Blog Archives
Thursday Push
Thursdays are my tough days. I usually take Friday to rest and sometimes even get to have a handsome breakfast date.
That means by Wednesday night I have started counting down the number of workouts til I get a break.
Often we swim Thursday nights, so I’m pretty beat, but we swam last night instead and I was so happy to have a bit more energy. Especially because Coach C had us do a version of a ladder to work on endurance. It included a 400 followed by a 300. It looked like this:
Warm Up: 3×100
Main Set: 2×50, 1×100, 1×400, 1×300, 1×200, 1×100, 2×50
Cool Down: 2×50 pool walk
Getting warmed up and going straight into the longer stuff was great because then I could swim ‘faster’ on the other end without worrying about wearing myself out before the ‘long’ set.
As I swam, I counted down the workouts along with the laps, “Ok, finish this swim, then one more morning run and one bike trainer session. A brick sounds great, but I might be too wiped…”
Don’t get me wrong. I love to work out. I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t love it, if it wasn’t enjoyable to me.
But I like to rest too…
I love breakfast dates. I’m a sucker for pancakes and shrimp and grits. Do you like to cook breakfast or eat breakfast out? Favorite breakfast foods?
Got a swim workout you are loving right now? I’d love to steal it for my weekly Coach C-less swim.
My Boston Strong Bic Band came today and made the ‘Thursday Push’ better. Bic Bands is donating the entire purchase price to One Fund, which is pretty cool. And a cat picture because I’m that cool.
King Cake Mania
Saturday 7 mile run / 75 minutes
Monday 3 mile run / 27:36 minutes
Happy Mardi Gras season! If you don’t live in Louisiana, you might not know it, but you are smack dab in the best time of year. Yesterday was the Epiphany (aka 12th Night aka King’s Day aka youarenowencouragedtostuffyourface day)
The Epiphany is the start of the Mardi Gas season which will culminate in Mardi Gras day (aka Fat Tuesday aka youarenowencouragedtodrinktillyoupassout day) before the somber season of Lent (ha, does Louisiana really have a somber season?) It’s the traditional day to start eating King Cakes.
by my friend Amy
What does all this really mean?
About a hundred reasons to work out.
Seriously, between all of the King Cake, Abita Beer, crawfish, Raising Cane’s, Popeye’s, daiquiris, late nights and early mornings, any athlete’s resolve is tested during Mardi Gas. Last year I fell off the bandwagon and skipped some critical runs right before the RnR NOLA half.
All the more reason to have a plan.
First off, I’m taking a break from racing. I won’t race until the Disney Princess Half at the end of February. My next race after that won’t be until the Girl Power Tri at the end of March.
I did 21 races last year. That tripled my combined race total from the previous two years. I need a break. Not from training, just from racing. I am prioritizing my races this year and only running the most fun or special races, plus any triathlon I can fit in.
I am using the buddy system. Prepaying for boot camp and having a group of people counting on seeing me is a good thing. I am hopefully getting a swim coach soon (fingers crossed all works out) which should keep me accountable for my most challenging and easiest to skip sessions.
So during the Mardi Gras season, you will see me out in the parade route. I’ll be eating a tiny bite of king cake and sipping a light beer maybe. I’ll save the Popeye’s for Mardi Gras day and skip a few parades in order to get more sleep. If you see me, ask me if I worked out.
Because it takes a krewe to train through Mardi Gras.
my krewe would be called Mystic Krewe of Crazy Cat Ladies
Pacing Myself
Monday Workout: 2.1 mile run / 21:20 minutes
Tuesday Workout: 3.5 mile run / 32:32 minutes Lower Body and Shoulders Boot Camp / 60 minutes
One thing I am bad at is following a training schedule. This summer I loosely followed a training schedule for Rocketchix and it included and the idea of a recovery week was new for me. And I wasn’t particularly good at following it.
This week though, cutting back on the miles a bit felt right. I’ve been logging a lot of miles this month so when the weather was nasty and Patrick, my Monday night running buddy, cancelled, it seemed like a great opportunity to go on a run with Mo.
Yup, Mo is back to running and is doing great!! Monday night was the first time we had ever run together. There was so many things in life that I feel like he helps me with or shares with me, so it was fun to get to share ‘my running time’ with him. If he keeps it up, he’s going to be running circles around me in a few months though!
So after a special run with my hubby, my legs were extra fresh for 3.5 miles the next morning.
Maybe there is something to this recovery week thing.
Added bonus- KCCO
Cat Saturday t-shirt- what a great present from Mo!
Well, at least I’ll never starve
Wednesday’s Workout: Run 3.5 miles/ 34:14 minutes
Thursday’s Workout: Run 3.5 miles/ 33:45 minutes Upper Body and Core Boot Camp/ 60 minutes
Not too much to report over here. I’m just focusing on managing my workouts around work now that school is back in session. I’ve been running shorter miles, but they have been fast, quality miles.
This week I added peanut butter to my Laurasippi, which made it super smooth and sweet. A good variation if you are a fan.
And speaking of good eats, I don’t think anyone will ever confuse me with a vegetarian. Mo and I have enjoyed that teacher work days include lunch on your own and went to Company Burger this week for lunch. Yay for egg on my burger!
Tomorrow is my rest day but I’m planning on going all out this weekend so you can look forward to some sweaty posts!
I’m looking for some tips for fitting in my workouts when work gets busy. How do you fit it all in?
To Garmin or not to Garmin?
Workout: Run 3.5 miles/ 35:07 minutes
Lately I have been thinking about GPS heart rate monitors. They are kind of all the rage. A few months ago, my friend Amy, who is new to running but is signed up for the Disney Princess Half Marathon, asked me if I ran with a heart rate monitor and I said no. Then I got Mo just a regular heart rate monitor for his birthday, since it’s been on his radar for a few months now. He feels it is the best way to push himself to quality workouts. It was even a topic of conversation at Camp Sweat a while ago, with fitness guru Jess weighing in on the best brands (Polar, she says).
I knew that if I wanted a new gadget, I’d want a GPS heart rate monitor (hey, go big or go home). I’ve been a bit jealous of Kate and Janae and Monica, who are always posting fancy pictures of their runs on their Garmins. Beauty Against the Beast had a great post on the different GPS watches she is considering.
Seriously. Everyone is talking about it.
I can’t totally decide if I want one though.
One of my favorite things about running is the simplicity. Shoes, shorts, braid, go.
Just me and my watch
I’ve been running with my watch for over a year now but I went about 5 years running and not timing.
Of course, those were slow, overweight years.
So maybe a Garmin, or other gadget, is a natural step as my training progresses? Not sure yet.
Do you run with a Garmin or other GPS watch? Just a heart rate monitor? Watch? Nothing? Why does that work for you?
Got a recommendation for me?
Two braids are better than one.
Workout: Run 5 miles/ 40:50 minutes
Today was my first day at my new job. I am a teacher, which accounts for all the time I had over the summer to workout. Between starting my new job, getting used to having to set an alarm, powering through the heat, and cat parenting, the posts may slow down over here. You’re welcome.
Aren’t we cute? On our way to school together.
Believe me, I am not complaining about going back because I know that I’ve been lucky to be able to devote so much time to myself and my fitness goals this summer. I also know I earned it, in every sense.
I am also lucky that my friend Patrick is becoming my regular Monday night Louisiana Running Company Run Group running buddy. I was a little worn out and not sure I wanted to go, so I was grateful to Patrick for texting me to make sure I was still going. Patrick is a much faster runner than me but he swears that’s ok because I hold him to a pace he can maintain over a longer distance and tonight he especially pushed me to go faster than I thought I could. I had no idea how hard we were running until we finished.
I love braids. I wore a braided headband to work today and then just braided the rest of my hair back into my usual workout braid. Just trying to channel a little Sanya Richards-Ross.
What’s your go-to hairstyle? I’m a braids girl all the way.
Today’s Brick is Brought to you by… Yams.
Workout: Bike 15 miles / 76:36 minutes Run 3 miles / 26:52 minutes
I said I was done with triathlons for the year.
I said I was going to concentrate on long distance running and half marathon prep.
And then two things happened. One, I talked to a friend from college who completed Rocketchix too. She had signed up for another triathlon. Two, the triathlon she signed up for happened to be the one featured in this blog.
I hope you clicked on the last link so you could see just how glorious that old Yam City Triathlon’s t-shirt is.
And just like that I was signed up for the 2012 Yam City Triathlon.
I am swayed by swag.
Yams-Now if I could only get them to do the swim for me. One of them is already growing eyes, so maybe arms and legs are next.
Today’s workout was strong. I took a Gu about halfway through the bike and it made a difference. We hit some serious headwind on Lakeshore Drive but that was ok. Otherwise we stayed pretty strong throughout the ride.
My plan is to complete a bike/run every Sunday. The swim for this race is really short so I’m going to mainly focus on strengthening my bike speed and maintain my running speed. Coming off the bike onto the run at Rocketchix, I felt very strong, due to the frequency of these brick workouts so I want to kick them up a notch to prep for Yam City. My new job at my new school starts tomorrow, which just means that working out is going to have to become a top priority to make it happen.
Have you ever gotten swayed into doing something by the free stuff?
Did anyone watch the women’s marathon this morning? I was cheering Shalane Flanagan and Kara Goucher on! It was really cool to see Goucher help Flanagan up after the finish and walk with her.
Soggy Hair
I’m training for the Rocket Chix triathlon on July 28 and today was a swim day. Of course, I’m cheating a little bit because I’m running tonight too.
This morning’s swim was 10×75 yards with 15 second rests. I definitely got 10 in and had to push myself to swim 75 yards without stopping each time, but I kept telling myself that in 7 weeks I am going to need to be able to swim 350 yards without stopping before I even start biking or running. That pretty much shut me up and made me get down to business.I also just let myself rest as long as I needed to between each set, somewhere between 30-45 seconds.
Anyone get a headache the day you swim? I always seem to. Also, what’s up with swim caps? Are they actually supposed to keep your hair dry or just keep it out of your face to swim? My hair always ends up wet.
