Here's February:
Swim: 30,200 yards
Cycling (outdoors): 135.45 miles
Cycling (indoors): 18:59 (hours)
Run: 37.35 miles
Strength Training: 1:40 hours
Approximate monthly total training time: 44:31 (hours)
Weight: 169.5 pounds
All in all, a pretty good month. I trained about 1.5 hours less than in January. Swimming and cycling were up from last month, running and strength training were down. The month started off really strong, but had a bit of a fall-off due to my stupid hip/groin injury.
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Still Paying for that Stupid Fall
As noted yesterday, my leg was feeling better yesterday and I was beginning to think that I was getting close to being fully recovered. Well, I woke up this morning and it had taken a step back. I have to clarify that it's not really my hip. The massive bruise I had was on my hip - square on the outside, directly where I landed on it. That pain is gone, but what's lingered is what feels like a strained groin muscle. I don't really notice it when I'm sitting on my butt at work or just walking around, but certain motions/movements bother it, notably stepping up, raising my leg from the hip joint or anything that requires a long leg stretch.
It has been generally fine during cycling and swimming, but I'm beginning to think that the cycling is not helping the situation - I was feeling better last night and then rode for 90 minutes. Interestingly, it didn't bother me while I was riding or immediately after I got off the bike. This is why I haven't stopped riding this week. But this morning it started bothering me during my swim (mostly on the kick-offs and any strong kicking). As a result, I cut the morning's swim a bit short (by about 600 yards, including 300 yards of kicking). And if you've been reading this you know how I feel about missing training sessions or cutting them short. Also, I'm going to skip tonight's ride. It's a bummer because I won't be able to ride while we're in LA, but hopefully the trip to LA will force me to take some time off and let whatever's going on heal.
Added to all that is the stress I get every time we get ready to travel. Trying to finish stuff up at work, getting my stuff together for the trip, preparing myself for the hassle of getting to the airport, trying not to think about the disaster I'll be facing at work when I get back - all fun. I'm bringing my running and swimming stuff out to LA and will keep my fingers crossed that I can make a good week out of this despite all the mess I'm feeling inside right now.
It's amazing how my emotions regarding this training can swing - yesterday was a real high (with the time trial, my bike fit and some good sleep) and today, a pretty deep low. I'm still convinced my hip or groin or whatever just needs some rest, but it's getting frustrating...
Swim - February 28
Distance: 2,400
Time: 46 minutes
It has been generally fine during cycling and swimming, but I'm beginning to think that the cycling is not helping the situation - I was feeling better last night and then rode for 90 minutes. Interestingly, it didn't bother me while I was riding or immediately after I got off the bike. This is why I haven't stopped riding this week. But this morning it started bothering me during my swim (mostly on the kick-offs and any strong kicking). As a result, I cut the morning's swim a bit short (by about 600 yards, including 300 yards of kicking). And if you've been reading this you know how I feel about missing training sessions or cutting them short. Also, I'm going to skip tonight's ride. It's a bummer because I won't be able to ride while we're in LA, but hopefully the trip to LA will force me to take some time off and let whatever's going on heal.
Added to all that is the stress I get every time we get ready to travel. Trying to finish stuff up at work, getting my stuff together for the trip, preparing myself for the hassle of getting to the airport, trying not to think about the disaster I'll be facing at work when I get back - all fun. I'm bringing my running and swimming stuff out to LA and will keep my fingers crossed that I can make a good week out of this despite all the mess I'm feeling inside right now.
It's amazing how my emotions regarding this training can swing - yesterday was a real high (with the time trial, my bike fit and some good sleep) and today, a pretty deep low. I'm still convinced my hip or groin or whatever just needs some rest, but it's getting frustrating...
Swim - February 28
Distance: 2,400
Time: 46 minutes
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
1,000 yard Time Trial Redux
The main training excitement today was my second attempt at a 1,000 yard swim time trial. The last (and first) time I tried this was in mid-December and I finished it in 17:21, which works out to 1:44/100 yards. I knew for certain that I've improved a lot since then. I've done a lot of drill work, put way more time in the pool and gotten used to swimming long sets. My swim confidence is high and I've learned a lot more about pacing. I also had that swim lesson and feel that I've been doing a good job getting the tips John gave me incorporated into my technique. Finally, I've been comfortably swimming faster than 1:40/100 yards. So, today was the day. And I'm happy to report that I kicked ass and showed some major improvement. My time today was 16:07, which works out to 1:36.7/100 yards. That's an improvement of 1:14 over the 1,000 yards and over six seconds per 100 (roughly 7% faster). I'm really pleased with my improvement. I doubt that I'll take a huge step like that again, but I am convinced that I can keep improving.
A few other observations from today's swim: first, I pushed it much harder than I did in December, but still had energy at the end and was able to swim a fast, comfortable final 100. I don't think that I could have comfortably swam today's 1,000 much faster than I did, but I also wasn't pushing myself to the limit just to get through the swim. Second, I noticed some "form" things to work on - I get lazy on the pull sometimes and when I concentrate on getting a good pull I feel my body get an extra boost; I also still get lazy with the kicking, but again concentration seems to help with that; When I get a good kick going, I again feel that extra boost, but I also find that I have trouble breathing consistently when I'm concentrating on the kick. I need to work on consistently putting all of those things together. Third, and this is the least important (especially with LP in mind), my flip turn is improving and I think I'm pretty streamlined coming into and off the wall. It still wouldn't look good to a coach or real swimmer, but for me, it's pretty good.
I didn't write last night because I didn't have anything other to say than that yesterday morning I did a quick strength training session. Strength maintenance is boring. Today I have a ton of updates.
Elizabeth's Knee
Elizabeth went to another doctor today - Dr. Jordan Metzl, of Triathlete Magazine fame. I saw Dr. Metzl a year and a half or so ago when I was having some hip pain. He recommended some exercises and sent me on my way to full recovery. Elizabeth and I agree that he also gave her much better advice than the quack she saw the other week. Dr. Metzl told her to forget about the custom orthotics (he gave me the same advice) and the physical therapy she was doing, recommended some different shoe inserts and has her seeing a different physical therapist. She's not running this Sunday in LA, but she'll be back soon enough and better than ever. She sounded better today than she has in a while. I'm sure it will be tough to be in LA this weekend and not being able to run the race she trained so hard for, but her visit with Dr. Metzl helped her realize that there will be other races. I have to say that today shows one of the wonderful things about living in New York. Dr. Metzl writes for Triathlete magazine and active.com, he advises all kinds of world-class athletes and has done a bunch of marathons and iron-distance races. And he's right here and we can see him.
Crono fit issues
Last night I took the Crono to another bike expert to have him help me with the fit. I actually think we got it. He assured me that the fit wasn't "wrong" and all he made were a couple little tweaks. He gave me some pointers about relaxing on the aerobars, calling me a "power cyclist" and said that the discomfort I was feeling might be from tensing up too much on the aerobars. I'm going to try relaxing and next week will hopefully finally get a ride outside on the Crono. He's certain that if it's still not right after a few long outside rides, we can tweak it to get it there. Phew. I rode tonight for 90 minutes on the trainer and it felt pretty good. I did my best to relax my upper body and not tense my hands or arms. I think the bike's gonna work out, which is a huge relief.
Charlie
Yesterday morning I took him in to see the vet and get his stitches removed. The vet said he's progressing ahead of schedule and looked great. He tested Charlie's knee and said that it feels like it's solidly in the groove. Phew, again. The poor little guy is still confined to home and leash walks for another eight weeks, but at least he's done with the cone and only has one more day of his meds. The hair where he was shaved is slowly, slowly growing back. Thankfully, he's been a good sport through all of this.
Strength - February 26
Time: 40 minutes
Swim - February 27
Distance: 1,900
Time: 41 minutes
1,000 yard time trial
Bike - February 27
Time: 1:30
Average heart rate: 113
Indoor ride
A few other observations from today's swim: first, I pushed it much harder than I did in December, but still had energy at the end and was able to swim a fast, comfortable final 100. I don't think that I could have comfortably swam today's 1,000 much faster than I did, but I also wasn't pushing myself to the limit just to get through the swim. Second, I noticed some "form" things to work on - I get lazy on the pull sometimes and when I concentrate on getting a good pull I feel my body get an extra boost; I also still get lazy with the kicking, but again concentration seems to help with that; When I get a good kick going, I again feel that extra boost, but I also find that I have trouble breathing consistently when I'm concentrating on the kick. I need to work on consistently putting all of those things together. Third, and this is the least important (especially with LP in mind), my flip turn is improving and I think I'm pretty streamlined coming into and off the wall. It still wouldn't look good to a coach or real swimmer, but for me, it's pretty good.
I didn't write last night because I didn't have anything other to say than that yesterday morning I did a quick strength training session. Strength maintenance is boring. Today I have a ton of updates.
Elizabeth's Knee
Elizabeth went to another doctor today - Dr. Jordan Metzl, of Triathlete Magazine fame. I saw Dr. Metzl a year and a half or so ago when I was having some hip pain. He recommended some exercises and sent me on my way to full recovery. Elizabeth and I agree that he also gave her much better advice than the quack she saw the other week. Dr. Metzl told her to forget about the custom orthotics (he gave me the same advice) and the physical therapy she was doing, recommended some different shoe inserts and has her seeing a different physical therapist. She's not running this Sunday in LA, but she'll be back soon enough and better than ever. She sounded better today than she has in a while. I'm sure it will be tough to be in LA this weekend and not being able to run the race she trained so hard for, but her visit with Dr. Metzl helped her realize that there will be other races. I have to say that today shows one of the wonderful things about living in New York. Dr. Metzl writes for Triathlete magazine and active.com, he advises all kinds of world-class athletes and has done a bunch of marathons and iron-distance races. And he's right here and we can see him.
Crono fit issues
Last night I took the Crono to another bike expert to have him help me with the fit. I actually think we got it. He assured me that the fit wasn't "wrong" and all he made were a couple little tweaks. He gave me some pointers about relaxing on the aerobars, calling me a "power cyclist" and said that the discomfort I was feeling might be from tensing up too much on the aerobars. I'm going to try relaxing and next week will hopefully finally get a ride outside on the Crono. He's certain that if it's still not right after a few long outside rides, we can tweak it to get it there. Phew. I rode tonight for 90 minutes on the trainer and it felt pretty good. I did my best to relax my upper body and not tense my hands or arms. I think the bike's gonna work out, which is a huge relief.
Charlie
Yesterday morning I took him in to see the vet and get his stitches removed. The vet said he's progressing ahead of schedule and looked great. He tested Charlie's knee and said that it feels like it's solidly in the groove. Phew, again. The poor little guy is still confined to home and leash walks for another eight weeks, but at least he's done with the cone and only has one more day of his meds. The hair where he was shaved is slowly, slowly growing back. Thankfully, he's been a good sport through all of this.
Strength - February 26
Time: 40 minutes
Swim - February 27
Distance: 1,900
Time: 41 minutes
1,000 yard time trial
Bike - February 27
Time: 1:30
Average heart rate: 113
Indoor ride
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Weekend Update
It's Sunday night and I've got to make up for not writing yesterday. It's among the first training days that I haven't posted an entry since starting this thing. I did train my scheduled training yesterday, but didn't write because I ran out of time and wasn't really feeling that inspired anyway. I think I may even be boring myself by writing everyday, so I can't imagine what I'm doing to anyone who might be reading this!
We had a pretty good weekend that just flew right by. Part of that was the nearly three hours of training I did each day and part was the fact that we had plans each day that started early in the evening, which shortened the days even more. At least the plans we had were fun - yesterday we went out to Brooklyn to visit some friends and their brand new baby. Then we went to dinner with Ze and Emily. After dinner, because we're so crazy, we came home and were in bed by 10:30. Today, we went to the first year birthday party for some friends' baby. After the training and then getting those things in plus a few errands and some time with the dog, our days were long gone.
My hip is feeling much better. Neither the cycling nor the swimming seem to bother it and I haven't run in a week. Today, for the first time since my little crash, I don't really have any pain when I'm walking. I still get a little twinge when I move my leg in certain ways, but at least I can definitely say it's getting better. I'm supposed to run on Thursday when we get to LA, so hopefully by then I'll be able to run. Speaking of LA and running, Elizabeth's knee is a mess. She tried running yesterday and evidently didn't make it more than a mile, then she rode an exercise bike for a while. Later in the evening, she was in so much pain she could barely walk. It's no better today. She can't bend it or put any pressure on her leg without pain. As can be expected, she's pretty despondent. After all that time training, the chances of her even walking just a bit of it are pretty low. It sucks. I keep telling her that she can do one in the Fall and has the rest of her life to run marathons. But that's little consolation right now.
Both yesterday and today I rode on the trainer first thing in the morning and then went for a swim. I had thought about riding outside, but yesterday it was really, really cold and windy (below zero with the windchill) and while today it was somewhat warmer, I just didn't feel like dealing with putting on all the clothes. Also, I know that I can get in a good ride on the trainer, so I'm not really sacrificing fitness by riding inside. I rode harder on the trainer than I usually do and included a bunch of simulated climbs in each ride. The swims felt good and I ended up with with 14,800 yards on the week - that's 8.4 miles. I don't even need to mention that it was my biggest swim week ever, by far. Because I'm laying off the running and I won't have my bike in LA, this is going to be another big swim week, including a 1,000 yard time trial on Tuesday.
On a separate note, I signed up today for the Ironman Hawaii lottery. It's a huge long-shot (150 slots given to something like 20,000 who register), but all I need is one slot. It's a daunting prospect and at first I wasn't going to do it, but I figure this is the year and it seemed crazy not to at least throw my hat into the ring. I'll find out on April 15.
Bike - February 24
Time: 2:03
Average heart rate: 123
Indoor ride
Swim - February 24
Distance: 1,900 yards
Time: 45 minutes
Bike - February 25
Time: 1:32
Average heart rate: 119
Indoor ride
Swim - February 25
Distance: 2,600 yards
Time: 57 minutes
We had a pretty good weekend that just flew right by. Part of that was the nearly three hours of training I did each day and part was the fact that we had plans each day that started early in the evening, which shortened the days even more. At least the plans we had were fun - yesterday we went out to Brooklyn to visit some friends and their brand new baby. Then we went to dinner with Ze and Emily. After dinner, because we're so crazy, we came home and were in bed by 10:30. Today, we went to the first year birthday party for some friends' baby. After the training and then getting those things in plus a few errands and some time with the dog, our days were long gone.
My hip is feeling much better. Neither the cycling nor the swimming seem to bother it and I haven't run in a week. Today, for the first time since my little crash, I don't really have any pain when I'm walking. I still get a little twinge when I move my leg in certain ways, but at least I can definitely say it's getting better. I'm supposed to run on Thursday when we get to LA, so hopefully by then I'll be able to run. Speaking of LA and running, Elizabeth's knee is a mess. She tried running yesterday and evidently didn't make it more than a mile, then she rode an exercise bike for a while. Later in the evening, she was in so much pain she could barely walk. It's no better today. She can't bend it or put any pressure on her leg without pain. As can be expected, she's pretty despondent. After all that time training, the chances of her even walking just a bit of it are pretty low. It sucks. I keep telling her that she can do one in the Fall and has the rest of her life to run marathons. But that's little consolation right now.
Both yesterday and today I rode on the trainer first thing in the morning and then went for a swim. I had thought about riding outside, but yesterday it was really, really cold and windy (below zero with the windchill) and while today it was somewhat warmer, I just didn't feel like dealing with putting on all the clothes. Also, I know that I can get in a good ride on the trainer, so I'm not really sacrificing fitness by riding inside. I rode harder on the trainer than I usually do and included a bunch of simulated climbs in each ride. The swims felt good and I ended up with with 14,800 yards on the week - that's 8.4 miles. I don't even need to mention that it was my biggest swim week ever, by far. Because I'm laying off the running and I won't have my bike in LA, this is going to be another big swim week, including a 1,000 yard time trial on Tuesday.
On a separate note, I signed up today for the Ironman Hawaii lottery. It's a huge long-shot (150 slots given to something like 20,000 who register), but all I need is one slot. It's a daunting prospect and at first I wasn't going to do it, but I figure this is the year and it seemed crazy not to at least throw my hat into the ring. I'll find out on April 15.
Bike - February 24
Time: 2:03
Average heart rate: 123
Indoor ride
Swim - February 24
Distance: 1,900 yards
Time: 45 minutes
Bike - February 25
Time: 1:32
Average heart rate: 119
Indoor ride
Swim - February 25
Distance: 2,600 yards
Time: 57 minutes
Friday, February 23, 2007
10,000+ yards (with more to go)
This morning was another swim - 3,000 yards with a main set of 18x100 (actually three sets of 6x100 with ten seconds between the 100's and 30 seconds after each sixth 100; get it?). My 100's were good - none of them were slower than 1:38 and most were right around 1:35. I was moving, wasn't going even close to all out. Granted I did have small breaks, but I'm happy with those times.
It put me over 10,000 yards on the week (10,300 yards to be exact). I'm certain that's my biggest swim week ever. And, after some emails with John about my hip, he's revised my weekend schedule and substituted some bike and run time for more time in the pool. I shouldn't get into predictions, because I never know what could happen, but by the Sunday afternoon, I'll hopefully have another 4,000+ yards this week. That's huge.
Part of me (a small part) is worried about my hip. It really hasn't gotten as much better over the course of the week as I hoped it would. It's definitely better, and this afternoon I'm walking around nearly pain free, but there's still that word "nearly" in the sentence. Bummer. Another part of me is worried that by missing runs this week, I'm losing run fitness. I know that I've built up a great base and I shouldn't be worried, but still, there's than nagging voice in my head. I'm ignoring the voice for now - if I stay on schedule, I'll still have put in over ten hours of cardio this week, which is plenty. Elizabeth's knee is still really painful and she's pretty worried about next weekend. She's determined to still give it a go, and since we're going out there no matter what, she doesn't have to make a decision at any point. She's put in so much work, I really hope it starts feeling better very soon!
Swim - February 23
Distance: 3,000 yards
Time: 1:06
Strength Training - February 23
Time: 25 minutes
It put me over 10,000 yards on the week (10,300 yards to be exact). I'm certain that's my biggest swim week ever. And, after some emails with John about my hip, he's revised my weekend schedule and substituted some bike and run time for more time in the pool. I shouldn't get into predictions, because I never know what could happen, but by the Sunday afternoon, I'll hopefully have another 4,000+ yards this week. That's huge.
Part of me (a small part) is worried about my hip. It really hasn't gotten as much better over the course of the week as I hoped it would. It's definitely better, and this afternoon I'm walking around nearly pain free, but there's still that word "nearly" in the sentence. Bummer. Another part of me is worried that by missing runs this week, I'm losing run fitness. I know that I've built up a great base and I shouldn't be worried, but still, there's than nagging voice in my head. I'm ignoring the voice for now - if I stay on schedule, I'll still have put in over ten hours of cardio this week, which is plenty. Elizabeth's knee is still really painful and she's pretty worried about next weekend. She's determined to still give it a go, and since we're going out there no matter what, she doesn't have to make a decision at any point. She's put in so much work, I really hope it starts feeling better very soon!
Swim - February 23
Distance: 3,000 yards
Time: 1:06
Strength Training - February 23
Time: 25 minutes
Thursday, February 22, 2007
The Countdown Continues - FIVE MONTHS!!
Today marks five months until race day. I think it's 150 days away (now, if I could figure out how to get that damn countdown clock in the sidebar working, I wouln't have to think about how many days away it is...). I feel like I'm on track do to this thing. My bike and swim fitness are each already world's better than they were last season. My run fitness is better - I'm faster and fitter. I know that I have a lot to get done in the next five months - including somewhere around 280 hours of training - but I'm certain that I can do it and will keep improving my fitness and skills along the way. That enthusiasm is somewhat tempered by my hip. It's still achy, and as a result I'm skipping a scheduled run for the first time in months. I'm disappointed that I'm skipping it, but I'm certain it's the right move, and still hoping that it will be totally better soon. I feel comfortable enough with my run fitness to skip a run or two, even if at this point I think I've only done one real run since the Bronx half marathon nearly two weeks ago. Fortunately, I've spent a lot of time on the bike and in the pool.
This morning I did get up and get in a good ride on the trainer. It was a tougher trainer ride than I'm used to, with the middle 35 minutes at a pretty high rate of exertion. Thankfully, my hip didn't bother me at all on the bike and it didn't feel any worse after the ride than it had before the ride. Over the course of the day, it just tightens up. There are two areas that are giving me troubles - the less important one is the bruise I have from the impact of the fall. That's on the side of my left leg starting about three inches below my waist. More troubling is the ache is that is in my groin and follows the joint where my leg fits into my hip. It's a bit painful when I walk and worse when I try to run a few steps. It's much, much better than it was on Sunday or Monday, so I'll lay off it and hope for a quick recovery.
The other day Assaf put himself on the waiting list to run a 100 mile running race in Virginia this May. Insane. He had a good race at the JFK 50-Miler in November and is on track to kick ass at Boston in April. I have to admit that when he first decided to run the 50, I thought he was crazy, but over time I came to grips with it and began to think that maybe it wasn't totally out of this world. I can guarantee you that I will never feel that way about the hundo.
Bike - February 22
Time: 1:15
Average heart rate: 118
Indoor ride
This morning I did get up and get in a good ride on the trainer. It was a tougher trainer ride than I'm used to, with the middle 35 minutes at a pretty high rate of exertion. Thankfully, my hip didn't bother me at all on the bike and it didn't feel any worse after the ride than it had before the ride. Over the course of the day, it just tightens up. There are two areas that are giving me troubles - the less important one is the bruise I have from the impact of the fall. That's on the side of my left leg starting about three inches below my waist. More troubling is the ache is that is in my groin and follows the joint where my leg fits into my hip. It's a bit painful when I walk and worse when I try to run a few steps. It's much, much better than it was on Sunday or Monday, so I'll lay off it and hope for a quick recovery.
The other day Assaf put himself on the waiting list to run a 100 mile running race in Virginia this May. Insane. He had a good race at the JFK 50-Miler in November and is on track to kick ass at Boston in April. I have to admit that when he first decided to run the 50, I thought he was crazy, but over time I came to grips with it and began to think that maybe it wasn't totally out of this world. I can guarantee you that I will never feel that way about the hundo.
Bike - February 22
Time: 1:15
Average heart rate: 118
Indoor ride
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Here fishy, fishy!
I didn't sleep all that well last night and woke up groggy and totally unmotivated. But, something silly like lack of sleep isn't stopping me! I had a cup of green tea to wake me up (anyone who knows me might be surprised that I've taken to either drinking hot beverages or caffeine, but rest assured, both are normally banned for me, but some mornings, I just have to get going and I justify hot, caffeineted green tea because of its antioxidant value. Don't worry, there's no way I'm drinking coffee!), and then hustled my butt to the pool and jumped right in. The swim workout today was a another different one and was supposed to be about 3,000 yards in 1:15. Something is definitely screwy with that session though because even though I cut it a bit short (skipping most of the final 10 minutes of cool down), I still swam 3,650 and it took me nearly 1:30. The main set was 5x500 at moderate effort, and there was a lot of kicking and sculling. I swam the 500's pretty strong, though not a strongly as yesterday's 300's. I'm comfortable blaming my weakness on yesterday's swim.
Later, I went back to the gym for a quick strength training session. I'm in a strength "maintenance" phase, so, not counting the warm-up and cool-down on the bike, I was only lifting for about 20 minutes.
Swim - February 21
Time: 1:26
Distance: 3,650 yards
Strength - February 21
Time: 35 minutes
Later, I went back to the gym for a quick strength training session. I'm in a strength "maintenance" phase, so, not counting the warm-up and cool-down on the bike, I was only lifting for about 20 minutes.
Swim - February 21
Time: 1:26
Distance: 3,650 yards
Strength - February 21
Time: 35 minutes
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
All talked out
I'm not feeling very inspired to write this afternoon. Maybe I just wrote too much over the weekend?
Anyway, this morning I did a long swim. I think it was my longest swim yet - 3,650 yards (2.07 miles if I did the math right). The main set consisted of 9x300 with 30 seconds rest and 50 yard kicks after the fourth and seventh 300. I was supposed to swim each 300 faster than the one before it, but wasn't supposed to exceed my T-pace from the other month (1:44/100) or go anaerobic. It felt pretty good. I swam pretty fast (for me, as always) and maintained constant speed throughout. In fact, the last two 300's were my fastest. My speed on those last 300's definitely had something to do with the fact that there were two other swimmers in my lane and one of them was a tad faster than me. I've seen her in the pool before and I think she's a swim coach. There is no reason I should be comparing my swimming to hers. She joined the lane just before I started those last two 300's and she had about a 25 yard lead on me when I started. I wasn't about to let her make up too much ground. I pushed it, but not to the point of exhaustion. Usually, that incentive is the best. Today, for example, I did the first seven 300's pretty consistently at around 4:54/300 yards (1:38/100 yards). I was supposed to do each one slightly faster than the previous 300, but I couldn't really get it going too much - I was worried that I would poop out if I pushed it too much. The last two, when I was being pushed, I swam in 4:45/300 yards (1:35/100 yards). I could tell that I was swimming harder, but I still wasn't straining too much. Three seconds per 100 doesn't seem like that much when I write it here, but I think it could make a pretty big difference come raceday and given the nine seconds per 100 between that and my T-pace, it is an indicator of how much I'm improving.
Wow. For someone who's "talked out", I sure had a lot to write about that "long swim"...
Swim - February 20
Time: 1:16
Distance: 3,650
Anyway, this morning I did a long swim. I think it was my longest swim yet - 3,650 yards (2.07 miles if I did the math right). The main set consisted of 9x300 with 30 seconds rest and 50 yard kicks after the fourth and seventh 300. I was supposed to swim each 300 faster than the one before it, but wasn't supposed to exceed my T-pace from the other month (1:44/100) or go anaerobic. It felt pretty good. I swam pretty fast (for me, as always) and maintained constant speed throughout. In fact, the last two 300's were my fastest. My speed on those last 300's definitely had something to do with the fact that there were two other swimmers in my lane and one of them was a tad faster than me. I've seen her in the pool before and I think she's a swim coach. There is no reason I should be comparing my swimming to hers. She joined the lane just before I started those last two 300's and she had about a 25 yard lead on me when I started. I wasn't about to let her make up too much ground. I pushed it, but not to the point of exhaustion. Usually, that incentive is the best. Today, for example, I did the first seven 300's pretty consistently at around 4:54/300 yards (1:38/100 yards). I was supposed to do each one slightly faster than the previous 300, but I couldn't really get it going too much - I was worried that I would poop out if I pushed it too much. The last two, when I was being pushed, I swam in 4:45/300 yards (1:35/100 yards). I could tell that I was swimming harder, but I still wasn't straining too much. Three seconds per 100 doesn't seem like that much when I write it here, but I think it could make a pretty big difference come raceday and given the nine seconds per 100 between that and my T-pace, it is an indicator of how much I'm improving.
Wow. For someone who's "talked out", I sure had a lot to write about that "long swim"...
Swim - February 20
Time: 1:16
Distance: 3,650
Monday, February 19, 2007
Off Day - Weekend Pictures
I normally don't post on off days, but I couldn't upload photos during the weekend, so I wanted to post a few today. The pictures of my hip and elbow didn't come out very good and, in fact, they don't make the fall I took look all that bad (which it thankfully wasn't), so I'm not posting those. Instead, you get a few pictures of my little guy, still recovering from his surgery.
Here he is in his butt-shaved, leg-stitched glory:
And here he is recovering in bed, looking very sad:
As for my hip, it's much better today. The bruised area is still pretty tender, but my hip joint/groin area isn't nearly as painful as it was. Even though I don't rememeber it, I'm guessing that while I was falling, I must have kicked out my left leg to try to catch myself and in the process slightly strained a muscle. Hopefully it will continue feeling better each day. I have a couple more days before I'm scheduled to run again, so I'm not worried at all just yet.
Here he is in his butt-shaved, leg-stitched glory:
And here he is recovering in bed, looking very sad:
As for my hip, it's much better today. The bruised area is still pretty tender, but my hip joint/groin area isn't nearly as painful as it was. Even though I don't rememeber it, I'm guessing that while I was falling, I must have kicked out my left leg to try to catch myself and in the process slightly strained a muscle. Hopefully it will continue feeling better each day. I have a couple more days before I'm scheduled to run again, so I'm not worried at all just yet.
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Recovery Day
I woke up this morning with an achy hip. The bruise is sore, but my left hip joint is a bit creaky too. I wasn't about to let it stop me yet, but I knew I'd have to revise the day's training, particularly the run.
I set my bike up on the trainer and started on an easy recovery ride. While I was on the bike, I didn't notice my hip at all. I rode pretty easily, maintaining a high cadence (around 95-100 rpm). The time passed pretty quickly, actually. I watched some SportsCenter and then some of the NBC Sunday morning talk political/news shows. After my ride, I had a gigantic breakfast. Mark (my father-in-law) made some delicious french toast and I had about three times the amount of breakfast a normal person should eat. I couldn't stop. Obviously I need the calories, but I went a little overboard at breakfast. Well, I went a little overboard for dinner last night too! I just can't stop eating. Thank goodness I'm burning the calories I am by training, otherwise, I'd be in BIG trouble.
After lazing around all afternoon, I went out for a run with Elizabeth. My hip was still aching, but I decided to see what I could comfortably do. I ran nearly to the beach with Elizabeth and then took off a bit faster. I turned around at the beach and when I caught back up to Elizabeth, I could see that she was in pain. Her knee was really hurting her. I walked for a few minutes with her and then we decided that I would run home and get the car to pick her up. I ran home at a pretty fast pace and skipped the strides. Instead of an hour, I ran for 38 minutes. After the big cycling week I've had, skipping 22 minutes of run time doesn't bother me too much. Also, and I'm not sure which way this goes (either proud of myself for my dedication or terrified because of my inflexibility), this was the first time since I started training with John that I skipped or shortened a run workout. First time in about five months! Sitting here writing this, my hip feels fine, but I'm sure that when I stand up it will start ache. I'll ice and take some Advil and hope for the best. I looked at this coming week's schedule and I think I have a few days before I'm running again. Tomorrow's another off day, and I'll be sure to get in some extra good stretching and relaxation as well. It'll be interesting to see what happens with Elizabeth's knee - she's starting physical therapy on Tuesday, hopefully that will help, but her marathon is sure coming up soon.
I roughly counted the number of miles I rode this week. I rode the 68+ miles outside yesterday and rode about 7:10 inside. I'd estimate that I did about 185 miles combined. Not the 200 that I was aiming for... but close enough!
Bike - February 18
Time: 1:34
Average heart rate: 104
Indoor ride
Run - February 18
Time: 38:31
Distance: 4 miles
Average heart rate: 132
Course: House to Wainscott Beach
Conditions: Clear, cold (29-31 degrees), moderate wind
I set my bike up on the trainer and started on an easy recovery ride. While I was on the bike, I didn't notice my hip at all. I rode pretty easily, maintaining a high cadence (around 95-100 rpm). The time passed pretty quickly, actually. I watched some SportsCenter and then some of the NBC Sunday morning talk political/news shows. After my ride, I had a gigantic breakfast. Mark (my father-in-law) made some delicious french toast and I had about three times the amount of breakfast a normal person should eat. I couldn't stop. Obviously I need the calories, but I went a little overboard at breakfast. Well, I went a little overboard for dinner last night too! I just can't stop eating. Thank goodness I'm burning the calories I am by training, otherwise, I'd be in BIG trouble.
After lazing around all afternoon, I went out for a run with Elizabeth. My hip was still aching, but I decided to see what I could comfortably do. I ran nearly to the beach with Elizabeth and then took off a bit faster. I turned around at the beach and when I caught back up to Elizabeth, I could see that she was in pain. Her knee was really hurting her. I walked for a few minutes with her and then we decided that I would run home and get the car to pick her up. I ran home at a pretty fast pace and skipped the strides. Instead of an hour, I ran for 38 minutes. After the big cycling week I've had, skipping 22 minutes of run time doesn't bother me too much. Also, and I'm not sure which way this goes (either proud of myself for my dedication or terrified because of my inflexibility), this was the first time since I started training with John that I skipped or shortened a run workout. First time in about five months! Sitting here writing this, my hip feels fine, but I'm sure that when I stand up it will start ache. I'll ice and take some Advil and hope for the best. I looked at this coming week's schedule and I think I have a few days before I'm running again. Tomorrow's another off day, and I'll be sure to get in some extra good stretching and relaxation as well. It'll be interesting to see what happens with Elizabeth's knee - she's starting physical therapy on Tuesday, hopefully that will help, but her marathon is sure coming up soon.
I roughly counted the number of miles I rode this week. I rode the 68+ miles outside yesterday and rode about 7:10 inside. I'd estimate that I did about 185 miles combined. Not the 200 that I was aiming for... but close enough!
Bike - February 18
Time: 1:34
Average heart rate: 104
Indoor ride
Run - February 18
Time: 38:31
Distance: 4 miles
Average heart rate: 132
Course: House to Wainscott Beach
Conditions: Clear, cold (29-31 degrees), moderate wind
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Long ride - Montauk Point
I'm not sure how to describe today's ride. "Up and Down" or "Highs and Lows" sound about right and not only to describe the course I rode. Here goes: the day was absolutely beautiful right from the start, clear and sunny, cold, yes, but it didn't feel too bad. I bought a new insulated Polar Bottle so that my water wouldn't freeze, like it did the other weekend. I slept in a little bit and didn't rush out to do the ride. We had breakfast, played a little with Charlie and then it was noon, and I started getting ready to roll.
I took off around 1:20 and felt great. Montauk Point (the easternmost point of Long Island, see map) is about 25 miles from the house, but my plan was to go out about 15-20 miles, turn around and come back and then do it again. I didn't want to go too far away in case I got cold or got a flat or whatever. However, as I started going, I just felt great. I was flying down Route 27, averaging around 22 mph. I got 15 miles out and decided to keep going, when I got to the town of Montauk, I was still feeling great and decided to go to the Point. I was psyched, I started having thoughts about writing this entry about how great I was feeling and how much stronger and faster I was than the last time I rode out to Montauk in the Spring. The last few miles have some pretty good climbs and nice descents. I got there in a little over an hour and according to my computer, I was averaging about 21.5 mph. Awesome! Then, I turned around at Montauk Point and started heading back. Immediately, I realized why my ride East had been so good - it was mostly a slight downhill and, more importantly, I must have been riding with a pretty sick tailwind. As a result, I was now riding uphill and into a strong headwind. My speed plummeted - instead of looking at high teens and low 20's, I was seeing 11, 12, 13 mph and I was struggling. I was in my high gears and my heart rate was higher than I wanted it, but I had to get up the hill. A few miles into this, I starting kicking myself for deciding to ride all the way out to the Point. There was nothing I could do about that though. At mile 34, there was a nice downhill, the first real descent in 10 miles. Then, I started up what I remembered was the last of the big hills. Unfortunately, that "last hill" is nearly five miles long. I was dying.
The first hour I rode around 21.5 miles, the second, I did about 16.5, and I wasn't getting any faster. I rode into that damn wind the entire way back! I got back to our street and still had more than 90 minutes to ride. I went down towards the beach and rode around some local streets, trying to stay off the main east-west routes where the wind was howling. Unfortunately, avoiding the wind wasn't really happening, except when I was headed East - and every mile east meant a mile back west into the wind. At around this time I also started getting cold, especially my hands, and the sun started going down. I did one big loop and got back to the street again about ten miles away from my goal of 70 miles. I was tired and my legs were aching. I could also tell that I hadn't taken in enough calories - I felt a little light-headed and getting weak. During the ride I had 2 Accel Gels, 1 PowerGel and a scoop of Accelerade (an electrolyte and calories replacement drink, like Gatorade, except with some protein as well as the carbs). Total calories in four hours: 410. I had a ClifBar in my pocket and should have eaten it, but I was so close to being done and getting at it would have involved stopping and taking off my gloves. I figured I would just tough it out. Mistake.
Given the darkening skies and my exhaustion, I decided to ride smaller loops around some of the neighborhood streets - there's a nice little 1.25 mile loop that generally doesn't have many cars on it and the streets are pretty nice. I did about six loops and got bored, so I turned down one of the side streets. That street dead-ended, and as I was turning around, I saw some ice patches. I avoided the first, but rode right over the next one. I started to slip and, instead of riding straight ahead like I probably should have done, I tried to turn off it. Oops. I went down. Hard. Hip, elbow, head. Thank goodness I was wearing my helmet - the impact on the side of my head wasn't that hard, but I still heard a crack and I certainly would have been hurting if not for the helmet. I got up right away, felt my aching hip and elbow, quickly looked over my bike (which looked fine) and slowly rode around the corner and home. Less than 2.5 miles short of my goal. Stupid, stupid. I got home and ravenously ate a sandwich, a bagel, a muffin and some chips. I drank a bunch of water. And here I sit with an ice pack on my hip. The bike is fine, as best I can tell. I haven't looked closely at the helmet yet to make sure it's not cracked, but I think it's OK. I probably need to replace it this season anyway, but I'd like for it to last a little while longer. The good news is that neither the Polar Bottle nor my other "normal" bottle with the Accelerade froze or even became slushy. But, since neither froze, I'm not sure if the Polar Bottle helped. On the other hand, it certainly didn't hurt!
When I got home from my ride, Elizabeth had some very sad news. The Shaffer's 17 year old husky, Cujo, died this afternoon. His health had been declining for some time - he had hip, nerve and muscle problems, was senile and deaf and his internal organs recently started breaking down. He stopped eating a couple weeks ago and today Seth took him to the hospital because he'd taken a turn for the worse. After much discussion today, they decided to put him to sleep. He was suffering too much. He was a great dog and a big part of the Shaffers' lives. He will certainly be missed.
On the other hand, Charlie is doing tons better. Yesterday during the day he didn't seem so good. He kept having these shivering or shaking fits and didn't have any energy or excitement. However, the moment we arrived at the beach house, he was like a different dog - or, rather, ike the dog he was before his surgery. He ran around smelling all over the house, was excited to take a short little walk outside and generally seemed like a happy dog. He was good today too. He puts some weight on his bad leg, which is all we want him to do now anyway. He is eating some. Best of all, he's responsive to us and seems fairly comfortable. I think he still hates his cone, but as I look at him right now, he's fast asleep on Elizabeth's chest and the cone doesn't seem to be interrupting his nap!
Elizabeth saw a doctor yesterday about her hip and knee problems. He suggested she get into orthotics and suggested she try different shoes. He told her to do some physical therapy and to do certain stretches and exercises. Surprisingly (to me), he said that, if she follows, his advice, she can run a pain-free marathon. That was a relief.
I'm happy that I put in the time today. I expected my speed to be faster, but I didn't expect the hills or wind. On balance, I'm pleased with where I am right now. Tomorrow, I've got a 1:15 recovery ride and an hour-long run with some Strides (similar to sprints). I'll probably do the ride inside. I'm just hoping that my hip bruises don't get in the way of that training. I took pictures of the bruises, but won't be able to put them up until we get on Monday or Tuesday. They're not the worst I've seen or even had, but they're not pretty!
Bike - February 17
Time: 3:56:47
Distance: 67.65
Average heart rate:
Course: Wainscott to Montauk Point and back + some local loops
Conditions: Beautiful and very sunny, but cold (high 20s/low 30s) and windy (10-18mph) day
I took off around 1:20 and felt great. Montauk Point (the easternmost point of Long Island, see map) is about 25 miles from the house, but my plan was to go out about 15-20 miles, turn around and come back and then do it again. I didn't want to go too far away in case I got cold or got a flat or whatever. However, as I started going, I just felt great. I was flying down Route 27, averaging around 22 mph. I got 15 miles out and decided to keep going, when I got to the town of Montauk, I was still feeling great and decided to go to the Point. I was psyched, I started having thoughts about writing this entry about how great I was feeling and how much stronger and faster I was than the last time I rode out to Montauk in the Spring. The last few miles have some pretty good climbs and nice descents. I got there in a little over an hour and according to my computer, I was averaging about 21.5 mph. Awesome! Then, I turned around at Montauk Point and started heading back. Immediately, I realized why my ride East had been so good - it was mostly a slight downhill and, more importantly, I must have been riding with a pretty sick tailwind. As a result, I was now riding uphill and into a strong headwind. My speed plummeted - instead of looking at high teens and low 20's, I was seeing 11, 12, 13 mph and I was struggling. I was in my high gears and my heart rate was higher than I wanted it, but I had to get up the hill. A few miles into this, I starting kicking myself for deciding to ride all the way out to the Point. There was nothing I could do about that though. At mile 34, there was a nice downhill, the first real descent in 10 miles. Then, I started up what I remembered was the last of the big hills. Unfortunately, that "last hill" is nearly five miles long. I was dying.
The first hour I rode around 21.5 miles, the second, I did about 16.5, and I wasn't getting any faster. I rode into that damn wind the entire way back! I got back to our street and still had more than 90 minutes to ride. I went down towards the beach and rode around some local streets, trying to stay off the main east-west routes where the wind was howling. Unfortunately, avoiding the wind wasn't really happening, except when I was headed East - and every mile east meant a mile back west into the wind. At around this time I also started getting cold, especially my hands, and the sun started going down. I did one big loop and got back to the street again about ten miles away from my goal of 70 miles. I was tired and my legs were aching. I could also tell that I hadn't taken in enough calories - I felt a little light-headed and getting weak. During the ride I had 2 Accel Gels, 1 PowerGel and a scoop of Accelerade (an electrolyte and calories replacement drink, like Gatorade, except with some protein as well as the carbs). Total calories in four hours: 410. I had a ClifBar in my pocket and should have eaten it, but I was so close to being done and getting at it would have involved stopping and taking off my gloves. I figured I would just tough it out. Mistake.
Given the darkening skies and my exhaustion, I decided to ride smaller loops around some of the neighborhood streets - there's a nice little 1.25 mile loop that generally doesn't have many cars on it and the streets are pretty nice. I did about six loops and got bored, so I turned down one of the side streets. That street dead-ended, and as I was turning around, I saw some ice patches. I avoided the first, but rode right over the next one. I started to slip and, instead of riding straight ahead like I probably should have done, I tried to turn off it. Oops. I went down. Hard. Hip, elbow, head. Thank goodness I was wearing my helmet - the impact on the side of my head wasn't that hard, but I still heard a crack and I certainly would have been hurting if not for the helmet. I got up right away, felt my aching hip and elbow, quickly looked over my bike (which looked fine) and slowly rode around the corner and home. Less than 2.5 miles short of my goal. Stupid, stupid. I got home and ravenously ate a sandwich, a bagel, a muffin and some chips. I drank a bunch of water. And here I sit with an ice pack on my hip. The bike is fine, as best I can tell. I haven't looked closely at the helmet yet to make sure it's not cracked, but I think it's OK. I probably need to replace it this season anyway, but I'd like for it to last a little while longer. The good news is that neither the Polar Bottle nor my other "normal" bottle with the Accelerade froze or even became slushy. But, since neither froze, I'm not sure if the Polar Bottle helped. On the other hand, it certainly didn't hurt!
When I got home from my ride, Elizabeth had some very sad news. The Shaffer's 17 year old husky, Cujo, died this afternoon. His health had been declining for some time - he had hip, nerve and muscle problems, was senile and deaf and his internal organs recently started breaking down. He stopped eating a couple weeks ago and today Seth took him to the hospital because he'd taken a turn for the worse. After much discussion today, they decided to put him to sleep. He was suffering too much. He was a great dog and a big part of the Shaffers' lives. He will certainly be missed.
On the other hand, Charlie is doing tons better. Yesterday during the day he didn't seem so good. He kept having these shivering or shaking fits and didn't have any energy or excitement. However, the moment we arrived at the beach house, he was like a different dog - or, rather, ike the dog he was before his surgery. He ran around smelling all over the house, was excited to take a short little walk outside and generally seemed like a happy dog. He was good today too. He puts some weight on his bad leg, which is all we want him to do now anyway. He is eating some. Best of all, he's responsive to us and seems fairly comfortable. I think he still hates his cone, but as I look at him right now, he's fast asleep on Elizabeth's chest and the cone doesn't seem to be interrupting his nap!
Elizabeth saw a doctor yesterday about her hip and knee problems. He suggested she get into orthotics and suggested she try different shoes. He told her to do some physical therapy and to do certain stretches and exercises. Surprisingly (to me), he said that, if she follows, his advice, she can run a pain-free marathon. That was a relief.
I'm happy that I put in the time today. I expected my speed to be faster, but I didn't expect the hills or wind. On balance, I'm pleased with where I am right now. Tomorrow, I've got a 1:15 recovery ride and an hour-long run with some Strides (similar to sprints). I'll probably do the ride inside. I'm just hoping that my hip bruises don't get in the way of that training. I took pictures of the bruises, but won't be able to put them up until we get on Monday or Tuesday. They're not the worst I've seen or even had, but they're not pretty!
Bike - February 17
Time: 3:56:47
Distance: 67.65
Average heart rate:
Course: Wainscott to Montauk Point and back + some local loops
Conditions: Beautiful and very sunny, but cold (high 20s/low 30s) and windy (10-18mph) day
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Oooh... he throws in a swim!
This morning, once again, right back on the bike. Actually, today was supposed to be my off day, but I decided to rearrange things and take tomorrow off. I'm feeling good physically and switching days makes tomorrow so much easier. We're headed out to the beach for the long weekend and hoping to leave work early and get on the road mid-afternoon, so it's going to be a crazy day working, packing, getting ready and generally running around until we actually get on the road. If I tried to get the training in as scheduled tomorrow, I'm certain I would have missed at least one of the sessions or given myself an ulcer trying to squeeze them in around everything else.
Last night, Elizabeth and I had a fantastic dinner at Blue Water Grill to celebrate Valentine's Day. The food was great (and there was tons of it - especially since I ate half of Elizabeth's dinner as well as my own!), we both had a little to drink and had a really nice time. Valentine's Day dinner can be scary - on the one hand, it gets blown out of proportion and you feel that it has to be something special, but on the other hand, the restaurants are so packed and trying to squeeze in more people than normal so it can be pretty hectic and feel rushed. There wasn't any of that at all last night. The restaurant staff were really nice and even though the restaurant was crowded, they totally had things under control and we were able to have a wonderful night. Even though there were tables on either side of us, dinner felt more private than I'd expected. I did wake up a little groggy - I assume a result of the wine and massive amount of food I ate.
Groggy or not, I set my bike up on the trainer, turned on the TV and started spinning. The hour didn't go by as quickly as I might have liked, but I did get to watch a bunch of repeated videos and some other mindless TV. I meant to throw a DVD in the player, but forgot until after I'd already gotten started, and I've exhausted most of what's interesting on Tivo, so I was stuck with what was on. Elizabeth got me the first season of "The Wire" on DVD for my birthday, but I'm hesitant to try to watch that while I'm training. I find that I don't/can't pay 100% attention to the TV while I'm riding. That's shouldn't surprise anyone. That's why things like MTV or episodes of "Arrested Development" that I've already seen multiple times or stupid action movies are generally the best. I don't have to concentrate too much to get the gist of it, enjoy it and keep my mind entertained while I'm riding. I think that if I tried to watch "The Wire", I'd either miss a lot of what was going on or I'd concentrate too much on the TV and I wouldn't be able to keep my mind on the workout. I'll just keep watching the shows I've been watching. Fortunately, I can't imagine there will be too many more weeks where I'm spending six days in a row on the trainer (a total of seven sessions for 8:15).
This evening I went to the gym and swam 3,100 yards. It took me a little bit longer than usual to warm up - maybe all that time on the bike has taken its toll after all? - but once I was warm, I had a really good swim. The main set was 15x100 with 10-15 seconds rest in between. The 100's felt great and I was swimming them pretty quickly (for me, at least - probably around 1:35's and defintely faster than 1:40's), pretty comfortably. I thought that maybe I'd feel a sense of relief that I was doing something other than riding the trainer, but it didn't feel that way. It was satisfying, but mostly because I was doing one more scheduled training session and getting one more session closer to Lake Placid.
Tonight we picked Charlie up from the hospital. I guess I haven't described what happened: he had Patellar Luxation (click on link for a technical explanation). The vet figures that it was caused during his development in the womb. The luxation in his hind left leg was a grade 3 (out of 4), which pretty much always requires surgery. His hind right leg isn't great either, but the doctor estimated that leg is a 1. We'll have to see if he has problems in the future on the right side. The luxation doesn't cause him pain right now, but it would probably have resulted in arthritis in his leg, which would have been very painful later in life. So, we're putting him through some pretty painful stuff for a few days or weeks to save him years of pain later in life. Hopefully he would agree that it's a good trade. He was originally supposed to be released last night, but in speaking with the vet yesterday, she suggested that he stay another night. The surgery went really well and his incision looked good, but he was having a reaction to the pain meds and wasn't eating or being a happy puppy. It made sense to us that he spend one more night in a safer environment where he'd have someone watching him at all times. Anyway, we finally picked him up and were so happy to see the little guy. The surgery was a much bigger deal than either of us had really envisioned - he has a two inch incision running over his knee. Two inches is pretty damn long when your leg is only about five inches long! He's pretty out of sorts and not really comfortable, but I think that's all to be expected. He doesn't put any real weight on the leg, but he's not holding it up or totally hobbling around just on the other three. The stitches stay in for another ten days, and around that time hopefully he'll start feeling better too. Phew. Here are a couple pictures of him hiding in his house with his protective hood on so he won't try to get at his stitches.
Bike - February 15
Time: 1:00
Average heart rate: 111
Indoor ride with isolated leg training
Swim - February 15
Time: 1:10
Distance: 3,100 yards
Last night, Elizabeth and I had a fantastic dinner at Blue Water Grill to celebrate Valentine's Day. The food was great (and there was tons of it - especially since I ate half of Elizabeth's dinner as well as my own!), we both had a little to drink and had a really nice time. Valentine's Day dinner can be scary - on the one hand, it gets blown out of proportion and you feel that it has to be something special, but on the other hand, the restaurants are so packed and trying to squeeze in more people than normal so it can be pretty hectic and feel rushed. There wasn't any of that at all last night. The restaurant staff were really nice and even though the restaurant was crowded, they totally had things under control and we were able to have a wonderful night. Even though there were tables on either side of us, dinner felt more private than I'd expected. I did wake up a little groggy - I assume a result of the wine and massive amount of food I ate.
Groggy or not, I set my bike up on the trainer, turned on the TV and started spinning. The hour didn't go by as quickly as I might have liked, but I did get to watch a bunch of repeated videos and some other mindless TV. I meant to throw a DVD in the player, but forgot until after I'd already gotten started, and I've exhausted most of what's interesting on Tivo, so I was stuck with what was on. Elizabeth got me the first season of "The Wire" on DVD for my birthday, but I'm hesitant to try to watch that while I'm training. I find that I don't/can't pay 100% attention to the TV while I'm riding. That's shouldn't surprise anyone. That's why things like MTV or episodes of "Arrested Development" that I've already seen multiple times or stupid action movies are generally the best. I don't have to concentrate too much to get the gist of it, enjoy it and keep my mind entertained while I'm riding. I think that if I tried to watch "The Wire", I'd either miss a lot of what was going on or I'd concentrate too much on the TV and I wouldn't be able to keep my mind on the workout. I'll just keep watching the shows I've been watching. Fortunately, I can't imagine there will be too many more weeks where I'm spending six days in a row on the trainer (a total of seven sessions for 8:15).
This evening I went to the gym and swam 3,100 yards. It took me a little bit longer than usual to warm up - maybe all that time on the bike has taken its toll after all? - but once I was warm, I had a really good swim. The main set was 15x100 with 10-15 seconds rest in between. The 100's felt great and I was swimming them pretty quickly (for me, at least - probably around 1:35's and defintely faster than 1:40's), pretty comfortably. I thought that maybe I'd feel a sense of relief that I was doing something other than riding the trainer, but it didn't feel that way. It was satisfying, but mostly because I was doing one more scheduled training session and getting one more session closer to Lake Placid.
Tonight we picked Charlie up from the hospital. I guess I haven't described what happened: he had Patellar Luxation (click on link for a technical explanation). The vet figures that it was caused during his development in the womb. The luxation in his hind left leg was a grade 3 (out of 4), which pretty much always requires surgery. His hind right leg isn't great either, but the doctor estimated that leg is a 1. We'll have to see if he has problems in the future on the right side. The luxation doesn't cause him pain right now, but it would probably have resulted in arthritis in his leg, which would have been very painful later in life. So, we're putting him through some pretty painful stuff for a few days or weeks to save him years of pain later in life. Hopefully he would agree that it's a good trade. He was originally supposed to be released last night, but in speaking with the vet yesterday, she suggested that he stay another night. The surgery went really well and his incision looked good, but he was having a reaction to the pain meds and wasn't eating or being a happy puppy. It made sense to us that he spend one more night in a safer environment where he'd have someone watching him at all times. Anyway, we finally picked him up and were so happy to see the little guy. The surgery was a much bigger deal than either of us had really envisioned - he has a two inch incision running over his knee. Two inches is pretty damn long when your leg is only about five inches long! He's pretty out of sorts and not really comfortable, but I think that's all to be expected. He doesn't put any real weight on the leg, but he's not holding it up or totally hobbling around just on the other three. The stitches stay in for another ten days, and around that time hopefully he'll start feeling better too. Phew. Here are a couple pictures of him hiding in his house with his protective hood on so he won't try to get at his stitches.
Bike - February 15
Time: 1:00
Average heart rate: 111
Indoor ride with isolated leg training
Swim - February 15
Time: 1:10
Distance: 3,100 yards
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Repeat
This morning, after less than 11 hours off the bike, I jumped right back on it for another 1:15. I actually felt better this morning than I did last night. I'm used to working out in the morning, so it's not a big surprise, but I was happy to feel that way. I've got one more ride on the trainer this week - tomorrow morning - and then hopefully I'll do two rides outside this weekend out East.
During my rides this week, I've primarily watched two things on TV: music videos and old episodes of Arrested Development. I don't even want to get started on Arrested Development. I've seen all the episodes at least a couple times and still catch myself laughing while I'm on the bike watching. Brilliant. The Tivo's set up to record Arrested Development anyway, but I've started recording MTV's Video Wake-Up and VH1's Jump Start (or is it the other way around?). At first, it was fun to watch the videos and hear some new songs and artists. I have to say though, just three days into this experience, I'm already bored. First, I've figured out that both shows average about as much music video time as commercial time. Second, at least half of the videos are for just plain crap. I've got a pretty open mind when it comes to music, and while I don't really like mellow R&B or the swooning ultra-melodramatic English "rock", I can tolerate it all in doses while I'm on the bike, but my goodness, there is just some horrible stuff out there. Finally, to add insult to injury, both shows repeat songs, and they seem to choose the worst of the videos to repeat. Maybe I'm just that out of touch and shouldn't be watching MTV or VH1 now that I'm 34... Thank goodness for Tivo, otherwise, the shows would really be unwatchable. As it is, I normally listen to/watch about 3 or 4 videos in the course of an hour-long show. That's not a good ratio. I think I'm going to have to find some new things to watch.
I need to thank everyone who's already donated to the Challenged Athletes Foundation on my behalf. I sent out about 100 emails on Monday and almost instantly got a great response. Just in the last few days, I've already raised over $3,500. I'm grateful to everyone who's donated to the cause. I spent months thinking about picking an organization to support and now that I have, it feels great. It's given me something to think about and helps me keep my complaints in perspective while I'm complaining through my 75 minute trainer rides. A few people have even commented on my blog (well, not commented "on" the blog, but have told me that they've read some of it).
Bike - February 14
Time: 1:15
Average heart rate: 108
Indoor ride
During my rides this week, I've primarily watched two things on TV: music videos and old episodes of Arrested Development. I don't even want to get started on Arrested Development. I've seen all the episodes at least a couple times and still catch myself laughing while I'm on the bike watching. Brilliant. The Tivo's set up to record Arrested Development anyway, but I've started recording MTV's Video Wake-Up and VH1's Jump Start (or is it the other way around?). At first, it was fun to watch the videos and hear some new songs and artists. I have to say though, just three days into this experience, I'm already bored. First, I've figured out that both shows average about as much music video time as commercial time. Second, at least half of the videos are for just plain crap. I've got a pretty open mind when it comes to music, and while I don't really like mellow R&B or the swooning ultra-melodramatic English "rock", I can tolerate it all in doses while I'm on the bike, but my goodness, there is just some horrible stuff out there. Finally, to add insult to injury, both shows repeat songs, and they seem to choose the worst of the videos to repeat. Maybe I'm just that out of touch and shouldn't be watching MTV or VH1 now that I'm 34... Thank goodness for Tivo, otherwise, the shows would really be unwatchable. As it is, I normally listen to/watch about 3 or 4 videos in the course of an hour-long show. That's not a good ratio. I think I'm going to have to find some new things to watch.
I need to thank everyone who's already donated to the Challenged Athletes Foundation on my behalf. I sent out about 100 emails on Monday and almost instantly got a great response. Just in the last few days, I've already raised over $3,500. I'm grateful to everyone who's donated to the cause. I spent months thinking about picking an organization to support and now that I have, it feels great. It's given me something to think about and helps me keep my complaints in perspective while I'm complaining through my 75 minute trainer rides. A few people have even commented on my blog (well, not commented "on" the blog, but have told me that they've read some of it).
Bike - February 14
Time: 1:15
Average heart rate: 108
Indoor ride
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
The wheels go round and round...
Cycling. And more cycling. And then some more. Today was my first ever double cycling day - I rode for 90 minutes in the morning and then another 35 minutes after work. As I've mentioned, I'm keeping the intensity of my workouts pretty low. As a result, it doesn't feel that hard on my muscles to do the extra time on the bike. However, it is somewhat "hard" on my rear end.
This morning's ride I did some spin-ups (working slowly up to a max RPM, then laying off just a bit and holding it for a few seconds) with long recoveries, so that was more interesting than the steady, constant pedaling I did tonight, yesterday and Sunday.
I was uptown this afternoon to meet my friend Susannah for lunch and stopped into SBR to pick up some spacers to raise my aerobar elbow pads a bit (12.5mm to be exact - it's been amazing to see how much a relatively small difference affects the way the bike feels). I took the Crono into Jackrabbit on Sunday and we spent a fair bit more time working on it. Jonathan made some adjustments to the seat position and we put in a longer (11cm) stem and added a spacer to raise the handlebars a bit. We also moved the aerobar extensions around. Now I'm going to try raising the elbow pads. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that that this will do the trick.
Charlie had his knee surgery this morning. I dropped him off at around 8. It wasn't real fun to hand his leash over to the vet tech. I knew that he'd be OK - and that the surgery would help him be better than OK - but it was still hard to let him go. The doctor called at around 2 with the good news that the surgery went well and he was sleeping off the anaesthesia. Elizabeth called the hospital this evening and they said he was doing just fine. We'll pick him up tomorrow evening. We'll sure be happy to see the little guy! (Now, I just hope Elizabeth can figure out what's going on with her knee. It's gotten much better since Sunday, but it's still stiff and painful. She has a doctor's appointment scheduled for Friday.)
Bike - Febraury 13
Time: 1:30
Average heart rate: 101
Indoor ride
Bike - February 13
Time: 0:35
Average heart rate: 102
Indoor ride
This morning's ride I did some spin-ups (working slowly up to a max RPM, then laying off just a bit and holding it for a few seconds) with long recoveries, so that was more interesting than the steady, constant pedaling I did tonight, yesterday and Sunday.
I was uptown this afternoon to meet my friend Susannah for lunch and stopped into SBR to pick up some spacers to raise my aerobar elbow pads a bit (12.5mm to be exact - it's been amazing to see how much a relatively small difference affects the way the bike feels). I took the Crono into Jackrabbit on Sunday and we spent a fair bit more time working on it. Jonathan made some adjustments to the seat position and we put in a longer (11cm) stem and added a spacer to raise the handlebars a bit. We also moved the aerobar extensions around. Now I'm going to try raising the elbow pads. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that that this will do the trick.
Charlie had his knee surgery this morning. I dropped him off at around 8. It wasn't real fun to hand his leash over to the vet tech. I knew that he'd be OK - and that the surgery would help him be better than OK - but it was still hard to let him go. The doctor called at around 2 with the good news that the surgery went well and he was sleeping off the anaesthesia. Elizabeth called the hospital this evening and they said he was doing just fine. We'll pick him up tomorrow evening. We'll sure be happy to see the little guy! (Now, I just hope Elizabeth can figure out what's going on with her knee. It's gotten much better since Sunday, but it's still stiff and painful. She has a doctor's appointment scheduled for Friday.)
Bike - Febraury 13
Time: 1:30
Average heart rate: 101
Indoor ride
Bike - February 13
Time: 0:35
Average heart rate: 102
Indoor ride
Monday, February 12, 2007
Starting Base 2
Recovery week is over and it's time to get back to business. I'm still feeling good about yesterday's race - both physically and mentally. Like I went on about yesterday, I ran well and am very happy with my time. I went to bed early last night and slept really well. I was a little concerned about waking up sore or tired, but I got up nice and early and, except for a little tightness in my calves, I'm not feeling the race at all. It also gives me a nice psychological training boost; I haven't been running anywhere close to the marathon training miles and my run strength is still improving - at the half-marathon distance at least, I know that I'm not in marathon shape right now. It's really helping me feel confident about the base that I've built up and am still building. Last year at this time I was running a fair amount (though rarely more than 20 miles per week), but I was only swimming twice a week and not more than 1,800 per session and except for the odd 45 minutes on a spin bike, I wasn't really riding at all. Obviously, I'm expecting that this will put me in a totally different place come race season. Speaking of race season, it now starts March 24, with the CityTri Prospect Park duathlon. I've never done a duathlon before and I think this will be fun. It will also be a good way to practice transitions and get in a short brick workout.
John sent me an email last night telling me that this week is a big cycling week. He actually set my goal at 200 miles. 200 miles isn't impossible, but it's pretty rough, especially since I'm keeping the intensity level fairly low. I'm scheduled for 13 hours this week. John doesn't want me to go too far over the 13 hours, and frankly neither do I. As it is, I have six rides and only two short runs and one swim, so I don't think that I'll be able to get 200 miles in without substituting a ride for a run or my swim. I might skip tomorrow night's scheduled run and do two rides tomorrow instead. I could also try adding a ride another night.
This morning I rode on the trainer for another 1:15. It was an easy ride, totally in zone 1 and felt good. The time went by relatively quickly, actually!
Bike - February 12
Time: 1:15
Average heart rate: 1:02
Indoor ride
John sent me an email last night telling me that this week is a big cycling week. He actually set my goal at 200 miles. 200 miles isn't impossible, but it's pretty rough, especially since I'm keeping the intensity level fairly low. I'm scheduled for 13 hours this week. John doesn't want me to go too far over the 13 hours, and frankly neither do I. As it is, I have six rides and only two short runs and one swim, so I don't think that I'll be able to get 200 miles in without substituting a ride for a run or my swim. I might skip tomorrow night's scheduled run and do two rides tomorrow instead. I could also try adding a ride another night.
This morning I rode on the trainer for another 1:15. It was an easy ride, totally in zone 1 and felt good. The time went by relatively quickly, actually!
Bike - February 12
Time: 1:15
Average heart rate: 1:02
Indoor ride
Sunday, February 11, 2007
PR! (NYRR Half Marathon Grand Prix: Bronx)
Today it just felt right. I woke up feeling energized, ate the right breakfast (usual breakfast that is - oatmeal with raisins, half an apple, a little peanut butter, some protein powder and a little honey) a little more than two hours before race time, felt rested and relaxed, and wasn't stressed about running a fast race. The race was on a course that I'd never run before, but I had heard it was pretty flat. It was cold out, but it didn't feel nearly as cold as the Manhattan half, and it wasn't really windy and it was clear and sunny.
I got a good start, about a minute back from the front and took it relatively easy the first mile (splits are below). I was feeling good and the course was, in fact, nice and flat. My only concern was that I might have overdressed. I certainly wasn't "warm", but I was feeling a little stuffy and thought that I probably should have gone with a lighter second layer on top. But that was a moot point obviously (and as it turned out, it never warmed up enough for it to be a problem). My next two miles were a little too fast and mile four was too slow. After the fourth mile, I eased into a comfortable pace and ran around 7:15's for the next seven miles. I ran a little bit with one guy who wasn't in any mood at all to talk, but mostly ran on my own. I drank bits of Gatorade here and there and had a gel right after the mile seven marker. Pretty early on I could tell that I felt good and had definite visions of a PR. My heartrate (I finally got a new transmitter - Elizabeth had an extra one which she was kind enough to give me) was pretty high - generally between 158 and 161, so I knew there was a chance that I would fall apart. But I just kept going. Miles eight and nine felt the hardest. But as it turns out, those were two of the fastest miles that I ran! When I passed the mile 11 marker and realized that I was totally on pace to get a PR, I decided to turn it on. Mile 12 was fast (7:01), but mile 13 was my fastest of the day (6:50). I was flying to the finish (and passing a lot of people) and felt great. I finished in 1:34:14 - over 45 seconds to spare.
I set my half marathon PR a few weeks ago at the Manhattan race (1:36:17), but in my head I knew that I ran a 1:35:01 in the first half of the NYC marathon and definitely wanted to beat that. There's absolutely no reason why I should have a half-marathon PR from a marathon! (The funny thing is that my 10K PR is from last year's NYC Triathlon - but I think I've only run one 10K since then. Strangely, that's not a usual distance for NYRR races.) I also really wanted to get sub-1:35 at some point this Spring. So, running 1:34:14 today was extra special, and the best part about it was that I felt good doing it. It's fun to be in a physical place where I can go out and run a half marathon and not suffer through it or face a tough recovery.
I met up with Assaf after the race. I saw him a couple times on the course (him going one way, me the other) and could tell that he was flying. He ended up running 1:16:32, which is incredible. Twelfth place overall, out of nearly 3,000 runners. That's just plain sick.
Elizabeth and Emily ran 15 miles. They had wanted to run 18, but just got too cold - and they were running the extra miles without and water or gatorade. They've now got exactly three weeks until race day. I'm excited to cheer them on in LA!
After I got home, had some food and took Charlie out, I jumped on the trainer for a quick (35 minute) and easy spin. I wanted to stretch my legs a little and also I'm used to doing both a bike and run on Sundays. I didn't feel any need to rush onto the bike, and the timing today worked out well.
Run - February 10
Time: 1:34:14
Distance: 13.1 miles
Average heart rate: 159
Course: Bronx - closed streets, but I have no idea where we actually ran
Conditions: Cold, 19 degrees, calm wind, very sunny
Bike - February 10
Time: 35 minutes
Average heart rate: 109
Indoor ride
Race Splits:
Mile 1 - 7:38 (started easy, crowded course)
2 - 7:07
3 - 6:54
4 - 7:23 (slowed because worried that mile 3 was way too fast)
5 - 7:14 (eased into comfortable pace)
6 - 7:13
7 - 7:16
8 - 7:12 (this felt like the hardest mile, I'm surprised it was this fast)
9 - 7:11
10 - 7:17
11 - 7:19
12 - 7:01 (realized that PR was possible)
13 - 6:50 (really turned it on, fastest mile!)
.1 - :42
Saturday, February 10, 2007
Wimping out?
I guess you'd be hard pressed to argue that a two-plus-hour ride is wimping out, but for the last few weeks, I've been really good about riding outside regardless of the temperature. Today though, I just couldn't do it. My goal was an easy two hour ride, and even beginning yesterday, I was thinking that I might just do it inside. This morning looked nice enough - clear and getting sunny - but it looked cold and the weather guy on the radio agreed. It was in the mid-20's with a light wind, but he said to expect it to feel like it was around nine or ten degrees. I took Charlie out and confirmed that, yes, it was that cold and felt colder. I certainly could have done the ride outside - I don't really think it was any colder this morning than it was last Saturday, and I only planned on being out half as long. On the other hand, since I only planned on riding for two hours, I knew that I could totally do that indoors. By the time Charlie and I got home from our walk, I'd made up my mind to stay inside - in fact, I'd probably made that decision yesterday evening when I started seriously considering riding inside. I know that there will be plenty more opportunities for me to ride in the cold! Also, if I'm worried that I'm getting soft, I'll prove my mettle tomorrow morning when we get up around 6AM to go to the Bronx to run a half marathon in sub-freezing temperatures.
Bike - February 10
Time: 2:05
Average heart rate: HR monitor still broken!
Indoor ride
Bike - February 10
Time: 2:05
Average heart rate: HR monitor still broken!
Indoor ride
Friday, February 09, 2007
Swim drills
This morning I swam another 1,900 yards - a fairly easy, relaxed workout, consisting mostly of drills. Right before my cooldown, I did some 50 yard sprints, and got my heart rate up, but the vast majority of my 45 minutes was low intensity. I feel like I'm getting lazy this week - so far, I've had two days off, two days of single workouts and one day with a double (but the two sessions combined only amounted to 68 minutes). I'm not sure what I'm scheduled to do tomorrow, and Sunday, I'm still planning on running the NYRR Bronx half-marathon. That race will be exactly three weeks before Elizabeth and Emily's LA marathon, and they're looking for a good, long run. Hopefully, the weather and their bodies will cooperate and this race will be a big confidence booster for LA.
I know I should be relaxing and enjoying this recovery week more, but now that I have mostly recovered, I'm feeling a little anxious and ready to go. I guess this was how I used to feel during my off days - like I was wasting time and losing the benefits of all my previous hard work. Now, though, I cherish those off days (see my posts from last week if you want to see some serious whining about missing off days) and know that I need the rest. I'm sure that after another series or two of these base building sets, I'll feel the same way about my recovery weeks!
Swim - February 9
Time: 45 minutes
Distance: 1,900 yards
I know I should be relaxing and enjoying this recovery week more, but now that I have mostly recovered, I'm feeling a little anxious and ready to go. I guess this was how I used to feel during my off days - like I was wasting time and losing the benefits of all my previous hard work. Now, though, I cherish those off days (see my posts from last week if you want to see some serious whining about missing off days) and know that I need the rest. I'm sure that after another series or two of these base building sets, I'll feel the same way about my recovery weeks!
Swim - February 9
Time: 45 minutes
Distance: 1,900 yards
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Easing my way through recovery
This morning I rode for an easy 35 minutes in front of the TV. I did a few minutes of isolated leg training on each leg, but mostly just tried to keep my cadence high and the intensity low. Unfortunately, I think that my HR transmitter strap is finally totally dead, so I have no idea where my HR was during the ride, but based on how I felt, it was probably in the low 100's. My back is still bothering me a little bit, but the stretching seems to help. I'm sure the slouching I do all day everyday in my office chair isn't helping any!
After work, I went for a run. I started with Elizabeth and Emily, but decided to run at Washington Square Park instead of the West Side, where they were headed. I only wanted to go out for a half hour and do strides in the middle of that, so by the time I got to the River, I would do my strides and come home. Didn't seem worth it. I warmed up with a few laps, and did my strides and skips on the west side of the Park. Then, I did another lap and came home. Recently, I haven't been stretching nearly as much as I should be, so this week I'm making a conscious effort to do more stretching. I've noticed that a few weeks of not really stretching has made my muscles much tighter than they were when I was stretching a lot - duh, but I forget sometimes. The last few weeks I've been in a general rush during the transition to and from training that I've let stretching slip. Hopefully I'll remember the value of it and make a point to stretch regularly from now on. I'm sure my back will thank me.
I got an email tonight from my friend Reid who's organized a gigantic group of people to race in the Philadelphia Triathlon on June 24. Elizabeth and I were going to do it anyway and Reid (who's from Philly) got excited about it and subsequently convinced about 25 other people to sign up as well. There are people from college, friends and family of Reid's, friends and family of mine, friends of friends, including a bunch of first-timers. It will be great to have such a big group of fun people. We're thinking about organizing team visors and shirts. Elizabeth and I get back from Italy two days before the race, so we might be a little discombobulated, but I'll have to jump right back into training for the final stretch, so hopefully that race will be a great way to get me going again.
Bike - February 8
Time: 35 minutes
Average heart rate: HR monitor broken
Indoor ride
Run - February 8
Time: 33:30
Distance: 3.5 miles
Average heart rate: HR monitor broken
Course: Washington Square Park
Conditions: Clear, cold (mid 20's), some wind
After work, I went for a run. I started with Elizabeth and Emily, but decided to run at Washington Square Park instead of the West Side, where they were headed. I only wanted to go out for a half hour and do strides in the middle of that, so by the time I got to the River, I would do my strides and come home. Didn't seem worth it. I warmed up with a few laps, and did my strides and skips on the west side of the Park. Then, I did another lap and came home. Recently, I haven't been stretching nearly as much as I should be, so this week I'm making a conscious effort to do more stretching. I've noticed that a few weeks of not really stretching has made my muscles much tighter than they were when I was stretching a lot - duh, but I forget sometimes. The last few weeks I've been in a general rush during the transition to and from training that I've let stretching slip. Hopefully I'll remember the value of it and make a point to stretch regularly from now on. I'm sure my back will thank me.
I got an email tonight from my friend Reid who's organized a gigantic group of people to race in the Philadelphia Triathlon on June 24. Elizabeth and I were going to do it anyway and Reid (who's from Philly) got excited about it and subsequently convinced about 25 other people to sign up as well. There are people from college, friends and family of Reid's, friends and family of mine, friends of friends, including a bunch of first-timers. It will be great to have such a big group of fun people. We're thinking about organizing team visors and shirts. Elizabeth and I get back from Italy two days before the race, so we might be a little discombobulated, but I'll have to jump right back into training for the final stretch, so hopefully that race will be a great way to get me going again.
Bike - February 8
Time: 35 minutes
Average heart rate: HR monitor broken
Indoor ride
Run - February 8
Time: 33:30
Distance: 3.5 miles
Average heart rate: HR monitor broken
Course: Washington Square Park
Conditions: Clear, cold (mid 20's), some wind
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
Good swim
Two days of rest and it's time to get back at it. Slowly, that is - this is a recovery week after all. This morning I got in the pool and swam a relatively easy 3,000 yards. I did it in five long sets - 900, 700, 700, 400, 300 - and tried concentrating on form and my kicking. As usual, for these sets I swam until I felt like my form was begin to suffer. The first 900 felt great and I could have kept going, but I didn't see any reason to push the first set, potentially at the expense of the rest of the session. I took a nice break (60-90 seconds) between each set to catch my breath and stretch my arms. I didn't time the individual sets and I wasn't working too hard, but I imagine that I was still averaging 1:45 or 1:50 per 100. If that's right, it's definitely a good sign. I imagine that sometime in the next few weeks/month, I'll do another 1,000 yard time trial and I think I can shave a material amount of time off 1:44/100.
The pool wasn't crowded at all this morning. Not that I'm complaining, but it's strange. I would expect the pool to be more crowded when it's this cold outside. I seem to remember the pool got more crowded as summer got closer last year - at the time I thought it was because people were starting to train for summer triathlons and swim races. Beginning to train in the spring just doesn't make sense to me right now. But I guess that's much more sane. Whatever. Speaking of the weather, this is a good time for me to be in recovery - it is freezing outside (actually, the news last night said that it's been below freezing for the past five days in a row). Speaking of the cold, the other night, while I was out with Charlie, a news van stopped us and took some video of him in his jacket. The woman who we were talking to did do a story on how cold it was and she focused on some people around Union Square, but no Charlie.
After work I took my bike in to Jackrabbit to work on it with Christopher. As expected, he is being super helpful. It's hard to tell just yet what the exact problem is and exactly how we're going to solve it, but I'm certain that we will and I'll have a bike that I love and is super comfortable.
Swim - February 7
Distance: 3,000 yards
Time: 1:00
The pool wasn't crowded at all this morning. Not that I'm complaining, but it's strange. I would expect the pool to be more crowded when it's this cold outside. I seem to remember the pool got more crowded as summer got closer last year - at the time I thought it was because people were starting to train for summer triathlons and swim races. Beginning to train in the spring just doesn't make sense to me right now. But I guess that's much more sane. Whatever. Speaking of the weather, this is a good time for me to be in recovery - it is freezing outside (actually, the news last night said that it's been below freezing for the past five days in a row). Speaking of the cold, the other night, while I was out with Charlie, a news van stopped us and took some video of him in his jacket. The woman who we were talking to did do a story on how cold it was and she focused on some people around Union Square, but no Charlie.
After work I took my bike in to Jackrabbit to work on it with Christopher. As expected, he is being super helpful. It's hard to tell just yet what the exact problem is and exactly how we're going to solve it, but I'm certain that we will and I'll have a bike that I love and is super comfortable.
Swim - February 7
Distance: 3,000 yards
Time: 1:00
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
Days off
Halfway through my second day off and I'm feeling pretty good. My lower back is still a little sore, but I feel generally refreshed and ready to get back at it. I'm not sure what the rest of my week is going to be like, but my sense is that it won't be too strenuous. The Bronx Half Marathon is this Sunday and Elizabeth and Emily have to run it in order to get in their long run, so I'll run it as well. I'll discuss with John whether I should go for it and try to best my time from last month or if I should just take it relatively easy. I don't know a thing about the course, so I have no idea if it's flat or hilly, fast or tough. Finding all that out will help me with my decision. So will the weather!
Sunday, February 04, 2007
I made it!
I just got the best news of the weekend. John sends me an email every Sunday with a little commentary about the coming week's training. I knew that next week would be a recovery week, but I wasn't sure exactly what that meant. Well, the email that I just got tells me that I get tomorrow and Tuesday off. Sweet. From all my moaning recently, it's obvious that I really need the days off. Today was a much much better day than yesterday, but I'm deep body tired. My muscles and limbs feel like jelly. I'm also psychologically tired. My back is still a little tight, which has me a little concerned, but all the other issues I've been dealing with the last few days seem to be on the mend and getting refreshed over the next week will be very valuable.
We decided not to run the 4 mile race this morning and it was a really good choice. We were both tired, it was going to be ridiculously cold and there was just no reason to trudge all the way uptown for it. Even so, I woke up pretty early still not feeling great. Elizabeth was still asleep and Charlie couldn't keep his eyes open. So, instead of my normal hard-charging ways, I just got back into bed and read until I was ready to sleep a little more. When I woke up 90 or so minutes later, I felt better. I'm guessing that the combination of getting a couple good night's sleep, plus eating pretty well yesterday after my ride was the key.
I took Charlie out for a quick walk - he is not enjoying the cold weather at all - then came home and set up the trainer for a 1:15 recovery ride. Nice and easy, kept my heart rate in zone 1 the entire ride. I'm trying to get in more time on the Crono, so I can do a ride on it outside in the next couple weeks. Unfortunately, I have to say that there's something wrong with the fit. When I'm on the aerobars, my hands get a ton of pressure and my left arm from elbow to shoulder start to ache pretty quickly. This is not good. I have noticed in the past that the floor in our living room slants a little from the right side of my body to my left, but I don't notice this pain when I'm on the aerobars on my Felt. This is obviously a pretty big problem. If I can't be comfortable on the aerobars on the Crono, I'm screwed. I went into Jackrabbit and discussed it briefly with Christopher. I'm optimistic that he/they will help me work it out.
After running a few errands with Elizabeth and Charlie (who absolutely hated the fact that we brought him outside), Elizabeth and I got dressed and went for a run. I was scheduled to do an easy hour with some Strides; she is supposed to do 15 miles. It is bitter cold and windy, especially along the Avenues and the River. It's in the low 20's, but weather.com said that the wind is blowing between 12-18mph and that it feels like it's in the single digits out there. We bundled up and got at it. I ran with Elizabeth for about 35 minutes and then did my Strides and jogged home. It's amazing how well the running clothes work if you wear them right. I wore my good Falke base layer (my favorite, it's almost perfect and would be if it just had a higher neck) and a mid-weight second layer, gloves, a hat and tights. My cheeks were a little cold and my hands got cold, but other than that I was fine. Elizabeth was bundled a little more thickly, but she gets colder than I do and she'll be out there for a while still.
I finally signed up for CAF Race for a Reason today. I need to finish putting together my mini-website and then send out the email. I've set my goal at $15,000, which is pretty aggressive, I think, but not out of reach. I think that the initial email will go out to around 100 people and some of them may forward it around and I'll add more people later. I'm excited to support CAF. I think about this damn race all the time, this way I'll have something other than just my training to focus on.
Bike - February 4
Time: 1:15
Average heart rate: monitor not working, but I'm guessing I did the entire ride in zone 1
Indoor ride
Run - February 4
Time: 1:03
Distance: 5.5 miles
Average heart rate: monitor still not working, but I did the run at a low intensity level, except during the strides
Course: West Side Highway
Conditions: Cold, cold, cold. Very clear and beautiful - it's more beautiful looking at it from inside though
We decided not to run the 4 mile race this morning and it was a really good choice. We were both tired, it was going to be ridiculously cold and there was just no reason to trudge all the way uptown for it. Even so, I woke up pretty early still not feeling great. Elizabeth was still asleep and Charlie couldn't keep his eyes open. So, instead of my normal hard-charging ways, I just got back into bed and read until I was ready to sleep a little more. When I woke up 90 or so minutes later, I felt better. I'm guessing that the combination of getting a couple good night's sleep, plus eating pretty well yesterday after my ride was the key.
I took Charlie out for a quick walk - he is not enjoying the cold weather at all - then came home and set up the trainer for a 1:15 recovery ride. Nice and easy, kept my heart rate in zone 1 the entire ride. I'm trying to get in more time on the Crono, so I can do a ride on it outside in the next couple weeks. Unfortunately, I have to say that there's something wrong with the fit. When I'm on the aerobars, my hands get a ton of pressure and my left arm from elbow to shoulder start to ache pretty quickly. This is not good. I have noticed in the past that the floor in our living room slants a little from the right side of my body to my left, but I don't notice this pain when I'm on the aerobars on my Felt. This is obviously a pretty big problem. If I can't be comfortable on the aerobars on the Crono, I'm screwed. I went into Jackrabbit and discussed it briefly with Christopher. I'm optimistic that he/they will help me work it out.
After running a few errands with Elizabeth and Charlie (who absolutely hated the fact that we brought him outside), Elizabeth and I got dressed and went for a run. I was scheduled to do an easy hour with some Strides; she is supposed to do 15 miles. It is bitter cold and windy, especially along the Avenues and the River. It's in the low 20's, but weather.com said that the wind is blowing between 12-18mph and that it feels like it's in the single digits out there. We bundled up and got at it. I ran with Elizabeth for about 35 minutes and then did my Strides and jogged home. It's amazing how well the running clothes work if you wear them right. I wore my good Falke base layer (my favorite, it's almost perfect and would be if it just had a higher neck) and a mid-weight second layer, gloves, a hat and tights. My cheeks were a little cold and my hands got cold, but other than that I was fine. Elizabeth was bundled a little more thickly, but she gets colder than I do and she'll be out there for a while still.
I finally signed up for CAF Race for a Reason today. I need to finish putting together my mini-website and then send out the email. I've set my goal at $15,000, which is pretty aggressive, I think, but not out of reach. I think that the initial email will go out to around 100 people and some of them may forward it around and I'll add more people later. I'm excited to support CAF. I think about this damn race all the time, this way I'll have something other than just my training to focus on.
Bike - February 4
Time: 1:15
Average heart rate: monitor not working, but I'm guessing I did the entire ride in zone 1
Indoor ride
Run - February 4
Time: 1:03
Distance: 5.5 miles
Average heart rate: monitor still not working, but I did the run at a low intensity level, except during the strides
Course: West Side Highway
Conditions: Cold, cold, cold. Very clear and beautiful - it's more beautiful looking at it from inside though
Saturday, February 03, 2007
Ugh
If I felt like crap yesterday, I'm not sure how to describe today. Last night, my stomach was pretty upset and as a result I didn't eat nearly enough to prepare myself for a four hour ride today. Also, I didn't sleep all that great. I know, here I go complaining again, but I'm just trying to find the factors to explain why today's ride was such a struggle. Factors other than the freezing cold weather, the 15 training days without rest and the fact that my legs are just plain tired. Thinking about all those things helps me not to get worried when I suffer through a four hour bike ride like I did today. Last weekend I attributed most of my suffering to the cold weather. Today was colder, but my aching body and low energy affected me much more than the weather.
I decided to ride in Central Park today. Even though our place is about the same distance from Prospect Park as it is from Central Park, the path along the West Side Highway makes it much easier to get to Central Park. My normal complaint about weekend riding in Central Park is that it gets so crowded, but I figured that with the cold today, it wouldn't be so bad. My plan was to go up there, do about ten laps, then ride home. 70 miles. Right from the start, I could tell that it wasn't going to be the best ride of my season. My back was/is tight and my legs felt heavy. Regardless of that though, I got up to the Park feeling OK and handled the first few laps fairly well. About 25 miles in I started hurting a little. At that point, I stopped riding the big hill at the North end of the Park and just cut across the transverse. I felt like a wuss, but the hill was aggravating my back, and taking a lot out of me and causing my heart-rate to spike, all things I didn't need today. At 35 miles, I stopped for a few minutes to use the restroom and put on glove liners. Both of my water bottles were slushy and the valve on one was frozen shut, which meant that I wasn't drinking enough fluids. Also, for some stupid reason, I'd only packed two gels, so I had to ration and didn't get as many calories as I should have. I'm so good about nutrition planning for running, but I obviously still need to work on it for the cycling. In the Park, I was probably averaging around 17.5mph, which would have been just fine for today.
But, at around 50 miles, I really started suffering. The pedals felt like dumbbells. My quads and lower back were on fire and I was getting a little light-headed. Fun. This is where a sane person would have stopped. As I've made clear, I'm too stupid to listen to things like my body. I rode another ten miles. At 60, I went over to the New York Road Runners office to try to pick up our numbers for tomorrow's race (which I'm pretty sure we're not going to do). They wouldn't let me in with my bike and I wasn't about to leave the bike outside, so I skipped it and rode back into the Park heading towards home. During the ride home, just to add insult to injury, the wind picked up and I rode the entire way home in a pretty strong headwind. During my little break at the NYRR office, I ate a Clif Bar, so I had energy for the ride home, but I was still pretty out of it.
Now I'm home. I had Endurox, I've eaten a ton of food and feel a little better. But now, I've got to lie down for a little bit. I still have a tough workout tomorrow, whether or not we decide to do the four mile race.
A funny thing happened yesterday: I've been lurking on Slowtwitch for some time, but finally signed up the other week. Yesterday I posted a question about running on the West Side Highway. One of the few responses I got was from a friend from college who I haven't spoken to in years. He recognized me by my screen name. He's been doing triathlons for a number of years and he's actually doing IMLP as well. Pretty exciting to make that kind of connection.
Finally, last night Assaf and I went to the Millrose Games at Madison Square Garden. We got there pretty late, because the main thing we wanted to see (obviously) was the Wannamaker Mile. We scalped good tickets and had a great time. The race was exciting - Alan Webb, Craig Mottram and the eventual winner, Bernard Legat (in 3:54.26). It was a pretty close race until the final turn, when Legat turned it on and out-sprinted Mottram to the finish. Webb was running great early, but ran out of gas about two-thirds of the way through the race and fell pretty far back. The other exciting event was the women's pole vault. I'd never seen pole vaulting in person either and it was amazing to watch the technique and strength that those women have to get themselves over the top. The winner vaulted over 15'9 3/4". The final move when they turn themselves over and release from the pole is pretty awesome.
Bike - February 3
Time: 4:08:04
Distance: 67.8 miles
Average heart rate: Approx. 124 (heart rate monitor was in and out during parts of the ride)
Course: West Side Highway to Central Park
Conditions: Cold. Windy. 27 degrees (without wind-chill). It was really sunny though.
I decided to ride in Central Park today. Even though our place is about the same distance from Prospect Park as it is from Central Park, the path along the West Side Highway makes it much easier to get to Central Park. My normal complaint about weekend riding in Central Park is that it gets so crowded, but I figured that with the cold today, it wouldn't be so bad. My plan was to go up there, do about ten laps, then ride home. 70 miles. Right from the start, I could tell that it wasn't going to be the best ride of my season. My back was/is tight and my legs felt heavy. Regardless of that though, I got up to the Park feeling OK and handled the first few laps fairly well. About 25 miles in I started hurting a little. At that point, I stopped riding the big hill at the North end of the Park and just cut across the transverse. I felt like a wuss, but the hill was aggravating my back, and taking a lot out of me and causing my heart-rate to spike, all things I didn't need today. At 35 miles, I stopped for a few minutes to use the restroom and put on glove liners. Both of my water bottles were slushy and the valve on one was frozen shut, which meant that I wasn't drinking enough fluids. Also, for some stupid reason, I'd only packed two gels, so I had to ration and didn't get as many calories as I should have. I'm so good about nutrition planning for running, but I obviously still need to work on it for the cycling. In the Park, I was probably averaging around 17.5mph, which would have been just fine for today.
But, at around 50 miles, I really started suffering. The pedals felt like dumbbells. My quads and lower back were on fire and I was getting a little light-headed. Fun. This is where a sane person would have stopped. As I've made clear, I'm too stupid to listen to things like my body. I rode another ten miles. At 60, I went over to the New York Road Runners office to try to pick up our numbers for tomorrow's race (which I'm pretty sure we're not going to do). They wouldn't let me in with my bike and I wasn't about to leave the bike outside, so I skipped it and rode back into the Park heading towards home. During the ride home, just to add insult to injury, the wind picked up and I rode the entire way home in a pretty strong headwind. During my little break at the NYRR office, I ate a Clif Bar, so I had energy for the ride home, but I was still pretty out of it.
Now I'm home. I had Endurox, I've eaten a ton of food and feel a little better. But now, I've got to lie down for a little bit. I still have a tough workout tomorrow, whether or not we decide to do the four mile race.
A funny thing happened yesterday: I've been lurking on Slowtwitch for some time, but finally signed up the other week. Yesterday I posted a question about running on the West Side Highway. One of the few responses I got was from a friend from college who I haven't spoken to in years. He recognized me by my screen name. He's been doing triathlons for a number of years and he's actually doing IMLP as well. Pretty exciting to make that kind of connection.
Finally, last night Assaf and I went to the Millrose Games at Madison Square Garden. We got there pretty late, because the main thing we wanted to see (obviously) was the Wannamaker Mile. We scalped good tickets and had a great time. The race was exciting - Alan Webb, Craig Mottram and the eventual winner, Bernard Legat (in 3:54.26). It was a pretty close race until the final turn, when Legat turned it on and out-sprinted Mottram to the finish. Webb was running great early, but ran out of gas about two-thirds of the way through the race and fell pretty far back. The other exciting event was the women's pole vault. I'd never seen pole vaulting in person either and it was amazing to watch the technique and strength that those women have to get themselves over the top. The winner vaulted over 15'9 3/4". The final move when they turn themselves over and release from the pole is pretty awesome.
Bike - February 3
Time: 4:08:04
Distance: 67.8 miles
Average heart rate: Approx. 124 (heart rate monitor was in and out during parts of the ride)
Course: West Side Highway to Central Park
Conditions: Cold. Windy. 27 degrees (without wind-chill). It was really sunny though.
Friday, February 02, 2007
And today I feel like...
Crap. I'm not sure why, but I have tons of ideas. First the positives: I ate a good dinner after my run and slept well last night. Now the "negatives": I must have had two dozen cookies yesterday, I stayed up pretty late playing with Charlie and hanging out with Elizabeth, I haven't had a day off in over two weeks and most days have either been one very intense session or two moderate sessions, and I did run over 11 miles last night. I'm not sure which of those things is causing me to feel like this, they're probably all equal contributors. How do I feel? My legs are a little achy (though nothing serious - last night after my run my achilles was really tight and I was nervous, but it feels fine today), my back is sore, I have a little headache, and I'm tired all over. And I need to swim 3,100 this afternoon. Yipee!! (I'm writing this paragraph in the morning and will finish this entry after my swim this evening.)
Well, thank goodness that's over. I did the entire scheduled swim - 3,100 yards - but it was not enjoyable one bit. I was tired and sore and could feel that my stroke was shortened. A sane person probably would have either slowed down considerably or just called it a day. Me, no way. Especially not this week. As I've mentioned about a thousand times, this is my biggest week of training yet, so I'm not skimping unless I absolutely have to. In addition to everything else, I didn't really eat right today. Nice work, Josh. So, I didn't have enough energy and when I got out of the pool I was so hungry I thought I might pass out. I made up for that pretty quickly and have a nice stomach ache to show for it. Boy, am I ever a bundle of complaints!
It's raining right now, but supposed to stop around midnight. Assuming it does stop, I'll ride outside tomorrow. If the roads are wet and/or icy, I'm on the trainer for four long hours. Again, I've been saving stuff up on Tivo, just in case. It's actually supposed to be sorta nice tomorrow - 30's, clear, without much wind. That's not ideal, but would be good enough!
Bike - February 2
Time: 1:00
Average heart rate: 120
Indoor ride
Swim - February 2
Time: 1:15
Distance: 3,100
Well, thank goodness that's over. I did the entire scheduled swim - 3,100 yards - but it was not enjoyable one bit. I was tired and sore and could feel that my stroke was shortened. A sane person probably would have either slowed down considerably or just called it a day. Me, no way. Especially not this week. As I've mentioned about a thousand times, this is my biggest week of training yet, so I'm not skimping unless I absolutely have to. In addition to everything else, I didn't really eat right today. Nice work, Josh. So, I didn't have enough energy and when I got out of the pool I was so hungry I thought I might pass out. I made up for that pretty quickly and have a nice stomach ache to show for it. Boy, am I ever a bundle of complaints!
It's raining right now, but supposed to stop around midnight. Assuming it does stop, I'll ride outside tomorrow. If the roads are wet and/or icy, I'm on the trainer for four long hours. Again, I've been saving stuff up on Tivo, just in case. It's actually supposed to be sorta nice tomorrow - 30's, clear, without much wind. That's not ideal, but would be good enough!
Bike - February 2
Time: 1:00
Average heart rate: 120
Indoor ride
Swim - February 2
Time: 1:15
Distance: 3,100
Thursday, February 01, 2007
Sugar High - Uh oh!
This morning when I got into work, sitting on my desk was a large box, a very large box, from my mom, filled with cookies. Just saying "large" doesn't really do the box justice - according to the post office label, it weighs nearly eight pounds! She emailed me earlier in the week and said she had "some" leftover home-made cookies from a party at the house that she wanted to send me. And supposedly, this is just a portion of the left-overs. So, what's any good son going to do, but enjoy some of the goodies right away. Before 10:30, I had tried at least every variety of cookie in the box and gone back for seconds (and thirds) on some. Nice breakfast! Now (it's 12:30 as I write this part of the entry), I'm flying high. Now, I'm certainly not worried about the calories and the cookies are really delicious, but I normally limit my refined sugar intake and I'm just waiting to crash. I've really got to find someone to share these cookies with.
It's now evening - 9:40PM. I fed my sugar high until early afternoon (I definitely had a pound of those friggin' cookies). By the time I left work, I was coming down. Just plain exhausted. And I had to run for 90 minutes. Ugh. I got home, drank a bunch of water, had half a PowerBar and got going. I was worried that I would have a crappy run because of all the sugar, but it actually wasn't half bad. I was supposed to run 8:30's and keep my heart rate down. I actually probably averaged a little under 8:00 and didn't keep my heart rate as low as I should have. The weather was great - a little bit cold, but not much wind and the air felt really crisp. I felt really good until about 75 minutes into the run and then I started getting cold and tired and I could feel my feet dragging a little bit. At that point, I slowed down even more and did an extended cool down. I'm pretty happy with myself - the fact that I can just pick up and run 11 miles after a full day of work and after the last couple weeks of intense training is a good sign. And it wasn't really that hard and I don't feel all that spent right now. I'm guessing I'll sleep well tonight, but you never know with me. In fact, I was talking with my friend Chris tonight and he mentioned something on topic that I'm interested to explore. He said that one sign of over-training is the INability to sleep. That surprises me, but does make some sense (I think). I should keep better track of those sleepless nights that I occasionally have and see if/how there's a pattern. And speaking of Chris, his book is coming out in a few months, which is pretty exciting.
p.s. Today is Charlie's first birthday! Happy Birthday Charlie!!
Run - February 1
Time: 1:30
Distance: 11.25
Average heart rate: 145
Course: West Side Highway up to 57th Street, down to Chambers
Conditions: Cool (low 30's), light wind, clear - really nice!
It's now evening - 9:40PM. I fed my sugar high until early afternoon (I definitely had a pound of those friggin' cookies). By the time I left work, I was coming down. Just plain exhausted. And I had to run for 90 minutes. Ugh. I got home, drank a bunch of water, had half a PowerBar and got going. I was worried that I would have a crappy run because of all the sugar, but it actually wasn't half bad. I was supposed to run 8:30's and keep my heart rate down. I actually probably averaged a little under 8:00 and didn't keep my heart rate as low as I should have. The weather was great - a little bit cold, but not much wind and the air felt really crisp. I felt really good until about 75 minutes into the run and then I started getting cold and tired and I could feel my feet dragging a little bit. At that point, I slowed down even more and did an extended cool down. I'm pretty happy with myself - the fact that I can just pick up and run 11 miles after a full day of work and after the last couple weeks of intense training is a good sign. And it wasn't really that hard and I don't feel all that spent right now. I'm guessing I'll sleep well tonight, but you never know with me. In fact, I was talking with my friend Chris tonight and he mentioned something on topic that I'm interested to explore. He said that one sign of over-training is the INability to sleep. That surprises me, but does make some sense (I think). I should keep better track of those sleepless nights that I occasionally have and see if/how there's a pattern. And speaking of Chris, his book is coming out in a few months, which is pretty exciting.
p.s. Today is Charlie's first birthday! Happy Birthday Charlie!!
Run - February 1
Time: 1:30
Distance: 11.25
Average heart rate: 145
Course: West Side Highway up to 57th Street, down to Chambers
Conditions: Cool (low 30's), light wind, clear - really nice!
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