Fat Camp

At today's practice you could have easily mistaken it to be a Fat Camp like from the Biggest Looser instead of a tri club practice. CL had us doing all kinds of crazy things and the group was pretty chatty so she had to redirect us quite a few times. This is basically what practice sounded like today as CL barked out orders....

"Go run 2 miles. Now get in a line and do jumping jacks. Stop. Now run in place with a high cadence. Faster. That's too slow. Stop talking. Do it again that wasn't fast enough. Now take your shoes off. Don't sit down to take your shoes off- do it standing up instead to engage your core. Now run in a circle with your shoes off focusing on cadence and foot strike. Faster feet but don't go forward too fast. Stop talking. Put your shoes back on but leave your socks off. Go inside. Find a partner and a foam roller. Hurry up. We are running out of time. Do these 3 exercies (they were explained). You're not doing it right..... "

LOL. I think we drive her a little crazy. :) Today was fun. It was a bit different than what we normally do. RB was my partner and we had some good laughs trying to figure out the foam roller exercises.

Today's workout: run and stuff
2 mile run
running drills
foam roller core exercises

Rainbow Bright

Swam this morning at the Aquatic Center. This week is a recovery week. Yay! Today's swim felt almost too easy. I swam in a lane with XXX. Not many came to practice this morning. Lots of people are out of town for work. The news for the day is Preston now has a nickname.... Rainbow Bright. :) Why? Well you will always find her wearing something very colorful. I think it is very fitting.

Today's workout: Swim
Warmup: 300 pull; 200 kick
10x100 Threshold pace + 5 seconds (I basically did the 100's on the 1:35 with 10 seconds rest)
10x100 at Threshold pace (This was on the 1:30 with 10 seconds rest)
Cool down: 100 kick; 200 back

Tubby is a model

I think my body is paying me back for all the abuse this weekend. Today is my day off (no cardio). I set my alarm for 7:30 (sleep in time- wow!) but unfortunately I have been getting up so early that I couldn't even sleep that late. I made it to 6:30... which is pretty good. When I got out of bed my entire body was in a knot. I got the foam roller out and did some rolling. While rolling Mr. Tubby was looking at me like I was psycho.

Speaking of Tubby, he is the Team Vortex mascot. He was pretty excited this past weekend so he put on his team uniform with a little help from me. LOL. See below. :)

Tubby thinks he is a model. :)

The funny part was that my uniform almost fit him perfectly!!! I think he has been eating too many lizards. :)

Tubby is feeling our pain of what it is like to be a tootsie roll in a uniform. Notice how he is trying to get it off with his front paw.

Have to get a good shot of his back. Go Team Vortex. :)

 Tubby's real thoughts about the uniform. This S%$#S! Haha. He also doesn't like the flash on the camera either. Put those two together and he is ready to bolt!

Disney's Princess Half Marathon

Today started with getting up at 2:30am so we could get to Disney by 4am for the start of the race at 6. I was really excited because I had never done a Disney race (other than the Danskin... but I was told that that one didn't count (LOL) ... however I was also really nervous because my toe was still sore and my legs were still screaming despite taking Tylenol, using the foam roller, and going to bed at 7:30 wrapped in ice. Luckily everything went numb and didn't really hurt. The race was really awesome. This is by far the coolest race I have ever done. It was sold out... 20,000 crazy people dressed in tutu's and tiaras... 19,500 women and maybe 500 men. Even the guys wore tutu's or skirts... Wallace you are a trooper! We had a lot of people come from the Lake Nona YMCA running group and some from Team Vortex (the Lake Nona YMCA Triathlon Club that I workout with). It was a really nice group. I ran with Jessica and Wallace for a bit and also with Amanda. I took the first half of the race really easy. CL even made us walk the first 5 minutes to warm up. I felt like I was going to jump out of my skin as everyone sprinted at the start while we were walking. That was hard. I am competitive and don't like to get passed....but I get it. It was for the greater good... and this was not my "A" race.... and considering last night I was almost comatose... going slow in the beginning was prolly the right thing to do. At mile 6 in Magic Kingdom I picked up the pace because I was (surprisingly) not feeling very tired. The time spent running in the Disney parks (MK and Epcot) were 3 miles at the most. Most of it was spent on the highways connecting the Disney parks. Surprisingly there was a lot going on. There were Disney characters everywhere. People stood in (very long) lines to get their picture taken with them. They also had lots of high school bands and chorus' there performing. LNHS' chorus was there. I saw them at the end along with Mr. and Mrs. Chase. That was really cool. I slapped all of their hands as I went by. I also saw Jennifer Weber while she was there working. She works for a company that takes pictures for these events. She was in MK. It was a great day. :) Afterwards the gang went to Sweet Mamas for breakfast/lunch.

Best song of the day, "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger" by Kelly Clarkson. This was the official race song and I swear I heard it at least 6 times along the course. Does this song just make you want to get up and run or what?! :)

Below is a picture of the Cult Leader and I at the start and then me at the MK castle. :)

Today's workout: 1/2 Marathon
13.19 miles
2:17 time from my Garmin... not my official race time (doesn't include a potty stop and a 2 picture stops b/c my watch pauses automatically)
Avg Pace: 10:25/mile
Calories Burnt: 1315
Avg HR: 156


Official Disney Stats:

Chip Time	2:30:27
Overall Place	5210 / 15784
Gender Place	5210 / 15784
5K Split	1:03:25
10K Split	1:22:32
15K Split	1:54:29

Wetsuits are the devil!

Saturday started off the way I had expected but then Cult Leader threw a (good but unexpected) monkey wrench into things. So for starters.... I met up with XXX, his son, and Little T at the YMCA and we drove to Lucky's Lake where we did 2 crossings (about 2yards). The water was chilly (especially for us southerners)... 70.2 degrees. To check out more about Lucky's Lake go to http://growingbolder.com/media/sports/water-sports/luckys-lake-swim-202905.html There is a cool 7 minute video that explains what it is all about. The main reason we went out there was to swim in our wetsuits as we will have to wear a wetsuit for our IM race. This is the first time I had ever swam in a wetsuit. OMG. I hate wetsuits. I felt like I was being strangled and suffocated. When I first got in the water I was on the verge of having a panic attack. Very weird. After a little while I got somewhat used to it.

After swimming we went for a 75 minute run. I ran with Jess and Camel in the beginning. Boy was that a mistake. They are both way too fast for their own good. After huffing and puffing (running about a 8:30 min/mile) with them for about 3 miles I couldn't hold on any longer so they went ahead and I settled into a 9:30-10:30 min/mile pace. It was SUPPOSED to be in zone 2. While running with them I think I was in zone 10.... basically any minute from needing a defibrulator. The rest of the run was ok but not great. I was pretty sore from lifting weights yesterday and also from walking all day at Legoland for a 6th grade fieldtrip. I'm not sure what happened but at Legoland my middle toe on my right foot started to really hurt. That really flared up from the run today. Oh well. I'm sure it will go away soon...

After the swim and run Cult Leader texted me to go out to lunch with her. She mentioned also having to pickup her race packet at Disney because tomorrow was the Princess Half Marathon. She said she wouldn't be there long so I agreed to go with her. Lunch was nice... went to TF and I for once found something that I like there. Long story short, we went to the Expo and it was not a short trip. I should have known! I bought a bunch of stuff (that I prolly shouldn't have) and walked ... or shall I say hobbled around way too much (since my toe basically felt broken and my thighs were screaming from today's running and yesterday's weights). As I am hobbling around CL then tells me that one of her other runners couldn't race tomorrow and asked if I would like to take their place. I thought I would get the packet and then make my decision. Little did I know that decision had already been made for me. :) So here I go...  tomorrow I am running a half marathon!


Today's workout: swim/run brick

Swim at lucky's  2,000 yards (2 crossings)

Run 75 minutes in zone 2 (was the goal)
Actual stats:
Ran 7.45 miles
Time: 1:12
Avg pace: 9:45/mile
Avg HR: 165 (avg was a low zone 3)

Must lift more weights!

Friday's workout was the usual foam rolling, but today we also did weights- legs. Wow, I learned a valuable lesson today... and that is don't do legs before a long weekend workout or you will pay... BIG. It prolly didn't help that I haven't done weights (for legs) in almost a month. Eek. That needs to change. I know this is a bad excuse, but I am just so busy. I can barely keep up with all of the practices much less do additional things on my own (ie weights). I know, I know.... :)  Anyways, we had a good time. There were lots of laughs. It's been only 3 days since then but I can't remember the details. Guess I'm getting old. :)

Friday's workout:
Foam rolling
weights- legs

Stampede of elephants

Swimming today was filled with lots of drills and then sprints. I swam with PD and XXX. On the 100's descend I went 1:16, 1:15, 1:12, 1:09. It felt pretty good except for the end where I felt like I needed a defibrillator. :) However, the funniest part of practice (by far!!) was when Jeff, Stebra, Walrus and Camel were swimming in a lane. Cult leader had told them to circle swim and draft off each other. However, instead of doing that they all pushed off at the exact same time and it became a stampede of elephants.  Talk about hilarious. It was mass chaos with people swimming on top of each other and running into the lane lines. I was laughing so hard!! (Sorry guys!) All I can say is that I was glad I was not in that lane... I prolly would have an anxiety attack with so many people in my little bubble.



500 warmup alternating 100 pull; 100 kick
3x100 drills
3x100 of more drills
400 easy swim focus on form
4x100 fast decending R30
4x50 on 1:00
4x25 on :25
200 back

2,400 meters (short course)

I've got a feeling... that today's gonna be a great day!

We were back on the bike trainers today. I am hoping to get my bike fixed real soon. Biking the entire time in the big chain ring (in the front) might just be the death of me if I do that too many more times. :) I think XXX knows what I mean... only because his heart rate monitor kept picking up my beats (instead of it displaying his heart rate on his watch, it displayed mine instead). I can't count how many times he looked at me and asked, "Are you really at 180bpm?" Yes.. it was true. :)

On a happy note, Preston came back today. She was out of town for the last couple of days. She is always entertaining... so when she is gone... you  notice. Haha. Also, the Camel has made it to practice 3 times in a row... guess we didn't scare him off yet!

Today's favorite workout song:

Today's workout:
Bike on trainer for 1 hr 15 mins

Can swimming too hard cause a massive headache? I think yes...

Swam at the aquatic center again this morning. I was in a lane with Dave and Jenn swimming short course. Things went pretty well. No exciting stories really. I did feel like I pushed it harder than normal and I really paid. I had a massive headache for half of the day. I don't know what it is but the swim takes it out of me more than the bike and run- hands down.

Today's workout: Swim
10x50 warmup R10
2x500 easy
2x400 mod
2x200 hard
200 back cooldown

2,900 yards

Running in Avalon with my girls

This morning I ran with some of my best buds in Avalon Park- Amber, Leslie, and Becky. It felt like a reunion since it has been what seems like forever since we've seen each other. We all trained together last fall for Miami 70.3 (along with Keren and Nick) so this was just like old times. (see pics below from our Miami 70.3 race on 10/30/11). We normally run at 6:30am on Sunday's leaving from the field in AP but we were exhausted from staying up so late the night before for Leslie's birthday party. We pushed it back and instead met at 8:30. The run was great except for the very beginning when my left knee started to hurt. Luckily after a mile it went away. I ran mainly with Leslie (aka TRImom of 5 b/c she has 5 kids) talking about almost everything you could think of.... crazy work stories, working out, injuries, and of course (and mainly) boys. Ahh. Nothing is better than a good heart to heart talk on a long run. Afterwards I went to church with Amber and then had lunch and watched the most recent Breaking Dawn movie with Amber and Leslie. What a great day!

 

Above: Before we left for Miami we had a carbo load dinner at Amber's. L to R: Amber, me, Leslie, Nick, Becky

Below: At the expo picking up our packets. We thought it'd be funny to pretend like we were doing our favorite leg of the race. L to R: Keren, Leslie, me, Nick, Amber, Becky

We finished! L to R: me, Amber, Becky, Keren

Today's workout:

7 miles in zone 2

Actual: 6.47 miles

Time: 1:12

Pace: 11:09/mile

Avg HR: 148

Total Calories Burnt: 658

First 60 miler!

Today was a 60 mile bike ride. This morning I was kind of having a mental block because I have never rode that far before. Sixty just seems like a big number. :) I am happy to report that I survived, didn't bonk, didn't crash (however 2 on our team did today, luckily they were ok), and didn't get hit by any moving vehicles (although a bus and truck did try to run us over).

Today we had a newbie join the team, named Ryan. I rode with him (and talked his ear off) for a good amount of the time... so that really helped keep me distracted. I think the funniest part of the whole day was when he was given his nickname, the camel. Why a camel? Well he doesn't believe in drinking anything. I think he had maybe 2 water bottles the entire 60 miles. Surprisingly, he was given this nickname by his buddies years ago. I guess old habits die hard.

On our way out the the airport loop we had to pull over and wait for the group to get back together. While we were waiting this man in a motorized wheelchair rolled up and started hooting and hollering, saying all of this random stuff. Everyone just looked at each other thinking, 'what the'? So, of course I took a picture of him (see below). XXX (Scot) is to the right in the gator jersey.

Today's Workout: Bike

61.66 miles

Avg speed 17.3mph

Calories Burnt: 3001 (wow, I think I will be eating a horse later on today!)

Time: 3:33 (doesn't include a break at the 30 mile mark)



Jabber Jaws

Friday's workout was a 3 mile run, foam roller, and weights. On the run I chatted with Little T about bikes. She just bought a new tri bike... and I'm thinking about getting the one she has. Hmm. Decisions, decisions.

Jabber Jaws (Melissa) was at practice today. I think she is the only person I know that can tell you their entire life story in a 3 mile run. :) But no, she is a sweet girl and I love workout out with her. You get so distracted from what you are doing that before you know it you're done. :)

Today's workout:
3 mile run in zone 2
Actual: 2.75 miles
Pace: 10:21/mile
Avg HR 160

Foam roller

Weights- legs

Question of the day: To buy a tri bike or to not buy a tri bike. Hmm.

Today's swim practice was a ladder. I swam in with Jenn, Andres and Dave today. No real exciting stories. :) After work I attempted to get my bike fixed. I stopped by the bike shop (with my bike) but found out that they ordered the wrong part so I have to go back in a week once the right part arrives. This is starting to get annoying.

I am really considering buying a tri bike. Between my road bike (with aero bars) causing pain in my leg and having it be too big I am beginning to wonder if I can put that many miles on my bike without being extremely uncomfortable and in pain. I know biking 112 miles on any bike is going to be painful but not to the point where it causes an injury. Hmm.

Today's workout: swim
Warmup: 200 pull; 100 kick
Main set:
50 easy
100 easy
200 easy
300 easy
400 easy
500 easy
400 mod
300 mod
200 hard
100 hard
50 hard
Cool down: 200 back; 100 kick

In Charge, Snack Lady's nightmare, rum & coke, and dance party

Today's bike ride on the trainers was great. Cult Leader was feeling sick so XXX and I were in charge. FYI, whenever XXX is in charge lookout. So my morning started off like this... I walk into the gym where we bike and I see XXX telling everyone to go home. He said that Cult Leader put him in charge and so he decided that he might as well make the best of it and make everyone happy. After a good laugh we all get on our bikes and start rolling. We worked it out so that XXX was the time keeper and I would tell everyone what to do when it was time. This worked out great in the beginning but then PD chirped in when XXX was out of line (not doing his job correctly). PD is very detail oriented, and a precise time keeper- something that he felt XXX was lacking. :) Although, XXX was prolly having a hard time keeping an eye on the time because we were all harassing him about the music he was playing... and that we heard the same Black Eyed Peas song 3 times in a row. Haha.

Today's workout was a bit boring so we had to liven it up. Thus the following...

I shared with everyone today Snack Lady's nightmare last night. I dreamed that I brought Pizza Hut for everyone this Saturday and everyone said they hated pizza and refused to eat it. Haha. They all then said that after riding 60 miles they would eat just about anything.

Then we all started talking about how we should drink rum and coke while biking. The rum would provide a pain killer effect and the coke would give us the sugar to keep going. I think this sounds like a fabulous idea.... we might just have to move our location away from the YMCA....

Jess, Little T and I had a brief dance party at the end to the song below. All of the guys were rolling their eyes at us. It was great.

Today's Workout: Bike on trainer
10 min warmup
Main set: repeat 5 times
8 min in big chain ring at cadence 65
2 min easy
10 min cool down

Fun swim drills

On Tuesday we swam at the Aquatic Center on International Drive again. When we walked onto the pool deck, we were greeted with a nice surprise.... the pool was in short course yards!! It is normally setup in long course meters (50m). I was very happy about this... so much that I started cheering. Why you might ask? Well I can swim a lot faster doing flip turns so often... Surprisingly though, I actually missed the long course. After swimming in a long course pool a short course one feels like a midget pool. :)

Practice was very different than usual. We did some fun drills- which was nice because it was beginning to feel like all we do is swim repeat 400's and 500's. One drill was where you paired up with another person and one person pulled and the other kicked while holding on to the puller's feet. My partner was Amy, AKA Wings because she is a pilot. She is an amazing puller, and I am a pretty good kicker. That was fun. However, when we switched and I pulled and she kicked that wasn't quite as fun...

Today's workout: Swim
2,400 yards

The foam roller is my friend

Monday was a rest day. I really needed it after the long run. Running over 5 miles really takes it out of me. However, I was a good girl and did the foam roller today. Coach said we should be foam rolling 3 times a week...

Allergic to running?

I live in Florida for a reason. I don't like to be cold. This morning it was 34 degrees for our run. I hope that is the last time I run in 34 degrees this year because that is just plain crazy. The gang met at Dunkin Donuts today at 6am and headed out for our 7 mile run. I wore all the running clothes I had. The best piece of clothing I wore was a fleece scarf covering my face and neck. Wow, I will never run again in the cold without that ever again.

Most of my run was spent with Hairy Scary. At one point towards the end we were talking about how we couldn't feel our butt anymore and that everything from the waist down felt tingling. It was real cold so I didn't think much of it. Well when I got home I noticed that my entire left cheek and thigh was bright red, itchy, and swollen. After 3 hours it started to look and feel normal again. I'm not sure what happened. Hmm... Cult leader thought it might be the fabric of my tights or the cold. I think I am just allergic to running. Maybe I should start avoiding running like the plague.....

Today's workout: run in zone 3
7.54 mile run
Avg pace: 11:15/mile
Avg HR: 146
Total Calories Burnt: 769
Time: 1:24

Brick and Kickoff

Saturday's workout was a brick. We biked 30 miles and ran 3. Afterwards we had our Tri Club Kickoff from 1-3:30. It was a great day. I was exhausted.... went to bed at 8:30.

Workout: Bike/Run brick
32.5 mile bike in zone 3
Avg pace: 16 mph
Calories Burnt: 1488
Avg HR: 144

3.04 mile run in zone 3
Avg pace: 9:30 min/mile
Calories burnt: 311
Avg HR: 160

Total time: 2:31

A good article I found

So You Wanna Be a Triathlete?

By Nick Clark • Clark Endurance Training

 

Fact: You will not become efficient at swimming, biking or running overnight. This is NOT an easy sport.

Check your ego at the door because chances are someone fifty pounds heavier than you will lap you in the pool. Not to mention she will be ten or fifteen years older than you, too.

You will be passed on the bike many times, and you will never be the fastest runner in your town.


You will have early morning workouts. Really early.

You will plan your weekends around your swim, bike and run.

You will be up while others are sleeping.

You will be training while others are sitting.

You will discover others who also follow this blood, sweat and tears cult.

You will eventually get a flat tire...and have to change it all by yourself.

No matter what you hear, triathlon is NOT an inexpensive sport.

Warning, it is extremely addictive, hence the impulse spending on wetsuits, bikes, running shoes, aero
bars, aero helmets, speed suits, power meters, GPS heart-rate monitors and many other “gotta have” items.

You will hate swimming more times than you like it for the first year.

You will suffer through road trips with whiny fellow triathletes.

You will suffer setbacks.

You may experience an injury.

You will develop a love/hate relationship with a foam roller and ice baths.

You will at some point realize you need a coach.

You will hate swimming for the first year.

You will wear tight clothing.

You will not like how this tight clothing fits or looks.

Your age will take on a whole new meaning.

You will discover a whole new meaning for tan lines.

Food will become an extremely important part of your life.

You will learn new words such as GU, cadence and brick.

You will hate swimming for the first year.

You will spend more time on your bike than on your couch.

You may lose a friend or two because you spend too much time swimming, biking and running, and they
could care less about your heart rate training, foam rolling pain or 20-mile bike ride.

You will learn patience.

You will be humbled.

You will start to realize you are paying money to put yourself through pain and suffering, but for some
odd reason, you LOVE it.

This sport called triathlon becomes a part of you. You start to plan your entire year around sprint, international, half iron- or full iron-distance races. Your vacations become racing, and you start to realize that this could become a life-long adventure.

Many people settle for things in life. They settle for a crappy job, marriage, friends, food, place to live and overall fitness and health. Those who desire more or those who want more out of life than a drive-thru window and boring sitcom, will choose triathlon or an activity that makes them happy—an activity that will change their life.

Triathlon will change your outlook on life, your career, your marriage, your goals, your friends and many other things you thought you had figured out. It’s not just crossing a finish line or going home with a boring finisher medal. It’s the countless hours that got you to that point—a moment in time that you will NEVER forget, a moment that you will discuss with your family and friends for hours if not days after the event. These discussions will most likely be about how you could have done better. At what point could you have swum faster, biked harder or ran more efficient? This is what will go through your head every day until you get the opportunity to suffer again.

So you wanna be a triathlete? Enjoy the ride and train hard!

Snack Lady in charge. Lookout.

Cult leader was not feeling well this morning so Snack Lady led today's foam roller workout. Wow. I have to admit it is kind of intimidating to have 20+ people staring at your every move. :) Overall it went really well. Even though I took an anatomy class in college I chose to forget all of it because I hated that class so much. So today instead of using all of the technical names of the muscles... I just told it like it was. (Put the grid under your butt and roll.) Haha. It worked. Everyone knew what to do. :) It was a pretty quiet morning. No XXX and no fire alarms. Oh, AND Snack Lady got to do some advertising for our new snack program. :D = BIG SMILE.

Today's workout:
Foam roller for 45 minutes
15 min ab class

Spark Junkie

On the drive to swim practice today, Cult Leader surprised us with a present. She gave us each a bottle of Spark to try. Spark is an advocare product with vitamins, caffeine, and some other things I can't spell. She said that it would help us wake up and be more alert because of it's magic potion. Well let me tell you... it sure woke me up. In fact, during my swim today I felt like I was on Ritalin. Cult Leader said that that's normal for the first couple of times then you get used to it. Hmm. Jury is still out on the Spark.

Swam with P.D. and Walrus today. I don't think Walrus liked being in my lane. P.D tried to grab my feet as I swam past him but luckily he didn't get me. I've decided that I will never try to pull on P.D.'s feet because he is so tall that even if I pulled with all of my might I would never be able to pull hard enough to pass him. When I told him this he laughed and said, "Ya, and I'll just put my arm out." Haha. That's the last thing I need is to get creamed in the head.

Snack lady was scheming in the car today. Stay tuned for fun snack ideas. I am really starting to get into this.

Today's workout: Swim
Warmup: 200 pull; 100 kick
Main set: 4x500 R60
4 x 50 sprint R10
Cool down: 200 back

Total: 2,700 meters

Brick, work, then Tubby time

Do you ever have those nights where you go to bed and it feels like 5 minutes later your alarm goes off and it's time to get up already? Well that was me this morning.

We met at the LN YMCA at 5:30 to start a brick.... run then bike on the trainers. Part of the run was in zone 2. I have come to terms that I cannot run in zone 2. Either my heart beats too fast or I just cannot run at a 20 mile pace because I'm moving so slow I could fall over at any minute.

After practice today I was so tired that I took a 20 minute nap. Sorry work, but my hair will not be curled today. :) I am starting to feel like all I do is go, go, go. Tonight has already been designated as "Tubby Time"... AKA sit on the couch and do nothing.

Today's workout: run/bike brick

Run:
Warmup 5 minutes in zone 2
Main set: 4 sets of (1 minute hard; 4 minutes zone 2)
Easy 5 minutes

Total run: 3 miles

Bike:
Warmup 5 minutes in zone 2
Main set: 6 sets of (1 minute hard; 4 minutes zone 2)
Easy 5 minutes

Swim threshold test, bike chunk saga, and a bad shopping experience... all in 1 day!

After having 2 rest days I was back at it again today. I was supposed to run an easy 20 minutes on Sunday or Monday but I figured that my soccer game tonight  made up for it. :) Oops. I guess that is cheating a little. ;)

This morning was swimming at the aquatic center. It was really low yardage but fast. We had a 1000 meters time trial. It went pretty good. I have never considered myself a long distance swimmer. In high school and college I swam mainly butterfly and some IM....but NEVER long distance freestyle. So when someone tells me to swim a 1000 meters (long course) as fast as I can that is still a bit like hearing someone speak to me in Greek. However, regardless of the Greek, I did figure it out and I went as fast as I could. In the end I felt like I could have gone faster.... but I'm not sure I should have because my hands and feet were starting to go numb towards the end. My time was 16 minutes 48 seconds. I think we are going to do this every month. I'll be curious to see what happens next month.

So the Trek is much angrier than I thought she was. I took her to the bike shop today. Unfortunately, what I thought was just a loose cable is a spring that is broken.  I need this huge chunk replaced that moves the chain from gear to gear. What is the "chunk" you may ask? He$$ if I know! All I know is I am supposed to call Dez on Friday to see if the "chunk" has arrived as they did not have it in stock. Nice.

I also went shopping for a new bathing suit tonight. I figured it was time because mine is falling apart. So on the way to soccer tonight I went to Ross off Semoran. Prolly not the greatest idea to go there in the dark as my chances of getting kidnapped, shot or mugged there are higher than winning the lottery. But anyways, they are notorious for having $10 speedo suits that are FABULOUS! So I got there, walked around and found one! (I was super excited because they are often not in stock.) I go to pay for it and guess what?! I don't have my purse. Of all places, I left it at home. I was royally pissed.

Today's Workout: Swim
Warmup: 400 easy
1000 meters time trial (my time 16:48)
Cool down: 200 kick; 100 back

Total: 1,700 meters

Watching paint dry is more exciting than biking on a trainer for 3 hrs

The gang went on a 55 mile bike ride this morning but I decided not to go so I could be with my Dad and Beth at home. So instead, I rode my bike on my trainer for 3 hours. Let me tell ya, I think watching paint dry is more exciting than riding on your bike in your living room for 3 hours! The first two hours went pretty good. We had some great conversations. At one point Tubby was about to puke so Dad tried to pick him up to get him to a tile floor. Unfortunately, it didn't go that great. Dad stepped on his tail. Tubby got freaked out and ran. Dad started running.... finally got him and put him in the bathroom. However, when he put him in there he didn't close both doors (there are 2 doors to my bathroom) and Tubby ran out the other door. It was hilarious. I almost fell off my bike from laughing so hard.

After hour numero duos I wanted to shoot myself. Everything started to hurt.... and more than normal. I think it was the trainer. Who knows. Then Dad found this SPECTACULAR movie on TV to watch. Can you sense the sarcasm? :) I'm in the living room watching it too until I notice that all of a sudden I am the only one watching it because he was sleeping. What's wrong with this picture?! (see pic below) Thank goodness for Pandora, email, FB, and texting!

The highlight of this morning was when the entire team rode their bike past my house and was shouting "Go Katie Go" because they knew I was riding by myself at home. Thanks guys. That was so sweet of you. That made me smile. :)

Today's Workout:
3 hr bike on trainer
Avg HR 130

Yay for Friday's!

I'm getting behind on my blog. Sorry. It's been a crazy week at work and a busy weekend with Dad and Beth in town. :) Friday's workout was pretty uneventful. We did lots of running drills around Northlake Park Ele's bus loop at 5:15am, then a foam rolling class that has the whole team moaning in pain and a ab workout that takes me usually at least 4 days to recover from. :)

Friday's workout:
30 minutes of running drills
45 minutes of foam rolling
15 minute abs

Torpedo's at swim practice

Swam today. Pretty uneventful really. The best part was prolly when I was right behind XXX and wanted to pass him... but instead of swimming fast to go around him I thought I'd be lazy.... so I just grabbed onto his leg with both hands and pulled as hard as I could. He went flying backwards and I shot in front of him like a torpedo. It was great. Next time I do that I need to pull harder because I didn't get in front of him far enough because he was able to grab onto my leg. Haha. After we were done swimming and hanging out on the pool deck I asked him if he thought it was me when I did that. He say ya because everyone else in our lane was guys and he knew they wouldn't grab him. Haha. After that P.D. (Pastor Dave) made a deal with me that he won't grab my foot swimming if I won't try to trip him on the run. I'd say that's a deal. :)


Today's Workout: Swim
Warmup: 400 pull
Main Set: 3x500 steady pace R30
200 hard R 10
100 hard R 10
50 hard R 10
50 recovery
Cool down: 200 back

Total 2,500m

The Trek is Angry

Today's practice was a Bike Threshold Test. In this you bike at a approx cadence of 90 rpm for 30 minutes in zone 4 (for me that is between 152-171 bpm). At each 10 minute interval you check your cadence and heart rate. Overall it went pretty good. I don't have a cadence on my gps so I'm not sure how fast I was going. (This is my next future purchase.) I felt pretty fast but Coach did yell (nicely) at me a couple of times to go faster- but that's normal. I like to pedal S.L.O.W. (comparatively) but with more resistance. Pedaling fast with less resistance just seems like more work. Oh boy.

The highlight of the entertainment at practice today was when I was sandwiched between Andres and Preston. They were having this discussion about soy milk. Supposively if you don't drink the right kind of soy milk you will get cancer and die. This is all I took out of the converstion as I didn't have much energy to listen or ask for clarification becasue I was about to go into zone 6 (aka the zone where your heart stops beating and you fall off your bike and die).

Today I decided that I definitely need a bike fit. I have been getting a lot of pain in my left leg. It's hard to describe where it hurts but it is basically on the backside/outside of my leg behind my knee. I was doing this funky thing with my foot while I was biking that has been corrected but that hasn't fixed the pain. XXX moved my seat up today (thank you!) and that did help a lot but my leg still hurts and I am sick of it hurting so I guess a bike fit is the next step.

Last bit of bad news. The Trek (my bike) is angry. Not sure how this happened but one of the cables came loose and it is flopping in the wind. I noticed it today when I tried to change my front gear and there was zero movement. Lovely. I guess I will be going back to the bike shop earlier than I had expected.

Happy note of the day: I have officially survived the first month of IM training... and I am still smiling! Yay to February 1st!

Off to bed now. Swimming tomorrow. 4:30 wake-up call.

Today's workout: Bike on trainer
15 minute warm up
30 minute zone 4 Threshold test
10 minute cool down