Friday, January 8, 2010

Long Road Ahead


WEEKLY WORKOUTS

Swimming: 1.5 hours (3 days)
Biking: 3.25 hours (on the trainer because apparently the south is now the northeast) (3 days)
Running: 1 hour (2 days)
Weights: 2.25 hours (3 days)


This was my 1st week of training and also a time for revelations. Physically I'm not where I want to be, but I know eventually I will be. I also took the whole going out a fat girl in 2009 too seriously, so I started Weight Watchers. Hopefully this will get me back on track and aware of the amount of food I consume. Thankfully this was a pretty easy training week (thank you Andrew). For me it was more about getting back into a routine then anything else.

When I swam on Monday I just felt completely out of shape. We probably did about 2500 yards. My arms were killing me and I just felt spent. By my 3rd swim session of the week, I felt really good. My breathing was normal and my arms didn't hurt. I'm looking forward to longer swims and getting back my speed and endurance. Did I actually just write that I want longer swims?

I had 3 types of bike sessions this week. The 1st was a 45 minute interval workout, which went by a lot quicker then I thought. Normally when I do my own interval training I just make it up as I go. Having a workout in front of me made the time go by quicker for some reason. Could be just psychological. The 2nd workout was 5 sets of Isolated Leg Training (peddling with one leg while the other is clipped out, doing nothing) for 25 minutes, which kicked my ass. Initially my legs had no desire to spin 1 @ a time. I would be lucky if a dude using a walker moved faster then me. Finally by the 4th interval I got the hang of it. My 3rd workout was a 2 hour trainer ride, followed by a 10 minute run. I wasn't looking forward to this workout because 2 hours on a trainer is BOOORRRIINNNGG!!!

As usual with me, I had a comedy of errors before my trainer ride. My heart rate monitor hasn't been working, but I was determined to get it to work today. Yeah, kind of hard to do when my watch is almost out of juice. Mental note, always check your watch the night before to make sure it's charged. I figured I would charge it for 20 minutes and then use it. Well when I went to charge it I somehow locked the keys and couldn't figure out how to unlock them and didn't have time to research online how to unlock it. I ended up just using my handy dandy Timex. Onto the next issue. I've been riding Betty (my road bike) this week on the trainer instead of Lucy Roo (my Tri bike). I decided I was going to ride Lucy today. As I set her on the trainer, I realized that she doesn't exactly fit. I know this is going to come as a surprise to most people because of how unbelievably tall I am, but she was too small for the trainer. Seriously she didn't fit so I had to go back to Betty. I have no idea how Lucy didn't fit since I assumed all bikes fit on a trainer, but I think it might be because the wheels are a smaller size. Needless to say I will get this issue resolved.

Initially I was going to watch the Hangover because I knew I would be entertained and I needed every last bit of distraction that I could get. I ended up watching The Express with Dennis Quaid instead, which was actually better for me. I'm going to digress for a moment. If you haven't watched this movie, please do. I didn't know the whole Ernie Davis story. I knew he was the 1st Black Heisman winner, but that was the extent of my knowledge. Wow, what a story!!! I don't want to give anything away, but this movie meant a lot to me for a couple of reasons and I highly recommend it. While watching the movie, I noticed a theme...if you want something, go after it. Pretty encouraging for someone who wants to be an Ironman.

Ok, back to the trainer ride. It really wasn't that bad today, although the last 20 minutes did feel like an eternity. I switched up the tension throughout my ride to give me some variety. I wanted to feel like I was riding on flat roads and hills. When I finished my ride, I had to switch clothing because I was soaked and still had a 10 minute run outside. I got my running shoes on and went on my merry little way. Uh yeah, I forgot why what I was doing was called a brick. When you do a bike ride and then a run it's called a brick because that's exactly what your legs feel like. It took about a minute for my legs to feel normal again. I felt good until I hit a hill. I kept telling myself, left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot. There's a strong possibility I was running at a negative pace during this hill. Once that hill was done it was smooth sailing back to my apartment.

I'm sure this is common knowledge, but running on a treadmill sucks...even if it is only for 3o minutes. I made the mistake of doing my 1st run of the week @ the gym so I could do weights afterwards. It seriously sucked. Actually, I think the word sucked is an understatement. For some reason I can barely run a 10 minute mile for 30 minutes on a treadmill, yet can run a 9:30 pace outside for 6 miles. I don't care how cold it is, I'm running outside from now on. Note to self, do not bitch about the weather in the next posting if I choose to run outside...even if it is in the teens. My 2nd run of the week was good. The heart rate monitor still didn't work, but the watch was charged and my legs felt good. I had to be careful when I was running because there's still a lot of ice on the ground. Anyone who knows me knows how injury prone I am. Luckily I didn't fall. Andrew had my pace of 9:46-10:46. I averaged a 9:58. I found myself going much faster then 9:46 so I had to scale it back a lot. This is a good thing for me because I don't always pace myself properly and that's something I'll need to do for IMLP.

All in all, great 1st week. I no longer feel lazy, well at least when it comes to working out I don't feel lazy. My legs were pretty sore by Friday, but somehow loosened up over the weekend. Between biking, running and weights, my legs probably weren't so happy with me. If they weren't happy with me in week 1, I can't imagine what they'll say to me on July 25th.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.