Big Ol' What The Hell!?!

Why is it that anytime you try to do good stuff, something tries to hold you back? I’m not gonna whine or complain, but what the hell? My knee is starting to hurt when I ride (not so much when I run which I find weird). I really hope it is something simple like not warming up enough or not stretching right. Now, let’s see how the week went…
Tuesday-5/5
Bike
10miles/15.7mph avg/24mph max/38:13
3 20s 5k sprints
Wednesday-5/6
I was getting my stuff ready for swimming Tuesday night and couldn’t find my swim bag with all my gear in it. All I can think is that I left it at the pool Friday Morning. I called the Y and my coach and no one saw it. I figured I’d go ahead and go to practice and just hope that it would turn up…it didn’t. So, I swam all of two laps without goggles and decided to leave. Looks like I’ll have to replace everything (boooo!).
Ran at work in the AM
18mins 1.5 miles 308 cals burned
Thursday-5/7
Had another brick scheduled. Rode for about 15 minutes and my knee started throbbing. Decided to give it a rest
Friday-5/8
Slept right through my alarm this morning so I didn’t make it to the pool.
Saturday-5/9
I had big ambitions for today’s training. I was going to ride about 10 miles out and then back to my GYM and then hit the treadmill for a short run. I got about 4 miles away from the GYM and my knee starting aching again. I decided to lay off of it for a little bit. I played golf today too and of course we decided to walk the course. Only time it really bothered me on the course was when we would be walking up or down a hill.
Sunday-5/9 (Happy Mother's Day!)
I had a run scheduled, but I didn’t wake up early enough to get it in before we started making the rounds for Mother’s Day.

Last week was really pretty slack week as far as training goes. I ate “ok” for most of the week. The weekend was a little rough being on the go so much. I really hope that my knee isn’t screwing up. I’m going to hold off on the doctor for a little bit longer though. Maybe I just didn’t warm up good enough for those 2 days. I’ll see how running on Monday goes and then how my ride Tuesday night goes (keep your fingers crossed).
Monday-5/11
Weigh in day!
No change from last week. I’m still hanging at 252, but I’m not too disappointed considering how last week went. Hopefully, this week will go a little smoother.
Masters was good this morning. I only swam ½ the time since today is a “recovery” day. I’ve heard and read not to try and catch up on a day or two if you miss it. I’ll just be sure to push myself the rest of the week.
WU -300m
-200m pulls
Drills 8x25 (2 ea. single arm, fingertip, catch-up, fist)
Main Set
Pulls 350 on 8:35
WD - 100m
Total – 1150

Lunchtime Run
I averaged a decent pace and adjusted the incline from 1 to 5. Overall…28mins/2.21 miles/460 cals burned. The run went well. My knee hurt a little bit, but nothing like it did Saturday. Hopefully tomorrow won’t hurt and I can let out a sigh of relief.

I’ve updated my goals with my training. I’ve decided that even though IM Canada would be awesome to do, I’m going to switch to IM Florida. The overall cost of traveling to Canada to compete seems a bit excessive at this point in my life. IM Florida is in Panama City. It is a pretty flat course. Plus, anyone who wants to come down to cheer can. I’m also planning on doing the Half IM in Orlando next May. It takes place in and around Disney World which I think is way too cool.

Eric’s Quote of the Day: “Whether you think you can or can’t, you’re right.” ~Henry Ford

Is that scale right?

Well, today is my weigh in day.  I was able show a good bit of self-control over the weekend which is (sadly) a pretty big accomplishment.  I usually give in to the fast food demons for lunch and sometimes dinner, but not this weekend.  The scale showed 253.5 this morning.  That’s 6 pounds over the past 7 days.  WooHoo!  I’m eating a lot better, not drinking many cokes (trying to phase out all together), and training everyday.  Like you, I’ve heard/read everywhere to keep a food journal.  Mine isn’t fancy.  It doesn’t list calories, fat, protein, etc. It just lists what I ate for each meal & snack.  It really does help especially when you combine it with a training log.  If I have a good training day, I can check to see the “fuel” I used for the day.  This way, I know what would be best to eat race days.  Once I have a bit more time, I’ll probably try to incorporate more descriptive items to food journal (i.e. calories, fat, fiber, etc.).  It will definitely be something I have to do next year training for IM. 

Has anyone else noticed that the ticker to the left has dropped below the 3 week mark!  I’m getting pretty pumped.  I know it isn’t a very big tri, but it will be my first three-sport event.  The swim is a 200-meter pool swim, and then an 8.5-mile bike ride followed by a 2-mile run.  I need to start working more on my transitioning.  It’s going to be a bit different being wet from the swim. 

I didn’t go to Masters Swim this morning b/c of weather.  There was thunder and lightning at our house, and I didn’t want to chance getting to the Y and not be able to swim.  Monday’s are recovery days, so it all works out.

I had a disappointing run at lunch today.  Not b/c of me but the treadmill.  It wouldn’t hold a constant speed.  It’s one thing to fluctuate a 1/10 of a mph but to drop from 6 down to 4.8 up to 5.3 then all around is a bit much.  Oh well, it wasn’t a total bust…dist 1.7miles/time 25 minutes/297cals burned. 

Eric’s Quote of the Day: “Betrayal isn’t just a river in Egypt.” ~Michael Scott

Pretty good training week

This has been a fairly productive training week.  I’ve made it to just about all my scheduled training.  We saw earlier how Monday went, so let’s move onto Tuesday. 

Tuesday

I wasn’t feeling up for strength training this morning.  I woke up around 230 last night with a nosebleed and had a lot of trouble falling back asleep.  I have to get back in the groove of being up early every day.  I got pretty good at it when I was still at UAB but have fallen into the snooze button habit.  I hammered out another 25 minutes; 2.8 miles and 376 calories on the elliptical during my lunch break today.

Tues PM Bike & Run

Dist 8.8 miles/Max 27mph/Avg 14.4mph/36mins

I was scheduled to do 6 “sprints” at 5k pace for 20 secs.  On my way back to the start, you do what can best be described as push offs.  You pretty much skip but focus on pushing hard off the ground each time to work on ankle strength.  But, I have come to realize that for right now, I don’t need to do cardio at lunch and then try to do it again that evening.  My legs were dead so instead of hurting myself, I cut out the sprints.

Wednesday

Masters Swim was a pretty good day. 

WU-300

Drills-200

Kicks: 8x75 on 2:00

Main Set:

            2x150 on 2:30

            2x100 on 2:00

            2x75 on 1:30

            2x50 on 1:00

Pulls: 4x50

CD: 100

Total: 2350m 

We had a lunch meeting today, so I wasn’t able to run at lunch. 

Thursday

Just a small brick (ride and then run) on Thursday afternoons. 

Bike

Dist 12.2mi/Max 23.6mph/Avg 14.2/Time 51:24

Run

Time 16:30s (not sure of dist or pace) 

Friday

AM SWIM

Today was a different day at swim.  We didn’t do too many drills.  We did a swim challenge.  We started off with 2m15sec and swam 100m.  After each time, 5 (or 15) secs was dropped off the time.  So we ended up swimming several 100m, then a bunch of 75’s, 50’s, and 25’s.  This lasted until about 6:25.  Then we separated into 3 lanes to do relays.  I was the second to last person on my team and then the last (anchor) on my team.  We placed 3^rd the first relay, and then we finished 2^nd.  On this one, I was the anchor so I went last.  Everytime I turned to take a breath, I could see the person in the lane next to me.  I pulled and pulled and somehow beat her (that’s right, I said her) to the wall.  It was definitely a tiring day at the pool.

Lunchtime Run

Using my struggles at the Magic City Duathlon as motivation, I decided to run on the treadmill today rather than hit up the elliptical.  Feeling pretty good afterwards…

Burned 400cals

Dist: 2 miles

Time: 27:20 (avg pace of 13:40)

Nothing to be overly excited about, but this does include a quick WU and a 5 min cool down.  So my numbers are a little skewed. 

Saturday

Brick Workout

A little sluggish on the bike at first this morning.  My legs finally started to come around after 20 minutes or so of pedaling. 

Dist 14.8/Max 24mph/Avg 14.4/Time 1:01:45

I ran for about 15 minutes after the bike segment but it was a very slow pace.  I’m nervous about getting injured.  I’ve always been one of those people that try to do too much too fast (or as I’ve read, I’m prone to the “too’s”) 

Sunday

Long Run

I’ve decided that for the next couple of weeks, I’m going to do my long runs on the treadmill.  I need to get a better grasp of pacing myself so we don’t have a repeat of Magic City.

Dist 4.09mi/Time 1:01:38 

Stop the Presses boys and girls…

I went back and looked at the official results from the Magic City Duathlon and found out some great news.  I actually finished 4^th in my division!  I was a little more upbeat about the race when I saw this.  

Eric’s Quote of the Day: “There are three rules that I live by: never get less than 12 hours sleep; never play cards with a guy who has the same first name as a city; and never get involved with a woman with a tattoo of a dagger on her body.  Now you stick to that, and everything else is cream cheese.” ~ Coach Finstock, ¨Teen Wolf”