Tuesday Thoughts

• My favorite summer Olympic sport is swimming.  Love it.  Even if the results have been spoiled before I get to watch it on TV.  Having said that, the women's cycling Sunday morning was pretty cool to watch as well. Not usually a fan of bike races, but I really enjoyed watching that one.
• Have I mentioned my sabbatical* on this blog?  No?  Well it starts next Monday. To say I'm excited would be an understatement. This may be the longest workweek ever. 
• Project "Rock the Silver" is progressing rather well so far. Of course I only have about an inch of new growth so far, ask me again near the end of the calendar year and see how I feel!  At this point, I'm much more bothered by the faded/brassy color growing out than by the salt & pepper growing in. 
• My running partner is on board with the idea of doing a hilly trail 10K in early September in the foothills of the Sandias here in Albuquerque.  I need to see how my knee holds up to some hill running before I sign up, but this sounds like something fun to me! 
• My baby girl is on a roadtrip to New Orleans. I'm both excited for her and a bit nervous. She's been staying in touch often so that I know she's okay (whew!).  A few weeks after she gets back, she will be moving on campus for her freshman year of college.  The empty nest begins... 

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*We get an extra contiguous 8 weeks off work every 7 years in additon to our normal accrued vacation. How cool is that?!?!

Workout Woes

I have a sprint tri coming in up 5(?) weeks and really need to start including swimming and cycling in my routine more regularly. Unfortunately, I a hard time hitting my intended workouts during the middle of the week due to poor planning on my  part combined with bad weather.

I *know* this time of year we are prone to afternoon thundershowers.  I really should plan to do as much as possible in the morning, but I hoped to do a few things in the evening Tuesday-Thursday and the weather just got in the way.

And just for the record, lately I've been walking my dogs almost every day in the morning.  I count this in my workouts, but it isn't always planned.  But that's why there is so much walking in the mix.

Here's how my actual workouts compared to the plan:

• Sunday: 800 m swim, Actual: 800 m swim :-)
• Monday: 2 mi walk, Actual: 2 mi walk :-)
• Tuesday: 3.1 mi hill run/ 800 m swim, Actual: 1.5 mi walk :-(
• Wednesday: 2 mi hill walk/8 mi bike, Actual: 2 mi hill walk :-(
• Thursday: 3.1 mi hill run, Actual: 2 mi hill walk :-(
• Friday: 2 mi run/2 mi walk/800 m swim, Actual: 2.4 mi run / 2.5 mi walk /800 m swim :-)
• Saturday: 7.8 mi run, Actual: 7.6 mi run / 1 mi walk :-)
• Sunday: 3 mi run, Actual: 4 mi run / 1 mi walk / 8.1 mi bike :-)

What, if anything, did I learn?  For one thing, I really need to plan on doing more in the morning.  This week, I'm still hoping for an evening run on Tuesday with my running partner, but I'll plan on morning running on Thursday even if that means I'm running alone.  I'm also going to *try* to get up early and do some short (8-10) mi bike rides on Mon & Wed.   It always sounds like a good idea until the alarm goes off, though.

[updated Monday morning to add: I actually did it! Got up early for a short bike ride this AM. That actually wasn't too bad. Worst part was hauling my butt out of bed when the alarm went off.]

How was your workout week?

Two down, thirteen to go

As I mentioned near the end of Friday's post, I bought a 15 visit punch card pass for the pool.  It now has a grand total of two punches so I have thirteen to go.  Yes, that means I've already been back to the pool.  Went on Sunday afternoon.  It was much more crowded than I expected, but I still managed to get a lane to myself.  Also did another timed 400 at 8:46.  Nice!

Monday was not such a good day.  Husband is out of town on business. No problem.  I took a long meeting from home and intended on going into the office.  Only my car wouldn't start!  Dang it!  Of course this happens when I'm home alone.  I contacted a work colleague who is also a friend and he offered to come by later in the afternoon and try to jump start it.  So I ended up working from home instead of going to the office.

He was able to get it jump started.  I left it running for a while, then drove it around a little, then went over to his house to turn it off and see if it would start again.  Again, wouldn't start.  Jumped it again and this time I went over to the battery store.  I told them what happened.  They checked the battery and it was low, but they weren't sure if maybe it just hadn't charged enough.  They suggested that they jump start it again (using their little booster pack thing) and I leave it running for another hour.  They would check it one more time and if still low, I definitely need a new battery.

Only this time they couldn't get it started.  I could have called my friend and had him jump start it for the third time, but he'd have to drive over to where I was.  Also, it was starting to rain.  I just decided to get a new battery and at least that way I could get my car running and get home and rule out the battery itself as the problem.  I may not have actually needed a new battery, but there are worst things than having a new battery that you don't need.  At least the battery itself should last for another 3-6 years.

Anyway, with all this hoopla, I did not get a chance to do much else Monday evening.  Assuming I don't have car troubles today and the weather holds out, I am planning to meet my friend near the pool for a run/swim.  And no matter what happens today, I *will* go back to the pool on Friday.

Oh, and I have a give-away planned for sometime over the next week.  Stay tuned!  

Week so far

I took Monday as a rest day after the 5K race / 28 mi bike ride on Sunday.

On Tuesday, our running group met up with the Hot Chocolate folks.  They were still in the area promoting the race and sponsored a "fun run" Tuesday.  If these guys come to your area doing the same, seek them out!  They served up chocolate smoothies, had music, and gave away two free entries to the race, & gave away about a half-dozen hats.  It was a lot of fun!!  They took this photo of the those of us who stuck around afterwards.

Is my yellow shirt bright enough?  Ha!

Then on Wednesday, we ran again.   At that time my running partner & I devised the following plan for the rest of the week:


Plan A:  Swim Thursday evening, Long Run Friday morning, Short Run Saturday morning.


Looks good, right?  But she texted me Thursday afternoon to say that she couldn't meet to swim that day after all. Could we swim Friday after running instead?   Resulting in:

Plan B: Rest Thursday, Long Run Friday morning followed by Short Swim, Short Run Saturday morning.

Okay, that seemed reasonable.  After all, we *are* training for a triathlon (which is only 6 weeks away, eek!) so a run-swim workout makes a lot of sense.

We met Friday early morning for the long run and both had remembered to bring our swim stuff.  About two miles into our run, she said that she just wasn't feeling the run today, could we possibly cut it short?  I figured that would work, we could just push the long run out until tomorrow.  So that left us with a new plan:

Plan C:  Rest Thursday, Short Run Friday morning followed by Short Swim, Long Run Saturday morning.  

We ended up cutting our run short at 5 miles which was fine with me.  The big question was, would we actually get to the pool and swim this time?!?  By golly, yes we did! I'm happy to say that I managed an 8:50 400 even though it was my first time in the pool since December.  I've always thought that the phrase "it's just like riding a bike" is a bit deceiving (bike riding isn't so easy when you take a long break), instead it should be "it's just like swimming laps."  


While I was there, I bought a 15 visit punch pass (good for 3 months) to try to FORCE myself to get to the pool.  After all, I need to be my money's worth, right??  


Now the only question is: will we actually do the long run tomorrow or will be be onto Plan D?  Guess I need to wait until tomorrow morning to find out...


[updated to add:  Yes, we *did* do our long run on Saturday morning.  Plan C for the win!]

WDF 5K Race Report and Mid-Month Tally

Women's Distance Festival 5K Race Report

Today I ran the local WDF 5K.  This is one of my favorite events in the area.  I love seeing all the women encouraging each other plus we get a technical t, chocolates, and a flower at the finish line and it's a flat, fast course (most races in this area are hilly).  Last year I had my all time Personal Best 5K on this course.  I really didn't think I was in shape for a PR this year, but I hoped it would be close (and much faster than the 5K I ran in May).

Registration Tent

Start time was 7am, and since I hadn't gone to packet pickup the day before, I needed to arrive at the site early enough to get that taken care of.  Luckily, it's a relatively small race, so there wasn't much of a  line at the registration tent when I arrived at 6:30am.    

Cute shirt!

I had a small panic attack when I realized that they had me registered as a walker.  Um. Can I change that, please?  No problem! Since the race wasn't chip timed anyway, all they needed to do was cross out the "W" that was next to my name in the racers list and on my bib.  Low tech, for the win!  

Oh, and the hot chocolate race van/motor home was there (trust me even though my photo didn't turn out well, it's the hot chocolate race van). They were there to serve up some hot chocolate icee thing after the 5K and register folks for their 5K/15K at end of September. Got to see the jacket that come in their race bag. They seem like a fun crew. Can't wait to run that one.

Neither my running partner nor I were feeling very confident about a fast race today and decided that our target today was to get in under 30min. That seemed doable to me.  We figured our best race plan was to start out at a reasonable pace and then kick it in and go as fast as we could when we were half a mile from the finish line.  Of course, that plan went out the window when the gun went off.  I checked my Garmin a quarter mile in and we were running WAY too fast.

My post-race happy face

At the 2 mile marker, I told her that the new goal was to get in under 28 mins.  I guess that's all the motivation she needed because she sped up  from there and I couldn't catch up.  She crossed the line at 27:15 (yay, her!).  I, on the other hand, just barely missed this new on-the-fly-goal and crossed at 28:01 (approx a 9:02 mi/mi overall pace).  Turns out to be my second fastest 5K ever, so I'm quite happy with my time, just not over-the-top-thrilled like she is with hers. 

I may be slightly crazy, because I figured it was a good idea to do a 28 mile bike ride afterwards with husband.  ;-)

Mid-Month Tally

July seems to be shaping up to be a great month for me:

• Walking: 20.0 mi
• Running: 38.9 mi
• Cycling: 162.8 mi (yeah, baby!)
• Swimming: nada (swimming mojo has gone missing)
• Races: one 5K

There are 16 days left in the month, but only two more weekends and no holidays, so I don't expect the back-half of the month to be able to match the front half.

TTT - Slacker, Race Ready, Transitions

Slacker - That's how I feel compared to last week!  Of course, I had a long 5 day weekend last week whereas I'm working today, but still, I feel like a  total slacker with my workouts.  It didn't help that it was pouring down rain yesterday after work when I had been contemplating a bike ride (which didn't happen, because of course I might just melt in the rain).

Race Ready -  That's how I hope to be on Sunday!  I'm not really all that confident, as I haven't been doing much speed work lately, but I have a 5K on Sunday and I'm hoping to do well.  Not necessarily a PR, but in the ballpark.  It's an all women's race which should be fun no matter what. 

Transitions - I have made the decision to grow in my grey (or silver as I prefer to call it) hair.  I don't want to be coloring it forever, and now just seems like the right time to rock the silver.  I was trying to calculate how long this would take.  Get this:  the longest hair in my current style (shoulder length bob) is 13 inches.  Assuming my hair grows a half inch per month and I don't change hair styles, it will take 26 months to complete this process.  Yikes!  That's a long time.  Um.  I have a feeling the color transition over the next few years is going to be "interesting."

So Far

This is what I had planned as of Tuesday.  Wanted to check in on how I'm doing so far.

• Bike ride Wednesday ~28-32 miles - I ended up riding 31.4 total, but it wasn't quite the bike experience I had hoped for.  You can read more about our cycling woes that day in a previous post.  
• Long run Thursday 7.8 miles (weird distance, but that's how far the route is, so that's the plan) - Ran 7.8 per the plan.  I was exhausted afterwards for some reason, but otherwise it was a good run.
• Easy run Friday 3.5 miles - Ended up running closer to 3 miles, but walked 2 so it's in the ballpark of the plan
• Bike ride Friday ~30-38 miles depends on how things go Wednesday. - Rode 32 miles and no flats this time!  Yay!
• tbd Saturday (If I was smart, I'd plan to swim!) - Ended up meeting one of my running friends for a 5 mile run.  Still no swimming, so I guess that means that I'm not smart!
• Bike ride Sunday ~30+ miles hopefully - TBD.  I'm writing this early in the morning, but at this point we are still planning to go out. [updated:  We went out this morning for 34.6 miles on bike.  Yay!]

In summary, I'd say, so far so good!  Also, it's worth noting that I've ridden my bike nearly as much this week so far as I did all of June.  [updated: Adding in today's ride, I've surpassed June's bike total in the first 8 days of July.]

TTT: Bike Woes, Long Run, Lazy Afternoon

BIKE WOES - Yesterday Husband& I celebrated Independence Day with an intended 28-30 mile bike ride.  Before we even left the house, I had to put in a new tube due to a front flat.  Once we were on the road, he told me that his rear tire was really low when he was adding air, but he didn't change the tube (no, I have no idea why he didn't change it).  I was certain that it wouldn't be long before he had a flat.  About 3 miles in, we stopped to change the tube.  Then about 11 miles later, his rear tire was flat again.  Again, a tube change.  About 3 miles farther and flat again.

Fixing the *first* flat

At this point we decided that something was wrong that he wasn't figuring out on the road.  Rather than put in (and waste) another tube, we decided that I would turn around and head home to get the car.  Unfortunately, at this point we were 16 miles away from home, so it was going to take awhile before I got back to him.  I rode as fast as I could and got home in about an hour.  Grabbed my purse, made a pit stop in the bathroom, and took off to go fetch him.  Driving out to him seemed to take forever, but it was probably more like 40 minutes.  I seemed to catch every red light possible. At home, he seemed to get his tire situation sorted out.  We're going to try again on Friday.  *fingers crossed*

LONG RUN - This morning I met my running partner for our long run.  Normally we do the long run on Saturdays, but her daughter is having surgery tomorrow and since we both took some time off around the holiday we decided to bump up our long run (7.8 miles) to Thursday morning.  It went pretty well, but I was exhausted afterwards (probably more from doing it after yesterdays bike adventure).  I wasn't going to run at all on Saturday, but now I'm thinking I'll do something like 4-5 miles, essentially swapping days. It all depends on how I feel after tomorrow's ride.

Which leads me to LAZY AFTERNOON - While I'm typing, Husband is napping on the couch, the dogs are napping on the floor, and the cats are napping in another room.  I'm thinking they are onto something; I am ready to join them...   ZZzzzzzz

Best Laid Plans

Okay, the title sounds like something is going to go awry with the plans.  Which might happen.  But at this point, the plans are the plans until the plan changes.


Here's the deal:  Wed is a holiday and I am taking off the back half of the week to make it a 5 day weekend!  So is Husband, (er, I guess maybe, now he's not so sure they will let him go). 

So the plan is:

• Bike ride Wednesday ~28-32 miles
• Long run Thursday 7.8 miles (weird distance, but that's how far the route is, so that's the plan)
• Easy run Friday 3.5 miles
• Bike ride Friday ~30-38 miles depends on how things go Wednesday.
• tbd Saturday (If I was smart, I'd plan to swim!)
• Bike ride Sunday ~30+ miles hopefully

I'll check back in later to see how well I was able to adhere to the plan.  What are YOUR plans for rest of the week??

June Tally

Digits

• 115.9 miles by feet (65.9 running, 50.0 walking)
• 83.0 miles by seat 
• 10 hill workouts
• 0 races completed
• 2 race registrations sent in
• 0 swimming
• 1 weekend getaway to visit son.

Thoughts

• All in all, a very good month. 
• I'm amazed at how much walking and running I got in. Yay me!

Plans

• Maintain run base
• Build cycling base. Get in more than one ride per week (d'oh!)
• Women's Distance Festival 5K
• Stop procrastinating, and get into the water!!