Wk 3 - Sprint Triathlon Training

Monday - Endurance Swim & Group Ride
Lunch Swim (35 min) - Warm Up: 4 x 50 with 15 second rest. Main Set #1: 4 x 100 on 2:15 pace. Main Set #2: 400 steady. Cool Down: 4 x 50. The 100s were tough and the last two I barely had 5 seconds to rest. By the time I got to the second main set, I was tired and hungry and didn't have much energy left.

Group Ride (1 hr, 45 min) - This ride was really hard. My quads fatigued early on just 6 miles in and I can only guess it had to do something with walking up 500+ steps at Chimney Rock on Saturday. Still, I somehow managed to push through the remaining 17 miles but every hill took every ounce of energy I had.



Tuesday - Interval Run (45 min)
10 min warm up then 6 x 2 minutes at moderate effort with 3 minute recovery plus cool down. I had two things going against me. One, it was in the low 80s and while I'm not complaining about the warmer temps, I simply forgot how much more energy it takes to run when it's warmer, and two, my legs were fatigued from yesterday's group ride so they felt heavy the entire run. I ended the run completely exhausted and will more than likely end up taking a rest day tomorrow.

Wednesday - Lunch Bike. Rest Day
My body is telling me I need a rest so rest it is!

Thursday - Easy Run
What a difference a rest day makes! Legs felt great and kept the pace nice and easy.

Friday - Lunch Swim Rest Day
Well technically I didn't really rest. Ended up cleaning the house instead which can be a workout!

Saturday - SDS Cross Country 5K
This was my "birthday" race and since I needed to get in an easy 3-4 mile run, I decided, why not try a cross country 5K for charity. No time goal, no expectations, just have fun and absolutely under no circumstance treat this as a race. I've done so many 5Ks that I no longer have race day adrenaline for these low-key charity runs and they often feel more like group runs to me now. I can start off at any easy pace for the first half of the race then turn it up slightly for the second half. Still I had no idea how tough running on grass would be or where the hills were so the last mile was a bit of a struggle. I definitely need to start adding hill repeats to my training schedule! But at least now I know the course for future races there.

Sunday - Rest Day

Wk 2 - Sprint Triathlon Training

Monday - Evening Group Ride - Rest Day
I went home for lunch to check on my dog and he just wasn't doing good. He wouldn't eat, he would barely move, and his tail was tucked between his legs so it was obvious he didn't feel good and something wasn't right. (For those that don't know, he has heart disease and a possible brain tumor.)  We thought for sure this was it and went on to take him to the vet. After about 3 hours later, we learned that his symptoms were probably due to his seizure medication as all his blood work results came back normal. Needless to say, my nerves were a mess and I just wasn't in the mood to go for a bike ride, especially since the winds had picked up.

Tuesday - Run: Intervals (45 min)
Spring has finally arrived and I got to run in shorts and a tank top! Started off with a 10 minute warm up walk/jog. Then did five two-minute intervals at moderate effort (70-80%) with one minute recovery jog and two minutes of brisk walking. I felt pretty good during the intervals although the last two were a bit tough going slightly up hill and into the wind.

Wednesday - Easy Bike - Rest Day
When I got home from work it was overcast, cloudy and too chilly for a ride and I didn't feel like spending 15 minutes setting up my bike on the trainer in the garage (yes it takes me that long) so I skipped today's bike workout. Already developing bad habits, ugh!

Thursday - Easy Run - NTC Workout (30 min)
Not sure where spring went! On Tuesday it was in the high 60s, today in the high 30s and rainy! But since the gym is really crowded in the evenings and I don't have a treadmill at home, I decided to just do a 30 minute Nike Training Club workout instead. Going to be feeling this workout tomorrow!

Friday - Intensity Swim - Indoor Bike (40 min)
I just wasn't in the mood to swim so I did the spin bike at the YMCA instead. They actually have this new spin bike in the cardio area with a display that tells you want to do (seated flat, seated climb, standing climb, high intensity, easy, etc) which is pretty cool. It's like having a virtual spin instructor and you can select what type of workout you want to do; endurance, strength (hills), or intervals. Then based on your workout, it has levels on where to keep your heart rate and cadence. Goes to red if you are over or under and reminds you to adjust tension in order to stay where you need to be.

Saturday - Chimney Rock State Park (2 hours)
My husband and I went to Chimney Rock for our postponed anniversary weekend. We started off with shopping at the stores and walking along the River Walk but decided we wanted to get more of a workout so we went into Chimney Rock State Park. There are two options on getting to the "Chimney" from the parking lot, take the elevator or climb the stairs on the Outcroppings Trail (it's 26 stories, 491 stairs) and we chose the stairs! What a great workout! Once we hung out on the "Chimney" for a few minutes, we decided to do some more stair climbing on the Skyline Trail which took you up Exclamation Point (the highest point you can go).

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Sunday - Easy Run (30 min)
I wanted to start running based on heart rate but my Garmin Forerunner 10 doesn't have heart rate so I went out and bought a Polar RS300x. Well, I had problems with it within the first 5 minutes when the chest strap kept loosing signal with the watch. Not to mention the user's manual isn't even included (just a useless Quick Start Guide) so I had to go on Polar's website to find in-depth instructors how to operate it and it still it didn't work as expected (and I'm pretty good with technology). In the end, I realized just how much I love Garmin watches and will end up returning the Polar and continuing to train based on effort rather than heart rate. Anyway, I still managed a 30 min easy run but quickly realized just how much I hate running without knowing how far or how long I've been running. Pace I can do without, but distance/duration, I just have to have.

Update on our dog
We decided to stop feeding him dog food as we noticed his symptoms got worse when he ate the dog food but subsided when we fed him a home cooked meal. After 4 days, he's doing so much better on the home cooked meals which is basically a mixture of grilled chicken, mashed potatoes and carrots. Seriously, what's not to love! Of course nothing is seasoned and it's pretty bland but he gobbles it up like it's a gourmet meal and happy dog = happy pet parents.

Week 2: Indoor Tri & Half Marathon Training

Monday - Christmas Eve

Rest day. It's Christmas Eve and my ankle still hurts a little so playing it smart and trying to stay off of it as much as I can.

 

Tuesday - Christmas

Easy Run - 2 miles. I decided to test the ankle with an easy 2 miles. On the flat sections it felt find but the hills reminded me it's still not 100%. So one more rest day and I should be good to go on Thursday.

 

Wednesday

Indoor Brick - Bike 20 mins, run 8 minutes. Rest day.

 

Thursday

Group Run - 4 miles. Indoor Brick - Bike 20 mins, run 8 minutes. Felt really good on the bike and had the resistance level between 6-8 and kept RPMs between 90 -110 and went a tenth of a mile further than last week. Felt really good on the treadmill although still much slower than I would of liked. I'm  not a big fan of the treadmill and definitely can't run as fast on it as I can outside. I like to be in full control and on a treadmill, I'm just scared of falling off the thing.

 

Friday

Lunch Swim - 30 mins. They  did repairs on the lap pool last week and the water was a chilly 72° so I decided not to swim (I hate cold water).

Saturday

Long Run - 7 miles. Impromptu indoor triathlon. This week I went so far off from my training plan mostly due to my ankle injury from last week. It's back to 100% but I just didn't feel like running 7 miles plus I knew I had to make up yesterday's swim session today. So I hit the pool for my first swim workout in nearly 4 months:

Warm Up 4 x 50 on 15" rest warm up
Set 1: 10 min TT, rest 2 mins
Set 2: 4-6 x 75 on 50 yd pace+5 sec
Cool Down: 100-300 easy

And was quite surprise to see that my 10 minute time trial was 462.2 yards. I really didn't expect to go further than 425 yards with all the time off from swimming,  but I felt great. So great that once I rinsed off in the shower and changed into my running clothes, I ended up jumping on the stationary bike for 20 minutes then the treadmill for 15 minutes. I felt great the entire time and once I came home and consumed a gel, I went out and ran another 2 miles. Best 90 minute workout ever and it went by so quickly. I'm so excited for the indoor triathlon now.

Sunday

Rest Day. Arms and shoulders are so sore today from yesterday's swim workout. Officially registered for the Race for the Grasshopper 5K on January 12th and the InYou Indoor Triathlon on January 26. Plus my new workout backpack arrived from Kiefer Swim Shop yesterday so I can't wait to try it out. I've been using the same backpack I had in high school and college and is well over a decade old so it was time for a change and since most gyms have vertical lockers, backpacks over standard gym duffle bags make better sense. I will do a full product review in late January after my indoor triathlon.

 

Race Report: 2012 Middle Tyger Y Triathlon

Pre-Race

I slept surprisingly well once I fell asleep and probably got a full 6.5 hours of sleep. I left the house right at 5:45 am and arrived at the race site shortly after 6 am. Once I got out of my car, I quickly realized it was a bit chilly (in the upper 50s)  but I figured once the sun came up, it would warm up quickly so I never really gave it a second thought.

Swim (400 meters)

I have been swimming 30 minutes on my lunch break twice a week fairly regularly at the new Thomas Hannah YMCA. Their 25 yard pool is around 78-79 degrees which is about the same as Middle Tyger. That is a good thing because I usually have an issue with "cold shock" when jumping in chilly water. This time, it wasn't bad at all and the water actually felt pretty good. I ended up swimming the entire 400 meters non-stop in about 9:40. Add in a 20 sec run to transition timing map and my swim split ended up being 10 mins even.

Transition 1

As as soon as I exited the pool area, I realized it hadn't warmed up much at all. Probably only in the low 60s and being soaking wet, it was downright chilly. Of course my adrenaline was going so I didn't really have time to dwell on it for very long. Managed to get on my socks, cycling shoes, sunglasses, helmet, and number belt, grabbed my bike off the rack and off I went.

Bike (14 miles)



Now I started thinking about how cold it was. I was downright freezing cold the first 3 miles or so as the bike course starts downhill. Once I hit the first uphill, I started generating body heat which helped me warm up some. While I love cycling, I'm not a fast cyclist. I absolutely hate the bike leg in a triathlon because I feel so slow compared to everyone else. Even averaging around 14 mph, riders were passing me like I was sitting still. I definitely need to ride more than twice a week and really work on getting faster on the bike before Furman. The final 2 miles were brutal as it's mostly uphill and I really had a hard time getting up it even though I train on much longer and steeper hills.

 

Transition 2

Went extremely well. It  had to be super fast as all I had to do was rack my bike, swap my cycling shoes for my running shoes and remove my helmet and grab my hat.

 

 

 

 

 

Run (5K)

At first I felt pretty good but then about a quarter mile in, my legs were screaming and I feared my calves were going to cramp up so I started walking and taking longer strides to help stretch them but it only made it worse so I started running again. At times I felt great and other times I felt like my calves were going to seize up at anytime so I had to stop and walk a lot more times than I would of liked. At the 2 mile mark I was at 24 mins so I was averaging a 12 min pace. The 3rd mile was tough but I used the 45 strides / 30 sec walk break technique to get me through it. The run was a slow 37:31 mins but it was a huge improvement over last year and I have only been running twice a week for the past 6 weeks so I can't really complain that much . I wanted to finish the run in under 35 mins but that didn't happen with the uphill finish. That's one thing about Middle Tyger...it's hilly and you have an uphill finish on both the bike and run course.

 

 

Overall Time and Final Thoughts


My official time was 1:50:52 and a new PR. I beat last year's time by 5 minutes which coming into this race, I really doubted that I would do better than last year considering my training has been a little "off".

The past 6 weeks haven't been easy as I've been dealing with my dog's declining  health. Kelsey scared us when her auto-immune disorder came back and she needed a blood transfusion to survive and it wasn't 2 weeks later, Kato's heart got worse. Both are doing okay for now but we know it's only a matter of time.

And just like last year, the volunteer's and spectators were great. Lots of encouragement at every intersection and turn.

Swim Time (400 meters) - 10:00
Transition #1 - 1:18
Bike (14 miles) - 1:01:18
Transition #2 - 0:47
Run (5K) - 37:31
Total Time - 1:50:52

Compared to last year, the swim was a 31 sec improvement, T1 exactly the same, bike was 4 secs slower, T2 was 2 secs faster, and the run was nearly 5 mins faster.

Race Report: You Go Girl Women's Only Triathlon

Pre-Race

I slept okay but only got about 5.5 hours of sleep which isn't really enough for me. I left the house shortly after 5am and arrived at the race site around 6 am (about a 50 minute drive for me). I unloaded my bike and proceeded to the transition area and picked up my packet, got my chip and headed over to body marking. Lori was there volunteering so it's always great to see familiar faces at events. I had a solid 30 mins to setup my transition area to my liking and there were a lot of first-timers there that looked confused on what to do so I helped them out since I know first hand what it feels to be clueless at your first triathlon. With about 15 mins until participant meeting, I headed to the pool for a short 200 yard swim to get a feel for the water. Perfect mid-80s...I knew I was going to swim fast and well so my nerves calmed down after that.

Swim (250 yards)

It was over before I even knew it. I couldn't believe how easy swimming 250 yards felt even with only two swim workouts since Middle Tyger Triathlon. Didn't even have to stop at the wall to rest once and ended up passing one swimmer and catching up to another so that felt great. Swim time: 6:16 (includes a 10-20 sec  run to transition). And to my surprise, fastest swim time in my age group!

Transition 1

Legs felt really good coming out of the swim and was able to make a good run to transition. Got on my cycling shoes, helmet and sunglasses and proceed out of transition. Transition 1 time: 1:18

Bike (9.5 miles)

I felt really good when I got on my bike, legs felt fresh unlike they did at Middle Tyger Triathlon. I was able to surge ahead two riders which that felt great but one caught me a few miles later. I had a hard time controlling my heart rate and breathing for the first 5 miles but after I got relaxed, it got easier, just too bad only 4 miles were left at that point. Ended up passing 3 other riders while 1 other rider passed me. For the first time, it actually felt like I was racing. In most triathlons, I get passed but don't do any passing. Bike time: 40.04 (14.3 mph).

Transition 2

Much, much better than last time! Got my shoes off, helmet off, put on my running shoes and grabbed my hat and number belt to put on while I was running. 49 secs.

Run (2.5 miles)

Running still hurts after riding, no matter how long the run is! The first 1/2 mile was brutal, mostly because it was on grass then went uphill before doing 2 loops then returning back. I had an issue with my watch starting (apparently I forgot to reset it from last time) so when I hit start, I didn't realize it was wrong until about 2-3 mins later. So pretty much the entire run I had  no clue how fast I was running. I felt like I was crawling at some points but I guess I ended up running much faster than I thought. Averaged an 11 min pace which for me, I'm super happy with considering all my runs after cycling have been 12+ min pace. Time: 27:32

Overall Time and Final Thoughts


1:15:56 (89 out of 134) – Finally feels great to finish in the middle of the pack. Sure, there was a lot of beginners but still it feels good. With very limited training in the last 5 weeks due to extreme hot temperatures with triple digit heat indices, I am thankful I did as well as I did. I swam, biked and ran faster than I did in the Middle Tyger Triathlon and although it was a shorter course, I still didn't expect that.

This is a great course and a fun race! It's very beginner friendly so if you're a women in Upstate, SC and want to try a triathlon, this is the one to do! I really hope to be able to do this one again next year.