tuesdays: speed work

I decided on saturday that it was time in my training to start implementing some speed work. since I'm running on mondays to get the kinks out, tuesday would be the perfect day for speed. today I decided to do some hill repeats.

I ran over to sugarhouse park as my warm up. I turned into the park from 1500 east and ran down to the first good grassy hill on the south side. I did five repeats (you generally want a hill that's relatively steep and will take you around 30 seconds to get to the top), focusing on a quick turnover, running on my toes, keeping my head up and eyes on the goal. . . and engaging my robot arms.

[when doing hill repeats while I trained for my first marathon, this rad girl we ran with would always say she was turning on her robot arms. because it's a known fact that your legs can't go anywhere without your arms. so if you just put your arms on automatic, and power them through your feet will just have to follow. it's like magic.]

after the repeats, I ran the rest of the interior loop of the park and ran home the way I came. it was a good, long run. my legs started to get a little tight near the end. I came home and iced, though. and my hamstring didn't really bug me at all--I was a little worried that running hills might aggravate it (and let's be honest, running to sugarhouse is a hill in itself!) but I was okay.

I felt fantastic when I got home. It was a really good run.

~5.5 miles; 1700 south to 1100 east to 2100 south to 1500 east to the sugarhouse loop and back again

my new monday routine

I decided on saturday that I couldn't swim on monday's anymore. I needed to run. after all these long runs on the weekend, I'd need to get back out on the road as soon as possible to stretch out the legs.

pete and I did the usual quick run route. over to liberty park, along 600 east. it was good. I stretched and iced when I got home.

~3 miles; 600 east to liberty and back

twelve miler: JRPT

yesterday I did my twelve mile run on the Jordan River Parkway trail. at first I was going to just park and go six miles out one way and turn around and come back. I wasn't sure if any of the parks would have their drinking fountains going yet, so finally at the last second I decided to park, go three miles out in one direction, turn around--get water and eat an energy gel at least halfway through--go three miles out the other direction, turn around and come back. good thing I did because there was no water anywhere else. Salt Lake Running Co. was sponsoring a run for people doing the SLC Marathon so they had water jugs out there on the course. . . I broke down and stole a drink of their water and gatorade on mile ten. I was kinda dehydrated and needed something to get me through the last two miles. I'm sure they'd understand.

anyway, it was a pretty good run. nothing too eventful happened. my legs got pretty tight halfway through. my hamstring sucks. (I did ice when I got home) my ankles are holding up relatively well, so that's good. right after the run I went to the Maverik across the street to get some gas. while I was filling up my calves started to hurt so bad! I think they just seized up on me or something. so tight. but now they don't bother me, thankfully. I'm not even that sore today--hurrah!

12 miles; jordan river parkway

thursday:

elliptical team.

I did it for like 3o minutes (plus that five minute cool down, of course) and it was alright. I don't know, maybe it was just an off day for me and the elliptical machine, but I just didn't feel it. is it losing that spark? do I not love it as much as I used to? I don't know... maybe it's this change in weather. why should I be stuck inside when I could be outside enjoying the ideal temps? I mean, I should take advantage of the cool spring weather while I have it. soon it will be nothing but too hot to do anything.

steiner; 3.3 elliptical distance
jerry seinfield on the ipod

wednesday:

cruiser bike team.

peter ran and I cruised. it was fun. we went to liberty. I took two laps around. it was more of a workout than you'd think since my cruiser bike is a classic schwinn, that's probably forty years old and forty pounds. I love it. it was surprisingly hard on my quads and inner thighs. and it was fun! soon we're gonna break out the road bikes. I can't wait!

I ditched swimteam 'cause I hate getting home at, like, eight o'clock. I promise to do the thursday AM swim, I swear!

tuesday:

run team.

I just did a quick route. the usual run to liberty and take a lap around the park.

I hate to say it, but it already felt too hot. in the shade it was perfect, and sometimes you'd get a nice breeze blowing, but. . . my hands want to turn into sausage fingers a little bit and that's just no good! I should start running in the mornings on weekdays.

monday:

swimteam.

warmup
8 50's - drill/swim
3 100's - each progressively faster
4 300's
cooldown

I lead the lane and felt pretty good.

the rest of last week

tuesday I ran on the treadmill, I do believe. something like three miles.

wednesday I ditched swimteam to go running with peter. it was probably around three miles. we went out on 600 east to liberty, circled the park and then came home.

thursday I elipticalled for 45 minutes.

friday was a rest day.

saturday I ran ten miles! from here on out it's double digit miles until taper. it's kind of exciting. the run felt pretty good. I was a little tight halfway through. I ran in downtown and then up city creek canyon a bit. so far my ankles are behaving. we'll see how my body holds up for the rest of training.

oh, if anyone doesn't know, I'm training for the Famous Potato Marathon in Boise, Idaho in May. It should be definite good times. It will be my fourth state -- whoohoo!!!

monday night swimteam

yesterday's swim workout kind of redeemed last wednesday's workout. I felt strong. I lead the lane most of the time. (mainly because I didn't have the stress of making the sets in any real intervals... we swam, then waited 30 seconds after the last person in the lane touched the wall) and I even talked the substitute coach out of having us do a smaller set than everybody else. (he thought maybe we couldn't handle it -- how about five sets of 300? but my little competitive eskiminian swimmer kicked in and couldn't bare the thought of having to swim less than everyone else just because we were in the slow lane.)

"We can do five 400's, we'll just do it slower."

and so we did. this was the workout:

warm up
6 50's - drill (fingertip drag, catch-up drill, thumb drag)
400 - free (slow)
400 - free (medium)
400 - free (fast)
one minute rest
400 - free (medium)
400 - free (fast)
cool down

I felt pretty good. my stroke felt relatively strong. we finished the whole workout in time. hurrah!

long run

I went skiing yesterday, but that didn't stop me from doing my long run. I'm dedicated. I did it on the treadmill because it was only six miles (I think that might just be the limit on those things. anything over an hour just might kill you.) and it would be easier to know how far I'd gone, etc.

the run was pretty good. about halfway through my legs starting feeling a little tight. it's mostly my right hamstring, but what's new. I got to watch a hockey game. that's always fun. and the chick that's always working out was there. she got on the treadmill right beside me. maybe I should just become friends with this woman; we're always at the gym at the same time.

but you will all be happy to know I bought some frozen corn to use as ice packs. I iced my hamstrings yesterday. hopefully I'll get over this nagging injury soon.

6 miles; treadmill
counting crows

ps skiing was amazing! telemark or die!!!

wednesday | thursday | friday

wednesday:
swimteam. I was having a rough time. I felt slow. the upper (read: faster) lanes were crowded so they made a few people shift down. it happened to be just me and this other guy that night, until the german, that other lady, and the pregnant chick all moved down into our lane. I wasn't too thrilled about it since they're (at least the german guy and the non-pregnant chick) faster than us. I remember the german guys condescending look with his eyes when he motioned with his head to the other girl that they were going to have to swim with us.

warm up
3 200's - descending

100 free
25 stroke/75 free
50 stroke/50 free
75 stroke/25 free
100 stroke
[3 times through; 1st set - fly, 2nd set - back, 3rd set breast]

cool down

it was hard and I felt beat. I wanted to quit about a thousand times. I kept going, though, so I guess that was a victory in itself. sometimes you just have off workouts. you just have to shake them off and focus on the good ones...


thursday:
elliptical team. I went for 45 minutes again... it felt good. I had a lot of energy afterwards. I tried reading my new runner's world that came in the mail... it's slightly harder while elipticalling.

45 minutes; 5.9 elliptical distance
the get up kids


friday:
joint swimteam. peter and I met up at the pool. I wanted to focus on my butterfly since it's so hard. I used fins to try and help me get out of the water to breathe. it was still pretty tough. I want to keep working on it, though, and get better. it just takes a lot of endurance. I also did some work just on my arms with the pool buoy. I want to save my legs for tomorrow's long run...

monday | tuesday

Monday:
I ditched swimteam for a run. my legs needed to stretch. plus I had a little bit of a headache and the thought of putting on a tightly fitting swimcap and goggles wasn't too appealing. I headed north on 600 east, straight through liberty park and on to 400 south and back. it was a good run. I felt strong. it was just what I needed after my run on saturday.

3+ miles; 600 east


Tuesday:
Eliptical! I don't know why I love this machine so much, but I do. I could go forever on this thing and not even think twice about it. Way better than a treadmill, that's for sure! I felt great!

45 minutes; 5.78 eliptical distance
sufjan stevens/weezer

I ditched the ipod for some city sounds and my thoughts

north. east. south. west. a mile out and back in each direction. eight miles. water every two. these are the tricks you learn when you've been doing this as long as I have. (and you're a little princess who will not carry water with her on the run.)

I put my water bottle in the baby pug tree a block away from my house (apartment d, if anyone is interested in purchasing "baby pug's") and started out on what felt like my first real long run of training. it was the first run of the year outside as well. it felt good. the sun was out. fresh snow on the ground. my legs were moving. it felt great.

near the end of the run, somewhere tucked away in mile 7 my legs started to feel tight. I stretched when I got home. I tried to take an ice bath, but lasted about five seconds. it was really hurting my feet. when I get into the higher mileage I'll just have to be brave and tough it out. I still need to buy some bags of petite frozen pees to ice my ailments individually.

the run felt good, though. I'm a little sore today, but not bad. my ankles and knees are holding up. hopefully that continues.

8 miles; 2 miles radiating out from 1700 south and 600 east

elliptical love.

I went to the gym and ellipticalled my face off. it was fabulous.

marta, you would appreciate this -- oprah in surround sound. on one television she was a guest on ellen. on another tv was the oprah winfrey show, and they were talking about obesity and weight loss. how fitting, since I was at the gym.

I ellipticalled for like 45 minutes - went 5.5 miles - burned over 550 calories. and I jammed out to counting crows the whole time*. hurrah!


*okay, so during my five minute cooldown I finished the counting crows set on the ipod. then I turned it to Jesus on the Radio by Guster. It is quite possibly one of my favorite songs ever. I kept it on repeat all the way home. literally.

back in the slow lane, and loving it

the workout:
warm up
3 100's kick - descending

300 free
200 IM (that means a fifty of all four strokes!)
100 stroke (anything but freestyle - I chose breaststroke on each set)
[3 times through]

25 free - hard/slow
25 free - slow/hard
25 free - hard
25 free - slow
cool down

how I felt:
fantastic! it felt good to be back in the slow lane, pushing hard. I was more in my element. at first this lady named erin (she's the one trying to make the break up to the next lane - she's a really good swimmer and very tall and lean) was leading the lane, then this guy, then me, then this girl named megan who hadn't been coming the past couple months due to illness. after the first run through of the main set (300, 200, 100) it became very apparent that I needed to get in front of that guy. I was swimming on his toes the whole time. once I got in front of him I was just keeping up with erin. I even got to lead one of the 300's. it felt good. after the workwout erin and I were talking. she was like, "that was such a good workout - it felt good to have each other pushing us so hard." it was a good workout.

what we ate:
dinner afterwards was fantastic too. peter juiced us up a special blend:
4 carrots
1 beet
.5 cucumber
4 big leaves of green leafy lettuce
1 pear

delicious!

I made some pasta, with fresh mushrooms in the sauce, and some winter blend of frozen veggies - broccoli and cauliflower.

it was the perfect way to end a good workout.

the end.

I *heart* treadmills?

I think somehow I became a gym person. I don't know how it happened. I think it might have had something to do with an injury and an ipod. Oh, and poor air quality. Somewhere along the way I started to get excited about going to the gym (aka the community rec center) to do my long eliptical workout, or to try running on the treadmill. It seemed fun because I got to jam out to some tunes and, if I was lucky, watch some kids play hockey! So now I'm just wondering when I'll make the transition back out onto the streets. . .

So needless to say I ran on the treadmill today. I felt like it was a good pace; I probably could have pushed it faster, but I am trying to be cautious with the whole hamstring/ankle/random ailments/failing body/old age thing.

The super fit lady I always see at the gym (she swims masters in a really fast lane) was there. I think that's all she does--work out. It's slightly crazy.

3 (plus a little more) miles
treadmill, slc sports complex
counting crows

movin' up

so today is a holiday, I suppose. which means not a lot of people were at swimteam. so instead of staying in the slowest lane, my friend tori talked me into swimming in her lane.

"come swim in this lane, you can do it. . . I won't lap you. . ."

since it was just her, I agreed. (though it might have been better if there had been more people in the lane, it's just easier that way) and we started swimming. I was holding up pretty well during the first part of the workout.

warm up
8 50's - drill down, swim back
5 100's - descending (the last 100 was supposed to be at the fastest pace you could hold for the rest of the workout)
4 300's - at the aforementioned pace
cool down

the 300's kicked my butt. sure, tori never lapped me per se. . . she never physically swam up from behind and passed me, but I think I was a full 50 behind on some of those sets. at least I kept up in the 100's.

she did teach me a little trick: hold your head up a little so you're looking straight ahead, and not down. it feels a little more awkward since your head isn't in natural alignment with the rest of your body, but it did make me feel like I was swimming faster. so maybe there is some merit to it.

swimteam was hard today while I was doing the workout, but I feel like I recovered really quickly. it didn't kill me for the rest of the night; maybe I'm finally getting into shape.

swimteam: mon12feb2k7

what the swimteam workout was supposed to be:
warmup
8 50's - drill on the way down, swim on the way back (all free-style)
300 - free
8 50's - kick
200 -free
8 50's kick
100 - free
8 50's - kick


because we are so slow, this is what the workout ended up being:
warmup
8 50's - drill on the way down, swim on the way back (free)
300 - free
8 50's - kick
200 - free
6 50's - kick
100 - free
2 50's - kick
50 - cooldown

oy vei, we are slow! I'm hoping one day to make my break into the next fastest lane. . . I think it could happen. maybe even sooner than we think. I just have to be okay with being the slowest person in the lane again. I mean, this extremely pregnant lady could hang in that lane--why not me?!

postponement

The first annual All-County Swimmeet is being postponed to a later date. More details to come.

(Because seriously, how many of you were actually planning on it anyway?)

joint swimteam

As most of you know, I'm Peter's swim coach. He's my team. We have practices, but rarely together. Last night it was a christmas miracle that we could both be in the pool at the same time. It was like a dream come true.

We didn't swim for very long. Peter is getting sick and I'm still recovering. We did some laps, kicking drills, races, stroke technique critics, video analysis, and a hypoxic set or two. It was a lot of fun.

And yes, it's true, I can go the whole length of the pool without taking a breath.