Tired.

I’m tired.

Not even that tired, just…not motivated to actually work out.  I know next week should be my rest week, so I know that’s all that’s going on but…man.  Ready for it.

In other news, my new road bike came in last week!  Kyle built it up for me Friday and I got to take it on a long ride on Saturday with Mac.  So. In. Love!!!  It rides like a dream---SO stable, awesome cornering…totally in love.  I also clearly need an argon tri bike, like ASAP.  My BMC is stiff, but also pretty rigid so it doesn’t feel nearly as comfortable and stable.  We’ll see.  ;)  Overall though. the Krypton has gone above and beyond my expectations and I am one happy customer!!

Disneyland and Back Again

We went to Disneyland, and it was great!  7 adults and one 1 five-year-old.  Because, duh. :) So much fun eating alllllll the food (mostly desserts) and going on rides and buying things and basically being a kid!  And being in the SUNSHINE wasn’t too awful, either.  But, all good things must come to an end, and now we are back home.  Which is fine and all, except…it’s not Disneyland!

Before leaving, Shawn told me not to worry about workouts and just have fun.  So I did.  We walked a lot; using my garmin 920 as a pedometer, it calculated 13+ miles each day of walking, and although I’m sure that’s not entirely accurate, it was certainly “a lot.”  I also ate…a lot.  But it was great.  It was really nice to do “whatever” and not stress or worry about not getting in a workout, etc etc etc.  So, I was happy with that.  On the other hand, we didn’t exactly get a lot of “rest” since we were walking all day, plus getting up at 5:30am every day to get to the parks early.  So that was a bummer, but at least my brain got a break from it!

But I knew that meant that I’d be hitting the training hard as soon as I got back, and Shawn’s update to my schedule did not disappoint!  :P  Back to the pool this morning for 5700 yards.  Yes, that’s right.  5700.  That’s a lot of yards.  Especially for me.  Oh my gosh.

But, I got it done.  Decently (for me), although I was definitely fading by the second half.  Mac gave me a gu when I had about 1200 to go and it helped energize me enough to finish strong…..ish.  I’m happy I got it done, but I’m not looking forward to doing it again on Saturday!!  :-\  Oh well.

Run and bike tomorrow, then another swim and run Friday before another full weekend of loooong workouts.  Mostly I just want to sleep!

Tutus Make You Faster!

Summary of the 2015 Kirkland Shamrock Run (5k):

Rainy.  Warm.  Shorts and tank top (and tutu), it is!

It’s all uphill.  Seriously, where did all this uphill come from?  Why is there no downhill?  (note: ok so it was just lots and lots up uphills, and then downhills were so steep and short that it just seemed like it was only uphill…)

Just keep running.  Harder.  Keep going.  Shut up, lungs!  You can breathe when you're done!

5k is really short!

Finished 2^nd overall female (if you don’t count the guy who was accidentally recorded as female), with a time of 21:29.  I’m actually really happy with myself, that’s like a 6:55/mi average, and with it seriously being so hilly, I definitely exceeded my expectations.  Yes, that means you could kick it up on the down, but holy cow, the up!!!  It's time for me to believe in myself more, I think.

Anyway, it was really really really fun.  Now that I think about it, I’ve never done just a 5k before!  So funny how short it is!  But kind of awesome.  Love pushing it HARD.

27

After a thoroughly successful birthday weekend/birthday, it’s time to focus on some serious training!  27 is my favorite number, and I have a whole lot of awesome things I want to do at this age :)

Had a meeting with Shawn earlier this week, and was so happy to hear him say I was right where I needed to be at that my training/numbers are all on track.  Definitely still sooo excited!  We also talked about some of the next phases of training, namely building more strength… bring on the hill repeats, both on the bike and running!  Not gonna lie, pretty darn excited ;)

Now if only my knee would quit hurting……

A Fun Weekend!

Well apparently last week was a bit of a rest week, although somehow I didn’t really realize it until about Wednesday.  Basically all I did during the week was swim (including a long, 4000 yard swim! Ahh!), and then some biking and running over the weekend but nothing too much.  I wish I had realized it earlier and taken a bit more advantage of it, but oh well.

On the plus side, it did mean I got to add in a couple “extra” things because I had time and wasn’t too tired!  Having time to do some purely "fun" workouts was really good for me mentally, I think.  On Friday, after a swim and a bike ride, I went and ran with Katie.  She did AWESOME and I’m excited to see her improve in the next few months; she totally can, she just needs to believe in herself a little more!  Pacing her was a lot of fun, it let me focus on something else, and it was just exciting to see her push herself too, and be super happy about it.

Then on Sunday, after an easy run, Mac told me to make Kyle go mountain biking with me.  ;) I really wanted to go mountain biking, but I don’t think I realized just how much I wanted to go until I was there!  I had so much fun even though we weren’t even there tooooo long.  Just enough to do a bunch of fun stuff, and just have a good time.  Somehow, it was incredibly relaxing, even though we literally were just doing drops and jumps which is kind of stressful…but so fun.  Maybe it’s because I was feeling so confident—surprising, considering I haven’t been on the mountain bike much at all lately.  But I did the drop on Ryan’s Line twice (second time felt the best it ever has, and Kyle agreed I landed it really well), some practice drops in the center clearly (including the big one, which I’ve done plenty but for some reason always psyches me out, probably just because it looks a lot bigger/scarier than it actually is), Voodoo a couple of times (ehh just not feeling that one much lately, plus I’m a baby about that wood feature), and the big gap jump at the end of HLC (sooo much fun, good improvement and just felt good).

Plus, the weather was absolutely amazing!  I wore a tank top!  So, hanging out on bikes, playing in the woods, peaceful day…ah, just really great.

Now I’m waiting for my next 2 weeks of workouts, but I am already expecting them to be…a lot.  Shawn has already mentioned adding hill repeats to my bike….

I did not fall....

It’s been a couple years, but yesterday I tipped over on my bike.  I couldn’t get unclipped and I just..fell..over.

Today, I am sore.

Hmph.

Brick + Long Swim

A bit behind, but did my first brick of the year last Friday!  3 hour bike, followed by a 30 minute run.

I just did a couple loops around the lake, plus a little extra on the trail for time, so it was kind of boring…but I really didn’t want to have to think and plan it out to get the timing right, etc etc etc.

First loops, I caught up to some guy at the top of a hill.  He immediately jumped on my wheel (right as we started descending, um, thanks??!!) which is fine I guess, except I would kind of like to know when there is someone 2 inches from my wheel.  Mostly so that I don’t do anything dumb, not knowing there’s someone right there!  Anyway, he eventually got in front of me after some intersections/etc through Issaquah when we were taking it easy on the sidewalks…then as we got back onto east lake Sammamish, and I was “stuck” behind him.  Not that he was super slow, but it was just enough that I wanted to go a bit faster.  We had to stop at another stoplight, and luckily he turned and started chatting, and commented on how strong I was riding etc, and I was able to take that time to hop ahead of him (without looking like a jerk, which is what I’m always afraid of).  This time, he said “I’m gonna jump on your wheel if that’s ok…” to which of course I said “sure!”  As long as I know, buddy.

Anyway, he turned off after a bit, but it was nice to at least have human interaction for a bit ;) The second lap was a little more lonely, but honestly it all went by pretty quickly.  Kind of nice to go somewhere so familiar that you literally don’t have to think or pay too much attention.  Before I knew it, I was back in Redmond and did some quick math to see how much extra to tack on on the trail…and it came out just about perfect!  I am super lucky and have awesome friends ;) so I was able to use Mac and Kyle’s garage for all my stuff…meaning I didn’t have to work out of my car’s trunk, and could instead have a little space to strew my stuff around, etc.

After a quick, 3:57 swap to my run stuff (yes I timed it, but only because Shawn told me to try to keep it under 5 minutes, so of course I had to try to be as precise as possible), it was time to run!  Gosh, I’ve missed that awful, awful feeling of running off the bike ;) My toes were totally numb on both feet, I could barely move my legs..and I was running like a 7:30 but felt like I was standing still.

Since this was NOT a race, I really, really, really knew that there was NO reason to be running that fast.  I kept trying to tell myself that but I’m really not the best at that.  In the end I averaged like a 7:58/mi so I was at least able to slow it down a little..but still feel good about actually being able to run.  Just under 4 miles total, which was pretty great, although I kind of wanted to keep running.  I kept thinking about how I would feel if I DID keep running…for another 20+ miles.  And after double the distance on the bike.  And also a swim.  Kinda scary.

Anyway, legs started feeling alive about 15 minutes in, and finally got blood back in my toes.  I’ve only done up to an Olympic distance, meaning this was by far the longest bike I’ve done prior to a run.  So, it was really good to confirm that I “felt” about the same afterwards—my legs didn’t take any longer to get acclimated, I wasn’t really that much more tired or anything, and I was able to do it just fine.  I did with I had remembered to grab my gu that I had conveniently left with my shoes for that very reason, but somehow I still managed to forget it.  Ah well.  Luckily I was (relatively) good on the bike and had a full bottle of skratch and some chomps, so it wasn’t too bad—just on the verge.

Overall, a very successful day!  I know I need to be fasted on the bike buuuuut that’s for another time.  I was at 54 miles in just over 3 hours, so that doesn’t exactly come up to a less-than-6-hour bike for the full 112 buuuut like I said—there’s still time.  Trying not to stress numbers too much.

Plus, I had the garage with all my stuff waiting, and was able to pack up in much more comfort than if I had been out of my car.  And then Mac texted asking how it was, I said I was trying to put my brain back together, and she told me to grab a coke from the fridge.  And it was the best ever.  So, win!

Aside from that, I did my longest swim yet!  Yesterday I swam 3500 yards.  Yeah yeah, I know.  Only 2 miles.  And way slow..but honestly, it was a little faster than I was expecting.  Mostly I was happy thati was able to hold steady for the first set of 1500 (bleh), and then speed up the second set.  As planned.  Not only that, but the last 500 was at like a 1:55/100yd pace which for ME is amazingly fast, AND I held it for a full 500 yards.  I honestly thought I was going to die by the end, but hey, just being able to actually push it in the water is huge for me!