Wild, wet, windy, wedding weekend

How's that for some alliteration? :)
This weekend, Andy and I headed over to Redmond for Andy's sister's wedding. It promised to be a busy but fun weekend, and Jess and Jeff didn't disappoint. I spent last week closely monitoring the weather and trying to figure out what kinds of workouts I could get in. Wednesday night I made the decision to not bother trying to ride outside, since the forecast looked, in a word, crappy. Thursday, I was supposed to get up early and get a swim in before we hit the road, but sleeping in a bit came way too easy, so it turned into an off day. Had I known what was in my swimming future, I would have gotten this workout in....you'll see why in a minute.

Friday, my only scheduled event was the rehearsal at 5:30pm, so my plan was to get a long brick in mid-day. So, I set up my trainer in the hotel room, hooked up the PS2 so I could watch my IM DVDs (thanks, Andy!!) and pedaled away. Despite the unusual setting and a sort of weird pre-workout breakfast, the ride was awesome! 2 solid hours, mostly tempo, and I did a few harder 10 and 15 min intervals. While I was riding, the sun was out and it looked dry, so for awhile I was sort of regretting not getting outside. Uh, yeah, my decision to ride inside was confirmed as a good one as soon as I stepped out the front door of the hotel for my run. Lets just say that it was about 38, spitting rain, and windy out. I actually saw some people on bikes out on the trail...must be from Seattle. Wackos. Anyway, I did what turned out to be a hard effort 10k, and managed to hold on and average sub-8s again, which I'm really happy with. I was spent pretty good after, but it was my longest and hardest brick of the season so far. My foot was again somewhat uncomfortable on the run, but I managed it ok, and every run I'm learning to deal with it better. The thing I'm most pleased with about the brick was that my average HR was down at 138, which for 3 hours is right on where I hoped to be at this point. And that's after a month of very sporadic training.

Saturday was wedding day, so I knew in advance that I wouldn't be able to get a long workout in. So my plan was to just do my standard 3000 swim workout and call it good for the day. Prior to leaving, I had done some research on-line and found a 24 Hr Fitness in Bellevue that had a pool, so I figured I was good to go. I knew that the Marriott pool wouldn't cut it, cause, well, its a hotel pool. Since the gyms here in Spokane all used to be 24 Hr Fitness facilities, and I've swum in all their pools, I assumed that "24 Hr Fitness + Pool" would equal a standard, lap pool. Note my use of the word assume here. So, as the girls all went off to do their girl wedding day thing (a great mystery of life), I headed off in a semi-excited state to the gym for what I was feeling would be a great swim. Successfully navigate to gym: check. Confirm one last time they have a pool: check. Pay my $15 day pass: check. Get changed in locker room: check. Shower, walk out on pool deck: shock and disappointment. The pool at this major, nationwide fitness facility is not much better than the one I had just left behind at my hotel. The pros of this pool are these: water, 3 x lane lines on bottom of pool. That's it, that's the list. There were a few people splashing about doing something akin to water aerobics, and then there were these 3 guys who were literally standing by the wall having a very animated conversation. It was like they were at a bar talking, but no, they were standing in a pool. At a gym. And when I walked on deck with my swim cap, goggles, and water bottle, appearing ready for a workout, they looked at me like I had 3 heads. This would be a trend for the next hour. Every person who walked out on the deck and everyone in the sauna literally stared at me like I was a crazy person as I was doing laps. Well, sort of laps. The pool had no lane lines, and was very murky. When you add the murky water to the fact that there were none of the normal black "Ts" on the walls, you end up with some smashed fingertips. I never gave much thought those black Ts, but its kind of like your thumb...you never know how much you need it until you smash it with a hammer. Anyway, the other fun thing about this pool was the design. Uh, not 25 yards, and not square. The hot tub jutted out in a circular fashion and there were some wide-ass stairs, so that on one end, there was about 18 inches of flat wall to attempt to make a turn. So, after giving up hope of doing a 3000, I decided to just swim for 45 min straight. Other than the fact that I had to swim in a semi-diagonal direction to get to my "turning area" and the fact that I could go down and back in about 20 seconds, it wasn't too bad. I did manage 45 min, but had to dodge many other pool entrants who were so shocked to see me doing more than talking or splashing that they pretended I wasn't there. Wow, totally not the workout I was hoping for. But, I suppose better than nothing. If anything, it made me miss terribly my Sunday swims with the club and Team A+. And my lesson learned from all of this: when a fitness center says they have a pool, well, know that not all pools are created equal.

Saturday night was enough fun that I forgot about the swim...maybe because the wedding and reception were at a winery??? :) Damn good wine, damn good party, and, oh yeah, did I mention the wine?

Speaking of the wine, Sunday morning, when I got up, it was about the time that the club was meeting back in Spokane to swim. Lets just say that swimming was the farthest thing from my mind...although I did feel a little sad that I was missing it. Not like I was in any shape to swim, but, well, you know. :)

So that was my weekend. All in all, one good workout, one so-so workout. But the fact that I went away on a mini-vacation and got any workouts in is a big deal, so I felt good about that.

Liquid magic

About a month ago, on the recommendation from my friend Kirk, I started experimenting with a fairly new energy drink called FRS. We first tried it at IM CDA last year, and it was ok, but at the time, I was wary of adding new things to my training diet. I recently found a few different flavors at a local grocery store, and hit upon one that suited my palate, Peach Mango. Then, low and behold, at our most recent Tri Fusion meeting, Julie from FRS came to talk about their product and hand out some samples. Talk about great timing! Although I didn't get a chance to talk to Julie in person, I did use the opportunity to do some more research on this product, and I'm now hooked. If you haven't tried it, I highly recommend it. Check out more info at http://www.frs.com/ I've been testing out having some before and after workouts, as well as mid-afternoon at work, when I'm usually dragging. So far, this stuff has been absolute magic! I had a can yesterday about 20 min before my run, and it turned out to be a great run. While I won't give all the credit to the FRS, I am convinced that it helped. Today, I did a quick 1 mile swim at lunch, and had a can right after I got back to my office. That was about 2 1/2 hours ago, and I'm still going strong, not feeling tired like I usually do.

See, I really like this stuff! :)

Speaking of my run yesterday, it felt so good to be able to get out after work and run outside. It seems like its been forever since I've been able to do that, between the seasons and my injury. It was just like old times! I only did 4 miles, but still managed to go sub-8s, which for right now is pretty good for me. My foot didn't hurt, but it was still a little sore/tired. But I'm learning that I just need to deal with it, be careful, and get thru it, because I just need to log some serious running miles. I've actually found that by making slight adjustments in my gait every now and then, I can reduce the discomfort during the run, so that's encouraging. I guess you could say that I'm learning to be comfortable with the discomfort.

My swim today was also awesome. I did a descending mile, which sort of turned into a time trial, and my time seemed to be pretty quick. I'm curious to see how much I improve over the next few months, so I think I'm going to do this workout every few weeks. Taking out the rest I took, I estimated that I swam the mile in about 27:30 today. I'll take that any day!!

Easter swimming

OK, so now I know that less writing on the workout board, does not equate to an easier workout.

See...4 sets, one of which is a semi-warmup...should be no problem, right?

HA!!! Today's swim was an arm-burner. I made it thru the first 1000 ok, then the 250's took it out of me. So the last 10 100's were absolute torture....but, I made it, and didn't have to sit out any 50's, so, here's to small victories.

I have to give some big-time kudos to my buddy, Steve. He swam with us in the A Lane today, and only had to sit out 200 total. Out of 3750. This is the guy who was not thinking he would be able to move up to our lane for another 2 or 3 weeks. And he's only sitting out 200 of 3750 with Roger leading??? And then, after we finished up, Steve decides that he owes somebody those 200, so he proceeds to knock out a 200, immediately after the 10 gut-busting 100's! Damn....

And of course, to my A+ teammate Jessi....thanks for pulling me thru today :) Uh, and yesterday, on the bike :) Lastly, to my other A+ teammate, Tiffany: We missed you today! It was only 2/3 of the fun we normally have.

For proof that the workout didn't totally kill me, this is after, and I'm still smiling (albeit weakly) The 4 guys on my left and right totally kicked my butt today.....

W-w-w-workout with a c-c-c-clock

And that's what happens when you try and type with frozen fingers. Which is how my Saturday started. I got up early and bundled up for a short ride over to the site of this year's Tri-Fusion Workout with a Clock. I never knew just how cold your hands can get in only 4 miles of riding, but by the time I arrived, they were just about frozen. Even though it was clear and sunny, I don't think it was above 30 degrees. Yikes. But, I'm pretty proud of myself for getting out there and doing this "race", because anyone that knows me knows how much I dislike being cold.

Anyway, after waiting for it to warm up and to see how many people would be man enough to show up, it turned out that there were only 7 of us crazy enough to do it.

The start.....from L: Steve, me, Jessi, Tracie, Jim, Eric, Roger

I actually got fairly warmed up on the first run, which was good because after my bike over to the start, I was worried about being cold on the bike. But the bike turned out to be an awesome ride. After a fairly successful T1 (no falling, and I tried out my shoes on bike trick for the first time...good, but still needs work), I was quickly caught by Steve and Jessi. I got on their wheels and we had a good little pace line going, because, hey, the race director didn't say anything about drafting! :) I did a little of the pulling, but not as much as I should have.... Then we caught Eric, so we ended up having a nice, quick bike. I think we averaged about 20mph, which I'm pretty happy with at this point in the year. My T2 was decent, considering I had gloves and many many layers on. The second run felt surprisingly OK, except for the fact that I still haven't figured out how to run downhill. I put some time into Steve on the uphill out to the turnaround, then watched him pull away and smoke me on the downhill....nice work, dude!!!

Even so, I was still smiling at the finish, and had managed to even lose one of my 18 layers!

It was a great day, and I also have to give out some big-time thanks to Matt who volunteered to hold my bike in T1 and catch it in T2...thanks buddy!!! And also to Mark and the wonderful volunteers who froze their butts off so that we could get a workout in. You guys are awesome!!!

Later in the afternoon, I was supposed to meet up with Jen and Zach to do a brick out in CDA, but that plan fell apart, which in the grand scheme of things probably wasn't a bad thing. One hard effort per day is probably sufficient at this point.......And then I looked at the Scates' pictures of their ride out there, and they looked cold while they were trying to navigate the snow on the roads! :) Oh well, I guess my first ride on the IM course will have to wait.......

Thursday workouts

Today was the first time in awhile that I did 2 workouts, and it felt great. Since I'm getting ready for Ironman #3, I know that doing one workout per day just won't cut it, so lately I've been feeling like a slacker. But I also realize that I'm still in recovery mode from last week, so I just have to trust that my training will come around eventually, and that I need to be healthy for that to happen.

At lunch, I made it down to the pool and got a 45 min swim workout in, which is significant only because I did it all by myself...no one else to get me to the workout, no one to motivate me to do it. However, it turned out to be a tough swim. I knew I'd only have time to get in about 2000m, and the last 1000 felt like I was swimming in molasses! Oh well, the important thing was to get that second mid-week swim in, and I did it!

After work, I went up to the Gallagher's for the non-headlamp headlamp run. Thank goodness for daylight savings time!

Here's the crew sans lights.....

I was super happy that Andy decided to come along and run with the group, knowing that she was probably nervous about running with the triathletes and being too slow to run with us. But she did it, found some great company to run with, and had an awesome time. See, she's smiling!!

I am very proud of Andy for taking a leap and getting out there!

My run was darn tough, but a good one to kind of shock my system back into running. I ran with Jessi, Steve Rupe and Jeff Blackwell. When we started, Jessi said she was going to do a 45 min steady run, which, eventually resembled our Sunday swims....I was hanging on for dear life. Meanwhile, Jeff, Jessi and Steve were chatting as if they were hanging out at Starbucks. But, really, I'm so glad I decided to hang with them, because I absolutely love running with faster people and putting in some solid miles. It was also a good barometer of my running fitness, which, duh, sucks right now. So, now I know what I need to work on!

Even after the gut-buster, I did manage a smile or two.... :)

The best workout partner in the world.....thanks AP for coming!!!

Back to the pool!

I just finished up a pool workout with the EWU Tri kids, and it turned out to be a really good swim. After Sunday, I was worried that I had maybe lost some of that precious "swim fitness" that I have worked so hard to gain, but for now, it appears that I am bouncing back pretty well. I did 400m/100m repeats, and I was totally psyched that the 400s seemed to just fly by. Now I can't wait to get to Sunday and see how I'm doing in relation to the Mornings with Martin crew. Today's workout was also significant because this week is the first I've had since January without my scheduled swim class. So I am now totally on my own to get my butt to the pool mid-week, which in the past has been a major hurdle. OK, so its only one swim, but I'm really hoping that I can keep my momentum going by getting in 2 swims during the week.

For the rest of the week, I'm still going to take it easy and get back into it full steam slowly. Check out Roger's blog for more on this subject...he summed it up way better than I can, but I am totally relating to his struggles lately. I am really looking forward to reconnecting with the group tomorrow night at the club meeting, and then on Thursday for the "Headlamp" run.

In other exciting news, I'm happy to report that we are getting close to restarting the club's weekly "BLT" (bike loop Tuesday) rides, possibly as early as April. And, Kirk, Dave and I are working hard on putting together a long, mid-May "Workout with a Clock"....stay tuned for more on this one!!

Oh yeah, and for those keeping track, today's NY Times crossword time was 10:45. A bit slower, but hey, its Tuesday, so, its a bit tougher. Nice.

Weekend un-training

Well, another Monday, and another new NY Times crossword record! 7:55, which is now solidly faster than most of my IM transition times :) I'm going to keep that in mind this year when I'm slacking off in the transition tent!

This weekend was, as predicted, tough on my mind. To (hopefully) rid my body of any remaining nasty bugs from the previous week, I purposely did not do my planned workouts, except for an abbreviated swim Sunday morning with the club. In essence, my weekend was: LAZY. Which on the surface sounds nice, but in practice was very tough for me. Laziness begets laziness, and even though there were plenty of non-athletic things to do, once I got started down the path, I found it very hard to pull myself up out of it. As a result, it wasn't really the greatest of weekends. And as much as I love all of my training partners and hearing/reading about all their great adventures in HR elevation (races, group rides, bricks), I gotta tell you, it was kind of tough to know that I was forcing myself out of the game.

So now, I enter another tough stretch. That of being super-revved up to make up for lost time balanced with a smart, gradual return to life as an Ironman preparer. Physically, I'm feeling fine, but maybe a little tired overall, but now its the kind of tired you get when you aren't doing workouts, rather than the kind you get when you have done too many hard workouts. In hindsight, the shorter swim I did on Sunday may have worked to my advantage. I hung on in the fast lane again, and it was hard, hard, hard! Like, harder than I think it should have been. Analyzing it later, I attributed the difficulty to the fact that I'd taken a whole week off + the fact that I'd been sicker than I had been in a long time + lingering effects of said sickness + no fueling/hydrating/sleeping preparation. So, on the positive side, I think it may have killed any thoughts of jumping back into it full force. Which means that this week will be a slow progression back to it, with the hopes of having a solid, semi-intense weekend.

Tonight, I may allow myself a Guinness or two, cause, sheesh, St Paddy's Day only comes around once a year! So, here's to a happy Guinness day to all!!