Apologies for the time gap in posting. I've been sick this week, and it sucks. Not anything really debilitating. I've managed to make all my classes and go to work still but have had no energy left for training. Actually I don't know if I would classify it strictly as "sick" more like "Infected." Basicaly I have this boil on my lower backish, almost the we-don't-talk-about-this-area regions. Its nasty, oozing, extremely painful mess that I've had since last Saturday night. Not sure how the heck it got there but it hurts! Anyways as my body has been fighting that it's resulted in me feeling horrible, running a slight fever, some congestion, etc. I did finally go to the doctor today and now I'm on some hardcore antibiotics to try and kick this thing.
Sunday-Wednesday I didn't train at all. Yesterday I swam like 700m but my arms were just too tight and tired. Today I made it 1500m but it still was not fun. Running is almost impossible as I still have some trouble walking and for biking we'll have to see tomorrow. I'm really needing to get back to training with Athens next week and my world qualifier in I think 6 or 7 weeks. Its getting to be crunch time and I NEED to be training.
Friday, February 29, 2008
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Swimming, swimming, swimming, swi...
I'm in somewhat of a self imposed swim block right now. Self imposed means that my coach hasn't told me specifically how often to swim but we've agreed it would be good to try and bump up the meterage and see how it goes. My goal for this week is to get in 20k.
Monday was the official start of my week and so I dutifully got up and trekked to the pool for 6 am practice. That afternoon I came back before work and did 1.5k, including a 200m time trial in which I knocked 6 seconds off by best time ever! I was super excited to finally see some significant improvement. I feel that now I've reached another level with my swimming just as I had the breakthrough run on Saturday.
Tuesday was relatively easy with just 2.5k that evening.
This morning was tough as my arms were tired from last night. I had to check to see that they were still attached when I flopped out of the pool after practice. I did the 3k but the pulling was tough (as always) and it doesn't help that February is "Butterfly month." Its alright though. I like fly and I think its good for triathletes to be well-rounded in all the strokes.
So far I'm at exactly 10,050 meters for the week. I plan on getting another 2k in this evening, then about 3k tomorrow morning. I'll then have to see whether I want to do a second workout tomorrow afternoon or wait until Saturday. Friday is my off day and Saturday I'll swim in the SMU 50m pool again at 11 but can go to the Landry Center that evening if I need a couple thousand more to hit the magic 20k mark.
Bike and run are still going nicely. I'm looking forward to my first race at the Athens Tri on March 8th. Sub 18 off the bike baby!!
April 20th is looming ever larger. Thats my shot to qualify for worlds again this year and my chances are looking pretty decent. However, I know I have to stay focused and lately I've been able to do that much better. Sleep and nutrition are the two things that I've worked on to be able to keep improving. You can train all you want but if your body doesn't have the proper fuel and you aren't giving it time to repair itself (sleep) then the training will just negate itself. It isn't always easy but with a clear goal in mind I've found it easier to cut down on the fun stuff with friends and late(r) nights on the weekends.
It was pretty funny when I was at dinner about a week ago and started yawning around 9 ish. I mentioned that normally at 9 I'm either in bed already or headed that way. They looked at me with mouths agape. Complete shock froze their faces into expressions of wonderment. I frequently catch flak for not being willing to hang out late. Or I have to train so I can't do stuff on the weekends. I don't like spending money because I know all the races and events I have to pay for this year, not to mention the equipment. Ahhh welll, if thats WHAT IT TAKES- then so be it.
Monday was the official start of my week and so I dutifully got up and trekked to the pool for 6 am practice. That afternoon I came back before work and did 1.5k, including a 200m time trial in which I knocked 6 seconds off by best time ever! I was super excited to finally see some significant improvement. I feel that now I've reached another level with my swimming just as I had the breakthrough run on Saturday.
Tuesday was relatively easy with just 2.5k that evening.
This morning was tough as my arms were tired from last night. I had to check to see that they were still attached when I flopped out of the pool after practice. I did the 3k but the pulling was tough (as always) and it doesn't help that February is "Butterfly month." Its alright though. I like fly and I think its good for triathletes to be well-rounded in all the strokes.
So far I'm at exactly 10,050 meters for the week. I plan on getting another 2k in this evening, then about 3k tomorrow morning. I'll then have to see whether I want to do a second workout tomorrow afternoon or wait until Saturday. Friday is my off day and Saturday I'll swim in the SMU 50m pool again at 11 but can go to the Landry Center that evening if I need a couple thousand more to hit the magic 20k mark.
Bike and run are still going nicely. I'm looking forward to my first race at the Athens Tri on March 8th. Sub 18 off the bike baby!!
April 20th is looming ever larger. Thats my shot to qualify for worlds again this year and my chances are looking pretty decent. However, I know I have to stay focused and lately I've been able to do that much better. Sleep and nutrition are the two things that I've worked on to be able to keep improving. You can train all you want but if your body doesn't have the proper fuel and you aren't giving it time to repair itself (sleep) then the training will just negate itself. It isn't always easy but with a clear goal in mind I've found it easier to cut down on the fun stuff with friends and late(r) nights on the weekends.
It was pretty funny when I was at dinner about a week ago and started yawning around 9 ish. I mentioned that normally at 9 I'm either in bed already or headed that way. They looked at me with mouths agape. Complete shock froze their faces into expressions of wonderment. I frequently catch flak for not being willing to hang out late. Or I have to train so I can't do stuff on the weekends. I don't like spending money because I know all the races and events I have to pay for this year, not to mention the equipment. Ahhh welll, if thats WHAT IT TAKES- then so be it.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Breakthrough
AH YEAH!!
Ok so I'm a little stoked, to say the least. I had a pretty major breakthrough run workout yesterday. It's something I'm still trying to rationalize in my head how I did that. Lets go through a quick run down of the day-
7:30 am- Got to sleep in a little today as I was swimming later so it felt nice not having to get up super early.
9:00- Private lesson with a kid at the Tom Landry Center.
11:05- After driving around in circles I finally found a spot to park at SMU so I could go swim at their 50m outdoor pool. Im supposed to have a pass to park in this garage but its saturday so who cares right?
12:30- Good swim workout. Its kinda cool when you do 1 lap and thats already a 100 meters. Went and check out the meet going on inside. UT vs SMU and let me tell you: I've never seen lats that big on girls!! Found my car again and thankfully it was still there.
3:00- After going home, napping, and just chilling for a while it was time to get the real work done. First was a 1:30 ride. It went as follows:
10 min warmup
3x15 min in my 53x12 at 60-70 cadence with 5 min recovery in between.
2x3 min HAMMER! Max efforts with 3 min recovery.
20 min at zone 3 i.e. 22-24 mph.
Needless to say my legs were a little tired when I got off the bike but there was still a tough run to transition into.
I did:
20 min at Z4-Z5. This translated to me running 6:00 miles for 3.3 miles! Or 20 minutes. I've never done a workout like that in my life. I couldn't believe it as I hit the mile markers. Especially as I didn't feel like I was going that fast at all. My coach explained to me what she had changed up to result in such an improvement. Now it makes sense and I'm even more excited then ever.
Today was a longish run and even though my quads were pretty trashed and I didn't feel that great I still did 7:17 miles for the whole 9.7 miles on a hilly course.
If I could just get my swimming to improve like that I would be set.
Happy training to you.
Ok so I'm a little stoked, to say the least. I had a pretty major breakthrough run workout yesterday. It's something I'm still trying to rationalize in my head how I did that. Lets go through a quick run down of the day-
7:30 am- Got to sleep in a little today as I was swimming later so it felt nice not having to get up super early.
9:00- Private lesson with a kid at the Tom Landry Center.
11:05- After driving around in circles I finally found a spot to park at SMU so I could go swim at their 50m outdoor pool. Im supposed to have a pass to park in this garage but its saturday so who cares right?
12:30- Good swim workout. Its kinda cool when you do 1 lap and thats already a 100 meters. Went and check out the meet going on inside. UT vs SMU and let me tell you: I've never seen lats that big on girls!! Found my car again and thankfully it was still there.
3:00- After going home, napping, and just chilling for a while it was time to get the real work done. First was a 1:30 ride. It went as follows:
10 min warmup
3x15 min in my 53x12 at 60-70 cadence with 5 min recovery in between.
2x3 min HAMMER! Max efforts with 3 min recovery.
20 min at zone 3 i.e. 22-24 mph.
Needless to say my legs were a little tired when I got off the bike but there was still a tough run to transition into.
I did:
20 min at Z4-Z5. This translated to me running 6:00 miles for 3.3 miles! Or 20 minutes. I've never done a workout like that in my life. I couldn't believe it as I hit the mile markers. Especially as I didn't feel like I was going that fast at all. My coach explained to me what she had changed up to result in such an improvement. Now it makes sense and I'm even more excited then ever.
Today was a longish run and even though my quads were pretty trashed and I didn't feel that great I still did 7:17 miles for the whole 9.7 miles on a hilly course.
If I could just get my swimming to improve like that I would be set.
Happy training to you.
Friday, February 8, 2008
Change
Hopefully I'll have some really good news to report here in a week or so. It looks like I'm college bound this fall. And I don't mean no Eastfield Community Colellege. I'm talking a real 'rootin tootin' state university. I applied yesterday so hopefully I'll be getting the word back next week. I've also talked to the cross country coach there and he's very excited about me coming out to run with them. I'm pretty much stoked out of my mind. Being homeschoooled all my high school years I never got a chance to swim or run on any sort of team. This will be my first oppurtunity to do that and hopefully it will help take my run to a much higher level.
Another pro is that the coach is a 7-time Ironman finisher and many of the runners there do triathlons as well. Cross training is a big part of their program and its good to know that I won't have a coach who insists I quit everything else just to run for him.
In fact I've been talking to my coach and we've decided that it will probably be best for me to take a couple years and really focus on the swim. I know this is what I'lll need if I every want to be even come close to hanging with some of the U23 or hopefully pro ITU guys. Swimming 8-10 times a week, week after week, month after month, for a couple years is what I need. *sigh* oh well. I have grown to hate my swim workouts a little less over the last 6 months and I have been getting stronger so that is encouraging. Next week I'll try to get in 6 or 7 workouts for the week and see what my shoulders have to say about that.
On a school note I believe that I am living proof that procrastination works. Goverment test on Tuesday. I was really motivated for this one as it was the first test of the semester and I wasn't sure what to expect. I really put my head down and studied for all I was worth... the 20 minutes before class. I came out with a 92. Next up- history test Monday. I bet that same strategy will work again...
Another pro is that the coach is a 7-time Ironman finisher and many of the runners there do triathlons as well. Cross training is a big part of their program and its good to know that I won't have a coach who insists I quit everything else just to run for him.
In fact I've been talking to my coach and we've decided that it will probably be best for me to take a couple years and really focus on the swim. I know this is what I'lll need if I every want to be even come close to hanging with some of the U23 or hopefully pro ITU guys. Swimming 8-10 times a week, week after week, month after month, for a couple years is what I need. *sigh* oh well. I have grown to hate my swim workouts a little less over the last 6 months and I have been getting stronger so that is encouraging. Next week I'll try to get in 6 or 7 workouts for the week and see what my shoulders have to say about that.
On a school note I believe that I am living proof that procrastination works. Goverment test on Tuesday. I was really motivated for this one as it was the first test of the semester and I wasn't sure what to expect. I really put my head down and studied for all I was worth... the 20 minutes before class. I came out with a 92. Next up- history test Monday. I bet that same strategy will work again...
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