Run Run Run Pool Run!

All week I have been breaking in my new shoes- so springy, so bouncy! I couldn't wait to get a run in today! I almost wanted to run up and down the stairs at work (but I refrained myself- still not allowed to do stairs, plus I'd look reallllly weird!)

Since Mo had to be at work at 8 (on a saturday - gross!) I met her at 6 AM to do our run...she only had 60 min, but I had 70+60 in the pool, so I figured doing at least half with her would make it more bearable. Plus, transitioning to pool running takes time, so it all adds up. It was nice to be back home by 9:30, though getting up at 5:30 on a Saturday was less than desirable...

We started out a little too fast for a slow long run, but finally settled into a good pace and I did 7.4 miles. Not bad! After the run, I rolled out my calves, hoping to avoid pool charley horses...my right calf was pretty tight so I focused on it more.

Pool run for 60 min today-- 'go with the music' was my instruction. So, I alternated fast pace, slow pace, and I have to say it actually went by pretty fast. I watched people swim, trying to see if I could use them to improve my own stroke. I kept some jelly beans on the pool deck because I was super hungry as well, so I rewarded myself with one every 25 min. When I first got in the water, my legs were aching from the run, but as the time went by they started feeling better and better... I got a few charley horses in my left leg, but not until at least 40 min had past. So, I made sure to roll both calves really well when I was done. I think the rolling in between has helped- I'll definitely make sure to budget time in to do that next weekend!

As replying to a comment I got on pool running on my last post, I did a google search looking for a specific article I had previously read (but didn't find) and found this other post that talks about pool running as a recovery after a marathon or hard races, which I didn't really think about before. After my experience today, that makes a lot of sense. My legs always FEEL good after the pool run (charley horses aside). I also read that speed workouts in the pool do not directly translate to speedy running, but at least help with endurance (and help the workouts to go faster!).

I have my first actual running "speed" workout since my tendinitis diagnosis on Tuesday. I am looking forward to running fast, but I am also nervous about how my speed has waned during this time...

Speedy Pool Running

Wow, 2 posts in 2 days. It's a new record. I realized today when I continually clicked on google reader, that I was all caught up, and could not wait for someone to post something. Then I thought about my own delinquent posting (though to be fair, I have a lot less readers than they do, and I think I see most of you regularly), and thought, maybe I should post more frequently. Let's see how that goes!

So, I had a mostly charley horse-free pool run today! I got a little one after an hour, but compared to what I had last weekend and the weekend before, I'll take it! It must have to do with real running first...

I'll admit, when I looked at my pool run for today, I got really nervous. The main section, after a 25 min warm up with HARD/EASYs, I had to do 40 min with rpm 90-100. Because I didn't write this down, I forgot until re-looking at it later, and thought it was maintain 90 rpm, but either way, hard. Kind of like a tempo pool run, I guess! Anyway, because pool running is fairly monotonous, I checked my cadence every other minute (that's 20x in the 40 min. whoa.) And, I was happy- except for the first two on the low end (89), I was at least 92-93 for the majority, with a few 95s! I had a sense of accomplishment that I was able to sustain that high cadence for that long. Gives me a little hope that I can give the last 5k of the half marathon a good swift speed! (Apparently I am forbidden to do faster than a 9:30 for the first 10 mi).

When I got home I was ravenously hungry, and ate matzoh with cream cheese, crackers and sweet swiss cheese, and a few random sweets I had lying around. I think I am finally satiated, and it may be time to get myself ready for tomorrow's computrainer ride...Can't believe it's almost Friday! (and no, I have not yet listened to that stupid Friday song all the way through, and I am avoiding it like the plague!).

Gummy Food

Recently I discovered the Clif Shot Bloks, which are phenomenal. Not only do they taste great, but I like to give them some credit for making me have less of a headache after the weds/fri morning computrainer rides. Well, that and ensuring that I drink 2 full bottles of water during the workout. I have a serious problem with dehydration headaches, so I have my superstitions for each session. For the summer runs, I would start with a banana, and drink smart water en route, a jelly bean or two if I was hungry, and finish off with gatorade and breakfast. After I adopted this routine, I had much better running experiences, and didn't end up with midafternoon splitting headaches. For some reason, this had been an exclusively running problem- I never had a serious headache after a bike workout. But enter computrainer classes: warm stuffy room, working our butts off for an hour- harder than I ever pushed myself on my own, no wind to blow us any cool air save for some fans on the floor. After a few sessions of headaches and miserable days at work, I started forcing myself to drink 2 bottles of water, eat a jelly bean or two and drink gatorade immediately afterwards, and a protein bar on the way to work. Now, I can rely on a shot blok to get me through the beginning of my drive, so that if I forgot my protein bar, I can survive the almost an hour long car ride without fear of headaches. With this new routine, I have not yet had a deydration bike headache. I just now bought an 18 pack of shot bloks on amazon with a savings of 50 cents per package! woo! In the meantime, I also chew gummy vitamins, and sometimes you just can't get enough (but it is unwise to have too many gummy vitamins in one sitting!). So I also bought myself some Target gummy bears to satisfy my sweet gummy non workout cravings.

In other news, besides that of gummy foods, I have had another week or so of ups and downs on the workout front. Last weekend, I ran for 75 min straight!! No pain, but it was a struggle of a run. I have learned, I think, that based on this run, being stressed out doesn't always make for the best workout! We ran just over 7.5 miles around the track, and I followed that up by a half hour pool run, where I got bad charley horses in both calves. For some reason, this only occurs when I pool run after real r unning- I have not had this problem (at least not as painfully) in any of my other solo pool runs. I was also in a huge hurry to get on the train and meet people for the cubs game, so I think that, among other things, contributed to my stressball workout. This weekend coming up I have a 70 min run followed by an hour pool run. I hope my poor calves can handle it, and that if I don't make myself have anywhere to be, I can be a little more relaxed!

Monday morning's swim was not bad, I thought. At some point during the swim, I started pushing my hands harder through the water, feeling resistance and efficiency, and I had a feeling of understanding. I think I finally got what they mean by pulling yourself through the water! After this excitement, I was looking forward to Tuesday night's tri practice, where we would be doing some more swimming. However, my excitement quickly waned when I had a terrible time with the paddles, despite my newfound understanding of their purpose, and got a one-on-one tutorial on how I *should* be using them. I never got a chance to really try though, because my rigid, non-fluid form was also criticized. I was resigned to practice floating on my stomach, with slow breathing. Unfortunately, relaxing is not my strong point, particularly after pointed failures. I was unable to stay afloat- my legs kept on sinking. I got more and  more frustrated until I realized the masses had left and it was time to run. Discouraged, I headed up to the track, with the coach's words of wisdom "you just have to work on relaxing and slow breathing." I know that this is the truth, I just wish that swimming and relaxing came a little easier to me. I have been working so hard at swimming over the last year, and I am disappointed that my technical skills are still so low. But, after being upset, I have realized that I can only improve by focusing and trying, so I am going to suck it up and concentrate on floating and breathing and relaxing at next Monday's swim...

Running after swimming felt amazing. I don't know if I was energized by my inability to swim and wanted to make up for it in the run, or if I was just more awake/with it than I was the previous saturday. Mo and I were maintaining around 9:30 miles (instead of 9:40 from Saturday) and it felt easy, relaxed, and fun. The 60 minutes went by fairly quickly, and we almost hit 6.5 miles. It felt so good- best run I've had in a while. Nice and easy, and successful. No pain. Looking forward to running again on Saturday!

At the computrainer ride today, we had to maintain a lot of zone 4. I was struggling towards the end. My quads feel like they are permanently sore and achy from all of this hard work! I guess also that I swam and ran the night before. Thankfully I have my pool run slotted for tomorrow evening, so hopefully I can cut my legs a little break...

Here's hoping for a charley-horse free pool run tomorrow!

Happy to run!

After 2 months of healing my Achilles' tendon, I finally got the go ahead from the dr to run the upcoming half marathon with my friends in Wisconsin! Yay! I will probably not have a personal record time, but I will be happy just to run it. For the first time in 2 months, I met Mo to run circles at the Y for 60 min, supplementing with a 40 min pool run. In the next few weeks I hope to keep upping the real running and lowering the pool running until I no longer have to look like a weirdo upright in the pool. I hope all of this pool running has actually helped...I guess I'll find out in about 5 weeks...though it was hard for me to have to scale back running and spend so much extra time in the pool, I am so glad that I didn't over stress it. In the next few months, I will be super careful adding stairs, lunges, and hills back into my workouts so as not to re injure it.

In other news, London was amazing! It was so wonderful to see Lesley and Tommy, and we did so much touristy stuff and a lot of quality hanging out. Once we sort through the pictures I will have to share them... But because we were so busy, I only got one run in - but I ran through the streets of their neighborhood and saw some sights. It was fun, but chilly.

I was nervous about hopping back into a full workout week after being such a slacker, but it went pretty well- was just slightly more sore than in a usual week. I finally got some feedback on my swimming so I have some things to work on in the pool tomorrow. We did some new drills that I will have to incorporate to help with my form. The bike workouts were tough but felt great, and my pool runs were fine- except I got an awful charley horse during my long pool run, which has left behind a tight knot just below my knee. Oh well, I'll take that compared to my Achilles! Now if only it would warm up enough to run comfortably outside...

March update, and burning thighs

Now that March is almost half way over (where did the time go!) and I have yet to post, I figured it was about time. Maybe one day I'll be able to blog daily like so many of the people I follow do!

March has so far has been a fairly good month. Despite turning 30 (yikes) it hasn't been so bad and I still feel like I'm in my 20s! My sister visited, which was absolutely fantastic. We had a great time baking, cleaning, shopping, and eating tons of good food. I wish she lived closer so that we could hang out more often!

Workout wise, it has only been on the upswing.
Swimming: I have been dropping my times down to closer to where they were in the fall- not fast by any means, but I am feeling a lot less sluggish than I had been in Jan/early Feb, and I am feeling a lot better about it. I have been assigned a few scary drills lately though, that have been pretty difficult- partly because they are just hard, which I know will help me in the long run, but partly because I have no idea how to do them correctly. I had to swim one-armed a few weeks ago, and nearly drowned, and this past week I had to scull, which, despite watching youtube videos, I still couldn't figure out how to actually enact in the pool. So, my training buddies and I were hoping to get together with the coach and just have a drills session. I think that will be super helpful both so that we don't drown and so that we can use these drills to improve our strokes. Here's hoping!

Biking has gotten a lot better- mostly just this week. Mo said to me last weekend something along the lines of "I didn't think I was competitive, but I just didn't want to let Len get in front of me on the bike"...Len is some other dude we do computrainer classes with. This really made me think. So often the last few weeks on the bike, I have been struggling enough on my own to keep my wattages up and work hard on the hard sets, and to focus on keeping the recovery sections easy, that I have been pretty lazy and indifferent about people passing me. Sure, I don't want to be in last place EVERY time I do a bike workout, but I mean, truth be told, its only me I should be competing with- a sentiment that I discussed in my previous post. But I thought harder about what she said and how that could help me. I have resigned myself to not being one of the stronger bikers, but that doesn't mean I have to be in last place. My thighs hadn't been burning for the rest of the day or aching when I walked up and down stairs. Was I not working hard enough? Was I using my low FTP score as an excuse to just slack off? So this week, I was determined to make my thighs ache and give it my best shot. On Wednesday, I succeeded in pushing myself harder than I had ever done on the bike, and really felt like I got a super workout in. Friday, we just did a "fun" ride (simulating the Kona bike route), and I made it through 46 minutes (yes I kept track) in 3rd place (behind the speedy Mo and Len) and only at that point, waffled back and forth between 3-4 place with another guy. I pushed hard and kept within drafting distance of him until the end of the session. My average wattage was higher than I had seen it, and I had kept it up in a good zone 4 for the majority of the ride. I felt so good about it, and for the rest of the day, my thighs were in pain. Success!

Running has also seen some improvement. A few weeks ago I felt my ankle with 30 min of running, but the last two weeks I have progressed to 35 and 40 min runs without pain! I hope to hit up to an hour by the end of the month...keep fingers crossed! I may not get my fastest half marathon in, but I'm hoping when I see the doctor again at the end of the month, that he says I can at least run or run/walk it! It feels so good to be running and I cannot wait for when I can do my long runs outside with Mo again like last summer- we had a lot of fun, and I cannot wait to see scenery other than the pool and the track!

Pool running is getting boring. I have a 90 minute pool run today. Sigh. I am seriously hoping that I can graduate out of pool running soon. I love having social workouts, and I don't really love being upright in the pool and having people look at me like I have six heads or that I belong in the aqua-aerobics class (though I've found that if I pool run on Saturday mornings around the time of the class, the open lanes are a little less crowded and I feel a little less retarded!). I'm hoping after London, I have only 1-2 more of them before I can transition to only real running (or coach said maybe a combination of run/bike for my 'long' run time).

So, workout wise, I feel like things are getting back to normal! Mat and I are heading to London on Tuesday to visit some close friends, so I am really looking forward to seeing and catching up with them and doing a lot of sightseeing! Hopefully even if I don't hit the gym much while I am there, I can keep up the momentum that I've had the last couple of weeks!

Pool Running

So I have been a blog slacker- mostly because I have been insanely busy, and feel guilty when I am not working and not working out. As additional evidence, my sister's socks have not progressed since the last image, and her visit is this coming weekend. Hopefully I can find a few hours this week to finish them up!

In the meantime, since the snow, I learned that lunges and squats were not a good thing to do when one has Achilles' tendinitis, and the creaking in my ankle came back. Realizing this was a mistake that set me back, I have been even more careful with my ankle since then. I visited the doctor yesterday, and he said it was healing nicely, and wants to see me again next month. So keep fingers crossed that the healing process continues and I don't do anything foolish to set me back again! I have only run up to 30 minutes though, without noticing the tendon, but at least it is now a dull ache whenever I feel it instead of the sharp pain I had a month or so ago.

Other than the short runs I am thankfully allowed to do to keep me feeling like the half marathon in May could be a possibility, I have been keeping up with my longer running endurance and speed work with pool running. Now, pool running is not the most fun thing in the world, but I am aware that it is my only option to keep in half marathon training shape, so I'm going with it. To be fair, it is not as awful as I had anticipated, which was quite a relief since it is on my schedule 2x a week now. I bought waterproof headphones, and use my old ipod nano in a ziplog bag, safely stowed in between 2 swim caps, to keep me interested during the long slow half laps in the pool. For those that aren't familiar, pool running is done by wearing a floaty waistband and hanging out in the deep end of the pool where your feet can't touch the ground, and thus there is no impact. Pool running is very slow- in fact, I believe some people don't even move (I think it depends on your stride length). I usually get to the center of the pool and back (25yd total) in about 4-6 min, depending on my speed. I keep myself interested by singing along to my ipod and doing cadence checks at least once per lap. The "long runs" are more difficult to get through than my weekly speed work- at least doing a combination of hard fast strides followed by an easy recovery helps make little goals! I do seriously miss my long Saturday runs with Mo, but I just have to keep telling myself that I am going to be way better off if I continue to take care of my ankle and take it easy! As an aside, I learned what too much water time can do to your fingernails- they are incredibly frail right now and I spent a ridiculous amount of money on nail hardeners yesterday in order to get them back into shape!

Keeping with my thought of incorporating some strength and core during the non-racing season, Mo and I have been doing slow short (up to 30 min or whenever my ankle hurts) runs on Tuesday nights followed by strength (upper body only for me) and core. Having a workout buddy for this helps me actually do the exercises, so I am hoping to keep this up for a little while...I *think* things are getting easier... :)

Swimming is on the upswing for me. After my basically almost open water swimming experience earlier this month where my lane partner was creating a whirlpool, I have had a few much more pleasant experiences. I have been doing longer sets, and surprisingly, not getting too bored. I am certainly not moving super quickly, but I have been feeling fairly confident and satisfied with my last few swims.

The bike is getting a little better too. After our FTP test (crazy all out 20 min where your heart rate and wattages are monitored in order to give you ideas of your wattages for different zone levels of working out) in which I performed fairly badly (at least compared to the super bikers in our group) I have set my bar a little lower. Instead of keeping up with them, I have been adjusting my watts to my personal level. It may be low now, but I am sure that if I keep working at it, I have to improve. And my attitude has transformed- now instead of being so down on myself for not keeping up with others, I have adjusted my thought process and understand that for now, I am only competing with myself, and I need to concentrate on pushing my own personal limits, not those of my fellow morning bikers. I'm not doing the HIM to win, I'm doing it to complete a goal for myself, and I have to keep that in perspective or else this entire training season could be a lot harder than it needs to be.

Things seem to be on the upswing, and despite my pesky ankle, I feel like I am in a much better workout place than I was about a month ago when I felt like I was struggling with everything. I am finally getting back into the workout swing, and I am glad for that. Now if only spring would come whisk away the cold and snowy weather....

SNOWDAY!

So one highlight of this past week was that we had a snowday! So exciting- a day home from work where I mostly was responsible for... knitting. : ) Oh, and digging out my car...

I decided, though, to also try to get back into some strength and core work, since the Y was closed anyway... So after arriving home from work early on Tuesday night, I did my officemate's pilates video. And yes, since I am so bad at pilates, it was really hard, but I'm going to try to give it another go this week. Wednesday was an official snow day, so I went through the strength exercises we got in our tri group last year and in our run group this year. They mainly involved squats and lunges, crunches on the ball, and some arm weights and stuff. Unfortunately I can't find my dumbbells...so I was resigned to a bag of flour and a bag of sugar (which unfortunately were different weights, so I switched halfway through). Not ideal, but better than nothing...guess I need to find where I put these weights! I remember when these strength and core exercises were getting easier and that is not the case now. I have read a lot of blog posts about people working on core and strength during the non racing season, and I really want to try to get into that a little. In run clinic in the summer, we did these kinds of exercises every other week, and I could really tell that they started to get easier, but I feel back at square one now. So my new goal is to incorporate at least a half hour at least once a week...seems like an easy enough goal right? Hopefully I'll see some improvement in the next few months!
Thursday morning the Y was closed, so I took that as my off day, so by Friday i was totally itching to get back to doing some cardio. Luckily, the computrainer class was a GO on Friday. And, I got to use my new clippy pedals and shoes! It felt SO good to be cardio-ing, and it was a good start to practice clipping in and out. Though as we worked on individual legs, I realized I do have a lot of work to do in order to optimize my pedaling, but I am so glad to get to start now!
Saturday was an off day, because I volunteered at this middle school science bowl at work. It was so much fun- these middle school kids amazed me - they know so much about so many science topics. Very impressive!
Today I did a swim-since I'm (sadly) off long runs for the time being. I had to do 6x200s. Unfortunately for me, the guy I was sharing a lane with made it feel like a wave pool, and I gulped water almost every time I crossed his path. I have no idea what he was doing to make it that way, but I have never noticed this being a problem with any other lane buddies in the past! I sucked it up and figured its good practice- like open water swimming! haha. I swam a mile, though not very fast...I have a long way to go before I feel efficient at swimming again, but I have to keep reminding myself that I could barely swim 10 laps at this time last year... so I'll get there eventually!
Now for a return to a more normal workout week (after my week in Fl and the snowmageddon). Oh, and in other news, I got a lot of knitting done during the superbowl...my sister's socks will hopefully be finished before her upcoming visit!