Fieldtrip to Clermont

Today the team went out to Clermont to ride from Elaine's then swim in her lake. The ride was much shorter than normal... but it was ALL hills. On the way out, I rode with CL, XXX, and Rainbow Bright. We had some great conversations. At one point we were talking about American Idol and The Voice. (BTW, I hope Colton or Jessica wins Idol!) CL was talking about some cute famous guys in The Voice. This then led to how if we found CL a handsome guy that looked like some folks from The Voice then we could cash it in for easy workouts at practice. What workout would you choose to avoid if you found the CL a handsome guy? Well... this is what the folks in our car had to say....  XXX would trade any swim, Rainbow Bright would trade any wacko swim drills, and I would trade any bike trainer workout. Your thoughts?

In Clermont we did Buckhill Road 5 (yes 5!) times. For those of you not familiar with Buckhill Road, it is filled with 4 or 5 large hills one right after another. One is super steep. When I went down it I was going 40 mph! Going 40mph on my first day riding my new tri bike was prolly not the best idea... I do remember thinking at one point that if I fell off my bike at that point I would prolly be road kill and Tubby would be a orphan.

Random thoughts about my new tri bike...
1. I have the dual water bottle holder wing thingy behind my seat. I like it for its functionality purpose (I for one am not a camel and do believe in drinking water often!) but the way they are setup, my legs hit them just slightly when I am not in aero. This is kind of annoying. I don't think there is a way for me to change the angle of them because of the way my saddle is. Hmm.
2. I notice with my tri bike that my fingers are too short. It is kind of hard shifting your gears without moving your hands.
3. My tri bike puts a lot more pressure on my shoulders. I have rotator cuff issues that started back in high school/college from swimming and this flares up every now and then. I could feel this bothering my shoulders more than normal today. Hmm. I hope that after riding it a while I will get used to all of this stuff...

The swim was great. The hardest part of the swim was putting on my wetsuit and swimming in a straight line. Haha. CL says you should always have a wetsuit buddy to help get it on easier. FYI, a wetsuit buddy basically reaches down the inside of your wetsuit (from your back), gets a good grip and either A) picks you up by your wetsuit so your body weight forces you down into the wetsuit..... (Mini Me modeled this for us today!)  or B) have your wetsuit buddy pull up on your wetsuit while you are hopping (this was me and CL). This works like a charm! If we had not done this I think I would still be out by the lake struggling to get my wetsuit on. So, once it was on we were ready to go. XXX and I swam side by side most of the time. At several points in the swim we ran into each other.... which was pretty funny considering we were the only ones near each other in a gigantic body of water. My hand smacked him in the butt (supposedly), and he hit me somewhere too. It was pretty funny. Also during the swim, Stebra was super concerned about gators. He has been talking about gators all week at practice... saying he would get eaten if he swam in the lake. Well, while he was swimming Mini Me swam up on him (basically ran into him by accident) and he mistaken her for a gator! He started thrashing in the water trying to get away from the so-called-gator. Too funny! He definitely got an ear-full about that when he got out of the water!

Today's Workout: Bike & Swim in Clermont

Bike Stats:
25.7 miles
Time: 1:47
Calories Burnt: 1355
Avg HR: 141  (Max HR: 190!... and yes the alarm was going off on my HR monitor saying I was about to die.)
Avg speed: 14.4 mph

Swim:
Approx 800 yard swim in lake (2 laps of the course)

My new tri bike!!!

This morning we went for a 2 mile run in zone 2. From now on zone 2 is going to be called granny pace as I feel like a snail could move faster than me. However, this isn't all true. My granny pace has actually gotten faster.... while also keeping my heart rate low. Yay! Go granny go!

We had our foam roller class after the run. I was a rebel today and hung in the back with the rest of the trouble makers aka Hairy Scary, XXX, Alfredo, Diane, and Stebra. The CL had a new routine for us today. It was filled with lots of painful exercises involving the foam roller but mainly a tennis ball. At one point Mini Me aka Bulky was showing us how to do some of the tennis ball exercises. At this point I was leaning against a wall with the tennis ball between my back and the wall and doing a squatting motion to move the ball around on my back to massage the muscles. The goal here was to loosen up your back/shoulder/neck muscles by leaning against the tennis ball. Just as I was getting in the groove I looked over at Alfredo next to me. He is doing the same exercise as me. He blurts out that he feels like he is having an intimate session with the wall. (Those were not his exact words... but you can tell were I am going with this.) Haha! I laughed so hard that my tennis ball almost went flying. I love my team.

Best news of the day?! I got fitted on my new tri bike!!! See pic below of me taking my new baby home from the hospital... aka bike shop. :)

I had the fitting done by Jose. He did a great job. He really took his time.... well over 2 hours. He is a pretty funny guy. Over the course of 2 hours we talked about so much... He should advertise that his bike fitting also includes dating advice, family therapy, and nutrition counseling- haha. Haha, no our conversation was actually really light and we laughed a lot. On a side note, I think our club keeps them in business because during the time I was there I saw Emmett and Alfredo come in. Wow, what a small world! Anyways, at the end of the fitting we were talking about my bike bag and that the CL had recommended that I carry a tire with me for the IMFL race. I was telling/asking them how the heck I was going to take one of them because I could barely fit a tube in my bag nevertheless a whole freaking TIRE! That's when Desi said that I wouldn't need to bring a tire with me because he would be my bike support and ride behind me the entire way just as long as I fed him all you can eat ice cream and cookies. Priceless! (FYI, Desi is the mechanic at the bike shop who rides at the speed of lightning who always has something to say... about everything.) I never did get that question answered. Hopefully, Desi really plans on riding behind me...

What is normal anymore?

Thursday was our bike practice on the trainers. Wallace came to this for the first time. He is quickly being sucked into the vortex....Team Vortex (aka our team name for the Lake Nona YMCA tri club). We have this thing were anyone who comes to practice for the first time is almost always sucked in and end up coming back for more gluten punishment. I am really beginning to think that this is a life changing cult where you will end up doing things you never thought was possible.... most of which are great but to most people in this world is complete ludicrous. For example... if someone were to ask one of us what our typical week looks like they would respond with.... Well we..
1. Workout 6 times a week for an average of 13 hours a week.
2. Wakeup at 4-5am 6 days of the week
3. Swim 5,500 yards, bike 80 miles, and run 12 miles a week. (And this is all just going up every week....)
4. Then there is tons of laughing, whining and complaining (which is all in good fun), harassing the CL (which is also in good fun... although I think we enjoy it more than the CL- just slightly), and making everlasting friendships.

So the #1-3 is definitely the ludicrous part. Sometimes I think we should all get therapy... possibly a group therapy session... (because heck, there are a LOT of us... and we could prolly get a good discount!!) Rainbow, we could use your assistance here, but I think you could benefit from this also so I think that disqualifies you. Anyone that does this must most definitely have a couple of loose screws. I will be the first to admit that this does seem crazy. My phone call with my stepmom this morning also helped confirm things (that I already knew were true). She asked what I did this week (over spring break), and I responded with basically just swimming, biking, running, weights, sleeping and other random stuff I had to get done. She then responds with, "You need to get a life!" Wow. Maybe she is right, but I like my life. Besides, this is a lot healthier than throwing back drinks at a bar wasting away my money, being hit on by douche bags, and then being hung over the next day. So even though this is crazy, the good thing is that I am in good company!! When all you do is hang out with crazy people, you don't feel quite so crazy anymore! It is just when you get around the so-called-normal people that you start to think otherwise!

Wallace + Crampy = Team Ocean

Wednesday's swim wasn't great. I swam for the first time at our night practice (6:30-8pm) because my melon was still a bit off from yesterday and I wanted to give it some more time to rest. Unfortunately, I got a bad headache half way into the swim. I'm not sure why... but think that yesterday along with some really tight goggles were to blame. I swam with Crampy. On the other side of my lane was Wallace. Wallace has decided that him and Crampy makeup Team Ocean. Why? Because swimming next to them is like swimming in a tidal wave. Every time I turned my head to breath I got a mouth full of water. Too bad I wasn't thirsty or dehydrated. JK.

I heard that the morning practice was pretty crazy. Everyone was giving CL a hard time because she added up the total yardage wrong. We did 3,400 and everyone wanted to make sure that every inch was accounted for. Nice job team...

Wednesday's swim workout:
Warm-Up 200m Pull 10sec RI; 200m Kick 10sec RI

Drills: 4 x complete set. Each set contains the four following drills. Do 50m of each drill for 200m in the set before you 20sec RI. (Total of 800m)
Finger Tip Drag; Closed Fist; Slow Armed Recovery;Bow and Arrow Drill

Main Set: is a ladder
50m easy 10sec RI
100m easy 15sec RI
150m easy 20sec RI
200m easy 25sec RI
300m mod 30sec RI
400m mod 45sec RI
300m hard 30sec RI
200m hard 25sec RI
150m hard 30sec RI
100m,hard 20sec RI
50m hard 10sec RI

Cool Down: 200m Back

Must wear helmet to soccer next week

Yesterday's practice was a 30 minute run (about 3 miles) then we worked on running form. It was pretty funny to watch some people run and then critique them. Some people shuffled their feet, some stared at the ground, some ran with one shoulder too high, and others (like me) did this funky thing with their arms when they ran. Once the sun starts coming up in the early morning hours we will get video taped by the CL so we can see what we look like running. That should be interesting. :)

Yesterday I also had a soccer game in Winter Park. Normally they are very uneventful and everyone has a great time. However, yesterday was not the case. I have been playing defense a lot lately (either that or midfield) and last night I was at the wrong place at the wrong time... twice. I got blasted in the head twice- both by my own teammates. The first time happened in a mass collision where I ended up getting hit in the left ear by my teammates shoulder. I fell to the ground and laid there for a few minutes until I could feel like things weren't moving anymore in my head. After a few minutes I felt ok so I went right back in to play some more. Not even 2 minutes passed and one guy from my team cleared the ball and it hit me square on the right side of my face. At this point I was done. No more soccer for me. As I was walking off the field I almost got it AGAIN! Ugh. This is not like me. I hardly ever get injured. (Knock on wood.) Luckily, I didn't get a concussion.... just a swollen face and a big headache. Next Tuesday, I might just wear my bike helmet to soccer.

Swim, then sleep.

Monday's swim workout went well. Getting up at 5:10am on Spring Break was a bit painful, but once I was out of bed it was all good. Even better yet, when I got home from practice, I jumped back in bed and slept until 10!! Wow, that felt like heaven. :)

Today's workout: swim
Warm-up: 200m pull w/o pull buoy
Main-Set: 4 x 500m swim easy (can use pull buoy on alternating 500's) on 10sec RI.
4 x 100m swim moderate on 10sec RI
Cool-Down: 100m kick, 200m back

Last week in review & Great Clermont Triathlon

Sorry to all of my blog readers. I have been a bad blogger. Now that it is Spring Break (Woo hoo!) I have time to bring you up to speed.

Last week's workouts and the highlights:

M: Swim
Dave was back at practice today. (Not P.D... this is a different Dave). He swam in my lane a lot last fall but was out of town just recently. We shall call him Little Dave (L.D) from now on because he is so young. L.D swam in my lane again today. When L.D. is around you must be aware. Why you may ask? Well L.D. often swims down the middle of the lane. You have to keep an eye out on where he is or he may run into you. Luckily, we swim in the end lane and it is a bit wider than most lanes. He didn't run into me today. Thank goodness. I am beginning to think that the C.L. puts him in my lane on purpose just so more people will get in my swimming bubble...

Tues: Rest
It is amazing how glamorous you feel when you get to sleep in until 7:30!!! Wow. I slept 10 hours that night. I can still remember how amazing that felt.

W: Swim

Thurs: Run 1 mile; Bike on trainer for 30 min; Run 2 miles at 10k pace
XXX and I ran the workout. We are a good team. He was the timer and I called out the workouts. I also kept track of what number we were on... good thing or he would have had us doing extra sprints on the bike. :) Lord knows I am not really an over-achiever. I will do what I am told but who wants to do extra and put yourself through MORE pain that could have been avoided. Haha.

Fri: Foam roller
At practice CL asked us how many times we used the Grid this week. (The Grid is the foam roller.) I guess the magic answer was 3. However, I don't think anyone used it that many times. This then led to a conversation about how we need to be spending quality time with our Grid. This led to other conversations that should not occur in a YMCA. :) We were all laughing pretty hard.

Sat: Bike 20 min; Run 20 min (easy workout before tomorrow's race)
I did this on my own. It is crazy how long 40 minutes can take when you don't have anyone to talk to.

Sun: Race Day!
I raced with two of my best buddies... Amber and Becky in the Great Clermont Triathlon. This was in Clermont, FL... land of the Florida mountains. Seriously.

Race Stats:
Great Clermont Triathlon on 3/25/12 Olympic Tri; 1.5k swim, 40k bike, 10k run
Overall Time: 2:44:48
Swim and T1: 25:57
Bike: 1:24:15 17.7mph
Run and T2: 54:37 8:30/mile pace

CL told me to do the swim easy (focus on getting used to swimming in my wetsuit), bike at a  moderate pace, and run as hard as I can.

Overall, the swim felt really good. I didn't feel like I was being suffocated too much in my wetsuit, which was nice.  This was my first race wearing a wetsuit.... and i was a tad bit nervous after my last experience at Lucky's where I about had a panic attack. I tried to go easy on the swim and do more pulling and less kicking. I also had my first experience with a wetsuit stripper. (Wetsuit strippers are the people who help pull off your wetsuit when you get out of the water.) This was quite interesting. I had no idea what to do. When I saw the man, I ran up to him and just stood there. There was this awkward moment and he just looked at me. I then told him that I didn't know what he wanted me to do. He told me to lay down and then he grabbed my wetsuit and pulled it off. It was more like ripping it off because he had to pull really really hard. The person next to me who was having their wetsuit taken off went really fast... me- nope. Are you supposed to do something to make it come off easier?

Bike: My heart rate was really high (average HR on bike was 168) but I felt like I was going a moderate pace. I could have definitely tried harder so I felt like I was going the "moderate" pace that I should have. 17.7mph average pace according to timing chip. 18.4mph pace according to my gps. I like 18.4mph much better. :) Hopefully the Trek has hopefully made her last maiden voyage on a race course. Not being able to shift in the front because my derailer is broken AND doing the Clermont mountains is basically a recipe for disaster. However, the bike went a lot better than I thought. A couple of times I had to make a turn onto a road just to find myself going straight up. That was a bit much. I had to stand up a couple of times... but so was everyone around me... so I was in good company.

Run: I tried to focus on high cadence, small steps... A LOT!! I thought of the CL yelling this at me at least 3 out of the 6 miles. LOL. Every time I wanted to walk, I just slowed my pace down and made my cadence higher. When I slowed down I noticed on my gps I would go from a 8:00/mile to 9:00/mile pace.... which for me is still really fast for this distance. But then when I increased my cadence, I found myself running faster with less effort. I am beginning to think that the high cadence is a mental thing where you think you are running slower but you are really using less effort to run faster. Towards the end of the run it got really hot and my legs (quad's) started cramping a little. They didn't lock up completely, but I could feel them start to lock up then loosen up enough to let me keep moving. Avg HR on the run was 182. I felt like my heart was going to jump out of my chest on the 2nd half of the run where my HR was up in the 190's.

Overall, I can tell that I am getting stronger. I have never run that fast on an olympic.... and even some sprints.

Tour de Cure, 77 mile record, and lots of FOOD!

Today was Tour de Cure. This is a charity ride for the American Diabetes Association. There are several different distances you can ride ranging from 25-100 miles. My group rode the 77 mile course. 77 miles is the longest ride I have ever done... and I survived... and even felt like I could have went further! Overall it was great. The weather was perfect, not too windy, and had some good laughs. Of the good laughs included:

1. Stebra trying out a new kind of shammy butter. This kind had menthol in it so there was a bit of tingling going on down there. This was a discussion topic for at least 10 miles.

2. Bulky's ideal man criteria was discussed for at least another 10 miles. Contents not being displayed for obvious reasons. :)

Today I was so worried about bonking that I ate a TON. When the ride was over I was so full I couldn't even think about eating one more thing. Of all the things I ate/drank were: 3 bags of veggie straws, 1 pack of tropical punch shot blocks, 2 1/2 pb&j sandwiches, 1/2 nutella sandwich, 5 oatmeal raisin cookies, 3 orange slices, 4 1/2 bottles Gatorade, and 1 1/2 bottle water. The veggie straws were a new thing... and a big hit. I am definitely buying them from now on. The salt on them really hits the spot. :) I guess they don't call me Snackie for nothing! Haha.

Afterwards the team went to the Nona Tap room for a team social. That was nice. By the time I got there I was starving again. We talked a lot. I don't remember half of what was said because I was so out of it at that point. All I remember was that my chicken sandwich was great and so were some nachos that were put in front of me. I left early, went home to take a 30 minute nap. I set my alarm. When it went off I didn't know where I was or what was going on so I went back to sleep. My 1/2 hour nap turned into 2 hours. After my ice bath and some ibuprofen I am starting to feel like a normal person again. :) What a great day!

Below is a pic of me and Hairy Scary when we were done.

Above is a pic of me, CL on the phone, and Stebra.

Today's Stats:
77.62 miles
Total riding time: 4:47  (about 6 hours if you include breaks)
Avg speed: 16.2 mph
Avg HR: 115
Total Calories burnt: 3583

Running with Little T

I woke up today still discouraged about my bike. I also got bad news yesterday about the house I'm trying to buy. I'm not sure what the deal is but I feel like this bad streak has got to turn soon.

This morning I ran 8 miles in zone 2. The team met at the LN YMCA at 7am. Lots of people showed up. I ran with Little T most of the time. We had a good talk. It was more like she was my therapist as I vented about all this craziness going on. Haha. :) We had some good laughs too. Thank goodness for her. I definitely  needed a pick-me-up today.

On another note, I am beginning to realize some patterns when I do long runs. When I run my heart rate shoots up really high in the beginning (170 or higher). No matter how fast I run it is really high in the beginning. However, after 15-20 minutes my heart rate goes down to 150 or even below zone 2. Even after 20 minutes I can run pretty fast with a low heart rate. I hope this means I'm doing something right! :)

Today's workout: 8 mile run in zone 2
(I had my HR monitor on for most of it but not all...)
HR monitor stats:
Total distance: 7.14 miles
Total time: 1:17
Avg pace: 10:55
Avg HR: 147
Total Calories burnt: 738

I hate bikes

Friday we ran 3 miles, had the foam roller and killer ab class. The biggest thing that happened on Friday is I had my new tri bike assembled. When the guys finished it they called me to share some bad news. Sadly, when they were assembling it they noticed that the screws that tighten the bottle cage to the frame were stripped. I called the place that sold me the bike and they said that it was a defective bike and that I needed to send it back to them. There was no way to fix it. So now I have to wait until next FRIDAY at the earliest to get a new bike. Grr. I have not been having good luck with bikes. Not only this but my current Trek road bike that I've been using has issues also. The front derailer broke and I took it in to get it fixed and they said that my bike is so old that they don't make that part anymore. (I have a 24 speed bike and I guess they don't make that speed bike anymore in Trek...) So frustrating. I really wish there was an Ironman event that existed where all you had to do was run and swim. I would definitely swim 15 miles over biking 112 any day.  I am sick of dealing with bikes.

Thursday we biked on the indoor trainers. For me this is by far the hardest weekday practice that we have. I feel like time moves like a snail. Every time I leave one of these practices I am drenched in sweat, beet red, and starving. Thursday was no different. :)

Train drill with XXX

Wednesday's workout was a swim. The best part of the swim was at the end when we did the train drill. In this drill you get a partner. One person pulls and the other person kicks while holding onto the pullers ankles. XXX was my partner. We were a good pair. He is an awesome puller and I can kick pretty good. We had a couple of good laughs... especially when he was pulling and i kept running into the lane line.

Today's workout: swim
Warm-Up: 200m Pull;  300m Kick as Left, Right, Prone
4 x 25m descending 10sec RI
Drills: 4x 200 of 50m drills, 30sec RI between 200
Finger Tip Drag; Closed Fist; One Armed Swim; One Legged Kick
Main-Set:  4 x 300m descending within the 300, 20sec RI
Cool-Down: 200back

Tuesday was a rest day. I did the foam roller at home and had a soccer game. Unfortunately, the penguins lost in the 2nd round of playoffs. Bummer!

Just keep swimming.... just keep swimming

Today's workout: swim

Warm-up: 500m Pull rest 30secs
150 Kick as 50 right, 50left, 50 prone. 30sec RI
Main-Set 4 x 400m Descending 20sec RI
4 x 25m HARD 10sec RI

Run 1mile out of the pool at 10k pace.

A lonely run in the rain

I spent the night in Avalon last night. Normally on Sunday mornings a big group of my friends go out and run. We had planned on meeting at 8am. Well when I woke up Amber didn't want to go because it was raining and because she still had to pack for a work trip. Becky and Leslie still planned on going as far as I knew. So I hopped in my car and drove over to the park and sat there. No one showed up. :( Later I found out that the rain was what scared them off too.

I must say that when no one was there I really just wanted to turn around and go home. I am really spoiled in the fact that I haven't worked out by myself for as long as I can remember. I am so blessed to have great friends and a great team. If I had to do it by myself everyday I would never be where I am today. Today was hard. I thought alot about the post on the right that says, "It will be hard... It requires dedication... It requires willpower." I think it was good practice for the IM because I will be all alone then. :( Thinking about being alone for 140.6 miles is not a good thought. :( I also didn't have my ipod. Boo. So instead I had the song "Stronger" by Kelly Clarkston playing in my head over and over. Well I really just had this verse playing.... "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, live a little longer, stand a little taller...." I discovered today that I need to learn more words to songs. Haha. Listening to only one verse in your head isn't enough to get you through. I'll have to work on that for IM. Maybe have a whole play list... because 1 song for that long is going to get OLD.

Today's workout: run in zone 2
7.07 miles
Time: 1:14
Avg HR: 154
Pace: 10:29/mile (It's almost hard to go this slow. I find myself constantly telling myself to slow down.)
Calories burnt: 724

Biking in Haines City

Saturday we biked the 70.3 course in Haines City. The weather was great and we had a really good turnout. It took us about 45 minutes to get there. When we arrived a ton of us had to go to the bathroom. We checked the bathrooms in the park but they were LOCKED. This was the only part of the day when I about lost it. Haha. (#Don't you dare lock the bathrooms Park Ranger! That is a good way to get Snackie mad!) Everyone who had to go potty piled into Hairy Scary's car to find a McDonalds. Wow was that an adventure!!! She had all of her seats out of her van because she hauled a bunch of bikes for the team. So about 7 of us are all sitting in the floor of her van when we pull out and she says she doesn't know where she is going and that she can't SEE very good. (#Lord help us.) Half of us (ok, mostly me) were screaming to just drive because she is about to have a puddle in her van. After making a couple of wrong turns, holding on to the floor for dear life, and running a light we make it! Haha. After that adventure we got back and set out on the bike course.

I was a bit discouraged with the bike course. It was extremely bumpy with pot holes everywhere. There were also lots of mean dogs running out of their yards wanting to bite you. At one point Little T took one for the team. She was leading in the front and a dog came running out of the middle of nowhere. I thought for sure it was going to bite her, but luckily it didn't. It is a miracle that no one got hurt since we were in a pace line with about 12 people bumper to bumper. However, despite these things it was really cool biking through the orange groves. If you have ever riden the ride Soaring at Epcot, it was exactly like that. You could smell oranges for at least half of the 56 mile ride. I also saw lots of goats, and a mama chicken with her 10+ chicks, and lots of cows staring at us giving us weird looks.  The company on the ride was good too. :)

Afterwards we went to Perkins to refuel and hang out with the old people. I love that place. Maybe it's because I'm 29 going on 60. Haha. I figure that old people know where the good food is because heck, they've been around long enough to try out all the bad places that they've finally got it right. On the ride home I was spent. I took a nap in the back of CL's car just to wake up to find out that they took a picture of me and posted it on FB. Fabulous.

Today's workout: bike 56 miles in Haines City
Garmin messed up because I hit stop in the middle and forgot to hit start again. I hate when I do that.

I'm getting a new bike!!

Today's workout was a 3 mile run, foam roller stretch, abs, then upper body weights. It was a good workout. :) Best news of the week.... I ordered my first tri bike! Yay! It is a Kestrel Talon 105.... black and white. It should be here next Wednesday.

Time for bed now... tomorrow is going to be a long day!

Dam Tired

Thursday was a workout on the bike trainers. I felt ok but didn't look so hot. Everyone kept telling me that I looked pale and sick. Hmm. I think this week finally caught up with me. When I got home from work today I was so tired I couldn't stay awake. I fell asleep at 6:30pm. Slept for 2 hours. Woke up and ate dinner then went back to bed. I'm not quite sure why I'm so tired lately. Training hasn't gotten any harder (as far as I can tell)... although work as really picked up in the last week. Maybe that's it... All I can say is I'm....

PS- Thanks Tans for the magnet. I love it. :)

Chicken Dance

Swam at LN again today and the pool lights were on today! Hooray! Thanks to this I didn't run into the lane lines or miss as many flip turns. :) Practice this morning was just great. Lots of people showed up (around 15-18), we had music playing, saw the sunrise, etc. I swam in a lane with Jenn and Wings. We did lots of drills, including this one where you mimic the chicken dance. Basically you put your hands in your armpits and swim. The goal is to think of having high elbows. However, I was just trying to concentrate on not drowning. If it weren't for my kick I think I would be at the bottom of the pool right now.

Today's workout: swim
Warm up: 200 pull; 100 kick
Drills: 4 sets of  (finger tip drag, closed fist, one arm swim, chicken dance) 50 of each drill
(so it is a 200 continuous repeated 4 times)
Main Set: Dirty Dozen of 25 yard swim (effort 7 out of 10) Get out at each 25 and do 1 push up, then 2 push ups, then 3, push ups, until the 12th 25 yard length you do 12 push ups.

200 mod R20
200 hard R20
Cool down: 100 kick; 200 back

For the record, I do not have gills

Well the pool heater is fixed at the LN pool so we were back there today for the first time in quite a while. Being back was really bitter sweet. I love the aquatic center because it is well lit, has a clock, and is long course meters (sometimes). The LN pool is just about the exact opposite. We aren't allowed to have lights around the pool because the neighbors don't like it. There is no clock and it is a 25 yard pool. However, next Sunday starts daylight savings so it should be light and a digital clock was just ordered. Yay! The best thing about the LN pool is that I get to wake up at 5:10am instead of 4:40 AND I can come home and take a 20 minute nap before work. Wahh hooo!!

I swam in a lane with XXX. He only hit me once. It wasn't on purpose. He said sorry and I actually didn't even realize he hit me. I guess my skin is thickening up and I don't even realize it. Oh joy. :) Camel was in the lane next to me. At one point we were doing our warm up and I realized that he wasn't resting after each 75 so I called him on it and he was like, "Oh, so that's what we're supposed to do." Haha. It was pretty funny... so funny that when I pushed off I was still laughing and inhaled some water. FYI, that's not a good idea. For those of you that say I have gills and swim like a fish.... let me be clear, I tried that out today and it didn't work out so hot. :)

Today's workout: swim
Warmup: 6x75 swim, drill, pull
Main set: 4x500 R60 (zone 2 pace) For me approx 1:40/100 pace
4x25 sprint R10
Cool down: 200 back

Hot, windy brick

You know how once in a while you start out to do something and it just doesn't seem to go as planned? Well that was what Saturday's brick felt like. We got off to a late start because some people showed up late. When we started rolling we had an interesting conversation about going numero uno while riding ON the bike. It is crazy what some people will do to save time. I can tell you that I am NOT one of those people willing to sit in their own pee for 50 miles. However, quite a few people were and they weren't shy about letting you know! Haha! I am however very happy to find out who these people are.... so now I know who NOT to draft! :)

Other random things... PD got a flat tire. The group had a hard time staying together because of the different speeds. We went a new route today and made a couple wrong turns. I wouldn't say we were lost... but we were definitely all thinking... "what the heck just happened?" And the CL didn't feel well. :( And, according to Stebra, "RB had a Category 3 gust out of her tailpipe after the run this morning. Most shocking moment of the year for me so far." I thought Stebra was going to have a heart attack. This might be one of the reasons why CL didn't feel well... Oh how I love my team. :)

The bike was SUPER windy. 25mph gusts. The run afterwards was HOT.... at least 86 degrees. Hairy Scary kept me moving on the run. I felt like I was going to melt on the sidewalk. Afterwards we had a nice snack and chatted it up a bit before we all went home. :) After a 2 hour nap and an ice bath I felt like a normal person again.

Today's workout: bike/run brick
50.91 mile bike in zone 2
avg HR 130
avg pace 16mph
Time: 3:10
Calories Burnt 2,307

1.97 mile run
Time: 18:59
avg HR 166
Calories Burnt 199
avg pace 9:38 min/mile

Yay for Friday's

Friday's workout:
Run 2 miles
Foam Roller class
Killer Ab class

Math games at 5am... um no!

On the way to swim practice today CL thought it would be fun to hand out these math card games to Little T, Wings, and I that had 4 numbers on them. The goal of the game was to make these 4 numbers equal 24 by using +, -, x, or division. I don't know what she was thinking giving me a math game at 5am!! Little T and Wings did the game but I gave it right back and said that my brain is not awake that early in the morning. Besides, I will never do a math game for fun. I am a guidance counselor for a reason. I am into talking, listening, and feelings. NOT math. :)

Swim practice today went well. I felt really good. Swam with Wings. I like swimming with her. We swim the same pace so that makes it easier.

Today's workout: Swim
Warmup: 200 pull; 100 kick
4 sets of:
4x50 drill  (finger tip, closed fist, 1 arm, shark)
4x200 sprint descend R10  (My 200 times were 2:39, 2:37, 2:35, 2:30)
2x400 long course pace R30
200 back cool down

2,900 yards