Back in the Pool

"The water is your friend...you don't have to fight with water, just share the same spirit as the water, and it will help you move." Alexandr Popov


After a restful week of basically either walking the dog, yoga, or nothing, it was time to get back to some real working out. I was suppose to go for a bike ride with some of my fellow Team in Training cyclists today, but the weather did not cooperate. So, I changed plans and headed for the pool instead.

Swimming is the least favorite of the three disciplines for me. I don't like to be cold and always am when I first get in the water, and it just involves so much more than the other two disciplines. I can't swim at my house, so it's a pain to drive to the gym. And in the past when I've done my swimming, I've just swam 2,000 meters and gone home. But I have realized that, just like in running or cycling, to swim faster, you have to swim more and you have to do drills and intervals.

Today when I swam, I swam a 300 meter warmup. Then I did drills for 700 meters. Then I did the fun stuff: 10 x 50m with 15s rest in between. I surprised myself and swam every one of those 50m between :55 and 1:00. Pretty consistent and pretty fast for me. Then I did a 500m continuous swim. Overall, my average pace was just over 2:00 per 100 meter. I use to be around 2:30, so I am seeing some improvement.

I know between now and next November I need to hit the pool at least twice a week. Later in my Ironman training plan, I'll be hitting the pool three times a week. And I also know I need to swim longer. I've never really swam longer than 2,000 meters at a time because the longest swim I've done in a race was the 1.2 miles of a Half Ironman. I know that I will be swimming around 4,000 meters or more in some of my training swims. I really do need to become friends with the water.

Recovery Week

"How important is rest in the training equation? More important than most runners know." Paul Goss

After my first marathon, I was told to take a day off for every mile I had just run. In other words, take 26 days off. I took a week off and did my first triathlon exactly one week later. Then for the rest of the summer, I just did what I wanted when I felt like it. No training plan and no stress about getting a workout in. I'm not sure I could do that again, but I do take a rest break after my marathons....at least for a little bit.

Monday when I got home from work, I took my dog Roscoe on a walk. We use to be in the habit of walking every day and then my training increased and the temps got hotter and suddenly we weren't walking anymore. We had a great time yesterday.

And then Monday night I went for a massage. I'm on a list at a massage school and they had called Saturday afternoon to see if I could come in. What better way to recover after a marathon than to get a massage. Today was my typical Tuesday yoga class.

I probably won't do much the rest of the week - just something light each day. Then I'll get back to working out on a regular basis, but doing what I feel like doing and nothing too intense. I've already got some races scheduled for the first of the year, so I need to keep the base I have, but I also don't want to over do it before the "official" Ironman training kicks in sometime in April.

My body will appreciate the rest.

San Antonio Rock 'n Roll Marathon

"Running for someone else makes me less willing to give up or give in, more able to withstand the pain and the fatigue knowing that someone else is drawing power from my effort. I look at it as an opportunity to carry a portion of another person's burden, to cover some ground on their behalf, to try to lighten the load by shouldering some of it on our own backs. That's endurance." Kristen Armstrong


As a Team in Training participant, this pretty much sums up why we do what we do. And this year, for this marathon, it meant more than ever. One of our participants' personal honored hero passed away yesterday. This race was very sprecial to our team this year.

Heading into this marathon, I was hoping to set a PR. My record for the marathon distance so far is 4:44. I was hoping to get into the 4:30s somewhere. But when we woke up this morning to temps in the mid 60s and high humidity, I was a little reserved. I don't do well in heat and humidity, but thought I'd give it a go anyway. My plan was to run with one of our coaches and see what we could do. Shorts and a singlet was the outfit.

We figured we would try to maintain around a 10:30 pace, so when we took off and hit 10:13 at mile one we figured we were ok. We did pretty well the first few miles, despite the fact that by mile 2 I was sweating already.

Mile 1: 10:13
Mile 2: 10:22
Mile 3: 10:11
Mile 4: 10:30
Mile 5: got missed and combined with mile 6
Mile 6: 20:55
Mile 7: 10:47
Mile 8: 10:12
Mile 10: 10:25
Mile 11: 10:43
Mile 12: 10:23

At this point my coach's calf muscle was starting to cramp some, so he stopped and stretched a little and we started walking more through the aid stations.

Mile 13: 11:05
Mile 14: 11:24
Mile 15: 10:28
Mile 16: 10:58

At this point coach said he was going to have to walk more and sent me on my way. This was also the point where you head out to a kind of lonely out and back section of the course.

Mile 17: 10:41
Mile 18: 10:51
Mile 19: 11:14
Mile 20: 11:21

The sun started coming out and it started getting really hot.

Mile 21: 12:03
Mile 22: 13:25
Mile 23: 12:37
Mile 24: 13:31
Mile 25: 12:51
Mile 26: 12:39
last .2: 2:27

Garmin Time: 4:53:02. I'll post official time when I see it.

The course wasn't a bad course and was fairly flat. I think if the temps had been 20degrees cooler, I could have gotten my PR today, but it wasn't meant to be. I saw my family several times on the course and saw several TNT alumni as well, which helped. And coming into the finishing chute was nice because some of our team who did the half were done and were along the finish line cheering. My family was also there as well.

After the race, I headed back to the hotel room for a quick shower and then headed home with the two other girls I came with. I've got my lovely hot pink compression socks on and hope that when I wake up in the morning I'll be able to walk fairly well.

A Busy Day

"You have to forget your last marathon before you try another. Your mind can't know what's coming." Frank Shorter

Well, hopefully my mind has forgotten my last marathon since I'll be trying another tomorrow. But first I have to get through today.

This morning my son has a People to People meeting. He was nominated to be a student ambassador to Australia this summer and today is their first meeting. Then we leave early and head toward San Antonio for his soccer game. Two of my Team in Training buddies are coming to the game and from there, the three of us will continue on to San Antonio.

Once we get to San Antonio, we'll check into the hotel and then head to the expo to check in and get our bibs. From there we will head to the TNT pasta party, have our team meeting and then go back to the room to get ready for Sunday morning's race.

It should be a very busy day!

Small Efforts Contribute

"Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out." Robert Collier

As I prepare for the marathon on Sunday, I'm backing down on mileage. Today was only a 3 mile run. Most of the time, when I only run 3 miles, I feel like a slacker. But in the grand scheme of things, I know that even that 3 mile run contributes to the success of the longer runs. It's not always about the long run, but about getting out day in and day out and getting the runs in. Hopefully my small efforts will pay off on Sunday.

Visualization

"Spend at least some of your training time, and other parts of your day, concentrating on what you are doing in training and visualizing your success." Grete Waitz

I believe visualization is an important part of training. While I was in Florida, I had my picture taken under the Ironman fixture that eventually graced the finish line. While I was at the finish line catching, I visualized myself coming down the chute and crossing the finish line. And I will continue to do so throughout the year.

One thing that helps me focus and visualize is the fact that I go to yoga. I have been for the past 6 or 7 years, once a week (as long as the instructor holds class). I truly believe yoga has been a great asset to my training - in helping to clear my head, in helping with focus, and in helping with my flexibility.

With that, I'm off to yoga and will visualize me finishing the race during meditation.

Namaste

Back to Training

"It's not what you did yesterday, but what you will do today that will make a difference tomorrow."

Thank goodness yesterday doesn't count. Or the few days before that. Other than the swim in the ocean on Friday morning, I haven't worked out since Tuesday and that's too long for me. So today I went out and ran 4 miles. After all, I have a marathon to run this weekend.