Grace Runs

Training: Day 40 and Day 41

I forgot to blog yesterday… oops. Just remember— no blog does NOT equal no workout!

Day 40—

On the schedule: Strength workout

So yesterday I knew had to get in the pool… It had been, gosh, almost 2 weeks I think since I last swam.

But I started with a run because it was surprisingly pleasant outside.

Stats:

Distance: 3.06 miles.
Pace: 11:50.
Duration: 36:19.

I got home from running, cooled off for a few minutes and headed off to swim. I swam 1050 yards in 30 minutes. Not the best, but hell, it’s better than nothing.

Day 41—

On the schedule: Bike 1 hour 15 minutes

Stats:

Distance: 20 miles (!)
Pace: 3:55 (!)
Duration: 1:18:36 

YOU GUYS! A. That is my fastest ride to date, B. That is my FURTHEST ride to date, and C. It’s the first time I hit the distance I’ll be riding for my race.

I honestly think it has to do with the new pedals… I didn’t wear my cycling shoes today and I just felt more comfortable, which allowed me to ride faster and more confidently.

It’s such a relief to know that I can hit that distance, quite easily might I add, and still feel strong.

My race is two weeks from today. As in, 2 weeks from this very moment it’ll all be over… Oh goodness.

Training: Day 9

On the schedule: Bike 40 minutes.

Today has been insane, but in a good way, I think. Busy, busy, busy, that’s for sure.

I ran before class this morning (Distance: 2.25 miles, Pace: 11:44, Duration: 26:26), and about 10 minutes in my headphones completely died. Except they didn’t completely die because some songs I could hear the instrumentals and some I could hear backing vocals and it was incredibly distracting (and disappointing; RIP headphones).

After that, I had my phys. ed. class, and we had a guest lecturer today. Normally we do yoga, but the instructor we had today (he’s applying to teach and we were his guinea pig/interview class) led an unbelievably intense 35 minute full body conditioning class. I’m going to be in a lot of pain tomorrow morning, needless to say.

After that I went back to my apartment and geared up for my bike ride. I rode 10.09 miles (Pace: 4:43 minutes/mile, Duration: 47:42, Speed: 12mph). I’m definitely getting more comfortable on the bike which is good. It’s turning into, “Yay, it’s bike day!” instead of, “Oh… bike day.”

Right now, typing this is pretty much the first spare second I’ve had all day… And I am exhausted. My early class tomorrow is canceled, so I get to sleep in, which is always a welcomed treat for a Wednesday.

(Oh, and in case you were curious, I’m doing a lot better with my water intake. I still don’t think I’m drinking enough, but I’m definitely drinking a whole lot more than I was. So that is a good thing.)

Training: Day 6

On the schedule: Bike 45 minutes.

I tried to go out early enough this morning so that there wouldn’t be a trillion people everywhere. I was mostly successful.

Stats:

Distance: 11.4 miles.
Speed: 12 mph.
Duration: 55:04. 

I found a really quiet neighborhood back behind my apartment complex, so I rode laps around there for a little while.

I think I’m slowly but surely getting the hang of the pedals—every time I had to stop today was fine, which is progress.

I don’t think I’m going to run/do anything extra today, so I’ll catch you guys tomorrow.

Training: Day 2

I am happy to say that today’s training was awesome.

Today I was supposed to bike for 30 minutes.

Except… Okay, here’s my problem. I love running. If I skip more than one day in a row of running, then certain parts of my brain malfunction or something and I simply feel like I cannot go on living. No, but in all honesty running is my first love here. Yeah, I’m training to be able to do the biking and the swimming as well, but I can’t go 3 days in a row without running.

That said, I did run today. I ran before my yoga class this morning (Distance: 2.93 miles, Pace: 11:51, Duration: 34:45). Did 25 minutes of yoga. And then I ran again after class got out, mostly to get me back to my apartment—I may have taken the long way, though (Distance: 1.51 miles, Pace: 12:03, Duration: 18:05).

When I got home I geared up immediately and went for my bike ride. Today was the third day on the new ride, the first in any kind of traffic, so, uh, I was nervous. I’m still not 100% comfortable or confident on the new pedals. I had one small blunder (I didn’t fall over though [or get hit by a car]) right at the start, but once I got going it was excellent. There’s a cross city trail that runs right through campus, so I hopped on that for about 15-20 minutes before turning around. I ended up riding a little bit longer than what I was “supposed” to, but I don’t really see where that’s going to be an issue. It’s not like I’m pushing myself past what I am capable of.

Here are the stats for my first training ride:

Distance: 7.86 miles.
Speed: 11.7 mph
Duration: 40:03

Needless to say, today was a success. Like I was saying before, I did more than what my schedule called for, but it’s not like I’m doing things I cannot physically do. I’m going to have to do a lot more than that on race day, anyways, so I don’t think doing a little extra work here and there is going to be an issue.

I’ve also been trying to drink a lot more water because I don’t really like water and I suck at drinking it. But I know it’s important, hydration and all that, so I’m working on it.

*Takes sip of water.*

Training: Day 1

RAGING SUCCESS.

Just kidding—day 1 was technically a rest day. And since I rarely skip a day of running, I actually did take today to rest.

My head’s been in a strange place today—it hasn’t been the best day, but I’m hoping that tomorrow’s better.

Since I don’t have any progress reports to write about today, I thought I’d give you a little overview of the triathlon I’ll be participating in.

For those of you who may not know, a triathlon is swimming, biking, and running, in that order.

Each sprint triathlon is different in terms of distances, I’m pretty sure it’s up to the race coordinators to determine distances for each event, but the one that I’m training for looks like this:

1/3 mile ocean swim.
18 mile bike.
4 mile run.

The bike and the run should be relatively straight forward. The terrain is extremely flat, sea level 0 I’m pretty sure, for the run. The bike goes up and over 2 different bridges, so the climb on that will probably be pretty challenging, but other than that it’s completely flat. The swim is what I’m most concerned about. In terms of the types of workouts I usually do, swimming is the one I have done the least of. And I have weak arms. Plus it’s an ocean swim, so I know that’s going to be more challenging…

My first real active day is tomorrow. Let’s do this.

Sunday—8 weeks out.

Is 2 months out too soon to already have race anxiety? I had some weird dreams that kept me up last night about the race—I don’t really remember what they were about, mostly about not being able to finish, I guess.

I finally pulled out my training schedule and took a good look at it—needless to say it’s going to be quite challenging. But I’m still looking forward to it.

I did a short 2 mile ride this morning. I’m still getting used to the pedals on my bike—I may have fallen over once. The whole sitting on the bike thing is also going to take some getting used to because, uh, it hurts. Hopefully I get used to it soon, like, by Tuesday because I have a 30 minute ride on Tuesday. Wishful thinking. I know I’ll be pedaling through the pain, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

After I biked, I ran 3.25 miles (Duration: 38:47, Pace: 12:06) just cause I felt like I needed to.

Yesterday was my dad’s birthday, so we had a big birthday/Easter dinner/dessert last night. Whenever I eat more than I usually do, especially sugar and sweets, I almost always get really horrible body aches the next day. I have no idea why, but it sucks and it makes working out painful. I feel okay right now, but I may have been eating chocolate on and off all day (it’s Easter, come on!) and I’m hoping that I don’t wake up tomorrow hurting. Lucky for me, tomorrow, my first official training day, is actually an off day, go figure. But I haven’t had an actual off day in well over 2 weeks, so I’m planning to actually take it and let my body take a rest before I start pushing myself further than I have before.

Hope everyone’s had a good Easter :)

Catch ya on the flip side.