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Chronicles of a fish: the days of surf and turf
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Oh god!!! :eek::eek::eek::eek: I am now laughing so hard I am crying!!! I am assuming that is you, Kurt, off in the distance keeping watch while you tend to your flock??
That's transition area. I'm racking my cow and arguing with the TO official who says the lake is too choppy, no swim for you mate.0 -
Cherubs and Naked People
Plan: easy
Ecoli's plan for me this time around is a little different than the last plan. This time he is providing me with the bones of the plan and has provided me with certain parameters (including specific key sessions), but it is up to me to fill in some of the blanks while meeting set expected weekly mileage. The reason he is approaching my training cycle this way is to allow me some flexibility for triathlon training. It's sort of an experiment for me - I'm going to give it a go, but Ecoli has assured me if I wander off the straight and narrow that he will drag me back to where I need to be.
I did this run after work on the steamy streets of town. It was 87 degrees. 87 degrees at 5:30. Very humid. Sweated like a pig. Went faster than I probably should have. Correction, went faster than I should have. Body still feeling the effects of the race at the weekend. A bit achy and tired. Feeling pleasantly plump. And very pale. Oh, wait....that's Kurt's depiction of me in the painting, which begs the question, why did Kurt make interested so tanned and ripped?
Followed this run with a nice easy swim to loosen up the legs and clear the mind. I think I will continue these happy swims until the end of May, then I'll get serious with a bit of quality work and low hanging fruit eradication
Actual: 5.01 miles in 39:39.22 for an average pace of 7:54 min/mile
1,200 yards swimming0 -
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Exploding Thighs
Plan: 1 mile easy, 30 minutes steady, 1 mile easy
I set sail after work and literally within a dozen strides I felt a twinge in my left quad.
It wasn't a bad twinge, but it was a twinge. I kept putting one foot in front of the other while I debated what to do - do I stop? slow down? see if it works itself out as the body warms up? In the end, I decided to keep going and see what happens. And basically what happened was it felt better, felt worse, felt better, felt worse, felt better. And then when I stopped it felt worse. And when I started to massage the affected muscle after I stopped, the pain I elicited could have brought tears to my eyes, but I didn't let it. This sucks - I do not do injured or sick very well.
The run itself really wasn't too bad. I had decided on a 7:30 pace for the 30 minutes steady, but that didn't happen. It's always surprising to me when I get through a session "successfully" when just hours prior I couldn't fathom coming close to my targets because of feelings of fatigue or lack of confidence. How do we sometimes rise to the occasion when it seems impossible?
Actual: 6.44 miles in 49:15.96 for an average pace of 7:38 min/mile (8:09, 7:17, 7:09, 7:15, 7:09, 8:37, 3:38 (8:15))
Stretched the legs, giving special attention to my left quad, when I arrived home...and then gave some love to the upper body and abs. I decided perhaps a quick swim might do my throbbing quad some good, not to mention the mental health benefits derived from such a swim, so I put down an easy 1,000 yards while being too focused on how my left thigh was feeling. Looks like I'll be visiting the medicine cabinet tonight and raiding the Vitamin I and Tiger Balm. Maybe it will be "all better" when I wake in the morning.
Stretching, upper body, abs.....1,000 yard swim0 -
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Snappy Set
Plan: 1 minute on, 1 minute off - target "on" pace 6:15-6:25
After some serious discussions with my inner athlete and my, um, life coach :rolleyes:, I decided to take yesterday off to give my exploded thigh a break. The quad actually didn't feel all that bad to walk on, but to touch it elicited pretty good soreness similar to a bad bruise. I have target mileage to do each week, and taking yesterday off may run me short by a couple of miles, but we'll see what we can do about that. Quad feels better today, still sore, but better....it's still my glute/hamstring on that same leg that's giving me the bigger fit!!
Today's run was done washed in brilliant sunshine and very mild temperatures - perfect, actually for a run. I decided I needed to add a warmup and cool down to this session, so I tacked on 2 miles before and after the guts, which worked out great since I planned on doing the timed section on the Greenway and it's about a mile and a half away from the clinic.
I'm definitely not a sprinter....but I have to say I liked doing these one minute bursts. I goofed on the first set - I did not notice that my watch had beeped to alert me that I should have transitioned from "on" to "off" so I accidentally did two "on" and then two "off", but then got back on track. I also need to learn to pace this speed a little better - or do you even pace this speed at all?? Hmmm.... ?? The Greenway was pretty quiet this morning, only a few folks walking (and I think there was an organized walk for cancer with not much of a showing:() and 2 or 3 other runners. There was, however, one funny thing that happened that made me smile - on one of my fast intervals I came upon a fellow who I see often on the Greenway but who isn't "quite right". He's very sweet and always, ALWAYS gives me a big wave and hello when we meet. Well, today when he noticed how fast I was running, he got all whipped up and became my one-man cheering section. Too funny. He was pumping his fist and shouting encouraging and flattering words to me. I think for a moment there we were both transported to the Olympics.
Two things of note - most of these were faster than they should have been (need to get my body used to faster pace feel???)....and.....look at the stated paces - mainly 5:53 or 6:15 - I'm guessing a limitation with the Garmin and the short distance calculation.
Paces for the 12 "on" intervals:
6:40, 6:15, 5:53, 5:33, 5:53, 6:15
6:15, 5:53, 5:53, 6:15, 6:15, 5:53
Actual: 7.36 miles in 56:03.82 for an average pace of 7:37 min/mile0 -
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Getting it Done
Plan: 1 hour 40 minutes easy
With the new training plan comes new ways I can disobey the coach creatively approach each session.
;) In my defense, it was an absolutely gorgeous day out there today (and I do mean drop dead gorgeous!!!), and I embraced the easy (really was disciplined!!!), and I had target mileage to do (gotta meet that mileage!!!). I did this one all in town - up and down the hills and into the flats and on pavement and on the sidewalks and on the godawful slow mulched trail of Imagination Station and by churches with well dressed folks inside and down Main Street with the hustle-bustle of a Sunday morning about town and on the Greeway where my one man cheering squad from yesterday told me how nice I was as I passed and then called me "darlin'". I mean, how can a run get any better than that?? I approached this run as a big adventure knowing I was going to take it easy and knowing it would take me around 2 hours (sorry coach!!), and I took my shot bloks and a bottle of water and a bottle of Gatorade with me thinking to myself that I was taking along a little picnic to enjoy on this fine day. Ah, the power of the mind. 
The run felt good, and I really did keep it quite easy. My goals were to average around 8:30 min/mile for the entire run, never exceed 9:00 min/mile, try not to go under 8:00 min/mile, enjoy myself, work on endurance and leg strength, keep good form, and keep the body relaxed. I think all boxes were ticked. The paces are definitely representative of slope and terrain, and I have no complaints about any of them. And the big bonus is, I met my mileage goal for the week. Whoop whoop!!!
Actual: 15.5 miles in 2:08:34 for an average pace of 8:18 min/mile
8:06, 8:16, 8:06, 8:20, 8:11
8:13, 8:26, 8:18, 8:26, 8:44
8:21, 8:03, 8:07, 7:58, 8:40, 4:13 (8:27)
Target mileage for the week: 40 miles
Actual mileage for the week: 40.01 miles
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red face dave wrote: »When is your next race Dory or is it a secret ?????? Some serious mileage the last few days, keep it up
Nah, no more secrets. My next race is a simple 5k on the last Friday of June. It's a "vine to wine" race - held at a vineyard in the valley with wine tasting afterwards. The only thing I'm not jazzed about this run is it's on a gravel surface - not great traction, but it is what it is. I'm looking for a 10k to run in July - found an awesome sounding one on the 27th, but one of my co-workers is getting married that day so it would be terribly rude to be a no-show for her nuptials because of a 6.2 mile run. :rolleyes: I have the local triathlon in August (doing both days - Olympic and Sprint distances) then a Spartan Race the next weekend, then another half marathon at the beginning of October to use as a training run for Dublin (will run this one very disciplined and follow Ecoli's pace instruction for proper race prep). In addition to the 10k I'm looking for, I'd like to add a 10 mile or another half marathon in September to race.
Whew! I suspect you got more than you bargained for with that one simple question!!:D 0 -
Memorial Day Trifecta
Yep. Got the super-awesome-that-rides-like-butter Mad One out today for a short leg stretcher. The poor dear has been holed up in the garage all winter long. In fact, today was only the second day I've ever ridden that gorgeous carbon and crank cycling contraption. Wow. What a nice ride.
The good news is I got the bike out and didn't fall, the bad news is it was just a work commute ride (twice, actually) with a few extra miles tacked on to extend the joy. Mileage is estimated due to the fact that I have yet to figure out my little computer thingy that is attached to my handle bars.
Bike miles: ~16 miles on the Mad One
And....to put the icing on the Memorial Day cake (not that I have had any cake with icing (or cake without icing) since last year mind you...because I haven't...), I slipped into my heavenly pool and actually did a set that verged on a little bit of quality. I had intended on doing my usual 2,000 yard hippie-dippie zen-like straight set, but I felt very strong and my body position felt great and my kick was wanting to show a little leg, so I changed up the plan on the fly and ended up doing 10 x 200s with about 30 seconds between sets. Whoop whoop!!
Swim: 2,000 yards0 -
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red face dave wrote: »I enjoyed every word of it. Both triathlon days sounds interesting and a spartan race
Spartan Race.....
http://www.spartanrace.com/midatlantic-obstacle-racing-super-spartan-virginia-2013.html:D:D 0 -
Oh how tired my legs are!!
Plan for Wednesday: 6 x (3 minutes on (@ 5k to 10k pace)/2 minutes off)
Wow. I woke up today and could really feel the fatigue in my legs from the past 3 days' 34.26 running miles. Yikes! I briefly considered doing this session over lunch due to the threat of evening storms, but I decided to risk the threat of storms to give the legs a little more time to recover because you know an extra 5 hours will really make such a difference...which I think it actually did (???).
Soooo...out the door and into the evening stormy sunshine....and down to Main Street with my best dance tunes floating in my head. I added a two mile warmup, so that put me on the Greenway to do this spiffy set on a static course (and flat!!). After the buzz of the watch alerted me that my "on" was on, off I went like a mad woman on a mission. 3 minutes. 3 minutes six times. That's only 18 minutes of hard running. Piece of cake. (Not that I've had a piece of cake this year, because I haven't!!) Immediately my watch started beeping and vibrating and yelling at me because I was not in my designated pace zone. Gah! Too fast. Ease it down. My zone was 6:50 to 7:15 - I made the zone pretty big because I wanted to avoid all this beeping, vibrating and yelling - and my goal was to keep the pace ~7 min/mile.....but the beeping, vibrating and yelling became the theme of this run. Feck it. I just ran. Ran and felt good. And then I added a two mile cool down. Here's the result, including my "off" paces for sh*ts and giggles:D....
"On" paces: 6:59, 6:40, 6:40, 6:31, 6:31, 6:31
"Off" paces: 8:20, 8:00, 8:00, 8:42, 9:05, 9:31
Actual: 8.12 miles in 1:03:52 for an average pace of 7:52 min/mile0 -
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Char-broiled....aka - a car wash, a motel, and nearly roadkill
Plan for Thursday: easy
Gah!! O.M.Gah!! This was horrible.....downright miserable. This is going to be a very long summer.
Air temp per Bill Turner's neon sign: 102 degrees Fahrenheit :eek:
Sun: out in fully glory
Wind: negligible
Pavement: sizzling hot
Dogs: non-existent
Yep, not even a single dog out and about - all my usual canines apparently had the good sense to stay indoors today. Well, what can I say about this run?? Let's see...
The first 4 miles weren't too bad other than the two idiots in separate vehicles who nearly plowed me over head-on within the first mile. Sheesh!! The first vehicle was being driven by an old man who was not paying attention, but then next near death fly-by was orchestrated by a young fella who was looking straight at me. I tell ya, law enforcement nearly had to get the chalk out! (8:08, 8:07, 7:57, 8:13)
On mile 5, I was running directly into the sun and starting to hate life. I briefly considered heading back to the clinic and call it a night as I was wilting with every step I took with my thighs that felt huge and heavy (all this condensed mileage is catching up with me I believe), but I convinced myself to slow it down and just get it done no matter how ugly it got. (8:32)
Oh, mile 6! Most miserable of miles, mile 6. All uphill and I was truly dying at this point. I had a bottle of watered down Gatorade with me that was now nearly empty and I was parched and knew I'd never make it. Sweat was pouring off of me and I was starting to feel a bit woozy and queasy....and then I saw the most glorious of things - a lady washing her car at the local self-serve car wash. Manna from heaven, I tell ya. I trotted over to her, pardoning my intrusion to her very skilled car cleaning, and asked if she would hose me down....which she did with a bewildered look on her face....and with very warm water coming out of the car wash wand. Hot water?? WTF?? Oh well, beggars can't be choosers. Once the wind hit my wet body I started to feel the joy again. And once I started to feel the joy, I knew I had to secure some precious water....and I knew just the place - The Caverns Motel just up the hill a piece. I busted into the office, startling the desk clerk with my flushed face, wet body, and stressed breathing to the point that when I asked her if I could get some water, she actually asked me why I needed it. Huh? But, after I explained (running...hot....thirsty....gonna die without it....) she offered me the tap in the bathroom. Tap in the bathroom was better than nothing. (9:26)
The remainder of the run was spent just easing my way back to the clinic....and amusing myself with local observations....like the guy who was driving his vehicle with one leg out the window...and the two toothless looking guys in a beat up vehicle who were honking and waving at me....and the well built young fella in a tank top, hat and tattoos who passed me on the sidewalk and smelled really good. (8:47, 9:21, 6:28 (9:16))
I kept telling myself this awful run would stand to me one day. Here's hoping!
Actual: 8.7 miles in 1:15:03 for an average pace of 8:38 min/mile
Hit the pool immediately upon arriving home and did 2,000 yards that made my legs and body very happy.
Swim: 2,000 yards0 -
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Rested
Plan: recovery
After a few days off for some weekend fun, it seemed a bit silly to do this evening's run as a recovery...but what the heck - a recovery run it was. Did this field style sans the Garmin for an easy breezy enjoyable trot in the post-shower evening sun sporting a brand new pair of stylish running shorts.
Actual: ~2.7 miles in my field of magic
Next up was the usual swim. And in keeping with the theme of the day (um, recovery??), I did this steady at a lovely pace. Ho hum.
Actual: 2,000 yards swimming0 -
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Are you sinning, or not sinning, chocolate wise at the momentous?
I'm still observing the chocolate-sugary-sweetness bet. It will be continuing until DCM. I'm not sure what shotgun's status is.....I think he's entering into marital bliss this weekend (is it this weekend??), so who knows how badly he's sinning right now. 0 -
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Ah, I was going to send you something delicious but I will wait, so.I'm still observing the chocolate-sugary-sweetness bet. It will be continuing until DCM. I'm not sure what shotgun's status is.....I think he's entering into marital bliss this weekend (is it this weekend??), so who knows how badly he's sinning right now.
Mcos off the market this weekend? Ah jeez. Ruined my week!0
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