Has it been a month?

It does appear that it has been almost a month since i have been to crossfit...gasp. Work, travel and life has taken the insane approach and very sadly even though i'm only going to crossfit 1x a week sadly crossfit got dropped. Although that being said, in about 6 weeks time I may be back to 3-4x a week. I've pretty much decided on the OC tri as it looks like Pumpkinman is the weekend after I will be returning from an experimental trial that might be a little exhausting and I won't have enough time to travel to Las Vegas for the tri either due to travelling. So...i have approximately 6 weeks. It will be interesting. The only lingering question in my mind: Should I do the 50 mile bike ride (not a race, just a fun ride) the day before?

For crossfit today was 3x:
21 double unders
21 dumbell squats-jerk 20lbs (rxd was 25)
3 rope climbs

hahahaha...i can't climb the rope to save my life. I did improve (sorta) as the rounds went on, but I just lose the rope under me after I have hoisted myself up and then i'm just hanging by my arms. No good.

I did have to scale down the db squats-jerks but only to 20lb dbs and I felt I did those at a reasonable clip...still hard, and tiring but decent effort. I think the rxd 25 pounds would have put me on the floor, so a decent edge for me. Happy to be back though, even though I can tell the arms are going to be decently sore tomorrow.

Start value = 6.5

I have been watching a LOT of the olympics and recently when the individual events for gymnastics came up some differences in approach started to show. There were some athletes that would do a reasonably hard routine, but not go for the highest start value = 6.5. They would execute well and then wait and see if anyone could challenge the well executed, but maybe not the 'all for glory' type of routine. Then other athletes would go for the highest start value and basically go for gold. It was all or nothing baby. It was a mentality of 'in it to win it' and if they fell...they fell and that was it, game over...but if they executed perfectly it was all about the podium...all about gold.

This mindset has challenged me a little in general life, work and whathaveyou. I only get one shot at this life, why not go for a start value of 6.5 on things? I most of the time will do a 'no guts no glory' attitude on things, but today as I was putting together a plan for some experiments that I have to run off site, my co-worker interrupted me as I was still in the middle of the laundry list of things I wanted to do during this experiment and said: Are you on drugs?? (OK maybe I am asking a lot...but that's the way it goes.)

No guts no glory right? Shoot for the stars and you might hit the moon. But I don't always take this approach and sometimes, well...sometimes maybe it is worth it to go for a start value of 6.5 and just see what happens. Maybe I will fall on my face, but maybe I will stick the landing and then...gold.

Getting my legs under me

I just had a great run for me and now I need to share it:
Mile 1:10:07, 143bpm
Mile 2:8:49, 162bpm
Mile 3:8:54, 163bpm
Mile 4:8:37, 167bpm
Mile 5: cool down

The goal of the run, middle three miles to be in my LT which for me is between 160-170bpm. And the result...THREE MILES SUB 9MPM. OK...not superhuman fast but after months of being injured and months of fighting back and looking at my fitness a year ago and it being in the total trash due to my focus being graduating it just been a long road back. It has been a long while since I felt good about my running and fitness in general and I am starting to feel better about it all and let me just say: it.feels.so.good.

Ohhh update on my general aversion to masters swim: I didn't avoid it yesterday. THREE weeks in a row, YEA. Sadly the coach failed to show up so someone scribbled a workout on the board and my lane mate sorta helped me decide what to do. I still showed up...and that counts in my book.

Blame the Olympics

I don't even own a TV that I can watch the Olympics on, but I am glued to it at my friend's house. Little blogging I'm sure will happen over this Olympic time period. Olympics + crazy business with everything = me...not enough sleep, lots of work, and not enough sleep. But can I make one ity bity complaint? Can Micheal Phelps be just a smidge, just a smidge more excited when he get a gold medal? I mean we don't need a display like his excitment over the 4x100 relay(I mean who wasn't screaming over that one?), but to break a world record in the 200 butterfly and while earing the MOST career golds with.that.race. and have this look of disappointment. They speculate he was going for a faster time...but seriously...look sorta excited. Puuuuleez. (edit:so...today I found out that his disgruntled-ness may have been due to water in the goggles...but this is not the first ho-hum "gee I won a race/broke a world record." Come'on show a little excitement, it IS the OLYMPICS. But that is just MY opinion.)

I have to decide pronto on if I am doing an oly in 6 or 10 weeks...i'm leaning towards one in 10...but I may have a work conflict. I should know that verdict soon here.

Training is going remarkably well for having little focus. I have been swimming a lot more lately between masters and joining katie b and co for some open water swimming last week. I am finally getting my legs back under me with my running and starting to see my times drop, which is so nice. My 7 mile run last sunday, majority of the run was in a pace range I like and I am starting to feel like my hip is back to normal and my legs are just beginning to like the whole 'training' thing again where I am going faster for me, and able to start pushing some real boundries. It is starting to come together.

Round these parts...

It has been chaos in my little life. But things are just going all crazy and not much I can do about it but hang on for a crazy ride.

I had a pretty awesome weekend of training. I had a really awesome ride on Saturday. The group I went out with I was new-er to the group as I had only been out with some of these people (OK one of this group) the week before. So I had no idea where on the riding spectrum I would fall. We headed out and somehow I found myself with the 'fast cats'. Oh crap was my thought. But I did hold their pace for most of the ride and near the end when I started to fade a little, they kicked it back a notch so I didn't completely fall off the bandwagon, which I totally appreciated. I had a great ride and enjoyed the day.

Sunday I pounded through a 8 mile run that really was supposed to be 9 miles. Parts of it sucked like no other, but i think part is just reminding myself how to run on tired legs. That can be a bigger mental exercise than an actual physical one...especially when it is warm.

Total success on monday...i dragged my butt back to masters...woohoo...it was pretty funny though because there were 3 lanes. The REALLY fast lane, the FASTER lane and then my lane. (YES me with my spastic puppy swimming) The first two lanes were made up of people who actually knew the drills the coach was talking about and then there was me and my lane who contained a variety of knowledge, I won't speak for the other three people in my lane, but it didn't seem like there was whole lot of drill knowledge between the four of us on anything but freestyle. And considering we were doing 100m IM sets...only being familiar with freestyle drills only gets you 1/4 of the way through these things. So there was a lot of: What does she mean by that? Um...what? I'm just going to do freestyle. Now granted in undergrad I did take two semesters of 'swim class' so I'm not a complete newbie to doing drills and such, but but that was...gasp...over 10ish years ago when I actually took those classes. So this was me during the class:

Uh...what is the order of the strokes?

Uh...what if you can't actually DO the butterfly? (For the record...I do more of a butterflop) And you want me to do WHAT without choking on the water? And after explanation of one of the drills...this what went through MY head: how exactly am I to do a dolphin kick with breast stroke arms and not find myself at the bottom of the pool?

Uh...what do you mean by a breast stroke drill?Practice the leg part on my back? (what is this lady talking about)

Uh...backstroke drill? You mean you actually want me to do the backstroke in a straight line and not hit the other 3 people in my lane. Funny lady.

By the end of all our IM drills, I actually did attempt to do the butterfly for a couple of the 25m...one time I was doing actually ok (granted it was more of a moth than a butterfly...but the flailing did seem to be in the correct timing of the stroke) and THEN my calf cramped up and I nearly drown. So I went back to flopping around in the water. I think in total I made it once about halfway down the lane before I started to hyperventilate.

I was just happy I made it back to masters without coming up with a zillion excuses. YEA...swimming goal at the moment is to go to masters once a week and an open water swim once a week. I'm just trying to swim more and not worry too much about my pathetic slow nature in the water. Consistent swimming will help, even just increased endurance in swimming will help with my speed. I just need to get to the water on a consistent basis.

Speedy is IN!

And she crossed the line in 12:24! SpeedySpeedracer just finished the Vineman full course today! Woohoo! Send a congrats to her and for an awesome accomplishment!!! Great Job Claire!

Let's just be honest about it.

I am not a fast triathlete. I swim like a spastic puppy, I bike something akin to what other people can do backwards, and I run a little faster than slow. It is a reality that if I really, really focused I'm sure I could improve, but I have athletic ADD and that would be no fun...right? Maybe one of these days here I will reign in all my focus and focus on being faster, but i'm having way to much fun exploring all sorts of other fun things, so i'm happy just goofing around in the meantime. I know not very triathlete, type A+ personality, but my thought: meeeh. I try to adhere to the motto:"Do what you love, love what you do". I know people try to use that with respect to work, but I think that should be the same with training and exercise. And if that means doing a billion different things that I enjoy even though I may not go very fast, then so be it. I'm out and being active and that is way more important to me.

Tonight I sucked it up and went to masters swim again. Ok...i'll admit it, even after my first endeavor the thought of going back sorta made me cringe. So I found all kinds of excuses to not go. It's not that the first time was that bad, it just wasn't great, but I also am finding in my training i don't swim much either. Hmmm...maybe the lack of swimming is a big contributor to my spastic puppy swimming? Maybe?? So I sucked it up and went, and here is my observation that I have had a bunch of times: Me being slow doesn't bother me as much unless someone makes me feel bad about being slow. I realized the first coach just sorta dismissed my spastic puppy swimming and almost ignored those of us who were slower (me being the slowest). But the guy tonight gave everyone (fast or slow) the appropriate attention and equally...KICKED OUR BUTTS. While again the slowest, at least he didn't make me feel like a moron.

Main set, repeated 3 times:

4x50 kicks and swim
4 x 50 AS FAST AS YOU CAN SWIM (with little to no rest...3-4 seconds between 50s)
200 pull

There was other stuff in the warm up and cool down, but that was the bulk of the evening.

I then got a big yummy burrito and headed to the Velodrome to watch my new found friends from my Saturday ride, do their final bike track course/workout. There are bike track sessions at the Velodrome and my new found friends are trying to talk me into doing the next 6 week session that starts in 2 weeks. They told me to at least check it out today...so I did...um...yea...i'm leaning in a direction on this, more will be posted when I actually make a decision. (can you guess which way? Who has athletic ADD here?) I wouldn't even need to buy a fixie or a track bike, or whatever you want to call them. I could just borrow one there at the Velodrome. No gear required.

Another observation. I LOVE THIS. Bike culture is so fascinating to me. Rodies have STRONG opinions on riding bikes and types of bikes and road riding and even triathletes on road bikes for that matter. But mountain bikers also have strong opinions about other types of riding. And then people that ride 'fixies' (as they call a fixed gear bikes. Although I think a fixed gear bike can have breaks whereas a track bike has no breaks. Still trying to completely figure that one out at the moment.) are equally as passionate about their bike and how they think that type of riding is the only way. I love that people are so passionate about their bike and biking and such. OK i admit if they are being snobby about it, I don't really care for a person's attitude, but if they are just passionate about it, i'm all for it. I did notice this weekend that part of town I was in everyone was riding fixies. (I saw at least 10 people in a span of an hour on them) What is interesting is here in SD it does depend on the part of town what types of bikes people are riding and what is the 'norm'. It is an interesting subculture.

Questionable company

Saturday I decided to try a new group to ride with and it did suit me very well. I had a great time and was reminded how sucky my hill work has been as well as how little my my overall mileage has been, but alas...I had a great time. I think I just made friends with those people that a person's mom would say would be "questionable company". You know, growing up when parent's worry about who you are hanging out with, the 'questionable company' that puts silly ideas in your head or influence you in various (typically negative) ways. Well...I have to say two of the women on this bike ride might fit into this category(but I would argue, not a negative influence, just a bike variety influence). I mean I haven't been on a mountain bike since I was 15 and ended up on a spine board after wrecking, but the ride leader, more a mountain biker than a roadie, is convinced I should try it again (the jury is still out on that one). And then between the two of these women they have convinced me to come check out the Velodrome this week as they are taking some track bike riding lessons and I should have a gander. "You know in just two weeks they are starting track bike lessons again for beginners." Or even instilling some creative ways I might be able to bike commute at least part of my ride to work? I like more biking mileage, I just hadn't thought about their version. What in the world did I just get myself into? I think it is all a good thing, even though it does continue to support my Sports ADD mentality.

I did get in a great bike ride with this group and had a lot of fun. The Saturday ride did spark a lot more contacts of people to ride with so that was great too.

Today's 7 mile run was sluggish and slow. For San Diego, it decided to be muggy today...which took me by surprise as usually the humidity is quite minimal in this area. Sorta sapped it out of me like humidity does anywhere, especially when I'm not used to it. But I slogged through it and got it done.

I think i've caught up on all the blog posts I've missed over the past few weeks as I've been in and out of town and in the mean time chasing my tail.

Josh is not my friend

Meet 'Josh':
21 Over Head Squats (OHS)
42 pullups
15 OHS
30 pullups
9 OHS
18 pullups

Rx'd weight for women on OHS = 65lbs
My OHS weight 33lbs.
Blue band (middle resistance for pullups)

I really could have done more weight and was all geared up to do more OHS weight, but I had poorly preformed my warm up and was told my form looked bad, so stuck with the wussy bar. Today I added up those pull ups...90...no wonder my arms are having a little bit of a struggle straightening out my elbows.

I have been all over the show lately. Good stuff happening and some nutty stuff so it has made for an interesting week, but pretty good all in all. Been in and out of town and all around.

Twenty minutes

Thank God for time limits these days at crossfit. My gym has started putting time limits on workouts. This one had a time limit of 20 minutes. You were supposed to do 5 rounds or as much as you could in 20 minutes

5 rounds of:
15 Deadlifts
12 hang power cleans
9 front squats
6 push press

Men: 135lbs
Women: 83lbs

At first glance with the weight it doesn't seem so bad, really. I mean 83lbs and deadlifiting...easy peasy. 83 lbs and a hang power clean...err...now we got some issues. I can't even do one hang power clean at 83 lbs much less 12 of them. No, i'm not exagerrating. The guy leading out the class told me to do ONE and then we would scale it down. I did a lot of jumping and tried to get under the bar, but i think the lift sorta makes me nervous with the weight. Getting under a heavy bar sorta freaks me out a little. He told me I had enough momentum, but I wasn't getting under the bar. No matter, we tried to scale me down to 63 lbs. And while I could do 3 of those...we quickly discovered that was it...no more than 3. So I was down to 53lbs.

Out of the previous class of about 8 people (all who are AWESOME crossfitters and who I think were ALL doing at weight) none of them could finish all 5 rounds in 20 minutes. I got through 4 rounds, + DL +5 powercleans. (oh and i have a HUGE bruise on my left collar bone where I tend to rest/slam/hit/pushpress/front squat the bar from. It is UGLY.) One guy in my class who was doing full weight did finish in 18:18. They then speculated how many other people *might* even be able to do the whole workout. Even though I scaled it down, I feel like I had a comparable scaling of difficulty...meaning that I did about as many rounds as people who were doing full weight. Sometimes I've found when I modify my workout it ends up being a little on the lighter side and I fly through it too fast almost so I try to go for a modification that is 'similar' time wise to people who do full weight because the choice is always go heavier and do less or go lighter and do more. I tend to chose the latter. I actually like walking and going heavier can have some really nasty consequences. Going lighter doesn't mean I don't hurt like not other, but at least I am mobile.

I did get in a 4.5 mile run too. I did 4 fast-ish intervals for 1:30 each. First interval at a 7:22 pace, second interval 8:07 (I was going up a hill), 3rd interval 7:25, 4th interval7:32. I rested for roughly 3 minutes in between each interval and allowed myself to walk, slowly jog until my HR came down to 150 range.

Oh, and I think i may do this hairbrained idea. I had to play catch-up today and did 10 burpees. But tomorrow it is 5. I will talk more about this in a future post...i donno 100 days of burpees? 5050 burpees in total?? I kinda hate burpees to begin with...but then I think about the deltoids. Deltoids. I heart deltoids.

Burpee update: leaning towards no...solely because I can't really do them in my apt without waking up the neighbors and while I could do them else where, that is a 100 days of trying to figure out where to make a complete fool out of myself on a daily basis. I may give it a try and see when I fall off the wagon due to logistics.

I know...I know...I know

This was brought up with respect to my last crossfit post by Claire/Speedracer

Here are the answers:
If you answer yes to one or more of the following questions, you may be a crossfit addict:

*Have you sometimes failed to keep promises you made to yourself about controlling or cutting down on your Crossfit?

I said I was going to cut back on crossfit...I have. One day a week. I just miss it terribly. So NO I've kept my promises...even though I secretly want the off season so I can do crossfit 5 days a week.

*Have you ever had a traffic violation, or any other legal problem related to crossfit/the endorphins brought on by a crossfit binge?

um...no (see i'm doing great no problems here)

*Do you try to avoid family or close friends while you are doing crossfit?

They don't go to the crossfit gym...and I made friends at the crossfit gym...not a fair question.

*Are you having more financial, work, school and/or family problems as a result of crossfit?

Does constantly thinking about crossfit while at work count?

*Has your PT ever advised you to cut down on your crossfit?

I've been dismissed from my PT and I think that crossfit keeps me out of his office therefore...this question is really N/A

*Do you eat very little or irregularly during the periods when you are doing crossfit?

You can't crossfit and eat...that equals puking.

*Do you sometimes have the "shakes" after a CF workout and find that it helps to do a "little" deadlifting, pullups or functional mobility work of some kind?

Who doesn't have the 'shakes' after a CF workout?? Deadlifting can sometimes work out that nasty back spasm too.

*Have you recently noticed that you can't crossfit as much as you used to?

That's the point, less crossfit during the season so I can do more LT work.

*Do you sometimes stay at crossfit for several days at a time?

I do go to work. I promise.

*After periods of heavy lifting do you sometimes see or hear things that aren't there?

No...I generally can find the floor just fine, that is there, under my feet and that is me just lying on the floor, hoping that I will regain the strength to walk out the door. No hallucinating.

*Do you ever feel depressed or anxious before, during or after periods of heavy lifting?

Only depressed when I can't lift what is the prescribed workout of the day...which is most days.

*Have any of your blood relatives ever had a problem with crossfit?

They have no idea what i'm talking about.

Any "yes" answer indicates you may be at greater risk for crossfit abuse. More than one "yes" answer may indicate the presence of an crossfit-related problem or crossfit abuse, and the need for consultation with a professional.

Awwww...come on.

Claire/Speed Racer has brought into question of if I am addicted to crossfit. My answer...yes I already knew that...and your point is...??

If someone told me I would love crossfit, as insane as it is...and as much DOMS I have suffered I would have said...NOT ME!! But here are some of my responses to my addiction too:

Did you ever think that after 6 months of crossfit that you would actually start to see those muscles on your stomach that people call 'abs'?

Did you ever know how cool deltoids really are?

Did you ever think that one day you might actually be able to do an unassisted pullup? Or climb a rope?(Ok not yet, but soon)

Did you know that there are more muscles in your quads than just your quads and VMO and you actually might see them with bouts of crossfit?

Did you ever expect that you might think that lifting could be fun ?? Or that you might buy weight lifting shoes?

My answers were a resounding no to these questions up until the last 6 months of crossfit. Am I addicted...sure...is it keeping my injuries at bay...ABSOLUTELY...do my knees hurt any more from ITBS...no...hipflexor issues? Improving with strengthening my glutes. The goal of crossfit was to improve my injury situation and in the middle of it, I have become addicted. I readily admit it.

I'll be upfront and honest...Don't try it unless you are prepared for a possible addiction. I give that as a warning. It is addictive.

How to wreck havoc on yourself in 12 mins or less

How to wreck havoc on yourself in 12 mins or less:

5 rounds of:

5 DeadLifts
10 burpees(up-downs...thighs must be on the ground as well as chest and hands must be straight overhead on jump with arms by the ears.)

Men: 275lbs for DL

Women: 185lbs for DL

My thought for the prescribed weight: You have to be kidding me. OK there were a few more um...colorful words thrown in there.

Oh yea, you have to finish in under 12 minutes.

Me...while I know my deadlift max is 205lbs, i didn't know how I would fare with 185lbs 5x5 rounds. In the end I was 40lbs short at 145lbs, but i'm a bit of a crossfit weakling.

11:28 was my time.

I'm already starting to feel the soreness.

And I miss crossfit more than I thought I would. I may have to re-think my unusually low Lactate Threshold and whether I care as much as I thought I did about changing it.

Yoga Guilt

I was supposed to go ride this afternoon, but as I was running late for work I did not have enough time to throw my bike in the car for a ride after work. I decided to switch some yoga on Thursday with my bike ride and showed up to my local yoga studio and got to go to my favorite instructors class. This guy seriously rocks, he pushes, but within one's edge, he's an awesome teacher...he's great all around. But since I have a gym membership that has some yoga and I do this and I do that...my yoga going at this studio has been lackluster. But here's the thing...gym yoga generally = sucks. And the yoga at my gym ranges from sucky to ok.

So I show up and he's all "hey nice to see you? Busy with work? I hope all is well." And then I realize that i'm feeling guilty for not going to this class. I feel like I've been cheating on the yoga studio with my gym. GASP!! I know this is slightly irrational and I told myself to just 'do what you want'...but I found my emotions humorous for some reason.

The class...awesome as usual. I did get to ponder as we hung out in downward dog...how is it that that little spot below my knee can sweat so much. Odd. But I find it sorta weird to look down and see my shins sweating too. I was a bit of a goof in the middle of class though...we were getting ready to vinysa down to the floor and we were getting our bricks ready so that if you wanted to use them to help you swing through as you tried to get your legs to go from downdog into a seated position you could.(in the video she's going from seated to downdog back to seated...I'm so NOT close to doing anything like this) )Me...i was sorta out of it and a little tired at this point...so I grab my bricks and just plop my butt on my mat oblivious to the rest of the class standing getting ready to do the vinyasa. My teacher sorta laughed at me at my almost childlike glee of plunking myself down on the floor much to my embarrassment, instead of vinyasy-ing my way onto the floor...or should I say 'flopping' myself onto the floor. I am still a long way away from being able to shoot my legs from downdog into a seated position or reverse. I just sorta flop around on the floor and make a pathetic attempt at it. That generally seems to be the theme of my 'athletic' endeavors...i sort just flop around trying to make it 'look' like whatever i'm attempting to do desperately trying not to look too silly in the middle of it. Granted I still feel silly.

But after class I realized how much I really, REALLY love that class and as I am in the middle of trying to plan out the rest of my race season, I think i'm going to see if there is any way I can do that class on a weekly basis. I was also pleasantly surprised to see I'm still pretty 'yoga strong' for me considering I haven't done a ton of yoga lately. Want to hang out in chaturangafor awhile...go ahead...that's fun. Go crossfit!

I sorta can't believe that I'm mid-July and still don't have a training plan mapped out. That does seem to be the theme this season. I did start mapping some preliminary stuff for the OC triathlon at the end of Sept with Silverstrand stuck behind it 5 weeks later. I think i've come up with a plan on how to veeeeeerrrrrrrry slowly inch my running millage up so that hopefully I don't piss off my hip too much in the process.

Weekend Adventures

This nice three day weekend has had its share of adventures that have been pretty fun. The weekend, while packed has been also equally low key. I'm not sure how I achieved such a great balance, but it did work out that way.

Friday: Swim Fishy Swim

Friday morning I headed down for some open water swimming to yet reconfirm my LOVE of my new wetsuit. People were already all camped out all over the beach for the 4th festivities...at SEVEN IN THE MORNING. People seriously...come on. But I guess that is how it goes around here...you want to be on the beach for the fourth you must fully commit. I on the other hand had decided to STAY AWAY from such insanity for that day. I got a nice mile swim in, but can I just say KELP SUCKS!! It freaks me out a little and it is gross and it just sucks and for a good part of the swim you have to go through basically a kelp farm. BLECH. But aside from the freaky kelp the swim was really good. The rest of my 4th was pretty good too.

Saturday: Riding urban style

I live in a fairly 'urban' part of SD. It's not littered with bike lanes and I'm not too far from true 'down town' and there are lot-o-stop lights. Some days I'm not a huge fan of where I live because I am not as close to great places to bike to be perfectly honest, but I do also like where I live so I am always debating whether to move or not. On Thursday after my little lack of clipping out debacle that gave me a pretty massive bruise on my knee with a nasty scrape I had pretty much HAD it with living where I do. I don't know what the connection between the bike crash and my dislike for living in such an urban area really is since I was NO WHERE down town and riding near my apt when I fell...but somehow in my little head there was a connection. Can't think of what it is at the moment. Anyway, I digress...so recently I found another person in my neighborhood who wanted to bike around in my part of town. So i thought 'sure why not' might be fun not to have to drive somewhere to go for a bike ride. So on Sat I roll out my door and met up with my new riding partner.

Now we had discussed a little biking and running and stuff...mainly just looking for other people in our part of town to train with. I didn't really think that I would end up riding with this person as he is a much stronger cyclist that I am...so I didn't really want to hold him back, but he seemed to want to meet up anyway and go for a ride in my part of town. So i'm game to meet new people to train with and head out.

I'm going to refer to him from now on as Mr. Hills...as that was his constant suggestions "do you know this hill? We should go do it...or that hill??" Now granted living in the city, since you have to stop all the time for tons of freaking stop lights hill training is really good because you end up getting a killer workout in even if it appears you didn't go very fast since you had to stop for every stop light. But as we are flying through downtown heading down to the Pt. Loma and the coast I am starting to feel I'm in that Kevin Bacon movie Quicksilver. Except as we ride down the hills and through the urban environment I am internally screaming like a little girl. Not flying through intersections and track standing at stop lights (although that would be a REALLY useful trick to know in the city) like they do in the movie. In fact my riding didn't resemble anything as graceful as some of that bike handling in that movie, but flying through an urban environment gave me at least the feeling that might have been.

I'm not opposed to urban riding and oddly I can do it when I am with other people quite comfortably, but sometimes by myself I'm not too keen. Weird. I know. But in the end the ride was really good. Lots of hills. I thought I was going to have to cold water bath my legs by the end, but didn't and feel fine today even after then proceeding to take up a new sport that evening.

Saturday night: New 'Sport'???

Is salsa dancing considered a sport? I donno, but by the end of Sat night it felt like it should be. And actually this morning I was starting to ponder why my right arm is sorta stiff and sore and I realized that too much swinging around in circles can do that to ones' arm. It was a seriously fun evening. Unfortunately my planned long run has suffered due to this new endeavor. But no matter, I'm in a spot with training that that isn't too big of a deal.

I think I have finally decided on some races this fall. I am really thinking of OC tri Oly at the end of Sept and I guess I'm going to default to the Silverstrand 1/2 mary mainly because I don't want to travel at the moment for the races. Training will start to take some actual shape on that soon as I attempt to plan that out at the moment. I will throw down some sprints in between...possibly one this up and coming weekend and some other fun mixed in here and there. It will come together and it is bit by bit.

It was bound to happen

This is my fifth triathlon season and my fourth with clipless peddles. Everyone tells you "you will fall over trying to clip out at some point". But most made reference to when you have first gotten your peddles...not after riding with them for 3+ years. Granted I'm not sure if I really get to say that I fell over because I forgot to clip out. I did clip out. I clipped out, just like I normally do. It went something like this:

Left foot out. Left foot on the ground. Realizing that I need to push stop light button with right hand. Lean to the right to push the button. Left foot on ground. Reaching to my right. Right foot clipped in. Losing balance. Losing traction with left foot because I'm in stupid bike shoes. Still losing balance. Gaining balance. Losing balance. Need to clip out right foot. Can't clip right foot out. Half way still up. Am I falling? Can't clip out right foot. Slipping with left foot. Gaining balance. Losing balance. I'm ok. No I am falling. Falling. Not even sure how I hit the ground, but now right knee is bleeding. Nice. Feel like a total tool for falling over on my bike while technically clipped out. Really, I shouldn't be let out of my house. Granted I ran into my ottoman yesterday and gave myself a good bruise. I am safe nowhere.

The funny thing about it was...i was in a PISSY mood prior to the crash. But the rest of my bike ride I just had to laugh at myself because I was so lame.

I'm stuck in limbo for the next two weeks from all the crap that happened last week...so while things are better this week, i'm am realizing it is all making me really stressed and I'm 'dealing with it' in weird ways. Basically being a little overly dramatic over minor things. Its been kinda funny actually.

Last week I was so excited about my HUGE accomplishment for me at crossfit. I did SEVEN out of the eight hollow rock tabatas. I typically have pathetic core strength so these kill me every time. Hollow-rock tabata is you basically are lying on the ground, put your legs 6" in the air, put your hands either at your side or over your head, and 'rock' back and forth, but you can't rock too much so that you get to use momentum. Now do that for 20 seconds. Take a 10 second break and repeat for a total of 8 times. You can only count the 20 second session if you don't poop out in the middle of it. Previously I had only made 4 sessions...but last week i made SEVEN. There are a few tips and tricks to it...like don't rock too fast and i found that putting my hands to my sides didn't make my back hurt which also helped. Then I tried to do L-sits and made it literally about a second. OK... so my abs had had enough at that point. My L-sits are rather pathetic any way.

I made it

I made it...it is Friday. Wow. The one thing I can always count on is that time will move forward. When things suck and when they really, really suck...time will move forward I just have to keep breathing...in and out...in and out. That is a good thing. I think I had one of the worst weeks in my life and I am glad it is friday. What is more impressive to me is that while it was emotionally draining, and I had to play the "this really sucks card" I didn't do what I usually do...which is just totally shut down. I did have some friends help me with that and push me out the door and get workouts in and kept encouraging me just to do stuff...no matter how menial or trivial...really helped me. And at the end of the day we all need that in life, friends and family you can lean on when life just plain sucks. Unfortunately this is going to drag on for a bit, and I am hoping it will only be for another month. That is the best case. I don't know if I may go MIA for a bit, it is possible...so time will tell how much i'm 'round these parts'.

Despite the horrible week, it hasn't been bad training wise. Some good runs were done, my legs hurt from some heavy lifting at Crossfit, I tried out my new wetsuit tonight and it ROCKED. I can swim SOOOOOOO much faster I don't even know how much faster i am going, i just FEEL wicked fast which to me, it doesn't matter how fast I go...just as long as it feels like i'm going super fast. Only thing that I wanted to get in that I didn't manage this week was a bike ride and unfortunately pilates will be put off for awhile, until the next session starts up. I think I'm going to *actually* try to go for a nice bike ride tomorrow. Better get some sleep.

EVERYWHERE!!

Today I'm lugging my groceries up my step and I can hear someone jostling the door from the other side and I step aside to make sure I don't get whacked by the door. Out comes some guy I haven't seen before acting like he lives there. I live in a 4 apt complex so I know all the other tenants and granted he could have been a friend of someones but he makes a comment about having just moved in, which makes him my across the hall neighbor. In an effort to be welcoming I make some chit chat...oh welcome, when did you move in, bla, bla, bla. Internally I'm just hoping he's not a psycho as the last tenants and I had become friends and I was sad they left. So I ask the question: Did you just move to San Diego or move from somewhere within San Diego?

Him: Oh San Diego...I just moved from No-arth Paaaaaaaaak

Me: Blink...blink...blink

To myself: did this guy just BUST out a boston accent??? Am I going crazy? My puzzled look caused him to interject:


Him: But i'm from Baaastaaan originally.

AKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK I can't get away!! Those crazy Bostonians are following me around!! Way.Too. Funny...now I can say "wicked" all I want to my neighbor and he will understand. I wonder if he's a crazy Red Sox fan ...and baseball season just started...yikes.

A look to the fall

Well with my discovery of how crappy my Lactate Threshold is and a desire to improve it I am looking at doing an Oly in Aug/Sept and a half marathon in the fall. The goal for the half mary, to see if I can do a repeat performance of 2006 and go under two hours as a lot of my training would translate well into lactate threshold training improvements.

I looked back over my previous training and have realized a few things, one...I don't keep a very good journal and will neglect writing stuff down a lot of the time...two...training the last month has been rather weak. I'm looking to change that up.

But as I looked at what I had on my schedule to do this week as far as exercise was concerned and it looked like this: yoga, run, swim, pilates(this will be something new to me), softball, crossfit, bike intervals, a (possible) hike, interval runs, open water swimming, biking and a long run. And my thought:

I have some serious sports ADD. It made me laugh. Hopefully I get to all of it this week. I'm notorious for making a big list of things and not getting them all in, especially if I don't have an impending race. I'm trying to pick out some races for late Aug/Sept and have narrowed down some Oly's but am having some trouble picking a half mary. I didn't really like Long Beach last year and bizarrely there aren't a ton of 1/2 mary's in the fall in these parts in Oct, so I may have to stretch my race calendar to November and do the Silver Strand half. Still debating this.

Got a nice 8 mile run in today and while both my hip flexors were slightly cranky, this was pretty normal. The dreaded hip was actually behaving. Maybe I really am on the mend. That would be nice.

wetsuits and interval work

Finally...four years into this silly sport I finally bought a wetsuit. Here's a tip...don't go wetsuit shopping when it is 85-90 degrees out and the tri shop doesn't really have air conditioning. That is actually the second time I've done that. I really don't learn.

The guy helping me was amazed I was even able to get into the wetsuits because it was so hot and made a comment about it right as I was getting ready to try on my last one. He totally jinxed my wetsuit shopping and by the last suit I could barely get it over my calves because they were too sweaty. But I found a nice Blueseventy sleeveless wetsuit. Bring on the open water swimming!

Friday I got a short run in at lunch...but it was at lunch and it was close to 100F...and while it was only 3.5 miles IT.WAS.HOT. I had planned to do some interval work and the first half of the run I got 2 out of my 3 intervals in, but the last interval was not happening because I could tell I was on the verge of overheating, even if it was only 3 miles. (I am incredibly fair skinned so that also probably makes my ability to deal with heat not.so.good.). The plan was to get three intervals in that were at my AT (anaerobic threshold) which is ~170bpm for ~1 min, mixed in the run and then let myself recover down to aerobic levels for a few minutes and then do an interval after I had recovered. By my third interval my HR wouldn't settle down and I was starting to really feel the heat, so I bagged the last interval. With time I will increase the number of intervals I will do.

I didn't have my watch quite set up correctly so that I could time those intervals, so I had to sorta guess how long a minute was and in the end actually ended up going close to the same distance.

First interval: 0.24 miles, 1:51 minutes, 7:44 mpm pace, HR 168bpm.
Second interval: 0.22 miles, 1:39 minutes 7:27 mpm pace, HR 170bpm.

I'm pleased with the work even though it was crazy hot. Was supposed to go biking this morning but woke up feeling a bit sick so decided to bag it. 8 mile run is up for tomorrow. Planning to get to the beach too!

Mud Fun

Last weekend I did a 10K mud run with some people from my company. It.was.awesome.

About two months ago I found myself as the captain of this team and over the next 8 weeks I had to completely re-fill my roster. EVERYONE, aside from myself, from the original team decided to bail out. Even last week on monday I was having to find a replacement. Fortunately I work at a big company and was able to find people to fill in as it was a company team...and hey that meant that the company paid too. Nice. Sponsorship right?

The funny thing about this whole deal with the team is that the whole 5 people on your team have to cross together at the end in order for your time to be counted. We all decided that the best and most fun thing to do was to run the course together. It was way more fun that way.

The first half of the race wasn't really that interesting...no real obstacles and no real mud. There were some guys next to us who decided to 'make' their own mud by doing 'dirt angles' on the ground and hence mixing the dirt with their sweat. ewww.

The day started off a little cloudy, but once the clouds burned off (which was RIGHT before the race started) it got a little toasty. The first half of the race was pretty warm as there was no way to cool off really and it was more of a 'Mud Jog' or even a 'Mud Walk' as the trails got so crowded...although there was no mud...so i guess that would just be a 'Dirt Jog'. But no matter finally we got to some muddy obstacles.

We had walls that were in the middle of mud pits that you had to hoist yourself over, a river you sorta half swam across, a very slippery muddy hill to get up and a final muddy pit thing that you had to crawl on your belly through. My team was awesome. We had fun and cheered each other a long. We jogged most of it. Over all it was awesome. We were even the first team from my company to come in! Definitely doing it again and with a team...tons-o-fun!