Activity: Easy Bike
Distance: 11 miles
Time: ~1 hour

I planned to do a swim this afternoon, but the weather was just too beautiful to be spent swimming laps in the White Building. Since I still wanted a light workout, I convinced Jon to go biking with me. It's definitely more challenging to bike now that everyone is back in town, but it's great practice with my clip-in. I almost took out a ran into a minivan at the intersection of Allen and College...

mood: this summer has had so may cool, clear days!
health: gearing up for the weekend workouts!

Activity: 5 miles (1.5 mi wu, two 1600m @ 7:57 w/ 800m rest, 1 mi cd)
Distance: 5 miles
Time: 48:51
Average: 9:18
Splits: 9:56 + 4:57, 1600 @ 7:36, 800 @ 5:12, 1600 @ 8:09, 10:36

I guess that I didn't enter this into coolrunning after my run - my mind was oriented on dinner! Anyway, 1600m is just about 1 mile.. I ran the first 1600 too fast and the 2nd a little too slow. I cannot recall ever running a mile in 7:36, tho I also don't think that I have ever tried to. I'm learning that I don't push myself enough as far as speed training: unless the workout calls for speed work, I'm usually content to run at comfortable jog, even for short runs. Speed work is good for me!

I think that I have figured out the deal with my shin pain. I tend to get muscle cramps there on my afternoon runs, and I think that it's related to hydration. I'm usually pretty hydrated in the morning, but I sometimes get lax about drinking water after lunch. probably because I pee alll day.

mood: honestly, i don't remember. I'm sure that i was in a good mood if I can't remember.
health: shin started to hurt a little bit on the 2nd 1600. I really think that I can fix this if I'm more careful about hydration and continue to do shin exercises.

Activity: Easy Run @ 10:01
Distance: 5 miles
Time: 48:51
Average: 9:46
Splits: 10:00, 9:35, 9:43, 19:31/2
Weather: 64/64 foggy

It's definitely a little bit hard to make myself run a 10 minute pace. These easy runs are supposed to give my body time to recover from the long run, but a 12 mile isn't really that long. I'm sure that when I do my 18 and 20 mile runs it will be much easier to run slowly.

There's a lot more activity on Central Penn Racing's listserv since everyone moved back into town. I am thinking about doing the No Rider Left Behind group bike ride on Sunday... then I'll do my long run (14 mi) on Monday. Since Monday is technically a holiday, I won't feel too badly about getting into work a little late. The weather this weekend is going to be beautiful, perfect for the first PSU game of the season! And for a long bike and a long run, of course :)

Also, I'm going to attend the first PSU tri club meeting of the semester next week. The tri club seems to be pretty active, and they have a pro triathlete coach. It seems like I should take advantage of this opportunity! As long as I don't feel too ancient, I'll join the club.

mood: who's excited for football?!
health: like i said, i don't feel like i need a recovery run right now, but i'll be loving it in a few weeks. it's good to get a workout routine going: reminds me of how frank had us do basics for our first gym workout every week.

Activity: Recovery Swim
Distance: 1800 yds
Time: ~35 minutes

The undergrads are back. Luckily, they're all partying and not going to the gym en masse. yet. There were actually a few people that came to swim but were nervous about sharing lanes, so they waited for a lane to free up.

The Workout:
200 w/u (2 x 50 free, 50 back)
Drills: 200 (4 x 25 single arm 25 DPS)
Main Set (repeat 2 times): 100 pull buoy, 100 SS, 100 pull buoy, 100 SS, 100back
Sprint Set: 4 x 50 on :45 (15s rest)
200 c/d

I love these recovery swim days.

mood: pleasant swim.
health: i don't actually feel like i need a recovery day from yesterday's run.

Activity: Long Run
Distance: 12.18 miles
Time: 1:58:35
Average: 9:44
Weather: i'm gonna be a dork.
27 10:54 E 12 10.00 Fair CLR 81 65
27 09:54 E 10 10.00 Fair CLR 77 64
27 08:54 E 8 10.00 FEW070 72 62
27 07:54 NE 7 10.00 Fair CLR 66 60

Yup, I'm here in Kentucky! Brandy's IM was yesterday, and she did awesome!

My flight back to State College isn't until tonight, so I did my long run here in Lexington while Lindsay was at work. I had a route planned out that was 2 loops around campus, but I definitely missed the right turn off of Limestone. I ended up downtown and had to work my way back to the planned route. By that time, it was easier to loop around the neighborhood to get to 12 miles. It was more fun to explore anyway! I ran down Fontaine, as Lindsay suggested, then did an out and back on Lakeshore Drive before heading back toward campus.

I'm definitely littering cyberspace with all of these routes that I will most definitely never do again. It's an obsession tho... I really love the new mapmyrun.com 'follow roads' feature.

Since I deviated from the planned route, I did a 2 hr run. This ensured that I would run about 12 miles, presuming that I ran a 10 min mile pace. Lexington is relatively flat which probably allowed me to run a bit faster.

I realized at mile 1 that I had forgotten my GU. oops! When I got back to the house, I immediately ate a banana. Within an hour, I also ate 1 6" sub from Subway and bag of Chips. My blood sugar levels must not have recovered tho because my mind needed a nap. In the future, I will not forget my GU!

mood: mini vacay.
health: ridic that 12 miles doesn't seem like a long run.

Activity: Biking
Distance: about 10 miles?
Time: ~ 45 minutes

I did a short bike workout this morning... light cadence and easy pace. I'd like to maintain and improve my comfort on the bike while I'm training for this marathon. Every time that I ride, I am becoming more accustomed to biking, improving clipping in and out, and learning how to react if something unexpected happens. just like driving! I still need to take my bike into The Bike Shop to get the gears tightened (ha I'm still in the lowest front gear).

mood: i heart my bike?? almost there...
health: the dewpoint was ridic this morning. ugh.

Activity: Speedwork Run (1 mi w/u, 3 mi @ 8:27 pace, 1 mi c/d)
Distance: 4.83 miles
Time: 43:21
Average: 8:58
Splits: 9:53, 8:24, 8:12, 8:27, 8:31/0.83
Weather: 63/63 foggy

It's been awhile since I've worked on increasing my speed. Since I started running again, I guess that I've been concentrating on miles. This was a nice change of pace, literally. I don't really know what 8:30 pace is... all I know is that it is faster than my comfortable 9:15 pace, so I did mile 3 too fast. Once I start going at a pace, it's almost hard to slow down: I felt like I was jogging on mile 4!

mood: good to do some speedwork.
health: shin muscles was getting a little bit sore in the speed part...felt better after i slowed down.

Activity: Swim
Distance: 2050 yds
Time: ~45 minutes

It really is such a lame cop-out, not that I've never used it... so my swim got cut short by the 'lifeguard.' I actually was kinda pissed. At 2:40, he yelled 10 minutes until closing, so I yelled 'what?! we have 20 more minutes?' Or something like that. I guess that this was a bad idea because I only got 5 more minutes of swimming. Really, I'm just peeved because I planned my workout to be a 1 hr/about 2700/2800 swim. ugh. And I didn't get in any sprints or butterfly! BIG POOPIES!

My abbreviated workout:
400 w/u
200 drills
Ladder: 100 high-end tempo, 200 low-end tempo, 300 SS, 400 IE/EE, 300 SS, 100 high-end tempo ... yeah the 200 got cut :(
50 cd. unacceptable.

The lanes were all full today...it's getting closer to the semester. I must comment on this: lane 1 was Overkicker, lane 2 was super TriGirl, lane 3 was The Slapper, and lane 4 was a beginner. I won't label her. It was hard to choose which lane to join. I ended up in lane 1, despite the dreaded wall. Slapper and Trigirl are too intimidating. Jon waited a bit then joined lane 4 after the moved over.

In the fall, I may need to go to the Nat for swim workouts... the lane's are uncomfortable for sharing at the white bdlg. maybe i will finally join masters for a few days a week?

I'm really excited for Brandy's IM! It will be awesome to see Lindz and to be there for Brandy. and to see what IM is all about. it's becoming more palatable day by day.

mood: good day at work. i don't like sharing lanes.
health: sooo ready for tomorrow's tempo run!

Activity: Easy Run (10:03 suggested pace)
Distance: 10K=6.2 miles
Time: 58:01
Average: 9:20
Splits: 9:43, 9:18, 9:16, 9:38, 20:04/2.2=9:07

Well, I did a very poor job of running at the intended pace. I really tried to! AND I really thought that my mile 3 split would be much closer to 10 minutes. oops! It's definitely hard to run at a 10 minute pace when I know that I only have 6 miles to run. Once I had my pace set, the best thing was to do was to concentrate on running with good form and at an easy pace.

That lasted until the sky opened up at mile 4. Looking at the radar before my run, I knew that I would probably get wet. I opted to go for the run anyway since it's good to practice running in all weather conditions. It could rain all day on the the day of the race. Hell, it could snow in Philly at the end of November. not likely. but not impossible.

The rain began very lightly at about mile 2. This was expected. The torrent that ensued was not. I kept convincing myself that the rain was starting to lighten up. Really, it felt great. I love running in the rain. In the future, I will not bring my iPod when I'm expecting it to rain. I think that it survived this particular soaking tho :-D

mood: runnin' in the rain :-D
health: i'm with brandy. i'd much prefer rain on race day than 90 degrees.

Activity: Recovery Swim
Distance: 1900 yds
Time: ~45 minutes

I finally was able to do a swim! go me! ...and I nearly made it there with everything... yeah, due to the deluge outside, I wore sneakers today and forgot to pack flip-flops. Luckily, since it's inbetween semesters and no one's around, the locker room was reasonably clean.

The Workout:
400 w/u
Drills: 300 alternate 50 free, 50 back, and 50 breast
Main Set: 4 x (100 pull buoy, 100 SS, 100 max DPS, 100 SS)
Sprint Set: 4 x 50 free on :45 (15 s rest)
200 c/d

I tried a new breast stroke drill which involved normal breast stroke arms coupled with 2 fly kicks. I'd like to get back into doin' some butterfly, but that would be best to do on mid-week nonrecovery swims.

I came up with a plan for my RTB/marathon training. There are only 3 run days per week due to my current weekly mileage of only about 20-25/week and the fact that the marathon is just 13 weeks away, so I'm going to XT with swimming and biking. Here's what I've got set-up:
M: Recovery Swim
T: SS Run
W: Volume/Sprint Set Swim OR Tempo Bike
Th: Tempo/Speedwork Run
F: Bike
Sa: OFF!
Su: Long Run

Obviously, the runs are the most important workouts. I'll have to listen to my body and take XT days off as necessary. I'd like to keep up some triathlon-like training tho since I wanna do a Half Iron in the spring.




Speaking of triathlons and swimming, I found this pic online among the official race pictures. At first, I thought that there wasn't a watermark. There is, but it's not too noticeable. You couldn't right click to copy the image source, so Jacob suggested that I do a print screen. I'm kinda excited that I was able to cheat the system! Plus, I look like I'm having fun :)




mood: finally got to swim!
health: day 1 of 13 week training program. feelin' good so far ha!

Activity: Long Run
Distance: 10 miles
Time: 1:39:33
Average: 9:57
Splits: 10:07, 9:40, 10:10w, 9:53, 10:07w, 39:26/4
Weather: 61/55 cloudy.

Jon and I did this run together. He doesn't really like to run this slow, but this is the pace that you need to train for the long runs. It's all about mileage, not speed. Really, as we discussed, a 10 minute mile is not that slow. It's definitely a jog, but you can't really walk that fast. Actually, I think that Jon is supposed to be running about 9:45 pace. My traing program actually starts tomorrow, but my long run pace for next Sunday is 10:03.

It's always nice to have a running partner :) Jon and I also did about 5 miles or so of hiking yesterday in Black Moshannon. The weather was gorgeous: 71 and sunny. I really like Black Moshannon SP - I had no idea that it was a bog! It's not much farther away from State College than Whipple Dam, and it's got a really nice set-up for picnics. The swimming area is not as nice tho.

mood: weather's kinda crappy, but yesterday was beautiful.
health: nice to do some speedwork!

Activity: Tempo Run
Distance: 4.62 miles
Time: 43:05
Average: 9:19

Soooo swimming clearly was not meant to happen this week. I forgot my ID, and they evidently don't have any type of computer set-up at the White Building where you can just give them your ID#. I was kinda disappointed.

It probably wasn't the best idea to do this much running this week. I really wanted to do a workout though, and I gave myself this week off from the bike. For this run, I did a 10 minute w/u, 5 x (2 min tempo + 2 min recovery), c/d for the last 13 min or so. It was nice to push myself a little. I haven't done any speedwork for the run recently.

mood: boo white building.
health: nice to do some speedwork!

Activity: Trail Running
Distance: ~4 miles
Time: 40:00

I forgot my goggles, so I didn't go for a swim today...again. Actually, it was probably better this way. Since the university is on a break, the White Bldg pool is only open 11-3. By the time that I would have gotten in the pool, I probably would have only had 20 minutes to swim.

Anyway, I did some trail running today over in Thompson Woods/Walnut Springs Park. There's actually a pretty challenging hill that I found with lots of tree roots. I kept my pace pretty slow since my legs are still a little tired from the race last weekend.

mood: i wanted to swim.
health: legs still a litte tired.

Activity: Recovery run
Distance: 5.32 miles
Time: 53:18
Average: 10:01
Weather: 59/57 cloudy

I wanted to get back into working out today, either with a swim or run. Since I woke up at 5:45, I decided to do a run. I kept it really light...just wanted to get some miles in. My stomach was hurting from eating too much cheese last night at Jerry's BBQ. It was good though.

mood: good to be back to working out, bad to have an upset tummy
health: joints feel great! just felt a little sicky.

I recently found this blog online. It's such a wonderful success story about how diet and exercise can improve your health and happiness. Anyway, as I was browsing through the posts, I came upon a link to Runner's World's personalized training program tool. This of course got me to thinking about doing another marathon. I've been toying with doing another one this fall, but I'm hesitant to commit to one considering my injury last year. Originally, I was thinking of doing the MDI marathon and staying with Lauren since it's a small race, meaning that I could register online through October 12. I don't want to sign-up for a marathon and not be able to run it due to injury.

That said, I'm seriously considering the Philadelphia Marathon on November 18. I won't be prepared for a marathon in mid-October ...that and I'd rather go up and visit Lauren to vacay, not to run. Philly is 13 weeks away, which will leave plenty of time to work up to 20 miles. Acutally, the training program that I printed out has me running 20 miles three times! Registration goes up from $90 to $105 on September 3, so I plan to make the decision before that.

The Philly marathon is touted as "flat and furiously fast." How can you resist that? Since I will be training for Reach the Beach for the next few weeks and amping up the mileage, I figure that I will begin the marathon training schedule and see how I feel.

Activity: Olympic Distance Triathlon
Distance: 1600 yds swim - 24.6 mile bike - 10K run
Final Chip Time: 3:15:33
Swim: 28:40 (31:51/mile)
T1: 3:52
Bike: 1:4419 (14.1 mph)
T2: 1:22
Run: 57:21 (9:15/mile)
Weather: 61/59-81/63 gorgeous

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FRIDAY:

I left for Quakertown, PA a little after 4PM and got in around 7:30. Brandy ran into a lot of traffic and bad weather and didn't get in until after 8PM. By that time, we were both starved and could only think of food. Of course this was a fiasco. There were a couple of restaurants that sounded appealing. Captain Bob's got vetoed from the road. Then we passed The Seafood Factory which sounded pretty good. Really, anything sounded good because I was starved! Well, they were out of seafood. and the vegetable. How is it possible for a restaurant in Quakertown, PA, which is surrounded by farms, to be out of the vegetable? We ended up dining across the street from our hotel at this little Italian restaurant. It was really yummy. Mussels marinara mmmm. carb loading: check.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SATURDAY:

I did my best to sleep in 'til 8AM since I knew that I would get very little sleep the day before the race. I let Brandy sleep in and went into the breakfast area to load up on caffeine. After Brandy woke up, we ate breakfast at the hotel. The food was actually awesome: I had a delightful Belgian waffle with lots of maple syrup. I also stole a bagel, yogurt, and apple for later.


<-- the lake where we swam, currently with lots of pretty sailboats!


Then we went over to Nockamixon SP to do a short bike ride on the course. Brandy stopped at the High Rode Cycles kiosk to use their pump, and we talked to the guys there for a bit. They also fixed my bike. Evidently, it was obvious that I've fallen on it. He asked when I fell. My reply: multiple times! ha. We also asked about swimming since there didn't appear to be any swimming/beach areas at the lake. I thought that this was rather odd. Pennsylvanians are known for their love of swimming in dirty man-made lakes. I guess that bacteria levels are too high, hence no swimming area. That meant that we wouldn't get a chance to get in the water. or lay out and relax on imported sand which made me even more sad.

the 'swim in': unloadin' the buoys -->

At the beginning of the course, there was a pretty steep incline for 0.6 miles to get out to the main road. We did that then rode up and back on PA-563 which had some rolling hills. I felt pretty good about the bike and didn't have any problem getting up that first hill. awesome.

After the short jaunt on the bike, we picked up our race packets (#89!!). The shirts were really nice, non-cotton. and there was the awesome steelman logo on it. There wasn't much else to do at the park, so we headed back into town to get some lunch. We decided on a whim to go to the Red Lion Inn - it looked cute. Boy am I glad that we did. The food was delicious! I got a grilled vegetable sandwich on ciabatta. It really hit the spot! The we went back to the hotel to relax/digest for a bit before doin' a 15 minute run to get the juices flowin'. It was kinda hot outside, but it felt fabulous to do some running! While Brandy was in the shower, Lauren called! yay!

It was still kinda early when we were all cleaned up. We decided to head south to the Perkasie/Sellersville area. Armed with our yellowbook, we found a nice restaurant, The Perk, on W Walnut St, not to be confused with E Walnut St which led to 'historic Perkaie.' ha. The menu had so many delicious options, but I settled on Prime Rib Aujus. Yeah, that doesn't sound like the standard pre-race meal, but it's good to get in some protein. I just cut around the fat. I also got a tasty Eggplant Caponata on the side. and some local summer ale. I did a good job of not eating too much (I had like 1/4 of the steak). I've found that's my #1 mistake for a pre-race meal. We got back to the hotel pretty early. I was a little bit nervous, so I read my book to keep my mind distracted. We were in bed by about 10PM, and I think that I actually was able to fall asleep by 1130 or so. quite good for me!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

RACE DAY:

We had our alarms set for 5AM, but I was wide awake by 4 with my mind spinning in anticipation. We got some coffee and ate our pre-race oatmeal and were out the door at 5:45. It was about a 15-20 min drive to the race, but we hit some traffic at the Marina entrance. It was probably around 6:10 or so by the time that we parked our respective cars. We headed over to the transition area, and I set everything up. I had no idea what I was doing, so I modeled my transition area after Brandy's. well kinda.

Bathroom time. Of course there was a 10 minute line, but there was still plenty of time. We even had time to get in the water for a few minutes. It was so warm! According to the race people, it was 80.5F, so wetsuits were not allowed. I almost forgot to take off my running shorts and earrings, so I ran back to put them at my transition area. When I got back to the start, Brandy's parents were there. They did the national anthem (it really reminded me of a gymnastics meet), and the first wave got in the water.


Chapter 1: THE SWIM

The first wave started at 7AM (or maybe 2 or 3 minutes late). Brandy and I were in wave 2, the yellow caps, with M/F 29 & under, which went off 5 minutes later. There actually weren't that many people. I think that I was expecting more groping at the beginning. Swimming in the open water was definitely a different experience. I don't know if it was because I was nervous or because of all the people around me stirring up the water, but I had to breathe every other stroke to get in enough O2. The buoys were on our left, so I breathed on my left the whole time, periodically looking ahead to make sure that I was going somewhat straight. Probably because I was breathing all on my left side, I had a little bit of a right bias and ended up swimming more to the outside of the group. In retrospect, it would have been a good idea to alternate between breathing on my left and right sides.

The turnaround must have been at less than halfway. false hope! Actually, I really enjoyed the swim. It was very strange tho. I had no idea how much time had elapsed and therefore had no idea how far I had left to go. I think that I did a good job of pacing though. I passed a bunch of people and even passed some of the stragglers from the first wave. There were a mix of yellow and red caps when I got out of the water. I was very pleased with my swim time! I pulled off my swim cap and ran to my transition area to get ready for the bike. I hate to say it, but I felt really awesome that I beat Brandy on the swim. I knew that was the only portion of the race that I had any chance of being ahead of her!

oh my. I was a complete mess on this tranition. I should have practiced a swim-bike transition, I guess. I didn't know what to do first and was fumbling with everything. Then I noticed the visor for my helmet on the ground. Really, I'm glad that I had to take off my helmet. The straps were all twisted up, and it was sitting funny on my head. I guess that my transition time wasn't really that bad, but it felt like forever to me. Everyone that I got out of the water with was long gone. I finally got my shit together and ran out to the bike out area and mounted my bike. whew!


Chapter 2: THE BIKE

I started up the killer hill, downshifting to the lowest back gear pretty quickly. The climb seemed so much more difficult than it had been the day before. I assumed that it was because I was tired from the swim.

I was not making it up that entire hill. The grass on the right was starting to look like a pretty appealing place for me to fall for a break. I was able to make it up about 3/4 of the way and clip out at a driveway. oh man, I was out of breath! Brandy passed me at this point and yelled, "Poopies, are you okay?" I replied with something like, "That (gasp) was (gasp) a lot (gasp) harder (than) I thought (gasp, gasp) it would be." I probably stopped for about a minute. Then, I was able to finish off the hill. The rest of it wasn't as steep. I even passed a few people, although they hadn't taken a break.

I got out to the main road and made a right to head down the slight downhill incline. I was really feeling whipped and could barely push my speed up to 18 mph. I decided that I should just slow down to a pace that felt comfortable so that I didn't die at the end of the ride. Convinced that I was just really tired from swimming, I pedaled my way to the east bridge turnaround. Getting up the hill after the turnaround was kinda killer. I didn't know exactly why I was so tired and was still attributing it to the swim. Honestly, at this point, I wasn't feeling very confident about the bike. I just kept pedaling... my legs were def starting to burn though! I finally got to the top and remember thinking: 5 miles down, 20 more miles of 'rolling' hills to go!

This portion was sorta flat; on one of the slight downhills, I noticed a swishing sound. My front brake was rubbing for the first 8 miles! I don't know if the brake lever was stuck, but I hit the brake a little, and it stopped rubbing. The difference was incredible! I felt so much better, though my legs were pretty tired from having to work against friction at the beginning. I got a little bit nervous that it might start rubbing again, and I somehow inadvertently downshifted the front gear. Soooo when I was biking around State College, I never shifted that gear... and now that it was in the lowest gear, I couldn't shift it back up to the middle gear. ugh. At least it didn't get stuck in the highest gear. That would have been a nightmare on the uphills!

Since I was stuck in the lowest gear, I wasn't able to pedal downhill. To make the most of it, I got as low as possible on my bike and coasted down the hills. Unfortunately, I then was not able to pedal as I began to ascend the next hill until I was going about 21 mph. oh well. I finished the first loop and was feeling alright at this point.

There's not much else to note for the rest of ride. My butt got pretty sore, but I made it through. I even nearly finished my whole bottle of gatorade! Near the end, Susan from kayaking blew past me on a hill. I had no idea that she was doing this triathlon. As she went by, I thought, I know her! I think that it gave me a little pick-me-up :)

I was somewhat afraid that the ride was going to take me two hours due to my technical difficulties. I finished the 2nd loop around 1:40 though and coasted down the big hill back to the transition area. My time certainly left a lot of room for improvement.

I was very excited that I was finished with the bike! I knew that it would be the most difficult part, but I certainly made it more challenging that it should have been. In the excitement of only having a 10K run left, I forgot to change from my bike shorts to my running shorts. whatev.


Chapter 3: THE RUN

I was so happy to be running! I probably had a grin on my face the whole time. The running route was 2 there and back loops on a running/bike path through the woods. very pretty. So many people passed me on the bike, but I was able to make up some time on the run. I tried to keep a comfortable pace that I could maintain for the whole 10K. There weren't any mile markers for me to gauge what that pace was though. I suspected that I was running a little slower than I did for training runs, but I wanted to make sure to keep a comfortable pace. I was somewhat surprised to find out that I was running exactly 9:15 pace, which is what I ran while training. I guess that I shouldn't have been surprised by this. It shows that I trained well and had plenty of energy left for the run!


<-- post-race with coach brandy.


The run was done in no time. Near the end, Brandy came back to join me. She was pushing me just a little. I knew that I shouldn't speed up. I learned my lesson from the half marathon: when I get excited at the end of a race and speed up, I throw up. and that's no fun. It was so wonderful to cross the finish line! I could even walk and talk and everything. nothing like after the marathon.

Thanks to Brandy for helping me with training! It was so wonderful to experience my first triathlon with my best friend. And, of course, thanks to my parents and Jon who are always there for me!

yay! I'm a triathlete!

...what's next?!


mood: woohoo! i'm a triathlete!
health: i love that i won't be that sore tomorrow. well, my butt will be sore.

Activity: 40 minute jog
Distance: 4.25 miles
Time: 40:00
Average: 9:24
Weather: 72/72 wow, it's gross out.

I guess that I contracted some sorta virus and was under the weather for the last couple of days. I really thought that it might be strep from the way it came on and since my only symptoms were a sore throat and fatigue. Throughout the day Monday, my throat continued to get worse; therefore, I didn't get in a recovery swim. I woke up on Tuesday and could barely swallow, so I made a doctor's appointment for that afternoon. By the time I got to the doctor though, I was already starting to feel better. I'm so thankful that it wasn't whatever Petters had because it would suck to be congested this weekend!

I felt much better this morning and decided to do a jog before Jon and I headed to Pittsburgh for Warped Tour (ha I know. thought alkaline trio was playing, but they backed out. at least bad religion will be there!). I almost felt energetic on this run! I was a bit worried about being practically inactive this week; I've been preparing for weeks now though and a few days off will not significantly affect my performance level.

mood: feelin' so much better!
health: should be back to 100% in a day tops.

Activity: Long run
Distance: 10 miles
Time: 1:36:28
Splits: 9:39, 9:35, 9:39, 9:30, 9:32, 9:39, 19:21/2, 9;49, 9:40
Weather: 72/57 sunny

This wasn't the easiest run that I've done. I was aiming to stay at 9:30-10 min pace since this run was supposed to be a jog to get the miles in. I'm glad that's all that was scheduled because I'm tired!

mood: the dewpoint's less than 60!
health: sore legs. i'm tired.

Activity: Long bike
Distance: 30 miles
Time: ~2 hours
Avg Pace: 14.9 mph
Max: 32.7 hill on Tadpole!
Weather: 70/68 foggy-sunny

I beat my last 30 mile bike ride time by 10 minutes!

The workout was 10 mile w/u, 10 mile goal race pace, 10 mile c/d. I think that I was able to maintain about a 16 mph (or maybe faster!) pace for the middle part of the ride. My avg pace after 20 miles was 15.9 mph, and that included my warm-up.

It's gotten much easier to keep up a cadence between 80-90.

mood: this actually seemed like a mid-length ride...
health: biking's gotten easier/more comfortable

Activity: 6 mile run: 1 m w/u, 4 mi race pace, 1 mi c/d
Distance: this actually ended up bein' 6.2 miles
Time: 57:28
Average: 9:15
Splits: 9:38, 8:59, i messed up the rest.
Weather: 68/66 sunny and sticky.

So I guess that my goal race pace is somewhere between 9-9:15 pace. That's what I was aiming for on this run, but I totally messed up my splits. I kept forgetting to mark them with my watch. I guess that I was in my own little world and not concentrating on the workout.

mood: it's hot. i wish that i left the A/C on last night.
health: my legs are tired fron yesterday's bike.

Activity: Bike 30 min w/u, 45 min hard, 15 min c/d
Distance: 21 miles + 2.5 miles around town to get to 1:30
Avg Pace: 15.5 mph
Max: 24.2 mph
Weather: 68/66 humid!

Brandy wanted me to get my HR on the 45 min hard part... Jon's out of town tho, so I couldn't borrow his HRM.

mood: it's hard to make myself bike hard for 45 min.
health: my legs are gonna be sore!

Activity: VO2 Max Swim
Distance: 2000 yds
Time: 35-40 mins

WORKOUT:
Warm-up: 400 yds free/back
Drill: 4 X 50 drills
Sprint Set (no breaks!):
50 yd @ high end sprint
50 yd EZ
100 yd high end sprint
50 EZ
150 @ tempo
50 yd EZ
200 yd @ SS
50 yd EZ
Distance set:
500 yds consecutive
Cool Down: 200

It was evidently pool play time when I arrived...there were three kids in the wide right lane playing on noodles and a group of 6-8 college-agers doin' some kind of, from what I could tell, ropes course-like activity in the left lane. Between the two, I was dodging people entering my lane every 5 minutes or so (not exaggerating). It was kinda irritating. I was on the verge of saying something to the kid's moms about it. I mean - I had already hit the girl twice, and I didn't want to elbow and hurt one of them. or maybe i did? ha i sound like caren :)

It calmed down considerably by the time that I started my VO2 max set. The 100 yd high end sprint was def a challenge. I tried my best to keep up the pace of my 50 yd sprint and was def dead on my EZ 50. Oh, on my EZ 50s (even on the last two when I wasn't that tired), I breathed every other stroke for 3 strokes then did 3 strokes and breathed on the other side for 3. This helped me to recover from sprinting while not solely breathing on my dominant left side. I don't remember the last time that I had to breathe every other stroke. It was interesting. The rest of the VO2 max set was not too difficult.

Then, a super swimmer jumped in my lane, and I actually had to stop during my consecutive swim to ask whether the guy wanted to circle swim. oh well. I was nearly on pace with him during my distance set which made me feel almost like a super swimmer too, although I don't know what kind of effort he was putting in. whatev.

mood: always feel so wonderful after swimming. swimmer's high.
health: felt strong!