex a local watering hole, one of his friends had a Arizona Ironman T-shirt on, Neil was quick to introduce us and we had a nice chat talking about all the great places to ride in the east bay. we seemed to have the same philosophy, content to be fit enough to play. not fast, no hard-core competition, just happy to participate. awesome!

Tuesday, June 02, 2009

i packed my swim bag this morning but realized i forgot to bring dry clothing to change into after wards on the way to the pool after work, uhg! that meant by passing the pool going home to get a change of clothes than backtracking to the pool. i really try to avoid going home first because there's always that chance that i won't go back out but fortunately my grouchy teenager made it easy to not want to stay home and after grabbing a few things i headed back out....finally M's moodiness served some good!

with my workout in the clear plastic sleeve compliments of TNT i fumbled through the drills, similar to the ones we worked on on sunday. i felt tired and sluggish. i was suppose do 100 strokes every 25 yds. but kept losing count because apparently it requires skill to count and swim simultaneously.