Importance of Workout Buddies!

I had a great swim yesterday, and decided I should get back in the groove today (Sunday). I used to have a group that would do a Spin class then a swim. There were about 4 of us, so on any given day we could count on at least one other person being there to keep us honest.

With the pool closure, the weather getting warmer, business trips (insert any excuse you like here), we all have gotten away from our routine. Alexis and I said yesterday "lets do the 8:45 spin tomorrow."

After we left, I texted the other workout buddies and no one else could or wanted to come, so it was just Alexis and I.

I woke up at 6:30 and had ZERO I mean ZERO motivation to go, I just wanted to crawl back under the covers and sleep. I knew I made a commitment to Alexis so I dragged my butt out of bed and got dressed.

Luckily I sent her a text thanking her for just being my buddy "hey thanks for spinning today, there's no way I would have got out of bed this AM w/o committing to you."

When I got to the gym, Alexis told me that about 1 minute before she heard my text she was just not feeling it, her daughter was up early and she was just going to text me and say she would just run later. My text made her re-think "crap, now I have to go." :).

Neither of us would have made it today without the other! A support group is SO important! I'm so thankful for mine! (And you do need more than one, in case someone really does have a conflict).

Not only did I have a great spin class, but I also swam another mile today- time: 47 min. Not fast, but also not in a wetsuit, I'm very happy for this time!

On the Murphy's law note. I swear my name should have been Murphy! I picked up a gallon of milk on my way home, I guess I was tired from the 2 hour workout. I dropped the gallon of milk on the ground outside of my car! It splattered UP and hit me in the face. I had milk IN MY EYE. (see Feb 12 entry for another story about my stupidity). Let me tell you, Milk in the eye is VERY ITCHY!!! I'd rather have chlorine in it!

Lesson learned today - keep milk out of my eyes :).

POOL IS OPEN and I feel like a Leaf!

After a month of being closed, the Bally's pool is finally open! Those that know me, know I have been appropriately compensated for the lack of ability to work out ;).

It has been quite the struggle to swim, and I have to say that the pool closure really fizzled my motivation. Swimming is my strong sport (I'm not fast, just strong), so when this goes, the rest of it is extremely hard to bring back into the picture! In the past month I swam in the "lap pool" (see April 6 entry), then April 7 I got a 1/4 mile in the dive shop's pool but that's it. The dive shop is a little better than the lap pool but it's only 48 feet rather than the 25 yards, plus I had to wrestle with the "cleaning robot."

I have a race in 3 weeks and since I purchased a new wetsuit, I really needed to test it out. I typically race with a sleeveless wetsuit and am very comfortable with that; as a matter of fact, as a divemaster I'm rather comfortable with most wetsuits! BUT, big but.. you should NEVER try something out the first time on race day - so I reluctantly took my brand new xterra wetsuit into the chlorinated pool!

The first 50 yards were VERY WEIRD, I felt like a leaf. I haven't swam with a wetsuit in several months. I do love the buoyancy and trim you get! After the first lap I got it, and was able to sink my head enough to get UNDER the water instead of floating around on top. I did about 1/3 of a mile before it was too hot to continue. I don't need heat stroke in the pool. (indoor pools are 85-90 degrees, not a good combo for wearing a wetsuit). The most awesome thing was that I was pacing to a 36 minute mile with the suit on. This isn't incredibly fast for Triathletes, but I consider myself in a different category and I'm quite happy with that time! BTW I finished off the mile without the wetsuit!

I guess even though the pool was closed, I still retained some of the knowledge of the Total Immersion! YEA! 3 weeks though to freeze my rear off!

On another awesome note, I'm so proud of my training partner Alexis. She totally kicks ass in general but for some reason didn't think she could swim a mile. Before the swim I said "ok today we do 36 laps." She said "How far is that?" - to which I replied "I'll let you know when we're done."

She finished the mile no problem :).

See, you can do anything you put your mind to! I'm very convinced of this!

Another Ride- A Little Better

I rode with Anne on Sunday, it was a bit better than the last one. I'm still disappointed in myself, but I'm going to take a chapter out of Anne's book and be happy with my accomplishments. We rode the sprint course that's near my house and with traffic, no flaggers to allow us to run red lights, and an insane head-wind - we beat our best RACE time on the course by a few minutes. I have been training TONS more this year so I am expecting lots more out of myself but I will take this one win.

Note the picture, Anne kicked my ass ;)

Chi Running

I had my first Chi Running Clinic last night. A myriad of issues landed me with a private lesson over 90 minutes away from my house.

I first learned about Chi Running from some friends: Alexis and Wendy. I was exited to learn that I COULD potentially run without pain or frustration. Prior this, I absolutely HATED running. My knees, chest, shins, feet always hurt - and it was just BBOOOORRRRIIINNNGGG!!!

I had signed up for a clinic at the Boston Multi-Sport Expo. I had a blonde moment or something and signed up for the wrong class (advanced). Luckily Ryan, one of the instructors, said he would be happy to bring me up to speed personally at another time. (Thank goodness, or I would have been out $55). This turned out to be a blessing in disguise! I bought the book and the DVD. I read most of the book before my Chicago Trip, thus the reason I was able to do 30 miles in a week.

For those that don't know - Chi Running concentrates on posture, balance and using "the force" to run, not "leg muscle power." - One thing I just love is you don't bounce around when you're doing it in the right form. This for me means no knee or chest pain!

I was armed with 30 miles of practice, a book of knowledge and a private class! I came to the clinic with an open mind that "I'm going to run." - I haven't adopted "Born to run" but hey I'm starting somewhere!

Ryan was encouraging, I told him the areas I thought I already had problems with such as holding my head in the correct posture (problem for me in swimming, walking, and just sitting at my desk) and YUP, that was confirmed. He identified a couple other areas for me to work on, such as not showing the bottoms of my feet to the person in front of me - apparently that's what caused this MASSIVE knot in my calf from my Chicago "marathon." He also said that I "got" the basics quicker than most (YEA, I needed that after that stupid bike ride).

The really weird thing is someone telling me - five foot one Laura - to "shorten my stride" - REALLY?? - I must become a V8!

I'm excited to try to run again, even short distances.

Ryan invited me to run with his group on Wed nights & I really have to get over my intimidation of 'holding people back.' I know I am a turtle, but he said that the faster runners NEED to have slow people with them, it makes them stop and think about their form because they tend to forget :)..... ok I'll take that.

There is so much to think about that I won't have time to be bored. Hopefully I'll RUN the whole race on May 9th :).

First Bike Ride of the Season

UGH!

I could end the post there!

I had high hopes, it was a beautiful evening and I was ready to go for my first outside ride. The town recently cleaned most of the sand, leaves, and dirt from the winter. There were just a few spots of runoff left from the floods but nothing that was impassable.

Nicole, my personal trainer, just bought a new bike so she wanted to go for a ride, so I thought AWESOME, she'll really push me. It started out ok, but I quickly realized that I'm NOT in the shape I thought I was in. The first few miles of my typical course are pretty scary in regards to traffic and crossing interstate on-ramps. I just worked as hard as I could to get through that area, only to get to the other side and realize just HOW out of breath I was. I felt really bad that I was keeping Nicole from "working out" and she was just doing a leisurely stroll!

I'm sure it's all relative, I have some friends that may read this that wouldn't even try a 14 mile ride the first time out - and I have some friends that regularly do 40.. but I'm comparing myself to myself and UGH.. uber-frustrating!

I guess I have some work to do!

I'm going to swim tonight with the full arm wetsuit, something I haven't done yet. Then I have a Chi-Running clinic tomorrow - whohoo! Hopefully those will go better!

A fishbowl and 30 Miles!

Spending a week away from home is always interesting. Adding to the previous post about contingencies, you really do have to PLAN your workouts accordingly. I knew going in that I couldn't ride a bike for the week and I'd have to swim and run for the week.

I contemplated two different hotels in Chicago, the Intercontinental and the Hilton Homewood Suites. The Hilton serves breakfast AND dinner, plus they have full kitchens. That means I wouldn't have to spent time worrying about what to eat, where to eat, and if I had left overs I could re-heat it. On the other hand the intercontinental has this INCREDIBLE pool - full Olympic size, Italian marble, just amazing pool! So, as I weighed the differences, I read about the Hilton Pool and it said "Lap Pool" - I thought "ok, I'll manage and I'll benefit from the extra time I'll save on finding food."

Monday AM I woke up at 6, put on my suit and went UP - yes UP to the pool on the 19th floor. It certainly was a lap pool, if by lap they meant the sound a dog makes when drinking!!! I tried to do a 1/2 mile in there, but I was actually getting DIZZY! I stopped kicking and tried to do circles, and it felt like I was in a fishbowl, or like I was a shark circling my prey.

Needless to say that was the ONLY day I swam last week!

On a brighter note.. it was the most gorgeous week weather-wise! I started out with a 3 mile jog on Monday night down the Chicago River walk to Lake Michigan. I love that they have this awesome fitness path!! From here I just became obsessed. I am trying to learn Chi-Running - AND - I was trying to take pictures. So I just took the camera on my jogs, alternated hands so it was like I was running with a weight.

It is so easy to rack up the miles in a big city with beautiful architecture, and amazing weather. Before I knew it I was up to 17 miles, at that point I knew I had to complete "A Chicago Marathon" before I left on Friday.

By Friday AM, I had 3 miles to go, so I headed out for a run at sunrise. Of course I didn't bring the good camera and it was the most spectacular sunrise! I ended up doing 4 miles without even noticing. I ended the evening out with some additional walking before my flight so I had a nice round 30 for the week.

Now I need to find something interesting to look at while running at home, because my street is boring as hell and 1 mile seems like eternity!

Contingencies!

It has been a while since I’ve written, which makes this post all the more relevant. About 3 weeks ago we had our second Total Immersion swim lesson. I felt great, learning tweaks to my body to swim with greater ease. The problem is that its slowing me down now, but I’m sure that it will be better in the end. I was able to get in the pool at Bally’s a couple times for drilling then I showed up one day @ 5:30AM and BAM.. “pool closed indefinitely.” Since I didn’t child rate this blog, I won’t share my expletives.

I’ve been trying to figure out what to do and how to swim. This of course has also de-railed my training. I fell into this routine of going on certain days, but now that I have to figure out a contingency, it’s SO easy to just skip it. Then, on top of that, I landed a 2 week migraine, sinus infection and ear infection. This resulted in my motivation just plummeting!

My brain keeps telling me “go find another pool”, but my body says “ooh, just one more day on the couch and you’ll feel better.”

The dive shop pool opens April 10, but I’m 7 weeks away from my first race (May 9). I know myself and I know that I need to have the pool, bikes and weights all incorporated into my workouts. I suppose I could swim in 50 degree water, but I like having blood in my extremities.

I learned a big lesson in all of this, I totally counted on my membership to Bally’s but you never know! I learned to have a contingency plan- BEFORE the breakdown! I waited until yesterday to start looking at my contingencies. I found out I could swim with a friend at a local college. I also am going on a business trip and I specifically sought out a hotel with a lap pool.

Hopefully when I get there Sunday, I don’t forget how to swim.

I smell like Chlorine!

I’m assuming most people that read this know me, but for those that don’t, I’m also a divemaster and I tend to smell like chlorine from May – Sep. I work with classes and I can just never get the smell out of my hair or my SKIN. This year, I’ve entered into the chlorine zone earlier than usual! I do try to explain this to at least the women in my dive classes. First, be sure to use special pool shampoo – the chemicals dry your hair, not to mention if you’re blond, you can turn GREEN!!! The second thing is that it just destroys your bathing suits. I totally make fun of “kids today” (yea I’m old) for wearing their pants around their butts, but I feel like my bathing suits end up there very quickly because the elastic lasts about 8 weeks tops!

The worst though, is that I CANNOT get the smell of chlorine out of my skin. I can scrub and scrub and its still there. UGH!

BUT – onto the good news. TI (Total Immersion) swimming is going well. We had another lesson on Sunday but it was another 2.5 hrs in the pool with not a lot of strong activity. People forget that you CAN get hypothermic in 90 degree water.

We spent the time learning and drilling. I’m still at the stage where I am thinking WAY too much.

• Where is my hip?
• Where is my arm?
• Is my outward arm at the right angle?
• Is my head facing down?
• Is my other arm coming up and switching properly?
• Are my arms in the wide track?
• Are my hips stacked or are they at 45 degree angle?
• Is my body streamlined?
• Am I kicking from my knees or hips?
• Am I breathing?
• Am I letting my hip FALL?
• Am I shoving my shoulder down (like I’m not supposed to)?
• What stroke number am I on?
• Am I going to kick Alexis in the head?
• Am I going to run my head into the wall?
• Am I going to get a snout full of water?

THANK GOODNESS I don’t really have problems breathing while swimming, I swear I was a fish or sea turtle in a prior life I don’t want to have to consider trying to add that to what I have to think about.

We did a 1.25 hr spin class followed by drilling in the pool today. I did about 1000 yards of straight drills. I think I did about 500-800 yards on Thursday (I didn’t count).

I’ll stay out of the water tomorrow and will get back in to freshen up my ode-de-pool on Tuesday!

Glycogen Depletion

I've spent many years pretending to go to the gym, or other activities and when it gets really tough I make up some excuse as to why I need to stop.

"My knee hurts", "My foot hurts", "I'm tired", "I'm sore".. etc. I've always had those excuses, and when I felt that I was too tired to keep going I just stopped and said "good job." Well, I've hit this crazy wall and I know I can do better (see previous post about me not being satisfied).

I've had two workouts recently where I've actually reached glycogen depletion. It is the absolute weirdest thing. My brain says "GO, YOU ARE NOT DONE WITH YOUR WORKOUT" but my body says "NOPE - I'M DONE!!!"

I've always wondered what happened to marathon runners when they just collapse, I can't help but think "hey they did all that training, why don't they just get up and suck it up?" - Well.. now I know.

Well I learned that fully this week. Once you've depleted your glycogen levels there is NOTHING, I mean NOTHING left.

That's why nutrition is soooo important for endurance sports!!!

I'm glad I got to feel that sensation in a controlled setting!

Time For Coaching

I've been working with a personal training for several months now. I've been working on strength and burst cardio mostly. I've been spending time in the pool doing laps, as well as a few spin classes a week. typically I spend about 5-7 hrs a week at the gym.

My problem is I'm never satisfied! (my poor parents, and yes my poor husband - mind out of the gutter people)!!

A year ago if someone said I would be spending 5-7 hrs at the gym I would have told them that's nutz. Now I know that's just not enough time. Seriously how much is enough? If I did everything I "WANTED" to do, I swear I'd have to quit my job and just live at the gym. Time to step it up a bit though! Coaching here I come!

Saturday I went to a private Total Immersion (TI) swim lesson with Alexis. Now, I know how to swim. I have a consistent stroke, and I do "ok" in a race. I'm by NO MEANS fast! I knew going into this that I was going to have to re-think some things but HOLY COW..

For those that know TI, you'll give me the 'uh-huh' for those that don't - read up on it, its great! Apparently me being a diver is contra to my swimming. I do things underwater that are absolutely backwards of what is supposed to be done on the surface.

The one thing that's going to be so hard for me is to look down!! I look forward (yea I don't like to run into things and I want to see what's around me).. but head down will keep my momentum better.

So we got through a few drills, luckily my dive training has taught me to hold my breath for quite a while so I can actually get through longer drills this way. We got through 'fish' and 'skate'. I have to constantly think about where my head is and where my arm is. Then as I add a step to think about my rotation and again, WHERE my head is and where my ARM is.. UGH.. too much thinking for the pool!

The pool usually is my yoga, I zone out and can swim for miles in a totally zen state. I know this coaching is great and it will help me excel in the sport, but its so hard to stop and RE-LEARN. I just hope I can get back to that zen!

We have another lesson next Sat - 2 hrs in the pool. I actually can't wait. Then on the 20th I have a Chi-Running clinic. Hopefully my brain won't explode!