Swim Workout

100m warmup
1600m swim (44min)

Thats 68 lengths total. Boo yah.

When I started on my bike ride this afternoon, the weather was great. Overcast sky, but still great. In total I rode 20 miles, in about an hour and 10 minutes. On my way to the 10 mile mark, there was no sign of rain what-so-ever. HOWEVER, on my way back, I started to see some very dark clouds, and then the thunder came. I tried to book it back to my starting point (which was still about 2 miles from my house), because I didn't want to get Canny wet. (Btw Canny is the name of my new wheels.) My attempt to make it back failed miserably, and I found myself caught in a torrential downpour with 5 miles left in the ride. I stopped my watch, and sought refuge underneath some random building. I waited for about 10 minutes for the rain to let up some, and started riding again.

During these last 5 miles, not only did the rain completely stop, but I also managed to run over a dead frog, inhale an insect, get attacked by 2 geese, and get splashed by an incredible amount of water from the traffic on the road. Who ever thought to put a bike path right next to a road anyways? Ok, ok, so the part about the geese is a slight exaggeration. They only hissed at me, but it still freaked me out. At least this time it wasn't pouring on me the entire way home, like it was when Dan and I went for a ride around the town of Gates.

Alas! I made it home in one piece, without hitting any guardrails this time. I then decided to shower, and I even dried my hair. Then it was time to walk the puppies. When we started, the weather was beautiful. Partly sunny skies, not a dark cloud anywhere. And since we were just going around the block, I didn't even think to grab an umbrella. BIG MISTAKE. As soon as at the furthest point away from my house, yet another downpour came sailing through. By the time I got home, I may as well of taken a shower with all my clothes on- I was drenched from head to toe, and so were the dogs. Then once I reached my porch again, guess what? Yeah, the sun came out. All I could do was laugh...

Less than 4 weeks to go

Sunday marked the 4 weeks left point, and I'm starting to get nervous. I feel like I'm running out of time to train, but I don't want to over do it and train too hard. These next 4 weeks, I'm going to practice 2 events in one work out, and I also plan to do a mini-indoor triathlon, as per Dan's advice.

For some reason, the swim today was a bit painful. My shoulder was bothering me for the first 500m, and then my knee started hurting while walking to my car. I'm fine now though. After a 1600meter swim (in 47 minutes), I treated myself to lunch at Panera. :)

Now it's back to studying...

New Wheels

So on Friday, I managed to get a 1400m swim done in 36 minutes. I would have swam more, but the pool closed, so I swam until I got kicked out.

Saturday and Sunday this weekend were both volleyball days. On Saturday I played women's doubles with Andrea. We ended up losing in finals to a team that we SHOULD have DEFINITELY beat. Anyways, it was fun. The on Sunday I played co-ed doubles with Aaron. We played well for the most part, with some errors at very inappropriate times. We lost to a team that we hate losing to, but then saw them get beat right after. But what matters is that we had fun, and I got a nice tan.

On Sunday evening, A and I went for a bike ride so I could test out my NEW ROAD BIKE!!! I got an amazing bike for a really good price, and I'm so pumped about it.

Here are the specs:
Cannondale Criterium 3.0
-12 speed
-1990
-Frame: 60cm, Hand Forged Heat Treated Aluminum
-Standover 34.25" (for person 6' or taller)
-Shifters: Shimano 105
-Brake Levers: Shimano 105 SLR (Downtube with indexing) <---not sure what this means?
-Brakes: Shimano 105
-Bottom Braket: Shimano 105
-Pedals: Shimano 105 Toe-Clip
-Front Derailleur: Shimano 105
-Back Derailleur: Shimano 105
-Crankset: Shimano 105
-Cassette 6 Speed
-Seat: Diamondback Performance (this is going to be replaced since it's very uncomfortable)
-Hubs: Shimano 600
-Rims: Campagnola LAMBADA strada
-Tires: Forte GT2 700x28c Kevlar

And I got all of this awesome-ness for only $300. The ride last night went pretty well. We were riding into the wind on the way to our turn-around point, so the amount of effort I was putting in was deceiving. On the way back, I saw how fast the bike was and how much less effort I was putting in than Aaron, who was riding my hybrid. I still need to get used to having the shifters on the frame, and riding in racing position (makes the back sore if you're not used to it). But over all, it's a very FAST bike. I didn't use the toe clip pedals last night, but I will put them on for next time. I thought about clip in pedals, but then I would have to buy shoes. I'm not really up for that investment just yet, so I might be racing with toe clips.

I'm pretty sore today, so I'm thinking of taking the day off. I may go for a run later if I'm up for it. We will see...

Swim, bike AND run!

I managed to get in a 1600m swim yesterday! It was awesome! But I was exhausted at the end. Also played 3 games of volleyball (coed 4's=low intensity). I took a lot of breaks, so it took about 45-50 minutes to complete, but I was going for distance rather than time. Now I can work on taking less breaks. I've also worked on my breathing, and feel that I am more comfortable breathing to one side, but I think bilateral is more efficient.

Tonight, A and I went on a bike ride on the bike path by the river. I ended up getting about 14 miles in within an hour. We were on a time constraint because we had a volleyball game. I did manage to run for about 10 minutes when I got off the bike though to get used to the bike/run transition. I also held a tryout for which of my dogs is the best training partner. Otis runs with me the best, but he also gets tired the soonest. Also, Jack has hip problems, so I don't want him to run for very long. So I think Otis made the cut....

I've decided that I am no longer going to train anything more than 15 miles on my damn hybrid bike. It's too damn tiring. I'm going on craigslist tonight to find me a damn bike!

Long Run

Painful 60 minute (6.1 mile) run in the Woodland Cemetary yesterday. When I first started, I found that my achilles tendon was really bothering me. It took me a really long time to warm up, and I was running pretty slow for about 40 minutes, regardless of all the hills. After that, my euphoria kicked in and I felt great for the next 15-20 minutes. I even had enough energy left to really kick in it for the last 45 seconds. As soon as I stopped, though, my knees and ankles started aching! I also played a game of co-ed doubles last night, which is a workout in itself. Hopefully I am not over training. I'm taking the day off today to give my joints a break. I also think that I would greatly benefit from a long yoga session, so maybe I will check that out this evening.

Also going to look into buying a GPS/Heart Rate Monitor watch to track my ticker and my mileage because I'm assuming my Nike+ is going to die any day now and my iPod is so out of date that it cannot be updated anymore. I hear Garmin has a nice one....

Since my last post, I've done the following:

July 15: Bike ride to tennis courts, played tennis, bike ride home (~5 miles). 2 games of volleyball (pickup)
July 16: 2 games of volleyball
July 17: Swam 1100meters
July 18: Co-ed quads volleyball tournament
July 19: ~18 mile bike ride to Xenia, OH

I think I've fallen in love with swimming! Once I get into it (after about 500m or so), then I don't want to stop! The past few times, I've tried to focus on my breathing. Since I've learned that breathing on one side isn't very efficient, I may need to switch things up a bit this week and try bilateral breathing.
This week I'm going to up my training and attempt to wake up in the morning to train, and then maybe have a second workout with Aaron in the evenings when he gets home from work. Team Simpson now consists of Me, Aaron, Dan and Michelle.

Right now, I'm completely exhausted and am going to be lazy for the rest of the night. Tomorrow is a swim day! :)

Training Up to Now

So I've decided to start recording my triathlon training online because I keep losing/forgetting about every notebook I've ever started for this very purpose.

Here is what I've done since I've returned to Dayton (from Santa Fe, NM). This is from memory so things aren't extremely accurate, but close enough for comfort....

July 6: swam 700m

July 7: off

July 8: swam 800m

July 9: off

July 10: 5 mile bike, 25 minute run

July 11: 10 mile bike, 800m run

July 12: off

July 13: 1000m swim, 7 mile bike

July 14: 30 min. run

Things I've noticed due to training:

I can't jump as high when I play volleyball

I'm always hungry, and usually craving pasta

I sleep A LOT better

I'm more productive during the day

My run today was a bit rough because of my long day of swimming, biking and volleyball yesterday. Here's to sleeping well again tonight!

Aaron and I decided to sign up for the Finger Lakes Triathlon tonight. A is doing the sprint distance (his very first one), and I'm going to try and tackle the olympic distance.