Tri Training Week 6: Sportscation

Weekly Mileage: 43.62 (8.85 Running, 3.77 Swimming, 31 Biking)

Well, what an improvement a week makes!  It helped that this week I was training in Portland and Bar Harbor, Maine.  It's hard not to want to go outside and play when you're in Maine with great weather! 

Oh, did I say something about great weather?  I forgot that on my first vacation day I was minding my business, enjoying a 40-minute run around Back Cove in Portland when I heard the slightest rumbling of thunder.  I turned from the blue skies to glance across the cove, and there stood a giant gray thunderhead, coming straight at me.

Now those of you who know me (I bet you know me if you're reading this...) know that I'm a pokey little puppy.  Always close to the end of the finisher pool in any "race," my goal is just to finish a little faster than the time before.  Let's just say I hope there's a giant thunderhead 40 minutes out from the end of this triathlon, because I frigging booked it!  I almost beat the storm around the lake, but with about a quarter mile left, it let loose and I was soaked.  Best friend (and donor!) Amanda picked me up a few minutes later, and she found me drenched and shivering beneath a big tree.  I had completed 3.6 miles, and finished a 5K in 35 minutes for the first time ever!

The weather the rest of the week was far better, with sunny skies, friendly old ladies at the local YMCAs, and beautiful scenery to keep me motivated.

Once we arrived in Bar Harbor, I convinced my girlfriend that we should rent bikes and she should come with me on my training ride.  The first half was glorious.  We coasted down a hill to find a beautiful lake, surrounded by trees and rocks and sky.  The sun was shining, kids were playing in the water, and all was right with the world.  Because we had biked quickly and up a few hills, we were plenty hot and sweaty and jumped right in the chilly lake.  We were only pretty sure we saw a sea monster once.  Which was weird.  Because it was a lake.

ANYWAY.  After a long swim, we hopped back on our bikes and set out for the carriage roads.  We accidentally ended up on the Park Loop Road, which is incredibly hilly, quite busy, and seemingly without a speed limit.  Courtney now refers to it as "The Death Trap," and we were quite thrilled we made it safely back to the bike shop.

The rest of the trip included hikes (totally counted as running workouts), a few more swims (both at the Y and in the lake), and a LOT of ice cream (lest you think this exercise nonsense is making me waste away...).   Our final adventure ended on top of a mountain(ish), where we watched the fog roll in from above the clouds.  A perfect end to a perfect week of relaxation and training.  I think we'd all get a lot more exercise if we were permanently on vacation...

Tri Training Week 5:

Weekly Mileage: 17.57 (4 biking, 11.62 run, 1.95 swim)

You'll notice that my mileage was really low during week five.  I only biked half my first workout, and then missed my second bike workout on Thursday.  I am having trouble navigating the training schedule, trying to fit in 8 workouts per week.  I've got a job, I just moved into a new house, I'm in a new relationship, and it's really hard to go biking for an hour or more with all of that going on. 

It's interesting because I never miss a swim or a run, which probably highlights my secret fear of the biking section of this race.  But perhaps it also highlights my not-so-secret fear of the bike trails in DC.  I'm not saying high school kids taser and rob people on the trails ALL the time...I'm just saying maybe it happened once or twice. 

The bottom line is, I need to figure out a way to ensure that I'm not slacking off, or unintentionally sabotaging the bike leg of my triathlon by missing tons of bike workouts.  I'm actually writing this from Maine, and I'll have missed another bike workout by week's end.  I must focus on the bike once I return home from vacation, which will be supported by the Team In Training group rides that kick off next week.

The best part of this week was my long run on Monday on that National Mall.  The temperature was in the 70s for the first time in weeks, the sun was shining, and the sporty citizens of DC were out in force.  I ran 4.9 miles at an 11:37 pace, which for me is phenomenal.  It felt good to feel success on that part of training, considering how hard it had been to run in the heat the previous week.

Also, my fundraising is going ok so far.  It's more challenging this time, but I'm looking forward to throwing a bake sale and a happy hour and seeing what I can't accomplish that way.

I owe it to the people who inspire me to run (my honored teammates Toby and Erica) and to everyone who has donated so far.  It's surprising just how much this affects me and keeps me going.

Tri Training Week Four: Rest and Recovery

Total Mileage: 24.78 (9.2 running, 1.58 swimming, 14 biking)

Got my new bike, moved across the town, found a new bike trail (upon which folks get tasered by high school kids who have now been caught), about to go for a run on the national mall, heat finally broke.

Claim to fame: 13 miles of total activity in 100.4 degree weather.  I'm badass.

Tri Training Week Three: Ugh

Total Mileage: I don't want to talk about it

Sick, overtrained, no rest day for too long, slacked off.

I Feel Very Happy of Myself

Tri Training Week Two: Sweaty in Seattle

Weekly Mileage: 29.3 (9.2 Running, 1.5 Swimming, 18.6 biking)

Wow.  I just checked my sweet google doc training tracker (sounds more impressive than it really is at a whopping 4 columns in excel) and I have trained 10 days in a row.  In those 10 days I have worked out 12 times!  But here's the really cool part: the last 4 workouts were while I was ON VACATION.  Yep, I'm that person.  I work out every day of my vacation.  And until yesterday I really didn't even resent it.  In fact, I looked forward to it.

This positive attitude was probably the result of location and company.  From what I could tell over the weekend, there are few places more beautiful and conducive to outdoor exercise than Seattle.  Upon landing I went for a run around Greenlake with Non-red Kate, a former rugby teammate.  The air was crisp, the sky was sunny and blue (I’m beginning to think they lie about Seattle weather just to keep us away), and the three mile loop around the little lake was a perfect welcome to Seattle.

Another thing about summer in Seattle is the sheer amount of daylight.   The sun came up at six and didn’t really set until around 9:30 or 10:00.  As a result, I got in a full day of fun and adventure (sleeping in, shopping with my high school history teacher Henry, pedicures and dinner with my Mississippi roommate Gwyn) and still was able to squeeze my run in at 8:30pm!  It was after a delicate rain shower, and newly wet pavement is one of my favorite smells.  Heaven.

Saturday morning I borrowed Henry's wife Catherine’s pimped out Specialized road bike and took it for a spin along the Burke Gilman trail.  I rode through the University of Washington, along a canal, and through the Fremont neighborhood.  I finished back at the Kamerlings atop a massive hill.  When I got into the house, their six-year-old daughter said, “You’re sweaty.”  Yep.  Sure was.

The final workout of the vacation was a quick run to the beach at Golden Gardens, the site of the wedding that brought me to Seattle in the first place.  The run to and from the beach was  no big deal: 3.5 miles of gentle ups and downs, with a view of the mountains in the distance on the way there.  However, as I approached the park, I reached a set of stairs heading down.  I skipped down the steps knowing that beautiful views awaited me upon my arrival.  But about half way down I realized I’d have to go back up.  The final count was 253 stairs, plus a few straightaways in the middle.  Having just run almost two miles, I was none too pleased to be climbing.  Upon reaching the bottom of the final set of stairs with just 25 more to climb, an 80-year-old man looked at me, smiled and said, “You’re movin’ awfully slow.”  Yep.  Sure was.

So maybe I'm sweaty.  And maybe I'm slow.  But the bottom line is, I'm having fun training for this triathlon!

Tri Training Week One: Firsts

Weekly Mileage: 24.8 (8.2 running, 1.3 swimming, 15.3 biking)

I came to work on Tuesday after my first morning swim and would tell anyone who would listen, "I did three sports in three days!  I did three sports in three days!" I never thought I would exercise six days of the week, even on the weekends.  I never thought I'd do more than one sport per season.  And I never thought I'd work out more than once per day.  Welcome to the week of firsts!

This week I took my first steps to truly becoming a triathlete.  I worked out 7 times in six days.  One day I even did two sports!  And I found out this is going to be harder than I thought.

Swimming:
Yeah.  So I hate morning.  You can ask anyone I've ever woken up with (from sleepover buddies to camping friends to my own mother), I hate waking up.  It is, without a doubt, my least favorite sport.  But something about swimming makes me think I have to do it before work.  And when you're spending three hours a night hunting for (and losing out on) apartments, you DO have to do it before work.  So on Tuesday I woke up at 5:00 am to go swimming.  And I actually enjoyed myself.  Our swim workouts this week were only 30 minutes long, so though I was having flashbacks to the Crystal Lake Nadiators, the practice was not nearly as hard as those.  I learned a lot about pool etiquette (when there are only two simmers, you split the lane rather than swimming in a circle), damn near crashed into a dude with a Lance Armstrong bracelet on (before I learned about pool etiquette),  and realized that swimming is a really good workout.  Halfway through the swim I noticed my arms were getting really tired and sore.  "Gosh" I thought.  "I am really out of swimming shape."  Then I remembered that you can kick while you're swimming.  When I stopped dragging my limp lower body through the pool with only my arms, things got a lot more pleasant.  And my second swim of the week happened in the evening, so all was well.

Running:
I had three really nice, quick runs this week, with excellent weather, excellent company.  Monday Jake and I took a house hunting break to run through the new neighborhood and check it out.  Wednesday was a running club day and because it was only a 30-minute run, we got to skip the hills!  Matt of course kept running because he likes pain.  Saturday was our first official Team In Training workout of the season.  Though I am going to switch teams since I'm moving into the city, it was wonderful to meet half of the people I'll be running the race with, and to get some triathlon basics from our expert coaches.  This is going to be such a different experience from the winter season, with a larger group and a diverse set of activities.  But I am so excited.  We ended the morning's triathlon clinic with a quick 25 minute run through Fairfax, VA.  I'm right in the middle of the pack for speed and endurance, which is a nice place to be.

Biking:
It is abundantly clear that this will be the hard part of this program for me.  Bikes are scary.  Riding in a city is scary.  Biking up hills is hard.  But I finished my biking on Friday faster and farther than Sunday, and tackled a pretty horrible hill in the process.  I'm still getting used to the weirdness of my triathlon bike, having to move handles to shift or break, unclipping from the pedals to stop, and leaning down while riding.  But it makes me feel super badass, so we'll go with it.

Next week I'm nervous that I'll be in Seattle for a wedding (yay Seattle!) so I'm trying to plan out my workouts and see if I can't get most or all of them in.  Megan the bike tutor (who is also a triathlon tutor) says "when in doubt, go for a run."  So if you see me running up and down the hilly streets of Seattle, invite me over to your pool!  Because I don't like running THAT much!