The Bike
Thank goodness it is now nice enough and light enough to ride outside! My butt and legs thank spring time and daylight savings for that one. The trainer is good, but nothing beats riding outside. Two weeks ago I did my first long ride outside, for the first time in months, and it felt so good. I spent the first 45 minutes or so riding side by side with Meghan ensuring she was comfortable on her bike. We broke up and I went at my own pace after that. I know that she really appreciated having me there and around in the case that anything were to happen, but I don't think she knows how much I appreciated her being there for me. It's sometimes hard for me to self-motivate when I am miles and miles away from home...I could simply slack off and try not as hard, but knowing that she was behind me and I was helping her, she helped me, if that makes sense. So thank you, Meghan, I'm glad it was a win win ride!
The frustrating thing about that ride though was not being able to dominate the hills like I have in the past. Hills have always been a strength for me but I couldn't make it up the hills even going a sad and depressing 9 mph. Other than the hills, I realized that I need to work on my overall consistency as seen below:
I'm very happy that I can take all my Garmin information and get both my feedback and "learning lessons" as well as Dan's expertise coaching advise on it. Having both I know what I did well and what I can continue to grow upon.
Swim
The transition from swimmier to triathlete is proving harder than I had originally thought. Changing something that is natural in my stroke is hard! Dan tells me that opposed to using my legs as propellers I need to use them as flotation devices. When I started college, I had a two beat kick and Dan, my college coach (yes same name as my current coach), worked very hard in getting me to a six beat kick. He worked so hard that its become like a foreign concept to me that I have to break it. Even when I think I'm not doing it, I am. It's very frustrating but something I continue to be aware of.
My other frustration is my fading swimming shape. He understand this frustration, as he too, was a collegiate swimmer. He tells me my days of going fast in workouts is long over. My days of holding 1:02 on a set of 20x100s is gone. I'm building endurance to swim length but I did that in college. I trained endurance to swim fast. Now I'm training endurance and going the opposite of fast. My 400 time trial time has gotten progressively slower in the past four months. To see that, from a swimmer perspective is kind of heart breaking and so frustrating. We both agree that my swimming should be a strength in my triathlon and he says I'll get there, but get there by going in the reverse direction?
Nutrition
Part of this block involved the start of my newest diet with one of my co-workers, that of the no sugar diet. No added sugar, no candy, no fruit snacks...it's hard. We were both highly addicted to sugar and when you work in an environment like us, sugar is always present. It's challenging. I am allowed sugar when working out though, so I wouldn't completely shut down when training. This diet has certainly challenged me to eat healthier and eat a lot more natural sugar in the form of fruit. The office is now going to start the Whole 30 challenge, so I think I will continue on my no sugar for those 30 days because it is unrealistic for me to start the Whole 30 with so much more training ahead of me. For those of you who judged my meal plan that I posted months ago, you should be pleased to hear that I eliminated the loads of cheese from my diet but still live by the high protein diet. It's amazing how much I eat, and how frequently I eat, but that's the lifestyle, I guess. I hear that if you are hungry, you are already behind. With me, it's a hard thing because I have already such a limited diet that my day consists of me eating all the time in order to keep up with my metabolism, but just another thing I know I have to work on.
Run
About five months ago I began my running process after taking nearly a year off due to injury. Before my injury I was holding 7:15-7:45 pace for 3 miles because that's the furthest distance I ever had run. When I got cleared to run, I thought that's what I was going to do, that's what I wanted to get back to. With the heart rate zones, I was running in the slowest possible way I could and holding 14:00/mile pace in order to stay in zone (which is slower than I walk). After getting scolded at time and time again by Dan, I finally got pissed off enough to actually say in zone (after numerous times of going outside zone).
After making a conscious effort every run to watch my heart rate and to breathe well while running, I was finally able to see improvements in both the distance and pace of my running. My long runs in this block became anywhere between 7 and 8 miles, the most I had ever run at one time. I now know what things make my body fall apart and my knee to begin hurting and I know how to fix my form to try and ease the pain if I ever get any. I think it was finally for this confidence that I was getting to be a stronger runner (and the help from my friend John, that I ran a pretty good 8k TT to finish out my block.
8k TT
I got up two hour before I had planned on beginning my run and had two scrambled eggs, many banana bites and a few sips of Infinit. It was the first time that I ate something that I didn't end up seeing again on my run, so that was a huge improvement.
I met John at St. Catherine's at 8:30 after I had done a 15 minute warm up, and we just went from there. I didn't think about pace, just thought about running and felt really good. Probably too fast if you look at the rest of my pacing. Really the first 3 felt great and then I hit the uphill and I kept screaming at John that I hate hills but I kept moving, never stopped, but you can see in my pace that was a hard hit of really slow running. At mile 4.64 I started getting my infamous side cramp that took me down last time and with that the IT triggered but was able to push through and finish strong ish. By looking at my HR the last few minutes, there is a mighty big dip which in turn means my pacing was way too fast the first few miles.
Coach says I shouldn't have even been in the 7 minutes for my first mile, but the next two things I need to work on are my pacing and hills. It was a definite improvement but still leaves room for lots more improvement.
Looking Forward
From my 8k TT came new HR zones, unfortunately. However, new HR zones is a good thing because it means I'm becoming more aerobic. I'm supposed to get used to my new zones in this next block before the really hard stuff begins, so I am learning how to run very slowly again while I incorporate hills in.
It's been a battle the last few months but I have definitely put my head down more and really focused on the process and now I can see results and I'm finally happy after I complete a workout instead of unhappy. It's the baby steps and having complete trust that your coach knows what is best for you, and this past block proved both of those things for me. This next block brings more craziness in my life as well as a weekend wedding in Chicago where I will be drafting one of my siblings to run my 8K TT with me along Shore Drive. It's gonna be a good month, I can feel it.
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