1-3-12 thru 1-10-11

Tuesday Hmmm. Now I don't even remember what I did here.

Wednesday

Early to work and late at work. Ugh. The late was totally out of my control. Left work around 3 for a little bit and got the 30 minute run in. Then made it to Master's a little late. Got in ~2300 in about an hour. Did a couple of 600's. 200 at 70% and 100 at 90%x2. Plus did a good warm up and some drills. Like Masters and the people there.

Thursday- off

Friday

Tired from the week and clinic. Didn't get the run in. Swam after work. Pushed the 250s as hard as I could. Felt strong.

Saturday 1-7-11

Skied with Jenny up Bozeman Creek. We went to the lookout which is about 8+ miles up. Went at a nice steady pace with very few stops. It was cold and we wanted to stay moving to stay warm. Froze on the way down. Chilled to the bone.

Rode the rollers for an hour that evening. The hour rides seem to be going by very quickly

Sunday 1-8-12

Ran. Good run. Stayed on pavement. Trails were very icy. Did the 8-1 minute pickups. Felt good. Felt good until the last 15 minutes or so then started to get a little tired.

Did some yoga, stretching, and plank later that evening. Calves are tight from running. Need to stay on the stretching.

Monday 1-9-12

Swam after work. Felt really good swimming and 2000 goes by pretty painlessly and quickly. Practicing my flip turns and the 1k pace is good.

Question: When you say to kick can I use fins. In the short pool they are not really worth it. I like them in the long pool. Also is kick flutter. Sometimes I like to do a little dolphin. Good for the core.

Still not sure what to do about Master's. Is it worth it to go a few times a week? I like the Sunday swims.

Rode rollers. Only got in 50 minutes but rode to and from work today.

An ending and a beginning

These last few weeks of December have had their ups and downs. Those antibiotics kicked in and probably got rid of whatever I had even from before going to SSCXW. Bummer I didn't take care of it earlier. Sometimes its hard to have perspective of how you feel when you have been feeling crappy for so long. Now that the New Year is here I am excited for this journey again. I'm trying not to set my self up with super high expectations (except my racing goals) about how the year will go. I want to be able to really roll with it again.

Wednesday- Rode the rollers for an hour. My memory of these days is not very vivid.

Thursday- Not sure what my aversion to be outside is? It was kind of cold so went to the gym to run. My tunes were dead and I just couldn't do it. Ran outside once I go home that night. It was cold and dark but good anyway. I stretched a little, but something came up. Can't remember now what it was.

Friday 12/24/11

Swam at MSU for the prescribed workout. Then ran outside. Went sort of midday. Felt good to be outside in the daylight

Saturday- Got up and rode the trainer. Made a big breakfast with Erik and then headed over to my parents for Christmas Eve.

Sunday - Christmas- Stayed up late with Gabe the night before and had to get up early to go to Erik's Mom's house. After hours of presents we had to get out of there. Went home to regroup. I went on an hour run. It was good. Erik bought me a waterproof Shuffle for Chrismas so got to try it out. Not in the pool, but it is light.

Mon 12/26/11- Off from work! Went up to Bozeman Creek with my skate skis. Wasn't feeling very efficient or energetic. Couldn't tell if I just needed to wax my skis or if it was really me. Passed the bridge and went up almost to Moser. I was probably 200 yards from the end and just couldn't will myself to go any further. Turned around and was pretty bonky on the way down despite quite a bit of food. Skied probably about 18-19 miles total.

Tues 12/27/11

Feel worked from yesterday. Was totally useless at work and I was the only one there. Went over to the pool and did the swim workout after work. It was tough. My arms and back were tired.

Ran on the treadmill for 30 minutes post swim. The run felt good.

Wed. 12/28/11

Was going to try and do the GAS nordic workout. The snow was really bad and the were not doing it because of the holiday. Took the day off.

Thursday 12/29/11
Ran at lunch- Ended up running a little over an hour. It was really icy out and had to go farther than expected to find a little hill to do the pickups on. Pickups were hard. Maybe went too hard? But felt good.
Rode rollers for an hour after work.
Question: What do you know about pedals? My pedals had a little play back and forth. This really bugs me. Should it?

Friday 12/30/11
Swam after work- At first I was not really into the 1500 straight. These are usually really boring. But I went up to MSU and everytime I swim in that pool I have visions of the Grizzly. I mentally divided the 1500 up into 500's and really really really focused on the flip turn. It took about 800 to start nailing it every time. I think this year if I can keep doing this I won't be last out of the water. I think it will be good to try and swim in that pool 1-2 times/ week.
Question: Do you think that swimming with the Masters 1x per week is reasonable? They are always in the long pool an until the Grizzly I would like to practice in the short pool. It is sooo much cheaper to only pay for 1x per week with Masters.
Ran after the swim. Was having some Erik relationship trauma which made this run kind of hard. Only got to 25 minutes. Also feeling it from the run the day before.

Sat. 12/31/11 Met Jamie for yoga. Found a new better studio. I really like Anaysara yoga rather than Vinyasa. The class was good but the instructor was a little chaotic. Thought, great this is what is leading into the next year. She wanted to do a little run after so I went with her. (Sorry, deviation from plan). We ran for an hour and then went and got coffee. Was going to do the trainer workout, but was having problems being a little dizzy. I finally took out my contacts. This may sound stupid, but I think they were in the wrong eyes. It had been messing with me all day. So no trainer workout.

Sun 1/1/12
Woke up sore from yoga. Yes!! I am so glad I found this new studio. I love this soreness.

Question- Thoughts on doing some more road racing? I would like to do some road racing with the GAS girls if it works.

A bust

Swam Tuesday and Wednesday this week. Even ran one of those days. Was doing pretty good then Thursday completely crashed. The long work day killed me and now on Monday still recovering. Went to the doctor on Saturday and go antibiotics for a sinus infection. Proceeded to cough all Saturday night and was exhausted and had a horrible headache all day Sunday. Starting to feel better Monday but still going to take it easy. Hopefully Tuesday will go good!

12-7 thru 12-13

Wed.- Pilates. This was the start to my week of feeling off. Work led me to be late to class. Running everywhere. Class wasn't as hard as the week before. Probably won't like this class much in a few weeks. I think I ran at noon on the treadmill. It was a great run.

Thursday

Did the swim workout you gave me. Felt good. I like the short pool sometimes. A 50 meter pool is way longer than a 25 yard pool if you get what I mean.

Friday

Again hectic. Ran on the treadmill before Oula. Went to Oula but left a little early to get to the Masters Christmas party and was even late for that.

Sat. Have started to come down with another cold. Ran some Christmas errands and then skate skied up Bozeman Creek. Went to the bridge which is about 5 miles in. Tried to blow out the system on some of the steeper uphills. Fast coming down. Was fun. No so much of an adventure, but better than nothing.

Sun.

Master's swim. Swim was good, got in ~2800 in the practice. Got worked hard. I am the slow one in the lane and chase people around. Think it is better to have the people than swim in the next slower lane that doesn't have the fun people. If I get in their draft I can keep up. Not feeling good later though. Chilled and achy. Hung out with our Korean friends in town. Then went home and stayed there. Didn't get the ride in.

Too hectic of a week. Need to be better organized and not do social stuff every night. Also, I think work suffers. I like to do my job well.

11-29 thru 12-6

Tuesday
Swimming with Master's. They kicked my ass. Boy was I humbled. That hurt really bad.

Wed.-
Went on an easy 30 minute run at lunch. Felt good.
Went to pilates. My first class ever. It was pretty hard. There was never much of a break. I had the hardest part with the breathing. In yoga you breath in on the up and out on the down. With pilates it is opposite. Good for the core though. I like.
Massage- Good, got reprimaned for not stretching, but apparantly my body is feeling healthier than it ever has before. I guess this break is doing the body good.

Thursday
Master's swim- Was much better than Tuesday!! Lots of stroke work. My shoulders are tired. Didn't get in the weights. Can't remember why now, but I think it was a good excuse.

Friday
It was cold and dark out after work. Not motivated at all to go run on icy trails. Got talked into going to the gym for Oula. It was a blast. Lots of dancing. Ended up being over an hour of lots of movement. I think it would be fun to do a Jazzercise revival as an event. Everybody has to come in little leotards with leg warmers and belts. Funny!

Sat.
Megan and I decided to try out Hyalite on our touring skis. There was a lot of snow up there. We had a great time touring around. We were probably out for 3-4 hours.
Legs tired after skiing. Also, had to use my arms a lot. Arms tired too.

Sunday
Master's- Cut it short. Met up with the fam to get a Christmas tree. Skipped on the gym this day too. Had a good time tromping around in the woods with my Dad though. He is really really good at finding the perfect tree.

Monday- Long work day made me miss the MSU pool. Am going to Master's instead. Maybe balance out being a slacker yesterday.

Off season catch up

Cyclocross single speed worlds

What a fun trip!! I was sick for almost a week going into the trip so hadn't ridden the bike, run, or swam for at least five days. I hadn't even ridden my cross bike with the gear it was to be single speed in before I had to pack it up and mail it. I was still sick for the trip, but on the up and up so took a lot of drugs and made it through. We stayed in the Haight Ashbury district. Within walking/riding distance to the entire weekends events. Even went to a party at the bike shop where we shipped our bikes and met Gary Fisher.

Sat.- An amazing tour of the city. 3-4 hour ride visiting all the sites including 5 extra hard efforts.

Sun.- Race!!! My 100% racing is what I would normally ride at 70%. Just didn't have the get up and go. Had fun though. Got some dollars. Drank some beer. Finished 20. The race was awesome. The course was muddy and the people were great. Not to mention the costumes.

Mon-Wed.- Didn't get anything done. With travel and work I wasn't very productive.

Thursday- Got in a nice hour long run before Thanksgiving feast.

Friday- Went on a hike with everybody in the Jewel Basin. Pretty uneventful and probably only a little over an hour. Ran down. Quads sore.

Sat. - Went to The Wave and got in some swimming. Swam a little over 2000. Felt really good. Flip turns are getting better. Went down the waterslide. Soaked in the hottub. Fun afternoon at the pool!!

Went out in Whitefish. Dancing at the Great Northern. Didn''t get home until early.

Sunday- Tired from the late evening. Drove back from Kalispell. Found sweet place to eat on Flathead Lake right outside of Big Fork.

Monday- Hmmm. Swim and run?

Off week

Monday:
Hiked with the dogs up Drinking Horse Mountain. Feeling pretty wasted from the weekend.

Tuesday:
It was cold tonight. Walked the dogs for about 30 minutes. Went home and mopped the floor and cleaned house in preparation for dins on Wed.

Wednesday
Rode down to the park for a game of capture the flag. Had the whole Wednesday night crew over for Bulgogi. Good post season celebration.

Thursday
Went to the hot springs with Erik. Walked the dogs a little.

Friday
Huge work day. Walked the dogs after work. Went to lecture and out to Plonk for drinks with work people.

Saturday
Ran/hiked to second hump on the way to Baldy with John C. It was snowing and cold, but a nice workout. Legs were not happy about a downhill run, still sore a few days later. Got some lateral movement in too. Butt is pretty sore.

Sunday
Swam- Did a good warm up, some drills, and a good cool down. Swam ~2000. Felt good. Arms too sore to shovel snow after though.

Monday
Little run on the trails around town.