Thursday, July 22, 2010

Mile Marker


I swam my first mile yesterday! YAY! And it felt really good. Swimming is by far the thing that I am the best at in this whole thing, but even though I have been on swim teams, and usually put in 3,000 to 5,000 meters in a swim practice, when you practice for speed swimming they never make you swim over a 800. So this was very exciting to actually swim a mile for the first time. It makes me feel very confident that I have a good stroke pace down and that at the end I will still have tons of energy left to really push towards the finish.

The mile sorta happened by accident as I was only going to swim a 500, but when I got done with that I felt really in the zone so decided to go for a 1,000. Once I got there I figured well it's only 18 more laps till I hit a mile-lets do it! Luckily I was also timing my 500 so I figure that I did my mile in 26 minutes. Which I am very happy about as a base number to work off of.

I am now very excited to get a wetsuit and do some longer swims out in the open. Doing a mile in the pool is definitely a bit boring and it was hard to keep track of my laps.

I also must confess, half way through the day my arms became very sore- something I hadn't felt from swimming in a long time. I have to say that it felt good. :)

In-N-Out Ride photos

Panoramic of the view at the top of Redwood

Finally some photos of our trek last Sunday. Even though it was very hot and sunny we did go through some really nice patches of redwood trees and pine trees.


Brian on a really scene stretch of Redwood


Mile 52- the point of no return... or at least that is what I thought at the time. My legs were pretty damn dead at this point.

Waiting at the top of Redwood after a long, hot and mild climb

Brian chilling

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Week 6


I am not quite sure how I got here but somehow, someway I am done with week 6 of my training! Ahhhh!

Okay, week 6 went well and I am happy to say that I only took my two alloted days of rest during the whole week. I think that my training is progressing quite well. I am happy with the amount of biking and swimming that I am doing- although I would like to be swimming more, but it's just so damn cold here! I am definitely getting stronger and my stamina for biking and swimming has gone way up... however as for my running it is slow going. I can't lie though, it is definitely getting better, but not by leaps and bounds like the other two disciplines are.

I am now about 4 weeks away from doing my Tri for Fun in August and 5 weeks away from doing the Luna Bar Race and I really need to start running more. I need to be able to show up at these races with these running distances under my belt at least a few times.

That is definitely the intimidating part of this whole triathlon process for me- the running. I am worried that I am going to push and push during the swim and biking and not be able to run at the end. Or just have not pushed my self hard enough during training and not be ready. However, maybe now that I know the magic of Shot Blocks I will be able to push through... hahaha!


Monday, July 19, 2010

In-N-Out Ride..formerly Fruit Stand Ride



So yesterday we went on the Fruit Stand ride... a whole 62 miles! It was a crazy long ride and I almost didn't make it!

The ride started out well, albeit we had to go up my nemesis to start it. Damn that Spruce Hill! It's not even that hard, but we start every damn ass ride going up that hill and every time I get about 5 minutes into it and my brain starts saying, 'why don't we just stop now and go back home to being lazy?' Then about 15 more minutes we are out of the hill and my legs are warmed up and its not so bad- but damn starting every ride on that hill!

On the Berkeley side it was a beautiful day for riding, but once we crossed over the hill into Orinda and Moraga man was it hot! You could actually feel it burning your skin. Good thing I wore sunscreen and a full coverage shirt or else I would have some irreparable tan lines right now! Unfortunately Laryssa didn't make out quite so well. Not only does she have tan lines to prove it, but also the burn :(

Sunday was also the day that Laryssa introduced me to Shot Blocks from Clif Bar. I had one before I started the ride and man that did it go to my system! It was like I was biking on speed. I am not used to taking anything that is supplemental and I abstain from coffee for the most part because the caffeine makes me crazy hyper, so biking on this was intense! For the first two hours it was kinda like being in a cracked out spinning class! HAHAHA. Needless to say Laryssa and Erica were a bit stunned- they had never seen me like this- and Brian was amused and maybe partially annoyed (but he's a curmudgeon so it's okay).

The first 30 miles went great and we made really good timing. We were at the in-n-out (the half way point) in exactly 2 hours from the time we started. I know that some people like to mark the middle of the ride with the Fruit Stand in San Ramon that is exactly across from the in-n-out, but let me say this:

I don't ride the distance for no damn Fruit Stand... I ride the distance for a double double with no onions and an ice tea!

This was also a big day for other reasons- it was East Coaster Laryssa's first time at in-n-out; a very very important mile stone in the life of every Californian! She did us proud by eating a double double, but next time we need to get her to have a milk shake! We took an hour break there and then were back on the road.


The rest of the way was more or less all up hill and man was that a bitch! Going up Redwood up that long, never ending, mild grade was took forever. The only way I got up it was by skipping between the shady bits. I would see a patch of shade up and head and think, 'just bike to that next bit of shade...ahhhh shade...okay now to that next bit of shade..' Eventually we all did make it up that hill and to that great view of what I suppose is Lake Chabot.

Then back down. After that things became a problem. So we went down Redwood and are doing a slow climb back up Redwood towards skyline. Laryssa and I are pretty much biking on flat ground with minor hills, but we are in the lowest of low gears... and we are maybe going 3 miles an hour! We are dieing - I am dieing- and I am thinking how the HELL am I going to climb up Pinehurst. Eventually I had to stop and when I get off my bike my legs are furiously shaking. I had no more control over my legs any more- I was the most tapped out I had been since this training started. It was bad. But what can you do? There is no other way to get back home. So back on the bike-going even slower- we start the slow climb up and luckily we didn't have to do Pinehurst- thank god!- we were able to by pass it. We only had to do one last hill to Joaquin Miller and then it was home sweet home- all down hill!

The next day I wasn't sore- more just my body was exhausted! My legs were in a totally new place they had never been before- it felt like the bottom half of my body had been pummeled repeatedly and my brain was totally fried. I was going to swim, but instead went home and went to bed at 7:30! I woke up around 10pm ate chili for dinner watched some Tru Blood and then went back to sleep. Ahhh sleep is amazing! Today I feel like a totally new person- so back to training!

More photos are to come later when I get my camera back!


Friday, July 16, 2010

Morning Swims- A Warm Encounter


Robbie this post is a shout out to you...

Back to morning swims and my goal this morning was to do 4 500's.... ya that totally didn't happen, but not for lack of trying! The pool was freaking over 85 degrees! It was like swimming in my own saliva, i.e. pretty gross. A lap pool should be between 75 and 78 degrees, never above 80.

Any ways, I did a few drills (I had to remember them all since I am going to try to teach them to Robbie in the near future), some kick board work outs and then 2 500's. After the first 500 I was so hot I actually had to get out of the pool and lay down on the marble to cool off. I have never had that experience before! However, terrible the water temperature was the first 500 went well and I did it in under 6 minutes. The second 500 I could tell that I was much more sluggish, but I actually timed it and came in at 7 minutes 25 seconds. Not bad, not great. It is definitely a good start.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Open to Comments....


Guys I am leaving this post completely open to comments and help. I don't know what to do... I am eating easily between 2,500 and 3,500 calories a day- including usually 2 or 3 cliff bars- yet I am still getting really low blood sugar feelings and worse really bad hungry pains. Today I got such low blood sugar that I felt dizzy, sick to my stomach and eventually ended up throwing up all the food I had eaten. These hunger pains came on AFTER I had eaten a large serving of quinoa, garlic, onion, spinach and mushroom sautee and some bread.

I don't know what to do. I am usually eating protein for dinner along with lots of veggies and fruits. Lunch is usually a sandwich, a salad and some other veggies and breakfast is usually either oatmeal and fruit or greek yogurt and fruit.

I don't know what to do to stop feeling so hungry all the time-help me. Any suggestions at this point would be helpful.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

1st Triathlon... as a spectator!



Yay spectating as a sport!

So last Saturday I went with Erica and her mom to cheer on Brian during the Treasure Island Triathlon. It was a pretty awesome thing to watch and Brian did a great job. He only raced because he received free admission- so for a guy that hasn't been training he finished in just under 3 hours.


Brian at the start of the race, looking mighty spry.


Erica informed me that it was a more low key race than others. There weren't many people there cheering and there weren't too many people even there racing. None-the-less it was exciting to get pumped for a race and cheer someone on.

It was absolutely freezing on Treasure Island that crisp 6:30 am morning and of course I was not wearing enough layers. You would think that after living here for a year I would finally understand that it will just NEVER be warm in the summer time. Yet some how each time I go out I get tricked into thinking that it will be.
Here we are huddled together for warmth while we watching the swimming portion of the triathlon. There was even one guy swimming without a wetsuit! I have no idea how he made it.

I wish that the first triathlon I watched was filled with screaming and cheering, but on the other hand this race was good because it was easy to see all the of the technical aspects of the race, such as warming up, the transitions and the layout of the race area.

For most of the race we were watching the collegiate level, since that is the level at Brian competes in (he's still a baby). However watching all of those spry youngins' really made me feel old! I am not looking forward to doing my first triathlon and being completely annihilated by some 18 year old. it isn't going to be pretty....

Well, the day ended well and Brian did very well for himself. We then all went out for a celebratory Chipotle lunch :)

I have posted more photos on my flickr account if anyone wants to partake and of course I can take no credit for the awesome shots. All credit for the photography goes to Erica: A fantastic photographer and someone Brian is very lucky to have as a sister.

Monday, July 12, 2010

Moraga- Skyline- Tunnel Ride: Liz-0: Clips-2


Sunday's ride was quite beautiful, but painful. Sadly there are no pictures to be had for that ride- we were a bit time crunched. On the flip side though I think we made really good timing on the whole thing!

Let me preface this ride by saying Laryssa and I went out the night before drinking and dancing and then continued to drink while watching the World Cup Final on the same day as the ride! Those were both such bad choices I can't even tell you. Most of the ride I was torn between wanting to throw up, give up or rip my legs off. I only got about 10 minutes up Spruce hill before I was thinking "Maybe if I turn around now and use a different route back Brian won't notice that I left and gave up!" HAHAHA! I would however NEVER have lived it down if I did that.

Some how I managed to make it through the ride though and up Pinehurst. Which was hard, but not too bad actually. Pinehurst was by far the most beautiful ride I have ever been on. The pine forests below were incredibly magical and the smell was sensational! Even the winding part at the top still gave you a great view. At the top of Pinehurst while waiting for the rest of the crew to make it up I stopped, unclipped my right foot and wham fell to my left and into a pile of hay and grasses! Both Brian and Darwin (Erica's boyfriend who finally joined us for a ride) were just staring at me like I was some moron. It was fantastic...

On the way down it was freezing! We crossed over Skyline and into Berkeley and you could see the fog rolling in and it dropped well into the 50's within minutes. Needless to say it was an uncomfortably cold ride back where Erica had to give me her sweater and gloves so I could continue. Of course she grew up here so this cold snap was nothing to her- while by the end of the ride I couldn't even feel my toes!

Then on the last leg right when pulling up to Erica's house I learned my last lesson of the ride: abrupt stopping on a hill leads to not clipping out in time and therefore falling...again. It must have looked so comical and in fact Laryssa who was behind me thought I had done it on purpose. Imagine me riding up to her house, stopping and just flopping over on to the pavement- it happened so fast I didn't even have time to clip out EITHER of my feet! Erica had to actually hold up the bike while I was on the floor so that I could unclip one foot at a time! Uggg, these clips are totally getting the better of me and now puts me at 3 falls total! All of which were totally pathetic, but luckily not when there are any cars.

::Sigh::

Blast you clips!

Week 5


Week 5 has come and gone. I can not believe that I have been training for a whole 5 weeks!

This was the week of taking breaks. By the time that I had hit this week in my training I was getting too burnt out. And as Brian, in one of his fleeting moments of kindness, has told me- "The worse thing you can do is to over train." Of course from Brian this is a mixed message since he later told me - "with the training schedule you have I don't understand how you could be burnt out at this point." Ah, the joys of being young and not having to work for a living!

Any who, taking a bunch of days off was really really good. By the time that Saturday rolled around I was once again able to think about going to the gym without wincing, plus I was able to buy groceries in those off days... always a mood elevator!

Saturday was a great training day. I finally broke 3,000 meters during my practice- which was something I was building up to. Usually in a swim practice we did up to 4,500 meters easily. However, since I am doing other types of training I want to try to keep my practices between 2,800 and 4,000 meters each time. It was a good mile stone to have broken during the week that I was feeling the least into my training.

Here is how my swim practice broke down:

Warm up:
3 X 100 warm up free style, quick so as to get warmed up

4 X 100 free style kicks 20 second intervals, quick and with my new fins!
4 X 100 butterfly kick 20 second intervals, quick and with fins
4 X 100 backstroke kick 20 second intervals, quick and with fins

Pyramid:
200 m, 300 m, 400 m, 600 m.

Cool down:
2 X 100 back and free style
1 X 100 free style and butterfly

So that was my work out. Two things of note: 1. I had not worked out in fins since I was in highschool- and I had completely forgotten how much they work your quads! At the time it burned, but when I went on a ride the next day it killed! 2. Butterfly is tiring! I was never really good at it as a stroke, but used to be able to get across the pool with decent form and not too out of breath. This time I was dieing! I need to really work on that; since that is the stroke that gives you awesome abs.

Any ways that was week 5. Still feeling a bit wary of my motivation behind training these days, but slowly getting back on track.

Friday, July 9, 2010

Things went well


After taking a few days off as a breather I went back to the gym yesterday and had a good workout that helped bring me back around to the idea of training again. Sometimes you just get into these life slumps and it is hard to pull yourself out of them and get back to doing what you need to do. Work is a bit slow right now and I am not doing the things at work that I normally love doing- so I feel that that has really been affecting my performance in all other aspects of my life. Go figure that something you do from 9 to 6, 5 days a week would affect how you deal with the rest of your life!

Any who, yesterday I did a cycling class and then a 2 mile run. I took the 2 miles at a slow pace and ended up doing a 19 minute, 2 mile run and not being out of breath or over exerted by the end of it. I am trying to build up my stamina so that this point I would rather run slower and longer distances than faster and short distances. This run was on a treadmill-which is new- and I had the setting at 5.9. Next time I am going to up the setting and try to maintain that pace throughout the whole run. Still hate running and dread doing it each time, but at least it isn't as painful as before.

I am hoping to get a good swim in this weekend. Haven't been in the pool since last Friday and the weather here is so cold that it is hard to get myself motivated to go for a swim! Bleck! These are the times that I wish I was back in LA!

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

A Hiatus... and then a Wall

So after a brief holiday hiatus I am back at it. And man did I need a break!

Last week I was desperately needing to take a bit of time off and to reorganize my life. All of this training is taking a LOT of time! Sometimes I am at it from 6:20 am (when I get up for a morning swim) to 10pm. Luckily I have only decided to keep up this crazy workout schedule until September when I am planning to do my Olympic length tri. After that I will let it all cool down a bit for a the winter and then pick it up again in the spring.

All this training is definitely putting a strain on all my other side projects as well as my personal life. Simple things like buying groceries is even hard- cause when do it do it? If I get to work at 9 and stay till 6 and get groceries after than there is no time to train that day or if I work out after work till 9pm then I can't get groceries. Plus little things here and there, like going to a birthday and staying out till 1 am means not only am I tired at work the next day, but I am exhausted by the time training comes at 6pm.

So a break was definitely needed- I am still feeling a little burnt out and trying to pick myself back up again. I think the issue is that to train this hard the rest of my whole life needs to be put on hold, but I have too many irons in the fire right now to be doing that.

I really need to sit myself down and figure out a reasonable schedule so that everything fits in- a task that I should have been doing this weekend, but alas was not!

I don't want to completely hit this wall I am facing and not have any energy to train. So I think I am going to continue to take time off until I get the rest of my life back in order.




On a side note, last week was a good week. And I feel good about the work I put in. Now, if I could only train like that every week.

I am really excited to see my first in-person Triathlon with weekend. Erica and I are going to be there to cheer on Brian. Then next weekend I am going to go to the Tri For Fun in Pleasanton. I know that I am only doing a sprint and that this is a relaxed affair, but I am none-the-less totally nervous about it and scared I won't be able to finish. Race anxiety already :(

Any ways, to night I figure out all my shit, do LONG over due laundry, by groceries (I haven't had anything to eat in the house for a few days now) and make a plan of action! Tomorrow back to morning swims with a hopeful 3100 meter planned swim workout.

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Knee Issues... am I officially old now?

This was one of the first images that came up when I searched Google for "Knee Images"!
Totally not related, but hilarious. It is a pillow sold in Japan in the shape of a seated woman.

So after my first ride with my new bike, shoes, pedals my knees were aching a bit, right above and below the knee cap. It was a dull kinda pain that went away by the time I woke up on Monday. I figured the knee pain might have been due to a number of things: new bike, first time with these shoes, first time using proper alignment, and maybe my bike just need a bit of tweeking to fit better. Until today they hadn't been bothering me. Unfortunately yesterday I went to a core class that had us doing a ton of squats and now my knees hurt :(. And have been achy all day.

This is something that I am not taking lightly. I have brought it up to a bunch of people to get there opinion on the subject. Brian thinks it's just because I was using my shoes for the first time and therefore my knees and feet had to be in proper alignment the whole time. My co-worker Sara thinks it is cause I might not be stretching enough after my workouts and that I need to get my bike re-fitted. And lastly my co-worker Laryssa thinks it is because I am not stretching enough. These are all very valid points and things that I need to take into consideration. I guess that I should be stretching more after runs and rides. I mean I can't hurt to stretch. I am hoping that this is a stretching issue and it could easily be since a lot of knee issues are due to quad muscles and the way you work them during a training session. I have also had perpetually sore/ tight quads and calves since I started training 3 weeks ago so all of that tightness could easily now be affecting my knees.

I have also made a new appointment at Mike's Bikes to have my bike refitted. So we will see what comes of it.

Not injured, just a bit sore and wanting to make sure that everything goes back to normal soon!


1/2 mile swim

Ahh... the good ol' days when we used to all hang out at the gym in our togas

Yesterday was another good morning swim. It almost wasn't due to the fact that people do not know how to A. pick lanes that are appropriate for their swimming skills and B. know what to do when someone faster than you is swimming on your ass and you come to the wall. I think that swimming it pretty self explanatory, if you are slower let the other person pass you when you reach the wall and if you choose to do drills on kick boards or with a buoy then go into one lane down. Swim lane etiquette... the trials of life.

Any who, yesterday was the first day that I have ever swam a 800. That was pretty exciting. In swim practice we used to do about 3,300 meters a practice, but I have never done 800 straight. I was never much for the long distance swimming, but it seems that now in my older years I have come around to it. :) I was always a sprinter before. Doing the 800 felt really good and I wish that I was able to time myself, but alas the Hearst Pool doesn't have a real swimming clock. I am hoping to get a stop watch this weekend so that I can start timing my longer swims. It was exciting to know that I had swam half a mile without fatigue and was feeling really good after. Seriously, swimming it the only positive reinforcement that I am getting these days as far as my training goes!

I also made a swim work out for Erica the other day. We have decided to make a deal: however many times I run in a week she has to get into the pool that same amount of times the next week. Hopefully this will push me to run and her to get in the pool.

Here's the basic swim workout I made for her.

Warm up:
2 X 100 meters slow 20 sec recovery
2X 100 meters medium 25 sec recovery

Practice:
4 X 100 meters medium kick with kickboard 15 sec recovery. This should be with your head in the water tol promote proper alignment. Also I like to work on bilateral breathing when using kickboards- something that was never too important when racing, but very important with open water swims

2 X 100 meters zipper drill working on proper alignment (i.e. being in perfect gliding form) and shoulder/ back rotation

2 X 100 meter catch up drill working on rotation and breathing

6 X 50 meter fast kick with kickboard 20 sec recovery. These should be fast and really get your heart rate up!

2 X 200 meter at whatever pace you think you can sustain for the whole thing. This is so that you can start to figure out the best pace of your arms and legs for the longer swims.

This whole work out is about 1,800 meters total which is a good amount to start at since a mile swim is just over 1,600 meters.

I am excited to see how she did during this practice and hopefully increase the times and lengths for next time!