Monday, June 17, 2019

More Training Seshs


Thursday, June 6 Run
10am - Split
75 degrees
.91 miles
9:18 duration

.51 miles
5:25 duration


Thursday date night bike. Not sure I can really count this as a training session, but hey getting the movement in. 
6:45 pm
4 miles (total)
22.1 mph max speed
10.5 mph average speed


Friday morning it was time to finally utilize my wet-suit and get my feet wet! LOL. I was nervous at first afraid of cold water, but the suit actually makes it REALLY nice and the temperature wasn't bad at all. My breathing on the other hand. As soon as I got into the water my chest was tight and I was having a hard time breathing so I knew right then that it was totally mental and I WAS going to get through it. I had measured the buoys on google maps and knew that the white ones way out in the water were 25 yards apart. I had planned to swim out there but once I was in the water I realized the front red circle buoys were plenty far out and deep enough. Probably because the water is so high. But they looked about the same distance so I set a goal of doing 8 laps. 4 down and backs to equal the 200 yards which is what I will be needing to swim on tri day 

It was so beautiful being there at six in the morning and seeing the little duck family. The water was so peaceful. I started my strokes and realized I have a long way to go to get this swimming thing down. I did make it the 8 lengths but not all continuous and not all the front crawl. I added in some breath stroke as well as back float/stroke. Which is a great way to relax and is even allowed on race day if it comes to it. But my goals is to front crawl the whole thing and be comfortable with it. Saw lots of fish, which was kinda freaky cuz they jsut hung out under me as I swam over them. Had to distract my mind from how creepy that was, lol. 

I did the 200yards and came out to check my time, I had to get back by 6:40 so Kyle could leave for work. I made it back in time, he was waiting in the driveway to leave cuz he couldn't be late for a meeting. But I got out and realized my cap felt so off cuz it was BACKWARDS, lol. I turned it around and it felt much better.

I left that swim feeling SUPER discouraged! But in retrospect it WAS only my second swim and the important part was I was getting out there and doing it. Ain't going to get any better if I don't get in the water. I came home and watched some basic swim videos on youtube and developed a skill plan to practice the following day.
Friday, June 7 Swim
6:00am 66 degrees
300 yards
15 minutes


Saturday morning I got up and needed to head back. Mary wanted to go with me, I said yes she could come watch. Then she went to get her swimsuit. I told her not to swim cuz it was going to be too cold but of course she didn't take that as an answer. I said okay... but, well you'll see... we walked down to the beach together in the beautiful sun. 


The water is just so gorgeous and peaceful at this hour. No baby ducks today but we did see a daddy duck hanging out with us. 


 

I focused on arm strokes with the board, doing three at a time then stopping for air. Then I added in breaths every third, making each breath on opposite sides. This actually felt much better than doing a breath every time I used my right arm. Tricky turning to the left but with practice it'll feel better. So out of breath at the end of a string of strokes. In the moment I feel like it's a good workout but afterward I question if it really was a workout cuz I feel fine. Just tired in the moment but I think that's from the breathing aspect of it not really the movements or motions. Wish my heart rate tracker would work in the water so I could get a better gauge at my intensity. I"m looking at other trackers but haven't found anything I really want to get. And mine does just fine for land activity. 

Mary was of course frozen so I encouraged her to go up to the shore and sit in the sun to warm up. She really wanted to swim but I wouldn't let her come out with me and she was shivering so it wasn't much fun for her. She loved being there with me though. 

Saturday, June 8 Swim
7:00am 70 degrees
working on stroke and taking a breath every 3rd
18 minute swim


The next morning Mary's wasn't in favor of joining me. I was ready to take a break from swimming but knew I needed to get it in cuz Kyle would be in Amsterdam the following week and there would be no swimming for me. So I woke up and headed to the lake again. I was wearing Kyle's garmin watch to check out tracking a workout in the water.

 

Sunday Swim, June 9 7:30am
70 degrees
15 minute swim
did about 330 yards

Monday and Tuesday I did indoor workouts.  However Monday I DID GET A NEW TOY! I found an Apple Watch on facebook marketplace. He had only listed it for $120 and I was the first to contact him so I was first in line. Turned out he literally lived down the road from me and I met him at that beach that evening after the sitter arrived for me to go to my MoMs meeting. Super excited to explore it. So far (as of a week later) I love it for tracking swims. It's good about cycle, but haven't liked the past couple of runs with it. And a big downfall is it's lack to track multisports at once. It didn't do so well for my mini-tri a couple days ago, but i'll get to that in a second)


Wednesday we went to a bike shop and I got what I needed for my repair kit. I had been meaning to go but when I realized how flat the front BOB stroller tire was and i couldn't get it to hold air I needed a new tire for it so thought I might as well get it all and get practicing to change a tire out of the way.

This is recommended for anyone doing a triathlon cuz you spend a lot of time on your bike (I don't but other people do, haha I'm just not to that point yet)

Little bag that goes right under my seat (I actually had that I used it to hold my cell phone), a fresh tube, the yellow are two levels used to pry the tire off the wheel. Under that is a hand air pump, and to the left of that is a multi-tool for bikes with a couple of patches and a little piece of sand paper in it. Rule of thumb is change the tube FIRST and if still no luck then resort to the patches.


I got that in preparation to go for a stroller run. I actually changed the strollers front tire (which he said would be harder than doing the road bike) I aired up the tube to see where the leak was and it appeared find. I think it was sitting wrong which is why I couldn't get a good connection on the stem. I put the old tube back in and aired it up and all was well. So just have a spare new tube for that tire if/when I need it.

I did this outside of the girls nature camp and then Thomas and i went for a run in the hilly, sunny neighborhood. I was trying to stay in the cardio zone, which proved to be difficult. I would spike up then try to get my heart rate down then it'd get low so I'd start to jog again and it'd spike up, hahaha. so not too steady but the average was where I wanted it.

Wednesday Stroller Run
1:41pm
34 minutes
2.6 miles
felt HOT but only 67 degrees

Thursday evening I had plans to attend a Yoga by the lake event I had purchased at Isaac's silent auction for his school fundraiser. Since it was fairly close I rode my bike and counted it as my cycle for the week since well with Kyle being gone it wasn't happening in the mornings. I got there a LOT faster than I had thought I would, it took me maybe 7 minutes to go the 1.5 miles. 

My average speed there was 11.1mph with a max of 19.2
average speed home was 11.9mph

We did an hour of yoga by the lake which was marvelous! And had wine and snacks on the porch watching the sunset. It was a much  needed break in my week and so wonderful.

Friday I took a full on rest day. I had been tired all week, multiple nights of not good sleep so I wasn't to rest up for Saturday. Saturday morning I attended a tri skills class followed by a mini try. It was SO FUN! We met at 8:00am where the actual triathlon will be in a few months and started at 8:15 with the group bike. They went over a lot of good pointers and info and rules and just getting us familiar with triathlon life. Unfortunately it was rainy :-( but not horrible. It wasn't raining on us when we started but after we did a round of hills off in a neighborhood to practice gear shifting, it was sprinkling steady on us. We came back and practiced the mount and dismount on the bike. Running and jumping onto the bike and then hoping off the bike BEFORE the dismount line and running along with the bike.

Bike ride portion was about 6 miles over 1 hour - stopping to talk, ask questions, and learn

There are two parts people don't really think about when they think of triathlon. It's called T1 and T2. The T stands for transition. Transitioning from swimming to biking and biking to running. On race day these have their own separate time and many people don't practice, but this class was teaching us how to. They had a little transition area set up for us and got the bike racks set up so we could run through it all. 


We talked all about transition, which I have also read in the few books I've gotten through. Then we headed out to the water for the swim part. It was pretty cold at this point. 69 degrees outside but it was cloudy, windy and cold. We were all NOT looking forward to getting in the water. She gave us some tips on open water swimming and told us how to run into the water. So then we practiced running into the water, swimming out a bit then running back out. Once we were in the water we were all surprised how warm it was and it actually felt better IN the water than out. 


Once out we were frozen! lol so it was time to get the mini-tri started. They gave us distances and had marked the finish line and the mount/dismount lines. When she said to swim the 200yds I had to gasp and point out that was the distance those of us doing the super sprint would be doing on race day. She said we could do it (and we did), then the bike was just around Lake Nokomis which was 3 miles, and the run was the option .25 to the light and back or .75 over the bridge and back. We went to the water and got started. 


I made the swim!!! It wasn't all freestyle, actually I don't think I free styled any of it. It was choppy and the couple of attempts I did I got smacked in the face with water when I attempted my side breath so I stuck with breath stroke, side stroke, and back stroke. And I finished in only like 7 minutes, I couldn't believe it! Just the confidence booster I needed. So now I know I CAN do it, now i just want to do it in freestyle. Ran out to transition, got my shoes on and helmet then went for my bike ride. Got back and took off for the run. I couldn't believe how great it felt. I did learn that I think I need sunglasses. Got hit in the eye by a bug, twice. 

Oh and this was also a great time to try out the tri-suit I had. When I had been looking for wet suits for practicing I found a tri-suit from a gal that lived over by our old house. A tri-suit is not a wetsuit but a suit you wear for triathlons so you don't change. It has shorts, zipper front, a tiny bit of padding for the bike ride but not too much that it absorbs water and feels like a diaper when you run. It's intended to dry fast although my socks and shoes were soaked by the end from all the water running down me on the bike ride. I didn't get any other photos, but believe me they are NOT flattering. She assured us that everyone feels like a sausage in those things, haha. No one else had them, however another lady was wearing a two piece tri-suit. Shorts and tank top. Form fitting to reduce drag. Others were wearing swimsuits, and just pulled on shorts I think, or maybe not. Oh actually another lady was wearing a tri-suit too. Best way to go, one stop shop and I'm glad it worked out. I wore a sports bra under cuz it feels like it's squeezing you like a telephone pole, the sports bra just made me feel better. Also by tip from the gal I bought it from in the event the zipper malfunctions you have backup, haha.

As for tracking... this is where my apple watch failed. I hit other hoping it would pick up that I was swimming, then biking, then running. But that wasn't the case. It barely kept my heart rate. Took NO GPS.... and seemed kinda off. It said all that took me 34 minutes. 
200 yard swim
3 mile bike
1.5 mile run 

Well the timing was right because I started it when I started and stopped at the end I just didn't get any other info in between there. Like how long did I actually swim, (although I glanced at my watch getting out of the water and it said 7) I'm not sure when I started on the bike or got off it. The transition between swim and bike is a little longer because you gotta wipe your feet off to get your socks and shoes on. I don't wear bike shoes so I didn't need to switch shoes again for running like those with clip in petal shoes have. 

Overall it was SUPER fun! And I LOVED it!!! :-D 
I left there and hopped over to the airport to pick up Kyle then we ran by REI to have my bike looked at. It had been acting weird and I wasn't sure what was up. Last time i brought it in they thought i was crazy I had mroe info and he checked the gears better. Sure enough the two I usually use the most, the chain was jumping which was causing it to switch gears when I'd hit a big bump. He adjusted those and I hope it's all good to go now (no issues this morning on my ride). Glad we were able to do it then cuz the bike was in the van, we had a sitter at home, and we were driving right by the place. We also picked up some bike cleaning stuff cuz there was all sorts of grit and such in my bike from riding in the wet. 

 Sunday I took some time and cleaned my bike real well. This is the OTHER part of triathlon that people probably don't talk about, haha. Bike maintenance.

Sunday was my rest day/ yoga day (and Kyle's run day as he is training for a half marathon)
Monday morning was time to hit the water in. I was debating doing a brick workout (brick workout just means doing two of the sports back to back so either a swim/bike workout or a bike/run workout) You add these into your training to help your body with the transition. I loved how it felt to do all three on Saturday so knew I was ready. And the thought of doing the bike gave me motivation for the swim. I kept going back and forth cuz I wasn't sure the logistics but since Kyle was working from home I was going to take the chance to do it when I wasn't on a time crunch. 

It was a COLD morning this morning. So thankful for my wet-suit (I won't wear it on race day because it's totally not a racing suit it is super heavy and warm and buoyant which is wonderful, haha. Will have to train without it come end of July/August.) I arrived to a community of geese and ducks resting on the shore it was rather hilarious. They ended up not being bothered by me entering the water and just sat there for most of the time watching me. They did end up moving after I hollered up to my neighbor to say hello as she walked her dog... probably thinking I was totally cray-cray LMAO. I had to stop at one pass to let a family of ducks swim by into the lake. 


Here's the map from my swim, lol. I was out there for about 20 minutes. 
I spent the first part working on a set of drills I had printed off to get comfortable in the water and focus on corkscrewing. Then I did a down and back in freestyle non-stop. It felt better than it has which was super exciting!!!

Monday Swim June 17
59 degrees
25 minutes
.24 miles
Backstroke 13yd
Breaststroke 26 yd
freestyle .22mi


I do love that my Apple Watch even tracks the distance for type of stroke I do. That is a one up for it! Like I said I do love the swimming tracking function but I wish it would put all of them together. 

Then I got out and went up to the little change house to get into my chamois pants (pronounced SHAMMY - which are my padded bike pants) OMG this was HILARIOUS!!! I learned a lesson there... do not try to get into compression pants when you are wet. HAHA I was laughing at myself at how hard it was to get dressed. But I had no other choice (no other clothes) so I made it work. I had a plastic bag for my wet suit and swimsuit that was under the wetsuit which I wore in a backpack on my ride. Which prob made it feel worse than it needed but oh well, good for training, right? :-P For my bike ride I use the Map My Ride on my watch, it is what I have used on my phone so I have lots of workouts logged there, I can just do it from my wrist now. 

Monday bike ride June 17
17 minutes
4 miles
13.5 average speed
26 mph max speed

I got home, put my bike in closed the garage and my legs just felt ugh so I decided to take a quick run around the block to loosen them up from the ride and just round out the day. Why not, haha. 

3.5 minute run
.41 miles


That's a wrap on a little over a week of training. This week will be mostly indoor workouts and runs since we are traveling. 

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