Meandering Starre

Did my first swim and bike workout : 450 m swim mix of strokes and 9.23 on the bike including 2 miles warm up/cool down. The water did not feel as good as it did in my first swim, and I was actually slower. I had issues with the Expresso bike, which slowed me down at times. After I was quite body exhausted.

Workout: Swim
Time:18:33. This includes some breaks and stops.
Average lap time : 1:40?
Distance: 450 meters
Strokes: Side, breast, and crawl
Total training distance to date: 900 meters
Body condition: not as good as last time. Had to share a lane and was too focused on not kicking my partner.
Time of day: evening

Workout: Bike (Expresso bike)
Time: 42:15
Courses(s): Stump Puller, with a 1 mile warm up and 1 mile cool down on Expresso Speedway
Distance: 9.23
Total training distance to date: 78.53
Body condition: Fine
Weather: Inside
Time of day: evening

This comet ride was a bit slower than the last, but we did start later and it was a very hot day. This may have been one of my longest bike rides.

Workout: Bike (distance on the comet)
Time: ~2:00
Distance: 30
Average Speed: 15.2
Total training distance to date: 69.3 (since 6/4)
Body condition: Felt pretty good on the way out. It actually went by pretty fast. I was fine except for the last two miles at the end when my body decided it was done. Only minor breathing issues.
Weather: High 80s to low 90s and humid. Sunny. Too hot!
Time of day: late morning/noon
Nutrition: 1 GU pack before and a Luna bar, 1 GU & water during

I’ve been a bit hesitant to get back in the water and lazy. It is harder to get the swims in. The swim went very well, however. It was fairly easy and I enjoyed being in the water. It seemed easier than I remember it being. Maybe I have improved?

Workout: Swim: side stroke, breast stroke, and the crawl
Time:16:55. This includes some breaks and watch issues (I kept forgetting to set it for my laps and going back and starting the lap over).
Average lap time : ~1:40 My side stoke and crawl were 1:35 and under, my breast stroke slower.
Distance: 450 meters
Total training distance to date: 450 meters
Body condition: fine
Time of day: afternoon

I’m getting behind on my posting of workouts!

Workout: “Easy” run
Time: 48:23 (11:31 splits)
Distance: 4.2 miles
Total training distance to date: 25.35 (since starting back up June 4th)
Body condition: Rather slow and painful run with lower legs hurting from shins to inside to calf muscles. Beginning to get worried about the pain in my left calf, which is similar to the early pain before my stress fracture. Breathing ok, worse on hills, as always.
Time of day: morning
Weather: 70s and humid
Nutrition: water during & half a bottle of Gatorade after
Entertainment: PodCastle 045: The Annals of Eelin-Ok & music. I find the podcasts make a nice distraction as I slowly work to get back in shape.

While vacationing in Maine, I got two runs in. The first I did with my brother. Last year for his birthday I bought him Galloway’s Book on Running , which Bill and I read when we started. My brother has been thinking of starting and I thought a run with me might help. Plus, I could give him pointers and we would get a bit of sister and brother time without his very cute three-year-old son around. We took it a bit slower than I am running right now, but not much. He had to walk a bit more on the way back, but even so his run was impressive for the first one in years!

Workout: Run
Time: 30:00
Distance: not sure. Calling it 2.75
Total training distance to date: 17.55 (since starting back up June 4th)
Body condition: Breathing hard at start. The road was very uneven and I had lower leg pain while running and after.
Weather: low 70s
Nutrition: water during
Entertainment: Conversation with my brother and lovely occasional views of the ocean, fields of lupine, some iris, and daisies.

I had a hard time getting a second run in because it kept raining and I am not yet back into running enough to want to run in the rain. However on my last day in Maine it seemed to not be currently raining, so I got ready to go, only to find it had started a light misty rain. After some thinking, I decided it was still better than the 80s-90s+ and smog I get in Atlanta. So, I went out and ran up into Grafton Notch State Park, which is near where I grew up. The park has the Appalachian trial running through it, and I was literally running up into the foothills. The way out was tough and the way back a bit scary in places as I was going down steep hills on rather slick rain coated tar. Also, the road was in pretty bad shape and rather uneven, which caused leg issues. But, weather and road conditions aside, it was a lovely run with views of Bear River and mountains.

Workout: Hilly Run
Time: 42:00
Distance: not sure. Calling it 3.6
Total training distance to date: 21.15 (since starting back up June 4th)
Body condition: Breathing hard/bad on hills. The road was very uneven and I had lower leg pain while running and after.
Weather: low 70s, misty rain, ended up very wet
Nutrition: water during
Entertainment: The Extraordinary Contraptions Inappropriate on Purpose. “Smote”, my favorite song on that album got me through a tough hill right at the turn around point.

Tonight Bill and I did out now scheduled spinning class and yoga. We’ve found the spinning instructor does not quite fit our needs. It is a decent class, but it does not push me as much as many of the other instructors I have had for spinning. Unfortunately the class works out nearly perfectly with a yoga class shortly after. The yoga instructor is my favorite at this YMCA. He does classic yoga and most of it is pretty simple and seemingly easy moves, but the way he does them makes them rather hard. It is a good class to go easy or hard, which is perfect for me. However, we may switch this spinning and yoga workout to another night to get a better spin class.
Here’s my workout summary:

Workout 1: Bike (spinning)
Time: 45 minutes
Distance: n/a
Total spinning time to date (6/4): 1:15
Body condition: Minor sciatic issues (right leg) when doing the standing moves, otherwise fine
Time of day: Evening

Workout 2: Core/Yoga
Time:55 min
Total spinning time to date (since June 4th): 1:50
Body condition: Tight in the right side, left felt increasingly warm and loose (both in good ways), Right tightened some but the move where we swung our arms under our legs and then halfway up hurt the right sciatic nerve a lot. Had minor sciatic issues throughout besides this.
Time of day: Evening

Workout: Bike (distance on the comet)
Time: ~1:37 biking
Distance: 25
Average Speed: just under 16 mph
Total training distance to date: 39.3
Body condition: legs tired on way and back going up hill and for the last mile. After I had some odd blurry sight issues, similar to the ocular migraines I get. It cleared up in about 30 minutes (I may have pushed a bit too much too soon), but otherwise I felt fine after. Breathing issues (out of breath) during longer uphills.
Weather: Mid 80s and humid. Sunny.
Time of day: mid morning/noon
Nutrition: 1 Gu packs, Gatorade after, water during

This was a decent ride. I feel pretty tired after—in the rather nice way I get after a long run. I will sleep tonight. I think this was close to my limit right now, until I get back in shape (as the vision issues may suggest). Bill took off the last 5 miles, but I managed decent speed behind him, obstacles (like traffic) aside. The last mile or so probably was the biggest difference, as my legs were about done. We both ended up covered in bugs, even in some odd places. Bill somehow got more than me, especially on his arms.

Workout: Slow run
Time: 44:51 (11:13 splits)
Distance: 4 miles
Total training distance to date: 14.8 (since starting back up June 4th)
Body condition: Okay. Blister on left heel is getting worse. Breathing decent.
Weather: ~74-77 w/ humidity ~70%
Nutrition: 1 Gu pack before, half a bottle of Gatorade after, water during
Entertainment: PodCastle 50: Komodo (enjoyed it, nice distraction) & music.

Notes: Slowly building back up after time off due to bad breathing/health problems. The new inhaler works well, but I am both out of shape and still have more breathing issues than the average person. But today, even though I tried to take it slow, I improved my speed since June 4th by 1 minute per mile. I’m still 1 min per mile behind where I was, but getting back to this speed seems much more reasonable and possible after today’s run. And to think I almost didn’t go. Bill encouraged me. My legs were tired before and I didn’t want to push my recovery, but after his encouragement, I went. I’m coming back!

More biking and swimming on 7/28. I swam further than the sprint tri distance, which rocks! Now I know I can do the swim, as long as I don’t have other issues. I am really finding the swimming easier than last year.

Swim workout

Workout: Swim
Time:17:00 or so. This includes some breaks and stops.
Average lap time :1:35
Distance: 500 meters
Total training distance to date: 850 meters
Body condition: Slight breathing problems
Time of day: Late afternoon

Bike Workout

Workout: Bike (medium ride: black level course “Oh Mama”, lots of hills)
Time: 39 minutes
Distance: 7.8
Total training distance to date: 40.84
Body condition: Fine
Weather: inside
Time of day: Early evening

On 7/29 I ran the new 3.8 mile route backwards in a running skirt. I’ve run in the skirt a few times before, but didn’t really like it. The bike-short-like-things under it roll up and the skirt itself rides up in the back. It may ride up because of my water bottle belt. I’ve not tried it without. The running skirt does, however, look good (I totally don’t care about looking good when I run. I try to mostly match, which is about it. But hey, if I do look good without effort…) . It is very flattering and I look sharp, speedy, and hot in it. Apparently others thought so. I had several people drive by slowly and pause. It was weird. Of course, my skirt could have been hiked up in the back, but I don’t think it was each time this happened. It was a bit freaky. I must remember not to wear the skirt during later evening runs. Or maybe it was just a bunch of coincidences.

I may try a different skirt to see if I like it better. I like the idea of running skirts. Trying another before giving up would probably be smart.

Running my new 3.8 mile route backwards was interesting because I didn’t realize how many downhills I had running it forward. There were tons, which all became hills running it backwards. So, I now have discovered a simple technique to figure out the downhills on the run—try it backwards (skirt is optional).

Workout: Short run
Time: 42:00
Distance: 3.8
Total training distance to date: 23.4
Body condition: Humidity was bad, minor leg/over pronation issues
Weather: 77 degrees, ~86% humidity
Nutrition: water during, Gatorade after