How Hard Can It Be? 5.0

[spokewench]

Great Race Veronica - I have a lot of respect for people who do open water swim. I just don't have it in me! This one looked great though as there were people standing up in the water (I actually might be comfortable enough to do a race like that!)

Oh, the shirt and skort are wonderful. Have fun!

[Veronica]

Yeah, the water was very shallow in lot of places.

Interesting to look back at my recovery runs last week.

Tuesday I "ran" 1.7 miles at a 12:40 pace. Some of that I walked.
Thursday I ran 2.2 miles at an 11:47 pace, keeping my heart rate quite low.
Saturday was 3.5 miles at a 10:25 pace, which included stopping to yell at an ankle biter dog.

Feeling just about "normal" again.

Today's trainer sessions was lots of fun. We flipped the tire ten times. Then did twenty push ups with your feet on the tire.



Pic is from two years ago - tire is the same.

We did a total of six sets of flipping and push ups interspersed with other exercises, including ab roll outs and ab pull ins. I don't really like the pull ins. For some reason my feet end up rolling out an angle by my like my 5th one. I really like roll outs though.

The push ups weren't too bad until about the 80th one.

Veronica

[Wahine]

Wow!!!!!

[Catrin]

Wow indeed! I remember the first time you posted this picture Impressive!

We have this tire, and a larger one at our gym. I just beat it up with a large hammer - though I've seen people flipping it like in this picture! I always think of you when I see people working it.

[Veronica]

Rev3 Maine was an absolute blast! Thom and I both posted reports and they are on our website.

I was looking through the photos and noticed the Jumbrotron picture in the background of the finish photo Thom's aunt took.



They took the picture in the background as part of registration. I thought it was pretty cool.

I was thinking I had only one more race this season, but we've decided to do a mountain bike race as a relay in October.

I've also decided to change my focus a bit for next year and do the Vineman Half Aquabike instead of the HIM. I like running in training, but come race day I suck! I'll still do sprints and Olympic triathlons. But I'm excited about putting more focus into what I'm good at. I've worked out a training schedule where I can go swim with a Masters group on Saturdays. Yesterday was my first day. It was good, having a coach definitely makes me push myself harder.

Veronica

[Crankin]

That sounds like a good plan. Why not do what you really love?

[Veronica]

Yesterday was a big energy drain for me. I worked out with Shawna like normal at 5AM. Monday's upper body and core day. Almost all my weight work involved balancing on the Bosu with one foot lifted - chest press, overhead press, skull crushers... She also had me do sets of hanging leg raisers followed by decline leg lifts - 3 sets of 20 for each. My abs hurt today!

Then Thom and I took the mountain bikes out. It was a short ride - only 5.5 miles. 2.2 miles to climb 1,000 feet and then zip back down.

After lunch we went to the gym so Thom could see how he liked swimming. I think he may do his own tri at some point. I swam 800 yards while he swam.

Tired, tired body last night. He's been tinkering with his phone, which is our alarm clock and the alarm wasn't set. I was happy to have the extra 35 minutes of sleep this morning. Part of why he has been tinkering is so he could add a running game app to his phone. We completed our first mission of Zombies! Run! this morning. It was fun and gave a different focus to the run. Good to mix things up a bit.

Veronica

[Catrin]

Sounds like you had a lot of fun yesterday! Love the sounds of your workout, and then you were still able to hit the trails - great way to spend Labor Day! Our local trails were closed yesterday due to the rainy weekend, else I would have followed your example.

[Wahine]

Well done V!!

I agree with you on focusing on the racing that you like to do the best. It's all about having fun, in the end nothing else matters.

[colby]

Well done V!!

I agree with you on focusing on the racing that you like to do the best. It's all about having fun, in the end nothing else matters.

Yes! Very cool. It will be fun to try something new, go all out on the bike, show 'em who's boss

[Veronica]

Last race of the season is coming up on Saturday. We decided not to do the mountain bike race after all. The race venue is a couple of hours away, we'd want to pre-ride the course a few times and we just don't have time. We need to get some maintenance stuff done around the house.

I've swum with the Masters group 3 times now and I'm having a blast. It's not easy, but it's that good kind of hard. I actually did two lengths of butterfly this last time, separated by a 75 of free. Our last set on Saturday was 8 x 25 sprints on 40 seconds. I was pretty happy that I was consistently around 20 seconds for all 8. That 20 seconds of rest was great! I've had 3 different coaches, but all have seemed pretty good at pushing me and noticing little things that I can do better.

Veronica

[Veronica]

I've decided to not race tomorrow. The water quality at the venue doesn't meet state standards. The park website says the beach will be open, but don't swallow the water and shower as soon as possible after swimming. The amount of fecal coliforms and e.coli is too high. Yeah, I'd probably be okay, but why risk it?

We're going to go for a bike ride instead up Mt Diablo.

Veronica

[Veronica]

The final days of the year seem to cause most people to reflect on what they did over the past year and what they hope to do in the next year. I’ve never been a fan of “resolutions” as they have always seemed like a dream with no real plan to achieve it. Goals, on the other hand, are driven by a plan.


It never gets easier…

My goal for 2012 was about relaxing and enjoying the journey. Racing had become very stressful and quite honestly, not any fun, and I really wanted to move away from that mindset. In that regard, I was fairly successful. I didn’t hit any of my other goals for racing, but I did decrease the stress I felt on race day. I enjoy the training to race – Masters swim class, running with Thom, pushing myself on the bike, crazy hard sessions with Shawna. It’s about the day in, day out routine, not the event. I like knowing that I am fit, that I can run up three flights of stairs and not be out of breath. It’s good to be flexible and strong enough to crouch in the back of the SUV and lift out the seats. Racing just gives all that training a focus. Still, I like goals.

The focus of 2013 is going to be a little different. My “big” race is not going to be a triathlon, but rather an Aquabike. While I have finally come to enjoy running, I’ve realized that for whatever reason, I’m never going to be very good at it. I’d like to see what I can do when I train for a race that focuses only on my strengths, making Aquabike perfect! I’ll swim 1.2 miles, bike 56 miles and be done. The hard part has been deciding on a realistic goal time, what finishing time will make me happy? The race course is the same course I’ve raced the last five years, so I have lots of data to obsess over. I’ll be content with a time under 3:50. I’ll be thrilled with 3:40! How’d I arrive at those numbers? My fastest swim time is 34 minutes, fastest bike time is 3:18 and I’m estimating a 5 minute transition time. I’ve never done either all out because I wanted to leave something in the tank for the run. In previous years, I never trained for the swim and really didn’t put much focus into specific bike training either. A time of 3:40 means taking 17 minutes off that; the bulk of which will have to come from the bike. It won’t be easy, but setting a goal isn’t about doing something that you can already do. It’s supposed to be a stretch.

Happy New Year!

Veronica