Trying to get back in the groove

Work has been getting in the way, but I'm trying to keep things together.

Today, I was really feeling my lack of swimming. Between being sick and the pool closing, I've swam about once a week. This morning my arms just weren't willing to work. I stopped at one point to take a little break. My coach came over and I told him, "I'm outta shape." His response? "What are you talking about? You aren't even breathing hard." :-D

Today's Workout - 100s Day

30, 30, 20s
10 x 50s kick on :55 (geez, these just don't get easier.)
10 x 100 pull on 1:40
6 x 100 IM (these weren't as bad as I thought they would be.

Yardage: 2400 - I had to get out early and get my work done.

Turkey Trot - 2008

I talked the whole family into doing the Silicon Valley Turkey Trot. The plan was for Sara and I to wog and for Mom, Dad, and Cabe to walk. Unfortunately, Mom's knee started acting up so she couldn't join us. But she was will us in spirit. We registered as a team, so Sara and I decided we needed a uniform. We thought orange would be unique. Not so much. Sara was very clever and added our team name to the back. (I would post a pic, but I can't find the cord for my camera.)

We got a bit of a late start, so here we are approaching the start.


After we walked over the starting pad, Sara and I took off on our wog, leaving the men in our dust. We both forgot to wear watches so we had base our intervals on exhaustion and landmarks. I would huff and puff to Sara, "ok . . . we . . . will stop . . . at the next . . . intersection." Meanwhile, we were dodging walkers and people with strollers. I know we started in the back and that the race is self seating but there were some really slow people in the way. And, I was surprised that people didn't leave room on the left for the faster people. *sigh* Okay, enough of that. We kept with our running/walking plan. Sara and I made it to the turn around an Mission street and meet up with Cabe and Dad around Jackson Street. There they go!


At about mile 2, my legs were getting pretty tired and I was slowing down. I think there were people walking faster than I was "running." The race route went off the road and on to the Guadalupe River Trail. This was the worst part of the race. The 5K people were supposed to stay in one of the lanes and the 10k runners in the other. It was very narrow. We couldn't run because the 10Kers were too fast and the 5K lane was jam packed with walkers and strollers. Part of the trail goes under the railroad trestle. Many of the 10K people were running off the paved trail and at least two people hit their heads on the trestle. (ouch!)

We finally made it off the trail and were ready to run, when I heard "Melissa!" from behind me. And, there was Molly and the fluffy dogs cheering us on. We stopped to say and "hi" and then in true "helper" form she told us, "keep going!" (or, something like that) My legs were still pretty tired and I was basically running one block and walking one block. The route went by the old Stockton Warehouse :-P. We were getting towards the end. I ran the block on Stockton from Julian to Santa Clara. Then, we walked until we got to Autumn. We were at the final push. Sara and I ran from Autumn to the finish line, it hurt, but we made it! Sara's time: 52:27, My time: 53:00. Not bad for my first "running" event.

No, pic of Sara and finishing. But this is when were creeping towards the start.


And, here come the men! They finished in 1:01:51.


It was a great morning and I was very proud of all of us! A great way to start a wonderful Turkey Day.

bad blogger

Where have I been? Sick. And, somewhat annoyed. First, I had a cold which got better after a week, but slowed down the running workouts. Then, I had a very uncomfortable tummy. Now that my tummy is better my cold has returned in the form of a nice deep cough.

Sigh. Well, I guess its better to be sick now in the off-season then when I've trained for and spent money on triathlons this summer.

So, that is where the bad blogger has been.

Next week is the Turkey Trot. I'm not as far along in preparing as I hoped I would be. So, I will have to settle for 1.5 minutes running and 2 minutes walking. However, I've got to remember that I wouldn't have even thought of doing it last year. So, 1.5 minutes is progress.

Thoughts on running

Now, I had these great thoughts on Monday, we will see if I can remember them all. As I began week 2 of the Couch to 5k plan (20 minutes: run for 90 seconds and walk for 120 seconds) I was trying to figure out why running isn't like swimming. Well, other than the obvious one is in the water and one is on land, one uses legs and one uses arms. When I swim I feel good: graceful, fast, and efficient. When I run I feel awkward: heavy, plodding, out of breath. Not to say that I'm not out of breath when I swim for some reason it is different. I want to feel good when I run. What does it take? Practice? Losing weight? Stronger legs? Will running ever feel good? I have to admit that the first 90 second run feels okay. I feel strong but not graceful. I see that next Friday (if I kick this cold quickly) I will be increasing to 3 minutes. 3 minutes? Me? Run for 3 minutes? I'll believe when I see it. I do admit that I would like to be run for 5 minutes at a time at the Turkey Trot on the 27th. I will feel really great if I can do that.

One of the most entertaining this about running is all of the crap I have with me. I'm sure some people simply put on a shirts, pants, shoes, and head out on a run. Not me. I wrestle the girls into an uber-sports bra, put on a heart-rate monitor, belt with a leash on it, watch, gloves, keys, ipod (if PW isn't running with me), and, oh yeah, the dog. That is a lot to remember at 5:50am.

Hopefully, I will report more on running on Monday. I'm trying to sleep out this cold. It worked once a few years ago, worth a try.

Blogger Behind

Clearly I need to be a little more consistent in my blogging. Why would anyone be interested if I don't update this regularly? Why is anyone interested anyway?

Saturday's Workout:
30, 30, 20s
6 x 75 kick, IM order
8 x 100 pull, we did two on 1:40 and quickly switched to 1:45
10 x 50 kick, choice
Stroke work. I voluntarily worked on butterfly. Coach says it looks pretty good, but that I need to snap my head down sooner so I can get my hips up to finish the stroke. Several 50s of fly. Ugh.

Halloween . . . . Well, no trick-er-treater's left me with a lot of candy. I wasn't very successful in getting it out of the house, so I need to be prepared to live with the consequences at weigh-in on Wednesday.

Rest Day
I took the idea of rest to heart. Today we "fell back" so I got an extra hour of sleep and still didn't get out of bed until 9am. Jemma got a very short walk. I spent most of the day listening to Season 2 of Veronica Mars while I created and nice stretching and strengthening plan and messed around on the internet. I had a headache that wouldn't go away so I took a 2 hour nap. Jemma is not all that happy with me but too bad. I think I needed it.

C25K
On Friday PW and I restarted C25K. For the first time I actually felt like I was ready to move onto the next level. We will see what PW is up for tomorrow morning. Oh! And, I ran in the rain. When I left the house it was raining a little harder than I thought and I was quite grumpy on my warm-up walk to meet PW. However, once I started running the rain didn't bother me. So, now I have to say that I don't like to walk in the rain, but running is okay.

See, this is why I need to blog more often. Long, rambling posts.

Saturday at 6am?

Once again I hauled my butt out of my nice warm bed at 5:35 am. (The first alarm goes off at 5:14 but I hit the snooze every 7 minutes until its really time to get up.) Why do I do this? Especially on a Saturday? Shouldn't I be trying to sleep in while Jemma tries to wake me up? No. Instead I'm up at dark o'clock in the morning and going to a pool for some torture. I guess I like it. I like the people I swim with and I like the way it makes me feel.

Workout:
30, 30, 20's (I was not feeling these. My arms were like dead weights.)
10 x 50 on :50, oh whoops, :55 (I was leading and tried doing 2 of these on :50 and quickly changed to :55)
8 x 125 - 100 fast, 25 sprint (boy that sounds fun) The goal was to do the 100 in 1:30 and the 25 in :20, and then rest. We ended up doing them on 2:10 with a master's discount at halfway.
8 x 100 kick IM on 1:00 (I need to work on my kicking, I'm so slow.)
6 x 100 pull on 1:45 (?)
Then we did a few drills.

During the 50s I started thinking, I miss open water swims. *shakes head* What who thought that. Yep, that's right, Miss I Will Never Do An Open Water Swim misses the open water. I'm looking forward to those swims next year. :-)

But 6am workout was not enough. At 10am I picked up Kris for a hike. My stamina is so much better! We headed up a switch-back trail, not too steep but still, and I trucked right up that trail. In the past I would have needed a break. Later, my energy dwindled and we had to take a few breaks when we had to make our way of a really, truly steep part of the trail.

I wouldn't necessarily recommend 2 workouts before 1pm, but I survived.

Finally, an explanation

Ah ha!!! Today I asked my swim coach, "what is up with the hard workouts?" Apparently, we have improved and it's time to work harder. sigh.

Tuesday Workout
30, 30, 20s
8 x 100 drill, choice
16 x 50s pull on the :50, descending
8 x 200 150 free, 50 IM order

3500 yards. Woot!

Tomorrow mornings is Couch to 5K, week 1, day 3. Jemma and I will be working on not getting tangled.

Weekend Update

Saturday Swim:
First of all, getting up at 6am on a Saturday is insane. Why do I do it? I wish I knew. I think its the whole getting the most bang for your buck thing. Anyway, I think our swim coach is reading a new book, "How to Torture Your Masters Group." Also, he's messing with our heads, no 30, 30, 20s.
10 x 50 on :55
8 x 75 on some interval; IM rotation
10 x 50 streamline kick on :60
8 x 200 drill on some interval (WTF?!)

1. side to side
2. one arm: 100 left, 100 right
3. shark kick
4. rowdy
5. catch-up
6. choice: breathing - 3, 5, 7, 9, 9, 7, 5, 3
7. zipper
8. choice: breathing - 3, 5, 7, 9, 9, 7, 5, 3

I have never, ever done a drill set like that. I don't even remember doing drills for more than 100 yards. What I don't understand is why drills are so tiring? It's not think we were swimming fast. But we were doing a lot of rotating.

Sunday Couch to 5K:
It was Week 1, Day 2 of my attempt at running. So far, so good. I didn't feel like dying and my knee didn't start to hurt until the last 1 minute of running. 20 minutes of icing afterwards and my knee feels pretty good.

Getting ready to run is pretty hilarious. Clothes: dark blue pants, yellow shirt, teal & black jacket, white & red shoes. All I needed was some pink and purple. Stuff: heart rate monitor & ipod. Dog stuff: belt to attach leash to me, clean-up bags, & dog. Oh, and keys. Could I carry more stuff?

Running with a spaz-dog: Jemma has issues with squirrels. I try to run just a little before sunrise because the squirrels generally don't scurry around until the sun is up. Today a few were up a little early. I did my 5 minute warm-up and then stopped to stretch. Unfortunately, I stopped under the squirrel telephone line freeway. Jemma started jumping and whining and barking. I'm sure the neighbors loved that at 7:15am on a Sunday. I skipped the calf stretches and got moving. Jemma doesn't quite appreciate running, it doesn't allow her to do much smelling, marking, and squirrel hunting. This is something we need to work on because she frequently ends up tangled in her leash. And, to make things even more fun, this morning she managed to go #2 twice. Running while hold a stinky bag is not all that fun. Luckily, I found two house who keep their trash cans in the driveway. :-)

Aren't you glad you read this today? Tomorrow? REST DAY!

Arms, what arms?

Thursdays workout
12 x 25 on :30, :30, :20
6 x 75 kick IM order
10 x 50 on :55
12 x 100 pull on 1:45
Then it kinda of fell apart
We were supposed to do 6 X 50s in IM blocks. We did 3 of each stroke and then moved on.
3 x 50 off the blocks (totally hard to pull myself out of the deep end of the pool after all that pulling.)

I don't know what my coach is thinking lately, but these workouts have been hard. Those 100 pulls were hard! I wanted to take a "masters discount" at #6, my arms were hurting. But I decided, no, you get faster and stronger by pushing. So, I pushed through all 12 and made them all on the 1:45 interval!

I've lost my focus a little in the healthy eating area. I'm up .8 lbs in the last 3 weeks. Not a really big deal, but time to to get back in the game. Goals for this week:

1. Track my points. All of them.
2. Plan, prepare and eat meals.
3. Bring healthy snacks (veggies, fruit, popcorn, etc.) to work for impending stress eating.

I know I can do this. I'll report good news next week!

What is with all of the IMs?

Tuesday Morning Workout:
12 x 25 on the :30, :30, :20
10 x 100 pull on the 1:45
12 x 25 kick on the :30, :30, :20 (ha, ha)
10 x 100 IM (I have not idea what the interval was.)
12 x 25 block IM on the :30, :30, :20 (really, ha, ha)
10 x 50 free on :50
10 x 50 non-free

(yes, I'm using this blog to keep track of my workouts. I can never remember my intervals and can't tell if I'm improving.)

I was pissed about the IMs but I did them. And, I did very little one arm butterfly. I did notice on the 30-30-20s that I really flatten out when I sprint. So, I will be concentrating on my rotation.

Tonight is the last workout for Team Mermaid. *sniff* We are going to get a refresher course on the core workout and a discussion about how to approach the "off-season". After that I will try to come up with a workout plan. Right now my schedule is pretty loose. Walk? Run? Abs? Yes? No? Maybe?

A blog? I started a blog?

Well, now what do I write? I'll start with the title. Swimming. I've always loved the water. Anytime I saw a pool, river, lake, or beach, I wanted to go swimming. (However, I quickly discovered that most beaches in northern California and rivers and lakes in the Sierras are freezing!) Luckily Mom and Dad signed me up for swimming lessons in the summer. After my swim teacher convinced me that, no, I couldn't swim with my head out of the water, I turned out to be a pretty good swimmer. I don't remember when I started with the swim team but I think I started going to meets when I was 9. Since then I have loved swimming. I feel the best, graceful, weightless, fast, strong, when I'm swimming. So, if you were to ask me if I would rather do almost anything or swimming, I would probably pick swimming.

So. Swimming will probably come up frequently in this blog. Other topics will be eating healthy, losing weight, training for open water swims & triathlons, random history geekyness, and my dog Jemma.