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!

272713.jpg (JPEG Image, 640x480 pixels) - Scaled (93%)

272713.jpg (JPEG Image, 640x480 pixels) - Scaled (93%)

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.

drills baby drills

christopher turned out not be a psycho and we arrived in plenty of time to watch the trainers warm-up in the pool before we participants got started. i seeded myself with the beginners in the shallow pool and we all worked on the basics. our coach mary jo was fun and was in the water with us demonstrating each drill. other trainers stood on deck watching us from the surface. there were trainers in each lane waching us as we worked our way down the lane to give advise as well.

i'm still a beginner but i'm so much further along this season...i already saw improvement just with a few tips here and there today. it's good to be past the frustration i felt when i was first learning to swim. my left arm seems to have a mind of it;s own...lazy, weak, definitely NON-DOMINANT. coach said the side we tend to breath on is our stronger stroke side.

after swimming we gathered around another trainer and watched him change a back tire. very good stuff know how to do for sure. on the way home i showed christopher the 3 bears bike route, i hadn't been there in a while and couldn't recall how far it was. turns out to be approximately 13 miles of mainly long gradual climbs.

and we're off

it's almost 6am sunday morning. i'll be leaving shortly to meet christopher, a guy i met at yesterday's TNT kick-off. we'll be meeting the rest of the team for our first swim practice out in moraga. i just met him yesterday, when he mentioned to the group he needed a ride so i offered. i hope he's not a psycho! haha, truth be told i'm more concerned with the not-so-subtle pressure i picked up on to surpass my minimum fund raising goal of $3,300.00. that's a whole lotta georgies! in a weird way though being more worried about the money than the swim is kinda refreshing, go figure!

Classic Me

about 40 minutes into yoga class my mind started to wander and i was struck with the thought that i needed to be somewhere else...that somewhere else being the TNT Kick-Off at the oakland convention center. for some weird reason i had 2 dates rolling around in my head 5/25 and 5/30. considering how yesterday was neither one of those dates you may wonder what my deal was?

i've been away from bikram for a while now and all i can attribute my lack of orientation to was feeling dizzy and under hydrated. i tried to push the thought out of my head not entirely convinced that i was forgetting something as important as Kick-Off but clearly i was distracted and as my mind wandered so did my sense of balance and when the instructor (who totally rocked) said "if you find yourself not focusing, think about what your thinking about." i took that as my cue to cut yoga short and see if i could at least show up for the end of Kick-Off. of course i went home to check my dates and saw that Kick-Off wasn't until next Saturday. classic me. i then decided to watch my total immersion video and go swimming.

As i stepped onto the pool deck my cell phone rang and it was my TNT mentor Peter. we chatted for a bit as it was our first contact. we talked mostly about the swim, mentioning of course that i just getting ready to workout. i admitted my concerns about open water and i liked what he had to say about getting into a groove and swimming uninterrupted. i added pool vs open water as compared to treadmill vs trail. i think his call was well timed because i pushed myself and swam 1000 yards, my longest swim so far.

i rode out to the berkeley marina this morning then ran 4 miles along the BART trail. my right calf started to stiffen up again about 1.5 miles but i was able to keep going with out pain, it's just tight.

after my run i grabbed Brandy and walked around the neighborhood during which i noticed the beginnings of a hot spot on the ball of my right foot, i looked down and realized that i threw on the wrong running shoes and just ran 4 miles in a long retired pair of asics!

don't i just oooze coolness!

Wordy Wednesday

"Be tenacious, keep your vision even when your injured"
-coach emery


i've been working on my swim and i completed 700 yards today, woohoo! not without short rests every 75 yds. or so, which by the way is AWESOME for me. i felt pretty good about my left side breathing something clicked the other day and though i still have to sneak up on it by finding my rhythm on the right first things are started to get bilateral.

i noticed pain in my right calve after my 6 mile run a little over a week ago. it had me limping a bit after wards and i took a few days off of running. when i ran on Sunday, because it was so hot and i was shuffling more than running i hadn't noticed anything wrong but when i ran yesterday about a 1.5 miles into it i had to pull over stretch for a good while before i could resume running and it was not pleasant i assure you.

in a rush at home to get to work i foolishly secured an ice pack directly onto my calve with an ace wrap, not taking time to wrap the ice pack in something first and i ended up giving my self an ice burn...brilliant! working in the rehab industry i have access to helpful modalities and did a little ultrasound on my leg at lunch. i need to find my foam roller.

coach emery isn't my coach per se he's a lifeguard at the my pool and has a just a very good vibe about him. i never mentioned my leg injury, nor was i limping on deck when i walked up to him to chat a little after my workout today. he just has a knack for saying the right thing because truthfully i was feeling a bit down about my leg.

i had my teeth cleaned this morning and my hygienist while not an athlete herself is very active with the oakland tech high school runners and is going to LA this weekend with the team for the LA marathon, she was very excited for me and had positive energy about my event. both hers and emery's comments were very appreciated as some peoples reactions have been a bit mixed. true it's going to hard and scary but that's kinda the point, no?

i rode my bike to the pool and after the workout i rode the longer hilly way home, my leg feels a little stiff but i can fully weight bear and i'm feeling much better about everything.