BARB'S Week 1 - March 15 to 21

(This was supposed to go up a week ago but KristenKeepingUp has had some technical difficulties.  Please read as though it was posted last week.) 

Whew, I don’t know what happened but those two weeks off seemed to just fly by! I didn’t really have much to blog about which is why I didn’t. My mom and I biked and lunched 4 times (roughly 22 miles each ride) and I slowly eased back into running. I think it is amazing how quickly my ability to run fades. I was sorer after a 3 mile run than I was after I finished CIM! I am slowly starting to be less and less sore.

 
I did do a lot of celebrating and a lot of catching up with friends I hadn’t seen since I was studying. The icing on the cake was a trip with the husband to Scottsdale to relax and catch some spring training. We laid by the pool . . . Saw some spring training . . . and ate some really yummy food. If you are ever in Scottsdale I HIGHY HIGHLY recommend Shapiro’s – awesome cocktails, delicious food, great music and overall fantastic atmosphere!

However, all good things must come to an end and I went back to work this past Monday after 12 weeks off. I was actually kind of nervous – like I was starting a new job. I have no idea why – I have worked here since 2004 – but I was welcomed back with open arms.

Also, Monday, the 15th, started Barb’s training with Alisa and Tara – Team KAT as we like to call ourselves (Kristen, Alisa and Tara). Like I mentioned before I am still going full speed ahead with training for this race. Alisa made us a fabulous training plan that I am integrating with the Half-Iron Man Training Plan 4 from the Triathlete Magazine’s Essential Week-by-Week Training Guide. I have tweaked the running schedule to accommodate my training for Race for the Roses which is coming up in three weeks. I personally really like the plans the book has. Each triathlon distance has three chapters devoted to it (sprint, olympic, half-ironman and full ironman). Usually the first chapter is for plans 1-4, second chapter for plans 5-7 and the third chapter is for plans 8-10. From reading the book essentially 1-4 are beginner plans, 5-7 are intermediate plans and 8-10 are advanced plans. I opted for the hardest beginner plan. I want a challenge but I also want it to be do-able which I have learned is one of the most important aspects of any training plan in my mind. If a plan is too hard/requires more time than you can devote to it you will not be able to complete it which just leads to frustration, disappointment and mostly likely failed workouts. I always was envious of people who could run 10 mile mid-week runs but when I was in school and working I just didn’t have the time and I knew if I put them on the schedule I wouldn’t get them done and that would just make me frustrated and most likely give up. Thus, I heavily considered this (in addition to adequate mileage) in deciding a training schedule. I feel like this plan is very challenging and will fit comfortably into the time I have allocated for training.

WEEK 1

Monday: Rest (easy enough)

Tuesday: BIKE

This was supposed to be a 1 hour and 10 minute ride with seven 20 second intervals done in a high gear at speed intensity with 2 minute active recoveries, however, I read the wrong line in the book and ended up riding for only 45 minutes and doing 4 20 second intervals. I had to ride the stationary bike at the gym which sucked but rode roughly 12 miles in the 45 minutes.

Wednesday: Double Day – RUN and SWIM

Swim = 1500 yards total

300 warm up

8 x 25 with 10 second rest

5 x 100 with 5 second rest

8 x 25 kick with 15 second rest

300 cool down

This was the first time I had been in the pool in about a year to swim laps and while I was a swimmer all throughout high school and even swam Master's in college, I was surprised that my arms hurt a little after this this. Just means I am doing something though right?

Run: 4 miles done in roughly 40 minutes.

Thursday: BIKE

This was supposed to be a 1 hour easy ride but I got caught up cleaning the house and by the time I was done it was 8:00 and I was too tired to head over to the gym to ride. I wanted to use my trainer but I am inept at changing the tire from my road tire to my trainer tire (currently solving this problem by buying another back wheel so all I will have to do is change the wheel and not the actual tire).

Friday: Double Day - RUN and SWIM

Swim = 1600 yards total

300 warm up

8 x 25 with 10 second rest

8 x 100 - 25 easy, 25 hard with 10 second rest

300 cool down

Run: 4 miles again in roughly 40 minutes

Saturday: BIKE

On the schedule was a 1 hour and 45 minute bike, however, I rode with my parents bike club again and we rode 48 miles through the Livermore wine country – far exceeding the scheduled ride. Remember though, I have the Breakaway Ride on Sunday, April 25^th so I need to be getting in some higher mileage to be ready for that ride. On this ride we did 1500 feet of climbing – Breakaway has 4000 – yikes!

Sunday: RUN

On the schedule was a 7 mile run, however, this first week was a little much for my poor legs so I ended up only doing 6. I was mad at myself for cutting it short but my calves were really tight and my legs felt like lead and I didn't want to risk an injury.

Totals:

Swim: 3100 yards

Bike: 60 miles

Run: 14 miles

I know it has only been a week but I am really loving the diversity of workouts that come with tri training. I can already feel a difference in parts of my body that I am working that have not been worked in a long time.

Now that life is pretty much back to normal, hopefully posting will too!

Lady of Leisure

When I originally asked for time of from work to study for the bar I built in an extra two weeks off to regroup, relax and get caught up on all of the things I let go while I was studying. I can't believe the end of my first week is almost over! I have gotten a lot accomplished and the best part is I still have one week to go. Next week will be even better because the second half of the week Kevin and I are headed to Scottsdale for a little spring training, golf for him, spa for me and just relaxing by the pool. It will be the perfect way to end this whole experience before heading back to work on the 15th.

WORKOUTS!! This was my first full week back working out and it was amazing. Like I mentioned in my last post I started my accelerated training program for Race for the Roses and just wanted to get comfortable on the bike again before starting Barb's training. About half way through February my trainer came and while it is nice, nothing beats the real road. Another thing I forgot to mention was my upcoming half century ride. On April 25th Kevin, my mom, dad and I are doing the Breakaway Ride which actually runs a portion of the route for the Amgen Tour of California. I am really excited for it but need to get riding!

Cycling
My training plan for Breakaway includes roughly 40 miles of mid-week riding and a long ride on the weekend starting with a 30 miler and increases 5 miles per week from there up to 60. Thus, this past Sunday I had 30 miles on the schedule. My parents belong to a cycling club in the east bay and had 40 miles planned and invited Kevin and I to ride with them. I was a little nervous I wouldn't make it since I hadn't done anything other than a trainer ride in about 3 months but I decided just to go for it.

We met up at 10 am and went out for 20 miles and then came 20 miles back. We rode through the back roads of the Livermore Wine Country which is just beautiful. We saw lots of beautiful farms and some wineries. The roads were windy and it was a little scary since at some points there was little to no bike lane but I felt safer since we were with the group. Some of those cars whip around those corners though. Kevin actually turned around early because he wanted to watch the USA v. Canada hockey game and I was worried about him the whole time out there by himself.

The first 3-4 miles were really hilly and then we hit a HUGE downhill which was much needed. Then I realised that on the way back we were going have to up that big hill!!! The majority of the ride was flat with some rolling hills. We kept a pretty good pace between 13-16 miles an hour and only stopped twice - once to use the bathroom and refill water bottles at Starbucks and the other was when we realized we turned too early. The hill was brutal on the way back since we hit it around the mile 32 mark. I was also having problems with my gears - they were either too low or too high and the chain was slipping for the gears in between. This meant I was going up the hill at 8/9 mph since I had to have it in the lowest gear. However I was so grateful for those first few miles of uphill at the beginning because that meant the last 3-4 miles of the ride were downhill - a PERFECT way to end a ride. The total mileage ended up being right around 38 miles and we finished in about 2.5 hours.

Monday my mom and I did a 20 mile loop on the iron horse trail as "recovery" ride. I think it took us almost 2 hours but we were just riding casually and chatting. We are going out again tomorrow for another 20 - 25. We are going to try and get an earlier start though since we ran into a lot of people out walking on their lunch break on the trail and that also kinda slowed us down.

Running
Like I mentioned in my last post I have to quickly get ready for this half marathon. Yesterday it POURED rain for most of the day - it even hailed! I don't mind running in light rain but I draw the line at hail. My goal for the run yesterday though was to make sure I still knew how to run (I know that is silly but I was a little worried). Of course, I could still run and did an easy two miler just to ease back into in - 2 miles/9:45 pace.

Today, I had planned a 5 mile speed workout but I decided to forgo the speed and just run 5 miles. I headed out to run on the Iron Horse trail. I really love this trail, however, the part closest to my in-laws is pretty boring. I debated going up the road a few miles to hop on but needed to get on with my day so I just ran the boring part. This part of the trail takes me behind my old high school which was crazy to run by and see all the high schoolers out doing PE. Hard to believe that was me only 10 years ago! My first 3 miles were pretty slow warm up miles hovering around 10/10:15 min miles. My last two miles I finished with an average of 9:45. I regret bundling up as much as I did as I got really warm after the first two miles!

Sorry this post is really long. My goal is to try and post after each workout from here on out. There will be more posts but at least they will be shorter for you to read!

Happy Thursday!

We Now Return to Your Regularly Scheduled Blogging

HELLO BLOG WORLD! I missed you! That test is finally over and I can't believe it is now March. I think I have finally caught up on all my missed sleep and am finally starting to feel normal again. The best part - NO MORE SCHOOL!! Minus one year between college and law school I have been in school the last 21 years. I don't know what I am going to do with myself with all this new found free time. Actually I do - TRAIN!! I have so many fun races coming up and soon. No more thinking about law school or the bar until the results come out in May.

Now that I have had a chance to sit down and look at the calendar I realized I have a half marathon in 6 weeks and I have run about 6 miles in the last month. I am headed up to Portland to run the Race for the Roses (website) half marathon with Alisa. I am really looking forward to this race and seeing Alisa. Originally, I had thought I wanted to try and make this race my new half PR race, however, now I am just thinking of running it for fun and maybe helping Alisa get her new PR! I have a training plan set that I will start tomorrow. Nothing crazy, I think my peak week will be about 26 miles, but keep in mind I have pretty much been a slave to the library for the past two months so exercise will shock the system.

In addition to Race for the Roses, I start my half iron man training in two weeks! I think I mentioned I am training to do Barb's Race (website) with Alisa and Tara - GO TEAM KAT! I have a small disclaimer about the race that I need to make first. While of course I am thinking NOTHING but POSITIVE thoughts about the bar, I need to be realistic in that there is a chance I might not pass. If that is the case, I will need to re-take it July 27-29. This would put me finishing the test 2 days before Barbs. Unfortunately, with the amount of studying/training both require I could not dedicate myself fully to either and feel successful at either. Thus, as of now, I plan to start training on March 15th as planned, however, in the (hopefully small and unlikely) event I do not pass I may have to rethink the race for this year. I REALLY hope for many reasons that this does not happen but I am a realist and don't want to get ahead of myself.

All that being said I am so excited to start running and racing again. You don't realize how much you love it until you can't do it.

I'll check back in with you tomorrow after my first workout!