Don't Drink Chlorine and Drive

That's right I got back in the pool today.

Remember my statement from last night "(Lets face it kids most men aren't great swimmers, at least the triathletes aren't, so I have a shot at that right?)"

Yeah well I learned my lesson this morning! (I still stand by the men triathletes though, although the ones that are good swimmers usually kick major a$$, I think plain swimmers aren't drawn to tri as much because it relies so heavily on the run and bike, the swim is more just a way to weed out the weak ;))

I showed up to practices a week early :) Woops!

So instead of doing 1500-2000 yards with the TNT kids. I got to suck wind chasing the St. Edwards high school boys swim team. Luckily CK showed up so I didn't feel like a complete tool and had someone to swim with.

This was what their workout called for:

Warmup 4*500 (300 free, 200 IM)
Set 1: 16*75 (every 4 60,70,80,90%) on a 1:00 send off
12*100 on a 1:15 send off
8*150 on a 2:15 send off
6*200...can't remember the send off.
Set 2: 20*50 or something nuts like that.

Here is what I did:
Warmup:
3*400 (300 Free, 100 IM) (Yes I even did fly!)
9*50 at 0:55 to 1:00 send off (We thought that we were only doing 3*500 so we started set 1 too early, oops)
16* 50 at 1:00 send off (60,70,80,90%) this was pretty relaxed
800 free (I was supposed to do 12*75 on 1:15 send off but I tried to throw pull in on the first one, was going to do 2 pull, 2 stroke, 3 times, but apparently my kick is my stroke so I ended up playing catch up with no rest, so yeah, just 800 yards swim)
8*100 at 2:00 send off (I think I was pretty consistently swimming these in 1:40-1:45, plenty of rest, but I was too tired to try 1:50 send off.)

Cool Down: 100 Easy

Total: 4150 yards, that's right kids pretty much 2.4 miles. Yikes!

Nothing like kick starting your swim by going the furthest you have ever gone in a pool since you were in middle school.

what's nuts is I probably used to do 5-10K in the pool when I was 12 and thought nothing of it.

So anyways I swallowed some water, and I am sure I will be sore tomorrow. But I am pretty happy with myself. I think I earned all of my holiday food this morning!

Unfortunately I didn't eat breakfast, just a goo. So I was a bit light headed when I finished and forgot my watch in the shower. Bullocks! I called and they said they would look for it. Hopefully no one found it and took it. If not it looks like I will be upgrading my timex.

On that note I am going to get to work! Wow it is weird being in this early!

Swim Lingo

So I am by no means a swim pro but here are a few definitions to help my non-swimming friends understand what the heck I am talking about :)

When I swim everything is usually done in intervals. You don't usually just hop in the pool and swim for an hour. You break it up a bit.

As an example I will use today's workout and highlight odd terms with my laymens definitions :) Warmup: 3*400 (300 Free
"Freestyle is the primary stroke you use in tri also known as crawl
"

100 IM "medley, fly, back, breast, and free strokes")

(Yes I even did fly! "If you watched the summer olympics 2004 fly is the stroke that Phelps made look so easy"

9*50 at 0:55 to 1:00 send off "A send off just means that instead of giving yourself a set amount of rest between repeats you have to do the repeats starting on the send off. So regardless if I swim my 50 in 30 or 60 seconds, I have to start the next one at 60 seconds"

(We thought that we were only doing 3*500 so we started set 1 too early, oops)
16* 50 at 1:00 send off (60,70,80,90%"We split the 16 50s into groups of 4 so for each set of 4 we did them at 60,70,80,90% effort respectively")

800 free (I was supposed to do 12*75 on 1:15 send off but I tried to throw pull in on the first one, was going to do 2 pull, 2 stroke, 3 times, but apparently my kick is my stroke so I ended up playing catch up with no rest, so yeah, just 800 yards swim) "The whole send off workout can throw you for a loop if you aren't fast enough. Pull is where you place a buoy between your legs and just swim using your upper body, no kick. Because I have a strong kick, my pull was not fast enough to get in 75 under 1:15 so I wasn't able to get any rest during this whole set"

8*100 at 2:00 send off (I think I was pretty consistently swimming these in 1:40-1:45, plenty of rest, but I was too tired to try 1:50 send off.) Cool Down: 100 Easy Total: 4150 yards "The peak indoor pool is a 25 yard pool. The outdoor pool is meters. Meters is longer so you have to adjust your send offs accordingly"

that's right kids pretty much 2.4 miles."2.4 miles is the distance in the Ironman Triathlon, lets just say I would have been in trouble if I had to bike and run after the workout this morning ;)"

In the future I will probably be posting drills in my workouts.

Drills: little changes made to stroke done at small intervals to make your stroke better while swimming regularly.

My workouts regularly include: catch up drill, slow arm recovery, fingertip drill, kick drills, head down drill, sculling drills...so a lot of them ;)


Catch up is where you let both of your hands touch at the end of the stroke briefly. Basically a kick drill that helps you focus on gliding.


slow arm recovery is tough to explain, basically as you are swimming and pull your arm out of the water, instead of doing this quickly you pull your arm out slow, forcing yourself to stay in that rolled position for longer.


fingertip is where you drag the tips of your finger across the water during your stroke, promoting high elbows.

kick drills are just like they sound. Swimming with no arms! Sometimes I use a board, sometimes I don't.


Head down drill is where instead of letting the water hit your forehead you look at the bottom of the pool. This helps with keeping your legs up.


sculling drills are to help you get a feel of the water...no clue how to explain those :)
perhaps this is a better explanation:
"Swimmers who are good at sculling are always pressing against the water with their hands, and they change their hand positions frequently to maintain a good "grip" on the water."

Hope this helped a wee bit. From now on I will try to better explain my workouts :)

Just one of the....

boys?

Why do I feel the need to compete with the men in my life. Not on a mental level. We are talking strictly running/racing etc.

Why have I always been driven by the fast men in my life?

It needs to stop, no seriously! It is good to be driven, but note to self: I am not a man! And I will probably never run or bike like one (Lets face it kids most men aren't great swimmers, at least the triathletes aren't, so I have a shot at that right?) See this is my problem!


Anyways last night we did the regular Tuesday thang. I got there early and did a loop with CK and B. Then we did 6 more miles with the group. Instead of hill repeats this week we did a 2 mile pick up for one of the loops. Start at your previous pace and pick it up each half mile until you are at 5K pace at the end.

For some reason I have it in my head that I should stay with CK. Well that was fine for a mile. Then the ice and my legs had issues with that. The boys were still within reach but by 1.5 they were blowing me out of the water. I find it amazing how they can go the same speed regardless of the paths condition. When I hit the snowy or icy patches I cannot easily stay the same speed. Why is this? Am I just a wimp? Regardless I still had a good run. 8+ miles in 1:13 average pace around 8:50

Stats:
loop 1: 16:37
loop 2: 17:27
loop 3: 3:45, 3:29, 3:23, 3:18
loop 4: 21:49.64

Every week I am determined to stick it out with the guys on repeats etc. Why is this? What drives this insanity? Both B and B2 just ran 3 hour marathons. What makes me think I can hang with them on hill repeats? Who the heck knows...

This is something I need to work on.

end rant...

tonight I got in 40 minutes on my trainer. Popped in Office Space and cycled to my hearts content. I got a heart rate monitor with my trainer for X-mas from my parents. Pretty cool. I have never used one and I have no clue what my heart rate should be at while cycling but it is a cool new gadget to say the least.

I do everything trying to keep a high cadence. I did the first ten minutes on a medium gear and my heart rate stayed around 100. I went up a gear for the next ten minutes, heart rate went up to around 115. Up another gear, heart rate up to 120ish. Then for the last ten minutes I did a 5 minute climb and a 5 minute slow descent. My heart rate got up over 170 at the "top of the hill."
After the ride I did 100 crunches and some stretching. After that my heart rate went down around 80.

What is normal for a 24 year old chick? Anyone have any clue?

I don't really need to rely on a monitor when I run. I have been running so long I pretty much know what tempo I need to be at to be in aerobic, anaerobic state, etc.

I am off to bed, I am going to seriously try to wake up early tomorrow and get to the pool. We shall see though.

It is in the 40s here in Cleveland, and it is lovely! I may even get to ride outside this weekend!

Word Calendar Templates

I am sure there are better methods of creating your training calendar but I like to use the word templates so I can print it out and write all over it when I do my workouts :)

2006 Word Templates

This is the template I used.

I should have used this one though because I usually track my week Mon-Sun.

Hope this helps Cliff!

You have to have Microsoft Word 2000 or later for these. There are also options you can use in excel too.

2006 Training Calender

Okay so word did not copy into the post real well. So I turned it into a pdf then converted to jpg. I make no promises on clarity! (If you click on each individual month a better more visible image will come up)

My major race line up puts me with some overlapping training schedules. For now I just have marathon training posted at the bottom of each date and tri training at the top. I will have to modify here and there a bit. But most of the training fits pretty well.

I am using a modified Hal Higdon program for Boston, Coach Kurts Wildflower program for Steelhead, and the First program (3 runs a week, but all faster paced) for Chicago Marathon.

The Hal Higdon program calls for 6 days a week of running. My body is just not made for that as I found out the hard way last year. Walking home in an ice storm because your ITB gives out is NO fun! So I am cutting the two easy days a week and swapping for cross training or rest depending on my mood. I left the original program up on those days in gray as another option if I am feeling up to it.

I just have the base phase up for Steelhead right now. I will be talking with CK to get the rest of my program in line but I will have a 5 week aerobic economy phase, 2 weeks of build intervals, and 1 week taper.

Bad part about setting up your race plan is you have to choose all your little races and you realize that some of the ones you really want to do fall on the same weekend. Blah. What is it about athletes and wanting to do the same small races every year?









Indoor Cat Initiative

So I am not really in the mood to blog about x-mas just yet.

One of the cats peed on the aerobed Friday so today they were off to the vet. After that David dragged the boys down to the basement for the night. When Milford starting acting funny Saturday I tried to carry him downstairs. Below is my "Nelly" band-aid covering where he impaled me. Forgot he still had those back claws.

Apparently Milford is stressed and is holding it in. AKA refusing to go to the bathroom so that while he is sleeping he loses control. This has caused him to have a bacterial infection. So he is going to be on meds for the next month or so to get rid of that.

The vet also recommended aroma therapy. I would scoff at this and will not mind if all of you readers out there do, but hey, I will try anything to keep the rest of my furniture as is. So tomorrow it is off to find these plug-in thingies that release "kitty mom" pheromones. And also a third litter box which apparently we have to put in a new location. No location is ideal. I guess we will have to suffer through having it in the master bathroom.

In the meantime we have shut all of the doors and put aluminum foil on the love seat and chair to discourage the cats from sleeping there. I am not brave enough to put out the new throw rug we got for Christmas.


The vet also recommended checking out this site: http://www.indoorcat.org/
Lots of nifty ideas on how to keep your indoor kitty happy.
This is all extremely frustrating because we already spoil these two rotten.

Yesterday I did manage to get in 20 minutes on my new toy!!! (Clarification, the trainer is the new toy :) I already had my cool bike! (A Giant OCR2))


And I FINALLY sat down and planned out my Boston training and the base phase of my Steelhead training.

More on that later.

X-Mas Eve Run


Approximately 8.5 miles with my sister Christmas Eve. We joined my running club for their annual Christmas Eve route. Last year I did the 13 mile loop but this year I decided to cut back on mileage so that I could run with my sister.

This is one of the hilliest courses you can run around here. She did a great job and added over 2 miles to her longest run ever!

We had a huge crowd. It was definitely a good way to start the day even though we had to get up at 6:30 AM!

Merry Christmas to all those who celebrate.

I will post more about how spoiled I was this year later. For now we are off to grandma's and pops for some more Christmas food.

Oh and did I mention it is raining???

Header Madness

So I don't really have any great image programs so this is what you are going to have to settle for, for right now. If anyone can clue me in on how to make the header stay when you go back and look at a specific post that would be Wunderbar!!!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

We are having the family in to our place for the holidays. My parents are bringing my sis and my grandparents!!! I am pretty excited. A little worried about sleeping space. Especially since I am down one couch now and my husbands back does not allow for him to sleep on an aero bed. Alas it was an aero bed that actually did him in and caused the herniated disk in the first place. Ouch! He looks like he is in a lot of pain the past few days. I feel bad that there is nothing I can do to help. And to top that off he has been super busy at work.

To make up for my day off yesterday I was at work for close to 11 hours today. I had a TON of work emails this morning. Nothing like a bunch of last minute requests before the holidays. I accomplished a lot but not as much as I would have liked. If anyone can reccommend a GIS/Arcview tool that delineates watersheds to a point coverage of my choice please let me know...

I thought about doing pilates tonight before bed, but I have been on a mission to finish all of the leftover wine from the house party and I am feeling a bit "happy" for pilates I think...but I am EXTREMELY indecisive so the pilates may still be in the cards...I have tons of room for them now that I have no couch.

SERC has a Christmas eve run Saturday morning which I just conned my baby sis into doing (insert evil laugh here) It is a bear of a course but I promised her we could go slow and that we don't have to do the full course. Last year I did 13 with WildBill and it was definitely not easy. At the time though I hadn't run since Thanksgiving. My sis has never run further than 6.2 but I think if we take it easy she should be able to do the 8 mile loop with me. I will be able to get in some hills as an added bonus! We can always turn back after 3 if she isn't feeling up to it. It will be nice to get out in the morning with her.

I think my sis is bringing her row machine and if I get my trainer for Christmas we can also do an indoor workout together, yes! I know WAY too excited about cycling, even for my own taste. But my bike is SO lonely out in the garage. I can't wait to bring her in!

It will be nice to do something besides running this winter. Last year I upped my mileage significantly for Boston and ended up injured. I am going to focus on keeping the cycling and swimming part of my routine for Boston, that way I can hopefully prevent injury and get a headstart on base training for Steelhead.

Speaking of I need to set out a training plan with the quickness. I have been flying by the seat of my pants for far too long now ;)

Thanks so much to everyone who has stopped by and left me comments. I will make time to answer them all I promise!!!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

My Day

Wake up
Headache
Take my time getting ready to appease headache
Go downstairs to get laundry
Couch full of cat urine
Headache becomes Migraine
Call in sick
Douse couch in Natures Miracle and light candles
basement still smells
drag couch out to garage
doesn't smell anymore!
migraine still looming.
rest a bit
get in a quick run to the video store and post office. So today wasn't a complete waste.

Now I have had a few glasses of wine and relaxed and the headache seems to be clearing. Of course now I need to figure out how the heck we are going to watch DVDs with no couch :)

I think I need a vacation!

Back to our regularly scheduled program

Temp: 23F
Wind: 19 MPH
Feels Like: 9F
Gas prices are on the rise...
Why do I run? TO STAY WARM!

Got out tonight for a semi-easy run with the Tuesday crowd. B didn't give us a break even though CK was missing in action and we still did hill repeats. I challenged myself tonight and stayed with B and B2 on three of the 4 repeats. I died on the last one. Next week maybe :) It was pretty icy out, especially on the trail on the first hill. We were literally taking baby steps up the first loop around. We moved to the road for the hill repeats.

Stats:
1st 2 mile loop plus a little: 21:20.89
2 mile marker to the hill: 1:30.23
Hill Repeats (up,down)
1: 1:00.20, 1:51.54
2: 57.35, 1:44.67
3: 53.01, 1:47.73
4: 55.93
Rest of the 2 mile loop: 16:41.38 (S had a GPS tracker that said we were at 4.6 miles here, 48:56 so far)
2 mile loop: 18:45.23
Total Time 1:08:27 approximately 6.6 miles average pace:10:22 blah. Like I said we were taking it easy. (Except for the hills where I was obviously running my a$$ off)

I wore two technical long sleeved shirts tonight, a cheap pair of tights, my new underarmour fleece pants over those, gloves, a medium weight jacket, and a head warmer. I ended up shedding the jacket and the gloves and was quite comfortable. My legs felt great, nice and cozy in my new underarmour, and since I was wearing two layers those weren't sweaty and were a nice cozy alternative to my jeans for dinner at Hoggies afterwards :) I broke down and got ribs tonight, they were excellent. Does anyone else feel that they go out, get in a good run, then throw it all away by eating whatever the heck they feel like? That is totally my case. Thank goodness I love running so much or I definitely would not fit into half my clothes!

Dog catcher

Why must I feel like that, why must I chase the cat?

Friends and family dancing at the reception. You can't see that I am indeed dancing with a cousin with baby in tow! (Hubby indulged me and took the video, he had to drag me off the dance floor around 11:45 PM. They were just about to do the Casper Slide!) Also known as the Cha Cha Slide

Exhausting but fun weekend

The weekend really started this week Thursday night with Girls Night Out. Since then it has been go go go until right now.

Pics to follow and a more thorough post is promised in the future.

Quick run down of the weekend:

Thursday: GNO
Friday: Early morning- (5:15 AM) 7 mile run with G and K.
9-5-work
Evening- Christmas Shopping
Saturday: Morning- cleaning and washing outfit for wedding
afternoon- wedding then game of buck Euchre (This site doesn't have the rules we play by, but gives you the general idea, ours can be played with more than 4 people) at our place
evening- wedding reception and lots of dancing (video in coming days)
Today: Morning- 8 mile run with SERC, opening tons of gifts at the Hansen Christmas and enjoying a wonderful brunch. Man Santa spoiled us big time this year. Lots of nice stuff for the house and some fun goodies as well.
afternoon- quick catnap then visiting with pops and grandma
evening-watching the Browns WIN!!! and divine dinner at the Hansens.
Now- To Bed!

Hope everyone had a great weekend.

Hanging with my SERC gals at PF Changs

A and I at Girls Night Out

Partying hard at GNO

I am going to be an aunt!!!

This kid loves cameras and goofing around!

Hubby and I at the reception

Me and T messing around

My SIL and I out on the dance floor

Hansen Family at the Reception

Hubby reading before Christmas Brunch

"Christmas" Morning

New Running gear from Santa. This stuff is so cozy, I don't know if I will make it out the door, hot tea and a blanket seem to be in order!

To my family lurkers

Great Post by Risko on the topic of friends and significant others involved with runners.

So for those of you readers out there that are not runners how do you put up with your runner?

Yesterday morning I got in 7 easy miles with G and K. It was nice to get out with the girls again. Even though I have to be up at 4:30 to make it to Ks house for our 5:15 AM start. Yikes!

It was actually a very nice run. G is getting back into shape so we just took it easy and talked life. It was good to catch up with them both. I saw them Thursday night at girls night out but it was such a big group of us we didn't really all get to talk.

Pictures to come later. Currently I am on a mission to find a product that removes cat urine. One of my lovely fluffy monsters peed on my couch. Great...

Tagged

I got tagged by Rich and Buckeyerunner so here goes. This isn't along my regular blog brain wavelengths so it might be a stretch. I feel like I am in creative writing again...probably good to step outside my regular blog about my run box huh?

5 Random Facts about me

1) I smoked cigarettes through a lot of high school and college, all while running on the cross country teams. My 5k PR occurred during my sophomore year in high school, the year I picked up smoking. Now I think it is the most disgusting habit ever. I can't stand the smell. I used to find it sexy. I know, strange. No one in my family smoked. I picked it up from friends. My first cigarette was a Newport menthol. In college I smoked Marlboro lights. I quit smoking a few months after I met my husband. At the time I was smoking Players from Canada, I had bought a case on a trip to Windsor. When I quit, I quit, cold turkey. I tried a few socially after that and they tasted horrible and gave me a headache. I don't believe I was ever addicted to the nicotine. I did it because I liked the taste and a lot of my friends smoked. I don't miss it at all.

2) I played the saxophone from 5th grade through college. Since graduating in 2003 I have played it 3 times. The blackout, once at Su's this summer, and the other night. I was afraid I would drive neighbors nuts in the apartment. I miss playing with a jazz ensemble.

3) My sophomore year in high school our symphonic band played Carnegie Hall. I did not have any real friends in the group at the time. I roomed with another "rebel," she brought cigarettes and liquor on the trip. I ended up smoking a cigarette in our hotel room with her our last night in NY. Our band director caught us. We were forced to ride home with the parents and no one in the band was allowed to talk to us. I remember I thought my parents were going to kill me. I got suspended from school for 3 days for that. I was a straight A student :) I graduated 10th in my class. Looking back on the whole suspension is funny now. At the time I was terrified.

4) I told my parents when I was 18 I was either going to dye my hair bleach blonde or get a tattoo. I am TERRIFIED of needles (I cry and almost pass out every time, I never got my third hepatitis shot because I turned 18 after the second and I didn't want to go through the 3rd shot). My dad told me to get a tattoo, he didn't think I would have the guts. I came home from Montreal with a white tiger tattoo on my back summer of 2000. It took over 2 hours. The artist let me have a cigarette break before he added the color. It hurt like heck but I love it and always will.

5) I dropped my music major before the semester even started in college. We got to school a week early for cross practice and pep band rehearsals. My first day on campus we had pep band rehearsal. The saxes sounded like they were in 5th grade. I went straight to my facilitator and asked if I could drop a major. I continued to play in symphonic band and jazz band all 4 years but I never played for the pep band or took a music class. I started as a triple major but also ended up dropping my German major sophomore year. Dr. Berg and I didn't really see eye to eye. I also switched the concentration of my Water Resources major sophomore year. I started with a chem concentration but switched to geo after organic :)

I am going to bail on tagging. Feel free to play along on your blog if you see fit!

Snowy Group Run

Several of my "readers" hah that is weird. V. cool that there are so many of us out there who get geeked about reading about others workouts. pretty cool. Anyways back to the point. Some of my readers have made comments about my posse :) that I seem to take everywhere I go.

Honestly all of the credit for this has to go to Team in Training. If you are looking for a way to add some additional meaning to your next marathon, triathlon, or century ride you should seriously consider doing an event with TNT. I have made some of the best friends ever through this group. And guess what? They aren't slow! And they aren't back of the packers which is what a lot of people believe to be true of TNT. Quite the contrary some of my fastest friends are active participants with TNT. People that join this group are WONDERFUL people. I don't think I have met a bad seed yet, although some could argue that I am rather strange...but what do they know ;)

Anyways my point being I didn't just get this crew of friends by sitting on my duff :) My other group of friends that I train and race with are from my local running club. They are amazing! I also would not have connected with them though if my TNT coach hadn't been a member.

So if you are like me and you like training with a group I highly recommend TNT or go to the next group workout of your local club. What could it hurt right?

Last night we had a few newbies at the group run so I got to take it easy. Plus the trail wasn't exactly "clean" of snow. We did 3 loops with a few out and back to bathrooms, parking lot for camera etc. So I figure around 6.25 miles. The second loop we did an Indian run. It was really quite fun and made the loop go by much faster. For those unfamiliar with the concept we ran in a line and the person in the back has to speed to the front. The line runs at the same pace while the person in the back runs fast to get to the front. So a good "fartlek" workout if you have a group.

I got to run the last lap with my mentee SS. He did a great job. I can't wait to see him and BB cross the finish line in Cleveland in May!!!

A and my shiny Jacket during our 6+ miler last night

Me and A after the run last night

Virtual House Tour As Promised

Master Bed

Master Bed

Master Bath

Office Windows

Office- Elizabeths Side

Office- Davids Side

Living Room (I think I have posted enough of the fireplace and the dining room in past posts)

Guest Bed/ Library

Kitchen Shot

Guest Bed

Half Bath

Guest Bedroom (Occupied!)

Messy Post Party Kitchen

Messy Post Party Kitchen 2