sporty: February 2006 Archives
I'm wheezing terribly which means either that spring has arrived and my asthma is acting up, or I'm getting sick and my asthma is acting up. I'm sincerely hoping its the former because I'm in no position to get sick at the moment.
A rest week just ended. I took this rest week VERY seriously, which is to say that I didn't do very much training. I ran a few times, spun easy a few times, and swam once. God knows I didn't make it to the gym. Were it not for this mysterious wheezyness I'd be all healed up and ready to start hitting it hard for my second "base" cycle. But I fear tomorrow morning will find me coughing and gasping and terribly ill. I'm awfully prone to getting bronchitis and I know how it feels when its coming on. I'm still hoping for spring time and pollen.
The weather was pretty warm this weekend and this week promises to be more of the same. Last week I did three hours on the trainer and I'm hoping that from here on out I can be on the road for the long stuff. And things start getting really long from here on out. I know its getting serious when I have to move the long runs to mid-week. Wednesday, I go long (although they won't be THAT long till the end of this cycle).
I hate to sound completely and utterly girly but I'm also trying to lose a few pounds by race day. I'd love to be in the 120's ... a number I haven't seen since senior year of high school. I'm not entirely sure its possible to do when I'm training hard though ... damn that whole "muscle weighs more than fat" thing.
Heading to bed ... hoping a good 8 hours of sleep will knock this festering wheezyness on its ass!
... or has the Olympics coverage been especially bad this time around??
I can't stand how they switch from sport to sport every 20 minutes or so. I feel like I have no idea what is going on and only get to watch the very best people and the Americans (and if the best people ARE Americans it seems like you don't get to see ANYONE else!)! Its been so obnoxious that I have barely watched much of the coverage. They seem to have toned down the human interest stories this year (which I actually don't mind, once I get over the cheesy over-dramatization), but for the love of god can we please stay on one sport for just a little while?
Of course the one sport they did show all of was women's figure skating. I'm not going to get into the debate about whether figure skating (or half pipe ... or curling ...) is a sport or not. What I'm most concerned about is ...
The cross-country skiing looks like the most grueling sport in the Olympics. Both winter and summer. I hurt just watching them. It looks fun.
Its Monday and I'm tired and stressed out and crabby and desperately, desperately in need of a rest day. Fortunately, I'm due for a recovery week - not just a puney rest day.
Friday I finally broke down and bought a heart rate monitor. Yes, I'm in my sixth season of triathlon and I just bought a HRM. I hopped on the bike Friday evening and realized just how not hard I have been working on the trainer. That's all fine and good for long rides, but not for the shorter ones. The boyfriend decided to dictate a spin workout to me (my own personal Coach Troy) and the heart rate quickly skyrocketed, as the legs were screaming. Damn, spinning out of the saddle hurts. Saturday was LSD ride day and because it was in the teens outside, I opted for the trainer (I'm a wuss ... and besides, my water bottles wouldn't have stayed liquid for longer than 10 minutes outside). Three hours of somewhat intense (damn the HRM!) spinning and the legs were certainly starting to protest. I'm getting a little tired of the trainer - hopefully it will start to warm up soon. Woke up Sunday morning not feeling at all like running. My legs were totally trashed and the temperature was hovering around 20 degrees. Headed out the door anyway for my 1:20 run. Didn't feel great but got it done. Skipped an afternoon swim and called it a week. And now, I recover.
My training seems to be going so , so well this time around. I'm really excited. I haven't done anything that long just yet - top ride has been three hours, top run has been an hour and a half - but I don't even feel the hint of an injury. The knee problems a few years ago, the collapsed arch of last year - all that seems to be behind me. This next round of training will bump the distances up pretty substantially - hoping to still feel this good four weeks from now.
But I AM crabby. A job that I want SO badly for next year is in front of me and the only thing standing in my way is my pride. Applying for this job means disclosing my lackluster transcript to one of the people who has been most supportive and helpful to me career-wise over the last four years. He's always told me that I would do well in law school, that I'm a good student ... and I hate HATE the idea that when he sees my transcript he will think he was wrong. But I want the job sooooo badly. I need to get out of my own way and just suck it up and APPLY. The only thing I have to lose is my pride, but damn, sometimes that feels sort of important.
I'm not one to be super anal about my training. I have a vague knowledge of how long my longest stuff needs to be at any given point in the season and I try to make sure to do that long stuff, along with the shorter bikes and runs that support it. This time around I actually sat down and scratched out a very primitive training plan. It was actually sort of fun putting it all together and making sure that everything was in there and that the progression wasn't too much too fast. Plus, its simple enough that I will actually use it.
To go along with this training plan, I purchased a little white magnetic dry erase board which I stuck on the fridge. Each week I list all my workouts for the week and check them off. Its amazing how much more motivated I am to train for the simple reason that I want the satisfaction of checking off that last workout at the end of the week. Last week I made it. This week is looking a little questionable due to the fact that instead of swimming after class last night, I went out for dinner and a beer with a friend. Woops.
It's cool to start the week and see this looooong list of workouts and think "There's no way ..." and then slowly see them get checked off as the week goes by.
Its not cool to end the week with one of those workouts unchecked.
Ok, so the workouts themselves weren't all that long, but the weather conditions left me feeling pretty good about my weekend training.
Yesterday I headed out in twenty-something degree weather for my "long" run. The wind was blowing and the snow was falling and I felt pretty hardcore. I ran for ninety minutes and my legs felt pretty much fantastic. When I got back it took a good two hours to fully thaw out, but I felt pretty great about my run. It took a whole lot of convincing to get myself into the cold pool a few hours later, but I managed to knock off an easy 2,000 yards.
Then today I woke up with every intention of doing three hours on the trainer while watching the Olympics. It was cold and windy out and I just didn't want to deal with it. But I sucked it up anyway and headed out the door. It was 35 degrees out, which wouldn't have been so bad were it not for the 24 mph wind (gusting to 35 mph!)! When I had the wind at my back I felt downright toasty in my jersey, arm warmers, heavy running jacket, fleece tights, shoe covers, gloves and balaclava. But when I turned into the wind I was bitterly cold. To the point that my shoulders and neck were aching from the constant pounding from the icy wind. I ended up cutting my ride short at 2:20 instead of 3 hours I was hoping for, but I'm not too worried. I'm just proud of myself for getting out and braving the elements. I love running in adverse conditions, but this was really my first attempt at a really cold ride, and I think I did ok.
