New Swim Class
Today was the first day I went to a bright and early coached swim workout specific for triathletes. Specific for triathletes simply means it is 99% freestyle! I’m way too insecure to attend a master’s workout and have to do IM sets or something. I don’t have a clue how to do any other stroke so freestyle it is for me!
The class is a ways from my home, so I was up and at ‘em at 5:30 this morning in order to grab a quick smoothie and head out the door. The session was good and I felt like I got a lot of personal attention (probably cause I needed it more than anyone else!). I think I’ll make it a regular workout - 2x/week. Maybe someday I’ll get my swim times down! 
Pretty much guessing on the yardage today as it was a lot of drills combined with some normal swimming.
Workout:
- Type: Swim
- Date: 05/13/2008
- Time: 11:08:47
- Total Time: 1:00:00.00
- Distance: 2,000 yd
- Average Pace: 2:59.43/100yd
Filed under: Swim
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Drills, drills, & more swim drills!
I really want to get faster at swimming, so I’m focusing on some drills now that will hopefully help!
Workout:
- Type: Swim
- Date: 05/10/2008
- Time: 10:00:00
- Total Time: 00:45:00.00
- Distance: 1,600 yd
- Average Pace: 2:49.05/100yd
Filed under: Swim
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Sunny Day Bike Ride!
It was a nice sunny spring day so I decided to give myself the afternoon off and go for a bike ride! Yeah me! :) I headed down to do a loop that I like along the Cedar River Trail, into May Valley, and back along Lake Washington. It has a few moderate hills and is a nice combination of trails and back country roads. It was a great ride and I felt really good so decided to do a brick workout and added on an easy 15-min run at the end…just enough to get past the heavy legs feeling!
Workout:
- Type: Cycle
- Date: 05/09/2008
- Time: 14:00:00
- Total Time: 2:00:00.00
- Distance: 35 miles
- Average Speed: 17.5 mph
Filed under: Cycle
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Short Easy Run
Don’t want to overdo it just yet since my legs are still feeling last weekend’s race a bit, so just did a short easy-paced run with my new orthodics today. Felt good!
Workout:
- Type: Run
- Date: 05/08/2008
- Time: 17:00:00
- Total Time: 00:33:00.00
- Distance: 3.5 miles
- Average Pace: 9:26.04/mile
Filed under: Run
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Swim
Felt good to be in the pool today and I had it all to myself! That never happens, so I sort of took my time and made it a nice relaxing session with lots of drills and such. I’ve managed to get my 100yd pace to around 1:40ish (my best sprint), but I still have doubts about my technique so I think I’m going to start going to a coached swim work-out at 6:45am! That’s a bit early for me, especially considering that where it is I will have to be in the car and leaving my house by 6am at the latest! yikes! Guess I should just get used to it though…it’ll be good for me!
Workout:
- Type: Swim
- Date: 05/08/2008
- Time: 14:29:09
- Total Time: 00:40:00.00
- Distance: 1,400 yd
- Average Pace: 2:51.89/100yd
Filed under: Swim
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More Recovery - Spinnin’ on the Trainer
Quads are still pretty sore today so I thought I should try to do a little more active recovery. Did 45 min. of fairly easy spinning on the bike trainer. That seemed to help a lot! Tomorrow hopefully I’ll be able to hit an easy run & swim and then be back up to speed training-wise!
Workout:
- Type: Cycle
- Date: 05/06/2008
- Total Time: 00:45:00.00
- Distance: 12 miles
- Average Speed: 16 mph
Filed under: Cycle
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Recovery Walk w/ the Doggies!
Took my dogs, Asha & Jonesy out for a walk today to help ease some of the soreness from the race yesterday. My quads are definitely feeling it today! Stairs, oh my do I feel OLD!
Workout:
- Type: Walk
- Date: 05/05/2008
- Total Time: 00:30:00.00
Filed under: Walk
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Vancouver Half Marathon Race Report
Well, yesterday officially kicked off race season for me with the Vancouver Half Marathon! Wahoo!
I was pretty apprehensive about running this race since I’ve been dealing with a peroneal tendon injury in addition to plantar fasciitis in my right foot. I haven’t been able to run much for the last couple of months and definitely haven’t run more than 8 miles without a lot of pain. But, I was determined to give this race a shot as long as I promised myself I’d pull out if the pain got bad. I have a big goal of completing my first Half Ironman on July 6th, so it is important to not injure myself more.
Amy and I arrived in Vancouver on Saturday afternoon and waited in a looooong line at the Race Expo to pick up our packets. Lots and lots of people! We finally checked in to our hotel and wandered around in search of a simple pasta dinner. I started to get really worried as my foot was hurting just on this little walk! I was really questioning my decision to race, but hung onto some hope that I’d have a really good day on Sunday and it would be ok.
5am came really quickly! Quick shower, a homemade smoothie, bagel, and a double shot of espresso for Amy (I don’t do cofffee) and we were off to the stadium. With only about 15 min to the race start, Amy wanted to check her extra clothes so I downed a Vanilla Bean Gu and a swish of water and headed out to sneak in a little warm up and stretch. After a super quick jog, I realized the HUGE mass of people moving to the start line and figured I had better get going. The race official was telling us all to hurry to the start and was counting down the time….only problem was there were thousands of us stuck in the chute leading to the start area and we couldn’t move any faster. I managed to get to the start right as the gun went off, but was not near the pace runner I wanted to be. I was stuck in the back by the 10:20 & 11 min/mile pace runner. UGH! So I was trying my best to weave through the runners for the first few miles. The first mile was especially crowded and frustrating, but rather than stressing out I figured I could make up the time towards the end.
The first few miles felt great! I was holding a very good pace and feeling good. My heart rate was well within a range I knew I could maintain….and my pace was right around 8 min/mile. I was very happy with this! I was trying to record my mile splits on my watch, but every once in a while I would miss the mile marker, and sometimes I would be very late on it….but I got most of them pretty close. The first few miles were through the city with bands or DJ’s rockin’ out in multiple spots. I was feeling fantastic and really getting into the energy of the race! Miles 4-5 were along the waterfront with fantastic views of the water and mountains.
We entered Stanley Park around mile 5, and I knew the long hill was coming up soon so I ate another Gu and chased it with some gatorade at the aid station. Stanley Park was simply beautiful! All right, shortly before mile 8 I see the start of the 200 ft climb to Prospect Point. Here we go!
Now, I haven’t been able to run more than 8 miles without my foot screaming in pain for the last 2-3 months but I had kind of forgotten about my injury since I was feeling so good and was having a great day! But then it happened….almost like clockwork right around mile 8. I started to feel some twinges of pain from my peroneal tendon. Oh no! I still have 5 miles to go! I decided to take it real easy on the loooong hill climb and slowed my pace (and heart rate) considerably. I just wanted to make it through the race and ward off anymore pain. It’s funny how one’s mind can immediately shift from being on such an energetic positive high to now focusing on an injury and just getting through. I was still trying to remain upbeat though because I hadn’t quite hit the point of no return with my foot. It was still hanging on and the pain wasn’t too bad yet. In order to keep it from getting worse though, I think I may have inadvertently changed my gait a little bit and was no longer running my smooth natural stride.
When we started the descent from Prospect Point I felt something new…my right calf suddenly felt like a nice big ‘ol crampy knot was forming…perhaps from altering my gait slightly with my injured foot? I’m not sure, but my attention was now shifting to my calf cramp and away from my foot a bit. I managed to do the descent at a reasonable clip although I was definitely holding back because I could feel that calf cramp slowly building with each step. I debated on whether or not to stop and stretch it out or just keep running and hopefully run through it. I’ve had a calf cramp once before in a race and I managed to run through it by taking in some extra salts. I was hoping that would work again, so I quickly took down some Shot Blox, gatorade, and a salt tab. No luck though! After finishing the descent around 9.5 miles I was now hurting pretty badly. My foot was not bad, but my calf cramp was. I pushed through but my pace suffered greatly. In my head I was telling myself that it was ok…I was still on track for beating my last half marathon (which was my first). The mile markers just couldn’t come fast enough for the last 3 miles though. I know I had a big huge grin on my face for the first half of the race, but now I’m sure if someone caught a picture of me you’d be able to see the pain on my face. I tried really hard to kick it for the last mile. I always have a really good kick left in my races, but this time it was just not there.
I managed to finish in 1:48.06, (8:15 min/mile pace) which I was still very happy with considering the circumstances (PR’d by 7 min). I also feel very good that I know if I hadn’t had this injury I’m certain I would have been able to run 1:40-1:45 range because my pace felt really good up until the foot pain and cramp. I’m certain I will get through this injury because it survived the race without getting any worse. I didn’t have to pull out of the race due to my foot! It was a stupid calf cramp (maybe brought on by my foot) that got in the way, but hey…I can deal with that!
Here are my mile splits: (You can see where the hill is and the wheels got wobbly, then the downhill and the when the cramp hit & the wheels started to fall off)
Mile 1 - 8:08
Mile 2 - 8:00
Mile 3 - 7:50
Mile 4 - 7:52
Mile 5 - 8:06
Mile 6 - 8:01
Mile 7 - 8:05
Mile 8 - 8:51 (hill climb)
Mile 9 - 9:18 (hill climb & start of calf cramp)
Mile 10 - 7:42 (downhill)
Mile 11 - 8:25
Mile 12 - 8:25
Mile 13.1 - 8:54 (includes the extra 0.1 mi)
Total time: 1:48.06 which was 56th out of 588 in my age group and 249th out of 3583 total women.
All in all a good race on a very beautiful course. I finished in the top 10% of my age group so I’m very happy with that. Although now I want another chance at a half this summer when I am able to train properly and don’t have a nagging injury!
Workout:
- Type: Run
- Date: 05/04/2008
- Time: 09:10:03
- Total Time: 1:48:00.00
- Distance: 13.1 miles
- Average Pace: 8:14.51/mile
Filed under: Run
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Getting Excited! It’s Race Season!
Ok, so I’m getting excited for the upcoming Vancouver Half Marathon! Not so much because of this particular race, but more because for me it is signaling the start of race season! :) This is the first year that I’ve actually trained somewhat regularly (more than 1x per week!) so I am super excited to start racing!
I’ve been a bit bummed about my foot injury and definitely haven’t been running as much as I would like so that kind of stinks, but what can I do? I’m just going to enjoy this race and hopefully finish healthy. I know I won’t be able to run to my full potential on Sunday, but that is ok with me. It is now simply a training run which is just fine.
Thanks for all the support and good wishes everyone! I’ll be sure to post a race report.
Workout:
- Type: Cycle
- Date: 05/01/2008
- Total Time: 1:00:00.00
- Distance: 18 miles
- Average Speed: 18 mph
Filed under: Cycle
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