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.