All you can do is tri

So today started out with a visit to the pool for the first time in months since I’ve been swimming in the lake instead.  300 wu, speed intervals 25 x 4, 50 x 6, 25 x 4, 200 cd.  The speed intervals were hard for me since I’ve not really ever done them before.  They did get easier the more that I did them, but I did notice that I would start to fatigue towards the end of each 50 and had to focus on form.  And so starts my voyage to becoming a faster swimmer. 

Then I hopped on my bike and rode to Seattle (20 mi) to meet my friend Lisa for dinner at a yummy mexican food joint next to Green Lake.  Hopped back on my bike and rode home only getting 14.5 miles.  For the last 5 miles of the portion back home my chain kept skipping and not catching onto the intended chain ring.  It also came completely off 4-5 times before the end of my biking journey.  Completely annoying.  At 14.5 miles, during the ride back.  The chain had come off once again as I shifted and forced me off only to find that part of my rear derailleur had come apart.  Thankfully most of the parts were under the bike on the ground.  After trying to fix it for 5 mins, unsuccessfully, I contemplated my options now that I was 5.5 miles from home with a bike that would not be taking me the rest of the way.  I could get a taxi or I could run home in my socks….  I chose the latter since I was feeling pretty good and was unsure if a taxi would even be able to find me since I was in a funky location.  I would have called friends to pick me up, but it was 12:30 at night.  I didn’t want to bother anyone.  Besides, I’m a triathlete.  I can definitely run it.    I hid my bike, left unnecessary items with it, including my shoes, grabbed my water bottle and began my barefoot adventure.

Running in socks wasn’t too terribly bad.  Stepping on rocks definitely hurt like a mother, but that happened maybe less than 10 times.  The run, although slow, felt pretty good despite my previous training today.  The balls of my feet hurt the most and my socks are ruined and there is one blister that came out of it.  But all in all, not too bad for my first barefoot run.  The carpet in my apt felt soooooo nice and soft on my feet.  It was like heaven!  My calf actually seized up on me after I put on my running shoes once I was home.  With running shoes on I jumped in the car and went to get my bike, which was still there.  Again, I was in a remote spot so I wasn’t too worried about leaving it behind.

And that is the story of my random, unintended triathlon.

Last night I met up with my team, Emerald City Multisport, for an OW swim at Seward Park.  There were tons of women out last night.  Most of them (not part of our group) were getting ready for their first Danskin in a couple of weeks.  It was fun to see, since that was where I raced my very first tri.  Then there was our group, where only three of us were from our club.  The rest were a Team in Training group that our President coach’s. 

I got there a little late since I rode my bike in. More on that later.  Once I was finally ready to go, everyone had left already.  I waded in and joined them.  We were swimming to the farthest bouy to stay out of the way of the newbie swimmers and their noodles (to give them confidence while being in the water and security that they won’t drown) on their way to the first bouy.  Rumor has it, it’s 1 and 1/2 miles out and back.  Thus the farthest I have ever swum.  It felt great too.  Just found the zone and focused on form and enjoyed the whole thing.   I would have to say this was my first perfect swim.  The last four have been good as well, but I’ve been so focused on “Are we there yet?” that I haven’t been able to find my zen.  My stroke felt great, solid.  The deltoids are still a little sore, but not like before.  I guess I may just have to swim OW more often throughout the week rather than just on Saturdays. 

So the bike out to practice sucked.  Hard.  It started out okay, but all hills basically wore me out.  I was carrying about 20 lbs or so more than usual with my pannier bag and my wetsuit, bike lock, etc., in it.  Oh and water weight of my bottles.  I’ve come to the conclusion that my sleep habits suck as much as my shift work.  I work nights.  On my last day of work, I stay up for a few hours (as many as I can) and then I crash for 24 hours.  I tend to wake up every four hours for a bathroom break, a snack and maybe a glance at email.  I either feel like I need this much sleep or sometimes I have to force myself to sleep that long in order to stay up all night because I need to sleep all the next day in preparation for work that next night.  Hope that makes sense.  Sleeping that long can decondition you.  Take your strength away because you’re just laying there and not using your muscles.  8 hours worth is recuperative.  More than that can decondition.  This is what I believe happened, because it’s happened before and I’m just now starting to put it all together.  I think I only have 5 more weeks of night shift left before I start the day shift, thankfully.  But I can’t go letting that happen again.  It’s so discouraging to get out there for a workout and have it feel horrible.  There’s no speed, no endurance, no energy.  Today, I was so close to turning around and going home. “I can’t believe I did a HIM 6 weeks ago.  What the hell am I doing out here?”  I forced myself to just do it.  There was this portion that has this unbelievably steep hill.  I pushed so hard up it and only made it up half way on the bike and had to walk the rest.  As soon as I got to the top, I felt like I wanted to puke from the effort.  Again, “Who am I kidding?!”.  I rested for a few minutes and got my breathing back to normal and carried on.  I wonder why I was late??    Anyhow, I finally got to the swim and went into automatic - well after settling some tummy discomfort from the ride.  My legs were happy for the rest that the swim brought.  After the swim, I felt good on the bike.  I was able to ride with speed and consistency.  It felt like the ride out to practice had never happened.  ???  I even caught up to and passed two of the other women who were at the practice and had biked in as well.    

So a bit of revelation and some zen to finish it off.  Man, endorphins rock!  Too much sleep does not!     

Yesterday was the typical long training day. Had a friend, Mike, join me for once. We did a 1 mile OW swim in roughly 40 mins.  I’m getting more and more confident with my swim in the wetsuit.  Still having to get used to rotating more than usual and my deltoids being sore from the restriction of the suit.  But all in all, it’s going pretty well.  Since the suit helps keep my feet up at the surface though, it’s making my lower back arch more than I would like and making it sore.  Guess I’ll have to work on my core bit. 

We refueled with breakfast and then headed out for a 30 mile bike ride. Right before we left Mike jokingly said, “You haven’t had a blood transfusion recently or are doping? ‘Cause I don’t ride with dopers….” I retorted, “Have you seen my socks?!?” He looks down and sees that they say “Dopers Suck”. I thought it would be fitting to wear them on the last weekend of the TdF.  I’m not so sad now that I’ve missed the whole thing due to not having cable.  The Tour de Dope has been no loss for me.  Maybe this will change cycling.  Maybe not. 

We had a good ride.  Spent a lot of time between 17-19 mph and even a little time at 22 mph on our way back.  At the end of our adventure was a large hill.  A very large hill.  Similar to the 7% grade 1 mile hill of STP.  It wasn’t so bad on my road bike during the STP because I have the typical 3 chain ring on it.  My Cervelo has the typical TT 2 chain rings which are not useful for climbing when I’m used to climbing in my comfy 3rd ring of the road bike.  I think I was going 3 mph during part of it.  About 100 yards from the top, I could feel my legs start to shake as I pushed on the down stroke.  I’d already decided to add a third chain ring a long time ago, but I’m pretty dead set on it now.  That was painful.  Before the hill I could’ve probably done 15 miles more.  After the hill, I barely had the last three miles in me to finish. 

Six mile run tomorrow instead of today since my lower back was feeling vulnerable and my tendons were feeling tight despite stretching. 

Today I conquered my issues involving my wetsuit. I got in, breathed every other stroke and did really well. No hyperventilation. No swallowing water. No swimming with my head above water, except to sight. It felt good. The swim area I went to was 60 yards wide. I probably swam 50 yards each way since I didn’t go all the way to the logs. Then again, there were a lot of waves from boats so maybe I swam more?

For a couple weeks now, I’ve been telling myself I should run down to the local park, swim for a while and then run back. Rather than continue to talk the talk, I chose to walk the walk. Gotta start some time, right? AND I really needed to deal with my wetsuit issues. See if it was the wetsuit itself (too constricting?), the excitement of the race start, or the fact that I really did need to put my head under water to get past not wanting to put my face in.

I ran about 1 mile to the park down the road where there would be less people to gawk at the wetsuit girl.   I live across from a large park where there are tons of people walking, sunning, playing volleyball, BBQ’ing, etc.  I’m not courageous enough for that yet. Took it slow on the way there, since it was my first run in two weeks. Then began the wetsuit tango. Made extra sure I had the wetsuit up enough in the legs, then the torso and finally the arms. I think this was the best suit up I’ve done so far. All the other times have been moderately rushed and I probably didn’t pull everything up enough.

Turns out the wetsuit is fine. Limits my range of motion in my arms, as expected, but that was the only thing I could find.

I think the adrenaline of the start does get to me. Everyone around me jumps in, starts thrashing for space in their quest to find their groove and I guess I get caught up in it and take on that energy to be my own. Maybe it’s the word “race” too. What do you think of when you hear the word race? I think - fast, speed, quickness, run for you lives! Gets my heart beating too rapidly to be endurable. At least with a wetsuit on. Today was the opposite. Calm (except for the water), serene and MY pace. And to test the face in the water theory, I dove right in to get past that part.

All in all, today was a confidence builder. I didn’t swim for long since the swim area was only open for 30 more mins once I got my wetsuit on. I’m pretty sure I got laughed at by some young guys, but I wasn’t out there for them and they don’t know what I’m all about. One of them did ask what I was training for, so at least one of them had a clue. Another asked if I was going to go scuba diving. “No I’m practicing swimming in my wetsuit.” No pressure now!

Afterwards, I ran the mile back home, nice and easy.

Little steps is what it takes. Just gotta keep putting one foot in front of the other and it will all come together eventually.

I’m not sure if those two words are actual words in the dictionary, but they best describe my morning today. 

First off, let it be known, that I was voted most accident prone my senior year of HS.  So the rest of this should not come as a surprise. 

I came off the night shift this morning at 7:30a at the hospital (3rd 12 hour shift in a row) and progressed toward the fitness center at the hosp.  Planned to do a short run and short swim in preparation for my first tri of the season tomorrow morning.  Ran for 15 mins on the treadmill, incline of 1.5.  Hopped off to get a towel before I did my 5 min cool down walk.  I left the treadmill going when I hopped off.  Accident # 1 - stepped onto the moving belt at the end, fell down catching myself with my hand, hurting my wrist and seriously tarnishing my pride and ego.  OMG!  Too bad no one had a video camera to capture it.  Two older men were there and they asked if I was okay and if I needed help.  They were nice enough not to laugh, at least on the outside…  I cut my cool down walk short and headed off to the pool.  Accident # 2 - As I was on my way to the shower to rinse off before going to the pool, I slip on the floor and end up jamming my big toe into a randomly placed tile molding on the floor.  YOWCH!  It still hurts.  Sometimes I can’t believe that some of these things happen when they do.  They definitely make me laugh, which I did a lot of today.  But now my toe hurts to stand on and I may end up having to walk the 5k portion of the tri tomorrow.     I’m icing as I type.  Hopefully that will help. 

Sometimes I wonder if things like this are meant to be a message or sign that I shouldn’t be working out or doing what I’m about to do….  Wish I knew.    I might not be so accident prone then.   Guess I’ll have to look forward to laughing more…. 

Didn’t do as much as I would’ve liked this weekend, but did get some training in. Didn’t do anything Sat since I got off of work at 7:30a that morning.  I take that back.  I commuted by bike to work the night before and back home that morning.  Almost forgot about that.  

Went to the swim clinic on Mercer Island with a friend yesterday.  Seems I lost some of my technique in the last month from not swimming.  I found out I’m putting my head under water when I swim which makes it harder in several ways - turning to breathe and going forward efficiently - and angling my hand upward after it enters the water, before I bring it down to pull.  Funky swimmin’.  Easy fixes though.

Today, ran 3.67 miles in 40 mins.  Slow, but not bad for not having run much lately.  Followed it up with a 10 mile bike ride over 48 mins.  Not as fast as I thought I was going.    I tried working on the uphills by actively using my calves to crank the pedals and increase my cadence.  Even though I was trying to spin up the hill, I think I ended up mashing up the hill due to the extra effort of the calves.  That was tough.  There were a lot of bugs out today.  Swarms of them.  Thankfully, I wore my sunglasses.  Definitely ate a few, spit one out and collected the rest on my shirt and shorts. 

I’m having to admit to myself that I’m constantly dealing with my inner demons.  I try to trick myself that I’ve dealt with them once and they won’t return ever again and I can move on (hence some of my posts), which is extremely naive of me.  This is not the case in any way, shape or form.  I have to deal with them in everything I do on a daily basis, as I’m sure everyone does.  Waking up.  Getting out to train.  Doing anything all the way rather than half fast.  Etc.  Today, it was getting out of bed.  So tired today.  Got to the bottom of an uphill on the bike and tried to talk myself into turning around and going home.  Why??  Why say no to getting stronger, faster, fitter?  Why say yes to not becoming the athlete you want to become.  This was my inner dialogue during the ride.  Even before I left for my run, I had to tell myself to not think, just do. Just get dressed for the run.  Don’t think about anything else.  Focus on getting dressed and out the door.  It worked, but sheesh.  I’m really amazed and disappointed that it takes this much to get me out of the house.  I’m fine once I get out of the house, but it’s almost as though the house is magnetized and I have a hard time getting away from it’s pull.  I want to get out and train and know that I should, but I get stuck. 

If you’re reading this, sorry about the rant.  I guess I just needed to get all of that out of my head and into some concrete space where they can swim bedsides in my head.