Lazy Sundays...

13 miles. Cave Hill plus Amish loop. 2:11.40

I was sitting on the couch this morning watching television with K., learning all about some family whose daughters are all doing some sort of drag racing or something (I don't know, it's on A and E?), and I leaned over to K. and said, "Man, I love lazy Sundays. "

About 30 minutes later, I was getting my gear on to head out the door for this run. My mantra was "slow and easy." I wanted to do the Cave Hill loop followed by the Amish loop in reverse because I knew it would come in somewhere around 13. It's my longest run since the marathon, and I needed it after missing my long run last week.

Finally, no asthma problems. My legs felt good. I even ran up what we affectionately call Banana-Split Hill because it's so freaking steep that if you can make it up to the top without stopping, you earn yourself a banana split. So no, my time wasn't outrageously fast. But the course was tough,a nd I was incredibly consistent through the whole run. I even ended not feeling absolutely horrible.

The shower afterwards, though...not so much fun. YEEEOOOUCHHH. I wore pants today for the urn that I don't normally wear. They were the right weight. They came from Kmart. They seemed to be kind of wicking, kind of not cotton. I figured I'd be all right. I have a chafe strip about nine inches long across my lower back. The way that feels when the shower water first hits it is just amazingly painful. Don't even know how to describe it. I do know, though, that I don't know why I'm not more generous with the Bodyglide.

Stuff happens, so swims happen...

1:08 swim 3700 yards including 26:38 1650 swim

We were going to go to Louisville this weekend at some point to buy shoes. I thought it would be tomorrow. We went today. So the swim happened this morning.

I'm feeling really fatigued, though.

Did I mention I got new shoes for tomorrow's long run? Oh, and we went to Qdoba. I love Qdoba.

Asthma strikes again

Thursday
Amish Loop run--6.37 miles

I set out yesterday for my run pretty fired up. The weather was in the mid-50s. The wind was blowing hard enough, but the temperature was in the mid-50s. Mid-50s. In February. For a Michigan girl, this is an unbelievable thing. I hope I never get used to living in Kentucky so that every February is an exciting event.

Problem struck by the end of the first mile. My asthma came on so strong that I wasn't sure I could control it. I stopped at the end of the road to try to catch some air. I decided to push on. My legs wanted to run! My lungs didn't.

I ran the loop with just a bit of a pause at the top of the highest hill (there is a LOT of climbing on this loop). The top of that first hill, though was pretty discouraging. I had to stop altogether. I stood next to the road trying to get my breath. I couldn't decide if I should keep running or walk or just stand there and wait. The sun was going down, though, and I needed to make a decision. So I walked for a minute. Then I ran the rest of the way home. But I was discouraged by the wheezing. It was never this bad in Indiana.

I'm working on keeping my chin up on the hills. Amazing how much that can affect your whole body position. When I keep my chin up, I can feel the stress all the way down in my back. I know it's how I should be running, but it's going to take some adjustment. I have to keep working on it. I'm looking forward to tomorrow's long run. Just have to remember my inhaler.

One week until my coach is back...and counting...

Yesterday--measly 35 minute trainer ride
Today--3000 yard swim, 54 minutes

I was wiped yesterday. I've been working on something for school that got away from me--turned into 38 pages of writing by the time I was done, and I'm still not even sure that's enough. If there's anyone out there reading this, keep your fingers crossed for me in cyberspace. I'll get news on my submission next week. If it passes, I've jumped through one more hoop, and I have one last hoop to jump through. Anyway, long story short, by the time I was done with that work last night, I wanted to do nothing. So getting in a 35 minute trainer ride was good enough.

Swim today...felt sluggish. The whole time. I wore two suits because the chlorine is eating my suits up, and I can't afford to replace my suit at this point. I didn't think it would have that much of an effect on me, but I felt sluggish and sometimes feeling is worse than actually doing. My main set was 10 by 200, and I came out in the 3:06-3:07 range for most of those. A couple of 3:09-3:10 in there, but nothing over or under those. That's consistency. And that's 1:35 100s. That's what I'm shooting for. C'mon endurance.

A trainer for the run...yet again...

60 minute trainer ride--17.5 miles

Ehhh, not much to say about it. I had some work to do for school today that I thought I would be able to knock out in a few hours, and I was going to head out for a 12-16 mile run. Granted, I wasn't all that fired up about it, but I was going to do it.

Well, eight hours later, I was still sitting in front of the computer pondering how I would teach Hamlet to a theoretical class of high school students and typing my 12th page of notes. And I still haven't actually started the teaching materials. I felt beaten. I still feel beaten. I was really hoping for some time today to relax, and I was really hoping to get this stuff done as my teaching certificate depends on it. But, I didn't. And I didn't get to work out details on the wedding with my mom like I had planned. And I didn't get to clean the house as I had planned. It's a bummer, but I've got a short work week ahead, so I can look forward to next weekend and trying this again.

Anyway, the ride. Knowing I'm keeping track of mileage on the trainer has me enjoying watching the numbers climb a little more. Still, I wanted to run today.

4500 yards....after 3.18 miles

3.18 mile run, dreadmill
4500 yard swim, 1:19 (with rest periods)

The swim went well. I was planning on 5000 yards, but 4500 was definitely my limit for the day. I swam it in strange sets. I planned to do 10 by 500. I quickly got bored. 500 splits: 8:07, 8:07, 8:03, 8:02, 8:04, 8:12, 8:21, 8:21, 9:04. That last one is slower because I threw in a bunch of stroke as a cool down. I swam these in weird sets and took splits at the 500s. So I swam a 1000, then 500, then 1000, then 1500, then 500. I was just trying to pound it out as I was getting SOOOoo bored. I was just plain bored. I need to break up these longer swims better, but because I combined it with a short run beforehand, and K. was waiting for me, I didn't want to make this into a two-hour workout.

5000 is probably the longest swim workout I'll do in the next several months, and I'm close now. Just need to pick up the pace a little bit. At today's pace, I was on for about 1:14 pace at Ironman. I did 1:07 at Ironman Wisconsin in 2004. I'm hoping to hit just about exactly that same pace this year. I'm close. I wasn't pushing today. I won't be pushing at Ironman Wisconsin, either, for that matter. But the fact of the matter is, the last time I did this race, I sat down and worked out where I'd come out of the water, and I told my mother I'd be out between 1:07 and 1:10. I also came to terms with the fact that I probably wouldn't be able to push much faster than 1:07 and stick to my race plan. I'm planning on the same thing this year.

The run
Pet peeve time. At our Y, they have a room that's set aside for women only during certain hours. I hate this room. They ask that women check the treadmills there first before going to the general room. There are a couple of problems with this. First, the room is wired for this 30-second circuit deal, and they play this techno music that, every 30 seconds, beeps or pauses or does something crazy like that. It's loud. Second, the treadmills are crap. They just are. The good stuff is out in the front room. These treadmills are loud, difficult to program, squeak, have no place for my water bottle to sit without rattling, and are generally just annoying. I decided that if they want me to check those treadmills first, they ought to put the good ones in the women's room.

When we got to the Y today, shortly after 1:00, there were a couple of treadmills open in the general room. Sweet. I got changed and walked back to the front of the building. As I stopped to fill up my water bottle, a guy passed me in the hall and went into the general room...and took the last open treadmill. Two were being used by people actually running. Three, and this is what kills me, were being used by people who were actually walking at pace that is slower than I even normally walk on the street. GEESH. I had hope that these folks would be the kind who would be on and off in about five minutes, but I didn't have the patience for it. SOooo, I was off to the women's room.

After trying out two other treadmills, I found one that seemed to work. By the time I got everything running, I was 2:00 into my "run", but I was still walking. This, too, was frustrating. BUT, I had committed to 30 minutes of running and then my long swim, so today's run was what it was. I'm trying not to hammer too hard on the run right now. Just building some decent base, I hope.

And the indoor equipment, again...

Friday 5 mile run--treadmill
Saturday 90 minute ride (24 miles)--trainer

I haven't really been paying attention to the miles I put in on the trainer...I do my logging by time. But when I put the bike on the trainer, I checked the miles on the computer, and I was at somewhere around 250 (I just bought this bike this summer...). Tonight, at the end of my ride, I was at almost 875. That's about 625 trainer miles since November 6 when I switched out bikes (I had my tri bike on the trainer for a long while, but I switched it to my road bike for a change at the beginning of November). I'm thinking that's not all that bad considering how little training I did in December. I'm starting to get back into a rhythm.

And the treadmill...again. Not a bad thing. When I'm really tired after a long day at work, it's really hard for me to get in the truck, drive the hour and ten minutes home, change my clothes, and get in a good run before it gets too dark. However, if we have the Y planned, I get there and change and am inside and not worrying about the weather, and I can zone out. All is good. I'm hoping that I'll be burned out on the treadmill by the end of the winter and dying to get back out on real roads. Right now, I'm burned out on real roads. I need new running shoes. Can't afford them for another couple of weeks, so the less wear I can manage on my shoes for the next couple of weeks, the better.

My run for a spin...

1 hour trainer ride

I had planned a different kind of a day. I had planned a 4 a.m. spin and then a short run after work. When I say, "spin", though, I mean trainer ride. I didn't get up at 4 a.m. I wanted to sleep. And by the time I got home from work, I was whining about the cold, and I was pretty darn tired. Spending an hour and fifteen minutes in the truck each way to work every day makes it tough for me to get in a run when I get home. I'm more consistent if I go to the Y. I'm better if I get in a run before I get in the truck to come home. But getting in a run once I get home can be tough. It will get better once I have a coach telling me to run. For now, though, with me flying all free-form through my training, if I don't feel like running, I throw in another sport.

Tonight, it was a spin. A solid hour where I was hitting 210 or so on the power reading on my trainer on the hard sets. I'm so tired of my trainer, though. Can't wait for warmer weather and finding a riding group. Anyone from Kentucky reading this thing?

Tuesday/Wednesday training

Tuesday: 4 mile dreadmill run, 36 minutes
Wednesday: 40 minute morning spin workout (4:17 a.m., to be exact)
pending afternoon swim of about 3000 yards

I got on the treadmill to run yesterday with sore ITs in both legs from Sunday's run. I debated all the way to the Y whether or not I was actually going to get in a workout at all. I was dying to swim, but the swim team is still in the pool at the Y when I get there, so it was the treadmill for me. My legs were still sore. I was thinking I might want to go home and get in a longish trainer ride instead. And all the way to the Y, I was whining and complaining. It wasn't pretty.

The good thing about treadmills is that I hate them. So if I get them on with a distance goal in mind, then it pushes me to run harder. And now, with the MP3 player, I go song by song. One song for warm-up, then I up the pace .2 mph for the next song, then the next, then....well, I usually get up to about 7 mph before dropping back down and starting the ladder again on the treadmill. It's good. I need to start speedwork at some point, and the treadmill is the best place for me to do it at this point.

This morning's ride was decent, but it always takes me SOOOoo long to get warmed up after getting right out of bed and on the trainer. On a normal day, a 5 minute warm-up is good enough. Today, it wasn't until halfway through my first hard set where I felt like I was really getting going. And it wasn't as long as I had hoped it would be. Quite frankly, I crashed hard last night (at about 7:30), but I still didn't actually get on the trainer until 4:17. When the alarm went off, I said, "Okay, I got it, I got it..." more to myself than to K. About five minutes later, I said to K. "Kick me out." He did.

Of long runs and dogs....

10 mile run + some wood stacking

It's been a good couple of days for training. Today's run was great. The weather was fantastic. Mid-40s at times and sunny. A rare gift for a Michigan girl in February. Of course, it is in Kentucky. But I haven't lived here long enough to expect that winter will be mild. And I haven't lived here long enough to redefine my definition of mild.

It was, however, a six-dog run day. I live in the country, and the dogs run free out here. Heck, even our dogs run free. However, we live on a seldom-traveled road, and our dogs are crazy friendly. Okay, that's not justification. But at least they are friendly.

Frankly, my biggest fear about dogs on a run are that they will get hit while crossing the street to chase me. I can't stand the thought of it. The first two dogs were out in the middle of the road by the time I got to their house. One of them was running behind me sniffing the back of my leg so closely that I kept hitting him in the nose as I ran. Fortunately, he wasn't biting.

There's a black lab that always comes out after me. He's more vicious-sounding if he's got his little Jack Russell buddy with him. There's a third dog on that property, but he has to stay behind a fence for some reason. Can't figure out the logic there.

My favorite was the bassett hound. I thought I'd take him home with me if I could...I couldn't. But man, did he ever have a cool bark.

No solution here, but I'm thinking that getting on the bike will be tough, as well. Gotta find someone who knows ALL the dogs.

Long swims

4000 yard swim--1:18.20

It was in sets...with the main set coming in at 10 by 200. But I was REALLY happy with how it went. Not much fatigue in my shoulders. Pretty consistent in terms of splits on the 200s--3:15s or so. I expect to be hitting 3:00 even when I'm pushing it a bit on the 200s, but I wasn't pushing it today. I was just trying to get the yardage in, and today I did it. Next step will be 5000 yards on a long swim day. Then I'll be back to working on speed.

It is awesome to be back in the pool. And I love Saturdays now. I'm looking forward to workouts getting longer. I'm looking forward to getting back together with my coach in March (looking forward to that consistency), and I'm looking forward to warmer days and longer training rides and runs. Right now, I'm still working on my own consistency, but I'm hoping to get back to where I was and even to get ahead of where I was.

The weekend is just about here...

Thursday 30 minute ride
Friday...gonna do a run

Did I write about Wednesday night at all? I got up at 4 a.m. to bike Wednesday morning. Went and did a 3.2 mile run Wednesday evening and followed that by a 1000 yard swim. That's a sprint tri in a day, I guess. Felt pretty good. No where near Ironman ready. I mean, we're not even talking in the same country, let alone the same ball park, but it's a long road back from where I've been for the last year or so.

Today is Friday, and I am grateful. I have several major projects going on in my life right now, and I'm trying to tackle them one at a time, but I also get a wee bit stressed at times if I look at the bigger picture. I may be interviewing realtors this weekend. We have avoided using them to this point because of their commission and our lack of money, but it's getting to the point where we'd just like to sell the house. I keep wondering what to do.

High drama happening at my old job, as well. It's my old job, so it's not having much of an effect on me. I can't say how happy I am that it's my old job. However, word came through a reliable grapevine that I was hired in to that position last year with the intention of making me fail...in other words, I was being set up for failure. I suspected it at the time. I'll go into detail about it sometime when I feel like it will be cathartic, but it's odd to have it confirmed that someone who offered me a job knowing that I was going to uproot my life and try something new in a new place far from home, did so knowing that she wanted me to fail because it would have benefit for her greater goals in the organization. This is all vague and strange, but I'm not ready to write specifics about it. Soon, though.

Not wearing what I'm wearing and other things...

4 a.m. 35 minute ride
The only problem with 4 a.m. rides is that I don't always have the energy for my second workout later in the day. Then again, if I don't get my 4 a.m. ride in, I feel sluggish all day. It's a strange situation to be in. Today was fine. Tonight's a big workout night, though. I'm planning to hit the dreadmill for about 3.5 to 4 miles and then a swim workout. Okay, not all that big of a night...but a bigger night than I normally have during the week. It is what it is.

The house
Someone just called about the house. She asked me to describe the floorplan. This isn't a question I've been asked before. I wasn't sure how to answer it. I don't know how to give someone a walking tour in words. I can teach someone how to find words--my ESL students--but I was at a total loss for words myself. I feel like I must have lose the opportunity to show the house again by not being able to describe it well. It really is a great house. A great house. But not selling it is stressing me out. I'm thinking about breaking down and getting a realtor to work with me, but we really still can't afford it. Still, I would love to be in a new house, closer to work, when the new school year rolls around, and we can't get into a new house until we sell the old one.

I'm under a little bit of stress right now. Trying to pull together one more teaching unit for my teaching portfolio, thinking about wedding stuff, dealing with finances, keeping my training going, etc. It's nothing excessive, and I think about all the stuff that some of my friends have been through (wars, literally...), and this stuff is nothing. But it feels a little more stressful than it should be.

And on to something completely trivial. Ever get up in the morning and put on an outfit and think it looks fine and then get to work and realize it looks awful? That's me today. I was walking in the building from outside, and I thought, "Man, they are going to come and get me for that show What Not to Wear!" If only they would. That would be amazing.

Isaac Newton kicking my butt...some days

4 a.m. 40 minute ride
I didn't get up yesterday to ride. I had run on Sunday, and I was a little bit wiped out (although not as wiped out as I expected to be). Then I got home last night, and I was still wiped out, so I didn't ride last night, either. Honestly, though, I think part of the reason I was dragging butt so much yesterday was that I didn't get on the bike at 4 a.m. It's a great way for me to kick-start my morning, but Isaac Newton kicks my butt every day (a body in motion tends to stay in motion, a body at rest tends to stay at rest).

This morning's mantra: "40 minute solid ride." Some mornings, I'm just soft-pedaling my way through the morning ride. Some mornings, the goal is to just stay in the rhythm of two-a-days, no matter how much I want to stay in bed. Other mornings, I'm looking for quality in my workouts. Today was a quality workout day. Some people would say that every workout should be a quality workout. I'm not at that point in my training yet, so even my soft-pedal rides are of some value to me. I need my body to get used to doing this all the time again.

Random Sunday night thoughts...Why didn't Prince sing Kiss?

Seriously. I didn't tune in to the half-time show for any reason other than to see Kiss. Ahh, well.

8+ mile run. The Amish loop and then some.
I'm not loving running right now, so I try to find any excuse to not do it. I'd rather be on the indoor trainer than run. That means there is something wrong with me. Something seriously wrong with me. BUT, today I got out for the Amish loop and then I did what is historically harder than anything for me... I ran right past the house to add on another mile and then some. It's really hard to run past the house when it's 16 degrees outside and windy, but I've got my coach's e-mail echoing in my head--I need to be doing more work on the run because that will carry over to the bike more than the bike will carry over to the run. I want to have a decent base for when I can afford to get back together with him in March. That's just a month away. I need to be building.

The unsold house
I guess the folks from last weekend didn't love the house as much as I thought they might love the house, so we didn't sell the house again this week. I'm going to have to send out some e-mail messages to realtors in the area and see if I can get any bites. Everyone wants to sell my house for me, but they want to do it at a price I can't afford. I'm stressed about it. It's a low-grade stress, but I'm stressed. I'd like to not be stressed about it.

Monday school
Not sure if this is happening or not. We were out Friday due to sickness. I'm not sure that the superintendent can determine that enough kids are still sick after the weekend to call school off. We live in such a rural area that it will be tough for us to make it in if there's any more snow on the ground tonight, so I'm hoping that it either doesn't snow at all or there is a clear call that we don't have school tomorrow. I'd prefer school. May 19th...I'm counting on being out in May.

Stop the snow, stop the snow, stop the snow...

People here often ask me if I miss the snow in Michigan. Frankly, I moved south to get away from winter. So far this winter, I've almost managed to avoid it altogether. It's been cold, sure. But there's been no snow. Friday, though, the snow came in. Yesterday, it melted a bit. Last night, it came back in. There's not enough of it to really make me think it's going to stick around for a long time (knock on wood), but there's enough of it to make the roads dangerous for a run. The Amish are out in their buggies this morning, though, so there's hope. I'm going to wait a few hours and see about getting out there for a run of some sort. I'm not in love with running right now, though, so it's easy for me to come up with any excuse to avoid it.

Saturday 3500 yard straight swim
Did this in just under an hour yesterday. My initial plan was to get in the pool for 7 by 500. I'm trying to rebuild my swim endurance before trying to regain my speed. But I got close to the end of the first 500, and I felt like I ought to not take a break. I found myself nearing a 1000, and I thought I'd go for a 1650 split. That was the old stand-by distance for me when I was coaching at my old school. I did that in 27:21. My second 1650 was 27:55. I had to stop once to let the water out of my right goggle. Not bad. I haven't looked back in my training logs to see what times I used to be doing backflips over. I'm thinking it was sub-26? I don't know. I know it wasn't fast yesterday, but I also know I wasn't exhausted at the end of the swim, so I'm feeling good about it.

Today will be a run (I kind of hope...) or a bike (I kind of hope not...). We may or may not be in school tomorrow again. It's a day up in the air.

Groundhog day....snow day....er, flu day....

The Groundhog saw his shadow today...or he didn't. I can't remember which actually happened, but they say that we are going to have an early Spring. Try explaining this ritual to someone from another country. It is not easy to explain to people why one of the most advanced countries in the world might rely on a groundhog to determine what kind of weather we will be having. Then again, you'd think we'd be a little bit better about predicting our weather using the technology we have. Some days, I think the groundhog is a better source.

So it was Groundhog's Day today, and it was also a flu day for our school. While my school actually had the flu last week, it seems that the rest of the school system caught up to us this week, and the superintendent called us off for today before we even left school on Thursday afternoon. We also had what they'd call a substantial snowfall for Kentucky today, so we would have probably had the day off anyway. Everyone was celebrating this yesterday at school. Quite frankly, I wasn't so excited.

In Michigan, we build snow days into our schedule. They anticipate that we'll have to take several days off for snow every year, so they just build them right in. At the end of the school year, we just end the school year. In Kentucky, we don't do this. Every day we miss in the winter months has to be made up in the merry month of May. So, as of yesterday at 2:28, I was going to be on summer vacation starting May 19th. As of yesterday at 2:35, I am going to be on summer vacation starting May 20th. I've got my fingers crossed that I we don't have too many more of these days. I'd much rather be out when the weather is nice.

I did use the day wisely, though. I spent a large chunk of the morning (3 hours) working on filing my taxes. This August was my second move in two years, and I am still working on selling my house, so I had bunches and bunches to deal with. I came out on top, although the money has already been spent.

90 minute trainer spin
I read an article online today that you ought not ride your trainer for longer than 60 minutes at a stretch for fear of burnout. Bwah, hah, hah. Yeah, right. I'm going to be getting on the bike this spring with my ass in 60 mile shape, and that takes more than an hour on the trainer. I also feel like having a day off like this is a gift that can't be overlooked or wasted on a short ride.

Endurance training takes time. One of the challenges is getting to the point where you are actually building endurance. I've often hit the 12th mile of an 18 mile run and wanted to quit, but I know that the benefits aren't there until miles 13-18, and I don't get a chance to run 18 miles at one stretch very often, so I better keep right on running. Same thing with biking.

On blogging
Just have to throw this out to the universe. I have two blogs that I used to visit pretty regularly. One is written by a friend I used to know (that's the best way I know to say that we've lost touch and taken two very different paths in our lives), and one is written by a person I almost got to know (someone I met through my tri team when I lived in South Bend). For a long while, I was really enjoying reading their blogs because it felt like I was getting to keep up with their lives. Now and again, I'd read something in their blogs that would make me think a little differently about something. Honestly, though, I've now quit visiting both and both for the same reason.

For both of them, they've almost veered away from what their blog started out being and become these internet philosophers. Neither of their blogs are any longer filled with the everyday that is really what's interesting to me, but they are all these philosophical rantings/musings that almost make me feel like I'm reading something much more pretentious than I'm interested in. I guess this is a criticism, in a way, but with both of these "friends", I have this feeling that the almost cult-like internet following of their blogs has gotten to their heads, and...well, I guess I haven't really developed these thoughts yet.

But let me just say this. Every training ride doesn't have some greater philosophical basis or lead me to some sort of a breakthrough moment. Some days, my ass just hurts. And that's what it boils down to.

Now and again, I wonder if anyone is reading this, but it's okay if I'm the only one. It just feels good to be writing again. And for that matter, if I get too philosophical for my own bike britches, drop me a note. I need my bike britches to fit.