Thanksgiving

I would love to come to Missoula for a swim clinic with you guys. I have to be in town for the next couple of weeks because of experiments. Would Friday December 14th work?

Lawrence took video of me which I just looked at. Wow, it is one thing for somebody to tell you what is wrong, but totally different to see if for myself. Look at that right arm.

Thursday
Happy Thanksgiving. I am thankful that my Grandma is 88 years young and that she is such a kind person, but can be a total spitfire.
Got up early and went on a run. It was so windy. I ran a couple of mile stretch with the wind in my face. At times it was all I could do to move forward. I kept making little goals, like get to the next power pole. After that stretch I was pretty worked. Deserving of a big meal.
We rode horses after dinner. Fun. Haven't been on a horse in a long time.

Friday
Return from Powell. I was tired. It was cold in Powell and gray and windy in Laurel. Kept putting the run off. Finally got out when we got home. I know that I feel better getting it done than not.
Saturday
Got up and talked to Lawrence. Planned to me at the pool in the late afternoon.
Rode the trainer. Like the 30 minute ramp up. Felt good on the bike. Actually felt a little tired later. Got in my episodes of Parenthood.
Went to work and infected mice.
Met Lawrence at pool. Got there a little early to get most of the workout in before he got there. He gave me tips on flip turning and suggested I break it down a bit. Drill the flip going down the pool, practice the push off from the wall and being aero (I know that isn't the word, but I can't think of the right word), and then practice coming into the wall. I have a hard time with timing and breathing, but Lawrence said everybody does. I just need to keep practicing.
He also watched me swim a little and filmed me. My right arm is still doing something funky. Later I realized that I might be turning my right hand out I have been concious about keeping that hand straight. Lawrence suggested going to the gym and using a band that I could pull at me and would go back straight, the motion would basically represent the pull. He says my recovery looks good. Right now I am doing some weird motion with my arm/hand but to me it feels straight. I think the band would help adjust my brain.

Sunday- Masters swim- Swam about 3400. Got in and got started right away. It helps for the yardage. Got the whole warmup done. Did two 50s of fly. I think I am rested from swimming. Had 5x100 fast followed by 200 recovery swims. I was doing the 100s on 1:40 in the 50meter pool. It converts to a 1:30 25 yard time. That was encouraging.
Called my sister to go on a run with me. Thank goodness she replied yes. The weather was yucky. It had snowed so it was cold and wet and it was very gray. We ran town trails up and down hills for 1:20. I really love to be outside when I am warm. Took a while for my feet to get warmed up. Jenny took me on a new route which was nice.
Made cranberry chutney and canned it. Had dinner with parents and new brother in laws parents. Nice evening.
Monday- Going home to go and do the trainer workout. It is cold out today, but nice and sunny.

Birthday week

I have been stewing over my race season. I would really like to do Wildflower except the cost and the logistics are rather difficult. So I was thinking of St. George? It would be easy to get there. Erik would have a great time because of all the mt biking. We know where good campgrounds are to stay. The course is hard and Art is maybe doing it too. Also, I would really like to go out to Wisconsin for a training camp in early summer/spring for at least a week so going to St.George would save me some vacation time. What do you think?
Kind of a crappy write up. It has been a busy week.

Training this week.

Tuesday- Gfit followed by a little run. Is it okay to run after? I know before is ideal to get a warm up, but is sometimes doesn't work out.

Wednesday- Trainer ride? Can't remember. I think Lisa came over and we rolled those wheels in place for a while. She left after ~45 minutes. Rolled for another 25 or so.

Thursday- Uggghhh. What a day. Made a giant blunder. One of those things that is going to stick with me for a long, long time. After work went over to the gym and ran and did the gfit workout. Met Lisa for some much needed wine and Broad Comedy- Learned a great new saying "Fuck that Shit". Sorry about the bad language. I wish I could apply that to my blunder this day.

Friday- Pretty proud of myself. Woke up early and rode the rollers in the garage. Listened to music and the hour went by pretty fast. Went to work and did the swim at lunch. Worked out pretty well to get workouts in and leave Bozeman by 5 for the weekend.

Saturday- Found a sweet hotspring. It was two miles up a canyon on a pretty not well trodden trail. Saw nobody the whole time. Hiked in and hiked out. Fun afternoon of exploring the North Fork of the Salmon River and finding the hotspring. Found some great roads for some future bike touring/riding. I think I should do some cross bike dirt riding in the spring. Got to get ready for the Speedwagon :).

Sunday- Found another sweet hotspring. Different from the day before but equally good. Got home from our little road trip and went on a run. 1:10 or so. Felt good. This dark weather makes it hard to motivate even at 5:00pm. Went to see Twilight with Lisa.

Monday- Going home to ride rollers and drink some champagne for my birthday. Went to lunch with my sister and mom. Mom bought me a new pair of running shoes. Sweet. Definitely on my list of needs for this year. Those old ones are going in the garbage. Big experiment tomorrow.

Losing My Marbles

This was quite the week. I felt really disorganized with training, work, and life. I think that one multifaceted problem is that I am working on a project with an undergrad  in the lab. My first problem is that she is going to be first author on the paper and I do all the work. The second and actually probably the more prominent problem is that I try to accommodate her schedule to much. It keeps putting me in a bind and then I get annoyed with her and crabby with her for putting me out. For the next experiment, she is going to plan it out, she can ask me if I can help, if I can't she will have to adjust her experiment or ask somebody else for help. I don't have the patience or the flexibility to let a snotty 21 year old walk all over me.

Gfit
Okay, now for gfit. the gym at MSU has pretty much everything gfit related. Kettle bells, a hanging bar, a machine to do assisted pull-ups, exercise balls, medicine balls (and walls to throw them at), big to small boxes to jump on, all the other weight equipment, and hmmm what else important. You will have to ask me.

Also, with gfit. Both days are getting moved to the evening. 5:15 on Tuesday (I hope, since I have seminar until 5) and on Thursday 5pm followed by SPENS(the ski conditioning thing they are doing) in lieu of legs.

So I am thinking that I can do the Thursday one and go to Spenst, except that I am not super interested in it. Or I can do the Thursday gfit on my own at the gym. That would be a lot easier for me to get the run in too. Maybe on the Tuesday gfit, I can run at lunch instead?

I think I need to work on my glutes and hamstrings. At Ironman my glutes got really tired and I notice that if things hurt after gfit it is my ass and my hamstring.

General schedule
Now that gfit has moved to the evenings I think that the schedule will be a bit easier for me to manage. I can get away at lunch most days, it is just hard if getting away has to be at a certain time. The easiest thing for me to do during lunch is run. I am not fixed to any particular time. Swimming is also doable, but the pool is open from 11-1, so like last week my boss decided to go over to campus with us to look at the new lab right at 11. I couldn't say no, and by the time we were done it was to late to get a swim in. Also, swimming can be difficult in the evening. The pool is open from 3-6 and then again at 7:30 or something. That means I have to leave work by ~4:20 to get over and get a 2500 swim done by 6pm. There is room in that schedule, but it is still close. I guess on those days I should come in to work by at least 8:30. I need to make some accommodations for  my schedule too.

New work place
The above being said once the lab moves getting those swims in will be easier. I will be on campus and a quick jaunt over to the gym will be less time consuming than biking or driving there and back. I am actually really looking forward to being on campus for that reason. I don't expect anything else about my schedule will change much.

Okay, now on to the week

Tuesday
gfit- Did the workout you prescribed with my co-worked. Cool workouts because anybody with any fitness level can give them a go. I had a really hard time with the bar. It is really high and I though I was going to fall off doing Rocky style situps. So I just did crunches the next time. Same with the other bar exercise. Next time I might try bringing my bike gloves. So fail on the bar, but everything else was good. Even got in a good run before.

Wednesday
Failed on the swim
Rode the trainer. Felt good to sweat and pedal. My bike was feeling neglected. Even had to use some bike mechanic skills to get it going. Had to take cassette off of one wheel and put it on another. Success!!

Thursday
Gfit and run. Good session. Cold outside but braved it and ran anyway.

Friday
Swim- did the workout. Feel very rested (as far as swimming goes). Maybe that day off was good. Feel strong in the water when I am rested.

Saturday
My sister came over and she rode our trainer and I rode the rollers. 90 minutes. Again, felt good to pedal and sweat. Only fell off a couple of times. Always a little terrifying.

Sunday
Had wine club (changed from book club) Saturday night. Got up for swimming but stayed up late the night before and was tired. Had a good workout at the pool. Jamie even had us doing sit ups and push ups. Got in ~2800. Felt good today too. Felt recovered, for once, to have a strong swim.Went home and took a nap. Thought when I get up I will try and run (the try is a key word here). I should have know, I don't do well with naps and usually feel worse getting up than going down. Ended up not running. So again, fail. I don't really feel that bad about it though. Haven't had many lazy days.

Monday
Veteran's day- Working to get some comp time for days I want to take off this summer. Am heading over to the gym to run. It is cold out and I am feeling like a wimp. Then later go back over to swim.

Lots of swimming

Finally got around to making Erik fish and chips. He helped cook and said "if Elliot is as good of a coach as I think he is, then you are going to get in trouble for not cooking all of it alone." In the end he approved. The texture of the breading could have been better though.
My four swims this week have equaled more than I have done in a long time. 3x at Masters ( I guess one day was last Monday) plus a couple on my own. My arms are worked. Feel like my swimming is coming along. Last winter a 3500 would have really worked me.


Wednesday-
Ride with Lisa and Dave. Left from home and rode to Leverich. Made it 1/2 to 3/4 of the way up and decided to turn around. It was getting dark. Rode home in the dark. It was Halloween and traffic was crazy for us to be on bikes. Almost ran into some kids dressed all in black on the bike path. Went for traditional Wed. night nachos after ride. Back and shoulders tired the next day. Not used to lots of riding. Went for at least a couple of hours. I didn't check the time.

Thursday
Kind of a big day
Ran 30 minutes before gfit. Gfit was good, light on the legs and heavy on the arms which isn't exactly what I want if I am swimming, but those girls are do SPENTS or something like that. Ski training and they don't want it heavy on the legs.
Master's- 3500 total. Can't remember now what we even did.

Friday
Swim- Got in and got er done. Tired this day. Fell asleep on the couch early and slept in on Saturday.

Saturday
Well a 2 hour bike ride just wasn't on the agenda. I think it ended up being five hours and 65 or so miles on rolling dirt terrain. Another Curry adventure. We paralleled the Bridgers going north for probably 25 miles and then went west and south to Benders house. His mom fed us salmon and crackers and wouldn't take the bait for a ride home so we had 20 more miles home. Wow, I felt out of biking shape. Sooo tired. We were all sucking wheel so bad on the way home. It is funny how I don't care on the way out, but you just hunker down and stare at the road and the person's tirefor those last miles home. My legs have never hurt that bad while riding.

Sunday
Thank god for the extra hour. I 'm not sure if I would have made it to Master's without it. Workout was good, had a day where positive thinking was very important for every 100. Felt good, arms a little tired. The other people in my lane are so much faster than me, but I was able to hold the intervals all day. I did cheat and not do fly on the 6x100 IMs . There is no way I would have made the interval. Missed a lot of the warm up so probably swam 2500-3000.

Hiked Drinking Horse and part of the M with Jenny. She just got back from their wedding and trip south so it was fun to chat with her about everything.

Monday
Had one of those days. Was heading over to the pool at 11 when the boss decided we should all go look at our new lab space.(Side note: My lab is moving in the next few months. We will be on campus which I think will make my life easier. I will be a few steps from the pool and the gym rather than a 10 minute bike ride or have to deal with parking) So I missed the plan of swimming at lunch. Headed over to the pool at 3:30 but had to pick up some stuff from people at 5. So, the swim was a little short. Didn't do the 200's at the end of the workout. Was so tired though. Swim speed was only one yesterday. Slow.
Got  my errands run and did the run. Felt good for that and ran for about an hour. In general pretty tired though. Not sure why.