Sucky Sunday

While 7 miles into a planned 40-mile ride out Lake Mary Road on Sunday, when it seemed all stars had aligned and we had actually found a sitter, my rear derailleur snapped in half.  Of course, my bike seized up, and I could not get my shoes out of the clips, and I went down, hard, on my left side.  I landed in the road, even though the bike lane is huge, and I panicked and then calmed as I realized no cars were flying at me doing 55 mph.  Phew.  I scooted out of the road and assessed the damage.  Maybelle was unrideable.  So, Will rode the 7 miles back to the car.  Several bikers asked if I needed anything (very kind community), and I waited for either Will or a serial killer to come and pick me up.  It was cold, and I was a little damp, so it was a bit unpleasant.  Though, to be fair, I did have a tasty snack, plenty of water, and an iPhone.  The cost to repair Maybelle will be $125-150.

Here are the things I contemplated while out there.  1) I did not REALLY want to go on that ride, but I REALLY needed to.  And I struggled as a result of 3 days of running in a row, with a 9-miler on Saturday...my muscles were tired...DOMF?  So I huffed and puffed and rode with all I had, which wasn't much.  But I'm pretty sure I was just warming up.  2) I had contemplated doing a solo ride in Sedona, instead, especially if we had had trouble finding a sitter.  This would have been a disastrous decision on so many levels, as it was difficult to even walk my bike.  Grateful that did not happen. 3) I am not invincible.  My bike, although new-ish, could encounter difficulties on any course.  I need to learn more about bike maintenance.  Of course, it would not have helped one lick with this situation, but you get the point.  4) I am not yet a strong rider, and I need many more miles in the saddle.  5) What was a dead cow doing out on the road, anyway?

Maybelle will be ready on Wednesday, and I am planning to try again, if the weather holds.  And although I think any time outside doing something active is probably better than a typical office day, I hope this Sunday won't suck.

2000 meters in under an hour...

...just barely.  And I worked hard for it.  I found some sort of glide in my stroke a week or two ago, and it shaves time off.  The downside is that when I start to get tired, my form slips.  The downerside of that is that it actually takes more out of me to swim without the glide.  I know my strokes are too long and slow right now, but I feel like I can get faster now that my form is better.  I think I will take a swim lesson or two before the half.  But my swim yesterday was very relaxing and enjoyable.  I was well rested from NOT training for the 3 days prior, so that helps.  I blew off a long ride Sunday.  And Monday and Tuesday, I was swamped with work.  I'm a little frustrated with myself for not trying harder to get out on Sunday.  And for not working on reports over the weekend.  Not following through with a daily/weekly plan is probably my Achilles.  I will do better this weekend.

Diet...mine has its flaws.  I think it's time to follow a plan instead of winging it.  When I wing it, I do well in the AM and then am starving before bed.  I need to have a plan that makes it so I don't feel so hungry at night.  Will investigate and report back.

Oly Tri...Check!

I met most of last week's goal and completed an olympic-distance triathlon on my own:  1500 meter swim, 25-mile bike, and 6.2-mile run in 3:38 (not counting transitions).  I attempted to change something in my stroke form and ended up shaving 3 minutes off my 1500 meter time...yay!  I have to admit that I was very nervous that I would bonk on the run, but I stuck to the nutrition plan and had plenty of energy during the run.  I'm not sure I would have held on for 13.1 miles, but I met my goal.  What a relief that is.  I may not have had to switch down to the Sprint distance race from the Olympic distance in December, after all.  Live and learn.

So far this week, training has gone really well.  10 weeks until the HIM!  I'm scared, and excited.  And scared. Need to get in many, many miles this weekend, so I hope the weather holds.  I incorporated some lifting again this week and paid dearly, with a headache.  I need the strength training, but may have to just do one set of each for now, or use lighter weights.

Mission (not to miss a single training session this week) Impossible?

My goal for this week is to not miss one single training session this week...I am supposed to do a simulated oly tri on Sunday, so hopefully the weather will cooperate.  It has been miserably windy, though, so I'm a bit worried.  I might have to do an all-indoor oly tri...watch people come and go from the gym for 3.5 hours!  It's been an easy week so far:  1000 meter swim Tuesday, bike with 4 60-second 100% hr bursts and 4-min recovery and 45-min recovery run on Wednesday, and hill repeats (3 for 30 seconds all-out) this morning.  I am going to have to move my schedule around a bit to do another oly tri in February or Early March, because I doubt seriously I will have time next weekend (clinic day).  

I had a client with a prosthetic leg this morning, and we talked a bit about all of the amazing things people can do these days with prosthetic limbs.  He lost his about 4 months ago, but has altered his motorcycle and is looking forward to his "computerized" leg already.  Some people are so amazing...their will to live, thrive, even in the face of adversity.  It humbles me almost daily.  I am grateful my body can endure some of the torture to which I have been and will be subjecting it.  I hope it holds up!

Motivation Monday...Inspiration to Keep Getting Up and Out There

While listening to the IM Talk podcast a few months ago, I came across the story of Sister Madonna Buder, a nun in her early 80s who completes triathlons of all distances, including the full iron-distance.  She's been to Kona, and was hoping in 2011 to be the oldest woman on record to compete in the World Championships.  She did not make it, but her story is inspirational to me, the thought that there are badasses out there in their eighties, doing amazing things with their bodies and minds, makes me want to take on new challenges.  Here is the interview:
IM Talk Interview with Sister Madonna
I will try to post inspiration every Monday, as that is when I seem to struggle most with my own motivation to train.

As far as training last week, I was able to get all in except for my long ride :(  Sadly, we do not yet have a trainer, the weather was horribly windy this weekend, and I had to work on Saturday.  Excuses, excuses.  I am really going to try to do a long ride in Sedona this weekend...wish I had a training partner sometimes.  I would ride with Will or R, but I don't like to hold them back, and riding alone can be daunting.  Excuses, excuses.  But here is what I did accomplish the rest of the week:  Thursday:  3 mile run with 4x400 sprints and hills, Friday:  2000 meter swim and bike, Sunday:  5.7-mile run in the hilly hood.  I did get my butt out of bed this morning to ride, as well, but it was an easy recovery ride, so I don't feel like I did all that much (40 minutes @ recovery pace).  I will try to enjoy recovery week, rather than feeling guilty!

Motivation to Train

I'm always looking for ways to enhance my motivation toward exercising, and here are two cool new things I have access to (well, almost for one):

Le Tour Indoor Cycle with Google Maps Courses which we now have in our gym; and

An iPhone game where you play a zombie apocalypse game as you run!

I rode up Snowbowl road on the Le Tour bike yesterday, but was only able to make it 6 of the 7 miles before I had to leave.  The zombie game has not yet been released, but I hope it's fun.

As a training aside, I did run 5.6 miles on Sunday with the toe issue, which hurt.  I swam 2000 meters in 1:05:43 yesterday before Le Tour ride, and I ran 4x400 sprints this morning.  We watched the Walking Dead last night, and I had the worst dreams and trouble sleeping after 2:30am, otherwise I would have made it to the gym this morning.  No more Walking Dead on weeknights...I think it makes me tense.  I wonder if the zombie game would activate my SNS and make me run faster?!?!?

More Review

There are 90 days until my 70.3 in Oceanside.  This past week in training accurately reflected the year:  milestones met and obstacles encountered.  On Tuesday, I swam 2000 meters (first time ever) in 1:07, which is only 3 minutes under the time cutoff for Oceanside.  On Friday, I swam it in 1:02.  This was very encouraging, since it was the first time ever I swam sub 50-minute miles!  For most of the swim I had AWOLNation's song, Sail, playing in my head, and I was surprised at how quickly the second half of the swim went by.  I had planned to do my long run afterward, but coming out of the shower, I tripped and sliced my toe on a broken glass jar some jackass left in the shower.  I started bleeding pretty badly and a nice woman went for help.  As I was trying to figure out what had sliced me, I cut my finger!  They administered first aid and closed the showers, and I had to fill out an incident report. It turned out to be difficult to walk on the toe, so I bagged the run and went home and called it a day.  Yesterday, it hurt too much to run on it before work, and it did not appear to be healed enough to swim, so I ended up not training.  We'll see what today brings.  I am grateful to myself that I completed bike and run hill repeats earlier this week, as well as a bike sprint session.  I have yet to complete my long run and bike.  I did run for .4 miles after my bike on Thursday, which felt a little yucky, but then again, I've been pretty sore this week after not doing much most of December...

Ontri allows you to run reports on various time periods, so here are the training totals for this year, July-December:

• Swim:  26.14 miles, 26:43 hours; starting pace:  67-minute miles, current pace 50-minute miles;
• Bike:  758.48 miles, 47.20 hours; pace:  unchanged;
• Run:  229.89 miles, 53:02 hours; pace in 02/11:  16:38-min miles, recent pace 12-min miles.

I'm not including January-June, when I logged many more running miles, as I kept track of them only on paper.  But it is encouraging to see progress over time, and my attitude about swimming has improved significantly this week knowing that I'll likely make the swim cutoff in Oceanside.  Also, I don't have to stop every lap or two to catch my breath.  I've begun incorporating a length of breaststroke every 5 laps (down from every 3 laps a month ago) in order to catch my breath, which seems to help.  I initially started doing it to help with sighting and to prepare for the Palm Springs race, in case I had another panic attack and had to do breaststroke the entire time.  But now, it just seems like a good idea.

It has been nice being home with Will and the kids more this week, and I am dreading, just a little bit, my return to work, as we are headed into the second busy season of the school year.  It will be challenging to fit training in, but essential.  I am committed.  Hopefully the obstacles will be few and far between.  Happy New Year!