triathlon club - week 9

monday 11/26/2012 - swimming, bodypump, spinning

swimming

i was well rested this morning for swim practice, having gone to bed at like, 1045pm or some crazy early hour.  getting up was no problem at all!  and, having swam on sunday, i thought my muscles would be pretty loose.

i was in a lane with someone who was faster than me this morning, but it wasn't too bad, and he "finished" way before i did so i was able to complete "make up" laps without the pressure of him being right on my toes.
 

200 swim	200
2x (12kx3p BP/4x4/CU/hesitation) by 25	200
2x100	200
3x50 drill	150
1x200	200
2x100	200
3x50 drill	150
1x200	200
2x75	150
3x50 drill	150
1x200	200
200 EZ	200
total	2200

 
bodypump

laurie and i decided to do bodypump at noon because i would be spinning at night and she wasn't feeling the spinning.  this time we were both there early and got primo spots in the front row where we like to be.  this class has very little moving around (unlike zumba or kickboxing) so once you claim your spot, you're there for the duration of the class with very little chance of bumping into other people.  also, very little coordination needed in this class other than just doing the exercises.

the format of the class is something like this:

• warmup weight:  do a few squats, a few overhead press, a few bicep curls
• squat weight:  put on the heavy weights "the legs are a big muscle group!  you're cheating yourself if you go light." the teacher is always telling us this.  i noticed this time that there were 3 guys in the class and while i appreciate their participation in this mostly female class, it does make me feel a little intimidated seeing how much weight they put on their bars.  
• shoulder weight:  more like warmup weight but also light single hand weights
• lunge weight:  put the heavy weights back on! "the legs are a big muscle group!"
• back weight:  heavy, but not as heavy as squat/lunch weight, or that heavy if you want.  "the back is a big muscle group!"
• tricep weight:  more than warmup, around same weight as shoulders, less than legs.

all the rounds are something like this, repeated 3-4x:
8x "down 2 up 2"
8x "down 3 up 1"
8-16x "singles!"
8x "stay low" or "in the basement" or "small movements"

• for squats, we mostly just do squats, deadlifts, bent over rows
• for shoulders we do flys, something like archery, and overhead press.
• for lunges, we do lots of squats and lunges, along with kicking back, bringing our knee up, and then some people jump up (i don't).  somewhere in here we do clean and press.
• for back, we do deadlifts and bent over rows, and wide grip bent over row.  
• for triceps, we lay on the bench and do skull crushers, something like bench press, then we stand and do overhead tricep lifts.

spinning

average rpm - 90
average watts - 142
total kilocalories - 480
total distance - 24km
total time - 52 minutes
tuesday 11/27/2012 - zumba and weights

zumba

zumba with laurie is just fun.  i'm ridiculously uncoordinated.  but our running man rocks!

weights

i almost talked myself out of going to do weights tonight.  knowing that people were coming over for dinner and i didn't have dinner ready, and alex wasn't feeling well and wasn't going to make it, and i'd done bodypump just yesterday, i thought, "i don't need to do this, i should rest."  but then i thought, "if i don't make myself do it, no one will.  this is about me!"  so, i dragged myself over to the gym but decided to set myself a time limit of being done BY 6pm.  success!

this week i decided to up the weights and decrease the reps.  for certain things, the 30lb bar wasn't hard (deadlift, bent over row) but it was harder for the bicep curls and the military press.

bicep curl	30lb bar	3x10
deadlift	30lb bar	3x10
bent over row	30lb bar	3x10
military press	30lb bar	3x10
tricep skull crusher	20lb both	3x10
shrug	30lb each	3x10
seated row	70lb	3x10
abs:
plank	2x30 sec
crunch	30
flutter	30
bicycle	30
penguin	30
side twist w/12lb medicine ball	30
100s	3x
bridge	30
bridge hold	30 sec

wednesday 11/28/2012 - swimming and running

an epic day!

swimming

this morning, waking up was a little more challenging than it should have been, since i didn't get to sleep early (after spending the night with my girls [and housemates] eating delicious food and watching an "interesting" movie about an australian tribal story, oh, and eating popcorn).  but i got up and got a move on, and was able to get to work and get my swim stuff and still get to the gym a tiny bit early.  

sometimes, i experience some frustration at swim practice.  usually i'm able to deal with the fact that i'm the slowest by just falling in behind the last person in the lane.  however, there is one person on the team that is new-ish (i guess) who is just a FAST swimmer.  why he is in the slow lane - well, i know why he's in that lane, his technique is garbage - but still, he's fast enough to be in the next fastest lane.  and yet, there he is in my lane.

and all that would be fine except that when he goes fast and gets done with something, coach stops me from finishing my set because he doesn't want the other guy to wait around too much.  i mean, i get it, why punish the fast by making them wait for the slow person.  but don't i have a right, as much as anyone else, to complete the amount of swimming that is assigned to us each day?  i have just as much right to get in the yardage as the fast people.   

especially because i'm really focusing on my technique and trying to really burn it in correctly.  plus, i like to write down the workout that *i* do (versus the one that's on the board; they are often not the same) and it's hard to always remember what i've done, how many 50s i didn't do, etc.  but, it's a good game of memory.

things i worked on today:  reaching out instead of across my body, staying long, sticking the hand in and keeping the elbow high to pull the body past, remembering to kick, trying not to turn my head out of the water so much to breathe.  this last part is very difficult with congestion in my head because it feels like i'm often choking on mucous, and then i'm choking on water; it's very disruptive to my flow.

anyway, to make up for the yards that i didn't finish during the drill and main set, i did 200 extra on the EZ at the end.

200 swim	200
150 drill by 25	150
drill: zipper, wrist drag, FTD, fist, zipper, wrist
2x through:
2x100	400
4x25 (BK/FR)	200
1x150 fast	300
1x100 fast	200
3x50 (BK/FR) / (zipper/FR)	300
300 EZ	300
total	200

--- 
today i almost forgot what time the soup kitchen started and was a little late getting there after i realized i needed to be there at 11 not 12.  all these noon classes have me setting my alarm for 1145, but today i needed to set it for 1045 and didn't.
---  
running - map:  http://goo.gl/maps/ruZCy
and the track:  http://goo.gl/maps/S9D27

one thing that hasn't really progressed for me yet is my rapport with the people on the team.  it's not exactly like being invisible, but it's close.  i show up, stand on the outside of the circle of people, people occasionally acknowledge my presence (usually the coach), we discuss where to run, and then we go outside and they take off and i fall in my place in the back.  when i come in from my run, the team is usually onto something else like drills or running around the track.  

today i picked up the pace a little bit and was able to meet up with the team not long after they arrived back.  i was pretty proud of myself though i was very, very tired and out of breath by the end.  at one point while i was running, i thought, "maybe i have asthma," since sometimes i feel very short of breath right at the beginning of the run.  maybe it's the cold air entering my lungs.  maybe i take off too fast.  maybe i am just not comfortable with being out of breath.  who knows.  

one of the guys in our running group is a little bit older.  maybe he's 50?  he has an ironman hat so i guess he did an ironman sometime.  anyway, when i describe my place in the running pack to people, i usually describe it like this.  "first it's the fastest people - all guys, then it's the second fastest people and all the rest of the girls, then it's the older guys, then me."  i should probably find out what this older guy's name is - i think it's gary or greg or something like that, thought i heard him say that to someone.  anyway when we are all done with our drills and are getting ready to go run around the track for awhile, he turns to talk to me:

older guy:  how are you doing?
me:  good.  that was my best time so far.
older guy:  i could tell.  you've lost weight, i can see that.

and we fist bump.

i could take this comment as "you are wearing tights and i've never seen your body before and you are a woman and i like looking at women" or i could take it as a compliment.  i won't believe the weight loss until i see the results on the scale.  which i have been avoiding since for the first 6 weeks i weighed myself each week and it was always the same.  but, maybe it is starting to show a little bit.  i put on a pair of pants that were comfortable when i got them in september, and they seem to be a little looser this week.  could be 'cause they are stretched out a little, or maybe i've gotten a tiny bit smaller.  i'll have to try this theory with other pairs of pants that have been tighter lately.

summary:  3 miles in 27:06 minutes (9:02 min/mile)!  then 4 laps (1.6 miles) in 14:12 minutes (8.875 min/mile)

note:  something inside me is very emotional tonight.  i have been semi-crying for the last hour.  not sure what is wrong.  could be tired. 
 
thursday 11/29/2012 - spinning and running

spinning - different teacher!

different teacher means different tunes and different workout.  this one mostly focused on rolling hills and some "endurance sprints" where you try to stay at a given speed at a medium hard gear, then try to push it 10rpm faster.

average rpm - 88
avereage wattage - 154
total kilocalories - 322
total distance - 14.8 km
total time - about 35 minutes

running - map:  http://goo.gl/maps/9Cp9Y

again i get the sensation that i'm almost a nobody.  of course, i'm not openly bubbly or super friendly to everyone, but when i arrive at our meeting spot to go running there's only a few of us around.  the president is there and he seems to be determining that we won't run for too long 'cause he has to go to work at 6.  so we decide 3-4 miles, and when we start talking about where it should be, there's some talk and some confusion and some decision and i am still unclear about where we are going.  i try to say i'm not sure where we're going, and someone tries to explain it like it's so elementary, everyone knows where that is.  and then someone says, just keep running and when you get back, you're done.  i think, 'how helpful.'  i tell them i probably won't see them so i'll just wing it i guess, but when i catch up to them at an intersection, i then realize where we are going.  so it's no biggie when they really do leave me in the dust.  

they didn't actually leave me in to much dust - i saw them a few times as i tried to sprint to a stoplight to catch up with them as they were about to cross the street.  and by the time they were really gone, i knew where i was and how to get back.

my pace felt decent at the beginning and i thought maybe they were slowing down to let me keep up.  i was able to keep up with them for some amount of time before they pulled away.  i didn't have the spring in my step and definitely less power than yesterday.  i found myself running more upright at times, instead of hunching over and just trying to get through it.  that seemed like a big step to me.  but when i got tired i crumpled up again, and i had to remind myself to stand up and breath.  

i attempted to use a breathing trick from swimming, which is to not gasp and take large breaths of air, but rather to just take sips of air.  i found that when running, as you let the air out, your lungs naturally fill back up again.  i thought i was gasping but it turned out i wasn't, so that's not a useful crossover lesson.  ah well.

at the very end of the run, i look down at my watch and think that i have forgotten to hit the start button again.  darn it, i think, well i can't hit it now because it won't be accurate.  turns out, i hadn't forgotten.  still, the time is approximate because i pushed it and then walked around a little, catching my breath after the sprint at the end.

summary:  3.4 miles, ~33 minutes


friday 11/30/2012 - swimming and singing

my choir concert was this afternoon.  i did not get up for swimming because i was tired and felt i needed extra rest.  plus this stuffy nose isn't going away and it's hard to breath properly while swimming with a cruddy nose.  concert went well, i thought.  aside from the tunes that were very technical and hard to sing anyway. 

saturday 12/1/2012 - contra dance

jon and i went to the contra dance tonight but it certainly lacked something that might be called energy.  well first of all, i was not in the best of moods because of something someone had emailed me earlier in the day.  it was then that my mood changed because i felt the weight of the contra dancing world on my shoulders and almost like it was too much to bear.  also i thought maybe that this person didn't like me and that bothered me.  and i thought they had been rude and mistreated me.  and so i was a bit of an emotional wreck and felt helpless.  

luckily my fellow dancers/friends came to my rescue and all was not lost.   they comforted and consoled me and let me cry it out.  we only stayed at the dance until 10-10:30, and then my headache had still not gone away so we went home.

sunday 12/2/2012 - day of rest

true day of rest.  jon went back to portland and i lay around most of the day watching season 1 of glee on DVD.  i did a few chores but mostly just rested.

and it's at this junction that i realize that when you're go go go for so many weekends in a row, all you want to do is rest when you get a weekend off.  and that leads me to decide that next year i need to go to less things on weekends so i can be home more.  this year was ridiculous!

triathlon club - week 8

monday 11/19/2012 - swimming and bodypump and dancing

swimming

this morning i found waking up easy enough and was able to get my food ready and packed quickly.  so much so, that when alex was ready to leave at 5:45, i was ready with my shoes on as well.  he had to go by work, but i went straight to the gym and was very early; the kind of early where you have to stand around with your teammates until they let you through the gates.  

there is one girl in particular on the team that bugs me for some reason.  i think it's because she doesn't take a shower before going in the pool.  i'm sure that almost everyone else doesn't do it either, but this girl insists on being first through the gates, first to get her towel, first to rip off her clothes, and first to be running to the pool.  now maybe it's that she's the slowest in her lane or takes longer than most to warm up, i don't know.  something about her just bothers me for some reason.  i will work on letting it go next week.

meanwhile, erika m. came to practice today.  i thought it was just a fluke thing, but apparently she is able to be there every monday.  she talked to me about my stroke, how i was crossing my arms in the front and how i should try to spread out my arms when i'm taking strokes.  i thought i was supposed to be twisting in the water but she seemed to suggest that i should not be.  it was confusing.  in the end, i thought that i felt like a lizard crawling along the bottom of the pool.  i also worked on not twisting so much to breathe. 

at the end, alex was still going along and i figured he had a bunch more to do, even though i was done, so i decided to join him and finish up whatever he had left to do.  at some point he said to me, "how much more do you have to do?" and i said, "i'm all done, i was just going until you were done."  and he said, "i was going until you were done!"  so i said, "OK let's do one more 50."  so we did.  it was cool having someone at my speed in the lane.

100 swim/25-12 kick x 3 pull BP	125
100 swim/75 drill*) *4x4/fist/index	175
100 swim/25-12 kick x 3 pull BP	125
100 swim/25 drill*) *FTD	125
8 X 50	400
Odd CU
Even Hesitation
1 X 150	150
2 x 50 fast	100
2 x 100	200
2 x 50 fast	100
2 x 75	150
2 x 50 fast	100
2 x 75	150
2 x 50 fast	100
150 EZ	150
200 w/alex for technique	200
total	2350

at work, i sit, waiting for the caffeine to kick in.  i am very tired this morning and am seriously considering putting my head down on the desk and taking a little nap.  thankfully, brandy comes in and we do some pseudothecia counts instead.

bodypump

laurie and i decide to do BODYPUMP for our noon workout today, though she is very late and i get set up and then 10 people sort of hem in around me so i have no space for laurie.  she goes to the front of the room to set up, while we are warming up.  bodypump is all done with the bar, with different amounts of weights put on for whatever we are doing.  the workout currently features a LOT of squats and lunges, some bicep curls, overhead press, clean and press, and some tricep stuff.  also a lot of pushups. there are 2 ladies who lead the class, and one of them i feel is a big show off.  she always has these crazy heavy weights on her bar.  more than impressed, i think she's the kind of person who is always trying to prove that they are better than everyone.  i find it annoying.

maybe i'm just annoyed at a lot of things lately.  

one thing i know i'm mad about is the fact that i feel like i'm working my tail off and not really seeing any body transformation.  as in, i'm not losing any weight.  people keep saying, "well you're building muscle and that weighs more than fat" but i think that's BS.  muscle is more dense than fat, so if i were losing fat, my pants would be getting looser.  they aren't.  i get frustrated when obese people can just, say, take up walking a couple miles a day, and drop 3o lbs just like that.  i thought for sure that by going from doing NOTHING to doing A LOT would certainly kick-start my metabolism and get me going on at least a little bit of weight loss.  especially with all the cardio.  i am doing some weights but nothing to match all the cardio - the 2 workouts-a-day twice a week seems like it should be working in my favor, somehow. 

i tell myself that i don't have the kind of body where i can see muscles, which is true; i could work out all day every day and you'd never see any muscle definition.  my body just doesn't seem to show it, even if i do work out.  which frustrates me; i would like to appear like i am strong.  unfortunately, i have to know it on the inside.  and inside me is a lot of self doubt and questioning about everything.  so, after 7+ weeks of this i am wondering what the point is.  grr.  then i remind myself that at least i'm probably healthier than i would be if i were doing nothing.  and that gives me a little bit of encouragement, but not much.

dancing

went to eugene with marc and margaret to dance to perpetual e-motion.

tuesday 11/20/2012 - spinning and dancing

spinning

the spin class hasn't changed in the last few weeks, so it's basically the same as it has been. we do some sprints, some rolling hills, some jumps, some active recovery, some more sprints, more hills, triangles, then active recovery again.  so all the settings and output are essentially the same.

bike settings:
seat height - I
handle height - 3.5 (i adjusted this but am not sure it was worth it)
seat depth - 5.5  (i also adjusted this but not sure if i liked it)
base gear - 8
hard gear - 12
climbing gear - 15 

average rpm - 82
average wattage - 136
total kilocalories - 304


dancing - drove up to portland to dance to perpetual e-motion.  en route i went to albany to pick up a weight bench for jon off craigslist, and south of nyberg rd i got caught in some nasty traffic.  the drive home was a lot smoother.

wednesday 11/21/2012 - swimming and running

swimming

"waking up is hard to do."

this morning, waking up was incredibly hard.  in fact, i didn't get up until almost 5:30.  luckily most of my stuff was out / available, and i just had to throw on my clothes and grab my bag and go.  but i was so tired from the night before, i felt a bit dopey and wondered how i would get through the day.  (luckily i remembered to bring some yogurt and a banana so it wasn't like i didn't have any food at work to eat)  the morning bike ride in was especially pleasant - cold, but NOT raining!  i was thankful.

200 swim	200
200 drill (CU/hesitation/fist/FTD)	200
10x25  endless relay sprint	250
2 X 150	300
2 X 50 (FR/DR)	100
2 X 200	400
2 X 50 (FR/DR)	100
200 EZ	200
total	1750

the endless relay was actually kind of cool; taz tried to arrange us so that each lane had 1 really fast person, one medium fast person, one medium person, and one slow person.  i got shuffled to the fast lane and i told them straight up that i was sorry but i wasn't very fast.  of course i didn't know what we were doing either.  turns out, we were doing 25 yard sprints, basically swimming as fast as we could.  once i realized this, i turned up my jets as fast as i could go, but i was clearly not as fast as others.  in my lane were 2 guys and another girl, named davanna.  she was really nice and friendly to me, and we actually talked later in the locker room.  meanwhile during the relay, i could feel that after 3-4 of the lengths that i was definitely losing steam.  coach came over and told us to start leaving early so that we could 'even things out a bit' but even then i don't think it helped much.  

today during regular swimming, i was again working on the wide reach, but also gliding more, and then trying to swim with my elbow up at all times.  as in, not ever reaching for the bottom of the pool but keeping my arm in a bent fashion at all times.  and also, "the catch", which is when you put your hand into the water, and imagine yourself pulling your body past your hand instead of pulling your arm through the water.  these several new things proved to be very complicated for me to process all at once.

meanwhile, in my lane was the xc girl and the super skinny / fast runner will, who also swims like lighting, even with superiorly crappy form.  i watched him, and he thrashes through the water but still kicks my butt and never seems tired.  this feels completely unfair to me.  i have to work SO HARD at doing things right to get fast, and some people are so naturally fast that it infuriates me.  ok maybe not infuriate, but a singular feeling of unfairness in the world.  i mean, he hasn't been there more than 1-2 times in the times i've been there, and his form is total garbage.  and yet, he's catching up to me and lapping me while i'm working on my great form.  oh the humanity!

anyway with all the new stuff to work on, i definitely did less yardage today than i should/could have.  normally, taz gives us "slow lane" folks about 2200-2300 yards to swim a day.  i have been aiming for 2000, but today was just not my day. mostly because i had to keep getting out of the others' way, and also because taz wanted to talk to me about some things and that took time.

after swimming i went over to the hot tub since alex didn't come and wasn't waiting for me, and i had a nice time sitting there for awhile.  some other tri people came and sat at the other end and talked awhile and turned on the jets (so now i know where the jets are) and then these other 2 people came, clearly a young couple, and the girl was wearing a bikini and was super skinny and i could tell that the guy just liked looking at her and i thought to myself, "i wonder if i looked like that in high school."  because i sure haven't looked like that since high school.  and i thought, well, they'll find it harder to look like that as they get older.  but maybe they won't.  but my skinny person jealousy flared up and i had to get out of there.

 running - http://goo.gl/maps/5I8Ep

today i took my running tights and my new asics sneakers out for a run.  the tights seemed to be falling down in the back and also pulling my underwear down with them which was really irritating at first, until i pulled the underwear up higher and then it seemed to stay in place.  i also think that the tights are not made for people who have any junk in their trunk.  they must be made for flat butted people, of which i am not.  i felt like i had to keep adjusting and stretching the tights out to fit around my behind.  so overall i wasn't impressed with that.  

the sneakers, which i thought would improve my comfort, still gave me ankle pain at first.  i do think i'm going to have to wear ankle braces on both ankles and see if that alleviates my discomfort.

i had originally thought that i would run longer on this day, maybe 3-4 miles, but i realized that i needed to do a bunch of things and needed to get home since tomorrow is thanksgiving and places will be closed and jon is coming and i need to have something for him to eat.  since i want to take a very hands off approach to food this weekend, i'm trying to get many things that he likes and/or that he knows how to cook so that i don't have to be cooking all the time.  plus i had this dream of wings/ tater tots for thanksgiving and i don't have any wings.  

so i decided to go shorter on the run.  also, i thought of different routes but realized some places didn't have sidewalks (or, i didn't think they had sidewalks) so i settled on the bike path.  which was fine.  flat, no weird unevenness.  i ran from work out to the fairgrounds in 15 minutes, and made it my goal to get back faster than that.  of course on the way out my ankles were bothering me and i was warming up and adjusting my tights quite a bit, but i picked up the pace on the way back and was able to shave a few minutes off my time.  of course, i couldn't keep up the fast pace the whole way back; i ran an accelerated pace from the fairgrounds to the covered bridge, with a sprint the distance of the curve of the bridge, then i had to slow way down to catch my breath, and then i picked it up again somewhere around the barns and was able to keep the increased pace all the way back to work with a little sprint at the end.

summary:  2.7 miles in 27 minutes.  at this distance, it seems completely reasonable to do a 10 minute mile.  this reminds me that i'm not as slow as i think!

however, after the run, i got a nasty side / intestinal cramp on my left side.  it was a stabbing pain and very uncomfortable.  i thought i could stretch it out but that did not help.  i suspect the only thing that would have made it feel better was to lay down but i didn't have a place to do that.  

i spent some time reflecting on it, thinking about how some people have lots of other aches and pains that plague them on a regular basis, so i should feel lucky that i don't have that kind of problem.

another thing that has plagued me all week has been this sensation of getting female cramps, even though it's not time for that (i went through it last week!)   i don't know what is causing it but i have it during the day, whether i work out or not. 

thursday 11/22/2012 - thanksgiving - day of rest

it was such a nice day today, and i really considered going for a run as it was sunny and not raining and not freezing.  but i had many other things to do and wasn't feeling particularly well so i decided to just rest.

friday 11/23/2012 - house chores, watched a movie

saturday 11/24/2012 - house chores, watched a movie

sunday 11/25/2012 - swimming with jon and alex

saw taz in the pool, good to know he's able to do a little bit even with his injured / recovering shoulder.  

jon did a few lengths, hit the hot tub, repeated that process a few times.  swimming is harder than you think if you haven't done it in awhile.  also there was an asian boy - i would say man but he looked so young - trying to figure out how to swim in the lane next to me.  i wished i could have helped him more.

2x (50 kickboard / 50 w/leg float / 50 EZ)     300
13 x 100                                                              1300
50 w/leg float                                                         50
50 EZ                                                                       50
total                                                                      1700

not bad for a sunday afternoon.

observations on life (not triathlon related)

what's that you say?  you don't remember me ever blogging about anything other than my workouts?  i mean, it has been YEARS since the last time i blogged about something other than working out.  i might have forgotten how to do it.  but i'll try.

i have been carrying my notebook around with me (mostly for writing down workouts, but i digress) and noticing some things that happen.  or thoughts.  or musings.  here are some things i thought about that i wanted to write down.

NO SMOKING ON CAMPUS
so, OSU has a no smoking campus.  they told us for the last year that this year they would implement a smoke free campus.  and i would say for the most part, people are pretty good about it.  but then it always catches me off guard when i see someone on campus, casually smoking on the corner outside a building or walking past my building with a cigarette in their hand.  and i really, really want to say, "excuse me, did you know that campus is smoke free now?"  but i have never been into confrontation and wouldn't know what to say if they came back at me with, "shut the f**k up" or "mind your own business" or whatever.  or maybe i'm a little afraid they would throw the lit cigarette at me, or maybe they would want to fight.  i don't know what i'm really afraid of, but clearly i am afraid since i have now seen 3 people smoking on campus and have never said a word, other than to myself under my breath as i bike swiftly away.

PAY ATTENTION!
i am growing increasingly annoyed with people's shortening attention spans.  or maybe, their complete immersion in themselves and their personal electronic devices, so much so that they can't even look up when they cross the street, or walk into a crosswalk where there is clearly crossing traffic.  or even when they're just on the sidewalk, swerving and weaving around.  as a pedestrian and a cyclist, i find this very difficult to deal with.  there's a certain amount of attention that has to occur for people to all safely exist in this world.  i can do so much defensive walking/driving, but if you're not even trying, that almost feels like it's your fault.  would it be wrong of me to prove a point by crashing into people who aren't paying attention?

this topic also reminds me of people in cars not seeing people on bikes.  i was clearly in the bike lane on a clearly not raining day, and this person in their car almost didn't stop at their stop sign (i did not have a stop sign) and creeped uncomfortably into the road where i was biking, causing me to swerve.  i guess they looked up at the last second to see me, but there was no way i could have safely stopped if they had pulled out.

when did checking your phone every minute become so important?  are you really getting such important messages from afar that you MUST know what those messages are THIS INSTANT?  how has the human race survived for so long without this?  i wonder if tech-involved people ever ask themselves this question.

ADJUST YOUR SPEED
related to the electronic device conversation, i feel irritated by people who do not even attempt to make things easier for anyone but themselves.  and what i mean here is when people cross the street and they are looking, they can see that a car or bike is coming along at a certain speed from a certain distance and they can attempt to adjust their speed of crossing so that everyone gets where they are going and no one has to slam on their brakes.  if a car or bike is far away and not traveling very fast, they you have ample time to saunter across the street.  but if they are coming fast and they are close, it's not as ideal to just step casually in front of them, since you are putting everyone in danger by doing that.  and if you aren't paying attention to the speed / distance of others at all, you are REALLY making things scary.  my time is just as valuable as yours.  

DON'T CROWD MY LANE
this is another bike related observation.  there are times when i'm biking along and i clearly have a bike lane marked on the road, and yet cars insist on stopping at a stop sign IN the bike lane, as if beginning to make their turn is the most important thing.  they just went past me in their car, did they not see me there? where would they like me to go if they are sitting in my lane?  again, it comes down to they think their time is more important than mine, and they are clearly in a bigger hurry than i am.  this was especially irritating when i lived on witham hill.  and then someone had the gall to call the cops and have cyclists pulled over for not coming to a complete stop at the bottom of that crazy hill. maybe they'd be more considerate if they realized that bikes don't even upset the flow of traffic if they come down the hill in their lane and turn right.  start ticketing the people who crowd the bike lane!  SHARE THE ROAD!  sheesh.

WHAT'S WITH THE WEATHER?
we have been having some serious storms lately, where the rain just comes down in buckets.  it is really not that much fun biking in this weather but maybe this is the weather gods saying, "hey get used to it!"  however, the pouring heavy drops of rain make it very uncomfortable to bike / walk around without getting all duded up in raingear all the time, which i don't mind at all except that it takes extra time to go anywhere, due to all the getting dressed/undressed.  and then when you get where you're going, you have all this wet clothing and what do you do with it?  anyway, i have gotten used to the sort of drizzly rain of oregon, but these heavy storms are really not that much fun.  aside from the splashing in them while wearing big ol' boots.

...to be continued...

triathlon club - week 7

monday 11/12/2012 - rest and dancing

today, in my mind, was veteran's day, and while i didn't officially have it off, i took it as a holiday.  i stayed home and slept and it felt great.  by night, i went to the wild asparagus contra dance.  hey, that's exercise!

tuesday 11/13/2012 - spinning and dancing

spinning
met up with laurie again to do spinning class since i didn't go to spin last night with the team.

bike settings:
seat height - I
handle height - 4
seat depth - 5
base gear - 9-8 (it was 9 most of the way through, but by the end it was 8)
hard gear - 13-12
climbing gear - 16-15 

average rpm - 81
average wattage - 139
total kilocalories - 304
time - ~35 minutes 

dancing
around 5:15 i met up with marc in the new morning bakery parking lot and we tromped off to portland.  the weather was quite nice; only a little rain on the way up there.  and we kept ourselves occupied chatting about the latest this and that and what's been going on and what we know.  the dance was great, of course, but i got the feeling about 1/2 way through that i might be pushing my limits.  is it possible that 6 days/nights in a row of dancing is too much?

wednesday 11/14/2012 - running and weights

i'd thought about going swimming this morning, but wasn't able to get up after getting home around 1am last night.  and there was no time to do a workout at noon because of the soup kitchen.  so, i relegated my time to doing both running and weights tonight, since i didn't do weights last night (because of dancing, of course!)

running - map: http://goo.gl/maps/kBjV7
i had thought alex might join me this evening, but i think he had some other things to do.  met up with the group at dixon and was hopeful that the run wouldn't be too long.  nate did mention doing some track work, and i kind of look forward to that more than the long runs as i'm able to measure how far i'm doing something by being able to see the end.  as in, running hard for 1/2 a lap is easy to see, especially since the track is lit.

it was a really nice night for a run and i was very comfortable with my pace.  i could see the others running ahead of me but by now i'm used to that.  i knew i wouldn't be running the longer version of the run (all the way to the fairgrounds) but at least i knew the route this time.  as i was trucking along, i noticed canada geese flying overhead, and i was reminded of this paper that my volleyball coach gave me way back in high school.  it had to do with geese and the role of the sub.  each goose in the group is vital, and any goose may have to take the leading role at some time during their migration.  

it occurred to me then that this is a club, not a team. there isn't even a captain, only a president.  there are no leaders.  no one to encourage the "subs" to keep going.  so that was a weird realization.  i feel like i have those realizations regularly.  this time i was OK putting it out of my head.  yes, this is an individual sport.  i get it.  rugby was a club, but more like a team.  you can't play rugby without at least 7 people.  any person can do a triathlon any ol' time they want, by themselves, with no support.  sigh.

but i did write to the coach and mention to him that i would like to know where we're going before we go there.  it is best for me to know - after last week's sensation of feeling lost - where i need to turn, what landmarks to look for, etc.  he wrote me back and said that he wasn't satisfied with last week's run either, and that his email time is limited but he would try to put something out there for me.  and the best part of the email was when he wrote, "thanks for sticking with us...I hope that more folks see you out there and are inspired to join us.  It's hard to get people out that don't think they are fast enough to participate."  i wanted to write him back and tell him that i'm intimidated by the people on the team.  they are all crazy good at everything.  

summary:  3.6 miles, 40 minutes, plus 2 laps around the track (0.8 miles)
with 2 superfeet in each shoe, minimal ankle pain, slight knee pain and tightness in quads 

weights
again, i was alone but since i'd just run, i felt pretty nimble albeit tired.  the gym is starting to get more empty at this hour (630pm) which is just fine with me.  though, everyone seemed to be hogging the 25 and 30lb dumb bells, so i had to shrug with 20s instead.  i think next week i'll up the weights on everything and decrease the reps.

bicep curl	20lb bar	3x15
deadlift	20lb bar	3x15
bent over row	20lb bar	3x15
tricep pulldown	17.5lb	3x15
tricep overhead - cord	17.5lb	3x15
shrug	20lb each	3x15
seated row	50lb	3x15
military press	20lb bar	3x15
assisted pullups
assisted dips	setting 12	6
back extensions
abs:
crunch	30
side crunch	10
supermans	30
double leg lowering	10
flutter kick	100
alternating toe touches	30
100s	1x
plank	2x15 sec
penguins	30
situps	30

i would like to attempt the assisted pullups again, but i'm not exactly sure what setting to put it on.

thursday 11/15/2012 - spinning and running

spinning 
went to spinning with laurie again.  this may be our new ritual, though i do like zumba too.  this might be the last term where laurie will work out with me, as she is hopefully going to finish her thesis this term and then who will i work out with?  i can't go to zumba alone!  

anyway back to spinning.  this day turned out to be very much like tuesday as far as watts etc.  the workout is virtually the same each time so it's no surprise.  the teacher said he'd make us a new one for next week.
 
bike settings:
seat height - I
handle height - 4
seat depth - 5
base gear - 8 (too hard to do 9 today)
hard gear - 12
climbing gear - 15 

average rpm - 80
average wattage - 138
total kilocalories - 302 - i had to push myself to get over 300
time - ~35 minutes 

running - map:  http://goo.gl/maps/xNqHy

my intention had been to do about 3 miles and then come back and do some swimming to get limbered up for tomorrow morning.  but since there was a group to run with, i met up with them and they said they wanted to do around 4 miles, and were tired of going out to the covered bridge, so they thought we should go downtown instead via the bike path.  that would have been fine if i knew how far it was to go 1.5 miles out and 1.5 miles back.  but i didn't, and so i ended up running the whole thing and not doing any swimming afterwards which was unfortunate.  

we ran from campus to the bike path and all the way to the end of the bike path and back again.  it was, again, a great night for running, but this evening i discovered, as i started to run, that my pants were falling of while i was running.  i thought, how strange, and tried pulling them back up.  but they kept working their way down.  and it was getting to the point where i was either going to have to pin them (but i didn't have a pin) or hold them the whole time (what a bother!)  eventually, i yanked them up high enough (and maybe they warmed to my body?) that they stayed put.  but that was a major frustration!

summary:  5.0 miles, 57 minutes
ankles started hurting again. 

this evening after all the running i went home, got my car, and went to fred meyer to find some new running shoes, insoles, tights, other exercise clothes, etc.  found a bunch of stuff on sale, and hoping that the clothes all fit, since i didn't want to try them on at the store (fitting room was locked, would have had to call a sales assistant).  [the clothes do fit!  all of them!  yay!]  anyway i got a new ankle brace so i could wear one on each ankle.  we'll see if that helps the running / ankle pain next week.

friday 11/16/2012 - swimming and yoga

swimming
5am came too early again, but i was able to whip up some breakfast - this time i kept it simpler:  1 egg, cheese, spices, salsa.  brought some mocha protein shake (not too much protein in it; should have added some more) for a drink, and a banana for a snack if i got hungry later.  (i didn't)

there were only 2 of us in the slow lane this morning - jake and me.  thinking of it, haven't seen that guy kyle in awhile.  no matter.  it was great just having 2 people in the lane, though i wished that coach would have let me finish my stuff, instead of stopping me every time when jake was done.  there was no way that jake would be slower than me in any aspect, so it wouldn't have mattered if i kept going with my stuff.  but, oh well.  i felt slightly more secure in my stroke and breathing this time, though i still had to spend some time reminding myself not to gasp.  a good effort, and i got in more yardage than usual.
 

100 swim
300 swim
(12 kick x 3 pull-body position/drill*/FR) by 25
*CU/hesitation/fist/index finger	400
2x100  breath every 3,5,7,9 strokes by 25	200
1x150	150
100 / 50	150
1x200 pull	200
2x100  breath every 3,5,7,9 strokes by 25	200
1x200	200
2x100	200
1x100 pull	100
200 EZ mix FR & NF	200
total	2000

yoga

laurie really wanted me to go to yoga with her today so i did, thinking that it would be a good way to stretch out from the week of activity.  several of the stretches were really good - ones for the shoulders and legs.  but what i didn't like was the number of chaturangas that this woman wanted to do.  i think the class is called "power yoga" and i know that, in the past, that has meant lots of chaturangas.  one day i might do this pose right, but for now it is wicked on my wrists and i just don't care for it.  so i try to do other poses while still trying to look like i'm doing it.  awkward.  for me, the yoga i like best is where we find a stretch that works for me and hold it for awhile.  that's my kind of yoga.  this was OK, but not my favorite.

saturday 11/17/2012 - rest and dancing

i know i was feeling extremely sleep deprived when i arrived at this weekend.  so saturday morning i slept until 1030 at least, then lay in bed until about noon when i started feeling really hungry.  ate some brunch, did a few things, then felt crampy and lay back down and slept from 3-5, at which point i got up and got ready to go to the potluck before the contra dance.  

the dance was not all that aerobic, but i did have a good time dancing with people and teaching new people different techniques of dancing.  it was good to have something to do that was slightly physical  :)

sunday 11/18/2012 - day of rest

in rugby, when we sing the song "days of the week", we would say that "sunday is a day of rest" or for some groups, "saturday's the lord's day."  this weekend it just felt right to have 2 days of rest.  

i did go for a short walk with jon this afternoon.  before it started raining for real.

and hey, my friend joan is doing her 2nd ironman today!  i am tracking her online.  which is almost like working out, right?  

GO JOAN!  she just finished the race in like 14:56:10.  i am so proud of her!!!