End of recovery week

Friday was supposed to be a bike on your own for 50 min but I didn't make it to the gym (big surprise...)

Saturday was a coached training in Alameda. Before the workout started there was a brief overview on what should be in your transition area (between swim/bike and bike/run) and then it was a flat tire clinic on how to change a flat on your back wheel. First they demonstrated it to us and then we all had to take our back wheel off, deflate the tire, take the tube out, put the tube back in, re-inflate the tire and then put it back on the bike. It was a really valuable clinic and I'm glad I went. Next time I'm in Walnut Creek, I need to go to Sports Basement and get:

• spare tube(s)
• T-bars (I think they are called tire bars)
• CO2 canisters (to rapidly inflate my tire)
• thingy that connects the CO2 canister to the valve stem
• saddle bag that attaches under the seat to hold all this stuff
• a 'Bento Box' - a little pouch that attaches to the frame near the handlebars to hold power gels and such
• a new water bottle and water bottle holder because my bike is so crappy and so old, as I was riding over the streets of Alameda the stupid thing shook itself apart and my water bottle and water bottle holder fell off all over the street. TWICE!

The work out was a 'brick' work out. First we biked for ~3 miles and then we ran for 10 min (4 min run, 1 min walk x 2) and then we repeated it 3 more times for a total of 4 sets. The cool down was a 6 mile bike ride (2 of the ~3 mile loops).

I wish I had a road bike... Practically everyone has a road bike and they were zooming past me on the biking portion, making me very jealous :(

Today was a Captain's workout but I didn't go because I wanted to sleep in. It was a 40 min run and I figured that I could do that on my own. I didn't feel much like running this morning so it was very difficult for me to find my groove. I was running around in Burlingame up and down the hills and I was doing OK going out but I did have to take a walk break to get up one of the hills. By the time I got to the firestation I had found my groove and so I completed the rest of my run as perscribed.

My shin is doing OK, I probably should have iced it after my run but we had to get to the car dealership and I forgot to grab the ice before we left. Surprisingly my right hip is starting to bug me, I'll have to ask coach Mike or Paul about it next time I see them. Its in a place that is hard to stretch so I'm not really sure what to do...

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Holy cow, it's been over a week since I updated this

So I'm really dropping the ball here, I've been lazy and have not updated my training blog in over a week... (but surprisingly no one has called to tell me this, to tell me that they haven't seen an update in a while and are wondering if I'm still training...)

The last time I updated it was Thursday and I swam.

Friday was a day off as the team (but not me) traveled to Wildflower for training weekend.

Saturday was supposed to be a long swim and bike workout but I had to teach for 6 hours and I never made it to the gym/pool

Sunday was supposed to be a shorter bike ride, but I did Saturday's workout instead. To warm up I swam a bunch of drills for 10 min and then 4 x 400 (it was supposed to be 2 x 800, Coach Paul has a great sense of humor apparently...). I was surprised that I could even do the 400's, they weren't as hard as I thought and each one took me less than 10 min. It was a surprisingly short swim work out. After that, I was supposed to bike for 25 miles and it was a sunny day so I figured that I would bike around outside a bit but it was terribly cold and windy so I went to the gym and did the stationary bike for ~25 miles... (The stupid bike I was on wouldn't tell me the mileage in the workout summary and I forgot to look at it before I finished...)

Monday was a rest day, like always

Tuesday was the start of the second recovery week. Easy workouts this week!! The swimming work out included a 150 and some drills as the warm up. The main work out was 3 x 150, 3 x 100, 3 x 50, and then cool down.

Wednesday was a mentor run (the first one I've ever made it too!!) in Alameda at the Ferry Terminal. The run was easy, 6 x (4 min run, 1 min walk) but running along the shoreline was beautiful. I wish I could live in Alameda, but the only housing available there is college style apartments and mansions.... I would rather move back in with my folks before I ever move back to a college style apartment (and I just might...) and I can't afford to buy, let alone rent a house out there *sigh*

Thursday was another easy swimming day. Warm up was a 100 and then a bunch of drills and the main work out was a 200, a 300, and a 400. That was it. It felt like the shortest swim ever.

Today is a biking day, pretty easy. I'm going to hit the gym when I get off work and then hopefully have some sushi for dinner... That's what I'm really craving, I haven't had any sushi in practically forever :(

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I swam a 300 tonight

Tonight was a swimming night and the first time I ever managed to swim a 300!! After having such a miserable time on Tuesday I decided to do things a little differently this time. I ate a PB&J sandwich around 4 and I had a power gel (chocolate flavor, not the worst thing I have ever eaten but not the greatest either...) right before I swam and I think that really made a difference. I was also having a 'slow race' with myself whenever it said LVL2 and it must have worked because that's how I was able to swim the entire 300 without stopping. (I basically just tried to swim as slow as possible...)

The warm up was 300 LVL 2, 100 kick, and then 8 sets of drills. The main workout was 2 x 150 LVL3, 100 LVL8, 100 kick, 2 x 150 LVL5, 100 LVL5, 100 kick, 2 x 150 LVL8, 100 LVL2, 100 kick. By the end, I'm sure that my LVL8's had slowed down to my starting LVL5's but whatever. I constantly had to remind myself to swim slower on the easier sets.

Tonight's workout was good and I'm glad that I got it done. I feel pretty good about myself and now I'm tired so I'm going to bed to sleep and recover.

Tomorrow is a rest day and then a bunch of swimming and biking this weekend. I'm not allowed to run for a week in hopes that it will help my shin heal. The team is going down to Wildflower for Training Weekend and I wish I could have gone with them but I have to teach on Saturday and I commited to Pony Club before I signed up for this triathlon. I hope everybody has a really great time, I will miss them (but not swimming in the freezing ocean-water) :)

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High Five!

High fives for me!! I managed to complete my entire run work out as perscribed which was 35 min of running LVL 3-5 and I did it with out taking any walk breaks. :)

It was supposed to be a mentor run in Alameda but I couldn't make it so I went to the gym and ran on my own. I figure that is better for my shin anyways. My shin was kinda hurting in the beginning until I warmed up and then it left me alone for the most part. I was listening to my iPhone and that kept me entertained for the entire 35 min and really made the time fly, which was nice.

Tomorrow is a swim day and hopefully it will be better than Tuesday

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Make a donation today to help cure blood cancers and help me meet my fundraising goal at http://pages.teamintraining.org/sf/honotri09/jlesko

Now I have a reason to fear swimming...

Tonight was a swim night, 2000 yards and I was swimming like crap tonight. I don't know if it's because of my allergies which have had me stuffed up for the last 2 days or if it's because the water in the pool was always flowing in the opposite direction I was swimming or what, but something was up and I couldn't swim normally like I usually do.

I was swimming tonight as poorly as I was on Sunday in the freezing waters of Lake Del Valle and that was getting me down. How am I supposed to swim 1.5 km in the ocean if I can't even swim 100 yards in a 5ft. deep pool?? I guess I just need to practice and remember all the things I have been taught so far like relaxing, focusing on having good form and pulling all the way through my stoke. I was feeling very "sink-y" and I was hyper-aware of all the drag my body was creating which of course makes it very hard to swim. I was trying to 'push' my upper body down so it would level out with my lower body but all I was doing was keeping my head too low in the water so every time I went to breathe, I got a lot of water in my mouth :( bleh.

The warm up was 200 LVL2, 50 kick and then 10 x 25 LVL6. After that, the main work out was (200 LVL6, 2 x 50 LVL8) x 3 and then a 400 (broken down into 100 LVL2, 200 LVL6, 100 LVL2). I couldn't hardly do the 100's at a LVL2 and I had to break the 200's down into several sections :(

What I learned tonight is that I am only a good short distance swimmer. The 50's at a high level of exertion are easy for me, I just think 1, 2, 3, breathe, 1, 2, 3, breathe, etc... Anything over 4 laps in the pool left me gasping for air which I think is because I'm too novice a swimmer to know how to differenciate my swimming exertion levels. Basically, when the instructions say LVL 3, I am probably swimming at a LVL 5 and when they say to do a LVL 6 I'm doing LVL 8 and that's why I come up short and gasping for air every time. I need to work on that.

Or it could be because I'm under-fueled. I didn't have anything to eat between lunch and swimming... I need to look into that.

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Brick workout on Sunday

But first,

Saturday was and on your own run. I went out to the Iron Horse Trail to go run and I was supposed to meet up with Melissa, my mentor, but she was no where to be found :( I was supposed to run for 45 solid minutes but I could only make it 20 min and then I had to walk. I walked for a bit, and then when I started to run again, I had some gnarly cramps in my side so I could only do 2 sets of 4 min run, 1 min walk but then they went away, which was nice. I manage to run out the rest of the time and then I was done. My shin wasn't bothering me too much. The pain was there and it was kind of bothersome, but it was not excruciating like it was on Thursday. I think it's because I've been icing it and taking pain killers and really focusing on my foot fall and take-off.

Today. Today was killer. Killer times 3. I met up with the Team at Lake Del Valle in Livermore at 745 in the morning and suited up in the wet suit for our morning swim. We swam in the lake for 30 min which was 50 DEGREES!!! Do you know how cold 50 degrees is?? It's alot colder than it sounds, I'll tell you that much. I've never swam in open water before but it's more or less like the pool, except it's freezing cold and the water is a nasty green color with little bits of floating 'stuff'... gross. And I learned that when the water is that cold, your body tenses up and wont let you exhale underwater so it's very important to relax but it's impossible to relax when you realize you can no long feel your hands or feet and you are freezing to death. It took me at least 5 min to get used to forcing my body to exhale underwater so I could attempt to swim in a somewhat normal fashion. But even after getting used to breathing, I still could hardly swim. The water is so cold you have a hard time catching your breath. I could swim all of about 5 or 6 strokes before I had to roll over on my back, gasping for air. It was a very disappointing swim because if I swim at my race anything like I was swimming today, I will never EVER finish the 1.5 kilometers. After I swam my sorry butt back to shore and dragged myself out of the freezing water I toweled off, put my tights on over my tri shorts, and put of my running shoes I hopped on the bike.

For the Olympic distance, Intermediate level, the bike ride was going to be 90 min long. That doesn't sound too bad until they showed us the course. We had to go out the way we came in and then out a side road. Since the distance was longer than anybody could reasonably ride in the time frame, we just had to turn around when we hit the half time mark. If you have ever been out to Lake Del Valle, to get there you have to go up and down this crazy stupid steep hill which you don't even think about in the car until you are on a bike trying to curse whoever thought of this course but you can't because you can't even hardly breathe. It was 3/4 a mile up hill just to get out of the parking lot and then it was A MILE AND A HALF straight up the hill. It was a steep as my mom's driveway but it went on FOREVER!!!!! My legs were screaming at me and I was wishing I had more lower gears. After we got up the hill, we rode down the other side, which is approximately a mile. That was a nice rest and I'm sure wore down alot of my brake going down the hill. I rode along the side road for awhile and then I turned around. But then I had to go BACK UP THE HILL!!! It was supposed to be easier because the slope is less but soo hard because I was already tired.

Long (and complain-y) story short, I finally made it back up and down the hill and into the parking lot where I put my bike away and took off my tights and went for a 10 min run. It was brutal. My shin started to bug me and I felt beyond tired, but I made it out and back.

As far as nutrition for the day, I had part of a bagel with peanut butter and some water for breakfast. After the swim I had a power bar gel (double latte flavor, not bad) and some gatorade. During the bike ride I kept hydrated with my gatorade, but I wish I had a gel to eat at the turn-around point. I finished my two bottles of gatorade right as the bike ride was ending (perfect timing!) and then I had another gel (tangerine flavor, hella gross) and went for my run. After I got back I had my recovery shake (chocolate flavor, not too bad) and went home. The end.

And I'm really glad tomorrow is a rest day because I'm beat.

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Make a donation today to help cure blood cancers and help me meet my fundraising goal at http://pages.teamintraining.org/sf/honotri09/jlesko

Biking, running and swimming

Thursday was a 50 min bike ride followed by a 10 min run. I was going to go to the gym after work and do the stationary bike while reading my wedding book and then run on the treadmill for 10 min. I got to the gym and I even got one of the prized parking spots right in the very front and thats when I realized that I DIDN'T HAVE MY STUPID GYM CARD!!!! Grrr. So I had to go all the way home but instead of scavanging for my gym card, I hopped on my bike and rode around Cull Canyon. It was nice, mostly uphill all the way out which made it hell going out but real nice coming back :) As soon as I got home I put the bike away and went out for a run and that's when I think it became official that I have a shin split in my left leg. It's on the inside, lower part of my left shin and it was hurting alot on the run, and it still kinda bothers me but I'm icing it and taking some pain killers. We shall see how this plays out.

Today is Friday and I GOT MY WETSUIT!!! Yay, except that it was really difficult to put on because it is very snug. We did some 50's in the wet suits just to get used to them and then we had to take it off before we over-heated to finish the swim workout. The coolest thing about the wet suit is that I totally float in the water so swimming is no effort at all. I get to use it in open water on Sunday at Lake Del Valle in Livermore and hopefully not freeze my tukus off. The only not cool thing about the wet suit? I don't get to use it at the Triathlon in Honolulu because the water will be too warm. O well, you win some, you lose some.

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The second half of training has started!

I have officially recommited and I got the second half of the training schedule. Yesterday was supposed to be a swim day and today was an on your own run day but I did them in reverse.

Yesterday I ran. It was a straight 35 min run with no walk breaks. I ate a peanut butter bagel as I was driving over to my parents house and that was the worst idea I've ever had becuase as soon as I got to my folks house, I set off on my run so that I could be done before the sun set. But somewhere around the Wolfe's old house and minute 10, I could start to not only feel the partially digested bagel sloshing around in my belly, but I could hear it. So I only made it to the intersection of Tassajara and Johnston Rd from the bottom of my parents driveway before I had to walk. It was 1.7 miles and it took me less than 16 min and those last 6 min were awful. I got to Tassajara and turned around and walked for 5 min. I managed to run for another 5 min before the bagel sloshing got to me again and then I had to walk most of the rest of the 'run'. My 35 minute run turned out to be only a 22 minute run :( Better luck next time...

Today I went swimming and I swam 2000 yards. Some of it was hard, and some was easy. The 150's were killer, but the 200's weren't so bad which was kind of weird. Maybe it's because the 150's were supposed to be at a level 6 (of exertion on a scale of 1-10) and the 200's were at a level 3. After this last weekend when I had the swim video analysis clinic, I'm more aware of my swimming and my form. I think that the 150's were hard because I was pushing myself and my form was suffering, which makes me less hydrodynamic, which in turn makes me work harder to accomplish less. When I was swimming my 200's at an easy pace, I was better able to control my form which stream lines my body and I get more done for less work.

Tomorrow is a bike and run and Friday I GET MY WET SUIT!!! Yay wet suit party, I'm sure it will be awkward LOL

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Make a donation today to help cure blood cancers and help me meet my fundraising goal at http://pages.teamintraining.org/sf/honotri09/jlesko

Full weekend of training

Saturday - It was a biking day and I was really looking forward to finally being able to ride with the team. I got up early and packed up all my gear and right as I was about to get on 24 from 13, I realized that I didn't bring my helmet! I was so angry!! I had to go all the way home and get my helmet, but by then it was too late and I would have missed the group ride so I went down to the Dublin/Pleasanton BART station and rode on the Iron Horse trail. By myself. In the freezing cold. It was so very cold. Next time I'm going to ride with my snowboarding thermal shirt and some gloves, preferably my snow gloves, LOL. I made it all the way to Bollinger Canyon Rd before I turned around to go home. According to the Iron Horse trail map, that's about 14 miles round trip and it took me approximately an hour.

Sunday - It was a coached training with a swim video analysis and then a run. I got in the pool at 10 and we were supposed to be filmed, watch the film with the coach and get tips on how to improve and then get back in the pool and practice some more. While I was waiting for my turn to swim for the camera, I was doing laps and getting tips from the coaches and captains which was improving my form. I was in the pool swimming for an hour at least before it was my turn to be filmed. The main work out was 20 sets of 50 yards, but I kept losing track of how many I had done because everyone was talking to me. Oh well, I'm sure I did at least 20 sets.

After we got out of the pool and saw our video, we went for a 45 min run. It was really nice because the sun was out and I had my mentor Melissa to run with and that made all the difference in the world. When I run on my own I'm always checking my watch to see if it's time to walk yet, but with some one else there, I didn't feel the need to check my watch ever. We ran, and when we thought about it, we checked the time and if it was time to walk, we walked and if not, we just kept running and it was great! I can't wait for Wednesday now because it's supposed to be a run on your own day and I think that Melissa and I will run together again. Yay.

I'm really glad today is a rest day because my body is very tired. The time change cut into my sleeping time so I feel like my body has not fully recovered yet.

I get my wetsuit on Friday! I've only put on a wetsuit once and I remember it being very difficult so I'm sure that will be tons of fun. Stay tuned!

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I ran tonight

I ran tonight at the gym after dinner. Bad idea. I was all full of enchiladas and salad. And then I was running and I took a swig of water and oy!! I lost 2 running sets due to cramps. Bleh. Note to self: Don't drink a lot of water and run. I need to wait until I want the water, not force it on myself. Other than that, it's all good.

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Marker set last night

Last night was my second market set run at DVC. I managed to run the 2 miles in 18 min 17 sec. That's almost 30 seconds faster than last time! Last time I ran my first mile in 9 min flat and my second mile in 9 min 46 seconds. This time I ran my first mile in 9 min 2 seconds and my second mile in 9 min 15 seconds. So at least I'm sustaining my pace longer.

But it was COLD last night. I mean, really cold. I thought that since it was not raining I would be too hot in the tights so I wore my shorts but that was a bad idea. It was so cold that as I was going around the track, I could practically feel ice crystals forming in my quads. Bleh.

Do you know what else I learned last night? That my biking distance is NOT 12.4 miles... It's 25 miles!!!! Surprise!!! I also learned that I only have an hour to complete the swimming portion or the race before I'm disqualified. So I better start swimming faster :)

Tonight is supposed to be a swimming night but I think that I'm going to go ride my pony instead. I can't even remember the last time I was on a horse, it's been so long since I've ridden last...

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Make a donation today to help cure blood cancers and help me meet my fundraising goal at http://pages.teamintraining.org/sf/honotri09/jlesko

Long distance swimming

Tonight was a swimming night. It felt good to be in the pool, except that the warm up was 2 x 150 yards plus other stuff. The main work out was 2 x 200, some single lap drills, 2 x 150, some more single lap drills, a final 2 x 150 and then a 200 yard cool down. The total distance was 1900 yards and it took me at least an hour and a half, but it was all good :)

My favorite part of the work out is always the cool down, not because it's the easiest thing or becuase it's the end of exerting myself, but becuase I really like doing the breast stroke... It always makes me feel like I'm 'flying' or gliding underwater. It's hard to describe, but it's the best feeling :)

Before I go, have you ever put on a swim cap? It's like putting a condom on your head. Not that I've tried that, but that's what I think every time I put on my swim cap. Just in case you were wondering...

Tomorrow night is my second marker set for running. Wish me luck so I can beat my last time of 18:46. This time it will be raining so I don't know how that will affect me...

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Make a donation today to help cure blood cancers and help me meet my fundraising goal at http://pages.teamintraining.org/sf/honotri09/jlesko

Ha! Guess what I DID do?

I finally made it to a bike. I felt kind of guilty never making the bike workouts, so last night Al convinced me to hit the gym. He had a good point, it's not like I did enough snowboarding to warrant resting the next day.

I got to the gym armed with my wedding planning book (LOL, I know) and sat down on the bike. Having a book to read made the 40 minutes fly by and it's not like I was peddling slowly. I managed to bust out 8 miles before I even knew it. I would have stayed the whole 60 minutes, but it was already 945 when I got to the gym and I needed to sleep.

But I'm pround of myself for actually making it to a bike and now I look forward to my next on my own bike ride. (This Saturday is a group hill climbing ride. Yikes!)

Swimming tonight and then running on Wednesday. Cross your fingers it doesn't rain on me!!

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Make a donation today to help cure blood cancers and help me meet my fundraising goal at http://pages.teamintraining.org/sf/honotri09/jlesko

Can you guess what I DIDN'T do?

Biking... yes, biking. Why do I never have the motivation to bike?? Why is biking training always on days that conflict with Tahoe?!? Why? Why? Why?

Friday was a biking day. I thought maybe I will do it in the morning. But I didn't. I have to figure out a way to make bed lass comfortable. So then I thought that I would do it after work, since I wasn't going to Tahoe until Saturday. But I didn't. I went to the neighbors and had delicious home-made pizza (Fred made a yam/sweet potatoe one, OMG so good!!! Sounds weird, tastes amazing!)

Saturday was a run day and I got up, went to the barn to walk my pony (yay!) and then I went for my run (yay!). I need to be better about hydrating myself. When I was doing my last run set, I was just feeling so drained. It's not like I was out there all day either, I guess I just didn't drink enough before hand.

Sunday was supposed to be another long bike day, but we left for Tahoe on Saturday afternoon and were going to snowboard on Sunday. They said it was going to rain (ick!!!!!) but it was cold enough to make it snow. Unfortunatly, it wasn't cold enough to make the snow stick, so once it hit your body, it instantly melted and within an hour, I was soaked. But it didn't really matter because Alpine only had ~5 chairs running, and the visibility was nil on the top of the mountain, and my legs were sore, all of which sucked. Last time I was snowboarding, I felt great all day. But this time, even on the first run, I was hurting and sore. Not cool. We were on the mountain for 5 runs, about an hour and a half and then we called it a day.

Today is my rest day and I think that I need it. Recovery week is over and now we will start more intense training. On Wednesday I have to do my second marker set (run a timed 2 miles). Let's hope I have improved from a month ago!!

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Make a donation today to help cure blood cancers and help me meet my fundraising goal at http://pages.teamintraining.org/sf/honotri09/jlesko