Two weeks makes for a lot to tell.....

 Saturday morning (2/28) I started to come down with a cold. I wasn't sure so went about Saturday as planned. Had a great swim and a great run. Felt a little worse on Sunday. Only rode for an hour. Started the trainer workout but didn't feel good and didn't want to get worse. As you know, it is Monday and I am still getting worse. Going to doctor. Got a prescription for antibiotics and a strong suggestion to not fill it for a couple of days. I hate this. I know if I don't fill it, I will be miserable until then, but get worried about taking antibiotics. In the long run, I figure I will take them anyway. Might as well start getting better sooner.

Spring break- We are NOT going away for spring break. Erik is swamped at work and can't get away, and I would feel like a very bad wife leaving him. This is a good time for me to get in some hours, especially on the bike, correct? I was hoping, thinking, I would take some time off work and do some training over that week anyway. A nice day- skip out on work and ride. A long swim and a long run- only work for a few hours. I have enough vacation time to take a little bit and now that we are getting settled with the house I would really like to get my butt kicked (with training damnit, not stupid house shit). After all St. George and the Grizzly are coming up. Do you think I can get similar benefits by staying home?

MSU pool closed until the 23rd. Effers. Don't they realize the I need to get ready for the Grizzly. So, here is to a new goal. Swim 1:30 100s in a 50 meter pool. Which reminds me- my flip turns are slow. I must speed them up. Can you help? I was thinking of trying to get a session with Dylan.

Erik and I are also going to try to get out and do something for a weekend. I told him to get his mt bike ready. Billings  has some good riding or Pipestone or the Caverns. Then maybe go stay at Chico or some other hot spring. Erik really needs a break and I think our marriage might need some time together too. I think we want to do that next weekend. (This now depends on how sick I am) I wonder what Polson riding is like? Maybe head up there)

Questions
1- I probably should have asked this a long, long time ago. When you write two workouts a day and write one first and the other second is that the order you want me to do them in? I usually look at the day and figure out how to do both irrelevant of order. That is, of course, unless you say run immediately after swim. Just want to make sure I haven't been making years of mistakes and/or that I need to start changing things.

2- State Swim Meet- I need to register. What events? I like to do the 1000 because it helps me gauge the Grizzly. How about the 1650? Would it be good for St. George? Other events, you probably don't really care about. I like 50 fly, 100 free, and 100 IM.  I am planning on bringing my bike and would like to ride up there if the weather is good and if other people want to ride. Definitely cross bike.

3- Since Spring Break is out, what about a good old road running race? Run to the Pub is March 14th. 10k or 1/2 marathon?

Comment- I just read somewhere (Lauren Fleshman's twitter) that "if athletes are coached with acceptance and friendship they learn to find love in the sport." So true, don't you think? I think so.

Significant training days-
3x1 mile intervals. I used my favorite loop. The one I told you about before. It is exactly 2 miles around. Perfect, because you can start anywhere and end on the opposite side. Also, I am hoping I can use this route to judge my fitness and see if I am getting stronger. The run was good. As a reference mile 1- 7:45, mile 2- 7:05, and mile 3- 6:45. I was happy with that. And, the most important thing. The next day my hamstring/back was fine. The higher intensity did not hurt me!!!

Sunday ride- (1,2,3,4 minute intervals at 1/2 IM pace) This looked easy and started out easy, but ended up being hard. I think I raised the temperature of the bike shop by 5 degrees. Dripping. I don't drip on the rollers either. Felt good.

Hill repeats- I had to do this on the treadmill. It was so cold out. A very biting east wind. This took a bit to get set up. I set the incline to 6, I tried not to think about my pace, just my effort. Found a speed that was a lot of effort. This was how the 6 repeats went. (My internal dialogue) Feeling good, that was only 30 seconds, okay, now I am not feeling so good and I still have a long time to go, okay keep your form, you are feeling okay, (breathing is getting much more labored), check time 1:30, I don't know if I can do this, now you only have one minute to go, you can do this, look at the 2009 picture of Chrissy Wellington and Andy Potts,this would be easy for them, count out the last 30 seconds. Done. Now I have 5 more of those, oh no, maybe I should lower the pace a little. It's okay, I feel better already. ( I wish I was a better writer, that sounded so much better in my head before writing it down).
After the last one though when I was cooling down I was overwhelmed with the deepest sense of appreciation for a good run. I read an article in an old Runner's World today about the benefits of running. This was one of them. Each and every run you are just filled with the sense of joy. Others were funny but so true. Showers, eating, and a few others just aren't as pleasurable unless you run. I need to send that article to my parents. Oh, and the best part about that run. My hamstring was not hindering me!!!

Bad decision-
-Drank beer on Friday(3/20) instead of going home to ride the bike.
-Got to the pool too late and missed 400 of the workout with all the band stuff (I was still sore the next day).
-Swam with the tri club kids- My workout wasn't really that bad after I ended up modifying the workout and moving over to have my own lane. Get this- They swim in 2-3 lanes. They all do the workout, but they don't do it together. I don't even understand how that works. I feel like a huge benefit of swimming with a group is that you can push each other. Also, no time intervals. Just rest intervals with no prescribed effort. Weird. I fear those kids aren't going to improve their swimming. I think the coach's philosophy is that you improve with technique. He forgets about fitness.

Sunshine and swimming pools

The rest of the week in California was really good. Work training was really good and I have a lot of knowledge to bring back to my job. Vacation was amazing. Training got shifted a little. 

Wed- Got out early from training. Ran to a trail and ran on the trail for a little while. My legs felt awful. Really heavy. I was having a hard time breathing. Not a good run. The area is not pedestrian friendly. Sidewalks just end. Lots of stoplights. 

Thursday- Busted out 40 minutes on the hotel treadmill. The hotel was located in a not so pedestrian friendly location. I would have spent 20 minutes at stop lights. I have always thought that the MSU treadmills seemed fast and now I am even more convinced. I had to keep upping the speed on the hotel treadmill from what I normally run to what I think I actually run outside. Watched The Dictator. I find Sasha Koehn movies very funny. Felt much better this day than Wednesday. 

Friday- Long swim in hotel pool. I had the time and felt like a fat cow from the week.  Took a little bit to get used to flip turning etc. Water was a good temp. My 75s were a few seconds slow. I think it could have been from 1- flip turns and 2- it being dark and having to turn the light on my watch to see the time. I thought it was and is good practice to swim in a not so controlled environment though. 

Saturday- We spent Saturday in the sun. I ran on new trails with amazing ocean views, big trees, open meadows, and dark forests  for 2+ hours. Climbed lots and ran down steep lots.  Then walked the beach with my feet in the water for a couple more. It felt so good to be warm and in the sunshine. The middle of my lower back was very achy on the downhills. I also was getting cramped up on the downhills. Am still pretty sore from that. 

Sunday- Another beautiful day, but also one of those days where you have to be out of the hotel room and at the airport and not much can get done. I did the other swim in the morning. It was good. Nice and solid. Felt really good. Could have swam another 2000. We then drove down the coast and traffic was terrible and we spent most of the day in the car. Yuck. But there wasn't much else we could have done. 

Sidenote: I have a theory for why I cramp up sometimes when racing. I really like to drink carbonated water. However, it looks like carbonation is slightly acidic. pH of 3 or 4 vs. pretty neutral for normal water. Do you think that drinking carbonated water could affect my bodies pH (or at least trigger something in my body that is triggered to neutralize pH. At Mont Tremblant I drank a lot of carbonated water. Or, carbonated water isn't absorbed the same way as water. Anyway, it is just a theory and I think I am going to stay away from carbonated water around race times. 

Monday- Going to ride rollers at home. Am excited to be at my new home. We closed last Tuesday!!! 

Health- Achilles, plantar are awesome! Keep stretching and doing PT to keep those good. Hamstring felt good on Saturday but my back was feeling really off. Have a Chiro appointment tomorrow (Tuesday) and am going to ask about it. I think sitting is bad for my back. 

Schedule-

Work- No experiments planned and the boss gone until next week. So not much than a normal work day.

Weekend/s- No plans. Still working on getting out of our old place. Cleaning out garage. Maybe painting a little. Definitely getting wrapped up by the end of February so new renters can get in. 

Question- Let me preface this with. I love long runs and one reason is because I get to think about stuff for a long time and it is sometimes interesting where the mind goes. Further, during cyclocross this year Lisa was telling me how she had chatted with you about me and cyclocross. She ended up telling me that you "know" that I could be really good at cyclocross. We have never had that conversation about any of these sports that I try out. So, I am just curious. What do you think I would be/am good at? Any particular sport or triathlon distance in particular?

           You do not have to answer that question because I realize that discussion may be risky territory. All of a sudden my dreams and goals could become different. So, I guess do what you want with that. 

I want to make a list of goals(some have a timeline, some don't). Very quickly that I have been stewing over. 

Grizzly- I want to podium! I know this is entirely dependent on who shows up, hoping I can get lucky some year. 

St. George- AG Podium (lots of work to do in the next couple of months, need to get outside on the bike)

Question- Spring Break would be really good for this huh? 

Victoria- AG Podium

I realize all these are dependent on things entirely out of my hands, however, I want to work on the mental part of things to go into these races thinking positively and keep my head in the game the whole time.


Thursday swim- This is what is on their training plan. Not sure what the warm up is.
WU
1x400 FREE/BACK, 1:00 RI 1x200 PULL, 1:00 RI 1x400 FREE/BACK, 1:00 RI 1x100 PULL, :30 RI 5x(25 kick, 50 drill, 75 FREE), :20 RI
CD

Okay, time to get home. 

Chat tomorrow. 

A new house and California

A couple of things.
1- I am committed to Masters state on March 21-22. I am hoping to bring a bike and ride with some of those people.

2- I signed up for St George and booked a hotel with my lovely friend LeAnn.

3- Spring break is the week of March 13th. We want to do something. Not sure what uet.

4- MSU pool is closed on March 2-23.

California- After all my work to find a pool, there was a swim meet. Pools are tough to find. I think they exist. They are just run by swim clubs and hours and phone numbers are hard to find. I know of one open during the week but not Sunday. I found a park that had some trails and went on a long run instead. Ended up on a paved trail along Coyote Creek that went along forever. Ran 2 hours total. A little longer than I probably should have but felt good and kept mindful of good form. Had a lot of time to think about graduate school and being in San Diego. I used to collect insects out of very similar gross dirty streams. I got chased by border patrol once. Tripped some sort of detector? Also, I was probably 10 people total in the two hours. In such an urban area, it is crazy to me. Never escaping the freeways. I love California for asian food, good IPAs, and funny discount grocery stores with funny food but love Montana for the quiet. 

Monday- found a nice outdoor pool. It was 25 meters or I was really a slow. Did the 3500 workout. Felt pretty good until the 100s. Didn't do them super fast.  I love outdoor pools!

Schedule- think I will do other swim tomorrow. Mom gets here Wed and pool is closed Thursday. Run and PT other days.  We have a hotel with a big pool Friday and Sat!

Health- Achilles and plantar feel great! Hamstring getting better. Got a few more exercises (flossing?) that I have been doing.

Need to read some stuff and do a little pt. Talk tomorrow

Moved

The biggest thing that happened this weekend is that we MOVED! I can't believe it. Feeling very emotional about the whole thing. It isn't all over yet but so close. Thank you so much for working with me on this for months and months.

I did work pretty hard leading into the weekend and feel pretty good about training. A few examples with comments are listed below.

1- swim on own with 12x100 at a 1k pace. My goal is to do these on 1:25. I definitely can hold a 1:30 but keep hitting a 1:27 or so. Also, glad to get back to my own swims. I feel better with them being more focused.

2- 1 hr swim should be on the calendar every year. It is great for my confidence. I swam 1hr strong. I can swim St. George. No problem!

3- Friday run. At first I was tired and didn't feel like doing it. Also, it is important to have a good place to run for 10 minutes. That is a long distance and it is so icy out. So, I came up with a route. It is this big square from campus that is all right hand turns, on good big sidewalks or bike paths, and isn't hilly(minus the general uphills and downhills) I see college kids ( cross country) running there often. 

So route was great. Felt really good. My hamstring is doing good. I can still feel it, but need to get a bike fit ASAP. It doesn't feel like it is limiting me like it was last year.  Also, have Chiro appt tomorrow where I am going to talk more about appropriate PT.

Schedule- leave for San Jose early Sunday morning. I wouldn't mind spending the day Sunday doing a long run and/or swimming. Still am working out pools, transportation etc. Haven't had enough time.

Am in San Jose through the following Sunday afternoon. Getting a hotel for Friday and Saturday night with a 25 yard pool! Outside!