4-14 through 4-26

Wednesday of First week
Got up in the morning and rode the rollers. Jaimee was in town with her new little baby Rose so I wanted to see her. Went to Masters swim for about and hour and got out. Had dinner with Jaimee and Cassie and Colombos. Feeling especially tired.

Thursday
Had a meeting at 7 so the ride got cut a little short. Was more like 145. Did the intervals thought. Did the run with the intervals and felt good. Still feeling especially tired this week.

Friday
Work was huge and didn't get done until after 5. The pool was only open until 6 and then I made plans to see Jaimee but Rose was going to sleep at 630. So after so much agonizing skipped out on the pool. Still really tired and felt like it was a stressful week trying to see Jaimee, go the the meeting on Thursday night etc. Ready for the weekend and for the next week.

Sat.
Got up and went out to Lewis and Clark Caverns for the race. Signed up for the B race which was one lap then went out on an hour pre-race ride. Worked really hard in the race. Stayed with the pack up the hill and chased Anna down once. Maybe not very smart because I wasn't saving anything. Got dropped right before the downhill. Kind of glad I did. Rode easier back and there was a crash. Don't want to get caught in one of those. Then got out the TT bike and did another lap. The wind had picked up a lot and this lap was one to develop some mental toughness and finding of my happy place. Felt tired, but really good to finish the ride. 5+ hours and around 85 miles!!!


Sunday
Got the run in. Felt kind of tired near the end. Maybe needed more than one get for that time. Did a lot of it on pavement.
Swim- don't really remember. Must have been pretty uneventful. Think I need to work harder in the pool. Get over some fear of hurting and going far. Need to push myself more. Not afraid to go there on the bike. Why is it so hard in the pool.

Monday
Masters swim. Did lots of long distances. Felt really good. My bad week last week is turning around. Carrie gave me a new swimsuit so now I have something to wear for the Grizzly since my awesome Muleterro suit didn't get in on time.
Got a DVD from Amy with the Biggest Loser lady trainer. Wanted to do some of her core but could't get the DVD working. Maybe next time. Just did my own thing and some stretching for a while.

Tuesday
Run- Did the strides up and down a street by work. My shins and ankles were really sore for the next few days after these.
Ride- Went to Computrainer and did the workout with them. It was these 30 sec. intervals at varying levels above threshold with a long recovery between. Seemed very ineffective to me. Didn't give it my all on the intervals just kep the pedals going around and then on the recovery did some high cadence. Did my workout the 2nd hour after they all left. It was motivating to be riding with people for some of the ride. Got in a good workout and am still feeling great this week.

Wed.
Masters swim. Practiced flip turns and am keeping up with Dan and Tony. My new feeling of speed didn't show at the Grizzly. Wish my swim times were faster. Maybe my form is better so I am using less energy and can put that into the bike and run.

Thurs.
Run 30 min
Ride 130. Pretty uneventful. Nothing too hard.

Friday
Went to pool in the am. MSU had a student holiday and pool was closed. Ran for 20 minutes and used the weights with hardly any weight to target my arms and back. The best I could do without a swim.

Sat.
Race!!! Nervous before but Anna and Lisa showed up at the last minute to take my mind off of it. Last one out of the pool. I told you I have no shame. The bike was fun. Kept passing people all the way to the last corner. Lots of fast runners behind me. Needed as much time as possible. The run was good. Finished 7th. Happy with my time and place. Exceeded my goal of at least 10. Want to do even better next year.

Sun,
Tired from the weekend. Got up early Sat. to support Mary who was in the first heat. Went on a 3 hour ride with Erik. Wasn't very organized and didn't do so well with nutrition. Ate a Luna bar and drank acclerade. Stomach okay. Was pretty bonked and tired when we got home and totally missed the run. Should have double checked my plan before starting out. Went up some hills on the bike but probably should have done more.

Monday
Tired. Going to Master swim.

This next week

Tuesday: Had a big day at work so did the workouts after. Left work at 4 to get home and get things done. Ran outside for 45 minutes or so and did the 6X90 second strides. We should actually talk about what you mean by strides? Felt good to run fast and tried to really think about my form. Wish I was a faster runner, where is all the effort going? Rode the trainer when I got home. Rode for 1:30 and put it in some harder gears to imitate hills. Did them variable from short harder ones to longer easier ones. Wed. Rode the TT bike for the first time outside. Wow that was fun!!! Kind of missed that I had an actual workout. Think it was ok. Had a really strong headwind on the uphill and rode uphill all the way out of town. Masters swim- felt really strong, but maybe Tony and Dan were slow. Dan is a big guy and if I get into his draft I can keep up with them. It was a fun workout with lots of 400s and 300s alternating some IM strokes. Thursday Snowing today, so wasn't to motivated to run, so drove over to trail. It was actually really beautiful out and had a really nice run. Watched a lof of mallards hanging out in the snow. Spring snow is so different from winter snow. Rode the rollers after work. Lisa and John invited us over for dins so didn't ride for much more than an hour. Am having a hard time staying motivated on the trainer. Actually my trainer broke and I have been borrowing Rich's. Don't like the way it works. Would rather ride the rollers. Friday Swim after work. Like spending the time doing drills. Good for my swimming. Sat. The weather was somewhat uncooperative. Decided not to risk it and went to Computrainer. Carrie, Lawrence, and Jeff L. were there which was nice. Did the 3X30 minute intervals and maybe another 20 minute one trying to finish out the ride. Brought 3 bottles of Accelerade with 360 calories each (one for each hour). These fulfilled me. Ran right after for ~20 minutes and other than an orange flavored burp my stomach was just fine. Going to stick with Accelerade for the time being. Nutrition cost me 9$ for that ride. Am trying to get RH to carry the stuff so I can get a discount on it. This is an expensive sport. The accelerade had the suggested amount of sodium that I needed so didn't supplement with anything else. Might get some nodoz for caffeine. Sun. Breakfast with Jenny and her friends. That was fun and lasted a while. Then went and ran. The first 3 4 minute tempo parts were good, but I was pretty tired for the last one. Tripped going down a curb early in the run and now my ankle is pretty sore. Hurts to take my foot out of the bike pedal. Debated about riding outside and decided to go with it. Sooooo glad I did. The sun came out and the ride ended up being really nice. Maybe a little harder than you wanted but it was sooo nice out. Got a massage within an hour of the ride. Matt really worked my neck and shoulders which needed it. Turns out some whiplash from when I was 18 might be causing my back to be so sore. Felt really good afterwards and on Monday. Maybe Sun night is the day to get the massage. Matt is great because he is so flexible. Monday Nice morning communte. Will go to swimming this evening. The sun is out, but probably not for long.

3/29/11-4/5/11

Followed the training for the week. Didn't spin on Wed. after swimming, basically because I forgot, but had a good swim workout consisting of lots of dolphin kick for core, wall pushups, and wall squats. Stayed longer than 1 hour. Was very sore the next day. Rode on Thursday inside since I was still coughing a little. Swam on Friday and accidently skipped the core. Work was busy and we got in the car to head up to the Flathead. Sat. Race was shortened a little because of the muddy weather, but leave it to Matt Seeley to make us go over the one hill 3x. Stayed with the pack to the headwind muddy section. Caught a few wheels and powered through it. Ended up riding with Eli from Missoula. Helped each other in the windy sections and got pulled by some big dude for a while. Felt good because I had the extra umph to catch back on a wheel if I lost it. Usually this doesn't happen and I end up riding alone. The wind was strong and I didn't want to be alone. Eli was great. Learned a lot about racing just riding with him. About half way through the last lap started to feel I was bonking. Sucked down everything I had but didn't make it to the finish. About 3 miles from the end it was all I could do to still pedal. Finished the race though and won!!! Felt soo much better than when raced it last year. Time was 2:50. Sun. 1hour run. Started out slow but ended up doing some hills and finished pretty strong. Swim- the swim was pretty pathetic. My back was sooo sore from Sat. and it hurt to swim. Did the workout and got out. Monday Masters swim. Shelly was on top of it tonight and had her stopwatches going. Got in lots of 100's and 75's. Legs were dead and kicking was hard. Felt better than swimming on Sunday. Tuesday Big day at work. Might have to do the run and the ride after work. Can probably leave at 4 if I get in a 8. Ride in Yellowstone might happen next week instead of this weekend. The weather isn't looking good. I can take a day off though and if I need feel okay about taking some days off for other big training days. I think if I work it around big work days it will be fine with my boss.