Friday, April 30, 2010

Psalm 116

The heart knows its own bitterness, and a stranger does not share its joy.

Even in laughter the heart may sorrow, and the end of mirth may be grief.
Proverbs 14:10, 13
I love the LORD, because He has heard my voice and my supplications. Because He has inclined His ear to me, therefore I will call upon Him as long as I live.

Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; yes, our God is merciful. The LORD preserves the simple; I was brought low, and He saved me. Return to your rest, O my soul, for the LORD has dealt bountifully with you.

O LORD, truly I am Your servant; I am Your servant, the son of Your maidservant; You have loosed my bonds. I will offer to You the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the LORD.
Psalm 116:1–2, 5–7, 16–17

Thursday, April 29, 2010

CompuTrainer Class: Factories and Smokestacks

This week's CompuTrainer class was tons better than last week's. I was tired, but Todd didn't have to adjust down my watts. I worked in a harder gear than last week, and I made it a minute longer than last week before hitting a wall.
  • Total: 1:30:00, 22 miles (in the 1:07 I rode that was computed on the trainer), 154 HR (182 max)
  • 15-min warm up, 157 HR
  • 12-min factory (sub-threshold with two 1-min threshold intervals), 173 HR
  • 8-min rest, 156 HR
  • 12-min factory (sub-threshold with two 1-min threshold intervals), 175 HR
  • 7-min rest, 154 HR
  • 4 (I did 2) 1-min 60% then 1-min 102% smoke stacks, 156 HR, 159 HR (rest), 156 HR
My HR is significantly higher on these rides than on outside rides or even normal trainer rides when I try to get my HR up. Not sure what to think about that. I'm just glad Todd didn't have to decrease my wattage.

My run was more of a jog. I did 2 miles, then 8×1min@1min VO2 max intervals. It was rough. I had a good chat with wise, level-headed, problem-solving coach Will afterward.

18:12, 2 miles. 240 cal, 9:06 pace (7:13 best), 175 HR (223 max); 8:57 and 9:14
  • warm up 18:35, 2 miles, 222 cal, 9:18 pace (5:13 best), 159 HR (182 max)
  1. 0.16, 5:30 best, 158 HR; 319 ft, 165 HR
  2. 0.16, 5:32 best, 157 HR; 408 ft, 164 HR
  3. 0.16, 5:36 best, 164 HR; 496 ft, 168 HR
  4. 0.12, 5:13 best, 177 HR; 415 ft, 157 HR
  5. 0.15, 5:36 best, 158 HR; 444 ft, 162 HR
  6. 0.12, 5:46 best, 168 HR; 432 ft, 150 HR
  7. 517 ft, 6:01 best, 158 HR; 492 ft, 160 HR
  8. 0.13, 6:25 best, 162 HR; 323 ft, 152 HR
  • cool down: 2:34, 0.27 mi, 146 HR (to make 2 miles)
Then a 42-minute walk and talk with Will. 2.13 mi, 185 cal, 100 HR (162 max). The best advice was to "talk to God, talk to me, talk to yourself." The next best was to cut off all outside influences. Guess I won't be reading many other blogs for the next couple weeks!

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Go

I had to cut the swim in half today and did only one of the six 200s and one of the five 100s:
  • 350 warm up
  • 6×50 drill
  • 200: 3:15
  • 100: 1:37
  • 350 cool down
Evidently I have only one speed in the pool: Go. There's no fast or slow, there's no VO2 max intensity, there's no warm up or cool down or RPE; there's only go forward. Today I was trying to do something different with my stroke, and although I felt like I took in way more water than usual, it didn't slow me down or speed me up at all. Can you say frustrating?

On to the afternoon run on the trails behind BFY. Since I don't do tempo well, I just ran, aiming for 6+ miles, which I achieved.
  • 47:37, 6.00 miles, 7:56 pace (6:03 best), 723 cal, 171 HR (190 max)
  • Mile 1: 8:08 (7:05), 153 HR
  • Mile 2: 7:44 (6:03), 177 HR
  • Mile 3: 7:56 (6:54), 176 HR
  • Mile 4: 8:22 (6:05), 174 HR
  • Mile 5: 7:53 (6:11), 167 HR
  • Mile 6: 7:29 (6:26), 182 HR
My HR was lower here than it was in my CompuTrainer rides! Something doesn't seem right.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Swim Times to Work Toward

40×50 on 0:40
30×100 on 1:15
12×200 on 2:30 with every 3rd hard (finish around 2:05–2:10; threshold)

Swim a lot, and at a hard effort (in order to get faster and close to the ITU swim times of 1,500 in 18+ minutes).

Times are for short course yards (SCY). Multiply by 1.1 for short course meters (SCM) and 1.12 for long course meters (LCM).

Yesterday I worked on writing out a few life performance goals, season performance goals, and stepping stone goals. One of the stepping stone goals is to get into the pool when all the lanes are full and not neglect or postpone swimming just because there are lots of others there swimming. It started raining about 11:40, so I decided to not swim and to do isos; every Y around here closes the pools if it even looks like rain, so I just assumed DHY's pool would be closed. The Y is about 3 miles away from work, and before I'd driven 1 mile, I noticed that the roads ahead of me were completely dry. We must have been in the little width of Nashville that got rained on.

Then started the 2-mile debate in my head: Do I swim? Do I do isos? Do I swim and risk getting kicked out of the pool if the rain makes its way toward the Y? Do I do the isos that I know I can complete in the time I have? I arrived at the Y under sunny skies, seeing clouds in the distance, having made my decision: Do isos, work hard, make Will proud. I walked into the Y and the pool was full. Yes, full—2 people in each lane, plus others in the kiddie-play/exercise/diving side. Now what do I do? I thought. But I'd already decided, so isos it was.

5 on, 5 off thru 60. Surprisingly, I felt stronger as the time passed. I also tracked HR during this workout (having the chest strap was painful only during crate crunch) and was surprised at how low it was, especially during lunge. I always get so lightheaded during that one that I assumed it was skyrocketing. The highest I saw on the display was 109, but I'll verify that shortly.
  • Wall squat (94 HR)
  • Standing ham (69 HR)
  • Lunge R, L (94 HR, 98 HR)
  • Push up (Since each of the other ones one took about 7:30 plus rest, I skipped this one Tuesday and did it Wednesday morning, thru 35, which was as long as I could go while still pushing up)
  • Preacher curl (79 HR)
  • Crate crunch (69 HR)
By the time I'd finished that workout, I noticed that the pool was empty. It looked like I made a good decision!

Will once told me that when he was training with Charles and some of the other guys, if they didn't get their HR up to max by the 20-second interval, they had to start over. Despite that my HR wasn't high at all, I felt like I worked super hard and he would have been proud of me. My max HR was 112, and that was during a lunge, I'm sure. My HR was higher during the 2-min rest than during the work intervals.

Trainer ride was a good one: 33 min warm up (134 HR), 34 min tempo (151 HR), 33 min cool down (144 HR). I set up my bike and computer on my porch, turned on a movie, and rode away. It never ended up raining, but it threatened and darkened quite a lot a few times, so I was glad I wasn't on the road.

Monday, April 26, 2010

Doers of the Word

There’s something to be said about hands-on experience: It’s important.

I recently went to take, for at least the third time, the CCENT ICND1 640-822 exam.

The first time, my goal was to come away with as much information about the exam as possible so that I could know what to study to pass it the second time. I failed the exam but knew what to expect when I went in again.

The second time, my goal was to pass. I had just spent a week in a bootcamp class, running through labs, learning from a great instructor, studying the material, and listening to IT professionals talk about their jobs and problems. I came so close to passing (perhaps one or two correct answers away) but failed again.

The third time, my goal again was to pass. This time was a year later, but throughout the course of the year I’d read a little more about routing and switching, done a few more labs, and used some excellent practice exams for Boson. I went through all the flashcards from Cisco multiple times, I went through the ICND1 book, I reviewed the materials, and I felt prepared for the exam.

The exam, however, overwhelmed me slightly. I knew the written material. I knew what I could know about OSPF and EIGRP and NAT and all those other protocols when the information was written on the paper (or one the computer screen) in front of me, but when it came to the practical application, I really had no idea. I couldn’t connect the dots between the writing and the implementing.

This frustrates me only slightly, and that only because I’ve spent the last 3 years reading all about this stuff. You’d think that I’d know it better than I do, but if all I’m doing is reading about it and never seeing how the technologies all work together and are implemented, I don’t know how I’m going to actually understand how it works.

That’s kind of the way everything seems. Reading only does so much good; then comes time to implement what you’ve read, time to apply it to life, time to let what you’ve studied make a difference in your life. It’s a reminder I continually need: Don’t just know it; do something with it!

“But be doers of the word and not hearers only. For whoever is a hearer of the word and not a doer is like a man observing his natural face in the mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed by what he does.”

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Crazylegs 2010


Today I ran the Crazylegs World race. It was supposed to have been on Saturday, but I as the local race director postponed my race from Saturday to Sunday due to inclement weather.

To let you know how bad it was, I’ll tell you what another local race did on Saturday. April 24 was the Music City Marathon and Half Marathon, which 32,000 people were registered for. It’s kind of a big deal here. Without much announcement or fanfare, officials started the race 15 minutes early for everyone, diverted some slower marathon runners to the half marathon course at mile 11-ish, and forced other slower marathoners to finish 5 or 6 miles before they would have actually completed the marathon.

Severe thunderstorms, hail, and tornadoes were predicted (we endured the first but not the last two, thankfully), so the local Crazylegs race director (me :-) decided to postpone the race until Sunday. It was much better in that it was sunny, but the 10–15-mph headwinds and crosswinds made for a challenging out-and-back course (why does it seem like you never have a tailwind even when you do an out-and-back?). I also included a few hills in the route to simulate Observatory Hill.



Having delayed the race, I knew the times of some of my fiercest competitors, Team Hawaii Badgers, so my intent was to beat them. I didn’t know Grandpa Bob’s time (he ended up finishing in 1:05:53), but I thought maybe this was a race I could win, so I went out hard and pretended like my solo run was actually a race and I was competing for the win. I got strange looks from only a few people wondering what I was doing running alone with a bib number pinned to my shorts (one of my friends said it sounds like something Saturday Night Live would parody).

The start line

I had just witnessed the female winner of the Music City Marathon run 26.2 miles at a 5:49-ish pace. I stayed with her the entire marathon, cheering her on and trying to pace her; though I was on my bike and she on her two feet. If that wasn’t motivation, I don’t know what would be! Comparing my splits (5:00, 4:41, 4:54, 4:34, 4:50, 4:52, 4:49, 4:42) to her pace, one might wonder how I can’t win that race—until I tell you that mine were kilometer splits, not mile splits. Well, it looked promising for a minute! My total time for the 8 kilometers/4.97 miles was 38:26. I don’t know where that falls in the actual Crazylegs results, probably not as high as 17th in age, but it felt like a good little race for me. I only rue the fact that we couldn’t all run it together!

And, since it’s the Crazylegs race, I must complete this report with a picture of some crazy legs.

Crazy legs

I (first and) last did this race, the actual one, in April of 2006, and I ran that 8K in 42:11. This was an improvement of 3:45. Woohoo! Thankfully athlinks has that result, because according to the Crazylegs results website, 2006's race "Results Can Not Be Recovered. Sorry For Any Inconvenience."

I also spent a little time at Publix and found some great sales.

This was a good shopping trip: $90 worth of groceries for $30.03 total. The cereal alone would have cost $31.52 + tax! The candy is for work, bu the rest of the food I'll eat.

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Country Music Marathon

Me, Charlene, and Sheila ready to roll!
Today was great. I didn't run the Music City Marathon, so I volunteered instead. Surprisingly, I saw the few runners I knew were racing (Christian, Jesi, and Jay) all before or during the race. I hadn't expected to see them and was excited. Actually, the whole morning was exciting.

We had all-access passes and got to meet in the VIP areas!
So much fun! Sheila, Charlene, and I were with the elite women. I saw some things during the marathon that I've never noticed before, even though I've done this race 3 times. Like the statue on Music Row—I'd never noticed it before and never known where it was. Supporting was great. A blast. I'd highly recommend it, but I don't want anyone to take my spot for next year's race!

The bike support crew headed from the finish to the start
This was the first (and possibly will be the only) time I've every been at the front of a marathon, and it was great to be able to watch them run, watch them battle it out, watch their style, and learn from them. Maybe someday I'll be somewhere near those elite women!

This woman started out super strong and ended up in second place
I had hoped to run my 8K for the Crazy Legs Race, but due to the weather I postponed it until tomorrow. Instead, I headed to MFY for 5 minutes, extreme slow. I felt great. It was nice to feel good during a workout again (although by the Z-squat my legs were definitely burning!).
  • Bench press (40 lb)
  • Standing curl (8-lb dumbbells)
  • Seated front delt (3-lb dumbbells—significantly harder than 1.5-lb ones!)
  • Glute ham from top
  • Lunge
  • Zurcher squat (with a light dumbbell just for something to hold on to)
A little nap, a little reading, a little church, and a lot of thinking and praying pretty much rounded out my day. It doesn't get much better than this.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

CompuTrainer Class: Intensity

The class kicked my butt this morning. We did about a 15-minute warm up, a 10-minute ride around 87–92% of threshold, a quick break, repeat 10-minute ride around 87–92% of threshold, quick break, then 4×1min with 1-minute ramp up and 2-min recovery between at 100% of threshold. I managed OK during the warm up, then started struggling about 5 minutes into the first 10-min interval. I kept my cadence up knowing a break was coming, but I could not make my legs more fast during the second interval. Todd even lowered my watts some, but after 3 minutes I quit looking up at my cadence. I'm sure that instead of the required 90–95 RPM, I was much closer to 70. I somehow got it together enough to make it through the "smokestacks" (100% intervals) but it was nothing but challenging. I think I tested a lot higher than what I can actually maintain throughout the entire class. We'll have to see how next week goes. Average HR was 161—that's super high for a bike ride, one on the trainer especially.

My afternoon run was hardly a run. No full stats because it was truly awful, but I did run at least one mile (7:48). Then I headed to Publix to price check and Cozymels to eat supper with BEAT, a tri club I'm a part of here.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Tempo

At lunch today I headed to DHY for 3×30 sec heavy, as many exercises as I could get done in an hour:
  • Lunge (45-lb bar with 5-lb plate on each side)
  • Glute ham at 60* (25-lb plate)
  • Glute ham at bottom
  • Standing ham (25-lb plate)
After work, I headed out for what was supposed to have been a tempo run and the rest of the isos. A tempo run to me means start out at a moderate pace and pick it up throughout all the miles. Besides the bathroom break, I pretty much stayed on that course.

Isos to finish:
  • Push up on knees (25-lb plate)
  • Scap pull up (50 lb assistance)
  • Preacher curl (20-lb dumbbells; I couldn't do it with a 40-lb bar but I could with 2×20lb...hmmmmm.)
  • Crate crunch (25-lb plate—I could have done more but I was on a roll with that plate)

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Mexicali Grill

My swim today was cut nearly in half, for good reason, though: My dad called and I wanted to talk to him. It was good to be back in the pool. I am on a bad schedule of swimming only once or twice a week, and since that's my weakness and what I should be training the hardest, that is not a good thing!
  • 350 warm up
  • 8×25 drills
  • 8×100@5sec RI: 1:42.5 average, 1:38, 1:41, 1:43, 1:44, 1:44, 1:44, 1:42, 1:44
  • 8×100@45sec VO2 max
  • 8×25 kick (I did 150 total)
  • 350 cool down
  • 1500 of the prescribed 2700
Bad average, good variance. I tried to do those at 6-7 RPE so that I could do the next set of 100s (8@45 sec) at VO2 max, but I had to cut those out. We'll try next time.

The ride later felt more like a recovery ride than the warm up, 32-min tempo, cool down it was supposed to have been, but it was still a good ride.

I decided to do a few different benchmarks today than I've done in the past, and it was good because it kept me motivated and kept me from cutting the ride short. I'm glad I didn't, because it ended up being a good ride, slightly faster than last week, and pretty consistent.
  • Totals: 1:32:51, 28.09 miles, 1740 cal, 18.1 avg (36.9 max), 154 HR (243? max)
  • Hillsboro Rd and New Hwy 96: 22:09, 6.62 mi, 157 HR
  • New Hwy 96 and Old Hillsboro Rd: 14:46, 4.91 mi, 160 HR (accrued time: 36:56)
  • Old Hillsboro Rd and Hillsboro Rd: 18:04, 5.49 mi, 158 HR (accrued time: 55:00
  • Hillsboro Rd and Murray Rd: 8:06, 2.02 mi, 134 HR (accrued time: 1:03:07)
  • Murray Rd and Franklin Rd: 15:20, 4.86 mi, 153 HR (accrued time: 1:18:27)
  • Franklin Rd at the church: 4:32, 1.30 mi, 161 HR (accrued time: 1:23:00)
  • Franklin Rd and Moores Lane: 6:38, 2.02 mi, 153 HR (accrued time: 1:29:38)
  • Home: 3:12, 0.86 mi, 139 HR (accrued time: 1:32:51)
After the ride, I went over to Mexicali Grill to meet some other cyclists for dinner.

I ate a little salad before heading there, so I wasn't nearly as hungry and felt like I ate better. I still consumed tons of the tortilla chips, though!

Monday, April 19, 2010

Team Belladium Climbing Camp

The strong women of Team Belladium graciously included me in their training camp weekend.
This weekend was fabulous. We drove down to Blue Ridge, Georgia, on Friday and then rode 1:10, 20 miles, 17.2 mph pace (42 max, 155 HR, 1645 cal). You can tell by the pace that it was hilly. If I could map it out I would.

Our cabin
Saturday, we had a nice big (maybe too big for some?) breakfast and then headed out for about 65 miles. I didn't get to track it all and missed the biggest descent of the day because I forgot to restart my watch. We did a good climb up Wolf Pen Gap (took me 25:39 to climb and 3.22 miles).

The elevation information I downloaded says that the accumulated ascent was 885.5 meters (accumulated ascent: 883.4 meters). Translated into American measurements, that is 2900 feet of climbing and ~2898 feet of descending. That might be a little off, but it's close to what it felt like! The major climb in the middle, including Wolf Pen, was 5.9 miles—during this time we were continually going up, up, up! Total elevation gain during those 6 miles was 1345 feet, an average gradient of 4.3%. Not such a bad day's work, after all!.

We threw in a few other climbs (Skeenah Gap and Hicks Gap were the named ones), probably doing about 60 miles total. I hit a wall at mile 50+ and struggled the last 10 until I caught on with Michael and Lisa and stuck with them.

Saturday's route (thanks to Lee for mapping it out)
Michael and I had talked about running after the ride, and I went back and forth debating whether to do it. We decided to go for it since we had our shoes and it wasn't raining. The unfortunate thing was that we didn't know how long it was or really where we were going, but we went any way. The first mile was a bit slow, but once we found or running legs we maintained a steady pace. I had to walk up a couple hills—I knew I'd need the energy for Sunday's ride—and was so happy we were able to run. My stats were 4.62 miles, 9:30 pace (thank you, walking up hills, for slowing down my pace immensely), 43:55, 563 cal. Needless to say, I ate a ton at dinner. Thankfully, I felt like I recovered really well. Getting a 1-hour massage definitely helped. It also helped that Parri (in the morning) and Barb (in the evening) helped me with my leg. When I checked it out myself, my left heel was against the wall and I could nearly fit my pinkie finger between my right heel and the wall. Usually Will would fix that for me but thankfully I had other resources.

Saturday after breakfast we headed out for a warm up ride, a 5-mile time trial, and then a cool down ride. My TT took me 18:16.

Time Trial Start (finish time: 18:16 for 4.9-ish miles)
I didn't have any idea about what to expect, so I thought under 20 would be good given the hills and elements. My total ride was 22.25 miles, 1:19, 1380 cal, 16.9 avg, 132 HR. I recorded a little too long after the TT and have 18:53, 5.32 mi, 16.9 avg, 138 HR. Evidently I was not riding at my threshold since my HR was so low. I got passed by Lee midway up the big climb but really tried hard to keep her in my sights. I could feel my quads and glutes the entire weekend and know it's from not riding my own bike. But I was not going to use it as an excuse and felt like I got a great workout and worked myself hard. I gave everything I had.

On the way back from the TT we stopped along the way for a few pics.
TT results:
  1. Parri: 15:52
  2. Lee: 16:43
  3. Cali: 17:00
  4. Lisa S: 17:05
  5. Valerie: 17:35
  6. Lisa C: 17:50
  7. Anna: 18:06
  8. Kailin: 18:16
  9. Jennifer: 18:26
  10. Shelly: 18:45
  11. Jonell: 20:02
  12. Kathy: 21:15
After that little bit of torture, we headed back to the cabins, loaded up, met at the little Lilly Pad Cafe for lunch, and left for home. It was a tiring, rewarding weekend.

Getting ready to leave.

Friday, April 16, 2010

Quick Isos

I got up early and did isos today before we left for GA: 5 minutes of work, push up, curl, lunge, glute ham, and crate crunch. It took me a while and I didn't get a swim in, but we rode later in the evening so it was a good day.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Hills

This morning's run wasn't quite as good as yesterday's; it was more of a recovery than what had been scheduled.
  • 34:31, 4.00 miles, 8:38 pace (6:56 best), 475 cal, 162 HR (192 max)
  • Mile 1: 9:15, 135 HR (with a bathroom break)
  • Mile 2: 8:35, 177 HR
  • Mile 3: 8:42, 173 HR
  • Mile 4: 8:03, 168 HR
Besides that I had to take a bathroom stop, I hadn't eaten but a couple cucumbers for breakfast beforehand and wasn't hungry at all. Not that it was at the same intensity as a race would have been, but I definitely didn't have a empty feeling that I'd had on Saturday.

Ride later today.... It won't look quite as it should (5×5min@3min long hill, 1:15 total), but it will be hilly! I ended up doing only one loop, 33:02, 7.11 miles, 12.9 mph (44.2 max), 617 cal, 154 HR (188 max)


It took me 6:38 to climb from the corner of Franklin and Moores to Sawyer Road: 0.75 miles, 163 HR, 6.8 mph. The next lap was from the corner of one street who's name I don't know and Berry's Chapel: 3:05, 0.25 miles,169 HR, 4.9 mph. The next lap was from near Holly Tree Gap and another street whose name I can't remember: 1:44, 0.25 miles, 160 HR, 7.9 mph. Then the last hill was up Holly Tree Gap road, I think from the fence on the left side of the road: 3:00, 0.32 miles, 168 HR, 6.3 mph.

The reasons I cut off one loop were numerous. We will be climbing a lot this weekend. I have Inversion tonight. I wanted to shop Publix's sales—it was a good shop!

3 pastas, 2 puddings, 2 gums, and ketchup; total cost before coupons and sales: $20.21

Total cost after sales and coupons: $3.96 including tax, a savings of 80%!

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Great Run

Today at lunch I went to DHY for my 5 on, 5 off thru 40 workout. This was probably the first time I actually completed most exercises all the way thru 40, and it felt great. My run later was fabulous.
  • Lunge on crates
  • Glute ham
  • Push up on knees
  • Preacher curl (12-lb dumbbells)
  • Scap pull up
  • Crate crunch
Then it was off to BFY for a run on the trails. I was out 52 minutes, did 5.64 miles, 9:19 pace, 647 cal, 165 HR, but those aren't the stats I'm going by.
  • Mile 1: 8:07, 175 HR
  • Mile 2: 7:56, 172 HR
  • Mile 3: 8:02, 173 HR
  • Mile 4: 7:52, 180 HR
Then I did a few sprints, at paces of 7:38 (0.13), 5:52 (0.12), 5:37 (0.12), and 5:25 (0.13) with 1-min RI. It felt great to get running fast, if only for a short time. It made me feel like I really can run fast. So totals are really 41:32, 5 miles, 8:18 pace (5:00 best!), 591 cal, 173 HR (194 max). I had to tell Will because I was excited, and he really encouraged me. That's part of the reason I keep him around—somehow he can leave me more encouraged then when I started talking to him, even when I'm not down!

After stopping at Farkases' house to help Lauren with her Composition homework, the last project of the night was to remove the pedals from Anna's bike and replace them with mine. Hah! I attempted to loosen then and then called Bill to help me. We tried and tried and tried to get them off. What I thought was about a 10-minute project ended up not even being achievable. We were unable to loosen, at all, either of the pedals. We did manage to tighten the clips though, so at least I feel like my shoes won't slip out. I was hoping to be able to use my Look pedals rather than the SPD pedals, though.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Short on Time

Today's swim was a good one. Not the fastest, but pretty consistent. Unfortunately, I have no idea how I skipped 2 from the second set of 100s. I was even using counters. I didn't get in the full swim because of time constraints, but I was happy with how I felt in the water and how hard I worked while working.
  • 350 warm up
  • 8×25 drill
  • 8×100@5sec: 1:32.44, 1:37.35, 1:38.33, 1:38.31, 1:35.94, 1:36.61, 1:40.22, 1:40.55 (13:38 total); 1:37.37 average
  • 8 6×100@1min: 1:29.28, 1:28.65, 1:29.56, 1:30.51, 1:30.02, 1:29.15 (12:28 total); 1:29.67 average
  • 8×25 kick
  • 350 cool down
Some previous averages:
I was aiming for 1:27 for any one of the final 100s and never quite made it. I'll get there eventually. I'm soon going to totally run out of time to complete this workouts at lunch, but I will just continue getting done what I can while I can. Swimming at lunch is 500 times better than running or riding at lunch because I cool down much better after swims.

Then I had a bike ride later. So exciting! I'm disappointed in myself because I didn't change my Garmin from running to biking, so I'll have to delete this when I'm done recording it and I can't do a fair comparison with other rides. I do know that it took me less time to complete the same distance as last Tuesday, 27.7 in 1:28, so that's a plus (27.5 in 1:30, 26.8 in 1:30)!
  • Totals: 1:28:21, 27.77 miles, 1963 cal, 3:11 min/mi average (1:36 max), 155 HR (176 max)
  • Warm up: 20:37, 6.52 mi, 141 HR
  • Tempo 1: 16 min, 5.56 mi, 2:53 min/mi avg, 166 HR
  • Active Recovery 1: 10 min, 3.38 mi, 2:57 avg, 156 HR
  • Tempo 2: 16 min, 4.62 mi, 3:28 avg, 157 HR
  • Active Recovery 2: 10 min, 2.98 mi, 3:21 avg, 160 HR
  • Cool down: 15:44, 4.7 mi, 3:21 avg, 157 HR
After the ride, I went over to Mexicali Grill to meet some other cyclists who had all ridden together. I had to do a separate workout but decided to be slightly social. It was fun to meet Renee and to see Lonnie and Wade and have some good chats with Christian, Lisa, and Jack. It wasn't so bad :-)

Monday, April 12, 2010

Bike #3

The last two days didn't go quite as I'd planned, but that's OK. I guess it's good to learn to be slightly flexible. Today I had to stop at Anna's house to pick up her bike (yes, yet another bike that I will be riding...the third in a week). We chatted a bit, killing some time to let the traffic clear that had caused her to arrive late and me to feel rushed. Then it was a quick stop at home to pick up Lisa's bike to take it to her house to drop it off for her to have back and possibly use (but hopefully not) this weekend. Then it was back home to fix Anna's bike to hopefully fit me. She has way more gears than I do and has a lighter bike, so if it rides well today I'll definitely be taking it this weekend. A triple on some of these hills will do me well! I felt rushed all day, didn't get in the hike (or even a walk) I'd been hoping for, but I did get in a good phone date with a friend and some fun tennis at lunch. God is good.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Marathon Pace

I haven't had much more than marathon pace this week, and I'm hoping that next week is better. If I can't pick up a little bit of speed I'll never be able to compete where I want to! I did a little run this morning, outside because it was amazing, 5 miles, 40+ minutes, 8 something pace. Mary pace for me is about 8:23 (or at least, that's what I should be at), and I was just faster than that. Not so good for 1/5 of the distance of a marathon.
  • 41:35, 5 miles, 8:19 pace (6:21 best), 595 cal, 169 HR (193 max)
I wanted to get a true average, so I didn't split at all. Not the happiest, but it's OK for the end of a recovery week and after a race yesterday, I guess.

Then it was time for 3×30sec heavy:
  • Scap pull up (it was about body weight – 28 lb)
  • Push up on knees, 25 lb
  • Preacher curl (seated), 15-lb dumbbells
  • Crate crunch, 25-lb plate
  • Lunge, 45-lb bar + 5-lb plates on either side
  • 1-leg squat I hate this one because I don't feel like it does anything except make my knees hurt. Maybe I need to discuss with Will what we can do in its place.
  • Glute ham at top, 25-lb plate
  • Glute ham at bottom
  • Standing ham, 25-lb plate
None of these was as heavy as I could have, but it was all I wanted to do.

I also made some good treats today. People at work will benefit from my baking spree, and hopefully Will enjoys them, since I sent some his way, and my adopted team will be able to taste them this weekend also after I make another pan. The Cranberry Oatmeal Snack Bars turned out really good (and I managed to not take any pictures!). The Zucchini-Strawberry Bread/Cookies turned out OK but weren't my favorite.

All the necessary ingredients (with some substitutes from the original recipes)
Cranberry Oatmeal Snack Bars
  • 1 cup dried cranberries or raisins
  • ¼ cup orange, pineapple, apple or cranberry juice

  • 1½ cups whole wheat flour
  • 1½ cups quick cooking oats
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • ¼ teaspoon salt

  • ½ cup honey
  • 2/3 cups margarine, softened
  • 2 eggs

  • ¼ cup chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)
  1. Heat oven to 350°. Lightly coat a 13×9” baking pan with cooking spray; set aside.
  2. Combine the cranberries and juice in a microwavable bowl. Microwave on high 30 seconds. Let stand 10 minutes.
  3. Combine the flour, oats, baking powder, and salt, set aside.
  4. Beat the brown sugar and margarine together with electric mixture on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until well blended. Beating the eggs adds lightness and volume to the bars. Gradually stir in flour mixture, mixing well.
  5. Stir in cranberry mixture and nuts (optional).
  6. Spread the dough evenly into prepared pan. Bake for 18-20 minutes (this took 30+ minutes, covered with foil most of the time) or until the center is set. Cool and quickly wrap to keep from drying out.
The zucchini bread/cookies completed

Nutritional Information for Cranberry Bars (Source)

Nutrition Facts
24 Servings
Amount Per Serving
Calories157.3
Total Fat7.8 g
Saturated Fat1.0 g
Polyunsaturated Fat4.2 g
Monounsaturated Fat1.8 g
Cholesterol20.4 mg
Sodium170.3 mg
Potassium48.3 mg
Total Carbohydrate20.2 g

Dietary Fiber1.2 g

Sugars9.2 g
Protein2.9 g
Vitamin A10.6%
Vitamin B-67.6%
Calcium4.8%
Folate8.3%
Iron9.5%
Magnesium3.6%
Manganese17.9%
Niacin8.6%
Pantothenic Acid1.4%
Phosphorus4.7%
Riboflavin6.1%
Selenium8.8%
Thiamin11.6%
Zinc2.2%

*Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.

Zucchini-Strawberry Bread
Nutrition Facts

Nutrition Facts

User Entered Recipe

22 Servings

Amount Per Serving
Calories 58.0
Total Fat 0.9 g

Saturated Fat 0.2 g

Polyunsaturated Fat 0.2 g

Monounsaturated Fat 0.0 g
Cholesterol 22.3 mg
Sodium 110.9 mg
Potassium 122.6 mg
Total Carbohydrate 10.9 g

Dietary Fiber 1.1 g

Sugars 3.5 g
Protein 1.9 g

Vitamin A 10.2 %
Vitamin B-12 0.0 %
Vitamin B-6 1.8 %
Vitamin C 5.1 %
Vitamin D 0.1 %
Vitamin E 0.5 %
Calcium 4.3 %
Copper 2.3 %
Folate 4.1 %
Iron 4.8 %
Magnesium 3.0 %
Manganese 8.9 %
Niacin 3.6 %
Pantothenic Acid 0.9 %
Phosphorus 2.8 %
Riboflavin 3.0 %
Selenium 5.0 %
Thiamin 4.9 %
Zinc 0.8 %



*Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.