Saturday, February 28, 2009

Training update

Training has been going pretty well. I feel a bit random this year, as it is truly a "fly by the seat of my pants" kind of season. I determine how much time I have to train and then make my training plan, sometimes the same day. Despite this, my swim has definitely come around, but that is attributable to my masters team. I was feeling pretty darn pleased with myself when I came in at 5:52 for my 400 the other day until I looked at the board to see the sendoff... 5:30 I should be able to make that sendoff by.... never. But I can still be pleased that I managed about 17,500 yards (10 miles) in the water this week. Take that speedsters!

Being that it is a self-coached year I have tried to avoid gauging out my eyes with a pencil eraser out of boredom by making up some new and interesting bike trainer workouts. My favorite new one is called- Up and down pain mountain. It is:

10 minute warm up

Set 1
5 minutes zone 3
2 minutes high zone 2
1 minute zone 4
2 minutes high zone 2

Set 2
4 minutes zone 3
2 minutes high zone 2
2 minutes zone 4
2 minutes high zone 2

Set 3
3 minutes zone 3
2 minutes high zone 2
3 minutes zone 4
2 minutes high zone 2

It ends up being

Warm up
Set 1 - 2 - 3 - 2 - 1 - 2 - 3 - 1
Cool Down

Or any combination of the sets. It's freaking hard. Zone 4 is basically an all out effort on the bike trainer for me. I shoot for a heart rate between 172-180. It's sick. Almost as sick as spending 6-10 hours per week on a bike indoors for 6 months out of the year. I think all of us northerners need our heads examined...

The run has been ok. I'm still struggling to run more than an hour at a time without something starting to bother me. My ITB flared a touch this week but it seems to be fine. I'm starting to think I'm just big pansy and need to HTFU. I have been able to do all my speedwork treadmill runs, so that's progress. One the subject of running, I have to put a plug in for the free podcast Podrunner.



I am not a fan of running to music because of the variability in cadence. Podrunner makes its mixes by RPM, so you can choose your running cadence. I run to the 180BPM mixes. They are phenomenal!

That's about it for training. I bought my tickets to spend a week with my bike (hopefully the new Trek who will be named Little Miss Big Wheels, or B-dub for short) in Florida. Then I come home for a week before heading out for Oceanside and Timex camp! It's coming up so close- Scary!

As for the big career change, the list is in and the wait is on! I hear where I spend the next 3-4 years of my life on March 19th.

And I also chopped off about 6 inches of hair!



Sorry for the boring post, hope everyone is having a great week!

9 comments:

Unknown said...

That is a pretty creative bike workout. I'm sure it's tough to get out on the roads in that part of the country for much of the year, but it sounds like you are going the best with what you have.

Bob Almighty said...

that's an awesome bike workout..
nice doo...
Also good luck with the residency fingers crossed you end up somewhere good.

Danny Montoya said...

CUTE HAIR!!! ;-)

JenC said...

Love the hair cut!

Shannon said...

That trainer workout looks pretty tough. Cute hair! Short hair girls rock it!

Judy said...

No matter where you end up for residency it will be fun just because of you! Your hair looks great! Keep us posted!!

ADC said...

Nice hair cut.

Bullet said...

I so thought you were going to bash podrunner. I'm not a fan, but glad you like it. Good luck with match day.

Janet Edwards said...

Cute cut lady! Way to go on all of the biking...no wonder why you are so strong. You make me think I need to HTFU and get more trainer time in. I did a lot better that year I used to come meet you!