MAMA:
TE QUIERO HASTA EL CIELO. LOS EXTRANIO MUCHISIMO.
MUCHOS BESOTONES
TU HIJITUS.
Carry On...
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Sunday, April 19, 2009
The week in review
It is sunday, 7:46 am and I am enjoying my rest day. This has been a crazy week. I feel like I am always saying that.... Oh well.
To say this week was busy is an understatement. On Easter Sunday the husband was brought to tears by some pain in his neck/shoulder area. Truth be told, it scared me. He never cries when something hurts; this must have been bad. I tried massaging it for him, used my handy stick and was able to find a couple of knots. I convinced him to go see my ART guy on monday. So he stayed home and was planning on driving himself over there; except that he was barely able to move his head... not very apt for driving, wouldn't you say? So I came back home, drove him over there and then picked Megan up from school. I had a long run on tap and after considering the idea of doing the 1 mile loop in my neighborhood for the hour and 40 minutes the schedule called for I realized doing that would be setting myself up for failure; so I moved the run to the following afternoon.
The run went well, I thought I was running slow as snails and it turned out it wasn't. That was particularly satisfying due to the fact that in my attempt to try and run the less amount of downhills possible (really bad for the IT band) I managed to score a route with some very steep and long uphills. Can you say: ouch?
On wednesday I had my long swim of the week. Since I am doing a 2.4 mile open water swim in May, coach has me swimming over 3000 yds once a week. The workouts always seem daunting, as swimming is still NOT my favorite; but on the positive side I have been able to "risk" it a bit more while in the pool. Before, if I was feeling too much burn on my lungs I would back off, now I have managed to overcome the fear of not being able to breathe and have pushed myself harder than I ever thought possible. Now, I am by no means fast, BUT I have been able to find my different paces in the water. Moderate IS moderate, fast IS fast; before it was all the same. While this progress is not fast or easy; I am getting there. One of these days I will arrive, one of these days my stroke will feel fluid and I will not feel like I am dying after a 500 moderate.
Thursday brought in a bike ride. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE riding?? Even when my butt is uncomfortable in the saddle. I love the feeling of power in my legs. I love pushing the big gears and feeling the burn. After a really bad bike test the previous saturday (where I could not bring my watts up - we then figured my calibration was WAY off-) it was beautiful to see I was able to put out some big numbers (for me) without much effort. BEAUTIFUL.
Friday was another swim, with some speed sets built into it. I gave them my all and did not chicken out once :) YAY! Victory.
For the longest workout of the week I had a 4 hour brick on tap on saturday. 3:30 on the bike and :30 run. I woke up with a sour stomach. Let's just say I considered apropriate to have a bathroom within reach.... So I stayed inside. Got my set up all ready, Buffy on the TV, drinks, cliff shot bloks, 2 fans, air on my tires, reset computer; and finally got on my bike. While the hours did not tick quickly enough, I really enjoyed the "ride". I never went over the HR zones stipulated and I was also able to ride over 65 miles. While I know it's just "indoor" miles, last time I had a 3 hour indoor ride I did not even get to the 50 mile mark. Definitely improvement. What's best of all is that when I got off that bike and into my T run; my legs felt fresh. My HR stayed in check and I was able to run at my goal pace no problem.
There are only 3 more weeks until my first race of the season. Up next, two weeks of lower total volume race specific work; then taper and then game on! Can't wait!
To say this week was busy is an understatement. On Easter Sunday the husband was brought to tears by some pain in his neck/shoulder area. Truth be told, it scared me. He never cries when something hurts; this must have been bad. I tried massaging it for him, used my handy stick and was able to find a couple of knots. I convinced him to go see my ART guy on monday. So he stayed home and was planning on driving himself over there; except that he was barely able to move his head... not very apt for driving, wouldn't you say? So I came back home, drove him over there and then picked Megan up from school. I had a long run on tap and after considering the idea of doing the 1 mile loop in my neighborhood for the hour and 40 minutes the schedule called for I realized doing that would be setting myself up for failure; so I moved the run to the following afternoon.
The run went well, I thought I was running slow as snails and it turned out it wasn't. That was particularly satisfying due to the fact that in my attempt to try and run the less amount of downhills possible (really bad for the IT band) I managed to score a route with some very steep and long uphills. Can you say: ouch?
On wednesday I had my long swim of the week. Since I am doing a 2.4 mile open water swim in May, coach has me swimming over 3000 yds once a week. The workouts always seem daunting, as swimming is still NOT my favorite; but on the positive side I have been able to "risk" it a bit more while in the pool. Before, if I was feeling too much burn on my lungs I would back off, now I have managed to overcome the fear of not being able to breathe and have pushed myself harder than I ever thought possible. Now, I am by no means fast, BUT I have been able to find my different paces in the water. Moderate IS moderate, fast IS fast; before it was all the same. While this progress is not fast or easy; I am getting there. One of these days I will arrive, one of these days my stroke will feel fluid and I will not feel like I am dying after a 500 moderate.
Thursday brought in a bike ride. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE riding?? Even when my butt is uncomfortable in the saddle. I love the feeling of power in my legs. I love pushing the big gears and feeling the burn. After a really bad bike test the previous saturday (where I could not bring my watts up - we then figured my calibration was WAY off-) it was beautiful to see I was able to put out some big numbers (for me) without much effort. BEAUTIFUL.
Friday was another swim, with some speed sets built into it. I gave them my all and did not chicken out once :) YAY! Victory.
For the longest workout of the week I had a 4 hour brick on tap on saturday. 3:30 on the bike and :30 run. I woke up with a sour stomach. Let's just say I considered apropriate to have a bathroom within reach.... So I stayed inside. Got my set up all ready, Buffy on the TV, drinks, cliff shot bloks, 2 fans, air on my tires, reset computer; and finally got on my bike. While the hours did not tick quickly enough, I really enjoyed the "ride". I never went over the HR zones stipulated and I was also able to ride over 65 miles. While I know it's just "indoor" miles, last time I had a 3 hour indoor ride I did not even get to the 50 mile mark. Definitely improvement. What's best of all is that when I got off that bike and into my T run; my legs felt fresh. My HR stayed in check and I was able to run at my goal pace no problem.
There are only 3 more weeks until my first race of the season. Up next, two weeks of lower total volume race specific work; then taper and then game on! Can't wait!
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Weekend Mish mash
I am a little behind on updating the good old blog. I can’t believe it has been over a week already. I have been so busy with work, training and life in general that I have barely had time to relax.
Training went well this past week. I managed to get all my workouts in, even after a very bad failed attempt at my long run on Monday after work. It was the typical case of “the body complained a little louder than normal, I got scared and I quit”. I had a mini meltdown (lasted about 30 minutes) and then realized that what’s done is done and there is no point on beating myself up about it. Moved on.
The rest of the week I focused on giving the best I had for every single workout. They might not have been my best ones, but the effort was there. Work was insanely busy; as it is yet again month end/quarter end and we are plagued by deadlines. I kept my sanity the best I could, and I think it worked. Someone challenged me to post nothing but positive updates to my Facebook status; that proved to be hard! I guess my mindset is set on the more negative side of things and I decided to work diligently on changing that.
Over the weekend I had a couple of long workouts to tackle. On the schedule were a long brick for Saturday; and originally a rest day for Sunday, which I decided to use to make up for my failed long run attempt. I was super excited at both: riding outside for the first time, and redeeming myself for that run where I chickened out. I knew the run would be hard the day after the long brick and I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to quiet the voices in my head that want to make me stop when it hurts.
I set off on Saturday at about 8 am with my bike fully equipped for my 3:45 ride. I decided I would ride with my ART doctor, since he just got a bike and was looking for someone to ride with. We met up with the idea of him riding with me the first hour and then splitting so that I could hit the faster intervals I had prescribed. The first hour was easy. I rode at his pace and gave him some tips on shifting and climbing. We went the route that I always use and I was very pleased to find out that the hills that used to leave me breathing hard last summer did not represent that big of a challenge anymore. Score!
We did the one loop and then according to plan we split. I went back for take number 2 on the loop and that is when I almost got hit 3 times. Not one time, 3 FREAKING TIMES. For the first time I felt unsafe on my bike. People were driving like maniacs, passing me with less than 5 inches clearance between my elbow and their side mirrors; disregarding my signaling turns and passing me as I am attempting to merge to a different lane. I was not being impolite to drivers. I was riding practically on the white line; letting cars go before me if I got stopped at a traffic light in the front of the line. And yet, they decided to be complete jerks. My nerves got to a point where I just wanted off. My legs were fine, my stomach was fine, I was hydrated; I could have finished the time Coach wanted me to ride. I had only 39 minutes to go; and I felt at risk of being run over. I thought it over and decided to call it a day for riding. I got off the bike and went on to do my transition run as planned.
After I was done I called Coach and vented nice and long. I was severely upset. She assured me the time I had ridden was more than enough for my training and that sometimes these things happen. Moving on.
Sunday was a jam packed day. I got up early again to go out on my long run. I will just say, it was hard. My legs were pretty tired but I made a point of not worrying about how fast I was going and just running. I ended up covering a nice distance, not my best but it did the trick.
After lunch Megan had a couple of activities lined up. First an Easter egg hunt hosted by one of the kids in her classroom and then Playhouse Disney live. The Egg hunt was fun; the parents of the hosting child pulled it off very nicely considering this was a public park. Megan had a blast and was able to monkey around in the playground after the Egg hunt was over.
Off we went to Playhouse Disney live. We had pretty good seats, row 2, about 40 feet from the stage. From the moment we got in, Megan was ON. She played along with every single thing they said, she yelled as loud as she could, danced, jumped up and down. Basically, moved the whole time. Towards the end of the show, the kids are allowed to stand right in front of the stage (not on stage though) and dance along with the characters. Megan was waving at everybody, then all of the sudden one of the characters made eye contact with her and waved right back. Oh my goodness! The expression on her face. She ran back to me as fast as she could and said: “Mommy, Mommy! Darby (character from My friends Tigger and Pooh show) just waved at me; did you see it??” And that right there, her sheer happiness was worth EVERY penny we paid for those seats. It brought tears to my eyes. It was perfect. I just wanted to hug her as hard as I could.
It was a full weekend. Up next rest week. And I can't wait!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)