It Could Be Raining

This week is looking like rain, rain, and more rain here in the Big Apple.  I have to say, rain is my least favorite weather.  I think I didn't have this bad attitude until I moved to New York and had to walk to work.  But there's just something about being wet all day long as a result of it that makes me a bit surly.  It's also why I tend to wear skirts when it's raining (so my pants don't get all wet).  I might complain about the cold, but it just doesn't seem like as big of a deal to me as rain. 

Which is why it was crazy that I excitedly woke up at 5:18 this morning to get dressed and go running in the pouring rain.  I will say, however, that I did drag my feet a tiny bit while getting ready to head outside.  Not because I didn't want to go, but I didn't want to be standing around waiting for the workout to start.  I pretty much wanted to get there and just go to the back of the line and if I missed a stride or two, it wouldn't be the end of the world! 

That's exactly what happened.  I arrived just a minute or two late, but I think I only missed one (at the most two) strides, so I still got a decent warm-up and didn't have to stand around in the rain.  There was a very small group of Terriers this morning (not surprising), but the majority of the people who were there are part of the specific marathon program, so even though I'm not part of that group, I guess it shows that marathoners are probably the only people crazy enough to get up and out there! 

Because we were such a small group today, Spencer had us all do the marathon plan workout instead of having just a few of us do the regular Terrier workout.  The "beginner" marathon workout today was 4 x 1000 meters.  I have to say I wasn't overly enthused about this, but I know the speed work stuff is good for me and it's a nice change from "regular" running, so the only thing to do was start running.

I ended up doing the intervals with another girl on the team and it was actually really nice to have someone there at my same pace.  We chatted a little bit, but mostly it was nice because it gave me a reason not to drop my pace.  I felt like I had to keep going and I definitely pushed myself a bit harder than I would have if I'd been doing it on my own. 

The rain definitely let up as time went on and of course by the time I was heading home, it had stopped completely.  I don't mind.  I figure there could be rain the day of the marathon, so I might as well get out there and practice a little bit.  After getting home I promptly took my orthotics out of my shoes and stuffed newspaper in my shoes so that they'd dry out quickly.  I'm hopeful they'll be all ready for tomorrow morning! 

Running (Run There / Strides / Run to the S)
Time: 24:11
Distance: 2.50 miles
Pace: 9:40/mile

Running (4 x 1000 meters)
Time: 21:00
Distance: 2.50 miles
Pace: 8:24/mile

Total Distance: 5.00 miles

So, since the threat of rain is still out there, although it wasn't actually raining on my way to work today, I wore the grey skirt and purple shirt.  With purple heels.  Yup.  That's right.  I actually think it works okay, too.  Which might mean that after only 9 days of this challenge, I'm off my rocker a bit?  

They really don't look all that purple though, so it's probably not quite as bad as you were imagining in your head! 

I'm also wearing my elephant hair earrings.  Drew got them for me in Namibia. The left one is what they look like from the front, but I took a picture of the back so that you could see it better.  I have a matching necklace, but that just didn't work with the neckline of the shirt today. 

That's Not What The Website Said

This morning was the usual Terrier run.  I often check the website on Monday nights or Tuesday mornings before leaving the apartment to see what is in store for the day.  Last night, the website said that the workout was 8 x 200 with 1:30 rest intervals.  So, I run to the meeting spot today, we do our normal strides warm-up and run around to the S in order to start the speedwork. 

And then Spencer tells us that our workout is actually 10 x 200 with a 200 recovery jog.  Which is more than double the website version of the workout!  We're supposed to do the first five slower than the last five.  I have to say that I'm never really the biggest fan of speedwork.  But I'm less of a fan when these recovery jogs are involved.  Mainly because I'd like to know how fast I'm actually going without factoring in the recovery jogs into the time and I don't want to have 25 numbers to add up if I time them all separately.  Plus, I don't even know if my Polar will let me save that many workouts at a time? 

So, I sort-of did what I was supposed to.  I just got tired of doing the recovery jogs and I figured I'd try to push myself more on the sprints if I knew I could have 1:30 rest instead.  I ended up doing 6 x 200 with recovery jogs and then legs 7 - 10 were done as sprints with 1:30 rest instead of 200 recovery jog.  I have to say, it's really probably not all that different time wise jogging or standing still, but it feels so much better to be standing still and trying to catch your breath. 

I definitely pushed myself today, even though the times below don't really reflect that for the speedwork portion (because of the jogging).  I could just tell it was a much harder effort than usual, especially towards the end of the workout.  I came home and was a sweaty disaster, which Drew can vouch for.  Even though it was a nice and cool 62 this morning, it was also somehow really hot for running.  I'm not even really sure how that is possible!  When I got in the shower, even though the water was really warm, it felt cool on my (very red) face, which was funny! 

Run There
Time: 13:23
Distance: 1.30 miles
Pace: 10:17/mile

Run To S
Time: 10:59
Distance: 1.20 miles
Pace: 9:09/mile

Speedwork
Time: 19:51
Distance: 2.00 miles
Pace: 9:55/mile

Run Home
Time: 5:08
Distance: 0.50 miles
Pace: 10:08/mile

Total Mileage, Including Strides: 5.50 miles

I Hate It, But It Works

This morning was the Terrier run, which I hadn't been to in a few weeks because of vacation. I ran there and we did our usual strides warm-up. We typically do two stretching strides, but today we did two new ones. The first one was to keep both legs straight, bending down and lifting one leg up, while touching your toe with your opposite arm. The second was to do straight leg kicks out in front of you. It seems like the strides are taking longer than they used to, but maybe there are just more people there now since the marathon group is there as well?

After the strides, we all ran around to the S. I ended up chatting with a girl who was there for the very first time. I hope she had a good workout. I know that my first time at Terrier I couldn't keep up and do the entire workout and I think that this girl was in the same position. I hope that she wasn't too intimidated and she comes back!

For the first time in a while, I actually did the entire workout, although it was pretty short overall. Today's workout was 3x's the following:

600 meters / Rest 1:30
400 meters / Rest 1:30
200 meters / Rest 1:00

I noticed on the very first one that most people weren't giving themselves the full rest period, which is fine, but it also makes me look even slower than I really am because I did rest the whole time, mainly to make sure I could remember my times at the end. I've accepted that I'm the slowest person there, but I hate to be misrepresented!

After the first 600 and 400, I asked another woman who was doing the walking/resting if we were done yet. She said that she thought that the first 600 felt like 6 miles. I said that I hate this speedwork stuff, but it actually seems to work. I hate when stuff like that happens.

Even though I might have been complaining in my head, it was actually nice to be back with the team and have someone tell me what to do instead of just following along with Hal Higdon. Plus, the speedwork was a nice change from just long, slow running. Not that I'm speedy, by any stretch of the imagination!

Run To Park
Time: 13:37
Distance: 1.30 miles
Pace: 10:28/mile
Calories: 111
Maximum HR: 173 (82%)
Average HR: 158 (75%)

Run To S
Time: 10:43
Distance: 1.20 miles
Pace: 8:55/mile
Calories: 111
Maximum HR: 192 (91%)
Average HR: 181 (85%)

Speedwork
Time: 20:25
Distance: 2.25 miles
Pace: 9:04/mile
Calories: 307
Maximum HR: 187 (88%)
Average HR: 172 (81%)

Run Home
Time: 5:06
Distance: 0.50 miles
Pace: 10:11/mile
Calories: 46
Maximum HR: 176 (83%)
Average HR: 170 (80%)

Total Distance (including strides): 5.75 miles

Can You Call It Marathon Training?

If you don't have a plan? Because that's what happened this morning. I'm thinking that I'd like to do something like run Tuesday and Wednesday, brick on Thursdays, long run Saturday and quick recovery on Sunday. That might all end up being too much running and I'm sure there are weeks where it won't work out perfectly, but I still have to find a plan that fits in with that and I really need a plan so that I can figure out the weekly mileage goals I should have!

I went to Terrier practice this morning and figured I'd just do whatever that workout was and call it a day. After doing our normal strides, we were told that the regular workout was a 4-5 mile tempo run. We should start out easy and then try to pick up the pace for the last 15-20 minutes. I'm not entirely sure I did that, but I tried.

While I was running today and saw all of my teammates pass me by in a hurry, I was thinking about what I had gotten myself into by signing up for this marathon. The good news is that I don't have any illusions about winning or placing in my age group or anything like that. I'd also like to think that I won't be the last person to finish the race. I guess, the truth is, that even if I am DFL, I will have still finished, right?

I think that is my main goal for this first marathon of mine. To not worry about a time goal, but to reach the finish line. I think that'll take a lot of pressure off my back to be speedy or feel like I'm not speedy enough if I can get through this first marathon. Then, next year at New York, I can worry about beating my own personal record. Maybe that's a extra great reason to take it slow in Philly! Then I can crush my PR next year in New York!

Run #1 (To The Park)
Time: 12:50
Distance: 1.25 miles
Pace: 10:16/mile
Calories: 100
Maximum HR: 165 (78%)
Average HR: 153 (72%)

Run #2 (Tempo Run)
Time: 44:52
Distance: 4.50 miles
Pace: 9:58/mile
Calories: 414
Maximum HR: 180 (85%)
Average HR: 169 (80%)

Running For Free

Last night I dragged my feet on the Ab Challenge, but I'm happy to report that I stuck with it and did the full 15 minutes that were part of the Challenge. I'm not sure I'm in love with this Challenge, but that's probably why it's called a Challenge!

This morning was the usual Terrier run. They sent us an e-mail last night saying that we should all wear our Terrier gear as they had arranged for us to get some free Shot Bloks and Clif Bars and they wanted send a photo of all us in our gear as a Thank You! I wore my Terrier short-sleeved shirt in order to support the team.

I ran from the bottom of the Park to the meeting spot since I thought I might be running a little bit late (I didn't wear a watch today). Turns out that I had plenty of time, but it was a nice little run anyway. I thought that we'd take a photo at the beginning of the run, but it turned out that they wanted to take the photo at the end. We did our normal drills and strides and then ran around to the S.

Today's workout was a speed/interval workout. It was 2 x 800 / 2 x 600 / 2 x 400 / 2 x 200 meters. The rest intervals were descending as the running intervals got shorter. I knew that I wasn't going to stay the whole time today because I wanted to get home in time to do the Ab Challenge this morning before I had to get ready for work.

Before I switched into my new shoes, I had noticed some shin pain in my left leg. I thought that over the weekend it had gone away, but today it was back. I figured that was another good reason to cut the workout short. I ended up doing 2 x 600 and 2 x 200, so not a whole lot, but an extra mile to the day.

I got home and was able to do 20 minutes of Ab Challenge before hopping in the shower. I'm surprised that it's 6 days in already! I had to re-inflate the Swiss Ball a little bit more this morning as it was starting to lose some of the air, but that was easy enough. I'm getting a little bit bored with some of the normal exercises, so I threw in some others today. I also did a Pilates 100 while holding the ball in between my legs (up in the air). Boy, that was hard!

All in all, a pretty good morning. I think I only ended up doing 3 miles of running today plus strides. I think that tomorrow I'm going to head to the gymnasium with Drew so that I can do some foam rolling at the end of the workout on my shin. Hopefully that will help with whatever this pain is!

Running
Distance: ~3.50 miles

An Early Ride, A Late Ride and A Challenge

This morning I was the alternate Watchdog for the Terrier brick workout. About two weeks ago, they had sent out an e-mail saying that they needed someone to volunteer to watchdog this week and I wrote back saying that since I was the alternate, I was planning on being there anyway. So, I woke up at 4:30, ate, pumped up my bike tires, and headed to the Park.

Except it turned out that they didn't need me. Both of the original people who were assigned showed up and one of the original people had brought a friend. I figured that meant I could go ahead and leave since I was just the alternate, so that's what I did. I actually called Drew as well since we had talked about riding bikes after I was done with my Watchdog duties, I thought I'd see if he wanted to bike earlier. He was working on some work stuff when I called, so I ended up just going back home, which was fine with me. I was a little annoyed that I got up so early to ride 3 miles, but it was fine. We ended up watching some TV and falling back to sleep on the couch for a couple of hours before heading to work.

Since neither of us got a workout in today, we thought that maybe we should do something after work. I suggested that we go for a ride on the Westside Path since we didn't go biking this morning. It was my first time riding up the new and improved portion of the Path (so you don't have to actually enter Riverside Park anymore). It might have actually been just as crowded as the Park part was and going this way means you miss a hill, but it was nice to ride on that newly paved path!

Somewhere along the way, we passed a guy with a hard plastic cast over his left leg, who had a bike helmet, but it was just attached to the front handlebars. He didn't think he needed it on his head, I guess. This cast guy apparently was not happy that we passed him, because for the next few miles, we played cat and mouse with him. Every time we passed him, he'd speed up and pass us back. It was all pretty ridiculous if you asked me. Finally, we ended up making a silly little three-some of Drew, crazy cast guy and me bringing up the back. I actually was a little afraid a couple of times that he'd brake suddenly and I'd go flying, but it ended up being fine.

I almost had a heart attack going up the big hill by the bridge. I made it up to the top just as some other girl was getting on her bike and she sort-of darted out and almost blocked the whole path. My heart was already beating pretty fast from the effort of climbing up the hill and when she darted out, I just got really startled, which didn't help any. Shortly after that, we decided to just turn around and head home and not go the extra mile or so to the end of the path.

I spent a lot of time biking behind Drew and at some point I became convinced he was wearing my socks. Not that it's a big deal, I just thought it was funny. When I mentioned it to him, he looked down at his feet and rode his bike off the edge of the Path into the grass. It's not that big of a deal, it's probably about an inch drop, but in that split second where he was swerving and weaving, I thought for sure he'd wipe out. Luckily, he's a pretty good biker and was able to get back on the Path without any bumps or bruises. I felt pretty bad about making him lose his concentration.

I tend to do a lot of thinking on the bike. Today I realized that I'm not too worried about my own biking abilities or biking in a straight line or all that, but I am concerned about everyone else. I guess it's not unlike driving a car. I know I'm a decent driver, but everyone else on the road is crazy. And there were definitely some crazy bikers out there today!

The other thing I thought about on the bike today was doing an Ab Challenge. I've been thinking about doing this for a while now. To be honest, I think I gained a couple of pounds when I broke my arm and while I know you can't spot treat pounds or fat, I figured that doing some ab work would help me overall with swimming, biking and running. I also really liked doing Pilates with Nicole last year, but it's not really an expense I can afford right now to have private lessons, so I figured I could do some things by myself.

So, since I had been thinking about this for a while, I knew that I wanted to make the Challenge realistic. I didn't want to start it and then not be able to finish it for various reasons, so I thought that I should challenge myself to do 15 minutes of core work every day for two weeks. And on the bike, I realized, what am I really waiting for? If I'm going to do this for two weeks, I don't need to start on a Sunday. I can start tonight!

So, when we got home, we made dinner and then I (with Drew's help) pumped up my Swiss ball, got out my $2.00 Swiss ball exercise book that I got at TJMaxx and started reading. I actually really like the book. There are lots of exercises and they fully explain them all with beginner, intermediate and advanced variations. Then, at the back of the book, there are little workout plans. Not a bad value for $2.99. For two weeks of workouts, that's only $0.21 per workout! Hard to beat that!

These are the exercises I did with the ball tonight:

Sitting Balance - sit, lift one foot off the floor for a count of 5
Abdominals - sit, lean back slightly, hold for count of 5, roll back to seated
Toe Taps - sit, tap toes on one foot 10 times
Back Extensions - sit, roll forward on ball, rock back and forth for count of ten (ball on lower back)
Hip Circles - sit, swivel each way 5 times
Hamstring Stretch
Gluteal Stretch
Cat Stretch (like yoga, hands on ball)
The Swan - lie on ball, push pelvis into ball and lift head slightly
Bottom Toner (intermediate) - lie on ball, lift both legs while clenching butt!
Basic Crunches - lie on floor, legs on ball

This ball thing reminds me a lot of pilates and how you keep your own stomach muscles clenched while doing other exercises. I really enjoyed it and think that this could be a good challenge for me. I think that I spent about 20 minutes doing these exercises and I did them all while watching TV! I asked Drew if he wanted to join the challenge and he said that he didn't really want to but he thought he could probably benefit from some more core exercises. But, then he didn't do anything, so when I've got a 6 pack in 14 days (ha ha!) he can just be jealous!

Biking
Time: 1:11:30
Distance: 14.85 miles
Pace: 12.46 MPH

Total biking for the day: 17.86 miles

Message Received

First, a little background. I bought myself new running shoes over a month ago. I've used them once since then, just before the NYC Triathlon. It didn't go all that well. I kept having issues with my orthotics sliding around and the laces being too tight. Based on that, I decided to just keep wearing my old shoes. I wore them for the Triathlon and I've been wearing them since then.

Today was the day where the old shoes decided to send me a message. The message? Retire us! Now! Drew and I went to the Park together this morning (he had a plan of running 4 miles around the Park and to the gym and then doing some lifting) and I was heading to the Terrier run. We parted ways at the bottom of the Park and I headed up the West side while he went East. I'm still not really sure why we didn't run together, but I'm assuming that Drew wanted to just run at his own pace instead my slow pace.

I knew almost instantly that my shins were not going to be happy with me today. I ran the few minutes up to the meeting spot for practice and already my shins were hurting. Mostly my left one. It was actually feeling okay while we did the strides and drills like normal, but I wasn't sure it was the best idea to attempt the entire workout today.

The planned workout was a 5 mile tempo run. Which sounded a bit like torture with old shoes and an aching shin. I decided to nix that idea and do a three mile run, including running home. I thought that seemed like quite enough. The temperature was actually bearable this morning, which was a nice change and made me wish I had been wearing my new shoes as it would have been nice to run for a longer time.

Those shoes have now done their duty and will be retired properly. Time to get out the new shoes. It's one of those things where I've just been avoiding fussing over getting the speed laces just right. I sort-of feel like Goldilocks with those speed laces. I wish there was a way to make them perfect on the first try. Instead, right now, they're too tight on my foot, but if they're not that tight the orthotics were slipping all around. But, now that I know I'm stuck wearing these new shoes, I'll be forced to get it right.

I haven't really been timing myself while running recently. Or looking at my heart rate or calories or any of that other fancy data. What I do know is that I started running somewhere around 6:25 and I got home just before 7:00, so doing the math, it seems like it was 3 miles in about 30:00 minutes. Sounds like a good day to me.

Running
Time: ~30:00
Distance: 3.00 miles
Pace: 10:00/mile

New York City Triathlon

I got up this morning around 4, ate a Clif bar, drank some Gatorade, got dressed and jumped into a cab to get to transition. I got to transition around 5 and snapped this photo of how crazy and crowded our (yellow) transition area was. There are two transition areas, so this is only about half of the participants in the race.


I had to drop my bike off on Saturday and knew that transition was really crowded, so I packed really light for transition. That meant that I was able to set-up really quickly. I had also remembered that I hadn't put my bike in an easy gear, which they recommend for the bike out since there is a steep hill almost right away. Luckily, since your back wheel is hanging up in the air, it was really easy for me to spin my tires and change gears so I'd be all set for T1.

I wanted to take a picture of my transition area so that I could show you the girl next to me on the left. When I was setting up, I thought that maybe she was doing an Iron-distance race instead of an Olympic. It just seemed like an awful lot of bananas and Gu-related items for a total of 32 miles. Not to mention how much space she was taking up, which somehow only expanded over the course of the race. I'm sure she smelled good with her deodorant there, though!


After setting up, I found Laura and we chatted for a bit. We snapped this picture, where I think that I look totally asleep still. I'm not sure I was quite ready to do a triathlon quite yet!


Laura and I met up with Bruce, who was in the red transition area and the three of us walked the mile to the swim start. By the time we got there, I was ready for a bathroom break, so I went to find the port-a-potties and waited in line. Right after that, I heard the National Anthem, so I knew the race was just about to start. I was able to watch the pros and elites start their races. It was really awesome to see the pro men all swim together. They sort-of all formed a pack behind the leader (sort of like geese flying together).

After that, it was time to get my wetsuit on. I had worn some $2.50 flip-flops up to the race start, so I was able to just throw them away. Otherwise I would have had to collect my stuff at the end of the race and after San Francisco, I really wasn't in the mood for that. Once I had my suit on, I was almost regretting the fact that I had decided to wear one. The water was 76 degrees and it was at least that warm out of the water as well. As soon as I put the suit on, I was really hot and I couldn't wait to get into the water.

We were all lined up along the water's edge and moved up as the waves in front of us started their waves. There was a rope in the water that people were holding onto, while other people were sitting on the barge edge and jumped in once the gun went off. I saw that people who weren't holding onto the rope at the start were having trouble getting past the rope once they started. They sort-of got stuck in between the barge and the rope. Because the current was pretty strong, the people holding onto the rope were being pulled out pretty far into the water.

That meant that when I got out onto the barge for my wave, I was looking for the rope about a foot to two feet out in the water. Except that it was right against the barge. It was just the current that was pulling it out so far. One girl jumped in right away and did not hold onto the rope. She really had to struggle to get back to the barge and hold onto the rope. That seemed like a good sign for the swim downstream! I really made sure to grab onto the rope before I jumped into the water. I didn't want to be swept downstream too soon! This is my swim wave, I'm somewhere in the middle here, but you can see how far the current was pulling us away from the barge.


Pretty soon, the horn sounded and we were off. I thought the swim just went okay. Even though it's just a straight shot, there wasn't really anything to sight, so I had trouble with that. I felt like I was weaving a bit, but I finally was able to find a line and just stuck to that. About half-way through the swim, I felt my fingers on my left hand dig into something (non-human) in the river. I freaked out for about 5 seconds, stopped, and realized that it was a huge stick floating in the water. I mean, I was swimming in the Hudson River. I wasn't really scared, but I was hoping it wouldn't be anything too gross!

I felt good during the swim. I had passed a couple of the people in the wave ahead of me, so that felt like it was a good sign. When I got out of the water, I looked down at my watch and realized that I had pressed the wrong button at the start and had not started my watch. Oops. That was going to make it a more interesting day. Here's me looking at my watch realizing that nothing had happened.


When I got up to the path to T1, I took off my swim caps and wiped off my mouth right away. Last year, there were lots of people with black icky stuff from the River all over their faces and I didn't want that to be in all my pictures. So, here's a picture of me wiping my face:


Drew, Ann and Eric were all waiting there to cheer me onto T1. The run to T1 really wasn't that bad. It's about 720 meters from the swim exit to T1, and I was worried that the concrete would hurt my feet, but I really didn't notice it at all.




T1 was fine. I took my wetsuit off the rest of the way and then put my helmet on right away. Then I put on some sunscreen. Drew was nice enough to get my the spray kind, so I sort-of sprayed and hoped for the best. I put on socks, shoes, sunglasses, grabbed my bike and was off.






I was glad that my bike was in the easier gear on the hill up to the road for the bike ride. There were definitely some people having trouble in front of me, but I didn't have any issues. I saw my Terrier coach, Robert, right after getting out of T1 and also our friend Matt. That Robert yelled at me to make sure I was smiling and that was a good reminder to just have fun out there.

The bike ride was fine. I didn't know what to expect, but it was mostly rollers. It actually was nice that it was an out and back course so you knew where the uphills would be on the way back. I got up to 32.4 MPH as my max speed and I definitely got close to that a couple of other times as well. The rollers made for really good downhills and long uphills. Even though I went really fast a few times, I spent a lot of time going a lot slower than that, too!


The course was really crowded. There was one lane for each direction and it was packed. I felt like I was drafting the entire ride, but so was everyone else. I wasn't worried about getting a penalty, because it seemed like I wasn't the only person out there having this problem. Maybe the pros had a clear field, but us middle-of-the-packers certainly did not!


Somewhere around Mile 12 I realized that I had perhaps over-hydrated for the race and I really had to pee. I really had to think about peeing on the bike, but decided against it. I really, really thought about it. If only I didn't have a white bike seat, I think I probably would have. That's probably a good reason to keep the white seat.

It was somewhere around Mile 18 that I was about ready to be off the bike. I haven't ridden 25 miles in quite a while and I was realizing that it's longer than you think it is (it might be bad to realize that in the middle of a triathlon!). The bike course wasn't the most exciting and it's usually on the bike that I wonder why in the heck I sign up for these types of these things. I was really surprised to see Drew and Eric as I was heading back on the bike. It was somewhere around 79th Street (before the turn-around at 57th Street). I was really excited to see them there as it was a total surprise.




When I got to the turn-around point, which the guy at the meeting had said was about a mile from transition, I was getting really annoyed. I realized that I was almost to 25 miles and that I think the bike course was long. Plus, by this point, I really had to pee.

When I got back to transition, my bike computer said 25.95 miles, so almost a mile long. I changed shoes, grabbed my hat and race belt, re-applied sunscreen and ran out. Or, almost out. I ran past the port-a-potties thinking I could hold it, but then decided that was a bad idea. I looked in two port-a-potties before realizing that none of them had toilet paper and since I had already peed in my wetsuit this morning what was going to be the difference now if I didn't use TP? (Oh the rationality of a triathlete).

Upon exiting T2, I grabbed a cup of Cytomax and headed out for the run. There was a big group of Terriers (not racing) at the run start on 72nd Street, which was awesome to have my team mates cheering for me! These are the pictures they snapped of me just starting the run.



The run was hot. I had noticed at some point on the bike that all of sudden it just got a lot hotter outside and I wasn't looking forward to the run in the heat. Right as I entered the Park on 72nd Street, I saw Ann and then not long after that, I saw Drew and Eric.





Right after seeing them, I saw Aaron Scheidies (a blind triathlete). I had seen him pass me on the bike and when I saw him on the run course, he was walking with his guide after finishing the race. I told him that he had a great race and we ended up chatting for a minute. He's an MSU grad (like me!) and he wished me well. I think that it's amazing that these athletes with disabilities have overcome so much and also do triathlons. Super inspirational. Especially when they beat you in the race!

After that, I just concentrated on executing my run plan. I walked through every single aid station and took a cup of water at each one. It was hot and I was running slow, but I was doing the best I could under the conditions. I was talking to Drew about it after the fact and I admitted that I did have to take a couple of walking breaks (mostly 5-20 seconds), so I feel like I went with my original plan and with the heat, I'm not sure I could have pushed myself much more. The main thing that I really concentrated on was to keep swinging my arms. I learned when I was doing all my power walking that if I swing my arms, I'm more likely to start running than if I just stop and walk regularly, so I don't think I lost that much ground by taking my walking breaks.

The biggest problem with the run was that by mile 1.5, I was chafing from my tri top. This happened to me at Westchester too, and I knew that I wasn't in the mood for it today. I ended up just taking off my top and running in my sports bra, not really caring how I looked. The only problem with that? No one really cheers for you when you're the girl in the pink sports bra (that totally clashes with your red running hat and fancy red manicure!).

I think that in miles 2-6, I really realized how nice it is to be a part of a team. Especially a NYC based team. Because I was getting a lot more cheers and encouragement when I appeared to be a part of Terrier. I have to say, though, that I ended up with nickel-sized circles (from the chafing) under my arms. I don't know that I could have stood anything more for a few more cheers here and there. I ended up seeing Ann and then Drew and Eric again almost at the finish line.


And before I knew it, I was done! I thought I might have finished in under 3:30, but I couldn't be sure because I hadn't started my watch at the swim and when I got to the finish line, the clock was broken (you can see them fixing it with the ladder in the photos below). That made it a lot harder to know my final time. I had to wait for the results to be posted online.





And I did it! I freaking did it! My total time: 3:22:00! Whoo hoo! I know I could have had a shorter T2 if I hadn't had to pee and if it had been 10 degrees cooler, I bet I could have had a faster run, but you know what? It doesn't matter! I totally smashed my goal. Plus, it's a PR! I know that I was pretty wishy-washy about whether or not I should do this race this year and I have no regrets. I'm so happy I did it. It was a blast. It's nice to not have to travel at all for a race.

I know that some people might say that it wasn't a real PR because the current in the Hudson is so helpful, but you know what? That's the race course. Every race is different and every year is different. I don't think that the fast swim takes away anything from my race. I finished smiling with no broken bones, so I think all of that makes it a huge success!

After the race, I met Drew and Eric at the family waiting area, ate my bagel and orange and then we headed out of the Park.


Drew and I headed back to transition, but I realized when we got there that we got there too early. Transition didn't open until 11 (because there were still people out on the course). We definitely saw a couple of people just entering transition (T2) while we were waiting. I know I was glad to be done and not starting the run around 11! Whew. That just sounds hot.

All in all, so happy to have done the race. I'm not really sure what the rest of the summer holds for me now that Timberman is out of the picture, but I've got some ideas up my sleeve! Plus, I'll be planning 2011 soon, I'm sure!

The official results:
Swim
Time: 19:25
Distance: 0.90 miles
Pace: 1:10/100
Bike
Time: 1:44:29
Distance: 25.0(+) miles
Pace: 14.3 MPH
Run
Time: 1:06:16
Distance: 6.20 miles
Pace: 10:41/mile
Total Time
3:22:00

Quick Brick

I decided to take Wednesday as a rest day. I am supposed to be tapering, after all. My legs were a little tired after running Monday night and Tuesday morning and Wednesday off was exactly what they needed. Robert gave us a more specific workout for the brick this morning, but I went off the rough estimates of that workout and made my own.

I decided that I'd just really take it easy today. Not push myself on the bike. The difference between 15 MPH and 14 MPH really isn't that much in the scheme of things and I want to keep my legs moving, but also fresh for Sunday. Mostly what I worried about on the bike was using my new water cage. Since one of mine fell off in San Francisco and I got a new cage last Sunday, I wanted to make sure I was comfortable using it before the race. In the interest of nothing new on race day and all that. I know I'll need both water bottles for the race and this new one seems to actually be easier to get the bottle in and out than the old one.

I got off my bike after doing not quite two full loops of the Park. I was just going by the time (45-50 minutes) rather than miles, which was actually a nice change. I wish I could just stop riding after 1:30:00 on Sunday! I got off the bike and changed shoes as quickly as possible. And then started running.

I felt like I was going really slowly. But, I told myself to just keep swinging my arms and my legs would keep moving. It's crazy how such a small thing can be so helpful. I knew that the run for today wasn't very long, so I just wanted to concentrate on keeping myself moving on tired legs off the bike. It was easier than I had thought it would be.

Part of what motivated me was that when I made the turn to go back down the east side of the Park, there were two or three girls behind me who just kept talking about what they were going to do on Sunday (at the race) and this that and the other thing. I sort of wanted to turn around and punch one of them since they were really annoying, but instead I just concentrated on my running and staying ahead of them. It would have been more annoying to be passed by them!

They actually stopped running on the 72nd Street transverse near the fountain. They're part of another tri club that does their brick workouts near where we do them. I have to say that in that moment, I was really glad that Robert makes us run the finish of the race. It's probably about another half-mile from where they stopped to the actual finish line and I can imagine that since I'm all prepared for that, that I have a slight edge over them mentally. And this is all a mental sport sometimes, right?

Maybe it was good those annoying girls were on my tail since it turned out to be a pretty good (short) run for me! I was a little worried after my slow pace on Monday, but this seems back to normal!

Biking
Time: 49:03
Distance: 11.65 miles (14.70 total)
Pace: 14.25 MPH

Running
Time: 24:07
Distance: 2.60 miles
Pace: 9:16/mile

No Watches, Just Smiles

This morning I got up and went to the Terrier run practice. I knew that it would be a really short and quick speed workout, which I thought would be exactly what my legs needed after last night's run with Drew. We did our normal strides, which I thought took longer than usual. I think we definitely did more of them than normal!

After that, we took the short-cut through Sheep's Meadow and ran to the S. The taper workout for NYC was 8 x 200 meters. Easy-peasy. Before we started, Spencer said that he didn't want to see any watches today. No one was to look at their times. We should all just go out and take it easy today. And, most importantly, we should be smiling at all times!

I was fine with this no watch plan, since that was pretty much my plan anyway. I just wanted to get my legs moving. The 8 x 200 went by pretty quickly (we did 200 meter recovery jogs in between), so it was a quick two miles in total.

After everyone was done with the workout, Robert and Spencer called everyone over for a meeting about the race. Mainly the running portion. Spencer told us that he thinks that we're the best trained tri group in the city, and that's not just his ego talking. He knows how hard we all work, even when we're not at the group workouts. Then he gave us a great pep-talk about the run for the triathlon. He said that we're all more than capable of running the entire 10K. We all know the Park like the back of hands. This is our backyard and we can stay strong. We just need to remember to keep swinging our arms. As long as we do that, our legs will follow.

The other thing that Spencer really stressed is that we need to have a plan. He said that he hates when people are just "trying to survive" the run. He said that we should really think about what we're doing and then go execute the plan. Our legs will be tired, but we can do it and finish strong (while smiling, of course!).

Now I just have to figure out exactly what the plan is...

Running
Time: ?
Distance: ~ 4.00 miles

Expect This And Worse

Although this morning wasn't quite as hot as the past few days (it was only 76 at 5:30), when Robert got to practice this morning, he said, "Expect this and worse for race day." Golly, that makes me feel great about doing NYC. I'm trying to remember why I thought doing a triathlon in the middle of July was a good idea?

I didn't pay attention to the workout today. Well, I did a little bit. We were supposed to bike for 50 minutes and run for 30 minutes. The biking part involved a lot of percentages (like 10 minutes at 75% then 5 minutes at 80% then five minutes at 90% ... blah blah blah). I figured I'd just go out there and do my best. I always sort of think that those five minute increments take care of themselves in the Park between the hills and the recovery down hill.

The bike ride went really well, I thought. I'm still somehow on this kick of averaging over 15 MPH, which is crazy and awesome. I don't, however, have too high of hopes for the triathlon. I actually don't really know what the course is like when you head north out of the city. I know that going south will be fast and flat, but I'm fine with the element of surprise.

For today's run, we were supposed to head north from 72nd Street up to the Reservoir, then head back south back to 72nd Street, run around Cherry Hill fountain and then to Dead Road. All of this is a mini simulation of the NYC Triathlon run course. I actually would like to run the whole course before the race, if possible. Maybe Friday or Sunday?

I actually felt pretty good on the run today. My shins were a little tired during the first mile or so, but then started to feel just fine. I was wondering if that was the first indication that my running shoes are biting the dust and I should switch to the new shoes that I bought but haven't used yet. I guess I probably should decide that this week so I'm not using brand new shoes for the first time during the race. Hopefully I can take the new ones for a test drive this weekend.

After I was done with today's run, I was so happy to get back on the bike. It was so much cooler on the bike than on the run! Of course, I didn't notice that while I was actually biking. When I left the Park at 7:00, the temperature had crept up to 80, so it's good to know that it can go up so quickly that early in the morning. Right now the 15 day forecast says that the high on July 18 is 90, so I guess this is all good training for race day.

Biking
Time: 48:20
Distance: 12.50 miles (15.65 miles total)
Pace: 15.52 MPH
Calories: 406
Maximum HR: 173 (82%)
Average HR: 160 (75%)

Running
Time: 26:28
Distance: 2.75 miles
Pace: 9:37/mile
Calories: 258
Maximum HR: 195 (92%)
Average HR: 175 (83%)

First, It's Humid Out

This morning Drew and I rolled out of bed and headed to the Park. I was off for my regularly scheduled Terrier run and Drew had to be at work early so he was going to go for a quick run instead of heading to the gym. We walked to the bottom of the Park and then ran north so that I could meet my people. I got to the meeting place a few minutes early and after running for less than seven minutes, I was dripping with sweat. It looked like I had swam to the meeting spot instead of running there.

We did our normal strides plus a couple of extras. I'd guess that today's strides were about 0.70 miles instead of the normal 0.50 miles. After doing the strides, Spencer had us all gather round to explain the workout for today. Again, I went with the Sprint/Olympic group instead of doing anything more. After he explained what we were doing, he said, "First, it's humid out, so your heart rate will be more elevated than usual. Second, be sure to get something in you as soon as you get home to replace all that you'll be sweating out!" I'm not sure that as I was standing there soaking wet I really needed someone to remind me that it was humid out!

The workout for that group was to do a 4-mile interval run with 2:00 running and then recovery jog in place for 1:30 until we got to the northwest corner of the 102nd Street Transverse and then we would switch to 2:00 on and 0:45 recovery jogging in place. I was talking about this with Laura and we were discussing the different types of intervals. Basically, what we did was run for 2:00 hard (at 90%) and then draw an imaginary line in the road and jog in place for 1:30 (or 0:45). Some people use this opportunity to just stand around, but I really did keep moving around during the recovery time, but I didn't make any forward progress.

I started out running with 2 other girls and actually hung with them for the first half of the workout, which was pretty impressive for me (since I'm definitely one of the slowest people on the team). We ended up doing 8 x 2:00 running with 7 x 1:30 recovery, which was 2.15 miles in 16 minutes of running (or a 7:26/mile pace).

Um, hello? What in the hell was I doing running that fast? Granted there were the rest breaks in between, but it was active recovery rest and seriously? Less than 8 minutes a mile? Who do I think I am? Maybe I really was swimming out there after all. It's the only logical explanation for my speediness.

After getting to the corner of the 102nd Transverse where we were supposed to switch to the shorter rest intervals, the other two girls went a bit ahead of me, which was fine. Eliminating that extra recovery was definitely noticeable! I finished up with 9 x 2:00 running with 9 x 0:45 recovery, which was 18 minutes of running (or a 9:13/mile pace). I knew I had slowed down a lot on the second half of the run, but I'm still pretty pleased with that pace. I'm guessing I could have pushed myself harder and kept up for the remainder of the run, but my left calf started to get a little crampy and I figured that I was in need of some electrolytes, so I should just finish at my own pace.

I also timed my walk home, just out of curiosity, really. I had taken my watch off my wrist while doing the intervals because it's a lot easier for me to look at it when I'm holding it in my hand than it is to keep turning my wrist. I also changed the HR setting so that it would show up in percentages instead of numbers so I could really concentrate on keeping my HR up at the 90% mark for the running intervals. So, I was curious to see what my HR would be while just walking home after a hard workout. Still pretty high up there.

Oh, and as an aside, I seem to have discovered a new way of sleeping that makes my left elbow (the formerly broken one) the main pressure point of my body resting on the bed. I've woken up the past few days lying on top of it and then saying to myself, "my elbow hurts." I'm hoping that some of that is humidity related (?) and that when it cools off over the next couple days, my elbow will react better.

Run There
Time: 6:39
Distance: 0.70 miles
Pace: 9:30/mile
Calories: 63
Maximum HR: 186 (88%)
Average HR: 170 (80%)

Interval Run
Time: 34:00
Distance: 4.10 miles
Pace: 8:17/mile
Calories: 561
Maximum HR: 201 (95%)
Average HR: 184 (87%)

Walk Home
Time: 15:04
Distance: 0.80 miles
Pace: 18:49/mile
Calories: 115
Maximum HR: 164 (77%)
Average HR: 149 (70%)

Is That A Triathlon Bag?

First, I'd just like to pat myself on the back for working out 4 days in a row. Something that hasn't happened in quite a long time. I definitely had to fight with myself to get out of bed this morning. Drew was working late again last night and had to be at work early again today, so it was very tempting to want to stay cuddled up with him. Instead, I got up and got ready for my brick workout.

Of course, when I get there and the first thing that Robert says when explaining the workout is, "this workout is designed to be hard", I just inwardly groaned. My legs already felt like jello just riding my bike to the Park this morning and I'm really trying to save something in them for my NYRR run tonight. Not to mention it was 80 degrees outside at 5 AM.

The format of the workout was 0.5 mile run followed by 4 miles biking. Rinse and repeat as often as you can for the next 90 minutes. I ended up doing three runs and three bikes. I was doing okay for the first run and the first bike. The second run was tough because we were supposed to be thinking about going faster each time, and I really thought about it then. (Please note that I often think about running faster, it just doesn't always happen). By the time I got back on the bike the second time, my legs were just burning.

I decided that in the interest of this run later tonight, I would back off a bit and use easier gears, which would sacrifice some speed, but I'd still get the miles in. Then I did the third run and realized that I should start wrapping things up for the day. I decided to do a third bike, but to really just use the opportunity to spin my legs out and take it easy on the way. So, I did the last 4 mile loop on the bike and then headed home.

As I was doing the last four mile loop on the bike, a guy on roller blades came up next to me and asked me if that was a triathlon bag on my back. I had my bright green Publix bag with me that I got at the Atlanta Half-Marathon Expo. I have to say, it's a great bag! It's got strips of reflective stuff down both sides, which is great for riding in the street and it also has a front pocket.

I was a bit thrown off when he asked me if my bag was a triathlon bag. Yes, I had it with me because I was doing a brick, which is triathlon related. But, I got the bag at a half-marathon expo. To me, it's mostly just a handy bag to cart my running shoes around it. And I guess if I was going to think of a triathlon bag, I'd think about one of those big transition backpacks, not this little drawstring bag that I've got! To me it's just a Publix bag. Not sport-specific.

I did pack my running stuff for tonight in the same Publix bag, so I guess maybe that makes it not a triathlon bag? Either way, I'm excited about this race tonight. It's downtown, so it'll be fun to do a race that's not in the Park. The high here today is 93 and they are saying that we have the potential for some thunderstorms later today, so I'm hoping that I don't get drenched, although that might be preferable to just regular 93 degree weather? My goal for tonight is just to run the whole race. I'm not going out there to set some sort of speed record for myself, I just want to be able to run three miles and have fun!

Running
Time: 13:27 (Run 1: 4:28 / Run 2: 4:24 / Run 3: 4:35)
Distance: 1.50 miles
Pace: 8:58/mile
Calories: 129
Maximum HR: 185 (87%)
Average HR: 174 (82%)

Biking
Time: 51:37 (Bike 1: 16:02 / Bike 2: 16:30 / Bike 3: 19:05)
Distance: 12.50 miles (14.87 miles total)
Pace: 14.50 MPH average
Calories: 446
Maximum HR: 176 (83%)
Average HR: 161 (76%)

With My People

This morning I started my week of real workouts. To top it off, it started on a very good note! When I was walking to the Terrier meeting spot, I found a dollar on the ground. I was more than happy to pick it up and stick it in my pocket! It just seemed like a good luck sign.

I got to the meeting spot about 5 minutes early. After doing a little bit of chatting, everyone headed over to do our normal strides warm-up. I didn't really pay attention or count how many we did today, although when I think back on it, I think we did just over a half-mile in strides this morning.

After the strides and drills, we took the short-cut run to the S by cutting across Sheep's Meadow instead of running all the way around on the road. Which, frankly, was fine with me. I was a little bit worried that I'd end up doing too many miles today and I wanted to make sure to keep it reasonable for the time being.

Luckily, today's workout was pretty short. I also decided to do the Olympic workout instead of the half-Ironman workout. I thought that seemed pretty reasonable for my first day back with the team! The Olympic workout was a sprint ladder workout that looked something like this:

200 meters
200 meters recovery
400 meters
200 meters recovery
600 meters / 1:00 recovery
800 meters / 2:00 recovery
800 meters / 2:00 recovery
600 meters
200 meters recovery
400 meters / 1:00 recovery
200 meters
200 meters recovery

Total distance was 4800 meters = 3.00 miles. I didn't time that part separately from the half-mile run to the S this morning, so the total distance (not including strides) was 3.50 miles. With the strides it was more like 4.00 miles. Not the worst day ever, although, ironically, I probably would have been glad to do a couple more.

Of course, I only think that in hindsight. During the second 800, my legs were burning and I wanted them to fall off my body instead of having to keep running. But, I did. The recovery time was supposed to be jogging in place, but whenever Coach Spencer tells us to do that, it consists of most people just standing around. I actually walk around, so I think it's a step above just standing there and a step below jogging in place. All in all, happy to be back to the regularly scheduled workouts. Although I think I might have to start going to bed earlier!

Running
Time: 31:52
Distance: 3.50 miles
Pace: 9:05/mile
Calories: 414
Maximum HR: 198 (93%)
Average HR: 184 (87%)

Out With The Dogs, Take 2

This morning I was the alternate watchdog for Terrier's weekly brick session. I didn't know if they'd need me or not, so I got up bright and early and headed to the Park. The nice thing? Drew tagged along too. He wanted to get in his very first brick ... ever!

At first, it was just me and another woman, Nancy. And then it ended up that there were three of us doing the watch-dogging. I had worn clothes in case I didn't have to be the alternate, and I probably could have left and gone for a walk since there ended up being three of us doing the watchdog duties, but since Drew was there, I felt obligated to stay and watch his bike since he's not part of the team and I wouldn't have wanted anyone to give him a hard time about it.

While Nancy, Tori and I were all chatting the morning away, another teammate of ours, Nick, came over to hang out for a bit. He had his arm in a sling and I asked him what had happened. Turns out he got into a bike crash and broke somewhere around 7 bones and got a concussion! The worst part is that he got into the accident by locking wheels with another Terrier while they were out doing a long ride. The good news is that he seems to be healing up pretty well so far, despite having to get some screws to hold his collarbone back in place.

I have to say that after talking to Nick and hearing all about his injury and how well he's coping with it, really made me think that this broken elbow isn't the end of the world. Nancy was telling us how she's also had to take a two-week break from training because of some back issues and I think both she and I were feeling pretty down in the dumps because of our injuries and then Nick came with his great attitude and put me to shame. I've been trying not to feel sorry for myself, but that doesn't work all of the time!

Even though it means getting up really early just to sit around, I don't mind this watchdogging business. I think Drew had a good workout, too, so in all, it was a fairly successful morning!

Out With The Dogs

Last night I went to pick up my bike from being shipped back from California. It was a tiny bit bittersweet for me since I won't be going out for any rides anytime in the near future. It was also ridiculously painful. I had a feeling that manipulating my bike into and out of the subway wouldn't be easy, but it was a lot worse that I expected.

I was almost reduced to tears after turning the turnstile with my left arm (you have to turn the turnstile even if you go through the special entrance door). Of course, after I did that, there was a cop on the platform and I figured I couldn't cry because I would look suspicious and then he'd want to search my bag and all I wanted to do was get home and rest my arm.

Riding the subway wasn't any easier either. Luckily, after two stops, I managed to snag a seat by myself, so I was able to sit down and rest my bike against my legs and I didn't have to really hold onto it anymore to prevent it from rolling around. Finally, I got home and collapsed on the couch. I did have a vague idea that maybe I would go to the gym once I got home, but my arm was just in too much pain to really consider it once I actually got home.

This morning I was the substitute watchdog for the Terrier brick. Even though I couldn't ride or run, it was still nice to see my teammates and feel as though I was still part of the team, even though I'll be taking a hiatus for a while. I chatted with the other watchdog (after last year's biting incident, they've instituted a two-person watchdog policy) and we talked about races, injuries and Radio Lab (you should really listen to the first 5 or so minutes of this podcast!). Not a bad way to start the morning, even if I did have to get up at 4:50 and didn't get a workout in.

I'll leave you with some fun doctor stuff. Here's the official report about my arm. I understand about 2% of this report:


And here's the actual MRI - I've circled the part that's the break. Apparently it's that line across the bone there:

A Good Leader

Well, I guess I should preface and say that I think we all know this isn't going to happen this week (Week 4 Planned workouts):

I think that 9 hours of training just isn't going to happen this week. And I'm 100% okay with that. I got an hour in today, I'll take tomorrow off most likely, get in another 3-4 hours Tuesday-Thursday and then travel/rest up for next Sunday's race.

I did some resting today as well. I was out late again last night, so Drew and I slept in. By the time I was up and had eaten something, I just didn't feel like doing two workouts today. Instead, I went grocery shopping, made homemade granola and started on dinner before heading to the Terrier swim.

I got to practice a little bit early and was talking to Sarah (one of our swimming coaches) about doing Alcatraz next weekend. I'm really glad that I ended up saying something because she definitely threw in a couple of things in the workout that I think will really help me on race day.

This was our workout:

Warm-Up
15 Minutes Continuous Swimming
8 x 75 (0:10 Rest)

Main Set
6 x 200 Descending (0:15 Rest)
8 x 25

Cool-Down
50 easy

Total: 2850 Yards

During the warm-up, I did a total of 800 yards (400 swim/100 kick/300 swim). The 75s were 50 swim with sighting and 25 kick. After I had done a couple of the 75s, Sarah came over and told me to really think about being at Alcatraz and trying to reach my head further out of the water as if there were high waves in the water. It definitely helped to think about that while I was in the pool.

I started in the slowest lane today (I just wasn't feeling like I was that fast) and by the time we got done with the warm-up, Sarah made me move over two lanes to workout with the "fast" people. I was in a lane with one other girl and she told me that I should go ahead and lead the lane.

Our first part of the workout was 6 x 200. On the very first one I forgot and only did 100. Oops. I didn't start out on a good foot leading my lane. The 200s were descending, so we got faster for the first three and then repeated for 4 through 6. I really pushed myself to get faster as we went on with the workout. Knowing that someone was behind me really helped me to push harder than I would have if I had been in a slower lane or not the leader.

When we finished up that set, the girl that was in my lane told me that I was a great leader, which was nice of her to say. I felt like I was having a really great swim and I know for a fact that it was because Sarah moved me over and then I ended up leading our lane. I'd been going to the later swim option at 4:30 on Sundays because it's more convenient for me to procrastinate longer, but there are fewer people there than there are at 3:30. Maybe I should reevaluate this?

We finished up with 8 x 25. On the way down the pool, we had to do head-up freestyle (another good thing to practice pre-race!). And on the way back, we had to do some breath control. The first one we got three breaths, the second two breaths, the third one breath and the last no breaths. The head-up freestyle isn't easy and I was definitely breathing hard by the end. All I wanted to do was put my head in the water and swim normally. It also made it harder to turn around and come back with so few breaths, but I managed to do it!

All in all, this was a fantastic workout for me today. I think it was a good confidence booster going into the race, which is exactly what I think I needed.

Swimming
Time: 1:00:00
Distance: 2850 yards / 1.62 miles
Pace: 37:30/mile
Calories: 632
Maximum HR: 182
Average HR: 163

10 Out Of 12 Ain't Bad

Sunday after the NYRR race, I went home, showered, ate breakfast and then Drew got home from his weekend in Florida. We ended up going together to drop my bike off, so it's on its way to California as we speak! I really can't believe that I'll be without my bike for such a long time, but it is what it is and there's nothing I can do about it now. After dropping off the bike, we ran a couple errands and then headed home. We ended up taking a nap and I decided I was too tired to go to the Terrier swim on Sunday.

I know that I probably should have gone, but I think that the triathlon I did for myself on Saturday tired me out a little bit more than I thought it would and it didn't seem like the end of the world to skip a swim. I also took yesterday as a rest day, which is usual. That meant that this morning I was ready and raring to go to the Terrier run!

I ran there and we did our normal strides, although we did a few less than normal, so the total distance was about 0.40 miles for the strides. At some point I really will time them, mainly because I'm interested about my heart rate while we're doing them, but for now I'm content to just run forward, backward and sideways on my own.

After the strides, we all ran around to the "S". I had looked at the workout yesterday, so I knew that it was going to be speed work. I have to tell you, being in the half-Ironman group isn't quite as much fun as I wanted it to be. Our workout today was to do 12 x 440 yards (0.25 miles) with a 440 yard recovery jog. I noticed on the very first one that we were starting the main portion of our workout a bit on the later side and I was probably not going to be able to do all 12 and get home in order to get to work on time.

I have to say that I really tried my best and ran as hard as I could on the first 440s. The problem was that my recovery jogs just kept getting slower and slower as time went on. Last night when I was talking to Drew about today's workout, he accused me of being a cheater on the recovery portion, so let me just say right now that there were a couple of times (three, I think?) where after running the 440 hard, I did count to 5 and walked a couple steps before starting my recovery jog back to the start. So, I jogged 99% of the time during the recoveries.

I managed to get 10 out of the 12 done before I was pushing it on getting home and being able to eat breakfast, shower, make lunch, get ready for work and get there on time. I don't feel bad about skipping out on that last mile since it was still quite a good workout!

It turns out that it doesn't get any easier to do this speed work. I was pretty beat by the end, but I still managed a nice slow jog home. Didn't hurt that I got caught at a couple of lights and was forced to stand there for a minute! Coach Spencer said that we're done with the "build" phase of the season and we're going to be doing more and more speed work in the coming weeks, which I'm not sure that I'm 100% excited about, but I don't hate it either. I think what I actually do like about it is the fact that the whole group sort-of stays together in the same area so we're constantly passing each other, which is a little bit nicer than watching everyone else sprint off into the distance with me bringing up the rear!

I've been thinking a lot about my plan for this week and next week leading up to Alcatraz. As of right now, my plan for this week is to stick with the half-Ironman plan. I'll take my usual rest day next Monday, hopefully get in some good workouts Tuesday-Thursday of next week and then take next Friday (travel day) and Saturday (SF tourist day/Giants baseball game) as rest days in order to be all ready for next Sunday's triathlon. Not your typical taper, but then again, this hasn't been the typical training nor is it really a typical triathlon!

Run To Meeting Point
Time: 12:40
Distance: 1.30 miles
Pace: 9:44/mile
Calories: 132
Maximum HR: 176
Average HR: 162

Run To S
Time: 9:03
Distance: 1.00 mile
Pace: 9:03/mile
Calories: 114
Maximum HR: 189
Average HR: 180

Running 10 x 440
Time: 49:11
Distance: 5.00 miles
Pace: 9:50/mile
Calories: 653
Maximum HR: 225 (What? Can this be right? It was hard, but not sure it was that hard!)
Average HR: 185

Run Home
Time: 7:38
Distance: 0.70 miles
Pace: 10:54/mile
Calories: 83
Maximum HR: 184
Average HR: 168

Total running mileage, including strides: 8.40 miles

Making It Up On My Own

When my alarm went off yesterday morning, I checked the weather and saw that it was a little bit cooler than I think I like it to be when biking and I decided to sleep in. I think it was the right call. My legs were exhausted just walking around yesterday, I can't imagine what they would have been like if I had gone biking too. I thought about it while I was at work and I thought that a swim might be just the thing that my legs needed. However, for the first time all year (I think) I had to stay late at work. I figured that the universe was just telling me that it should be a rest day! I don't feel bad about this at all since I skipped my normal rest day on Monday.

This morning I had a minor alarm clock malfunction (read: I pressed snooze one too many times) and was running about 10 minutes late to the Terrier brick. I have to say that I feel like it's a miracle that I got up and went this morning. I think that I normally would have told myself that since I was running late that it wasn't worth it, which definitely isn't the case. Granted, I didn't bike or run for quite as long as I did last week, but it was still a solid workout and I'm glad that I went.

Since I was late, I missed the part where Robert explained the workout. Although he had said last week that we would be doing the same thing for a while until it started to get lighter a bit earlier in the mornings. I assumed that meant ride for 50-60 minutes and run for about 20. I didn't really have a clear plan of attack on the bike this morning, so instead of heading south on the bike (from 72nd Street), I headed north. I did one full loop and then wasn't sure if I'd have quite enough time to do a second, so I (conveniently) cut off the Harlem Hill on the second loop.

I think now (of course hindsight is 20/20) that I would have had time, but I was a little nervous because I didn't want to be the last one back to pick up my gear when I was done with the run! Of course, it turned out that I was actually one of the first people to transition from bike to run, but I didn't mind. I just went out to do my quick run of the Lower Loop in the Park.

And it really was quick. Seriously - where did these legs come from? It seems like recently I've been a lot faster (unless there is some sort of traffic issue like running to/from the Park). I'm not complaining, but I'm just wondering where all this speed is coming from. I hardly remember the last time I was over 10 minutes/mile and that used to be fairly common.

When I was coming back from my running loop, it definitely appeared that I had missed the memo on running today as everyone else appeared to be doing something a little different (maybe sprints on the Mall?). But I don't think that really matters. I'm just glad that I actually got up and went, even though I was running late. And even if my workout was 10 minutes shorter than it should have been, I don't think those 10 minutes will be the make it or break it moment at any point during a triathlon.

Biking
Time: 48:48
Distance: 11.50 miles
Pace: 14.14 MPH
Calories: 464
Maximum HR: 169
Average HR: 153
Total Biking Distance: 14.50 miles

Running
Time: 16:44
Distance: 1.80 miles
Pace: 9:17/mile
Calories: 187
Maximum HR: 178
Average HR: 169