Week in review June 22-28: Weather, wasps and other wackiness

A decent week.

Not my best week, considering crazy weather and other instances of life getting in the way. But, I'm not complaining too much as there were still some decent sessions.

Sadly, it rained all day Saturday, which threw off my weekend mojo. Last year I was spoiled with perfect weather pretty much every weekend, but this cycle I've already had to move things around at least twice. How dare Mother Nature get in the way of my training!

Swim: Once in the pool for my monthly time trial and once in the lake, for a total of 5,100 yards in just less than 2 hours. I missed my Tuesday morning swim because I was up half the night with a dog terrified of the thunderstorms rolling through. And I didn't make it out to the lake Saturday because it rained all day. (Yes, I know you get wet in the water, but it was chilly and windy and I just didn't feel like dealing with it.)

Sunday I went back and forth as whether I should swim in the lake for less time but the additional OWS practice I'd missed the day before, or go to the pool after my run for more yardage. I didn't want to risk swimming in the lake after my long run only to find in the middle of the lake I was too tired to continue. But I like the idea of swimming after my run as recovery, which had me leaning toward a pool swim after my run. I finally decided to drive out to the state park and swim in the lake before my run, and it ended up being fine.

Except when...

Ow!

Somehow this jerk got in my running shirt with me as I was changing from swim clothes to run clothes, and stung me at least three times on the back. I was yelling and cursing and finally whipped off my shirt and ran across the restroom, terrifying the other lady using the facilities (OK, that part was funny). One drawback to swimming at the state park, I guess -- the wildlife!

Bike: Four times, all on the trainer, for a total of 5 hours, 15 minutes. I ended up doing a long ride of 2 hours, 15 minutes on the trainer Saturday -- not ideal, but it was rainy, chilly and windy all day and like I said above, I just didn't feel like dealing with it. That was as much time as I had between errands and breakfast in the morning and a family party later in the day, so I made it work as best as I could.

I also used all that pedaling time to finish season one of Deadwood. SPOILER ALERT: "You can go now, brother." Oh my gosh -- I was crying on the trainer. Leave it to "that guy" to make me cry.

Run: Four times, all on the road, for a total of 37 miles in 5 hours, 41 minutes. That works out to one easy run, one medium-distance run, one amazingly excellent (for me) speed run, and a long run of 14 miles after the Wasp Incident. I did have to skip an easy run due to an evening commitment this week so, sadly, my stretch of 40-mile weeks has to stand at two for now.

I've been running 10-12 miles pretty much every weekend since wintertime, so this 14-miler marks my first "official" marathon training long run. Considering I'd just been attacked by an evil wasp, I did pretty well, even taking into account I got later start to my run because I took an extra 20 minutes to shake out all my clothes. I definitely did not want a surprise wasp in my running shorts! It was only mildly warm and muggy, and I was able to finish fast, with my final mile a full 34 seconds faster than my average pace.

And I am finding that even as I get better about letting my Garmin run during drinks breaks so I get a more accurate overall time, I'm still able to maintain consistent paces. I think I suffered during my marathon last year because I wasn't really running 20-milers in training; I was doing 2 x 10 with a bathroom break in the middle and additional drink breaks every 2. This is something I'm going to continue to work on as the training runs get longer.

Other: Nothing this week. Just not enough hours in the day.

Total: 10 sessions in just shorter than 13 hours. Not a superstar week but still pretty solid.

This week will have its own wackiness: I have another evening commitment tomorrow, and I don't see myself squeezing in an easy run. And I want to race on Sunday the same open-water mile and run-swim-run Aquathon I did last year, so that will mess with my schedule a bit. The good news is I have Friday off work, so I have a bit of room for some finagling.

Another week -- here we go!

This may have been my best speed run ever.

SO MANY SEVENS.

Friday was speed run day! I try to rotate descending miles, half-mile repeats and quarter-mile repeats, and quarter miles were up in the rotation. I think I hate these the most since, although they are over quickly, they just keep coming and coming.

I've been feeling good doing 7-8 miles of speed work runs, with the first and last mile-ish as warmup and cool down, and the middle 6-ish as actual speed work. Friday was a clear, not-so-humid day and I had had a rest day the day before due to an evening commitment. And, I'd had a very large iced coffee earlier in the day. I had energy, my legs were fresh and I was rarin' to go!

The warmup mile felt good and I got to work. The first repeat clicked over at just under 2 minutes. OK! That's a sub-8 pace, hooray! Then they all started clicking over at under 2 minutes. Can I really hold them all at a pace beginning with 7? Another one and another one, done. Turn around. Head back. More sub 2-minute repeats. And I was still feeling good. In all, I did 13 before my 0.75-mile cool down. The last one was tough -- I did have to stop for a few seconds afterward or risk barfing.

I've had several runs a few years ago where I've done 4-7 quarter-mile repeats in the sub-8 pace range, and I think I've logged one magical sub-7 pace quarter-mile repeat, but I've never done 13 sub-8s in a row. Lucky number 13, I guess! Of course, I was covered in salt and sweat by the end, and my legs were trashed for the rest of the day, but still. It felt awesome.

I really hope this is a good sign for the rest of the season. Running fast, hooray!

June's swimming time trial: I'll take even this small improvement!

Slow and steady progress.

This month's time trial snuck up on me. It was only a few days ago I looked at the calendar and said, "Wait... it that the last Thursday of the month already???"

This month has been borderline disastrous, swimming-wise. My car died early in the month, so I lost two early morning pool swims due to car shopping and buying the nights before. Plus, I had no means to get to the pool at 5:30 a.m., anyway. On top of that, I missed two lake swims because of a bachelorette party out of town one weekend, and rain throughout another weekend.

As a result, I wasn't expecting anything anything super speedy this month. Honestly, I was hoping for "not as slow as last month." So, I was pleasantly surprised to see an improvement of 15 seconds from May's time trial. It's not a lot, but it's SOMETHING. I'll take any victory considering how little time I've actually spent in the water these last few weeks!

(It's kind of hard to see my times in the image, but they work out to:
25:32/1000 meters for 2:33/100 in January;
21:27/1000 meters for 2:09/100 in February;
21:53/1000 meters for 2:11/100 in March;
22:11/1100 yards for 2:01/100 in April;
23:21/1100 yards for 2:07/100 in May; and
23:06/1100 yards for 2:06/100 in June.
It got a little confusing switching from a meter to a yard pool, but I figured it was close enough.)

February and March were my best months volume-wise so far this training cycle, so it makes sense that I would be swimming faster for those month's time trials. (I really don't have an excuse for May.) I mean -- swim more and get faster? You're kidding me!

Assuming I take time off from swimming and biking after my last triathlon of the season, I won't have many more time trials left this year. I'm going to keep chipping away at it and hopefully end on a high, fast note.

My second shot at 70.3

Welp.

Yep, I did it again. I signed up for my second 70.3-distance race: Michigan Titanium, in Grand Rapids this August.

I was holding out until I was sure I was making progress on the bike. My swim is pretty steadily mediocre, my running is going a bit faster than this time last year -- which I attribute to running about twice as much as I was this time last year -- but my biking is kind of a wild card. I came pretty much from nothing on a steel bike, and while I've improved a little, I'm still comparatively slow and afraid to get into aero.

But, this past weekend's ride went great, all things considered. My mph average was higher than anything I'd ridden last year on that route, and that was enough to convince me to pull the trigger again. That and the price increase at midnight. =)

I don't really follow an "official" plan except to schedule long runs and rides, but here are my loose goals:

I'm currently swimming 2-3 times per week, but I want to bump that up to 3-4 times per week, with at least one swim in a lake. I'd really like to get in the pool one additional time per week. Sunday evenings may be my best shot, but I haven't been able to swing it yet.

I'm biking 4 times per week, once on the road, with last week up to 45 miles. My trainer rides are an hour long two mornings per week before work, and although I'd love to add a few minutes here and there, I absolutely refuse to get up before 4:30 a.m. unless the house is on fire. So, an hour it will have to be. I'd like to make my Monday evening recovery ride a road ride, but I can't quite make the logistics work between my commute, making dinner, and prepping for my long Tuesdays (swim-work-run). In the meantime, I plan on building my long weekend rides into the 50s next month with a few 60-milers in the weeks before the big race.

And honestly, I'm not worried about my run. (Knock wood.) I ran 10-milers on the treadmill almost every weekend through winter and have run 12-13 on the road almost every weekend since the weather broke. My long-run paces have been pretty consistently 30 seconds per mile faster than last year's long runs. My plan is to keep doing what I'm doing and try to dial in the speed: 4-5 runs per week with 1-2 easy, 1 medium/moderate, 1 speed and 1 long with a fast finish, hopefully.

So. My plan for the next two months is to swim, bike and run. Not too complicated, right?

Thunderstorms and a scared mutt make for a less-than-restful night

Fun.

I knew it was going to thunderstorm overnight last night. I was NOT expecting a weather onslaught that would terrify my doggy.

The rumbles started at about 1:45 a.m. I can't remember if my lab mix's panting or the actual thunder woke me up first, but before too long, she was in bed with us, trying to get as close to me as possible -- meaning, she was trying to lay all 50 pounds of herself on my chest. I was trying to be sympathetic, since she was obviously scared, but there's only so much you can do for a dog freaking out in your bed at 2 a.m.

You can see from my screen shot above that we got a long, long line of thunderstorms. It went on for about an hour, making an hour of my dog panting, shaking, and trying to climb on me. And my other dog -- deciding that if her sister got to lie in the human bed, so she did she -- stretching herself out at our feet.

So yeah, no sleep last night. The 4:40 a.m. wake-up call to go to the pool wasn't happening. I could barely get myself out of bed by 6 a.m. to shower and make breakfast.

It's not the best way to start the week. But one funny thing that came out of it was how the mutt was frolicking with her toys this morning, oblivious to my husband and I guzzling coffee. At that point, all we could do was laugh.

Why you no rub my belly?

Please, let nothing get in the way of my run this afternoon.

Week in review June 15-21: Lots of running and decent swimming and biking, too

Run, run, run (and bike and swim)

It wasn't a bad week. I got in a decent number of swims and bike rides, and I had another HUGE running week. Sadly, I didn't do any other workouts, but considering a decent amount of time was spent with my father and father-in-law, I will happily take the trade-off.

Here's how my week shook out:

Swim: Twice in the pool and once in the lake for a total of about 7,600 yards in just longer than 3 hours. I forgot my Garmin Swim one of those pool days and had to estimate time and do sets short enough where I wouldn't lose count.

Bike: Three times on the trainer and one 45-mile road ride for almost 6 hours of saddle time. I discovered that my bike doesn't fit in my new car's trunk without taking both wheels off, and I was paranoid the entire first lap of the park that my rear wheel would fly off at any second. After pulling over TWICE to check things out, I was finally satisfied and could put some real work in. My mph average is higher on the same route than this time last year, so that's a success.

Run: The star of the week, again: Five runs, all on the road, for a total of 41.5 miles in just longer than 6.5 hours. That works out to two easy runs, one medium-distance/medium-pace run, one speed run (half-mile repeats), and one long run (13 miles). And, that makes for another 40+ mile week! Holy cow! I definitely was feeling heavy legs during my speed run Friday, and yesterday's long run was a little slower than I would have liked. But, that could have been from the heat and humidity or the occasional trail/dirt/gravel I had to run on as much as it could have been from fatigue.

Other: Nothing.

Total: 12 sessions in 15.5 hours. Nice!

With everything else going on, especially celebrating Father's Day with my dad Saturday evening and my father-in-law Sunday afternoon, I'm happy with these numbers. Of course I could have stretched, could have lifted weights, could have done this or that... I could also win the lottery, marry rich, inherit a few million, etc. So I'm pretty happy with the week overall.

Hopefully, this means the summer is off to a strong start. Now, to keep the momentum going.

4 in the 4s

I had some early days this week.

And by 4 in the 4s, I mean I managed to wake up and get out of bed while it was still 4-something o'clock a.m. four times this week.

I've done 5 in the 5s before, but during Game of Thrones' season early Monday mornings are just not going to happen. And I'm OK with that.

My early-morning week breaks down to two visits to the pool and two sessions on my bike trainer, which is nice to change it up a bit. I can't do anything that requires too much thought that early.

It makes for an early day, but it feels good to start off with some training.