Success and trying something new!

So this weekend Red and I ran our 16 mile course again downtown and it went so much better than the first time!!  There were a few things in our favor this time, first we had a lot more water, second it was about 20 degrees cooler, and we started earlier in the day.  We bought another Osprey Raptor 10 so that we could each  carry 3L of water plus our electrolyte drink of choice.  I tried my new Nuun tablets that were Lemon lime, they weren't bad but I think that I decidedly like the GU Brew tabs better.  I'm glad that the tabs aren't too bad though because I have 4 tubes of Nuun tabs and a tube of GU Brew.  I have different flavors of Nuun so we'll see what the other flavors are like and declare a real winner later.  The best part about the run though was probably the fact that I figured out how to make the pack fit my back better so that the vent netting didn't grate my back to death like it did last week.  This past run was wonderful and felt so much better than the previous week!  This Saturday we're going to aim for 18 miles, we'll see what happens.  I think the weather is supposed to be nice and we will be starting sooner because we have to run to Bellefontaine afterwards for wedding stuff. Since I worked all weekend and Monday night I slept a lot Sunday, Monday, and today which meant no real working out since the long run on Saturday.  Though tonight I made an amazing discovery, and it's really through a series of events that I was able to make this discovery.

I found this cool running group called Mojo Running.  The running store is about 5-10 minutes from my house and the people there are phenomenal.  A couple of nurses I work with highly recommended this running group so I was thinking about trying out the group and seeing what their workouts would be like but I had originally planned on Red coming with me.  He is away for the week for work so I was going to have to try out this running group on my own.  I originally wasn't going to go because I can be surprisingly shy when it comes to trying something new, plus I didn't want to suck and be super slow since I was going to do their speed workout.  I figured if Red went with me then I would at least have someone there that I knew so even if I wasn't very good I would have at least one person being nice.  Well I was dead wrong, I went mostly because Red wasn't here and I didn't want to sit in the house by myself.  I am also frustrated because I haven't heard anything from med schools about if I get to go or not and it's getting rather late in the decision process, add in the rave reviews from some of my nursing friends and that gives you the perfect storm for me trying something new.  The speed workout was great, the people were super nice, and it did exactly what I needed it to!  I showed up, didn't know a soul, and was immediately welcomed into their group.  One guy kind of made me his project sort of and made sure I knew where we were running to and didn't get lost.  I ran with him to the area that we were going to do 12 x 400 "5k paced" runs.  I put the quotes up because I have never, and probably will never, run a 5k with my average pace being a 6:15 mile.  More on that in a minute.  I ran with this guy who is probably 6'3" the mile to our starting spot and thought I was dead.  He was really really nice and talked the whole way over and was trying to introduce me to people, but the flaw in his plan is that he runs 7 minute miles for fun, that's his "happy pace".  Mine is at least 2 minutes slower than that!  I didn't start my garmin because he had me out the door and on our way before I could even think about starting my watch, but judging from my breathing and how I felt I know that we were hanging out around 8 minute miles or less.  It was only a mile to the starting area but it went rather quickly.  Once we were there though there turned out to be about 15 or so of us that wanted to do the speed work for the evening so fortunately I had a decent amount of people to fit somewhere in the middle.  The guy that I ran over with DEMOLISHED everyone else while he was getting beat by his 46 year old friend.  Yeah, the two guys "pacing" the group were both over 40 and schooled the rest of us.  Yeesh.  The coach told us to run 12 quarter mile repeats at slightly faster than our 5k pace.  That means that if you run say a 27 minute 5K then you run about a 9 minute mile so theoretically it should take you a little over 2 minutes to run 400yds.  I was no where near that pace.  My first 6 laps were around a 7 minute mile or so pace, then I found a girl that had been kind of pushing me, and I had been pushing her, and we began to openly push each other.  With that open friendly push we dropped the pace down to a 6:15 pace at one point.  Yep.  That's crazy.  My hamstrings were twitching, my legs were twitching, I thought I was going to puke, but when it was all over I felt great!

After our 3 miles of sprints we jogged back to the store to just hang out and go home.  I ended up running back with the same guy plus a couple other guys and was almost positive they were going to leave me in the dust, but instead they did not.  I had a blast trying something new and loving it.  I don't suck at speed work like I thought I would.  I thought that I had lost a lot of my speed since I haven't been playing soccer but apparently it's still hanging out in there somewhere.  I totally intend on going back!  Next Tuesday I don't get to go back because I have to work, but after that I will definitely go back!!  I heard rumor of a potential tri portion of their little club and I am incredibly curious as to when they do biking and swimming work outs!  I wonder if they come out after the Pig is over or what, but either way I'm excited!  Now it's time for bed!  I've worked the last three nights so my body thinks it's supposed to still be awake when it really is supposed to be sleeping right now.  I'll see if I can't fix that!

Slacking or recovering?

So last week I killed it and had over 100 miles of training.  This week I have a whopping grand total of 43.5 miles.  I worked a lot more this week which cut into my training but I also haven't been pushing as much.  Last week I made time out of no where to train and this week I feel like I haven't done squat.  I'll make up for it some tomorrow by hopefully running 16 miles (weather permitting) but we'll see what happens.  Yesterday I went for a 36 mile bike ride and felt great!  My run on Wednesday was 7.5 miles and I felt wonderful during it too.  I think I'm going to try making this a habit if training permits, I'll have one really hard week followed by one easier week.  I know that my hard and easier weeks will vary and there is a strong possibility that my easy weeks will eventually look like my current hard weeks, and that's ok with me.  I plan on racing a marathon in May and also a Full Ironman in November, so I better put the miles in or else these races will simply be survival distances and not actual competitions.

Something that I've been working on is nutrition and I think that I'm getting closer to what I like and what's a good amount to eat during my workouts.  Yesterday I discovered how good Orange GU Chomps taste and I'm very happy with that discovery!  I think I need to slow down my intake though because even though I felt great on the bike I felt kind of bleh when we were done.

Ok, well time to get ready for bed because I have 16 miles to run in the morning and then I get to work the next 3 nights in a row.  Night!

Long training weekend

Training miles for Tuesday through Sunday (March 13-18): 115.83

Yep, that's right, my little body carried me through over 100 miles of training this week, and my knee is not letting me forget it!  Actually it really wasn't too bad and I really did enjoy 90% of it.  After all of the training that I did Tues - Thursday I took Friday off and enjoyed a small rest day before working all night.  Then Saturday Red and I did another 30 mile ride, which was far less painful than the last ride I participated in, and worked on some nutrition.  I started taking gels every 30 minutes as opposed to maybe 1 every other hour, and also added in some GU Brew electrolytes (essentially good tasting salt tabs in water).  I was still not the happiest person about hills but I was much improved.  The ride went quite well and everything was peachy until I had to go to work #2 and stand on my feet for 4 hours.  I didn't enjoy that part of my day, but it's ok.  The hard part of the weekend came when we decided to do our long run downtown in the hills in the middle of the afternoon.  That part of the plan was not thought through very well.  

We went downtown with a 20oz bottle of GU Brew and a 3L hydration pack plus our assortment of gels and chews.  That was decidedly not enough fluids for 2 people to run 16 miles up and down hills when it's 80 degrees.  When we made this plan we didn't check the weather, all we knew was it wasn't freezing and Red should wear sun screen, but past that we didn't check the temperature.  Note to self, check the temperature.  About half a mile into the run Red asked me to carry the pack because it was making him too hot, fair enough.  The poor guy had buckets of sweat pouring off of him.  I made a mental note and had him start taking electrolytes sooner into the run than I originally planned and also made him drink more to try and keep him hydrated.  That was a great idea for him but I kind of neglected myself in that plan and ended up bonking hard at about 5 miles.  Yep, we still had 11 miles of the run left and I wanted my mommy.  I ran about another mile and we were seriously starting to create a mental plan in our heads of a contingency route home in the event that my body simply didn't want to run up and down any more stupid hills.  Well we traded the pack back to Red because we were in the shade and I instantly felt better!  I apparently had the pack too tight or something, but that didn't solve all of the problems.  I was still tired and my legs were still angry.  We continued on our original plan and I ended up walking the majority of a really long hill simply because my body was flipping me the patella.  Once we got close to campus we decided to top off the hydration pack and continue on our merry little way.  We were SO glad that we "topped off" our pack because when we went to fill it, it was empty.  The only water that was left was a tiny bit in the very bottom and what was left in the tube.  So a couple more good sips and we would have been out.  Thankfully campus had a functional drinking fountain outside that I kind of swam in and we filled up our pack again.  With a new pack and a cooled off midget we ate more nutrition and migrated on.  Within the next 30 minutes I think I took in 300 calories and my body was MUCH happier.  The water fountain was around mile 11 and by mile 12 I felt so much better.  We traded the pack back to me because we were running down hill, and I also figured out what most of the problem was with me, and we finished our run strong.  We ended up doing all 16 miles of our plan and nobody died.  When we got to the car I checked our water again and we had downed over half of the water in about 5 miles.  I realize that we were drinking more because we knew we didn't have that far to go but in reality we needed about twice as much water.  I'm seriously considering buying another hydration pack that way we both have 3L of water.  Early Birthday present anyone? :D

Only a couple of hills......

Bricks!  Yeah Bricks!  Ok, well maybe that's a little bit too much enthusiasm for getting in about 70 miles in 3 days but whatever.  That's right, I said 70 miles in 3 days.  In one way that doesn't sound that bad considering I'm training to be able to successfully complete 140.6 miles in one day but in reality that's a lot of freaking miles.  Tuesday I ended up sleeping half of the day since I worked all night the night before but I still managed to do about 30 miles of intervals on the bike with Red.  Wednesday was the unintentional brick day but it was so much fun.  Red and I ran from our house to his work at 6:15 in the morning, it's only about 7.5 miles and since it was early it didn't seem that bad.  I'm not sure how that works out in my head but I actually enjoyed the run once my mind and body got over the ungodly hour and quit trying to figure out what I was doing.  Once we got to Red's work I took the car that we had left the night before over to the gym and swam 1000 yards.  The swim felt AMAZING.  I am seriously considering adding it after a lot of my longer harder workouts.  Swimming can be intense and tire you out but at the same time it helps you relax and just enjoy the cold water on some potentially angry muscles.  The cold water helped, working different muscles helped, and the fact that I wasn't really supporting my body helped.  I felt great after my swim and my legs weren't sore at all which is a feat considering the fact that I had biked 30 miles the night before and just ran 7.5 miles that morning.  Well I wasn't done for the day. That night I joined Red and a couple of his friends from work to go on yet another bike ride.  I was informed that we would originally be aiming for about 20-30 EASY miles.  I was misinformed because apparently at some point in this ride a certain someone decided that it would be a good idea to take a different route other than the bike trail.  Ok, well a different route is always a nice change in pace so long as it doesn't resemble hills from Hell, torn up paths where you almost die, and "walls" that people called "hills".  Oh? This route has all of those things!  Well great!  Let's just sign us all up for that idea without telling anyone and continue to say "that was the last hill" until the other 4 people in this group were too tired to throttle Scuba Steve by the time we realized what was happening. 

That's right, our simple ride was quite incredibly painful.  We decided to go out to the Lebanon Extension but apparently I'm the only one that can read a sign that says "trail closed due to water main break" and know that it means the trail is closed.  We get to the bright orange barrier and someone, Red, gets the great idea to egg on someone else to get out their phone and find an alternate route to the Lebanon extension.  I'm game for the Lebanon hill because it just consists of one hill and we typically ride another couple miles past it then turn around and go back to the trail.  Well there were a couple of obstacles that none of us were honestly aware of so we decided to not go home the way that we came out.  The regular trail to Lebanon was torn up which made riding it just flat dangerous.  So we went through Lebanon to 42 to attempt to get home.  Well Scuba Steve decided that he knew a "better way" that had only a couple hills.  Well every single road had "a couple hills".  These hills were things that you got to the top of one hill and went what the crap is that thing!? Yep, that's how the last 10 miles of this easy bike ride went.  We advised Scuba Steve to ride rather quickly in front of us because we were all about to shove him off a curb.  That is the last time that Scuba Steve gets to choose the bike route for our little group.  I told him if he wants to suggest a route that it has to be mapped out, including elevation, from more than one source and pre-approved, by me, in order for it to actually happen.  He thought I was kidding and just laughed.  Hmph. :P

Holy Tornado Batman!

Wow!  Ok, so let's take a minute and think about the fact that I am able to sit here and write instead of the fact that I almost flew away yesterday.....and done.

Yesterday, I had this great idea to go for a nice bike ride with Red and a couple guys from his work since it was BEAUTIFUL outside.  Well that idea wasn't very well thought through.  The wind was attempting to be a small factor in whatever we were going to do that day and it made things kind of interesting.  Here at home I was texting Red asking if he still wanted to bike since it was so windy and he said that it wasn't too bad over at his work and we would be fine.  Fine.  Ok.  Well I go over to his work, about 10 miles from our house and the wind isn't quite as bad so bike ride is still on!  We head out and the wind is a little bit rough but nothing too terrible.  We go down the Socialville-Foster hill, hit the bike trail and migrate over to the Lebanon extension fighting some random wind, but nothing too substantial.  In my head though I'm thinking "if we're not fighting wind right now that means it HAS to be at our backs so when we turn around up here we're going to be heading right into it!" I hate it when I'm right.  We did end up riding into the wind on the way back to the trail from the Lebanon extension but then the wind kind of backed off.  For being the first ride of the season for me I certainly didn't choose the easy ride.  The Lebanon extension has a nice little hill that you have to climb up.  I for some strange reason remembered it being shorter and easier last year and so I flew up the first half and then thought I was going to die the rest of the way up.  Once I got to the top I am almost 100% positive that my heart rate HAD to be over 200bpm.  I survived getting up the hill and the best part was that I wasn't last! We then turned back down and migrated our way back to the trail and were debating about the best way to get home.  The way the trail is positioned your only choices to get away from the trail are to go up hill.  Now which up hill is the question.  Going back up Socialville-Foster means a long steady 2 mile hill which every one is relatively familiar.  Our other choices are less steep but longer hills or steeper but shorter hills to get out of the valley that is the bike trail.  Well one of the guys told us of a hill he prefers because there aren't as many cars and you have more room on the shoulder to get around therefore it is safer.  We all agree that safer is MUCH better so we hit that hill.  I hate that hill.  It was better than the alternative of Socialville but definitely left much to be desired.  All in all though it wasn't terrible.  The problem that we had was once we got to the top we were going to be moving through Kings High School parking lot AND the parking lot of Kings Island.

Holy Twister Toto!  The wind that we had been missing on the trail and getting up the hill nearly knocked us all off of our bikes once we hit the parking lots!  I was re-enacting the munchkins from the Wizard of Oz saying "Eets a tweester!  Eets a tweester!".  Here we went from a happy 15-16 mph to a lucky 5mph.  At times we were moving faster going up hill than we were going into the wind.  I attempted to draft off of anyone in front of me but it was pointless.  There was no drafting in this stuff.  We were only about 5 miles from our cars, at most, so we all switched to lower gears and flew/crawled back to our vehicles where we could finally get off the bikes and in the safety of our cars.  Next time I'm going to wear my heart rate monitor because I would love to see how high it was when I was going up those hills and then fighting that awful wind.  Oh and by the way, there was a wind advisory in the end, gusts up to 40-50mph.  I think we found those "gusts".

Woot training!

Ok, so my training is finally getting up to where I would like it to start!  Last week I discovered a very strong love/hate relationship with the bike trainer, got in an 11 mile run, and swam all while working every single day.  This week I only work 3 days, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, but they are all on third which should make my training life interesting.  I have a feeling that come Saturday morning I'm going to pass right out and sleep until my sister comes here and we go work out together.

Sunday Red and I went on another long run, those are going to be a main staple of our training, but either way I would certainly wish that it would warm up already!  All week it was between 50-60 Monday through Friday but as soon as the weekend hit we were lucky to hit 30.  We started our 11 mile run with the sign at the local middle school reading 35 degrees.  I hate to be cold.  I was bundled up and STILL cold.  When we finished our run that sign then read 33 degrees.  I need to find a way to stay warm if Ohio is going to continue to be a pain in the butt on the weekends. This weekend is calling for 50's but I will believe it when I see it.  Other than the absolutely cold temperatures the run went really well.  We went a little slower than we intended but we also stopped more due to the route and what not than we did last week. This time we ran in Mason and had to cross busy streets a lot and for some reason both of us had issues with keeping our shoes tied or getting stuff in our shoes.  Red also stays A LOT warmer than I do and needed to stop for a wardrobe change because he was "too warm".  I had more layers and was too cold.  I don't know what his secret is but I demand that he share it with me!  It's ok, it's part way through March now which means that we should be getting nice weather here soon along with some rain.  As long as it's not a freezing cold rain I'm game to run and train in it!  Speaking of training....

Red got a bike trainer for Christmas and never used it.  I was the first person to use it as of last week and let me tell you that it is deceivingly hard!  I have been in spin classes and actually rode my bike on the bike trail last year so you would think that I wouldn't be such a wimp when it came to the trainer right? WRONG!  There is ZERO coasting on this thing, and instead of letting momentum take your feel on around in circles like spin bikes do, if you stop pedaling, you stop pedaling and spinning.  This little "feature" is good though because the Ironman I am signed up for is completely flat.  Every blog/forum/report I have read talks about how you really need to get your legs used to pedaling the entire time and your back used to being in aero for hours at a time.  My longest ride has only been 50 minutes thus far but that's about to change this week and in weeks coming up.  The weather is starting to warm up some which means I should be going to the bike trail here soon but I am still going to sit on the trainer to get a good resistance workout in and also when I don't have time to drive all the way to the trail and all the way back since the trainer is just down a set of steps into my basement.  The trainer also has the advantage of the fact that if it's super dark, rainy, or cold I can just hop downstairs and watch some tv as I spin for a while.

Along with my trainer I've been working on adding strength training to my regimen.  Last night I did lat pull downs, single arm rows, double arm rows, planks, supermen, declined sit ups, tricep pull downs, kettle bell swings, kettle bell slashers,  regular crunches, and side crunches.  Today, my back is reminding me of what I did.  It's actually not too bad, I was starting to kind of miss this feeling.  There's a certain happiness that accompanies being sore after a workout because then you know you work hard and that you accomplished a goal.  I wanted to work my back and abs and I feel like I definitely succeeded.  Today I intend to swim 2000 and then meet up with Red during his lunch hour and go for a 4 mile run.  After all of that is said and done I fully intend to come home, enjoy a nice hot shower, then take a nap before getting up and getting ready for work.

Swim time!